Help New to FT - General Questions

[Scott Stevenson]

It is definitely fair to say the least that my mind has been wired to believe more is always better. More gym time = more growth. More cardio = greater fat gain. I definitely have my years to spend in the trenches truly learning the most optimal way for me to grow into my maximal potential.

I decided to take on the challenge of getting uncomfortable, even with my training. I am going to run FT, 4 days a week, for a couple blast phase to see how my body responds to lower volume / higher frequency. Hopefully we can see some nasty gains come from this at the end of this bulk before I head back into prep (if only the gyms open back up).

If you set your mind to training as hard as humanly possible, I imagine you might find those rest days needed and even desired...

I did have a few questions.
1. For loading lower days, when do you stretch each individual muscle for your loading muscles? Say i have a day setup to zig-zag between BB Squat, RDL, and leg extensions. Do I stretch after the last set of each, or do I perform each stretch (quad + ham) only after the entire loading zig-zagging is complete and I am ready to move on to adductors?

Well, this one has been answered here a few times, but I'll ask you this <insert a bit of sarcasm - I'm smiling here>

How will you maintain the rest intervals between zig-zagged loading sets if you're adding a stretch in there?...

From the book, "To conserve energy
(and pain tolerance) for the weight training, all of these would follow just after training a given muscle (group), and before training the next muscle group."

Also check theses posts

(Your Q could be applied to supersetted Pump sets, too, actually, but the bottom line is that you finish the training for a given muscle group, be it zig zagged or super setted - neither of which gives enough time to reasonably put in a stretch / throw of the set thereafter - and then stretch.)

http://drscottstevenson.com/forum/thread...h#pid16665

http://drscottstevenson.com/forum/thread...r#pid20164

http://drscottstevenson.com/forum/thread...r#pid19349

http://drscottstevenson.com/forum/thread...r#pid18906

http://drscottstevenson.com/forum/thread...er#pid4152

2. What are some really intense techniques you have learned for pump sets? I would love to see your current training split / regimen and get some good ideas of how to really get the most out of pumpsets. My current understanding, besides just auto regulating them, would be progressive overload of reps + weight. Once i hit 25 reps at a weight, move up in weight.

I'd check out the table on page 93 in the book and do a search here. 5's into the hole is a good one that you can find mentioned here and on instagram many o' time.

-S

Thanks for responding!
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