FT Questions....

[Scott Stevenson]

Hi Scott,

First off, I've been progressing greatly on FT. Currently doing Tier II and I love it. But I have a question regarding weak body parts. I respect how you constructed the program so I have done it exactly as written. However, I do have weaknesses. In my case, it's shoulders and arms (especially arms). How do I handle this? I didn't want to just add more volume because that would be a disrespectful move towards you after all you've done to come up with this program, so I'm here asking how to bring these up.

Thanks!

BIG PICTURE: Are you gaining weight?... (You're gonna need to gain weight to make gains generally, not to mention in your weakest muscle groups.)

A few general ways to address the above and any weakness really - Simply use the program.

Exercise selection:
Pick the ones that work for you.

Exercise Order
-Do Isolation exercises before compound exercises for MR's and Loading sets

Pump sets: Make these GLORIOUS. Don't just go through the motions. (Look up 5's in the Hole here for one technique not mentioned in the book.)

STRETCHES: Don't skimp on these either. Focus on occlusion and extreme stretches here shortly after training the muscle group (which will increase metabolic stress.)

------------



NOTE: Sometimes, you can be training a muscle group, TOO MUCH, too. If you're not getting stronger and it's much more sore than other muscle groups, all the time, for months on end, you might have to consider:

Some guys are doing cheat reps, taking all loading sets to failure, etc. for these weaker muscle groups and there is simply not enough recovery. Optimizingn stimulus is what's important. Easy example of this is that noe everyone would be trying to to Tier III. Tier I is great for many people who train REALLY hard.



AFTER MANY BLASTS and gaining weight, and honestly trying all of the above.
---Even consider doing Loading sets and MR's for these exercise earlier in a workout if needed, but structure the workout so you don't create a weak link. E.g., do shoulders first, then back, then chest, if shoulder work tends to weaken you for chest and become a weak link. You can even intersperse PUMP set between Loading sets to permit intra-workout fatigue.
---Consider higher volume tiers or using the Turbo layout just for the weak muscle groups.