Which progressions to keep working?

Hi all,

I know there is some progressions in all the GB programming that we need to keep working on to.  I also know that there's already some topics on that but didn't find them, that's why I'm asking.  

Which progressions (in foundation, handstand, even movement?) do we have to keep practicing when mastered? And why?

Thanks for your help

Hi Etienne,

It is important to keep working all previous exercises as you advance through the courses. There is no need to do each progression all the time, but it is a good idea to rotate through previous progressions in order to maintain form and basic strength. I highly recommend incorporating previous PEs and iMs into your daily warm up. It can be as easy as doing a single set, however, it is also a good idea to go back and practice mastery volume. It is a good idea to focus on progressions that were more difficult for you. Working on your weaknesses will help you to continually improve.

Consistently refining basics will help you to maintain steady progress.

11 hours ago, Jeffrey Bittner said:

Hi Etienne,

It is important to keep working all previous exercises as you advance through the courses. There is no need to do each progression all the time, but it is a good idea to rotate through previous progressions in order to maintain form and basic strength. I highly recommend incorporating previous PEs and iMs into your daily warm up. It can be as easy as doing a single set, however, it is also a good idea to go back and practice mastery volume. It is a good idea to focus on progressions that were more difficult for you. Working on your weaknesses will help you to continually improve.

Consistently refining basics will help you to maintain steady progress.

Hi Jeffrey,

Thanks for your reply!

By rotating the elements, do you mean to do some each week?  Let's say I take old elements of upperbody on week 1, core on week 2, lower body on week 3 and hanstand on week 4.  On each week I work every elements of the chosen pack, is it a good structure or is it too much?  

Is it the same for movement?

I want to find a way to work them all without overtraining with the current progressions.

Thanks for asking this. I'd been meaning to practice that stiff-legged windmill more but haven't worked it in yet. I keep forgetting. I'm going to make a list of stuff to rotate through!

Hey Etienne,

This is where it's best to personalize. Put more emphasis in the exercises that gave you the most trouble when working towards mastery. Some exposure to all of your previously mastered progressions is important, but the really important ones can vary from individual to individual. Haha, we all know those really difficult ones for us, where we still felt like we scraped by on mastery, even after many months of struggling. 

Jefferson Curls, Pseudo Planche Push-ups, Planche Lean, and the Hollow Body Hold are pretty universal, however. Expose yourself to these often, even after mastery. They are the 3 from Foundation One that I feel deserve a special mention and extra attention. Other coaches might have some to add to this list.

I'm not that far through the program, but in addition to @Everett Carroll's suggestions, for mobility at least, I'd suggest windmills as @Jennifer Marie noted, and also table tops, air squats, and planks.

Windmills open you up from your shoulders to your hamstrings.

For desk workers like me, table tops are the exact opposite of sitting!

A good plank position looks just like excellent standing posture.

And air squats exercise the hips and knees in a large, functional ROM, lubing and mobilizing them.

I rotate through these and Jefferson curls in addition to the banded stretching and myofascial work I do.

This really helps, thanks to everyone! Following these ideas, I also had some answers from Everett in another topic, hope it could help  -

@Everett Carroll, there's still something that keeps bothering me.  I understand that coming back to mastered progressions is very personalized, but, as I stated before, I don't want to over train them either. 

I train every day of the week, so I don't see how I can incorporate mastered elements other than in warm-up, and, like you said, it can't be too intense.  But if I really want to work on them, where should I put them and at which frequency?  

I'm sorry if I make you repeat something you already said, but I want to understand and do it the right way.

No worries, @Étienne Lajeunesse What is your current weekly schedule? I can provide a basic explanation based off of that. 

1 hour ago, Everett Carroll said:

No worries, @Étienne Lajeunesse What is your current weekly schedule? I can provide a basic explanation based off of that. 

Yeah, my schedule :

Mon : T1 + H1/2

Tues : F7

Wed : TB

Thurs : F7

Fri : T1 + H1/2

Sat : MS

Sun : FS

On your F7 days, pick a single PE and iM for each of the 7 categories to use for warm up.

For HS, pick 1-3 previously mastered progressions for warm-up. Again, this should be PEs and iMs. 

For T1, I like to use the diagnostic section followed by a few previously mastered progressions. 

If you have the extra energy after your training, go ahead and cool down with the same progressions you used for warm up OR different ones after the workout. This will provide all the exposure to previous progressions you will need to be successful. Don't overthink it past that. 

Does this help?

On 28/07/2017 at 6:28 PM, Everett Carroll said:

On your F7 days, pick a single PE and iM for each of the 7 categories to use for warm up.

For HS, pick 1-3 previously mastered progressions for warm-up. Again, this should be PEs and iMs. 

For T1, I like to use the diagnostic section followed by a few previously mastered progressions. 

If you have the extra energy after your training, go ahead and cool down with the same progressions you used for warm up OR different ones after the workout. This will provide all the exposure to previous progressions you will need to be successful. Don't overthink it past that. 

Does this help?

Hi Everett, thanks for this explanation, it helps a lot yes!

For cooldown, I usually take some of the stretch series exercises and even add PNF to them.

I was wondering, is it possible that we don't need to come back to some elements?  As they don't give me any challenge at all anymore?

I'll play with your suggestions a bit and will posts some follow ups again.

2 hours ago, Étienne Lajeunesse said:

I was wondering, is it possible that we don't need to come back to some elements?  As they don't give me any challenge at all anymore?

I like to check in on each progression from time to time, typically making sure I can do 1x200% mastery. For example, 1x30r  HBP/PE2. It's always worth coming back to previously mastered movements, especially the mobility drills, at least lightly. 

1 hour ago, Everett Carroll said:

I like to check in on each progression from time to time, typically making sure I can do 1x200% mastery. For example, 1x30r  HBP/PE2. It's always worth coming back to previously mastered movements, especially the mobility drills, at least lightly. 

By time to time, do you have a specific periods or is it more as we feel like?

You can simply rotate through all of your previously mastered progressions over multiple training days. For simplicity, let's assume you are on PE7 for all 7 elements. 

Since you train F7 on Tuesday and Thursday, you could perform PE1 exercises on Tuesday, PE2 on Thursday, PE3 the next Tuesday, PE4 after that. After three weeks, you'll have used all 6 progressions for warm-up. On the fourth week, return to PE1 and continue the rotation. Does that make sense?

Again, this is just one way to do it but it has worked for me in the past.

4 hours ago, Everett Carroll said:

You can simply rotate through all of your previously mastered progressions over multiple training days. For simplicity, let's assume you are on PE7 for all 7 elements. 

Since you train F7 on Tuesday and Thursday, you could perform PE1 exercises on Tuesday, PE2 on Thursday, PE3 the next Tuesday, PE4 after that. After three weeks, you'll have used all 6 progressions for warm-up. On the fourth week, return to PE1 and continue the rotation. Does that make sense?

Again, this is just one way to do it but it has worked for me in the past.

 

I like that! This way, nothing is put aside. Thanks for the idea

Hey @Everett Carroll,

So whichever the training, here's what I could do in a day.  Until now (since about a month) everything went well.  I just want to check if you have any suggestions to give.

Morning

- An hour of light limbering

Afternoon - Main training (1h30 to 2h) 

- Warm-up : Light cardio (5min) + light general limbering (fundamental daily limbering for F7 days, quadrupedal for T1 days and wrist stretches for handstand days) + 1 previous progression (PE + iM) / main training element (keeping the initial reps or time for each exercise)

- Main training

(For Handstand/Movement day, I do H first and M afterward.)

(For stretch days, I do light limbering first followed by the stretch series)

- Cooldown : Hardest integrated mobility or stretch series exercises (around 45 sec each) often doing them in distraction/compression with bands, followed by self-massage.

*I switch between previous elements for warm-up like you suggested earlier.  I just didn't try the 21/15/9 yet.

*How would you integrate the 200% for a progression in warm-up?

* I stopped doing PNF in cooldown too.

So, what do you think?

On 8/18/2017 at 6:07 PM, Étienne Lajeunesse said:

So, what do you think?

Excellent. You're going to be a beast!

Thanks! Been wondering about this. Is there anywhere we can find the previous progressions without having to go back and change it in the workout settings? Like a doc/pdf or something? 

Im only up to progressions 3/4 on foundation 1 but I’ve already forgotten some of the previous ones...well not the killer exercises 

thanks 

Hey Chris,

1. Click "Fitness" in the top menu bar. 

2. Click "Course Library"

3. Click "Foundations" 

4. You'll then see the 7 exercise categories. Click on the one you wish to view and study away!

Sweet, thanks

Hi @Everett Carroll,

Coming back to this thread, I have two questions for you.

1. For the protocol about doing mastered elements in the warm-up, how far do you come back when you reach a certain advanced level.  By that I mean if you're at F3 in every elements, do you still start your warm-up rotation cycle at PE1? 

*BTW, how do you keep track of your cycles?

2. How do you split your daily limbering, warm-up and cooldown?  I know that we already talked a bit about that but I'm not sure if I should do the same exercises in all 3 of them if I do them every day?  What are your thoughts about that?

Thanks for your help!

Hi @Étienne Lajeunesse. My point here is that the more advance you become the more you wil know for yourself what you should keep working, when and for how long. It s hard to give a precise answer for this, because it changes from person to person and you can t keep ansolutely every progression. But in my opinion when you advance on different progression you start realizing there are some who are more important than others, but this vary also on your level, progress and weaknesses. My recommendation is to don t over think it and keep trying different approaches so you will learn on your own what to do.

13 hours ago, Étienne Lajeunesse said:

Hi @Everett Carroll,

Coming back to this thread, I have two questions for you.

1. For the protocol about doing mastered elements in the warm-up, how far do you come back when you reach a certain advanced level.  By that I mean if you're at F3 in every elements, do you still start your warm-up rotation cycle at PE1?

2. How do you split your daily limbering, warm-up and cooldown?  I know that we already talked a bit about that but I'm not sure if I should do the same exercises in all 3 of them if I do them every day?  What are your thoughts about that?

Thanks for your help!

 

Usually you can use the last element mastered in you are in F1.

There is an exception. if you work through foundations you can see that certain progression is divided into modules, we have the pushup variations, then dip variation then handstandpush up progression etc.

if you are working on handstand push up then I warm up with the last pushup variation and the last dip variation. You are not forced to stay with the same, you can cycle them, the idea it is warm up with the mastered modules.

17 minutes ago, Alessandro Mainente said:

Usually you can use the last element mastered in you are in F1.

There is an exception. if you work through foundations you can see that certain progression is divided into modules, we have the pushup variations, then dip variation then handstandpush up progression etc.

if you are working on handstand push up then I warm up with the last pushup variation and the last dip variation. You are not forced to stay with the same, you can cycle them, the idea it is warm up with the mastered modules.

Thanks Alessandro,

I know that I'm in F1 for the most of it and not there yet, I'm just curious.  My point for the warm-up is as we get more advanced, does coming back to the 1st progressions really needed or really make the difference?  Some are really easy and at one point, there will be too many to do them all if we do 1 in each training, will it not?