FT Questions....

[Scott Stevenson]

I do eat plenty of veggies so no worries there. I was more talking about the high fat (not necessarily high meat) in general and if that could cause any issues. Apparently, you think it's not a problem

Good article. I'm aware of the Inuit paradox, which I generally see chalked up to it being marine based meats and more healthy fats, but I had not seen the information on the African populations mentioned. If they don't die from CVD I wonder what they're dying from in their 60's...

They may be dying from other natural causes, I'd suspect. You can probably dig that info. up.

You might simply do some bloodwork and see how / if your lipids change.

As I note in the book, at some point, many larger guys will need to add carbs and simply get the food in anyway they can, so a 6000kcal / day ketogenic diet won't be likely for many.

One thing that figures in here is that those 250+ guys who built themselves up from 175lb untrained still have the same gastrointestinal system and limitations thereof. For many, food is as important as anything and at one level (as we've discussed) simply providing the energy, regardless of macro manipulations, can be a main priority.

-S

[Lawman]

You'd put the KL oil on before training, under a neoprene sleeve and then re-dose during a workout. You can dose daily for 20-30min to minimize pain, but I'd not want to see someone using it chronically to keep pain low. It has both anti-inflammatory and blood circulating properties.

You'd want to go see an herbalist to get a plaster for healing purposes, IMO, if you can't treat it otherwise. Sometime like a dog skin plaster.'

Are your quad particularly tight? I'd bet that gaining flexibility there, especially in the rectus femurs (as well as other hip flexors) would help here.

You'll have to avoid the stuff that hurts. Extensive stretching before training may relive pain during these exercise, TBH.

-S

[Lawman]

I do the stretches after working legs but not much before. I will incorporate more stretching as warmup and I will try the oil. Really appreciate the advise.

[Lando]

Scott, did you ever try keeping, the loading exercise, the same exercise until you stop to make progress on it? Sorry, coming from doing a strength program so long, I have it hardwired in my brain to squat, dead and bench every week.

[Scott Stevenson]

Already began searching seems like a lot of speculation about accidents, sunlight exposure, smoke inhalation, etc...I'll see if I can find anything more definitive.

Those kinds of searches can take forever. You can sometimes find info. in the respective governmental sites.

I'll actually be getting blood work in about 3 weeks, and at that point will have been following the FT diet principles for 1 month. I also got blood work on 7/17 so we will see if there are any changes, I'll post in my log if anyone is interested diet wise it's the same sources of food and same protein amount. But considerably higher fat on average (mostly from more avocado, olive oil, and nuts..some eggs) and starchy carbs relegated to workout days (some fruits on off days but trying to keep it to under 100g total). Otherwise most factors are the same (I am splitting up my TRT to 3x/week now but same amount total).

I'd be interested to know if things change. Both diet and training and TRT all at once will make it hard to say quite what's at work, but interesting info. nonetheless.

(If you diet doesn't change, it will be interesting to see what happens to your weight / body comp, too. Most folks have to up the kcal unless dropping fat is a goal.)

How about those of us starting at 130lb untrained lol kidding....thanks for the feedback

I thought you were 127lb?...

I do the stretches after working legs but not much before. I will incorporate more stretching as warmup and I will try the oil. Really appreciate the advise.

Sure! I bet the stretches with enough warm-up will help a lot. Add the KW Oil and you'll feel like a 20yr old.

Scott, did you ever try keeping, the loading exercise, the same exercise until you stop to make progress on it? Sorry, coming from doing a strength program so long, I have it hardwired in my brain to squat, dead and bench every week.

I've not done that for years, and not with FT, but it tends to lead to a more quickly grinding halt in progress, e.g., in folks doing DC training.

I've had a few powerlifters (adding powerlifting here as a search term) ask about and do FT and the solution there was to use bands, chains, partials, presses off of blocks, box squats, and other variations on the big three to keep things fresh.

You could also "periodize" your rep ranges, too, e.g.

A Rotation: 10-12
B Rotation: 8-10
C Rotation: 6-8

Note that the Loading sets are about best exercises to make SIZE gains, no necessarily strength gains, al though the choice of exercise should be one that can be progressed upon. So, we're trying to put a square peg in a round hole to some degree. For a given person wanting to add chest size who has been flat benching religiously for decades with strength in mind, focusing on flat bench may not the solution for adding pec size.

-S

[Lando]

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?

[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

[MaxxPursuit]

Sub'd

This is a great thread - making my way through reading it now. Perfect way to see a compilation of questions and Scott's take on it.

[Altamir]

I'm starting tier II next week and want to get some clarification. For tier I we generally just have the one set per muscle grou. For tier III we often have 3-4 sets per muscle group so it tends to go A,B,A,B. Since tier III often has 2 sets for the same exercise, and even 3 sets for the same exercise in the case of the examples for thighs, can we / should we do 2 sets of the same exercise for Tier II? For example 3 sets of back would probably be A,B,A....can/should chest be A,A and delts be A,A or do we add yet another exercise into the mix so it's A,B?

Your talking loading right? Chest and delts have iso after compound. So its A, B. Like Bench Press and DB Fly ... or Military Press and DB Lateral Raises. If you are talking MR, all sets are different.

Secondly, If we do have multiple compound exercises per muscle group do they both get failure on the last set? In the book it mentions "take the last compound exercise to failure" but I'm thinking maybe that's supposed to mean "take the last set of each compound exercise to failure" because in the back examples where there are two compounds they are both taken to failure on the last set.

It's the last set of that lift. So for back, you're right, at Tier III you would do something like pulldowns (1 rep shy), T-bar rows (1 rep shy), Pulldowns (to failure), T-bar Rows (to failure).

For tier III legs it would be squat (1 rep shy), Hamstring curl (failure), Squat (1 rep shy), Sissy squats (failure), squats (failure).

Hope that makes sense. For loading isolation are always done to failure, compounds last time you do the lift is failure. This is true even if you do isolation first.

[Jen]

Just started my program yesterday~ love love love it! Surprised at my fatigue and soreness already. Excited to go through this for a few months and see what my changes look like!