FT Questions....

[Scott Stevenson]

This is what I did today...I didn't know if I should have done 1 isolation for chest too?

Yes, a fly movement would have worked well there. Could have been before or after the decline. (Before, for example, if you have trouble feeling your chest on compound movements. You could run the order of those two sets until you plateau and then switch it around and still keep the same exercises on that day.)

And just taken that and the one set compound to failure after warm ups..

Cos u only did 1 set lat pull down in between rows am I still ok to warm up then do the set or after I've done my first bent over row should I be going straight into my failure set on lat pull down?

Ideally, you'd be warmed up on all exercises for loading sets and then can just to the actual (work) set.

Safety is priority #1, so if you feel like you have to do a couple reps to be in the right might set / groove to do the next exercise, then by all means. Ideally, you don't have to do that. This question has been asked several times, but I don't know of anyone who routinely had felt like they needed to do that. (With pulldowns, it's just moving a pin. With free weights, it would be a PITA.)

-S

[JLarge1989]

Yes, a fly movement would have worked well there. Could have been before or after the decline. (Before, for example, if you have trouble feeling your chest on compound movements. You could run the order of those two sets until you plateau and then switch it around and still keep the same exercises on that day.)


Ideally, you'd be warmed up on all exercises for loading sets and then can just to the actual (work) set.

Safety is priority #1, so if you feel like you have to do a couple reps to be in the right might set / groove to do the next exercise, then by all means. Ideally, you don't have to do that. This question has been asked several times, but I don't know of anyone who routinely had felt like they needed to do that. (With pulldowns, it's just moving a pin. With free weights, it would be a PITA.)

-S

Thanks Scott.
I did my failure set on the bent over rows then went and just did a straight set in the 6-12rep range with no warm up as i felt i was warm from the bent over row and i worked off a weight that i used when i previously did back so yeah it was all good.

Really makes you put all your effort in when you know you only have say 2 working sets for say delts as its on 2 exercises too so then you only really have one working set so makes you really try and go for it..

I increased my weight on lat raises today just as i knew i only had one set and tbh i could have gone heavier.

Legs s/sets had me breathing through my asshole but its part of the fun!

Hope that makes sense

[Scott Stevenson]

Thanks Scott.
I did my failure set on the bent over rows then went and just did a straight set in the 6-12rep range with no warm up as i felt i was warm from the bent over row and i worked off a weight that i used when i previously did back so yeah it was all good.

Really makes you put all your effort in when you know you only have say 2 working sets for say delts as its on 2 exercises too so then you only really have one working set so makes you really try and go for it..

I increased my weight on lat raises today just as i knew i only had one set and tbh i could have gone heavier.

Legs s/sets had me breathing through my asshole but its part of the fun!

Hope that makes sense

Sounds pretty smelly!

Glad you're getting the hang of it!

-S

[JLarge1989]

Hey Scott.

Yes it's me again.

On the muscle rounds....I find if I don't fail till the 6th set the first few sets are quite light....

Would it be better to say fail at the 4th set then drop the weight for the remaining 2 sets?

Just slightly confused as I know you should hit failure once during MR.

Hope that makes sense.

The diet aspect of the ebook is amazing!

I feel the programme is so cheap for what you offer as the amount of info you have provided is probably more than you would learn off an online coach in several months.

If you do a voice over explaining it that would be very useful

[Scott Stevenson]

Hey Scott.

Yes it's me again.

On the muscle rounds....I find if I don't fail till the 6th set the first few sets are quite light....

Would it be better to say fail at the 4th set then drop the weight for the remaining 2 sets?

Just slightly confused as I know you should hit failure once during MR.

Hope that makes sense.

Just up the weight so that you fail in the 4th to 6th.

This is another form of variation that I wanted to have, at least as an option, in the system to permit progressive overload iwht the MR's for those who really favor and do well with progressive overload.

With a particular exercise (let's say it's one you Really like for MR's) you could start a sequence of workouts with a weight that barely lets you get past the 3rd set without failing.

You'll likely find it takes several workouts to move from getting just 3 sets (failing in the 4th) to getting strong enough to get 4 reps in the 6th set.

------------

So, if you prefer to go heavier, just do so, but I'd still suggest keeping with the MR set up where you get at least the 1st three sets of 4. (What can happen if you go too heavy is that if you drop the weight such that you could get the rest of the sets of, then the set after the failure set is too light. If someone fails in the 2nd set and picks a weight they could get 3 more sets of 4 with, the 3 and 4th set will be pretty easy, and it's a bit too complicated IMO, to turn the MR's into triple drop sets.

The diet aspect of the ebook is amazing!

I feel the programme is so cheap for what you offer as the amount of info you have provided is probably more than you would learn off an online coach in several months.

If you do a voice over explaining it that would be very useful

I was working on that but am caught up not just keeping basics together while I prepare a course I'll be teaching next month.

(Hopefully, I'll be able to get some FT seminars together middle of next year.)



-S

[dens228]

I was wondering along the same lines as JLarge.
In order to fail close to 4 reps on the 6th set the 5th set is usually what many would consider a failure set.

So just to be clear, on the method you state above, it's ok to fail on the 4th set or later but you don't drop the weight for the remaining sets to get to 6 total sets.
An MR set could consist of 4-4-4-4-2?

[Scott Stevenson]

I was wondering along the same lines as JLarge.
In order to fail close to 4 reps on the 6th set the 5th set is usually what many would consider a failure set.

Well, I'm not sure what to say to that.

If you get the 4th rep, then you didn't fail. If you failed, then you didn't get the rep... LOL

In other words, if you did a rep, bit was crappy, I'd not count it as a completed rep, and you'd need to drop the weight down to get the rest of the sets of the MR.

So just to be clear, on the method you state above, it's ok to fail on the 4th set or later but you don't drop the weight for the remaining sets to get to 6 total sets.
An MR set could consist of 4-4-4-4-2?

I'm not creating any new way to do MR's in my previous post.

For an MR, you would still do 6 sets (I think you're listing only 5 above), with ideally only ONE of them having a true failure rep. The weight drop should make the rest of the sets hard, but we want to make those VERY clean as far as form.

If you favor progressive overload with the MR's ONE way to do this is:

1.) pick a weight you can get the first three sets of 4 with, failing in the 4th set. (Thereafter you'd drop the weight to allow you to get the 4 reps in the 5th and 6th.

2.) Stick with that same weight for that exercise.

---You'll progress when you can get more reps in the set you fail in and/or get more sets before you reach failure.

It might go, week by week

4,4,4,2...4,4
4,4,4,3, 4,4
4,4,4,4,2, 4 (this drop might not be as much b/c you only need to get 1 more set of 4 with the lesser weight)
4,4,4,4,3,4
4,4,4,4,4, 2
4,4,4,4,4, 3
4,4,4,4,4,4

----

now, you were just about to do all 6 sets of 4, so you can adjust weight the next time so you get at least 3 sets, failing the forth and progress in the same fashion as above.

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(Hope that clarifies?...)

-S

[dens228]

Got it. Although my only concern is that if I'm doing the weight reduction on an exercise like leg press or decline it would take longer than the 5 breaths to lower the weight......I'm assuming it's a fair trade off.

[Scott Stevenson]

Got it. Although my only concern is that if I'm doing the weight reduction on an exercise like leg press or decline it would take longer than the 5 breaths to lower the weight......I'm assuming it's a fair trade off.

The point of progression is up to when you fail.

After that, it's just gravy and further stimulus focused on making sure you're targeting the muscle. That % drop is not specified, it's up to you, and, frankly, I'd probably rather see people resting longer than 10s / 5 breaths after falling on a big lift like that for safety reasons. Getting up to change the weight, etc. also gives you a mental check on your level of awareness and consciousness, i.e., gives you a change to clear your mind after the failure point and make sure you're good to continue with the rest of the sets of the MR.

(Don't split hairs on that time - it doesn't matter in the big picture, IMO.)

-S

[dens228]

Thanks Scott, makes perfect sense. I'm making great gains and love every workout.
And when I'm getting ready to do an MR set I'm dreading it,,,,,,,,until I start it, then it's great!

I think I worked my last blast out perfect.
Just starting week 2 of this blast and am up 4 pounds, 234 at 5-09. All this on top of being a few weeks away from turning 51 and having trained for 37 years.