FT Questions....

[Stewilliams]

I think you've got some programming confused. Tier 2 you are doing only 2 loading sets for shoulders. Both should be to failure. OH Barbell Press (failure) rest 1:30. Lateral Raise (failure). Stretch and move onto lower pump.

If you want to bring up your rear delts a GREAT place to do this IMO in pump sets. I did this for a bit. For tier 2 do a rear delt machine fly (5's in the hole here is really good) as your first pump set, and then for your second pump set, do a straight set of say a BTN smith machine press or BTN machine press (usually you can find a machine that sort of has a forward motion as you press, and sit in it reverse). Works pretty well.

Also T-bar rows (1st for me) and barbell rows (a distant second) pretty much light up everything from my traps down to my erectors for my back. So give some thought to maybe adding them in as loading sets if you do not already.

You're right I've got the programming wrong (not sure how I managed to do that).

I want to increase loading on rear delts, as well as also working them through pump sets. I had been doing this on my previous programme and rear delts have began to respond tremendously (could be a novel effect due to being weak initially). I'm a big fan of t-bar rows also and have progressed well on this exercise over the past year or so, but don't find they have helped rear delts all that much. Now i've put more focus on rear delts, they may be recruited more efficiently in t-bar rows though.

Think I'm going to run a hybrid of tier 2 by continuing with using tier 3 levels of volume on delts on loading days. Of course if I find I'm struggling to recover then I will bring the volume back down.

Thanks for your help mate!