FT Questions....

[Scott Stevenson]

Hey Dr S,

Didn't mean for the post to be not so well thought out - but it guess it came across that way

During my time in the states there will be a lot of travelling and overnight stays in different hotels and places - a lot of these are in rural areas (close to factories) and in my experience they typically don't have gyms so I thought 10 days of a break may end up doing some good given that my joints are feeling pretty neat and my right shoulder is feeling awful

I am aware of your suggestion in the book of using MRs during travel.

I understand what you mean with the isometric holds - they would create a difficult to measure variable which may not reflect like to like in the log book making true and accurate tracking difficult. I think I'll go for the momentary pause as you suggest to ensure variability in rep style and tempo is limited and week on week comparisons are accurate

I did go through the MD book again and much like what Arthur jones tried with nautilus cams the bands and chains are attempts at matching resistance and strength curves - my last experience using it on machines I had maxed out for loading was positive - so I'm thinking of bringing it back into the mix for the next blast.

As for the pre chest pressing movement I'm guessing when you say fatigue you mean the set is not to be taken to failure? So on flat smith press my typical warm up is something like this

Fatigue refers to anything that reduced performance.

135 x 10
185 x 5
200 x 3
225 x 1
230 x working set

Are you suggesting that prior to the working set I could do a more isolated pec move say flat cable flye press for 8-10 not to failure rest a couple of minutes and then go to 230 x working set?

No, I'm suggesting you not fatigue your pec muscles before loading sets with an isolation movement.

If you want to do a movement that helps you warm up neurologically so you can feel the pecs and target them, then that's fine.

I didn't mean Mike Mentzer style pre exhausting where the ISO-compound movements are supersetted without any rest my original idea was to do something like this

Finish warm ups on flat smith press, and let's say machine flye press x failure rest 2 minutes and then straight into the working set on flat smith press

You're free to do if you want...

I'll lower the weight on pump sets although I haven't been performing the reps in a discontinuous fashion I take your point about drop sets allowing for a break in the middle of the set. I'll also invest in a g shock watch so I can monitor my MR rest periods more accurately.

I do NOT suggest people employ a drop set technique during pump sets because of the impact on one's CNS, etc.


Finally this is a question or rather a search for ideas for anyone out there reading it

My gym currently has a flat bench and barbell, an adjustable bench and smith machine and a converging seated chest press as well as a cable cross over station and pec dec

My ideas for chest loading movements are as follows if there are any I've missed pls do let me know your thoughts

Flat smith presss
Various degrees of incline smith press
Flat cable chest press
Various degrees of incline cable chest press
Pec dec
Of course seated converging chest press
Most of the above can be done with bands to add a little variation from blast to blast
We do have dumbells in my gym but they peak out at 55 lbs so not very helpful for chest pressing movements

Do you or any of the other senior forum members know any tweaked / weird chest movements that you've incorporated yourselves to make things fresh and would t mind sharing? If there's someplace on the forum that already has this I'll gladly look there first.

You've seemingly missed that loading sets are supposed to be your go to mass builders that you've used over time, that lend themselves to heavy lifting.

All in the book, man. page 87 onward.

anyway thanks again Dr S - appreciate your advice as always - please do understand I'm not trying to be lazy here I love lifting - it's been an integral part of my life for years your system of variable volume and load with high frequency has worked wonders for me - so whenever I get stuck or have a bad workout I always immediately want to get to the bottom of it - hence the posting of innumerable questions up here

Thanks

Joshua

My only issue with this is that the book answers most of these and most of the rest have been answered / addressed here on the board already.

-S