Fortitude Training of a Family Man

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Part 1

This is an FT testimonial in context.

This will be in parts because like I said in the title...I'm a family man. And I need to explain why this program is so relevant to me at this time. That is why I've found this program very interesting and conveniently applicable for myself at 38 years of age.

First a summary of my bodybuilding evolution. When I first began training I worked out of the Arnold Encyclopedia and Muscle and Fitness Magazine. After four years of this (8th to 12th grade) an issue of M&F featured an article by Bill Starr and his 5x5 training. The points intrigued me enough to give it a whirl and amazing results in strength and size occurred. Thus began my paradigm shift. I began to question everything I'd been fed from Joe Weider and the stars of bodybuilding, and this led me to somewhat of a bodybuilding outcast, Mike Mentzer. Mike trained me over the phone for two years. I trained Heavy Duty style through my undefeated state champion wrestling season and an immediate Mr. Natural Louisiana thereafter--We decided since I was already dieted down to 160 lbs we mine as well. I decided to leave Mike's guidance my freshman year in college when my rest days were to such extremes that no matter how much scientific, or philosophical rather, reasons Mike gave to continue adding more rest days, I could see and feel we had reached a standstill. Around this time Dorian's Blood and Guts DVD came out. It was Heavy Duty but with a whopping two sets instead of one! This was refreshing and progress ensued once again. As was my custom, I swore off volume and all other training in the constant quest for bodybuilding certainty and the perfect program, for a time. Then my JR year at Auburn University, I met Bill Kazmaier. He was back to training in his legendary Kaz Gym to get in shape for his MetRx commercials. We began hitting some workouts together here and there. Once again, this changed everything...

College pic attached (I hope):

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Part 2

...volume, drop sets, all kinds of sets and reps during long workouts. Kaz, and another workout partner of mine who was getting his phd in chemical engineering, were two of the biggest humans I'd ever met. Needless to say I went along with their methods. I also lost my "natural" virginity if you will and grew a significant amount of muscle. This even caught the attention of a local pro wrestling outfit in Columbus GA. I wrestled on local tv and thought I was pretty cool. (I'll attache another image here. I'm sure there is a way to insert one thought my writing which would be cool but I have no idea how). I loved training with these guys. It was like going back to my Muscle and Fitness magazine days when I first started lifting weights.

During this phase I began to see value in all kinds of different training methods as they related to growth. I would train with these guys during school and then go home and train with world champion power lifter Jesse Kellum for 2-3 months during the Summer. This was a good cycle of variety.

Then one day a pretty bad accident happened in pro wrestling that I don't want to write about. I quit. I got off gear too. Suddenly, I couldn't keep up with my workout partners and had a new bodybuilding/training dilemma.

I did what I always did and found someone who'd achieved something like I wanted. This time I searched out what was considered the best natural bodybuilder on the planet. I called Skip Lacour for our first phone consult my senior year of college. Back then you could pay $9.99 per month and follow Skip's workouts diet plan and prep on a membership site. Funny enough I was back to a variety of Heavy Duty called Max OT. I was able to make progress once again and so I converted back to heavy low volume and swore off all I had learned from Kaz and my other partner-as only working for the unnatural. I exchanged getting a great pump for getting an extra rep and writing it down in my daily planner. I was also Skip Lacour disciple. After all he got me out of the doldrums and that bred a certain kind of loyalty that I still have for him today. But I got stale on Max OT too. I'd had too many tastes of different training varieties to follow such a rigid protocol, and I'm a guy who loves to train.

It was sometime after I graduated that I discovered the most odd name for a training philosophy... DoggCrapp. (to be continued geez, explaining why I like FT is taking longer than expected)

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Part 3...



I enjoyed DoggCrapp for years. It's probably still my favorite heavy duty approach of them all. It incorporated a log book mentality, high reps, and a higher frequency than most of the old models of HIT. I trained DC unmodified up until my mid-thirties.

Up to now, I've been blasting DC 25-35 reps with "Mountain Dog" routines in between blasts. I've found John's routines to be almost therapeutic for my joints and great for a few months of log book punishment.

I've read Scott's posts for years on Intense Muscle under "Homonunculus" and I was excited to discover that he'd written a book. Months later, here is my review and testimonial of his work.

(Before I began FT I decided to get skinny (pic attached). I basically quit drinking wine every night and eating ice cream.)

What I like about FT and how it has effected me:

1. FT is a customizable platform--From people's schedules, stomachs for intensity, exercise preference, set types, and overall goals, this is truly one of the most well designed templates I've ever worked with in terms of adjustability. Scott gives great samples from the Family Man Plan to intensity levels of Tier 3 training.

2. FT allows for safe and trackable progress--One of the things I've become addicted to is the log book mentality of beating my last workout on certain exercises. It's tangible progress that I immediately miss when I move to volume routines that change constantly and don't allow training to failure.

3. FT allows for great pumps!--Does this need explanation? This feeling is the drug that got me into bodybuilding. The pump sets and creative set types like 5's in the hole are simply awesome.

4. FT allows for bodybuilding "fun"--The non-load days allow for the instinctive type of training where one can go into the gym and work on weak points with their favorite exercises. I look forward to these days the most.

5. There is real science behind FT--One of the things Mike Mentzer drilled into my head was to have a reason behind everything I do in the gym. If you want to know the science behind Scott's recommended strategies, he goes into plenty enough detail (backed with real studies) for the layman his book.

6. FT has an adequate amount of variety--(very personal opinion here) Everything works but nothing works for long. With FT and it's malleability you really don't have to worry so much about such dramatic cycles of periodization. There is a touch of DUP in the schedule here that I've found has disallowed me to become stale or plateau.

7. FT has a great guy behind it who is genuine about helping fools like me.

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[Scott Stevenson]

THIS IS AWESOME, man. THANK YOU!!!

Love the 2nd pic! (You have an armed guard!)

-S

[phoebeusfenix]

Very thorough posts sir! You hit all the high points I love about ft as well - looking forward to following along.


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[kostasosfp]

Where I can find this variation? FT training for a family man?because I haven't found it anywhere either here nor in the book

[Scott Stevenson]

Where I can find this variation? FT training for a family man?because I haven't found it anywhere either here nor in the book

Use the "Find" function in Adobe acrobat when reading the book .pdf and search for "Family Man".

The option is outlined in Frequently asked questions section (Ch. 5) of the book.

-S

[d2r2ddd]

this thread is so inspiring!
With a young family with 2 kids, i find myself spending too much time in the gym.
Time to rekindle with FT program!