FT Questions....

[Altamir]

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.

- I nap both Saturdays and Sundays. I train about 7am and by 11am I'm dragging. Usually hit it hard for about 20minutes and I'm wide awake and good to go for the rest of the day. Does not effect my sleep at night.
- My job is extremely unstressful. Desk jockey, and it can be a bit hectic at times, but for the most part is really easy. I am in the process of working on getting a transition desk (going from sitting to standing and back again).
- Nothing too crazy, usually a walk with the dogs or some random chores on Sunday after training. Monday and Tuesday is very little activity, just work. I do spend time each morning after getting up stretching, finding tight spots, working out little kinks and niggles, and doing a little rotator cuff and hip pre-hab (getting older sucks). And run through the relaxed and mandatories for posing practice, since we finally got full height mirrors in the basement. I'd say roughly 20mins of moderate / light activity.
- Training time makes zero difference for me. Been training weekends in the morning, and weekdays in the evening for many many years now, long before FT. So as long as things are good overall, I can just get some good tunes banging over the headphones, flip the switch, and go to war.

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

Brillant. I've got one week left of my current blast, so I'll try and implement it for the next one and give it a go. I had originally set it up this way as I was still having chronic shoulder pain / issues, and saw the upper pump sets as a way to "pre-fatigue" my upper body for loading. Shoulder has been pain free for long awhile now, and getting stronger, so this is a good time to experiment.

DOMs from pump sets usually set in that day. I am mildly sore in my legs from loading, and then after pump sets my legs feel like dead weight for most of the day, sore, stiff, and sluggish. Usually gone by Monday. No way to tell, except to do it!

And bingo with sticking with turbo and further spreading out the damage. I'm really enjoying that aspect of it. I've never been great a recovery, but seem to be really good and pushing myself into big holes I cannot recover from. So this still makes a lot of sense to me with this set up.

Anyways as always thank you for the insight, guidance, and lesson on not only WHAT do to but WHY to do it. Cannot express how much I appreciate you sharing your knowledge. The wife will be happy too as we both train lower on Saturdays and sometimes fight for equipment. So that will solve that. I'll report back in probably about 4 weeks or so with how things are going, so that people can see the results from this. (and allow me to reflect on it myself)