FT Questions....

[Scott Stevenson]

Thank you for taking the time to answer questions Scott! Training and diet (more training!) were the big reasons I ever got into bodybuilding.

In terms of blast progress. How important do you see weight gain as part of the whole picture? If you are actively cycling your carbs, you're having rats use GH, consistently beating your logbook, and still seeing an outline of your abs, Should the scale be of any concern?

I've been 205 lbs at 5'7 before but I look VASTLY different now, and am much stronger. The problem always seems to be the scale and it not shifting much during a blast (a few pounds initially due to supplement use, and maybe 1-3 lbs total after proceeding a blast).

Sure, man.

Think this through, Bud. You want more muscle mass. If there is no change in body fat and no change in body weight, how are you gaining muscle?...

(You can use skin folds at areas you hold fat to gauge, but not estimate, body fat. )

-S

P.S. Please no talk about "rats' and the like... LOL

[Scott Stevenson]

We must of confused each other a little here as I have had access to the gym in my last 5 IC's, its the latter part of this next cruise where I wont. Typically on a vacation you would use or have access to a hotel gym however I am on a boat in the middle of the ocean so no squat rack or DB's here

you wrote: "Now I timed the cruise which for the last 5 blasts has been at the end of 6 weeks to coincide when I'm away and have no access to the gym,"

In terms of IC set up (outlined above), is that looking reasonable ? Or would you adjust that?

Looks good as you're in repair mode here...

Understood about calling it quits and starting the IC now. If I was to start this IC now though it would last 30 days. As that (30 days) will be the duration up until the vacation and period OF the vacation. So 30 days until I start my next blast.
This is obviously nearly double what a normal 6 week blast IC would last for.. which is why I am keen to prolong the blast and reach the end of week 6. The way I see it is the additional time off should then hopefully off-set any overtraining / over reaching I would have obtained.

What I am asking was how would one set this up?
Just go with my usual IC programming?
Days 3 & 4 up until I leave?

The bolded would be my best guess.

I totally agree about time off from the gym. I am looking forward to enjoying myself and not doing anything too strenuous.

Overall I do feel a lot more refreshed having cut the cardio to 50% this week. Last week was horrific.

Hopefully lessons learned.

-S

[Kag94]

Hey guys I've done Ft training for about 75% of the last year, about 12 labs gained at the same bw... I can post picks later, or just message you Scott since a question I have pertains to my physique somewhat.

Figured I would post up my next proposed training split... (I remember the days people would get blasted on IM for a badly set up dc split lmao)

1. My legs are years ahead of my upper body, so for the lower load days I typically just stick to a ham ISO since my quads are way more developed.
2. I see many members need to drop weight on their later load sets in order to hit their rep targets. Would a static load be best? Since in the book it wants one to leave reps in reserve regardless until the last set... yes something I've been wanting to ask for ages

Lower load A

Squat
Lying leg curl
Smyth calf
Abduction

Upper A

Incline smythe
Db flat

Smyth row
Neutral pulldown

Cable high pull
Reverse pec dec

Lower B

Leg press
Bb rdl
Leg press calf
Machine kickback

Upper B

Hammer incline press
Cable fly

Hammer row
Pulldown

Smyth behind neck press
Db lateral, done facing towards a steep incline

Lower C

Hack squat
Seated leg curl
Hip thrust
Seated calf

Upper C

Bench
Machine fly

Tbar
Behind neck press

Hammer shoulder press
Machine lateral

[Scott Stevenson]

Hey guys I've done Ft training for about 75% of the last year, about 12 labs gained at the same bw... I can post picks later, or just message you Scott since a question I have pertains to my physique somewhat.

Hey Kag,

Well, I'll discourage you from messaging me with questions that's the p purpose of this DISCUSSION forum, so that I can answer questions that many folks may have. (Of course, I've got multiple ways to be contacted privately (email is preferred), and I really didn't set this board up for private Q and A via PM. )

Figured I would post up my next proposed training split... (I remember the days people would get blasted on IM for a badly set up dc split lmao)

LOL! Well, it may be a bit of old school today...

1. My legs are years ahead of my upper body, so for the lower load days I typically just stick to a ham ISO since my quads are way more developed.

I'll make note for anyone reading this that unless you've reached the ultimate maximal amount of muscle you want ina muscle group, then taking this kind of approach is probably not the way to go for the vast majority of people.

2. I see many members need to drop weight on their later load sets in order to hit their rep targets. Would a static load be best? Since in the book it wants one to leave reps in reserve regardless until the last set... yes something I've been wanting to ask for ages

You'd simply adjust the weight (or not do so) so that you stay within the range for Loading sets or keep to a certain part of that range that:

1.) Lends itself best to that exercise
2.) Fits with how you're progressing over the course of a blast
3.) Keeps reps around where you feel you benefit the most form them in terms of growth, or safety or some other concern.

E.g, If you would rather squat ina the 10-12 range, then you'll need to drop the load if you're using Tier III (and truly pushing on each set).

If by a "static load" you mean keeping the weight the same, this could be best for someone, but might not work for someone else for whom this mean getting <6 reps on the final compound loading set.

(Let's say you like heavy squatting and get 7 reps with 405 on the first of 3 sets using Tier III. Most folks would end up with maybe 4-5 reps on the 3rd set, if that.)


Regarding the below (I'll just summarize):

Adductors lend themselves best to being trained just after thighs, as they're warmed up. (An adductor tweak / niggle can be pretty problematic, so safety here.)

Note above comment on not doing quad iso exercises.

<ERASED COMMENT HERE - disregard>

Lower load A

Squat
Lying leg curl
Smyth calf
Abduction

Upper A

Incline smythe
Db flat

Smyth row
Neutral pulldown

Cable high pull
Reverse pec dec

Lower B

Leg press
Bb rdl
Leg press calf
Machine kickback

Upper B

Hammer incline press
Cable fly

Hammer row
Pulldown

Smyth behind neck press
Db lateral, done facing towards a steep incline

Lower C

Hack squat
Seated leg curl
Hip thrust
Seated calf

Upper C

Bench
Machine fly

Tbar
Behind neck press

Hammer shoulder press
Machine lateral

-S

[Kag94]

Much appreciated for the response sir

In regards to the static or dropping weight as the load sets go on, it makes a lot of sense. One of the main reasons i ask, is im starting to feel as though im being too conservative with my top set. In my attempt to maintain my target rep range throughout the sets, especially in the higher tiers. I'll go the other route moving forward with my next blasts and report back.

You mention i didnt post up any arm exercises... i have your first run ebook and load days arms were omitted...

[Scott Stevenson]

Much appreciated for the response sir

In regards to the static or dropping weight as the load sets go on, it makes a lot of sense. One of the main reasons i ask, is im starting to feel as though im being too conservative with my top set. In my attempt to maintain my target rep range throughout the sets, especially in the higher tiers. I'll go the other route moving forward with my next blasts and report back.

You mention i didnt post up any arm exercises... i have your first run ebook and load days arms were omitted...

No problem!

If you really push hard on that first compound set, it will have it's effects later on in the Loading sets as you zig-zag. This is why one would really need to look at performance on each of those loading sets to gauge progression overall.

Nix my comments regarding PUMP sets... I was reading this as Day 1 only, not Loading sets. I've got a dog that's having issues and my thought process was interrupted up twice as I was writing it...

(I"m gonna go back and erase what I wrote b/c I KNOW it's gonna confuse!!! LOL)

-S

[thethinker48]

Hey Scott,

Where do you draw the line when it comes to overeaching and ending a FT blast?

Would you rather overdo it a little and then back off or just be right on the edge and go into a cruise?

This is all keeping the 5-6 week blast length in place (which I personally think is the most anyone can push themselves with this program if they're ducks are in a row). Another thing I've learned from autoregulating over a few blasts is that if I'm flatter and more beat up, I can still set a PR doing a lower weight but get much higher reps during a loading set, while at the same time not taxing my nervous system as much (ex. doing 18 reps with 5 plates on the T bar instead of 8 with 6). . This technique has brought me back into the circle several times where I couldve pushed more weight, but I KNEW I'd pay the price the next day and in my next workouts. Seems like JP is also always teetering on the edge of overdoing it; although I think the weights and the lower rep ranges Jordan handles probably plays a big role in this.

Just some of my thoughts on this; hopefully I'll learn more over the next few blasts to at least come to some form of conclusion for myself.

P.S- Pressing slower for chest consciously now has given be some very insane progress on the numbers.

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

[Scott Stevenson]

Hey Scott,

Where do you draw the line when it comes to overeaching and ending a FT blast?

Would you rather overdo it a little and then back off or just be right on the edge and go into a cruise?

Well, if I've "overdone" it then that's too much.

"Right on the edge" of what?...

This is all keeping the 5-6 week blast length in place (which I personally think is the most anyone can push themselves with this program if they're ducks are in a row).

There are those in some situations that will can can go longer, but 6 weeks fits the vast majority of situations.

Another thing I've learned from autoregulating over a few blasts is that if I'm flatter and more beat up, I can still set a PR doing a lower weight but get much higher reps during a loading set, while at the same time not taxing my nervous system as much (ex. doing 18 reps with 5 plates on the T bar instead of 8 with 6). . This technique has brought me back into the circle several times where I couldve pushed more weight, but I KNEW I'd pay the price the next day and in my next workouts. Seems like JP is also always teetering on the edge of overdoing it; although I think the weights and the lower rep ranges Jordan handles probably plays a big role in this.

There's also this (p. 123 in the book):

"Q: Are there ways to extend a Blast without dropping down a Volume Tier or changing from Turbo to Basic?
Yes, you can simply take a day off, training only three times in a week."

Yes, that's true for Jordan and I'm pretty sure he's basically admitted on our podcast that some of that heavy (dead)lifting is just b/c He love to do that.

Just some of my thoughts on this; hopefully I'll learn more over the next few blasts to at least come to some form of conclusion for myself.

P.S- Pressing slower for chest consciously now has given be some very insane progress on the numbers.

IT's really quite an individual endeavor b/c auto-regulation is subjective. We want to make it concrete, but consider things like music preferences, paint theshold and tolerance and what someone finds physically attractive in a romantic partner and you've got some basic parameters but a wide spectrum between them.

RIGHT ON r.e the chest training. Seems to be true for quite a few folks, myself included.

-S

[powerhouse_ad]

What's this slow pressing for chest shenanigans? I need all the help I can progressing with my pressing numbers!

[thethinker48]

What's this slow pressing for chest shenanigans? I need all the help I can progressing with my pressing numbers!

Pressing it slower for some of us actually helps us push bigger weights. Fast explosive pressing tires me out faster for some reason.

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk