Hi all,
As I have said elsewhere, I decided to give my Foundation training a full reboot five weeks ago. A couple people have asked me about my thought process, so here it is in one.
There are a couple reasons; the primary one is that I have rehabbed and fixed a number of imbalances and issues. I can only imagine from how much better they feel just how much a decade of martial arts overlapping with several years of kettlebell training screwed up my shoulders in particular. Never felt like anything was stiff, sore etc... but can't believe how much better I feel now. Crazy to think this is how it is supposed to be 
Other than that, reasons in no particular order;
- Coach fixed a few things at Australian seminars last year, primarily lower traps deficit/ inactivity and some technique misunderstandings-- particularly in areas in which I was both strong and tight (lats, upper traps, hamstrings....). I spent a few months fixing my weaknesses/deficits following that, then decided the time was right to bring it all together. These November seminars are what began this process of taking a hard look at what I wasn't doing ie enough mobility, despite being very happy with my results to date.
- Coach also mentioned Leo (Trinidad)'s strategy of restarting a progression every time he hit a failure. This has a massive appeal to me as an incredibly simple / effective approach that automatically incorporates waving loads etc. Similarly I'd hit some plateaus and wanted a shake-up to find where my gaps were
- Similarly, I particularly liked Alessandro (Mainente)'s approach of requiring a single 200% warmup set to establish an element as mastered.
- I more or less doubled mobility throughout. Big emphasis on heavy J-curls gave me a nasty little turn one day; I thought I had done something nasty to my back when I woke up and struggled to move properly. It took about three days for the spot in my spine to settle down. Figured I'd gone too heavy and strained something
Here is the cool part.
Before this incident, I could not do sit-ups with my feet on the floor, not hooked under something. No big deal, naturally. After three days, the 'pain' (not quite the right word, more system shock) disappeared and.... wonder of wonders, I could suddenly do sit-ups with my feet on the floor. It was as if my spine had developed an extra joint; I now regard it as two vertebra beginning to fuse and stiffen up, and then being separated, and the system shock as fallout. Scared myself briefly but once it was gone not a single re-occurence.
That informed my approach.
- 3x F7 for one cycle, to speed testing up to appropriate training levels. Having established almost all of these now and still training 3x a week MWF mornings with work, I am now training a 3-day split MWF with stretch series afterwards, HS Tues/Thurs and Movement Sat
- 110% strict on form, tempo, etc. Was pretty happy with how this had gone previously, but having coached and worked with a lot of people since beginning this, I know far better how to dial in on the details. Part of this is racing the clock and getting amongst my workout as if I'm being chased 
- Doubled down on mobility. I perform a whole-body ROM limber in every session, 5-10r of all HBP ims, etc. I also run J-curls for 10 reps before each session, easy at 40-60kg, just feels like a stretch. Takes about 10 minutes if you are motivated.
- Warming up with 50r scap shrugs sPL progressions each session; this alone has done pretty cool things . As mentioned I also require a 1x 200% mastery set before I consider an element put away. Exercises I find difficult stay in my warmup for that progression, and working higher reps in warmup is great.
- Getting more done at work and taking less home, allowing me more sleep. Not going to lie, this has certainly accelerated the process.
- Completely eliminated shoulder impingement symptoms with hinge rows.
The basic lessons so far
I have not lost any strength. I have been doing, for example, rope climbs for laps 2-3x a week for a year or more, and here I am improving my pullup numbers and widening my back on hinge rows this makes it very easy to exercise patience until I can be 110% certain I have performed my sets perfectly.
Doing it right gives you the function; the form follows. I have lost about a kilo on the scale; leaned out significantly. I will put up my before/after pictures once I'm through Thrive. I'm no Leo or Daniel Burnham, but I am still a bit surprised myself.
Mobility, mobility, mobility. You cannot get strong in ROMs you don't have. Patience, grit, consistency, whatever it takes to gain that mobility. Once it is in place, it happens remarkably fast; I had about two months of steadily re-educating my left shoulder in extension in very limited range; frustrating, humbling etc. Who cares. It worked and now I am back doing HS/PE2im x10r with 15kg. But it will not happen at all if you don't start fixing it from the bottom.
Taking the time to perfect the basics is the fastest way to exceptional strength and mobility.
Most of all is my mindset change. I never thought I would say it, but I am genuinely happy to find a basic exercise difficult in some detail. I test myself occasionally and am steadily increasing my strength levels, including on exercises I had 'plateaud' on previously. Lack of ROM in a movement simply meant one more area in which I couldn't develop strength; fix the root of the problem and the whole responds.
Oh, and I took 10s off my 2.4km run since December last year, although there are way too many confounding factors on that one.
Progressions are now scattered through F1-4; I'm actually still testing through a couple. Champing at the bit to get to my next training day.
Edit;
Apologies this reads kinda clunky; I stream-of-consciousness'd