Moving from Step 9 to Step 1

I've been doing Foundation One for a little over two months.  So I'm at PE2 on some exercises and PE1 on others.  I was curious about whether you should continue to train lower steps and levels of the progressions as you progress.  What I've found so far, is that Step 9 of a particular exercise, let's say Scap Shrugs, is very challenging and difficult to master.  Then once mastered, the early steps of plank (PE2) are easy in comparison to the higher steps of the earlier exercise.  Another example would be moving from doing 15 paralell squats in SLS/PE2 to doing 2 full squats in PE3.  Should I be training these earlier exercises so as not to lose the strength that I've built up as I continue to move through the progressions?

Thanks

Awesome question Casey. I suggest warming up with a mastery set of a previously mastered progression before beginning your workout. For example, before your Upper Body workout, warmup with a single set of 15-30 scap shrugs and, once/if you've mastered Incline Rows and Incline Push-ups, do the same with those. Then press play and get the day's training done. 

That makes sense, Everett.  Thanks for the reply.  I have been warming up with the Daily Limber, and then jumping right into the videos.  As I've progressed, I've started to sense that I needed a more robust warm-up.  So using a previously mastered progression's mastery step will serve as a more complete warm-up as well as maintaining the strength I've built in mastering that exercise.  That is two birds, one stone. 

As a follow-up, as I progress, do you recommend always using the previous progression as the warm-up?  Or is this more of a preference thing?  In other words, if I am in the early steps of PE5, should I use the mastery set of PE4 to warm up?  Or, maybe I find that push-ups are a great warm-up for bar dips, even though they are several progressions behind.

Thanks again.

Hi @K Casey Crytzer,

Yes it is recommended to use the previous elements as warmup but it doesn't mean that it should be PE4 in your example. It could be PE1 or PE2 or PE3 or PE4. Important reminder is that you are doing a warmup set. Warmup should not make you work hard at all.