Hi Scott! No problem. I appreciate the detailed response.
Ultimately (and of course deep down I know this
) the answer is to shorten blasts. I'm thinking start out at 5 week blasts and see how it goes. Maybe I'll find to just do 4 week blasts.
Now, I have done shorter blasts before based on feel. It's just been really inconsistent. Some blasts I feel fine for 6 weeks. Some I've hit 4 weeks and had to cruise. Sometimes (like now) I've felt ok, gone in for day 1 on week 5 or 6 and it just destroyed me. What I haven't tracked is to see if there is a pattern. Example: Maybe every 3rd blast is when I have to shorten it up. (My body responding inconsistently has been something I have fought for a long time. But that's a whole other post.)
Not sure how you will like this, but when I have shortened the blast down I have always done a two week cruise regardless. My thinking is that if I am done in only 4 weeks, I've beat myself down enough that some extra rest will help. My two weeks is workout Mon, Wed, Fri, Mon. Then take Tues through Sunday off.
To touch on your other items:
I am an accountant which by nature means I am pretty anal about everything. So that said, I feel like I am very consistent with my 10 second rests in the MR. But I understand from your perspective everyone says that! But I'll definitely test myself on that.
Same goes with doing continuous reps. But in thinking about it, yes, I am sure there are times toward the end of an MR where I will take that very slight pause to get the 4th rep and thus continue on into the next inter set. So will have to watch that very close going forward as well.
No, I am running Tier 1 only. (I had previously posted about running a Tier 1/2 hybrid.) But I have found that the longer I FT (yes it's a verb now) the less I can do. Hopefully that means I am getting better over time at pushing the intensity of my sets. I've always overtrained fairly easily, so sticking at Tier 1 seems the best for me.
So I am running Tier 1 only. On Day 2, I add a set of traps after the back thick and back width sets (keeping the 1:30 rest time). So this is therefore done only during the blast. I do not add trap work in the MR days.
Starting on week 2 of the blast, I add a second set of the bi/tri pump set. On day 3 I add a second bicep pump set. I stick with only the 1 tricep MR set on day 4.
Thanks again for your response!
Ultimately (and of course deep down I know this
) the answer is to shorten blasts. I'm thinking start out at 5 week blasts and see how it goes. Maybe I'll find to just do 4 week blasts. Now, I have done shorter blasts before based on feel. It's just been really inconsistent. Some blasts I feel fine for 6 weeks. Some I've hit 4 weeks and had to cruise. Sometimes (like now) I've felt ok, gone in for day 1 on week 5 or 6 and it just destroyed me. What I haven't tracked is to see if there is a pattern. Example: Maybe every 3rd blast is when I have to shorten it up. (My body responding inconsistently has been something I have fought for a long time. But that's a whole other post.)
Not sure how you will like this, but when I have shortened the blast down I have always done a two week cruise regardless. My thinking is that if I am done in only 4 weeks, I've beat myself down enough that some extra rest will help. My two weeks is workout Mon, Wed, Fri, Mon. Then take Tues through Sunday off.
To touch on your other items:
I am an accountant which by nature means I am pretty anal about everything. So that said, I feel like I am very consistent with my 10 second rests in the MR. But I understand from your perspective everyone says that!
But I'll definitely test myself on that.Same goes with doing continuous reps. But in thinking about it, yes, I am sure there are times toward the end of an MR where I will take that very slight pause to get the 4th rep and thus continue on into the next inter set. So will have to watch that very close going forward as well.
No, I am running Tier 1 only. (I had previously posted about running a Tier 1/2 hybrid.) But I have found that the longer I FT (yes it's a verb now) the less I can do. Hopefully that means I am getting better over time at pushing the intensity of my sets. I've always overtrained fairly easily, so sticking at Tier 1 seems the best for me.
So I am running Tier 1 only. On Day 2, I add a set of traps after the back thick and back width sets (keeping the 1:30 rest time). So this is therefore done only during the blast. I do not add trap work in the MR days.
Starting on week 2 of the blast, I add a second set of the bi/tri pump set. On day 3 I add a second bicep pump set. I stick with only the 1 tricep MR set on day 4.
Thanks again for your response!