FT Questions....

[Scott Stevenson]

Scott,

Hope you can help me out with a little programming/progress issue I've run into. Not sure if you've seen this before, and I'm hoping you can maybe give me a clue what I might be doing wrong. (I've got my own theories which I'll share at the end).

So for two body parts, first back and now then legs. I've hit a weird (at least in my mind) sort of progression wall, where my loading sets have stalled, or moved forward VERY slowly. Very often I'll tie or pick up a rep on my first working set, and then progress slightly on my 2nd working set, after zig-zagging. However I am still seeing good progress on my Muscle Round sets (for legs this includes both thigh, and hamstring lifts), and saw my pump sets go very very well. So for both I'm obviously going to be swapping loading sets, to see if I can get progression moving forward again.

For back, I've stalled big twice now. Both resulting in changing the tempo I was doing my reps at. First was what I would call a controlled ballistic style, in response to stalling like that,I moved to a slow negative with a hold at the bottom. I saw progress again, but here I am stalled again. I know why I stalled at the ballistic style. I believe the slow negatives made it difficult to progress. I've recently changed it up to just a normal tempo, with a small focus on squeezing at the bottom and getting a good stretch at the top (or bottom depending on the direction of the back movement) and its too soon to tell exactly, but my back has not been this sore in a long time, so I think I may be on the right path. Not hugely concerned here. I bring it up more in the context of it falling into the same pattern of stalling on loading sets but nowhere else in the program.

Legs may be another issue. Never really had to worry about them, as I've always been able to easily make progress with them in one form or another my entire time training, since day one in the gym. I have a feeling in the back of my head that as I have progressed blast to blast, what used to work for me, no longer does and I may be working them a tier too high. I was going back through my log books and trying to look for clues. I go back to older blasts, and when I would hit tier 3, my 3rd zig-zag for my thigh movement I'd put up decent numbers. I only hit tier 3 once a blast, and in my more recent blasts, there is a trend where those 3rd thigh set numbers have slowly gotten worse. There seems to be a pattern of steady decline, even before hitting this current point of stalling. My quad and hamstring loading sets have still been progressing, maybe a rep or 2 per training session. Also been dealing with being somewhat unenthusiastic for lower MR days. I get into the gym, and get after it, don't get me wrong, but it's just not my favorite training day. (I bring this up, only as a possible clue.) During my last big growth push I certainly saw progress in my legs, so I'm not training in completely in vain. Just thinking I'm not firing at 100% here.

Everything else, chest, shoulders, calves, triceps, and biceps have all been progressing very well. I'm interested to hear your thoughts if something here jumps out at you. Thanks again for taking the time to read and respond, and share your knowledge and wisdom.

Hey Bud!!!

Firstly, I can tell you've hardly even given this the slightest bit of thought... (JUST KIDDING!)

The analysis helps a good bit.

The things that jump out at me are:

• Is your weight going up / are you eating enough to grow?... At some point, you'll need to gain body weight (and of course muscle mass) for strength to make progress at a decent rate. (Of course, there are world class PL and Oly lifters who can stay at the same weight class and make gains, but they are the strongest people in the world and just care about strength, in terms of their sport.)

Conversely, one of the best ways to bust through a strength plateau is to eat your way through it, so to speak. This will of course impact your recovery.

• Also I think recall that you like to couple loading days one right after another. This might have an impact on this phenomenon, too.

• Another option, since MR's progress quite well for you, would be to start using your Loading set exercises for MR's. The idea here would be to do MRs with the loading set exercises before those enter into your rotation. For example, if smith squats is a thigh exercise not currently in your Loading set rotation (but one you'd likely be adding soon), you'd make that a staple MR exercise. When the time comes to rotate in a new Loading set (and you could even jump the gun here a bit and drop a loading set exercise before you've absolutely entirely plateaued), you'd use smith squats (after which you'd not use that for MR's).

• You might try really focusing on the micro loading too with your loading sets, if you really like some of the exercise. Use the 2.5lb plates to progress. Just and extra 5lb each time is progression and this can add up slowly, and let you keep those favorite loading set exercises in place if the are great for growth for you.

Still, the first bulleted point is an important one to remember: The training will only elicit so much in terms of gains at a given caloric input. What's needed here is highly a function of the individual, so you may need to push the kcal more than the next guy.

-S