How long is your training blast?

[righty]

Something that has profoundly made itself known to me now that I have adopted Fortitude Training is just how powerful the cruise aspect of training is.

I am in my fourth cruise now and, once again, have experienced a grand hike in scales weight (while paying attention to calorie intake, mostly through a pro/fat approach).

In each of the previous three cruises, I have added 1-1.5kg over the ~ 2 weeks of semi-downtime.

Which got me to thinking - how much are people who insist on prolonging the blast aspect losing out by?

Seems to me, giving it pretty much all I've got, that five or six weeks of blasting really is ALL I can manage before I NEED a cruise.

It's working out at roughly 6 weeks in crazy training mode and 2 weeks in fluffy-warm semi-time-out land (just like the book suggested as an upper bound, I think).

So, has anyone else got a tempo they're finding effective?

[Darkhorse0311]

Different strokes for different folks (some longer others shorter which I imagine varies depending on a lot of individual variables). I'm with you in that I prefer to destroy myself taking bigger chances in weight which shortens my blast. Back when I was DC training with SuperD, I've gone as long as 13 weeks with 1-2 "mini cruises" aka dropping the Friday workout which gave me a good four day break. That's one of the variables I elluded to. While this last blast I could've gone longer than the five weeks (running a three day which provides four days of full rest - Another variable) I definitely came back A LOT stronger and thus able to take big chances in progression than IMHO I would've been able to do had I barreled through a longer blast.

In the end, it sounds as though you found your golden ticket which most people never find.

[Altamir]

You bring up a good point righty! I can't believe all I missed out on by not periodization (by adding cruises) my approach to gaining muscle sooner. I was just volume, volume, volume over and over. I'd eventually run into a wall, hammer away at it for awhile, and after making no progress, switching the lift, or lowering or raising the volume, or hopping to a different program structure. When all I needed to do was just cruise! I've been able to string together some of the most productive training ever using FT and blasting and cruising. If I ever went back to training a more traditional BB split with higher volume / less frequency, I'd still including cruises and certainly ramping up (or down as needed) volume.

For me personally I'm finding 5 to 6 weeks of blasting seem to be a good spot for me (unless something goes wrong or off). I find I'm usually a little slow getting off the starting block, so I don't really feel like I'm hitting my stride until weeks 2 and 3. So if I only did 4 weeks, it would just feel like I was stopping just as I was getting into the groove. As far as cruising. I've found I need a bit more rest up front, and no so much towards the end (unless joints are feeling beat up). I tend to get very stiff throughout my body if I'm inactive for so long, and almost always at the start of a cruise my CNS feels very run down (no pop or drive at the gym).