FT Questions....

[Scott Stevenson]

Thanks for the detailed response I appreciate it and unsurprisingly you bring up some valid points. I'll address possible what I think is the main one first.

I have been eating to grow (And growing!). However, what I did not think about, when writing my post above, was during my last big growth push I ate like a fiend. I put on a lot of muscle, a lot of fat, and a lot of extra weight on the bar. At the end of it, I was happy with everything but the spare tire around my waist. So in response, this time around I played it a little more conservatively, saw good muscle growth, not too bad as far as fat went, and a decent amount of extra weight on the bar (outside of the stalling methods I mentioned). Interesting point, I saw ZERO stalling the first go around. I hate to think that in order to progress in the methods I wish I have to deal with the extra fat gain, but I'm also not scared about getting a little chubby to better hit my goals. (I was just hoping there was a better way) Gives me some (no pun intended) good food for thought moving forward, and perhaps there lies a good answer in between the two.

So, you might seek out a happy middle ground, or perhaps start eating lie a fiend and then, when you reach your body fat limit (this is up to you), do a blast where you intentionally diet away fat, dropping down a Tier as needed.

I do do both loading days one after the other, It certainly has an impact. To some degree (how much I'm not certain). As I've gotten appreciably good at brutalizing my back and chest with pump sets (the day before loading sets). However my feeling was, since my chest histrionically does not recover very quickly, and my back seems to, it may not be the issue. As I completely dominated EVERY single chest set over the past three blasts. (Though the more I think about this, I used to do a lot of pressing lifts for chest, which did not work, and also why it may have stalled a lot in the past. I have now moved to doing isolation lifts, which has helped tremendously. This "historical" fact may not be as much truth as I thought, sorry for the rambling)

Yes, it seems that your back is NOT recovering as well as you suspected it would / does based on the past. You might try doing back isolation work for Pump sets (pullovers, pulldowns using the hanging ab straps - I think I might need to make a video doing those).

I mostly use free weights squat variations for thigh movements. and I did those once for MRs and really wished I never did. Do you think doing more machine based loading may help, as I can build it more with MRs? I have smith squats in my current rotation for both loading and MRs and they have certainly stalled the least out of my three lifts. So that seems like it might be a good idea. Also my ego is not to big to micro load and I'm afraid to grab the 2.5lb plates. Heck, I have not used them in a VERY long time, but when I was first starting I invested in a set of micro plates, 1/8lb, 1/4lb, 1/2lb and 1lb. and they helped, So I have faith that those methods work

It looks like the clue here is doing MR's with the same exercises as you use for loading sets. You might try doing the MR the training day before you do Lower Loading...

Finally (sorry for the novel). Any feelings or thoughts on me possibly training too high a tier level for my legs? or is that more in my camp to play around with and see what happens? (which honestly is fine, just thought it might be a part of what's going on)

I saw your post i n the other thread. That could be another solution, too. I'd try just one (or maybe two) things, just to have a better idea what's at work.

Thanks for the response, it's helped me collate some ideas in my head (and question some preconceived ones). as always your time is greatly appreciated.

You're welcome!

-S