Question Regarding New Course Layout and Excercise 'Grouping'.

Hi Guys,

I am returning to the Foundation course after a forced hiatus due to a Rock Climbing injury and have a couple of questions regarding the new course layout.

I started by loading up 'Coach Sommers' recommended schedule and began at PE1 Week 4 across the board (was training PE6 pre-injury).  Now, previously I had my workouts set so that I would not be working (for instance) Bent Hollow Holds and Tuck Ups on the same day, whereas in the new regime all of the 'Core' exercises are rolled into a single workout.  As a result, it feels like 'the bar' has been moved with respect to mastery of these elements.  If I were to test mastery of Bent Hollow Holds for instance, my abs feel sufficiently fatigued that a subsequent test of Tuck Up mastery is that much harder.  If I wait a day and re-test the Tuck Up mastery however, I can complete the exercise with little difficulty.

I recognise that the specific core muscles being used in both of these exercises will vary slightly, however there seems to be sufficient cross-over such that working to my limit in one PE still affects muscle fatigue in another PE.  Am I doing something wrong with my exercises or has the bar simply moved with regards to how strong/stable each muscle-group needs to be to complete across-the-board mastery of a specific area (e.g. Upper Body, Core etc.).  Is anyone else struggling under the new system?

Thanks for any advice you guys can offer,

Regards

Mike

HI Mike, I think that the major problem it is that you stayed away from foundations for a long time and your body lost the ability to recover faster which is the primary goal. I think that schedule it is a problem if it works hard your weak point. for example, the more you are tight in the posterior chain the more expensive will be the MN beginning PE.

Hi Mike,

I'm by no means an expert, and like you I found it difficult when the format changed and the exercises were re-grouped. In fact I tried to persevere with the old grouping for a month or so, but found I was just making life unnecessarily hard for myself, and I was struggling to keep track of where and what I was doing. I recall the history log was also being updated and was also unavailable, making it even harder.

Then I said "Screw it - Coach knows more about this than I ever will" and I got with the program. I found that muscle groups all being worked on the same day got more fatigued and I had to regress a couple exercises. Was this a bad thing? Maybe momentarily for my ego, but I think it is ultimately better for my muscles (the poor tiny wee things they are).

It was core work that had the most noticeable effect. I now tend to do upper and lower in one session and core on a separate session. I also make sure that any exercise has genuinely become 'easy', and the other exercises on a given day are also 'fine', bordering on 'easy' before progressing any one element by clicking the 'easy' button. While this approach is keeping me in the lower levels for now, I console myself that consistency is more important than intensity, and I can feel an improvement somewhere within any given workout day. This keeps me motivated. I follow along with videos and take no extra rests at all. 

Alessandro and Wayne,

Thanks for the feedback, it's certainly interesting thinking of the primary goal being faster recovery time and not increased strength/endurance at max-contraction. With this in mind I will continue to keep my Core workouts to a single session instead of splitting the BHHs and Tuck Ups as before. 

In relation to your comments Wayne, I definitely agree that regressing several exercises is the right thing to do which is why I've gone back to PE1 again.  My main issue has been that I find both the Bent Hollow Holds and Tuck ups 'easy' at their current level when done in isolation but it's definitely a struggle to do them both in the same session, clearly my muscle recovery is not what it once was.  While I have no problem remaining at a lower level for longer in order to build up, I can certainly forsee a vast divide between progress of Upper and Lower Body workouts compared to Core as I work back through F1 and into F2.  I wonder if there is any downside to this potential ability gap?

Mike

Actually no, I was one of the first students who worked with foudations and my gap between core and upper body was so big, now for certain skill something changed and my core it is definitely stronger.