Wow, I've been doing F1 and HS1 for 13 months now, and today is a big graduation from week 12 of all 7 Foundation elements and all four HS wrist elements! That's 18 new movements next week. I can't wait to see what's next now that I've finished FL1, SPL1, HBP1, RC1, SL1, MN1, and SPS1!
Wait, you may be thinking, aren't those the absolute noob moves? And didn't he say 13 months? WTF?
Indeed. When I first started F1, I didn't rush ahead. I didn't overestimate my abilities. I worked hard through about 5 months, and finished most level 1 exercises and a couple level 2. They weren't all pretty, but I gutted through.
Then I lost some momentum. I've always had trouble sticking to programs more than 3 months, and 5-6 months was pretty good. I faltered. I managed to avoid switching to anything else, but many weeks went by where I did 1 workout, or I felt a little nicked up and took extra rest, or simply filled in my social and work calendar and didn't exercise. I never strayed from GB, and I kept reading the posts on FB, but I waned.
After a month of that I came back, and the workouts were tough. Too tough, and I felt a little overwhelmed. After about 8 weeks of decent work I repeated another month of barely working out.
Finally, 10 months in, I got serious again. I said I'm doing this, I'm committing. And the first step of that was acknowledging that I was no longer where I was when I started faltering. Every week off is a week backwards. So I looked myself in the mirror, and I looked at my GB workout, and I just hit "Back One Week" until it stopped changing.
Ground zero. Noob. No pride, no accomplishment, no ego. Day 1.
Note - I did bump the wrist exercises and headstands forward after testing them to ensure it was deserved.
I also resolved not to do anything "extra" that might delay my GB workouts, such as yoga or weightlifting.
So that was after 10 months. Today is 13 months. I did all my workouts, save for 1 week where I was legitimately sick. I progressed smoothly and passed all my level 1 exercise tests (some barely!).
So humility, yay. But I learned something else quite important. Those exercises I had "passed" - the deck squat especially - in doing them again for 3 months I discovered so much depth that I had missed the first time through, when I was largely thinking of the next exercise in the progression. My deck squats were 5x15, but now they're smooth and quiet. I discovered when to breathe, and it made all the difference.
So today I really am excited, because I didn't peek at the next exercises even once. I literally have no idea what's next, if they might have changed since I last went through them lo 8 months ago. I'm gonna press "Advance One Week", and I'm gonna have my next 12 weeks laid out.
I'm excited! How about you?
