FT Questions....

[Scott Stevenson]

So another programming question Scott, a minor one (I think).

Situation is as follows.

I train loading back to back Saturday (Lower) and Sunday (Upper) AM. Next session is lower focused MRs on Tuesday PM. Issue is I'm noticing fairly significant fatigue, especially in my legs, Tuesdays still for Lower MRs. Obviously as the blasts progress it gets worse. Granted I'm still hitting PRs. Mentally however I seem to be a bit zapped, just not the same gusto for attacking the weights. Where as Saturdays/Sundays/Thursdays ( which is upper focused MRs) attitude is spot on. I made the following adjustments (based on a bunch of issues I was having), and I'm seeing things improve, but it's still noticeable.

- Went from 6 week blasts to 4 weeks. I noticed improved recovery, strength increases, and training drive.
- Went from basic to turbo, to space out leg volume away from Tuesdays, and to keep the day sort of "fresh" mentally". I seem to enjoy the one set and onto the next rhythm of turbo. Again noticed improved recovery, strength increases, and training drive.
- Reduced leg tier. Went from running tiers 1/2/2/2/2/3 to 1/1/2/2. Same benefits as above.

So my options as I see them,

- Deal with it. I am very well aware, I am creating quite a debt by running back to back loading days. I've done my best to mitigate it, but it just may always be there. I can and have pushed through it. It's just the nature of the beast of running a higher frequency program.
- Reduce leg tier further. perhaps 1/1/1/2 or just tier 1 straight through. I'm a little mixed on this. I'm having really good success across the board with legs right now as far as hitting PRs, They are getting stronger and seem to be growing. I also REALLY enjoy lower pumps for tier 2, because it's awful, and it was bad enough cutting back as much as I have.
- Increase calories on Saturday and Sunday. I'm already eating a lot. I'm in the middle of a growing phase, and the ratio of fat to muscle gain is just about where I am happy to see it. Some muscle, some fat, but nothing awful. So I'm a little hesitant to add too much more until I feel I'm ready.

So at this point I'm sort of leaning towards "deal with it". Just wanted to bounce this off of you, Case I'm missing something obvious (or not to obvious) that may help. Thanks for your insight!

Hey Brutha!

So, I think you're on the right track in trying to improve recovery after the Sat/Sun sessions with more food. You might also try a big NAP on Sunday if that wouldn't interfere with sleeping Sunday night.

A few things I'm interested in:

• How stressful is your job?
• How much activity - just walking around, etc do you do on Monday & Tuesday before you train. (For some folks who literally are doing next to nothing with a desk job, this can make the next training day a bit tough to get into as far as working out the kinks.)

• How important is TIME of day for you as far as training energy. This could be a big one and makes me wonder if even training in the AM on Tues might be a better choice.

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And as far as programming, have you tried this

Sat: Day 2 (Loading Upper, lower Pump)
Sun: Day 1 (Loading Lower, Upper Pump)

Tues: Day 4 (Upper MR's)

Thurs: Day 3 (lower MR's)

This would address a couple of the issues that may be in play here all at once (Upper MR's being easier than Lower on the CNS, in the context of Loading Set days grouped together on the weekend; legs being especially sedentary d/t working conditions).

I know you really annihilate yourself with the Pump sets, so you might need to adjust strategy there if you adopt the above strategy, or perhaps even <gasp> use a different Tier for Lower Pump Sets since this training would be just 24hr before your Loading Sets for legs.

This is a stretch, but a thought. I think this order of leg training (Pump first, the Loading) might be advantageous b/c, depending upon diet and the extent of muscle damage you're incurring, this would avoid a situation where you're possibly coming up a bit short in terms of recovering glycogen. *IF* you happen to have enough muscle damage to significantly impair glycogen formation and you're really using up a good bit of your stores with SUNDAY Pump Sessions (That you really kick ass on, thus causing a good bit of glycogen loss), then you've got a double whammy preceding your Tuesday workout with your current week's layout.

Flip this around and the glycogen loss form the pump sets in and of itself shouldn't be as much of an issue for the Loading sets b/c the reps are lower (relative contribution from CP vs. glycogen is greater here) and you may even be able to get those loading sets in on Sunday (24hr after the Pump sets) before the DOMS of the pump sets hits you full force (which can be more like ~48hr post workout, but this varies a good bit). And then, of course, after you've survived the weekend, you've got a full 4 days before you hit the Lower MR's.

[And of course you could use a TURBO set up with the above flip flopping of days and then you'd have lesser inroad into your legs on Thurs, which woudl leave you more recovered for the Weekend's trauma compared to putting all of your Lower MR's on that day (just 48hr before your weekend's fun). So, the above Day 2,1,4,3 ordering with a Turbo set up might be your best bet, and you might even have the sense that that is the case already, given how much experience you have with FT. ]

-Scott