Brick by brick: focus on one/two elements at a time

So I understand that the foundation series is successful because it allows you to train multiple skills in one session and progress using proper preparation. But what I'm about to ask has no intention of insulting anyone: is it counterproductive to focus on two skills (i.e. front lever and planche) at a time; and incorporate the other movements later when you master those two first?

I'm asking because I was thinking about build your skills "brick by brick", meaning focus on a few skills at a time. If I just focused my time on those two instead of the others, would the result be an increase in progress (using coach's progressions of course) or potentially hazardous? What if I added the SLS, making that three skills to invest my time on? Do you guys believe it's a waste of money? I apologize if this sounds ignorant or out-right audaciously stupid. I just want your guy's opinion on this and any advice is most appreciated.

Doesn't sound stupid. Unfortunately its just a bit of oversimplification. You will get stronger on 2-3 skills, but you risk developing enormous imbalances over time and leave large gaps in overall development.

Coach generally has us working a whole lot at the beginning, THEN getting simpler once a foundation of basic strength is attained, like a pyramid shape getting narrower as it gets higher but only from that broad base

As adults starting out its more so mobility and having so much to address that doing it one or two at a time would just take far far too long

7 skills sounds like a 'few' skills to me. Many people try to train upwards of 20 skills at a time. I think Foundation work is already "Brick by Brick".

Jon Douglas said:

Doesn't sound stupid. Unfortunately its just a bit of oversimplification. You will get stronger on 2-3 skills, but you risk developing enormous imbalances over time and leave large gaps in overall development.

Coach generally has us working a whole lot at the beginning, THEN getting simpler once a foundation of basic strength is attained, like a pyramid shape getting narrower as it gets higher but only from that broad base

As adults starting out its more so mobility and having so much to address that doing it one or two at a time would just take far far too long

Ah I see your point. If I remember correctly, didn't coach say the exercises should be performed in the order they are in, the only modifications you can make are in the frequency and PE & IM levels themseleves? What if I included aspects of the hollow back press and rope climb into the training but not train for those skills themselves in order to prevent "imbalances" from occuring? Or is that complicated as well?

Wouldn't including aspects of progressions be pretty much following the program anyway?

Mercurial Flow said:

7 skills sounds like a 'few' skills to me. Many people try to train upwards of 20 skills at a time. I think Foundation work is already "Brick by Brick".

Whoa, 20 skills? That sounds a lot. I wonder who would have time for that. Yeah I agree that they're enough by themselves, I just thought if someone wanted to prioritize a certain skill/skills they should devote their training for that and use the other "aspects" of the other skills to help reach that and prevent imbalances from occurring. 

what I do is if something isnt progressing as well as other skills then i put those others on the back burner and just maintain a bit more so and push harder on the skill that is lagging behind.  (typically the skill that is lagging is due to a weak link in the body and improving that is ideal imo)

An analogy would be taking 2 whole eggs out of a 7-egg omelette. :-)

Is it important/required to train the movements in the order they are given or is there no way to modify it?

@Jesse Kim The order can be varied.

@ausswe That's a different situation and in the right circumstances it can be an effective approach.

In general keep in mind that there is a synergistic effect when training all if the elements and in real life they do not exist in separate boxes.

Doing chin hangs for several months I made a point of putting them first in my workouts. not so much to conserve energy as to get on it while my concentration was sharp

Jesse Kim said:

So I understand that the foundation series is successful because it allows you to train multiple skills in one session and progress using proper preparation. But what I'm about to ask has no intention of insulting anyone: is it counterproductive to focus on two skills (i.e. front lever and planche) at a time; and incorporate the other movements later when you master those two first?

I'm asking because I was thinking about build your skills "brick by brick", meaning focus on a few skills at a time. If I just focused my time on those two instead of the others, would the result be an increase in progress (using coach's progressions of course) or potentially hazardous? What if I added the SLS, making that three skills to invest my time on? Do you guys believe it's a waste of money? I apologize if this sounds ignorant or out-right audaciously stupid. I just want your guy's opinion on this and any advice is most appreciated.

Sometimes it is helpful to focus on one or two areas in which you are lagging behind. It is counterproductive to focus on one or two skills to the exclusion of others. For sustainable, long-term progress you need to develop good mobility and a balanced physique: you can't do this without working on several areas at once.

Using your brick-by-brick analogy, focusing solely on two skills until mastery would be like building only one wall of a skyscraper, all the way to the top. As a contrast, if you built the other walls concurrently you would have a stronger base and more balance as everyone else said. Also, just so you know, Ido got a lot of his strength elements from the GB program and was a student of Coach's a few years back. He also does lots of what I would call 'extraneous' exercises that focus on 'improvisation through movement' which you can check out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLyN7y1phQE. I wouldn't call it exercise or improvisation, but make your own conclusions. Ido is an idealist in my eyes and a very dogmatic one, even though he spouts being 'non-dogmatic' and a 'generalist'. I like Coach and GB's approach because it's much more coherent, linear, and pragmatic. 

As other people have suggested, you can make SLS, FL, and sPL your emphasis while still giving attention to the other elements, but excluding handstand work and/or the other four foundation elements would really only be to your detriment. 

It seems that everyone is on the same boat in terms of how I should approach this. I'll take everyone's advice and just do the program the way it is, but "tweak" with the order of the exercises a little bit, but focus more on the elements I "prioritize". Also, life has been my enemy for the past month and a half. As a result, I stopped F1 for that time. Do you guys believe I should continue where I left off or should I start over?

depends on how you feel and what changed.  id personally go back a step and see how you perform then move on if all is good.  I had a much longer break due to life and have pretty much started from scratch (dam uni and work has ruined my body )

Start with the last deload (4th week) that you completed. Use that to gauge what your next week will be.

vinca_minor said:

Start with the last deload (4th week) that you completed. Use that to gauge what your next week will be.

Thank you

The problem with selecting two exercises is thatbyou may pick the wrong ones. When I started I did not see the benefit of shoulder extension mobility so I did not work on it. When i finally decided to put the work in I was amazed at how much my strength improved in my shoulders. My Korean and Russian dips are so much better now.

I always thought I had terrible transition strength with Russian Dips. It was my terrible shoulder extension mobility that was the problem. It was the only exercise that I did not think was that important.

Consdering I am a Physiotherapist and am meant to be an expert in human movement I still got it wrong. Trust the program as Coach has it all figured out. This is a synergistic program where all the components link together like the pieces of a puzzle. Do the work and don't skip anything.

Mark Collins said:

The problem with selecting two exercises is thatbyou may pick the wrong ones. When I started I did not see the benefit of shoulder extension mobility so I did not work on it. When i finally decided to put the work in I was amazed at how much my strength improved in my shoulders. My Korean and Russian dips are so much better now.

I always thought I had terrible transition strength with Russian Dips. It was my terrible shoulder extension mobility that was the problem. It was the only exercise that I did not think was that important.

Consdering I am a Physiotherapist and am meant to be an expert in human movement I still got it wrong. Trust the program as Coach has it all figured out. This is a synergistic program where all the components link together like the pieces of a puzzle. Do the work and don't skip anything.

Out of academical interest, how can shoulder extension mobility limit your russian dips?

Likely the same way that lat tightness has prevented me from mastering HS/PE1>im, as Mark said it's synergistic. So, my shoulder flexion being limited by lat tightness (and pec tightness amongst other things: trap weakness, etc), is similar to dip strength being limited by shoulder extension. It's all connected.

Alexander Egebak said:

Out of academical interest, how can shoulder extension mobility limit your russian dips?

Elbows aside, and looking purely at the shoulder.  At the bottom of dips in general, what position is the shoulder in?  (Hint: full shoulder extension)

Alexander Egebak said:

Out of academical interest, how can shoulder extension mobility limit your russian dips?

You need good shoulder extension to move through the transition.

Thanks guys I should have figured it out on my own.