How Intense Should This Be?

How intense should the Foundation exercises be?  How hard should I consider them before I move on?

For some context, I'm coming from Pavel Tsatsouline's work (Enter the Kettlebell, Simple & Sinister, etc).  Very heavy weight and high (sometimes daily) frequency, but low reps and low sets (2 sets of 5, etc).  Jump to Foundation One and I'm doing five sets of dozens of reps, once a week.  The burn, people, the burn!  I can do the exercises no problem, but the four and fifth set, or once the reps climb into the dozens, I start to have a problem.

If that's a design and not a flaw, no problem.  I have no problem being patient.  But to be a bit more specific, I can complete the push-up segment, but it's a struggle.  I can maintain good form all the way through all the reps on all the sets, but it about takes all I've got.  Under Pavel's logic, that means it's probably too hard and I should step back a level or two.  Is it the same here?  Should I consider near-failure too hard, just right or perhaps even not hard enough?

How does burn play in?  I'm here more for the soft-tissue strengthening more than the muscles and strength (though I'm happy to be Hercules).  If an exercise burns like the dickens but good form can be maintained, do I move on or stay there until there's no more burn?

Thank you for the insight!

Hi Robert,

Thanks for reaching out. 

Foundation One is designed to build your work capacity and prepare your joints and connective tissues for harder strength work later on. This can be quite humbeling to begin with, especially coming from a traditional strength background when your muscles are strong. But yet get completely crushed when performing the most basics elements in GST. 

It's completely normal to struggle to finish all the reps to begin with, that's why the progressions are set gradually. And yes it's supposed to be hard. That being said, you need to be able to perform the set amount of reps without GOOD form.

And ofc the burn!!! If you can still perform the exercise with the integrated mobility with good form, you can move to next progression  I mean who doesn't feel the burn after 5x60 hollow body rocks  

I recommend to submit a form check when testing for mastery to ensure your form. 

Feel free to post your training progress too, I'm looking forward to see you nailing the high reps  

Cool, thank you Pauline!  That's a big help.

Always welcome, Robert  

Please let us know if you have any other questions!

Hi Robert, 

Pauline summed it all up.  Welcome and please submit video for form check. In my experience, the quality of the exercise will dictate the intensity.