Finding 3rd block increasingly difficult

So far, for the first 2 blocks, I have found my progression and ability to perform each exercise quite good. My holds are as good as they can be for my mobility (specifically talking arch body hold and the tuck up hold) until this week. I am on week 9, 4X 48 sec holds, 4X12 scap shrugs etc.

I am finding that at the 3rd rep of the bent hollow body hold, my core is screaming out in pain by about 35 seconds, I manage to hold on to the 48, but in the 4th rep, today at least I didn't get to the 48 seconds, I hit 30 I think, took a 5 sec break and kept going.

my 3rd set of scap shrugs, which again have all come pretty easy, I found around rep 8 of the 3rd set, starting to really hurt and struggle.

I am not sure if this is akin to a new eating plan that I am trialing, based on work by Aran Aragon, or if it is my actual final level.

and I guess now I figure, that if I don't succeed in mastery in some of the elements, I move back to week 9 and redo the last cycle?

secondly, all of the area's that I do pass in mastery, is it wise to use them as a warm up for the new elements I will be doing after them?

thanks in advance

bret

There are different strategies for dealing with plateaus, you should be able to find quote a few discussion about this in the F1 / F2 forums.

Personally I have stayed right where I struggle, and this usually helps, although not always (Case in point sPL/SE3, on which I've been stuck for a long time). Others repeat the cycles until they break through.

You're not alone.  I can usually coast through cycles 1 and 2.  Then cycle 3 kicks my butt.  I don't know if I have a predisposition to strength not endurance or what it is.  Maybe I'm just a wimp that likes to give up when the burn starts.  Bottom line is that you have to figure out how to work your body and mind through plateaus.

I always find the jump from week 5 to week 6 the hardest (50% increase in volume!). Once I get to cycle 3 it's generally pretty easy. 

Bret Kennedy said:

I am not sure if this is akin to a new eating plan that I am trialing, based on work by Aran Aragon, or if it is my actual final level.

Im curious and interested about this. Im a huge fan of Alan's work.

I have struggled on every progression at the third block. First 2 are always cake but the third always seems impossible when I get there.

Humbled in the most intense way today.

my arch body holds that were not too bad for my mobility, didn't finish the 3rd or 4th sets, 3rd set buckled at 40 seconds, 4th set buckled at 25 seconds, and my body was far from arched, it was more like straight.

Only thing that went well today were deck squates and tuck ups... *sigh* even my bloody wrist pushups struggled today

*sigh*

so what do I do? do I go through week 9 10 11 and 12? or if I am not finishing week 9 successfully, do I do week 9 again?

not sure on that one

Bret Kennedy said:

so what do I do? do I go through week 9 10 11 and 12? or if I am not finishing week 9 successfully, do I do week 9 again?

 

not sure on that one

If you can't do week 9 correctly, don't try to do something harder. 

You could try something halfway between week 7 and week 9; e.g. try doing 4x42 instead of 4x48. 

RJS said:

Im curious and interested about this. Im a huge fan of Alan's work.

I'll let you know how I am going. I ahve been 10 days straight recording my macros, so far no weight loss. But I might be wishfull thinking.

My body has taken a beating from a low carb diet for so long, and not even meaning to half the time, I just stopped eating pasta rice and fruit, that i am having sleep issues and I think some thyroid issues, so that sudden influx from 50g possibly of carbs per today, to calculating 350g per day I am not sure how my body is going to react. 

I am going to really keep at it though. His new book comes out on the 23rd, where in some emails he told me his thought process is a little different, he also seems to calculate his macros a little different, but I am determined to get something going, so just going to plug along with my GB and my 4 days of other weight training, work out what I do to best recover and work out food wise, and have it all recorded on myfitness pal.

You are doing 4 additional days of weight training on top of your GB training? What are you doing on those other 4 days (accessory work, heavy compounds, bodybuilding stuff, etc...)? How many days are you doing GB workouts?

You may well be overdoing it with your resistance training.

Regarding your weekly volume, if week 9 is proving to be a maximal effort, then you could also try doing a block of:

Week 6

Week 7

Week 9

Week 5 (this is your deload, since week 5 is roughly half the volume of week 9)

When you eventually get that down you could go to:

Week 7

Week 9

Week 10

Half of week 10's volume (since non of the weeks in the original templates exactly fit this volume)

Then finally move on to the standard third block.

Just another thing to try if other suggestions aren't working for you or you don't do well maxing out every workout.

Bret Kennedy said:

His new book comes out on the 23rd

im ready to read a book from Alan, awesome news

Keegan said:

You are doing 4 additional days of weight training on top of your GB training? What are you doing on those other 4 days (accessory work, heavy compounds, bodybuilding stuff, etc...)? How many days are you doing GB workouts?

You may well be overdoing it with your resistance training.

Regarding your weekly volume, if week 9 is proving to be a maximal effort, then you could also try doing a block of:

.

Just another thing to try if other suggestions aren't working for you or you don't do well maxing out every workout.

I only started the other workouts this week, I need to do the extra training just for now at least.

Workout the 5 day hs and f1 split. I do the extra workout after the fb stuff...

I will look today at an intermittent pattern for the stuff I am struggling with

Thanks heaps

I know how you feel man. Three exercises have been difficult to say the least:

SL/PE1 (arch body hold), MN/PE1 (tuck up), HBP/PE2 (push ups)

After one and a half years (!!!) on the first two, and probably about half that time on the last one, I am now working these elements at their mastery volumes, although I have yet to master any of them. I will continue to work them until I am satisfied that form and tempo are mastery-level.

There are days where I feel like I've achieved nothing, looking at such low numbers ("PE1"). But then I think about how I was 4 or 5 months ago, when working at the maximum volumes seemed like a lifetime away. Struggle, and you do make progress. Even if it feels like you aren't, it does happen, albeit slowly for some (like me!).

OP, it is the same for me. I was able to complete the sets/reps/tempo/form on my first cycle, but they still became much more difficult at the third micro cycle. It should be noted that five of the seven movements on that cycle were regressed versions of the standard PE1.

I just finished my second cycle, now with only two regressed movements. Week 9 saw slight breaks in proper tempo and form, and at weeks 10 and 11 I completed all the reps but not in the requisite number of sets, and with significant rest between them. This goes for all seven exercises.

I'm taking this week off of the strength moves to do only active mobility, and next week will likely be the same since I'm also exhausted from working 12hr days at my job for the past 6 months. The week after next I plan to do week 12 deload and then start the third micro over at week 9.

Bret Kennedy said:

I only started the other workouts this week, I need to do the extra training just for now at least.

Workout the 5 day hs and f1 split. I do the extra workout after the fb stuff...

I will look today at an intermittent pattern for the stuff I am struggling with

Thanks heaps

I am doing a mix of running, F1, H1, and lifting. I am generally progressing quite well, though some of the mobility comes pretty slowly and I've been stuck on the final cycle of HBP/PE2 for ages. This is what my program looks like:

Monday: F1-A, 5/3/1 SP work, light front squats

Tuesday: H1, posterior chain accessory lifting, ring dips

Wednesday: F1-B, run

Thursday: H1, 5/3/1 BS work, light good mornings

Friday: F1-A, accessory press and front squat work

Saturday: run

Fairly high volume, though not ridiculous. I manage to progress reasonably well because I'm doing a relatively low-volume lifting program (a modified Wendler's 5/3/1), lower-volume options for F1 and H1, and very conservative running progression. I'm all about minimal investment necessary to get the best results. By week 3 of the cycle, I am usually psychologically pretty ready for the easy week. (I'm doing a 5/3/1 which is 3 hard weeks 1 recovery, like the GB programs, rather than Wendler's new 6 hard weeks 1 recovery week 5/3/1.) I could probably progress more quickly if I did 5/3/1 *or* running *or* GB, but I've been pretty happy with the effects of this program so I'm sticking to it. 

I suspect you're just doing too much work and you're burning yourself out and preventing progress. Also -- GB is designed to be a stand-alone program, not to be augmented by all sorts of other work. When people like us add more work, we are substantially altering the program.