Foundation 2: guided plan workout schedule

Hey guys,

I really enjoy the program and have a quick question regarding the standard workout split of foundation 2 in the guided plan section. Right now the setup for every week looks like:

Tuesday:   WarmUp + Foundation Core + Foundation Lower Body --> A

Thursday: WarmUp + Foundation Upper Body                                   --> B

Friday:       WarmUp + Foundation Core + Foundation Lower Body --> A

with the corresponding progression in sets and reps for each exercise.

So this is some kind of A,B,A pattern which remains identical week after week. My question refers to the reason for this: is this about muscular balancing or recovery issues of certain muscle groups? Basically with a pattern like 

week 1: A, B, A

week 2: B, A, B

you could have 3 workouts of each kind within a 2 week time frame. I'm sure there is a proper reason for this setup in the guided plan section and would like to understand the idea behind it  

13 hours ago, Ben Hansen said:

Hey guys,

I really enjoy the program and have a quick question regarding the standard workout split of foundation 2 in the guided plan section. Right now the setup for every week looks like:

Tuesday:   WarmUp + Foundation Core + Foundation Lower Body --> A

Thursday: WarmUp + Foundation Upper Body                                   --> B

Friday:       WarmUp + Foundation Core + Foundation Lower Body --> A

with the corresponding progression in sets and reps for each exercise.

So this is some kind of A,B,A pattern which remains identical week after week. My question refers to the reason for this: is this about muscular balancing or recovery issues of certain muscle groups? Basically with a pattern like 

week 1: A, B, A

week 2: B, A, B

you could have 3 workouts of each kind within a 2 week time frame. I'm sure there is a proper reason for this setup in the guided plan section and would like to understand the idea behind it  

HI Ben, this is one of the most common structures for intermediate athletes for a certain movement, in this way you have a longer micro-cycle that leads to better recovery.

11 hours ago, Alessandro Mainente said:

HI Ben, this is one of the most common structures for intermediate athletes for a certain movement, in this way you have a longer micro-cycle that leads to better recovery.

Hi Alessandro, 

thank you very much for the quick response. I’m not that familiar with the programming slang so I would kindly ask you to clarify the statement above. 
 

To make sure that I fully understand your statement: the strictly repeated A,B,A pattern (like in the guided plan section) is better for recovery of intermediate athletes? So the foundation upper body workout is more challenging for the nervous system / muscles and therefore just trained once per week? Or is it easier and therefore used as some kind of active recovery between the more challenging Core/Leg days? 
 

Furthermore, is there any material included in the subscription regarding programming basics like micro-cycles? Obviously I could/should dig a little bit deeper into that topic. 

12 hours ago, Ben Hansen said:

Hi Alessandro, 

thank you very much for the quick response. I’m not that familiar with the programming slang so I would kindly ask you to clarify the statement above. 
 

To make sure that I fully understand your statement: the strictly repeated A,B,A pattern (like in the guided plan section) is better for recovery of intermediate athletes? So the foundation upper body workout is more challenging for the nervous system / muscles and therefore just trained once per week? Or is it easier and therefore used as some kind of active recovery between the more challenging Core/Leg days? 
 

Furthermore, is there any material included in the subscription regarding programming basics like micro-cycles? Obviously I could/should dig a little bit deeper into that topic. 

Hey Ben, the idea is having one element trained twice in 10 days, this is functional for a 3 days week schedule... BUT if you can train 4 days.. ABAB is again the best option. the more challenging the exercise the more volume you need to disrupt the homeostasis BUT you cannot make a session infinite longer...and the best way is split into more sessions.

On 1/21/2022 at 9:43 AM, Alessandro Mainente said:

Hey Ben, the idea is having one element trained twice in 10 days, this is functional for a 3 days week schedule... BUT if you can train 4 days.. ABAB is again the best option. the more challenging the exercise the more volume you need to disrupt the homeostasis BUT you cannot make a session infinite longer...and the best way is split into more sessions.

Hi Alessandro, 

now you lost me. In a 3 training days per week schedule (default foundation 2 guided plan) I would end up training

2x Foundation Core + Foundation Lower Body (Tuesday + Friday)

1x Foundation Upper Body (Thursday)

So going with the default setup I train core + lower body twice every 7 days and the upper body only twice in 14 days.

Would you suggest to switch to a A,B,A and B,A,B alternating routine instead? If this is the case, why is this schedule not used as default setup for the guided plan section?   

On 1/20/2022 at 9:32 PM, Ben Hansen said:

Hi Alessandro, 

thank you very much for the quick response. I’m not that familiar with the programming slang so I would kindly ask you to clarify the statement above. 
 

To make sure that I fully understand your statement: the strictly repeated A,B,A pattern (like in the guided plan section) is better for recovery of intermediate athletes? So the foundation upper body workout is more challenging for the nervous system / muscles and therefore just trained once per week? Or is it easier and therefore used as some kind of active recovery between the more challenging Core/Leg days? 
 

Furthermore, is there any material included in the subscription regarding programming basics like micro-cycles? Obviously I could/should dig a little bit deeper into that topic. 

Hey Ben, for now, go with ABA, BAB. if if you are reaching a plateau i suggest moving on ABABA.