Hello,
I will try to keep it short.
I thought I will share one of the greatest moments of this year's journey with GB Foundation, Handstand and stretch courses.
It is said hundreds of times here how important it is to trully master every single element. But all talk is just talk until you learn it yourself. I was stuck on FL PE2, HBP PE2, RC PE3 and MN PE3 all the time doing the last block of a micro-cycle. Even worse, I started to regress in these elements, my form degraded and I noticed a huge drop in my work capacity trying to finish the damn workout.
Now here are the lessons that I learnt:
- Do it properly from the beginning. After going back to FL PE1 I discovered that I can't hold even 5x36 effortlessly. So how do I imagine doing 5 sets of 60 rocks of it if I can't do a solid minute hold for 5 consecutive sets? And to make things clear, if you are not aware of what's in F2 course, you'd better make FL series in F1 easy to moderate effort (after all it's 5 sets of 60 seconds so I hardly imagine not feeling a burn in the last set or two but that's okay, you have to feel it) because you will die trying later progressions. The same with the rest of the elements. Now I know that rocks aren't going be so draining and I positively look to start them and master in just a matter of weeks, not months.
- It is perfectly fine is you sometimes miss the last workout of the week. Especially if you've been patiently and hard working for a few months now. You may feel guilty but just let your mind to get some fresh air and leave GST for now until the next week comes. You will not lose all your gains and your mind simply needs rest from those high numbers of reps in F1.
- Be present in your workout because even the most subtle and small change in the angle of hips or shoulders can make a huge difference in terms of physical execution followed by a mental boost.
- Make sure to do it correctly. The main reason why I was stuck on HBP PE2+iM was that I did them incorrectly and was sure I'd easily do PE1. Well actually (re)mastering HBP PE1 gave me an ability to endure 5x15 with just 10 seconds rest between the sets. Doing 20 of those for a warm up is nothing but easy now. And before trying 5x15 of HBP PE2 I was so nervous that I will not complete them in one go but I made it, had to take some deeps breaths in the top but did not break the last set. All thanks to the very intense HBP PE1. The same applies to the mobility exercises. Doing XF correctly, it is such a powerful exercise for the shoulders!
- Do it until you do it. Really simple. If you're stuck at 5x10 doing them over and over again for two micro-cycles, be sure you will eventually do it. I was stuck on 5x15 RC PE1 for two and 5x10 RC PE3 for three months. One day I just did them without noticing it.
- Invest in all three stretch courses.
- Which brings me to the last note. Whenever you feel you're out of gas for that last set, imagine yourself surrounded by people who chant and scream for you to do one more rep, and one more, and one more. Or speak with yourself in your mind. You will benefit a lot from those reps your mind tells you to complete when the body just can't get up anymore and you will train the mind not to give up.
So after deload week my routine will look like this: FL PE2, sPL PE3, SL PE4, MN PE2, SLS SE1, HBP PE2, RC PE4, HS PE5 which I am proud of. You can see there's no PE1 anymore. Next goal is to leave PE2 zone in 3 months.
I hope there's something newcomers can take out of this. Or people who are on the same boat as I am - fighting their way through F1.
Now there's some F1 and H1 work is waiting for me. I should better go and do it 
Cheers!
.