FT Questions....

[Scott Stevenson]

Hey Scott and all the other brainiacs on here,

When you're blasting, How important do you think appetite is when it comes to your overall diet? I feel like once you reach a point in your caloric intake where food intake is pretty high, nothing really keeps appetite elevated. You just eat your meal regardless of how you feel, and move on

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Altamir gave you some great feedback.

I'll add:
Appetite getting poor can be due to quite a few things, including of course simply that your'e eating a hell, of a lot.

So, if your getting at the idea of who to work around this, improve this or if it's an important sign, I'd say yes, it is.

Other than the food, timing of intake, you'd want to consider if there's anything youre doing that might be stressing your liver, whether your'e perhaps overreaching / in need of de-laod, whether you've got a food intolerance brewing and simply need to change your food choices, overall life stress, etc.



-S

[Mrbulldog]

Quick question

when running Turbo how would you set up scheduling

My current is pretty much
Lower Load\Upper Pump
Off
Upper Load\Lower Pump
Off
Upper MR
Lower MR
Off
Off or restart depending on how i'm feeling

But with Turbo would you need a rest day between Muscle Rounds? or could you in theory run as above.
Lower Load\Upper Pump
Off
Upper Load\Lower Pump
Off
Turbo MR
Off
Lower MR

[Altamir]

Quick question

when running Turbo how would you set up scheduling

My current is pretty much
Lower Load\Upper Pump
Off
Upper Load\Lower Pump
Off
Upper MR
Lower MR
Off
Off or restart depending on how i'm feeling

But with Turbo would you need a rest day between Muscle Rounds? or could you in theory run as above.
Lower Load\Upper Pump
Off
Upper Load\Lower Pump
Off
Turbo MR
Off
Lower MR

Hey!

First off I would personally suggest modifying tiers or types of pump sets or other variables before taking an additional day off. One of the key elements to FT is frequency mixed with intensity. By taking additional days off you are reducing the frequency. You are more likely to get more out of it by lowering volume tier and keeping the 4 on / 3 off schedule.

All of that being said. Yeah there is just going to be, I have no better way to call it than a "choke point", with Turbo. You are going to have to run two days back to back, and it's difficult. Thankfully the choice is yours as to where to place the difficulty. So really the discussion comes down to weak points, strong points, recovery abilities, schedule, etc. (Which we can happily discuss here)

To give you maybe a little bit of insight into how I chose my days for turbo. I personally run my loading days back to back. This seriously sucks, but I've adapted. I do this mostly based on schedule, since weekends I train in the morning, and have the gym mostly to myself. So I can zig-zag and use the equipment I want for loading. To try and offset how difficult this is and the fact that my legs are a strong point. I run upper loading first, and try and keep my tiers for legs at a point where they can recover and progress.

Hope this helps and gives some insight as to how you might do your own weekly schedule. If it all sounds maybe a bit to daunting, perhaps sticking with basic is better. Let me know if you have any problems or questions.

[Tintin]

Thanks a lot @altamir for ur input.
@mrbulldog I'm starting my fifth week with FT and I'm gestion more and more addicted instead of bored because I'm finding the right way to train harder every time.
Currently I'm doing this way with basic Tier 3

Day 1 : Upper Loading Lower pumping
Day 2 : off
Day 3 : Lower loading Upper pumping
Day 4 : off
Day 5 : MuscleRounds Upper focus
Day 6 : MuscleRounds Lower focus
Day 7 : off
Repeat

I have an easy question, my arms still being my lagging part... What do u recommend ?
Adding more frequency (arms every workout ?) or more volume (more sets on day 2 & 4)
I've seen people like @Pscarbs Adding an extra arm workout session,
What do u think about this ?? Maybe should I go to the 3 day FT template with Upper focus and add an arm day ?
Im confused

[Altamir]

Thanks a lot @altamir for ur input.

I have an easy question, my arms still being my lagging part... What do u recommend ?
Adding more frequency (arms every workout ?) or more volume (more sets on day 2 & 4)
I've seen people like @Pscarbs Adding an extra arm workout session,
What do u think about this ?? Maybe should I go to the 3 day FT template with Upper focus and add an arm day ?
Im confused

No problem. Scott is traveling a bunch for BodyPower this week so I'll take a crack at this. My arms are lagging too. So here is some stuff I have done and gleaned from Scott. I believe he recommends trying to tackle the problem from inside the current structure of the program. So not adding days or really messing around with things. And generally go from here.

1. Are you growing? Are you in a caloric surplus. Scott preaches on this a lot. If you want to make significant improvements, you've got to have calories, a lot of calories, and for a bit. Can't make improvements without the stuff to do it. Also take measurements. How do you know if anything is working if you have no data to back it up? If your weight is up, your arm measurements are up, and your body fat calipers are not going nuts with readings, you are probably making some good improvements.

2. Are you actually targeting the weak muscle correctly? Are you curling but mostly using your shoulders, or trying to do tricep stuff and it's mostly chest? Any injuries or anything inhibiting movement? For myself curling on a machine preacher with an open hand (user Dens curls with straps for the same idea) to take forearm activation out and put more focus on the bicep. Triceps using bands has helped me a lot. I made a post about it here Triceps long head

3. Check your intensity. Your pump sets should be hell. Even for a small muscle group like arms. You should find a technique and method that will really allow you to push the limits on these sets. I usually know I am onto something good with a pump set if my mind wants to quit 3/4 of the way through, my body 9/10 and I manage to squeeze out a few more reps or seconds of TUT. Along with this. Stretch. Make it hurt, make it for 60-90 seconds long. I will usually set my ipod to the last 60 to 90 seconds of a song and hang in there til the song is over.

3. Go to War. Pick a MR that you know works best for your biceps and triceps and take it to task. Battle it every week. Hammer the bastard with PR after PR.

4. Train smart. Turbo Should help here, there is some increased direct and indirect stimulation for arms. But beyond that, any back motions with a supinated grip. I do pressing motions MR exclusively for chest and shoulders on lower focus days for the extra tricep work. Anything along those lines.

That's the best advice I can give within the given structure of the program. Here's what has not worked for me.

Upping the tier. I came very close to over reaching my arms. To maintain I would have had to back down the intensity.

Increasing additional frequency. This sort of worked for one blast. By the 2nd a minor case of elbow tendinitis set in from the additional tricep work and I had to shut it down.

Again this is just me. But hopefully there is enough info here for some guidance on your own path.

[Tintin]

Awesome !
Really appreciated to have people like you on this board, thanks @Altamir

Regarding to the 1st point, about the calories, I'm currently in deficit cause cutting ... so yeah, in a way arms can't grow

I'm getting lean (veins on abs) but still have to remove my stubborn fat / loving handles leftover from an inglorious past !

So when I'll add some more fuel, aka going to grow, we'll see

[thethinker48]

Dunno what altamir is talking about when he says he isn't a brainiac. Your posts are a plethora of valuable information; people spend god knows how much money on supplements and super supplements, I just tell them to buy FT e-book and join this board. It'll save them years of trial and error and give them direction in an otherwise barren wasteland of a journey we call bodybuilding.

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[Altamir]

Awesome !
Really appreciated to have people like you on this board, thanks @Altamir

Regarding to the 1st point, about the calories, I'm currently in deficit cause cutting ... so yeah, in a way arms can't grow

I'm getting lean (veins on abs) but still have to remove my stubborn fat / loving handles leftover from an inglorious past !

So when I'll add some more fuel, aka going to grow, we'll see

No problem. This is a good opportunity as long as you are recovering correctly to perhaps try to implement some of these (I would personally not suggestion the "pick a MR and go to war" on a deficit). but if your arms suck like my arms suck. They go flat easily and struggle to stay full was you diet down. So some of these may help that. Again, monitor your recovery, and if you are taking some hits, try and adjust.

Dunno what altamir is talking about when he says he isn't a brainiac. Your posts are a plethora of valuable information; people spend god knows how much money on supplements and super supplements, I just tell them to buy FT e-book and join this board. It'll save them years of trial and error and give them direction in an otherwise barren wasteland of a journey we call bodybuilding.

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Haha. Thank you, and I'm glad you and others find the posts helpful. Scott is the brainiac/genius here. I have just been paying very close attention to what the man says and doing my best to understand and extrapolate what I can. But I agree, the board is a huge resource for those who are willing to to put in the time and ask some good questions.

[Scott Stevenson]

You guys are awesome!

THANK YOU to Altamir for stepping in here while I was traveling home. (I think I was en route like 19hr to make it back... <sigh>)

Don't forget that I've got an board specific FAQ here (that covers bringing up weak muscle groups):

FT Most Frequently Questions asked here on the Forum

----------

I sat on 3 Round Tables back to back at the Body Power Expo. As it turned out (organization was poor there... ), I would have been the only person on the hypertrophy round table were it not for Martin MacDonald, who just hung out really to toss in some thoughts (he's quite a bright guy - hilarious, actually) and make things seem more legitimate.

The question of weak muscle groups came up and I spent 30min speaking on this one continuously... It was quite fun.

-Scott

[Tintin]

I have another questions for you guys

1/
Currently dieting, I ve just finished my 5th week of Blasting Period.

I'm becoming more and more tired, even when I wake up, so I think it's for me to start my first Cruise period !

So this morning I've reread religiously the chapter Simplified, Progressive Periodization Blast'n Cruise p80-84

So I'm all good with reducing volume, frequency and "TAPER"

But, my question is, can I keep my cardio sessions ?
Currently I m doing it 2x / week
Inclined walk on treadmill for 20 min / 5km/h / 7% inclined

Right after the upper loading and upper body sessions.

I've reread also the
Q: What about Cardio with Fortitude Training p123-124 but nothing special about the cruising phase.

So can I keep it after my upper body focus ? It's not very intensive but it helps recovering (in my mind) and it burn some extra calories.


2/
Regarding the pump sets, Scott you recommend to go for 50% 1RM, easy to handle 30 times, but when I look at the training sessions of Dave Henry (thanks to internet), his reps range are closer to 12-15 than 25+
So whats your mind about this ? Should i go lighter and burn them or heavier ? (maybe should I add extra reps with dropset ?)

Thanks again, I hope I'll be able to see you one day at Bodypower, Fibo or something else