Mobility progress; 2x stalled in HBP/PE2 (push-ups)

I started F1/H1 in the first week of August. Skip to the third paragraph if you want to skip the progress ramble.

 

First, the good stuff: mostly, I continue to progress strength/stamina-wise, which is good. I have noticed that SLS/PE1 (deck squat) has done quite a bit for my ankle mobility. When I started, I was coming out of the roll and half hopping backward because my ankles were stiff enough that I couldn't keep my weight over my feet easily. Now, I've got it right about 90% of the time. Also, when I front squat on my own, I'm able to put my hamstrings on the back of my calves while maintaining a near-upright torso (haven't checked low back with video yet). This is a significant change. Swivel hips is gradually getting better despite a shameful lack of extra work on hip rotation outside of the workouts. I thought I was just going to be frozen but it turns out that progress is possible! I've also noticed that I can now get into a comfortable deadlift position with a nice flat back even when I'm not warm, and that I'm almost able to put my hands flat on the floor with knees locked right after I get out of bed in the morning. 

 

Last night, I was explaining F1 stuff to my mom and sister. (My mom is one of those people we all hate: she does absolutely nothing and has complete ROM in every joint.) I was showing them a (dumbbell-free) windmill and they were both shocked at how much my ROM has improved, and how much more smoothly I can move. Same for hands flat on the floor (touching my toes was pretty good for me a few months ago). So it was nice to have that affirmation that my perceived progress was not in my head.

 

Now, though, to where I'm sticking and my actual question: I started my first cycle of HBP/PE2 (back in August) at week 9: 4x12r. It was pretty easy. Week 10 (4x15r) was challenging but doable. In week 11, I completed 5x15r (with pauses at the top for the last few reps of sets 4 and 5) on Monday, but on Friday I failed in set 4. I decided to start over for the next cycle at week 5, so as to give myself a little more momentum to push through. Last week was week 10 (4x15r), and I succeeded with slowed last few reps in the last set but no breaks. This morning I failed at rep 8 in set 5 when going for 5x15r. On Friday I will re-attempt. If I fail again, I will need to reevaluate what I'm doing and I'm hoping for suggestions among these options:

 

- Option 1: keep repeating week 11 for the entire next microcycle and hope it becomes easy by the final week.

- Option 2: next microcycle, do 5x12r, 6x12r, 7x12r (or similar), and then take another crack at 5x15r either at the end of that microcycle, or throughout the following microcycle.

- Option 3: use my Power Push-up 2 (rubber cable device) to add load to push-ups and start at week 1, work up till I stall, and then try 5x15r w/o the extra load again.

- Option 4: keep repeating weeks 9-11 until I manage week 11 successfully. 

- Option 5: add lots of push-ups throughout my days at other times. 

 

I'm leaning toward option 2 or 3, but am open to suggestions. Thanks!

 

TL;DR: mobility progress is pretty good over the last 3 months but I need help figuring out HBP/PE2.

Hopefully you'll succeed on Friday, and can just move on to PE3.  If not, I would go with Option 1.  

 

You're almost there and just need a little more endurance, so you need to work on endurance.  Get 4x15r with no breaks except IM.  And then add a 5th set of as many as you can get without a break.  Then take a short break (5 seconds) and crank out the last few reps until you complete the 15r for the 5th set.  Then do the IM for the 5th time.

Alright, thanks for the suggestion. Hopefully I'll manage it on Friday!

I would either do option 1 or 4, depending on how challenging week 11 is for you, your total life stresses at the moment (exercise, emotional, and financial), your diet, and your rest protocols.

If your total stress is good, you are consistently able to hit the week 11 mark or at least get within a rep or two of the target reps (this also assumes you are performing all the reps with mastery form), your dietary habits are solid, you regularly get a solid 8+ hours of good sleep and you tend to handle stress well, then pushing to hard intensity on a regular basis (multiple times a week, week in and week out) shouldn't be an issue and you will probably be ok with option 1.

If on the other hand you have lots of life stress right now, your performance on week 11 is spotty, you eat like crap (or not adequately to fuel intense exercise and facilitate positive physiological adaptations), you don't regular get enough good sleep, and/or you don't tend to handle stress well, then I would go with option 4.

My 2 cents. In the end each individual is going to have different recovery abilities and will need to figure out what works best for them through trial and error. Good luck.

Check here as well for a more in-depth discussion of options. Good advice above as well.

 

From what I remember both options 1 and 4 are common solutions, both working well for different people. One will probably be better for you, but there's no way to know without a load of training experience under your belt so you could probably just pick one and go with it.

 

Coach usually prefers option 4 first I believe as it gives you the proper ramp up and deload. So I would try that first, then go to option 1 if that doesn't fly. Just for reference, I usually do option 4 several times before moving on to another option.

I think you made a mistake going to week 5 the first time around: if 4x12 was easy, 4x6 was very submaximal work for you and was not helping you build endurance. Well, we live and we learn .

 

If you don't get mastery, you could repeat week 11 until you get it, or perform a scaled version of weeks 9-11(something like 4x13,4x14,5x15).