No deloads in F1

I saw @Coach Sommer's response in another thread saying there are no deload weeks programmed into F1 progressions anymore.

I am actually in my deload week this week and did Core/Upper Body/Lower Body yesterday at the deload volumes (while the system was down) and then when it came up with the new system, it is saying 'deload week' and all my volumes are deload volumes.  I logged them all (and put easy smiley faces since they were easy).

If there are no longer any deload weeks, I'm not sure why it gave me deload volumes to do.  And I'm also not sure what it is going to put me on next week now that I said it was easy!

Either way - I can adjust next week to the right level.

General thumbs up from me.  This is much easier than having to manually readjust days in the workout scheduler when life happens.

Hi Paul,

Sorry for the inconvenience.  The programmers overlooked removing the deload programming from F1 and are working on resolving that now.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

@Coach Sommer Over the past year I became pretty diligent in not missing workouts, so I guess I'm in the 30% that doesn't enjoy a "natural deload". Shouldn't I deload anyway every few weeks? How do I deal with that?

Thanks!

Giovanni

8 minutes ago, Giovanni Garcea said:

@Coach Sommer Over the past year I became pretty diligent in not missing workouts, so I guess I'm in the 30% that doesn't enjoy a "natural deload". Shouldn't I deload anyway every few weeks? How do I deal with that?

Thanks!

Giovanni

Nope.  No deloads for you until you reach F2.

Congratulations though on being one of the few!

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

38 minutes ago, Coach Sommer said:

Nope.  No deloads for you until you reach F2.

So if you're on F2 or higher on ANY progression, you start to deload on ALL elements in F1-4?

I'm deloading next week regardless - been looking forward to it for 2 weeks now and I really need it :-)

51 minutes ago, Giovanni Garcea said:

@Coach Sommer Over the past year I became pretty diligent in not missing workouts, so I guess I'm in the 30% that doesn't enjoy a "natural deload". Shouldn't I deload anyway every few weeks? How do I deal with that?

Thanks!

Giovanni

Lots of hard work, basically, it seems. Enjoy those rest days over the weekend, we will, basically haha. I'm right there with ya Giovanni.

4 minutes ago, Petri Widsten said:

So if you're on F2 or higher on ANY progression, you start to deload on ALL elements in F1-4?

I'm deloading next week regardless - been looking forward to it for 2 weeks now and I really need it :-)

Nice try, Petri.

You must be on F2 for three different elements before the deload programming activates.

And yes.  I set it up this way on purpose.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

21 minutes ago, Coach Sommer said:

You must be on F2 for three different elements before the deload programming activates

Well I am on F2-3 on three elements so I guess I qualify :-)

Maybe it'll give extra motivation for some and they'll work harder to get where they are allowed to deload once again...

Still stunned with the "70%" not completing workouts every week. The GB Team was getting slammed every week to save us from ourselves! Sad testiment of our instant gratification world.

9 minutes ago, Bill Marr said:

Still stunned with the "70%" not completing workouts every week. The GB Team was getting slammed every week to save us from ourselves! Sad testiment of our instant gratification world.

I am one of those 30%, I never miss. I do anything to fit it in… no socializing nor TV nor other stuff, until my priority is done  (and often then there is no time for all the others stuff)… I even tried to get around those deloads before, so I am super excited that @Coach Sommer took them away. Yay!

Deload weeks are good for really focusing on form so I'm happy to keep the habit.

I wonder if a lot of people were like me and simply didn't log a lot of the workouts they did.

2 minutes ago, Ronnicky Roy said:

I wonder if a lot of people were like me and simply didn't log a lot of the workouts they did.

Could be.  However as far as the system is concerned, and I agree, if it wasn't logged - it didn't happen.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

1 minute ago, Coach Sommer said:

Could be.  However as far as the system is concerned, and I agree, if it wasn't logged - it didn't happen.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

That's entirely fair.

However, Is the workout scheduler gone entirely? I found that the most useful part for setting up my workouts

34 minutes ago, Ronnicky Roy said:

However, Is the workout scheduler gone entirely? I found that the most useful part for setting up my workouts

Yes, for F1 the workout scheduler is gone.

It begins being reintroduced once people advance to F2.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

26 minutes ago, Coach Sommer said:

Yes, for F1 the workout scheduler is gone.

It begins being reintroduced once people advance to F2.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

It would be nice to have a weekly overview (not necessarily the old workout scheduler), but just visually see how I plan my workout week. (I do similar also in my google calendar, but it would be nice to have it here with all my GST stuff). It's good to plan weekly, to see more of the structure, and then maybe adjust accordingly when 'life happens". But never miss—I like to see the days nicely green when finished. Is this weekly overview/calendar going to be available when all the transition changes are finished? 

3 hours ago, Suzanna McGee said:

It would be nice to have a weekly overview (not necessarily the old workout scheduler), but just visually see how I plan my workout week. (I do similar also in my google calendar, but it would be nice to have it here with all my GST stuff). It's good to plan weekly, to see more of the structure, and then maybe adjust accordingly when 'life happens". But never miss—I like to see the days nicely green when finished. Is this weekly overview/calendar going to be available when all the transition changes are finished? 

Hi Suzanna,

For F1 you will need to plan what workouts you would like to do and what given days on your own.  

The majority of F1 students simply found it too overwhelming to attempt to follow a set schedule I provided and try to concentrate on learning proper execution and tempo at the same time.

As previously stated, by F2 I now gradually begin introducing basic scheduling once again AND hold the students accountable for it.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

1 minute ago, Coach Sommer said:

Hi Suzanna,

For F1 you will need to plan what workouts you would like to do and what given days on your own.  

The majority of F1 students simply found it too overwhelming to attempt to follow a set schedule I provided and try to concentrate on learning proper execution and tempo at the same time.

As previously stated, by F2 I now gradually begin introducing basic scheduling once again AND hold the students accountable for it.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

I must have been one of the 30% too as apart from a week when I was away , I completed every single workout and logged every rep for the last 4 months since I started. I am pretty anal about training and always have been. I´m dogged and determined to get the job done no matter how boring the exercise (hollow body yawn lol).

I guess having trained all my life has made me used to training a schedule and not skipping it.So for me with this new "scheduler" where you kind of pick what you do every week is a bit of a pain however I will just stick to the previous workout that I was doing and follow that one. 

Is there going to be a smiley for no progression needed at present or has this been done already? I saw it discussed somewhere.

I'm in the 30% group as well. But truth be told, there were definitely some deload weeks where I didn't really "need" to do them, so I'm fine not using them (or at the very least if my body is really screaming at me, to take one only if I absolutely need one) until I hit F2 on at least 3 elements.

The 30% who did the workouts and followed the schedule will still do the workouts and follow the schedule that's just who we are.  Hopefully these changes will help get some compliance out the other 70% (and alleviate the administration burden).

Being able to stick to the schedule is a learned skill.  Some people starting F1 with a background in fitness will come to the table with it, others wont (I definitely did not).  By seeing my progress drop away when I missed days I took coaches words about consistency to heart and learned to be one of the 30%.  Hopefully newbies to taking care of themselves will still learn the benefits of disciplined consistent work.

For the last year I have, with exceptions for sickness and life stuff, followed the program pretty consistently and with enough volume.  But I have never logged my workouts on the dashboard.  I prefer to do it in a google doc.

I think these are mostly good changes. I was part of the 30% until I suffered a serious illness that required two minor surgeries. I had to take a couple of steps back after that and had to contact customer service to re-set. It shouldn't be that complicated, imho.

Also, I have been stuck, stuck, stuck on deck squats. Honestly, looking at maybe another 4-6 months working on panel mats to get past that hurdle. (And I kept looking at the next progression and thinking "that looks easier!")

And I'll admit, the nomenclature was/is pretty foreign to me. I still have trouble keeping Fundamentals and Foundations straight!

So simplifying for F1 I think is a great idea. 

I guess I was one of the 30%, too. I have only missed one workout (hospitalized) in 4.5 months, and have logged them all, even while on business travel or vacation. I also realize that level of consistency is not feasible for everybody for a variety of reasons. I think the new changes were necessary to encourage folks to keep with it regardless of day-to-day issues.

As one of the consistent users (to the point of OCD...just ask my wife), I was skeptical of the changes when they were rolled out yesterday. Now that some of my technical bugs have been rectified (great work under pressure you guys) I'm beginning to like the new system. As soon as the smiley face issues are worked out we should be off and running. Yes, Cory, I saw your response in another thread.

Re the deload: I, too, was initially upset that this was removed. After thinking about it a bit I realized that it isn't necessary for F1. Linear progress is not possible for all, but rank beginners. However, the new scheduling and smiley face system permits a lot of flexibility in "deloading" if things become too hard or you are on the brink of overtraining. The suggested approach of doing each element only once a week for rank beginners should preclude the need for deload for many. Even if not, and for those of us who like training more often, we have the options of either regressing an exercise or all exercises using the smiley face system and the settings. We have a lot of flexibility available to us.

It's all good. Heck, I'm even tempted to go back to the beginning just to make sure I have every little thing in order. Then just pound through with "Easy" smileys until I reach my true current levels. It should only take a few weeks.

[Smileys? Really? Couldn't you have used the Caesar approach of thumbs up, thumbs down, or thumb to the side. Seems more in character. ;-) ]

Thanks, GB, for continuously trying to improve your product.

Im just astonished that there are no "where's my deload?" memes yet

17 hours ago, Ronnicky Roy said:

I wonder if a lot of people were like me and simply didn't log a lot of the workouts they did.

I didn't start relying on the logging feature consistently until 2-3 months ago, despite not missing any workouts for the last 19 months (except on a couple weeks when I was sick).