How to progress ABH? (and a short presentation)

Hi everybody,
this is my first post. First of all I want to tell you that I live in Italy so English is not my native language. Please, be patient with my grammar and feel free to correct me.

I’m 38 years old and 6’5” tall (198 cm), my weight is 194 lb (88 Kg). After I stopped playing basketball at age 22, I’ve been almost sedentary until one year ago, when I started a very basic bodyweight program, based on easy variations of pull, push, leg raises and squat movements.

Recently I discovered Coach Sommer and GB community and literally felt in love with GST.
I am very impressed with the high quality information provided. Thank you!

So, I bought F1+H1 and now I’m on Week 4 of my first microcicle.
In this 4 weeks I discovered how much out of shape I really am.

I had problems doing ABH (SL PE 1) because of lack of strength and mobility. So I read the sticky post and I used a pre-ABH easier variation (with arms at 90° relative to the body in crucifix position, and legs together and flexed at the knee). Now I'm not sure how to progess from here.

My question: is it better if I start week 5 with the per-ABH form variation that I started with or is it better if I start again week 1 but try to improve form? (maybe trying to keep my arms in front of the body at 45° and leg straight)?

Thank you, any help is appreciated.

Fabio

The general advice that I've seen given by the more experienced people (GB athletes and coaches) is to attempt mastery of your target strength and mobility pairing and if:

1) you are able to achieve mastery of both with correct form and tempo (either prescribed or simply controlled), then move on to the next progression and again attempt mastery of this next element in your next workout.

2) you are able to achieve mastery of the strength element but not the mobility element stick to the third micro cycle (weeks 9-12) and continue to improve the mobility element until you have mastery of both

3) you cannot reach mastery of the strength element with correct form and tempo begin at week 1, 5, or 9 (depending on how close you came) and progress from there.

4) you cannot perform a single repetition with correct form and/or tempo, stick to the first micro cycle until you are able to, double check mastery of previous elements (if there are any), or regress the element you are working on until you can build back up to mastery correct form and tempo of target element.

Hope this helps, good luck.

Thank you Keegan, your help is very appreciated. I am definitely in case 4.

So, after pondering wheezer ABH sticky post and what you wrote here, I've decided to stick with week 1-4 and I'll try to improve form every time. I will progress to week 5 only when I'll be able to do 3 set x 24 sec (week 3 requirement) with perfect form.
I won't try to build volume with easier variations of the element (zombie program ).

Hi Fabio! First of all, benvenuto! It always feels good to me to see other tall fellows doing GST (I'm 194 cm tall myself ).

Regarding the OP, I'm working and struggling with this PE too. What I've been experimenting in the last micro-cycle, based on wheezer post, is reducing the jumps in time from a week to another. I basically increment the times for the next week just by 6s instead of 12s. This allows me to work with a little more volume to stimulate adaptation, but not so much that my form or ROM really start suffering from it. It's working really well for me! Slow progress is always better than no progress, isn't it?

Buona fortuna

EdStand said:

Hi Fabio! First of all, benvenuto! It always feels good to me to see other tall fellows doing GST (I'm 194 cm tall myself ).

Regarding the OP, I'm working and struggling with this PE too. What I've been experimenting in the last micro-cycle, based on wheezer post, is reducing the jumps in time from a week to another. I basically increment the times for the next week just by 6s instead of 12s. This allows me to work with a little more volume to stimulate adaptation, but not so much that my form or ROM really start suffering from it. It's working really well for me! Slow progress is always better than no progress, isn't it?

Buona fortuna

I might need to try this myself :/

Don't get me wrong, I still need to repeat micro-cycles also with this "easier" template I'm just really happy with this approach because I've found my sweet spot between week 3's and week 5's volume that is perfect for me at the moment. But the fact that my ROM and technique are getting slightly better almost every session makes progressing with the time of the hold muuuch more difficult

EdStand, grazie per il benvenuto!

Your recommendation is really appreciated, I think that I will give it a try at the end of this microcicle.

I'm a total beginner with ABH but I feel that the program is working well.
3x12sec 5x12sec 3x24sec sets seem not much work, but it's not true because  I am able to improve my form a little every time, and this I consider progress.

Now I'm planning to build up to 3x24sec (week 3) with  good form and then, before going on, I will post a video to get some critique from you GB guys.

I'm really happy to have joined this wonderful community.

Welcome to ABH Fabio! It's a serious test of your commitment : ). I'm about your age (35), about your height (6'3"), but about 25lbs heavier. For me, ABH has taken about a year. I'm not quite at mastery, but I'm so, so close... 2-3 more microcycles of 4x54s, 5x54s, 5x60s will do it. 

wamarler,

thanks for sharing your experience with ABH.
By now I understood that this is a big challenge for a tight, ex-sedentary, person.
At the moment I have not even the full rom. I think that reaching mastery will take a long time for me too.
The good thing is that I have the plan. First get the required rom and then build volume.
I appreciate GB community for his "don't sweeten the pill" mentality.

Good attitude. Stick with it, you'll get there

Jon, I will. 

It is great to recive your encouragement, thanks.

As has been suggested elsewhere in this Fourm you could try to master the 30 sec template first then progress to mastering the 60 sec template.