loss of muscle mass during F1

I started doing F1 and H1 in august and my question is;

 

 

Is it common to lose mass during F1? My hypothesis is that foundation training is more strength oriented and the relative low volume per muscle group (eg. one pulling exercise, one push and so on) causes a loss in muscle mass. During these two months i feel like my muscle volume has reduced a bit. Maybe this is common, anyone has experience? Will it rebounce? 

In the beggining i think F1 will do that, since its not much of load bearing work, as you have said. By PE5 and 6 it will rebounce.

TBH, i have observed how, muscle mass really only plays a small role in strength. I dont think losing muscle means much of anything while strength training. I use myself as an example here, very muscular, but not strong enough to equal the way i look. But thats not really what you were asking...

I don't think you'll lose much, if any at all.

 

The combination of high reps/no rest in early Foundation is, I feel, conducive to building muscle. Not as much as a purely bodybuilding regime would be, but still. It also depend on what you did before.

 

Where are you at in the progressions?

if you eat enough. there is nothing to lose. 

RJS said:

In the beggining i think F1 will do that, since its not much of load bearing work, as you have said. By PE5 and 6 it will rebounce.

TBH, i have observed how, muscle mass really only plays a small role in strength. I dont think losing muscle means much of anything while strength training. I use myself as an example here, very muscular, but not strong enough to equal the way i look. But thats not really what you were asking...

I understand what you mean. Will have to bear with it these first progressions. Thanks for sharing!

Duff said:

I don't think you'll lose much, if any at all.

The combination of high reps/no rest in early Foundation is, I feel, conducive to building muscle. Not as much as a purely bodybuilding regime would be, but still. It also depend on what you did before.

Where are you at in the progressions?

Oh ok. Well I've been training calisthenics for a year before this with more exercises per musclegroup and lower rep ranges. I'm at SLS/PE 2, MN/PE 2, SL/PE2, FL/PE 1, SPL/PE3, HBP/PE2 and RC/PE 1. I've realized that I have a lot of stiffness in my legs to work on. And also weak core muscles (old back injury).

It's simply because of Detraining. Muscles that are not getting enough training stimulus during your F1 training will lose mass (and strength) overtime because the body doesn't have any reason to keep them. 

 

If you want to keep them, you have to train them. But our energy and recovery is limited. If you want to fully focus on your F1 progression, you might have to accept some lost of muscle mass for now. As you get into later F1 progression, the higher intensity will force you to recruit more muscles and you should be able to regain any lost muscle mass (relatively) quick because of the "muscle memory".

Unbending said:

It's simply because of Detraining. Muscles that are not getting enough training stimulus during your F1 training will lose mass (and strength) overtime because the body doesn't have any reason to keep them.

If you want to keep them, you have to train them. But our energy and recovery is limited. If you want to fully focus on your F1 progression, you might have to accept some lost of muscle mass for now. As you get into later F1 progression, the higher intensity will force you to recruit more muscles and you should be able to regain any lost muscle mass (relatively) quick because of the "muscle memory".

Will have to control my impatience then . How long did F1 take for you guys?

I'm the only one around here that is getting bigger on F1?

EdStand said:

I'm the only one around here that is getting bigger on F1?

I get a lot of muscle mass too. I believe genetics applies a good deal here along with training habits

Second here. I'm bigger, stronger, with "fuller" muscles, more defined.

Alexander Egebak said:

I get a lot of muscle mass too. I believe genetics applies a good deal here along with training habits

It's not like I'm getting super swole, but I'm definitely leaner and more muscular than I ever been (still on the skinny side though)

It depends on what you already have (and don't have) before F1. F1 will train your core and many of the small muscles that are usually neglected in regular lifting. Those will grow and give you mass. But just for an example, pushups will not maintain a 300+ lbs bench press muscle. Nor the deck squat will maintain a 400+ weighted squat muscle. You will lose those mass simply because of use/ disuse principle.

 

It's the matter of specificity. If your lift was already relatively high before F1 and you want to maintain those, you'll just have to keep training them (once a week should be enough to maintain). Later in F1, if you can produce a comparable stress, i.e. single leg squat equals to 2x BW, then you will regain those muscles in your legs plus gaining all the necessary small muscles mass required for balancing.

I would not worry about losing muscle with foundation. I've been following it for 18 months now and have gained around 20-22lbs. Stick with it and you should be fine.

If you have trained before with weights or body weight doing only F1 will make your body lose muscle most likely. Personally I still do weightlifting 3 times a week and some bodyweight training F1 for me is kinda "conditioning" and building better umm foundation at this point doing F1 hasnt been very taxing so recovery has been ok and Im not having muscle loss.

 

But it all depends of your goals. If you worry about losing muscle while doing early F1 just do some other training for muscle growth along F1.