FT Questions....

[ARS]

This is so cool to read.

FYI, I've had a few clients (and friends) who had back issues who found that the MR's allowed them to do exercises with the spine loaded (DL variation and squat variations) when they couldn't before.

What they were finding was that the sets of 4 allowed them to load the muscle before the spine issues (e.g., facet joint arthritis) would flare a limit set performance. I.e., the unloading between sets of 4 in the MR was likely (again, my guess) for the joint to relubricate and decompress.

Over the long haul, there was no exacerbation of symptoms, but these people could do things like SLDL's when they couldn't in the past, and rebuild glute size. All three of those that I'm thinking over were / are in their mid / late 40's.

I'm not saying try to blast through pain, go against Docs orders or what have you, but this was something that actually first came to my attention when a stubborn friend just decided to give the MR's a go with very light weight (doing a SLDL). She found that she could go heavier and heavier (she was VERY happy) and got up to previous working weights this way.

Thereafter, other's tried it out (one of whom is a member here - I can ask him to chime in if you like) and had the same kind of experience.

-S

That's a very interesting perspective on the MR sets. You've got me thinking now. I suppose I could give it a try and just be SUPER cautious. I need to really pay attention to that internal "brake" and shutdown a set when form begins to breakdown. When I was younger (and more stupid), that "brake" didn't work as well. I would always get myself into trouble when pushing near failure on those exercises. With MR sets, you're not taking short pauses (under weight) in between reps to squeeze out the last few. Hmmm...