FT Questions....

[Storm]

Scott, have you ever tried splitting up the FT Basic days 1 & 2 full body workouts into four separate (but shorter) upper lower workouts?

Admittedly, I'm only one week into my first run of the program. Days 1 & 2 took the longest.

However, my wife is about to have our next baby any day. Since I lift in my basement, working out more often in short bouts is actually easier for my day-to-day family life than longer sessions that are harder to recover from and leave me wiped out the rest of the day when doing family stuff.

Thanks!


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[Scott Stevenson]

Scott, have you ever tried splitting up the FT Basic days 1 & 2 full body workouts into four separate (but shorter) upper lower workouts?

Admittedly, I'm only one week into my first run of the program. Days 1 & 2 took the longest.

However, my wife is about to have our next baby any day. Since I lift in my basement, working out more often in short bouts is actually easier for my day-to-day family life than longer sessions that are harder to recover from and leave me wiped out the rest of the day when doing family stuff.

Thanks!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes, t hat's an option that has been brought up a few times here now. You're in a good situation to do that b/c you'd not be spending so long to go to and from the gym just for a really short workout.

-S

[Kabhattacharya]

Hey Scott


Thanks very much for the advice. Finally hit the gym today after being sick for the last week and a half.


Felt great to be back in the gym. Took your advice lowered the weights a little bit and focused on controlling the negative portion of the reps also on machine movements kept fighting against the weight on the last failure rep for a good 5-8 seconds until the weight slowly and gradually forced me to lower it under control - good stuff.


I had a quick question regarding "feeling" a muscle during a movement.

A muscle has a point of origin and a point of insertion. It therefore has a very specific function of moving about a joint. Therefore; even if we don't "feel" a muscle during a movement isn't it impossible for us to do a certain movement without involving certain muscle groups i.e. During barbell rows even if you don't "feel" the lats it's impossible to row the weight without the lays pulling your arms back?

From a scientific point isn't there an inevitable mind muscle connection ie nervous system signaling the muscles to move the weight?


Appreciate your thoughts and inputs


Best

Joshua

[Scott Stevenson]

Hey Scott


Thanks very much for the advice. Finally hit the gym today after being sick for the last week and a half.


Felt great to be back in the gym. Took your advice lowered the weights a little bit and focused on controlling the negative portion of the reps also on machine movements kept fighting against the weight on the last failure rep for a good 5-8 seconds until the weight slowly and gradually forced me to lower it under control - good stuff.


I had a quick question regarding "feeling" a muscle during a movement.

A muscle has a point of origin and a point of insertion. It therefore has a very specific function of moving about a joint. Therefore; even if we don't "feel" a muscle during a movement isn't it impossible for us to do a certain movement without involving certain muscle groups i.e. During barbell rows even if you don't "feel" the lats it's impossible to row the weight without the lays pulling your arms back?

From a scientific point isn't there an inevitable mind muscle connection ie nervous system signaling the muscles to move the weight?


Appreciate your thoughts and inputs


Best

Joshua

Hey Bud,

Glad that's working for you.

Regarding your question - this is an oversimplification in terms of muscle architecture and types of movements.

• Not all muscles are fusiform with a single point of insertion and origin (e.g. the pecs are pennate).

• Not all movement involve just one muscle as a prime mover or mover that alls a particular movement / exercise to be carried out.

You could paralyze the biceps brachii and still perform elbow flexion using the brachialis and brachioradialis, for instance. Hamstring curls could be performed without an attached / activated semitendinosus.

Practically speaking, though, for a given movement there will be some activation of that musculature, so it's a matter of extent and pattern of activation, as well as the loading that comes bout due to (musculoskeletal) biomechanics particular to that individual.

Put VERY simply - "feeling" a muscle is a matter of mechano and metabo-receptor activation (with some input from joint prioprioceptors playing a role in carrying out the movement through it's range of motion). SO, if the muscle is loaded (mechano) and undergoing metabolic stress from doing work (metabo) then you would feel it.

-S

[Kabhattacharya]

Hey Bud,

Glad that's working for you.

Regarding your question - this is an oversimplification in terms of muscle architecture and types of movements.

• Not all muscles are fusiform with a single point of insertion and origin (e.g. the pecs are pennate).

• Not all movement involve just one muscle as a prime mover or mover that alls a particular movement / exercise to be carried out.

You could paralyze the biceps brachii and still perform elbow flexion using the brachialis and brachioradialis, for instance. Hamstring curls could be performed without an attached / activated semitendinosus.

Practically speaking, though, for a given movement there will be some activation of that musculature, so it's a matter of extent and pattern of activation, as well as the loading that comes bout due to (musculoskeletal) biomechanics particular to that individual.

Put VERY simply - "feeling" a muscle is a matter of mechano and metabo-receptor activation (with some input from joint prioprioceptors playing a role in carrying out the movement through it's range of motion). SO, if the muscle is loaded (mechano) and undergoing metabolic stress from doing work (metabo) then you would feel it.

-S

Dr S

As always I'm humbled by the sheer vastness of your knowledge. Understand the compensatory role non primary movers can play - hence feeling a muscle is important

One technique that worked pretty well for me on chest today (I never touch the bar to my chest - hurts my shoulders although extreme stretching has helped me increase my bottom range of motion significantly) - so I did a 2-3 second negative on each rep paused at the bottom and then almost consciously exploded up to the top while trying to squeeze my chest - definitely felt it work a helluva lot more than just piston pumping reps.

If I'm not wrong I recall Dante giving Dusty similar advice to bring up his legs ie pause at the bottom to ensure that the muscle you're targeting is actually doing the work, and if I'm not wrong I believe brooks kubik also recommends dead stop bench press to actually build pushing power and work the chest.


All the best

Joshua

[Scott Stevenson]

Dr S

As always I'm humbled by the sheer vastness of your knowledge. Understand the compensatory role non primary movers can play - hence feeling a muscle is important

I've got a few tidbits floating around up there.

One technique that worked pretty well for me on chest today (I never touch the bar to my chest - hurts my shoulders although extreme stretching has helped me increase my bottom range of motion significantly) - so I did a 2-3 second negative on each rep paused at the bottom and then almost consciously exploded up to the top while trying to squeeze my chest - definitely felt it work a helluva lot more than just piston pumping reps.

If I'm not wrong I recall Dante giving Dusty similar advice to bring up his legs ie pause at the bottom to ensure that the muscle you're targeting is actually doing the work, and if I'm not wrong I believe brooks kubik also recommends dead stop bench press to actually build pushing power and work the chest.


All the best

Joshua

Yes, that's the rep tempo that works well for most folks, especially in this context. (You can also attempt to contract the target muscle - as if you were posing it - during the descent.)

The important part to keep in mind, too, is using the target muscle to initiate the concentric action. This a lot of times can mean a lose of bar / machine / weight velocity initially b/c you're not using to doing so (it's a new motor pattern).

-S

[Altamir]

Scott,

Hope you can help me out with a little programming/progress issue I've run into. Not sure if you've seen this before, and I'm hoping you can maybe give me a clue what I might be doing wrong. (I've got my own theories which I'll share at the end).

So for two body parts, first back and now then legs. I've hit a weird (at least in my mind) sort of progression wall, where my loading sets have stalled, or moved forward VERY slowly. Very often I'll tie or pick up a rep on my first working set, and then progress slightly on my 2nd working set, after zig-zagging. However I am still seeing good progress on my Muscle Round sets (for legs this includes both thigh, and hamstring lifts), and saw my pump sets go very very well. So for both I'm obviously going to be swapping loading sets, to see if I can get progression moving forward again.

For back, I've stalled big twice now. Both resulting in changing the tempo I was doing my reps at. First was what I would call a controlled ballistic style, in response to stalling like that,I moved to a slow negative with a hold at the bottom. I saw progress again, but here I am stalled again. I know why I stalled at the ballistic style. I believe the slow negatives made it difficult to progress. I've recently changed it up to just a normal tempo, with a small focus on squeezing at the bottom and getting a good stretch at the top (or bottom depending on the direction of the back movement) and its too soon to tell exactly, but my back has not been this sore in a long time, so I think I may be on the right path. Not hugely concerned here. I bring it up more in the context of it falling into the same pattern of stalling on loading sets but nowhere else in the program.

Legs may be another issue. Never really had to worry about them, as I've always been able to easily make progress with them in one form or another my entire time training, since day one in the gym. I have a feeling in the back of my head that as I have progressed blast to blast, what used to work for me, no longer does and I may be working them a tier too high. I was going back through my log books and trying to look for clues. I go back to older blasts, and when I would hit tier 3, my 3rd zig-zag for my thigh movement I'd put up decent numbers. I only hit tier 3 once a blast, and in my more recent blasts, there is a trend where those 3rd thigh set numbers have slowly gotten worse. There seems to be a pattern of steady decline, even before hitting this current point of stalling. My quad and hamstring loading sets have still been progressing, maybe a rep or 2 per training session. Also been dealing with being somewhat unenthusiastic for lower MR days. I get into the gym, and get after it, don't get me wrong, but it's just not my favorite training day. (I bring this up, only as a possible clue.) During my last big growth push I certainly saw progress in my legs, so I'm not training in completely in vain. Just thinking I'm not firing at 100% here.

Everything else, chest, shoulders, calves, triceps, and biceps have all been progressing very well. I'm interested to hear your thoughts if something here jumps out at you. Thanks again for taking the time to read and respond, and share your knowledge and wisdom.

[Scott Stevenson]

Scott,

Hope you can help me out with a little programming/progress issue I've run into. Not sure if you've seen this before, and I'm hoping you can maybe give me a clue what I might be doing wrong. (I've got my own theories which I'll share at the end).

So for two body parts, first back and now then legs. I've hit a weird (at least in my mind) sort of progression wall, where my loading sets have stalled, or moved forward VERY slowly. Very often I'll tie or pick up a rep on my first working set, and then progress slightly on my 2nd working set, after zig-zagging. However I am still seeing good progress on my Muscle Round sets (for legs this includes both thigh, and hamstring lifts), and saw my pump sets go very very well. So for both I'm obviously going to be swapping loading sets, to see if I can get progression moving forward again.

For back, I've stalled big twice now. Both resulting in changing the tempo I was doing my reps at. First was what I would call a controlled ballistic style, in response to stalling like that,I moved to a slow negative with a hold at the bottom. I saw progress again, but here I am stalled again. I know why I stalled at the ballistic style. I believe the slow negatives made it difficult to progress. I've recently changed it up to just a normal tempo, with a small focus on squeezing at the bottom and getting a good stretch at the top (or bottom depending on the direction of the back movement) and its too soon to tell exactly, but my back has not been this sore in a long time, so I think I may be on the right path. Not hugely concerned here. I bring it up more in the context of it falling into the same pattern of stalling on loading sets but nowhere else in the program.

Legs may be another issue. Never really had to worry about them, as I've always been able to easily make progress with them in one form or another my entire time training, since day one in the gym. I have a feeling in the back of my head that as I have progressed blast to blast, what used to work for me, no longer does and I may be working them a tier too high. I was going back through my log books and trying to look for clues. I go back to older blasts, and when I would hit tier 3, my 3rd zig-zag for my thigh movement I'd put up decent numbers. I only hit tier 3 once a blast, and in my more recent blasts, there is a trend where those 3rd thigh set numbers have slowly gotten worse. There seems to be a pattern of steady decline, even before hitting this current point of stalling. My quad and hamstring loading sets have still been progressing, maybe a rep or 2 per training session. Also been dealing with being somewhat unenthusiastic for lower MR days. I get into the gym, and get after it, don't get me wrong, but it's just not my favorite training day. (I bring this up, only as a possible clue.) During my last big growth push I certainly saw progress in my legs, so I'm not training in completely in vain. Just thinking I'm not firing at 100% here.

Everything else, chest, shoulders, calves, triceps, and biceps have all been progressing very well. I'm interested to hear your thoughts if something here jumps out at you. Thanks again for taking the time to read and respond, and share your knowledge and wisdom.

Hey Bud!!!

Firstly, I can tell you've hardly even given this the slightest bit of thought... (JUST KIDDING!)

The analysis helps a good bit.

The things that jump out at me are:

• Is your weight going up / are you eating enough to grow?... At some point, you'll need to gain body weight (and of course muscle mass) for strength to make progress at a decent rate. (Of course, there are world class PL and Oly lifters who can stay at the same weight class and make gains, but they are the strongest people in the world and just care about strength, in terms of their sport.)

Conversely, one of the best ways to bust through a strength plateau is to eat your way through it, so to speak. This will of course impact your recovery.

• Also I think recall that you like to couple loading days one right after another. This might have an impact on this phenomenon, too.

• Another option, since MR's progress quite well for you, would be to start using your Loading set exercises for MR's. The idea here would be to do MRs with the loading set exercises before those enter into your rotation. For example, if smith squats is a thigh exercise not currently in your Loading set rotation (but one you'd likely be adding soon), you'd make that a staple MR exercise. When the time comes to rotate in a new Loading set (and you could even jump the gun here a bit and drop a loading set exercise before you've absolutely entirely plateaued), you'd use smith squats (after which you'd not use that for MR's).

• You might try really focusing on the micro loading too with your loading sets, if you really like some of the exercise. Use the 2.5lb plates to progress. Just and extra 5lb each time is progression and this can add up slowly, and let you keep those favorite loading set exercises in place if the are great for growth for you.

Still, the first bulleted point is an important one to remember: The training will only elicit so much in terms of gains at a given caloric input. What's needed here is highly a function of the individual, so you may need to push the kcal more than the next guy.

-S

[Altamir]

Hey Bud!!!

Firstly, I can tell you've hardly even given this the slightest bit of thought... (JUST KIDDING!)

The analysis helps a good bit.

The things that jump out at me are:

• Is your weight going up / are you eating enough to grow?... At some point, you'll need to gain body weight (and of course muscle mass) for strength to make progress at a decent rate. (Of course, there are world class PL and Oly lifters who can stay at the same weight class and make gains, but they are the strongest people in the world and just care about strength, in terms of their sport.)

Conversely, one of the best ways to bust through a strength plateau is to eat your way through it, so to speak. This will of course impact your recovery.

• Also I think recall that you like to couple loading days one right after another. This might have an impact on this phenomenon, too.

• Another option, since MR's progress quite well for you, would be to start using your Loading set exercises for MR's. The idea here would be to do MRs with the loading set exercises before those enter into your rotation. For example, if smith squats is a thigh exercise not currently in your Loading set rotation (but one you'd likely be adding soon), you'd make that a staple MR exercise. When the time comes to rotate in a new Loading set (and you could even jump the gun here a bit and drop a loading set exercise before you've absolutely entirely plateaued), you'd use smith squats (after which you'd not use that for MR's).

• You might try really focusing on the micro loading too with your loading sets, if you really like some of the exercise. Use the 2.5lb plates to progress. Just and extra 5lb each time is progression and this can add up slowly, and let you keep those favorite loading set exercises in place if the are great for growth for you.

Still, the first bulleted point is an important one to remember: The training will only elicit so much in terms of gains at a given caloric input. What's needed here is highly a function of the individual, so you may need to push the kcal more than the next guy.

-S

Thanks for the detailed response I appreciate it and unsurprisingly you bring up some valid points. I'll address possible what I think is the main one first.

I have been eating to grow (And growing!). However, what I did not think about, when writing my post above, was during my last big growth push I ate like a fiend. I put on a lot of muscle, a lot of fat, and a lot of extra weight on the bar. At the end of it, I was happy with everything but the spare tire around my waist. So in response, this time around I played it a little more conservatively, saw good muscle growth, not too bad as far as fat went, and a decent amount of extra weight on the bar (outside of the stalling methods I mentioned). Interesting point, I saw ZERO stalling the first go around. I hate to think that in order to progress in the methods I wish I have to deal with the extra fat gain, but I'm also not scared about getting a little chubby to better hit my goals. (I was just hoping there was a better way) Gives me some (no pun intended) good food for thought moving forward, and perhaps there lies a good answer in between the two.

I do do both loading days one after the other, It certainly has an impact. To some degree (how much I'm not certain). As I've gotten appreciably good at brutalizing my back and chest with pump sets (the day before loading sets). However my feeling was, since my chest histrionically does not recover very quickly, and my back seems to, it may not be the issue. As I completely dominated EVERY single chest set over the past three blasts. (Though the more I think about this, I used to do a lot of pressing lifts for chest, which did not work, and also why it may have stalled a lot in the past. I have now moved to doing isolation lifts, which has helped tremendously. This "historical" fact may not be as much truth as I thought, sorry for the rambling)

I mostly use free weights squat variations for thigh movements. and I did those once for MRs and really wished I never did. Do you think doing more machine based loading may help, as I can build it more with MRs? I have smith squats in my current rotation for both loading and MRs and they have certainly stalled the least out of my three lifts. So that seems like it might be a good idea. Also my ego is not to big to micro load and I'm afraid to grab the 2.5lb plates. Heck, I have not used them in a VERY long time, but when I was first starting I invested in a set of micro plates, 1/8lb, 1/4lb, 1/2lb and 1lb. and they helped, So I have faith that those methods work

Finally (sorry for the novel). Any feelings or thoughts on me possibly training too high a tier level for my legs? or is that more in my camp to play around with and see what happens? (which honestly is fine, just thought it might be a part of what's going on)

Thanks for the response, it's helped me collate some ideas in my head (and question some preconceived ones). as always your time is greatly appreciated.

[EMPIREMIND]

Starting the basic FT Layout tier 2.

Regarding calves: are the loading sets done DC style?