Introduce Yourself: If you've never Posted, Post here please...

[Scott Stevenson]

Hello, my name is Aymene and I'm 16 years old and come from a gymnastic background. I got introduced to fortitude training by John Meadows after he posted some videos training with Scott. I've read the fortitude training book and feel like i have the understand it enough to start out. I plan on starting my first basic cycle at volume one next week. I have two questions. First question: I'm part of my high school gymnastic team and although most of the most we do is skill training (handstands,lsits etc) our coach does implement some sub-maximal training every now and then (5 reps left in the tank). From my experience it does not affect recovery but should I do anything different with fortitude programming? Second question: What are your opinions on Rack pulls above the knee. I have a friend who does them and says his trap size comes from that lift. I was wondering if using them for muscle rounds would be a good idea. Thank you

Welcome Aymene!

A few things to get you oriented here.

Best to pick a forum and post your question there. This is a thread just for introductions.

Start on the board for answers to your questions - as a large majority of FT-related questions have already been addressed at some point.

IMO, you should check with your gymanastics coach regarding training. Fortitude Training is designed for someone who has made bodybuilding the essentially the entirely his / her athletic pursuits. I would NOT recommend you try to do FT while doing gymnastics training. While you might call those skill training, they still require substantial muscular exertion. You'd be best served as a gymnast finding a way to weight train that fits in, with and around your gymnastics training (to make you a better gymnast). You could use principles in FT, but I build the weight training based on the gymnastics training, rather than trying to simply superimpose FT on what your'e already doing. Again, your coach should run the show here.

Rack deads from just above the knee can be a great back builder (traps included), for many guys. Rack deads are NOT something I recommend for MR's, d/t low back fatigue and risk of injury coming from the low back being the "breaking point" when pushing the MR to a failure point. (This one, for instance, has been mentioned here on the board a few times now.)

Again, welcome!

-S