Mastery - extra conditions?

Hi guys,

I know that for mastery you need to reach the prescribed number of sets and reps set out by the course. My question lies with, what if you do reach mastery, but you done so by switching or skipping some training days.

My case:

week 1 - went fine

week 2 - went fine

week 3 - 

• fatigue has finally set in and full recuperation over the weekend was not possible.
• Monday workout A I do to the best of my ability knowing fatigue is on
• Tuesday I feel fatigue for sure and as I know mastery for workout B is in reach this week, I decide not to do H1 so as to get in more recovery and not stress the body more and go for mastery on Wednesday (I felt really wiped  ).

Does this scenario count for mastery if I had to skip a H1 day?

Other examples could be also be:

week 1 - went fine

week 2 - went fine

week 3 - 

• fatigue has finally set in and full recuperation over the weekend was not possible. 
• I shift all of Monday to Friday workouts to Tuesday to Saturday workouts for that extra day of recovery to lets say for example attain mastery in Monday workout A

Once again would this count for mastery?

My question comes from the fact that if you attain mastery by making these kinds of adjustments, still doing all Foundation work days within the week, does that still count? I know this has to do with you haven't built up the capacity to handle all the workload for a full mini-cycle but then I think of people who adjust the order of the F elements in order to practice ones at the beginning when they are fresh. This seems to be the same principle in a way as someone can try attain mastery by doing adjustments for the week to be fresh. What do you lot think?

I know I wasn't consistent with my F1 (3 days/week) and H1 (2 days/week) plan. How important is this for acceptance of mastery of 1 element. Oh and say for instance you achieved mastery for workout A the first try of the week but then failed the second time round because of fatigue build up mid-week. Well I think this one is easier to answer as you straight out just failed. But then I think for those on a three day schedule where a workout B is only done once for mastery, there is no second try but you could have failed here too?

In my opinion, mastery is mastery. If you're able to demonstrate mastery at a given element, move on, but do it with the CERTAINTY that you're capable of doing again in the same week. If you've doubts about it, then try another microcycle.

If with the 3 days schendule (+2 HS1) you don't recover well, I would check other areas of your life: sleep, nutrition, lifestyle, etc. 

But remember, mastery is mastery. If you do the scheme sets/reps, with a good controlled tempo and good form, move on and keep on maintenance and in your warm up.

I think mastery means you can do it anytime, not just under ideal conditions.  I usually repeat the workout to make sure.  If I can do it once, but a few days later i can't, I've not really displayed mastery.  That being said, I think it is fine to listen to your body and take the rest it needs to express full supercompensation and make progress.  It would be silly to stay on the same schedule when you're fatigued because you wanted to prove to yourself some idea of what mastery entails.  Listen to your body, but make sure you really have good demonstration of the exercise.  

I just finished my first cycle. I thought I was ready and would be close to or at Mastery for most exercises. I started in the third phase. I was really fatigued at the end of the first month. I now realize that there is a body adaptation phase at the start and am doing a second run of the third phase and enjoying/maximizing all of the program. There are few that I am confident I can do at Mastery. For me the biggest adaptation are increase in strength size of traps, rhomboids and internal/external rotators. My entire posterior chain feels particularly taxed ... in a good way.

If you have to tweak your schedule to show mastery, what is going to happen to your body in the next microcycle when you're doing harder exercises?  You either need to permanently adjust your schedule/sleep/diet to consistently allow for more recovery, or not claim mastery.

Adriano Augusto said:

In my opinion, mastery is mastery. If you're able to demonstrate mastery at a given element, move on, but do it with the CERTAINTY that you're capable of doing again in the same week. If you've doubts about it, then try another microcycle.

 

If with the 3 days schendule (+2 HS1) you don't recover well, I would check other areas of your life: sleep, nutrition, lifestyle, etc. 

 

But remember, mastery is mastery. If you do the scheme sets/reps, with a good controlled tempo and good form, move on and keep on maintenance and in your warm up.

For my case I just done SLS PE2 at mastery and I felt very happy with it. Could have done another set most definitely   . So I will leave it at that and move on for sure. 

For this week I know it was lack of sleep that brought on the fatigue (a bit too much partying on the weekend I'm afraid). I think its just one of those things that happens but I do try to bare in mind that "living life" does have its downsides when it comes to training. I feel much better than I did on Monday that's for sure even after the workout. Monday I just knew I was going to struggle.

MT Nordic said:

I think mastery means you can do it anytime, not just under ideal conditions.  I usually repeat the workout to make sure.  If I can do it once, but a few days later i can't, I've not really displayed mastery.  That being said, I think it is fine to listen to your body and take the rest it needs to express full supercompensation and make progress.  It would be silly to stay on the same schedule when you're fatigued because you wanted to prove to yourself some idea of what mastery entails.  Listen to your body, but make sure you really have good demonstration of the exercise.  

I would completely agree with your opinion on the ideal conditions. But then what I was saying about element order, wouldn't that be people trying to create ideal conditions? You could say that true mastery would be that you can put an element you've been training as one of the first in line as last instead and still perform it at mastery level. So I think there's that fine line between mastery is mastery and creating the ideal conditions. Either ways my SLS PE2 was at the end of my workout so that's why I can say that I'm happy  . 

tex0413 said:

If you have to tweak your schedule to show mastery, what is going to happen to your body in the next microcycle when you're doing harder exercises?  You either need to permanently adjust your schedule/sleep/diet to consistently allow for more recovery, or not claim mastery.

I think about this too. That's why sometimes I think the goal is not simply being completing an element but working up my bodies tolerance to the volume of work too. As mentioned, this weekend was a sleep deprived weekend, I know that and its now mid week and though I'm still working out, I'm recuperating better than I did over the weekend.

But in terms of creating a better work capacity then say I'm on week 3 and mastery is within grasp for all elements. For week three there is an introduction of a whole new set for each element. Though you may be able to demonstrate mastery for each element individually and you know you can, within a workout you might not be able to because you run through all your work capacity. You may have passed the first two or three elements but not the last ones. So in this case mastery of the whole workout and mastery of work capacity was not passed if you know what I mean.

This kind of happened to me in workout A this week (not for mastery though just the goal for sets and reps). My sPL went up one set and that was difficult in itself, I got it, but it was difficult!! For my HBP though I had to push myself harder yet only managed to get 1 less rep than I did the last session. This might of been due to the fatigue build up prior to but still worth mentioning if it wasn't.

Either ways fellas, cheers for the input and I will be getting on my way to mastering more elements on an individual basis I guess. Exercise order I might not change then. I think its cheating in a way