Exercise frequency + volume and the three-day cycle

The Foundation three-day training cycle alternates clusters of exercises as follows:

Week 1

Day 1 - FL/sPL/HBP/RC

Day 2 - MN/SL/SLS

Day 3 - FL/sPL/HBP/RC

Week 2

Day 1 - MN/SL/SLS

Day 2 - FL/sPL/HBP/RC

Day 3 - MN/SL/SLS

and continues to cycle like this.

My question: how do you guys cope with the weekly increase in volume (increased sets/reps/hold times), when you've only performed a specific exercise one time in the preceding week? Do you still see good progress or do you feel as if this approach necessitates multiple microcycle repetitions?

The reason I'm asking is that I am about to start the stretch series alongside F1/H1 and combining the 45-minute follow along classes with a full F7 workout (which I am currently doing three times a week) is going to be too taxing and time-consuming. Ideally I would like to do F1/Front Split on Monday, F1/Middle Split on Wednsday and F1/Thoracic Bridge on Friday, with H1 on Tuesday/Thursday and the weekend 'off'.

I'm currently progressing better on the 3 day split than i did on either the 4 day or f7.   hooray for recovery!

That's great to hear. Even when you do a specific exercise only once before moving to the next week's prescribed sets/reps/hold time?

If your F1 progress slows down a little but you get tremendous flexibility, will you really be upset?  

I've had good success with doing F1 elements once a week.  For some elements, I even make better progress than I did when I did them twice a week.  For new elements though, I find it helpful to do them at least as part of your warmup on the off days to help learn the movement.

Don't get me wrong, it's not about potentially slowing down my F1 progress. I'm almost 41 and I stated elsewhere that I expect to finish the majority of F1-F4 by the time I'm 50 I am simply curious whether completing the prescribed work a single time is sufficient to allow for the jump in volume the next time I'm doing the exercise.

I contemplated increasing volume every second week (making each cycle last 24 weeks instead of 12) so that I could do every exercise three times in two weeks before moving on. But perhaps that's being a little bit too cautious?

I've found that completing the prescribed work twice isn't always sufficient to allow for the jump in volume. It seems like the prescribed volume increases faster than I do and I become thankful if I can get an extra rep every couple of workouts.

Try to stop thinking about a training week as seven actual days.  Seven day week in a man-made constuct, not a biological one.

I work a production job and with overtime (occasionally frequent) I don't always recover to do my next workout when I stick to a hard workout schedule. (44 years old BTW).  These days I only do workouts that I can do at home due to the rotating schedule and wide variety of physical demands of the job and life. So I can rest as needed, I do work on Saturdays and Sundays when necessary. 

So my 4 day split may take 8 days to complete, or 9.  Occasionally 10.  If it's a 9 or 10 day it's usually a combination of lack of sleep due to schedule.  So a four day split may look like this: work1A-rest-work1B-rest-rest-work2A-rest-work2B-rest-rest. Balanced volume on the exercises and more recovery.  

Sticking to finishing a 4 day split in 12 weeks failed early and often.  Know yourself and adapt the workout to you.  I'm to the point if the workouts are too far apart I just drop back to the closest "Recovery Week" (half volume) and reset there. The main idea is to find the work (volume) and recovery cycle that works best for you.  

KevinH said:

Try to stop thinking about a training week as seven actual days.  Seven day week in a man-made constuct, not a biological one.

Exactly what I was thinking.

I have made my best progress on a three day a week schedule. This has given me more time to work on mobility, which is what I need most. At the other extreme when I started I was doing 4 days a week F1, twice a week H1 and Crossfit 5 days a week. I was walking around in deep fatigue and pain all the time. Now I only do GST with less volume, more mobility and walk around feeling great. Test all schedules to see what is best. I expect as I improve with Foundation and Handstand I will tolerate more volume.

If you're able to complete all of this week's reps with proper form and tempo, you're ready to move on to next week's reps.  It doesn't matter if you did the workout once or twice in the week.  If you fail to complete the reps, you need to stay there until your body adapts, regardless of whether it takes one workout or many.

With the release of the stretch courses, my training "week" is about 8 or 9 days long now too. I can't fit three days of stretch and 3-day foundation schedule and Handstand One in 7 days and still get rest days in, which I've learned my body really needs the rest days. Been doing this for months now and it's working really well for me.

Thanks guys!

I'm almost 42, I've been at it for about 4-5 months now, and feel that I'm making reasonable progress doing each element once a week for F1 and H1.  If anything I could probably use more mobility reps, but strength elements are fine with once a week.  I also do some light tumbling with a class, and surf too so I want to make sure I have energy for that and have 1-2 rest days per week as well. 

I would recommend you to go with the three day program. It's a safer bet and if you think you can do more work after a while, increase it. I am saying this because sticking to your three day schedule consistently is going to be better than pretending to follow a four day schedule.

I will switch to the three day one myself starting this week because I have not had the energy to do the four day one properly with my work schedule for some time now, leading to missed workouts, which I try to catch up by planning to do F7 days, which I have even less energy to do, etc. Not good.