FT Questions....

[Grindovermatter]

Hello everyone,

Just purchased the E book last week, and ive been carefully contemplating if i should run the program or not,

my question for Scott is this,

one of your major inspirations for this program was OTS' Big beyond belief which had a 6 day option. (some of my most productive muscle bulding happened with that program on the 6 day split). Im curious why you didn't make FT training have a 5 or 6 day a week option? im sure you must of considered it at some point in the designing of the system. Im wondering what specifically got you decide the program would be a strict 4 day a week program?

Perhaps more questions to follow! have a great day

[Cerberus777]

Thanks for the input, man. If you went just like 2 - 3 weeks that might be a bit short, but if you just mean by "cut it short" that you went 5 weeks - no problem. The idea is to be instinctive in that sense (auto regulate). Sounds like you did it perfectly.



-S

Ah, cool thanks

[Cerberus777]

For myself, just getting into my 2nd blast I am noticing that my pump sets are getting more taxing. I'm getting a lot better at doing them, focusing on the muscles, and the muscles themselves are getting better at sustaining tension. It's allowing for either "heavier" pump sets or long ones. Either way the intensity is up!

If done right, these make me the most sore.

[Scott Stevenson]

Hello everyone,

Just purchased the E book last week, and ive been carefully contemplating if i should run the program or not,

my question for Scott is this,

one of your major inspirations for this program was OTS' Big beyond belief which had a 6 day option. (some of my most productive muscle bulding happened with that program on the 6 day split). Im curious why you didn't make FT training have a 5 or 6 day a week option? im sure you must of considered it at some point in the designing of the system. Im wondering what specifically got you decide the program would be a strict 4 day a week program?

Perhaps more questions to follow! have a great day

Main thought with having so many options is ensuring the readership is not confused. I've gotten comments back ranging from (paraphrasing) "the program is beautifully laid out and very easy to follow" to one person who was on here for a bit that was so aggravated and unable to navigated the book that he told me to go copulate with myself (and I was being nice!). LOL

Other reasons:
-Many people can't get to the gym that often. I wasn't trying to target the main stream fitness market here, but this is true of a lot of guys who are very serious.

-To wit, for many of those who are very developed / advanced, training all out 5-6 days in a row is not feasible. I wanted to keep the program simple in that volume and blast length were the main features that were auto regulated (as well as exercise selection), but not the intensity / effort level. Having "light days" can certainly be done and it's a feasible way to train more often. (E.g., John Meadow's builds that into his programs, but those are spelled out for each and every workout. FT is a system, to the individual would have to figure this out. This is a limitation of creating a program like FT that doesn't spell out each and every workout.)

-I personally prefer to train all out and moderate volume and exercise selection, etc. and it's worked well with the clients I've trained, including those who train DC (which was really MUUUUUUUUUCH more of an influence than the BBB system, which I never did, nor read). I only actually did Titan Training, which, as I outline in the book, lead to overtraining.

-FT can actually be done as a 5-6 day / week split, simply by creating 4 workouts from the Day 1 and 2 but splitting the Loading and Pump sets into separate workouts. However, given what I know about bodybuilders in general, the tendency would be to make those Pump sets moreso in to widow maker type sets (not performing the reps continuously - focusing too much on progression vs. really targeting the intended muscle) and thus taxing the nervous system. Pump sets are really supposed to be sets that create a metabolic stress with minimal neurological impact. (I messed around with this for a few weeks actually.) What I suspect would happen is that those Pump set days would be worse for recovery because folks would be doing them more like WM's, as well as because this would tend to make people want to gravitate to higher Volume Tiers.

So those are the main reasons, as well as how to schedule an Intensive Cruise, what to do during times when someone is out of town, training at different gyms, etc. that work really well (I think) with the current 4 day plan.

this is not to say that a 5- 6 day plan can't work for folks and I can create those for clients who need them - that's a breeze. Just for this incarnation of FT, the 4d / week version seemed like a good baseline starting structure.

[Grindovermatter]

Main thought with having so many options is ensuring the readership is not confused. I've gotten comments back ranging from (paraphrasing) "the program is beautifully laid out and very easy to follow" to one person who was on here for a bit that was so aggravated and unable to navigated the book that he told me to go copulate with myself (and I was being nice!). LOL

Other reasons:
-Many people can't get to the gym that often. I wasn't trying to target the main stream fitness market here, but this is true of a lot of guys who are very serious.

-To wit, for many of those who are very developed / advanced, training all out 5-6 days in a row is not feasible. I wanted to keep the program simple in that volume and blast length were the main features that were auto regulated (as well as exercise selection), but not the intensity / effort level. Having "light days" can certainly be done and it's a feasible way to train more often. (E.g., John Meadow's builds that into his programs, but those are spelled out for each and every workout. FT is a system, to the individual would have to figure this out. This is a limitation of creating a program like FT that doesn't spell out each and every workout.)

-I personally prefer to train all out and moderate volume and exercise selection, etc. and it's worked well with the clients I've trained, including those who train DC (which was really MUUUUUUUUUCH more of an influence than the BBB system, which I never did, nor read). I only actually did Titan Training, which, as I outline in the book, lead to overtraining.

-FT can actually be done as a 5-6 day / week split, simply by creating 4 workouts from the Day 1 and 2 but splitting the Loading and Pump sets into separate workouts. However, given what I know about bodybuilders in general, the tendency would be to make those Pump sets moreso in to widow maker type sets (not performing the reps continuously - focusing too much on progression vs. really targeting the intended muscle) and thus taxing the nervous system. Pump sets are really supposed to be sets that create a metabolic stress with minimal neurological impact. (I messed around with this for a few weeks actually.) What I suspect would happen is that those Pump set days would be worse for recovery because folks would be doing them more like WM's, as well as because this would tend to make people want to gravitate to higher Volume Tiers.

So those are the main reasons, as well as how to schedule an Intensive Cruise, what to do during times when someone is out of town, training at different gyms, etc. that work really well (I think) with the current 4 day plan.

this is not to say that a 5- 6 day plan can't work for folks and I can create those for clients who need them - that's a breeze. Just for this incarnation of FT, the 4d / week version seemed like a good baseline starting structure.

wow great response,


I'm think as I start my new career (paramedic) I may not be able to train 6 times a week anymore ,which May make ft training might be a great solution to allow me to advance in bodybuilding(really motivated to earn a natural pro card) while advancing in my career as well. We shall see!

[Scott Stevenson]

wow great response,


I'm think as I start my new career (paramedic) I may not be able to train 6 times a week anymore ,which May make ft training might be a great solution to allow me to advance in bodybuilding(really motivated to earn a natural pro card) while advancing in my career as well. We shall see!

Would LOVE to see how that comes along for you.

One advantage with FT that comes with the high frequency is that, because you're training the whole body so regularly, with long shifts like a firefighter might have, you can get in a workout on an ~EOD basis and if you miss a workout, you still end up training a muscle group 2x / week in most cases.

-S

[Grindovermatter]

Would LOVE to see how that comes along for you.

One advantage with FT that comes with the high frequency is that, because you're training the whole body so regularly, with long shifts like a firefighter might have, you can get in a workout on an ~EOD basis and if you miss a workout, you still end up training a muscle group 2x / week in most cases.

-S

I promise that if I decide to implement FT that I will keep a log on here,
The ambulance service I gothired with runs 12 hour shifts. As a casual employee I have the whole province to cover so 12 hr shifts turn into 14 to 16 hours shifts after driving from home to which ever location I'm assigned to that day. So yeah training 4 days a week just sounds more realistic.


The upside of the whole paramedic thing though is that if youre on a night shift and it'd not busy you can catch some sleep : )

[Scott Stevenson]

I promise that if I decide to implement FT that I will keep a log on here,
The ambulance service I gothired with runs 12 hour shifts. As a casual employee I have the whole province to cover so 12 hr shifts turn into 14 to 16 hours shifts after driving from home to which ever location I'm assigned to that day. So yeah training 4 days a week just sounds more realistic.


The upside of the whole paramedic thing though is that if youre on a night shift and it'd not busy you can catch some sleep : )

No need to make a promise, but that would be great. The few logs that are running right now seem to go well and I check in now n again. IF anyone needs help with something, especially if he / she is running a log, I'm more than willing to help.

-S

[Altamir]

Hey Scott,

More of a curious "nuts and bolts" question for the FT program, not an actual "help me out" question. I'm REALLY digging Turbo, far more than basic. I'm seeing great results from the very little extra work my biceps get on days #4 (plus the extra back sets). Can you share the reason why triceps weren't included on day #3 (for a total of hitting them directly twice a week), while biceps were added on day #4 (for a total of hitting them directly three times a week)?

Also dug your article on EliteFTS today. Looking forward to the rest of the series!

[Scott Stevenson]

Hey Scott,

More of a curious "nuts and bolts" question for the FT program, not an actual "help me out" question. I'm REALLY digging Turbo, far more than basic. I'm seeing great results from the very little extra work my biceps get on days #4 (plus the extra back sets). Can you share the reason why triceps weren't included on day #3 (for a total of hitting them directly twice a week), while biceps were added on day #4 (for a total of hitting them directly three times a week)?

Also dug your article on EliteFTS today. Looking forward to the rest of the series!

Hey Bud,

That's really your call. Day #4 was Triceps and/or Biceps, which was about adding the option to have Biceps in there a 4th time. IMO, most folks would be just fine with just doing triceps on Day #4, but b/c biceps can be a favorite I put that in there as an option.

The other main reason is overtraining triceps / getting triceps tendinitis can interfere with both chest and delta and seems to (just my general impression) more of an issue over for BB'er. You'll see lots of guys can still train the biceps (Arnold S, Charles P. are two guys who keep them up as "show muscles" it seems), but if you overdo triceps, this can bring training to a screeching halt.

Glad you liked the article! (Glad it's finally out!)

-S