FT Questions....

[Scott Stevenson]

Hey Josh,

Sorry to hear some of these issues have gone on so long. Good news is I think a lot of this is easily remedied.

Ok so I posted this up on my training log but given I've been gone for a while I'm also putting it up here hoping it gets more eyes on it so I can get more answers from all the experienced members out there

Ok so I've been absent for a while - work, kid on the way, changing jobs, travel, etc. have been hectic. So long story short

After my last burn out I've successfully had 2 blasts and 2 cruises - all at Tier 1 - small gym lots of members difficult to zig zag or hog lots of pieces of equipment

But what's more important are the questions that these two blasts have given rise to.... I welcome any and all feedback / comments / thoughts / and personal experiences as I'm looking to make the most out of my next blast starting either at the end of this week or next weekend

1. During the blasts I realized, especially with upper body pushing movements as I tried to keep progressing my rep range kept falling down from 8 ish to 6 ish to 4 ish

2. At that low a range I personally found that the very first rep felt like a grinder, so by the time I hit failure at 4 1/2 reps or 5 reps or whatever - it wasn't really the muscle that was failing - it was the damn weight that wouldn't move - I know this sounds weird but honestly that's what the experience felt like

This could come from a few things:

• Lack of sufficient warm-up. Your CNS is not ready for the heavy set and it simply feels like a ton of brick.

• You're not gaining weight in general, which will translate into strength. (If you're dieting, this may be very normal)

• Poor ability to focus your form on the trained muscle and perhaps a bit of a ballistic training style. Rep speed and momentary strength during a set drops off more quickly when training this way vs. slower controlled movement.

• Setting up your exercises properly, e.g, so the the muscle you want to train is activated first as you start movement, or at least it's the muscle that driving then movement. When training back width for instance, I'd want to be able to see and you be able feel that your'e initiating the movement with he lats (plus several other cues there.)

• You're not rotating your exercises out as you should.

3. Muscle Rounds for back - I've personally found these to be a real challenge - not so much for arms, legs, chest, or shoulders, but back is a killer. I don't have a lot of machines in my gym so MRs are typically loading movements with a lighter load I.E. ~ 15 - 18 rep max that gets built on. So using barbell rows, or t bar rows, or scott bar rows or smith deads, or partial deads, or full range deads just didn't make sense I lost more energy just getting the damn weight into position as the cluster sets progressed and I would quickly see a breakdown in form, e.g. I was using ~120 kgs on v bar t bar rows and hit failure on my 5th cluster set I.E. ~20 reps. However, I personally know that 120 kgs is a weight I can rep out for 20 to 25 in a straight set - similar experiences for other back movements.

4. This gave rise to me experimenting in my last cruise to overcome the issue described above, instead of muscle rounds doing straight sets in the 15 to 18 rep range. Believe it or not it was some of the best progression I've seen - in about 3 weeks of cruising I ended up using 90% to 95% of my 4 to 6 rep max for straight sets of 16, 18, and sometimes even 20 reps - and because they didn't start getting into grinder reps till about rep 12 or 13 my elbows, shoulders, knees, wrists etc have never felt better

Your'e free to do as you like of course, but what is missing with the MR's is simply appropriate set up for them.

Use daisy chains for T-bar rows, seated rows, etc. so you can have the bar / handle in the right position to start the movement. (The bar / handle is right where you need it to start your first rep of set in the MR.)

Use a power rack to do BO rows, starting each rep with the bar on the safety bars (no stepping back and forth).

As I mentioned before, I'm not a fan of folks using full deads or rack deads (the latter being a more OK for some) b/c of the risks of form breakdown fatigue and a low back injury.

5. Now this has me at a conundrum - I'm 31, not old but not a 24 year old young buck who can throw around 4 rep maxes week in and out without consequence, I have suffered from severe spondiolysis (sp?) I have dislocated my right shoulder in the past, and I have other wear and tear across my body. So the higher reps seem to be, at least, conducive to better joint health as well as conducive to good progression

Are these injuries when doing FT (guessing not) or in the past? How are they now.

Are you making the most out of the stretches?...

6. So now I'm left with these experiences and more questions - this is where I'm calling on every FT trainee out there - even Dr Stevenson - if you have the time or inclination to read this long post and reply

Q1. What are your views on keeping my loading sets in the 15 to 18 rep range and really grinding it out week after week in that range? I know this will over time, drop to 12 to 15, then 10 to 12, then 8 to 10 but I have the sense if I'm working with 90% of my 5RM for 15 - by the time I work my way down to 8 to 10 reps my 5RM itself would have improved significantly

You can create progress with progressive overload in any rep range. You simply miss out on the possibly synergy of doing so across he loading spectrum (Loading sets > MR > Pump sets).

I think if you say in the 9-12 range (still within the range set ou tin the book) and not go to below 8 reps, you might fare better.

Q2. MRs are supposed to be 15 to 18 RM kind of weight, if my loading sets are in that range what do I do about MRs? As I understand it FT uses a variety of rep ranges - which indirectly translate to a variety of Loads and TUTs to provide a multiplicity of stimuli to the system - so how do I figure out my MR work loads?

I think if you correct the Loading sets, you can do he MR's as they have been outlined. Still, you'd have variety in doing straight sets vs cluster sets, even if he loads were similar.

I think that figuring this out however, so you can train heavy (relative term) is in your favor in general.

(A thought here is that you can translate the pump set mentality - laser-like focus on a particular muscle group or groups into your loading sets. The main thing different here is load.)

Q3. Given my shortcoming with MRs for back thickness and even width movements - is it ok for me to straight set them? Surely, anyone reading this can understand the absurdity of using a heavier weight for more reps in a straight set than an MR

See above.

Q4. Does anyone else have similar experiences or am I just uniquely strange in all of this?

We're all snowflakes, my friend.

Thanks a lot, and its good to be back and posting

- Joshua

Hope this helps!

-S