Help Critique my FT program??

[Scott Stevenson]

Dr Stevenson,

Ah ok, Yes that makes sense because I haven't even gotten to the muscle rounds of the program yet. It just feels a bit odd doing only 1-2 sets per muscle group per day. Maybe I should incorporate a warm up set before each exercise for that specific muscle group? For example If I start with back Ill do 2 warmup sets of 7 at 50-60% then just go through the rest of the program without warming up the chest etc...

Warm-ups are not working sets, which are what create the growth stimulus. If they are truly doing more warm-up sets, then it will do nothing for you.

If you want to add training volume with working sets, you would use a higher volume Tier.

(I'm getting the sense it would help you to read through the book another time. )

I get what you're saying, its less of running yourself down into the ground with just increasing frequency and allowing for progressive overload over the weeks. Its a new thing for me, kind of like a new haircut your not familiar with it at first and it takes some time getting used to.

I went to try and create my own program from scratched based on all the new knowledge Ive been getting from yourself, Dr Eric Helms, Dr Brad Schoenfeld, Greg Knuckols etc and halfway through I realized that it was pretty similar to your programming lol.
In order to hit the 2-3x a week frequency per muscle group it seems as though it has to be done with less sets than Im used to.

I have the sense if you perform the 3 set types (and stretches) as described in FT, you'll also be training harder than you have in the past.

Would there be any harm in adding in an extra day? Normally I train 5-6 days a week. Shoulders is definitely something I would like to bring up, they've come a long way but I see them improving my taper overall, would it hurt to throw in another day of 4-6 sets with that? Having the home gym now Im tempted to put in the extra work when I have the time.

Well, you are entirely free to do as you please, of course. Add or subtract as many days as you like, etc. - totally up to you.

IMO, it would be a mistake to do so, as I have the sense you've not carried out FT as I set it up.

I've never had / known of a single person who was training as hard as they can who made use of the highest volume Tier (III) and felt the need to add another day. I'm going to sound like the old guy (well, I am) here, but I've seen hundreds of people come from volume based programs (similar background to yours), and want to add days, add sets, etc. to the program (be it FT, or DC in years past - DC = Doggcrapp training, which is mentioned in the book) and the real issue in these cases is learning how to develop "intensity" / all-out, balls to the way, gut wrenching, train or die effort levels in the gym and harnessing what I consider the essential quality of weight training - potency of effort - to produce muscle growth, versus trying to create a volume based stimulus.

There is of course a spectrum here - some folks might training really hard, but not all out and use moderate volume. Others might training pretty hard with high volume and others might train as hard as possible such that there is a clear limit as to his / her tolerance for training volume. The last scenario is the philosophy that underpins FT, essentially.

I have indeed set the program up to spare the nervous system to allow asa much muscular overload as possible relative to the CNS taxation, but at it's core, FT is a progressive overload / potency of stimulus-oriented program, not one focused on trying to to use training volume as the primary driver of muscle growth. There is no doubt that training volume is an important variable, but I contextualize it as a training variable that is more so determined by the extent of effort and inroads to recovery one can create, vs. as a primary variable to be manipulated as the primary "driver" of muscle growth. Doing so will work, but performing very high volume training for many, many trainees will eventually fail to evoke greater size gains unless the person trains harder (during each set), as well (i.e, with fewer reps in reserve) such that progressive overload is manifest in performance (wt x reps in the hypertrophy/ ~6-30 rep range).

-S

As far as the posting errors go, ok I understand now we spoke about it on IG. Ill just learn to ignore the error message
Thanks In advance Doc, don't mean to be a pain in the ass but Id like to make FT work for me, Im sure with time I will see the results im looking for.
Be well

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