FT Questions....

[Scott Stevenson]

Tell me about it...one link leads to another (or another question in my mind) and before I know it it's 1am and I'm 3 hours in, looking at something completely unrelated lol

And that's how you come to know a whole bunch of shit that very few people seem to be interested in aside from you.

Diet will be the same sources of food, but will tend towards higher fat since I'm keeping carbs so low on off days.

I have already noticed I've had to up calories because I was losing weight, but I'm not sure if the weight loss was due to FT or because of lowered estrogen from spreading out my TRT. I am leaning towards the latter since I noticed this within just 1-2 Basic Tier 1 FT workouts but both probably contribute. I'm hoping/wondering if the higher rep aspect of FT will have a cardio effect as well as I haven't done any in a few months and while my HDL was good (56) my LDL was higher than I'd like (112 or so)...would be nice if that was brought down and the HDL was brought up by more healthy fats (I'm aware a change in estrogen could mess with that as well though)

Well, it's not uncommon that folks find lose some weight in the first week if nothing's adjusted in terms of food, but I agree - several factors at work.

I never got a chance to ask Dante this but I have noticed both of you (and other DC advocates) say that keeping the same exercise tends to lead to stalling faster....but is this just a function of hitting the same progress earlier? As in lets say someone just benches as exercise A and then does exercises B and C. Are you guys saying it would be like 300, B1, C1, 305, B2, C2, 310, B3, C3, 315, stall, whereas if you just benched it would be 300, 305, 310, stall..so you are actually stalling at a lighter weight? OR are you just saying you will stall faster because you aren't spreading it out over as many weeks? If it's the latter, then I wouldn't see it as a problem as you'd still be hitting 315 and 3x faster.

Hopefully my question there makes sense. Basically are you stalling "earlier" as in at a lighter weight or just earlier time-wise.

Stalling faster and at lighter weight. Here's what I speculate is happening:

Strength gains can be conceptually broken down to two factors: neurological / psychological (better use of the muscle available) and muscular (more of the muscle).

Without rotating exercises, there is a shorter period between workouts, esp. with DC training, and thus a greater possibility of a practice / learning effect. Also, psychologically, one is entirely focused on just that one exercise, so the tendency to alter form, increase rep speed, etc. to get more reps increases.

OTOH, muscle mass gains can only come so fast. And, without rotating exercises, in someone well trained (as is the case with DC trainees and FT Trainees who have chosen "favorite" go-to exercises for Loading set ), these acute neurological effects won't last. The *acute* neural effect on strength gains initially outpace muscular growth (practice effect), but then peter out. Simply having a few days (or a week) between training an exercise isn't long enough for muscular growth to manifest in strength / rep increases, so the exercises essentially peters out and would be rotated out

In an well-trained individual, spreading the exercises out over time ( 1.5 - 3 weeks) doesn't sacrifice one ability to know how to do the exercise (it's a staple in the regimen of a well trained lifter), but this allows enough time for MUSCULAR gains to manifest as strength gains. This is where you see a guy (or woman) who is a grinder, eeking out a few more reps each and every time he does an exercise for many months on end. Overall, he holds on to an exercise for a longer time and gets more strength gains (reflective of muscle gains) in that fashion. This is especially advantageous if he's chosen his exercises wisely in that they are the ones that seem to get him the most muscle mass.

I do think that FT cheats the above a bit as there is carry over from doing similar exercises so frequently. Also, esp. in the first few blasts, many guys will get some muscular endurance effects (from MR and pump sets) that allow them to get more reps during Loading sets (esp. b/c there is a constrictive rest interval there, so fatigue does come into play).

Scott, how do you set the weight on exercises that you have never done, or haven't done for a long time. And do you make big jumps every 3 weeks when you get used to the exercise?

You'll have to have a feel for what weight you can get for the give Set Type. A few extra warm-up set that inch their way up to the working set weight should tell you.

You make jumps based on:

1) Previous performance, e.g., if you exceeded the reps range (got 14 reps on the last Loading Set or 10 reps on the last set of an MR)

2.) How you feel during the warm-up. A seasoned lifter can just tell when he's "on."

-S