Loading set order

[desertrock]

After a year and a half of high volume "reps in reserve" style training I decided to take the plunge and start Fortitude Training. I've simply grown bored of doing countless sets of the same exercises, never getting to truly exert myself except maybe for the last week of each mesocycle. FT intrigued me because I've never tried combining high intensity with high frequency like this.

In any case, I wanted to clear up a couple of things I was a bit confused about.

1) Loading sets on legs - If I want to begin with one or both of the isolation sets (quad/ham) before the compound exercise, doesn't that mean that I'll be doing 2-3 sets of the compound back to back in Tier 2 and 3? I.e. for example:

Ham -> Quad -> Thigh -> Thigh
or
Ham -> Thigh -> Quad -> Thigh -> Thigh

The reason I'd prefer to do it this way is because this way my knees will be better warmed up for the compound ex.

2) Can I use unilateral exercises for the isolation loading exercises (for example smith lunges for quads or one arm dumbbell rows for back) or is there a problem with it? The reason being some of the exercises I find the most effective for me are unilateral. I see no reason not to use them, other than it may screw with the rest times having to do both sides.

Thanks!

[Scott Stevenson]

Hey Brother!

After a year and a half of high volume "reps in reserve" style training I decided to take the plunge and start Fortitude Training. I've simply grown bored of doing countless sets of the same exercises, never getting to truly exert myself except maybe for the last week of each mesocycle. FT intrigued me because I've never tried combining high intensity with high frequency like this.

In any case, I wanted to clear up a couple of things I was a bit confused about.

1) Loading sets on legs - If I want to begin with one or both of the isolation sets (quad/ham) before the compound exercise, doesn't that mean that I'll be doing 2-3 sets of the compound back to back in Tier 2 and 3? I.e. for example:

Ham -> Quad -> Thigh -> Thigh
or
Ham -> Thigh -> Quad -> Thigh -> Thigh

The reason I'd prefer to do it this way is because this way my knees will be better warmed up for the compound ex.

Totally up to you - the above is 100% ok by me.  (How you order the isolation and compound exercises with zig-zagging is a point of auto regulation / variation in FT, so you can do this however you like and change it around as you feel you need to, or to create a novel stimulus, by changing order, but retain the same exercises, especially if they work really well for you.)(

2) Can I use unilateral exercises for the isolation loading exercises (for example smith lunges for quads or one arm dumbbell rows for back) or is there a problem with it? The reason being some of the exercises I find the most effective for me are unilateral. I see no reason not to use them, other than it may screw with the rest times having to do both sides.

Thanks!

No problem there, either.  I'd just pay attention to order of operations, there as the rest interval will differ a bit depending on which side you start with. You could simply alternate sides (workout by workout) or intentionally, for example, train a weak/less developed side first and match reps on the larger/better side. (There are various methods  you could employ to bring up a weak muscle group - check the site here or my youtube channel for a video on that.)

-S

[desertrock]

Nice - thanks for taking the time to respond!

Had my first FT workout yesterday and it was the most fun I've had in the gym for a long while.  Really looking forward to this.