Questions/Comments as nearing end of first FT blast

[jonmiller]

I'm on week 6 of my first blast of FT. Next week I'll begin my 2 week cruise session.

As a first timer with FT, I started with Tier I and moved up as follows:
Week 1 = Tier I
Week 2 = Tier II
Week 3 = Tier III
Week 4 = Tier III
Week 5 = Tier II
Week 6 = Tier II
I plan on using Tier I muscle round days for the cruise.

*As a naturally fatter guy, I generally always do some cardio. I had been doing fasted cardio 3 days per week for 30 minutes (stepmill). At start of FT training I backed the intensity down to just doing incline walking hitting around 120 beats/minute.

At week 3 (Tier III) it hit me hard. After a weekend of rest, I hit Tier III again the next week. However, I didn't recover well from that week. I felt really crappy Friday night. Sunday night, I still felt just as bad. My sleep started to go bad as well. So on week 5 I dropped back to Tier II and stopped cardio. Did the same this week for week 6.

So I'm trying to figure out if it's best to drop cardio for a while and just let FT work, or if I should keep cardio in, but just drop it during Tier III weeks. I want to lean up, but slowly, so no hurry.

Side note: I work a desk job, so not active during day. And I've always felt like it was easy for me to overtrain.

*Pump sets for me have been literally pump only. I don't feel intensity is super high, but seems to be working for me. Anyone else feel that way?

*Muscle rounds (I believe) have been the biggest part of helping my strength go up. In the book Scott references to start at a weight you use for 15 reps. But I have found I have to go higher than that. Which is great because it's helping me feel those heavier weights and my load sets are going up because of it. Love that part.

*Legs - quad exercises. I guess I'm not creative because I'm just doing leg extensions for this. Using squats, hack squats, leg presses for "thigh" compound movements. But from reading here you all must use hacks and other exercises for the "thigh" movements as well?

*Overall, FT training is hard when you get going and that's what I like about it. Like many on here I'm sure, I like having to push myself.

I welcome any questions or overall comments on this. Want to be sure I'm heading in the right direction.

[Scott Stevenson]

Jon,

Thanks for posting this here. Lots of good questions / comments. (As this thread develops, you might look around as a good bit of this has been addressed.)

Firstly, what kind of gains did you make on the program in terms of body comp/ weight?

My thoughts on cardio:

Cardio in the Off-Season: Blasphemy, Beneficial or Badass

 (Part 1) http://www.elitefts.com/education/traini...or-badass/ 

Cardio in the Off-Season: Make Up Your Mind (Part 2) 

 http://www.elitefts.com/education/traini...your-mind/ 


Pump sets are a place to auto regulate the program, so you can do those in various ways. Yours is fine, whereas some really like to push the hell out of themselves with Pump sets, and thus would possibly use a lower volume Tier.

Thigh literally means the "thigh" which is the musculature of the thigh (quad, ham, adductor, sartorius, TFL, etc.) and you could include glutes in there, too. So, thigh exercises would high the thigh generally. Thigh exercises can be chosen to target different areas of the thigh via stance width, food positioning, etc.

-S

[jonmiller]

Sorry I worded that wrong. At the end I said thigh but meant quad. It seems others do compound exercises for quad sets as well? I'll reply to rest later

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[dens228]

You didn't mention what your prior training experience is/was.
Obviously if Tier 3 wipes you out, you need to drop a tier.
I've been training for a VERY long time. Tier 3 wipes me out.
I'm a big proponent of starting at Tier 1 and staying there until it feels like you need more.
It may be in a few weeks, it may be never. There's also nothing that says you can't move back and forth between tiers during a blast.
After a few blasts you'll have a better idea of what tiers work without wiping you out.

In my mind/experience you don't really want to be totally wiped out at the end of a blast let alone the middle. You want to be slightly over-reaching your recovery ability, not grinding it into the ground.

So, I say put ego and impatience aside and start the journey with a single step..........

[jonmiller]

I hate it when people post to a forum and don't give their background info... And then I went and did exactly that...

*Started training at 14, just turned 39. Have trained one way or another in all but 2 of those 25 years (got away from it right out of high school for that time).

*Accounting field, so not active at work. Only extra activity is home stuff with mowing etc around the house. 2 kids so there's plenty of that stuff every day. Therefore, it became to the point where I wondered if the extra hour to hour and a half of sleep gained by NOT doing cardio helped more than the cardio itself.

*Never took diet seriously during that time except for two separate times of about 6 months each. 2 years ago that changed and I pushed diet hard on my own, then working with Chris250 (as many knew him from the boards) Went from 242 down to 184 at lowest. Basically it was a long contest prep. THOUGH I AM NOT A COMPETITOR. I then worked with Skip Hill last summer for a clean bulk session.

*Diet is good and consistent. My results had gotten stagnant, so I took 4 weeks and really pushed the fast acting carbs. At the end of that four weeks is when I started FT. At that time I switched back to slower carbs and have dropped them slowly each week. End goal being to get to the point of Scott's outlined diet in the book of basically low carb except during/after training.

*TRT by prescription only at this time, well monitored by doc.

Scott, as far as body comp I can't say much change. Main thing noticed is more full/thick through my upper chest and shoulders. Strength is where I have see the biggest change which is funny because I've never been very strong. Example, before FT I squatted 275 for (good all the way down reps) one day. Only ever got about 5 since that time. Monday night I got 295 for 8. And honestly my legs were still sore/tired from my muscle rounds Friday before.

Weight increased at a pound per week the first 3 weeks. I basically attributed that to water considering how sore I constantly was from the new workout plan. The last two weeks have dropped 1 pound per week (after stopping cardio is when weight started going back down)

Thanks for the article links, I'll check both of those out.

No ego lifting for me. That crap just leads to injury for me. My downfall is (and maybe you WILL consider this ego) is that I don't know when to lay off. I usually figure it out about 3-4 weeks after I should have. So I was pretty proud of myself for dropping back to Tier II when I felt like crap But Scott's blast example in the book followed a similar schedule, so I had no issues with doing so.

Anyway, loving the program and how hard it is. I just like living the bodybuilding lifestyle but don't compete. I leave that to my friends and help them where I can.

[dens228]

Well it certainly sounds like you have training experience.
No offense meant by the ego statement.
In my experience ego in lifting can mean many things......we all know people that think anyone not doing 20 sets per bodypart isn't training, etc.
I'm of the belief that the goal is to set the stage for adaptation and let it happen. It's a delicate balancing act to find that level for each individual.
Many think of it as being able to recover, and such. I think another important factor is enjoying the workout. How can you give it your all if you approach it feeling beat up and tired?

When I first started FT I couldn't get to Tier 3 fast enough, you know, get in a real workout. I quickly discovered that I do best at tiers 1 and 2 while tier 3 quickly wore me out. If I really hit it hard and leave it all in the gym it is plenty to give me the gains I want.

Some may need more, some may need less, it doesn't really matter to me. What matters is that I make gains, enjoy the workout, and am able to function in other aspects of life. It sounds like you are the same.

[jonmiller]

No offense taken at the ego thing. And, yeah, I guess it's been a few years of training when I have to put the numbers out there... Ha ha!

Right now it definitely seems to me that Tier II is my "baseline" good workout. I think I can do Tier III a week or two (maybe back to back, maybe not) in a 6 week blast. So it will be something I have to experiment with for sure.

Thanks for your feedback. I appreciate it.

Jon

[dens228]

One thing I've found works for me is Tier 1 for weeks 1 and 2, then tier 2 for week 3. Back to Tier 1 for weeks 4 and 5, then finish off with Tier 2.

[masonator]

I am (rightly or wrongly) doing a 7th week in my blast as my first week was very much hit and miss as i sussed out exercises, weights etc etc but i know this is my last week before cruising.

As a noob on the routine i can honestly say it wasn't until maybe week 5 (Tier 2) that the routine really clicked for me in regards to the actual intensity levels required. I train alone so absolute failure is probably a bit further in reality than what i thought i was doing but week 5 and 6 absolutely smashed me and i knew i was finally hitting the mark!

I started at Tier 1 went to Tier 2 and for me i don't even think i would need to hit Tier 3 as i am now absolutely mullered when i stagger out of the gym! Maybe this will change in time the more cycles i do with FT.

I also struggle with quad exercises and mainly utilised teh same exercises as thighs but changed foot placement to hit front quad more, ie narrow leg press, v squat with low narrow foot placement etc. Never could get the hang of the smith sissy squats

[jonmiller]

Yesterday was the end of my 6 week blast.
Now for my 2 week cruise. I ended with tier II so I'll do tier 1 muscle round workouts on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Monday. Then take the rest of the days off.

After reading Scott's articles on cardio I decided to drop cardio for now and see how well I can manipulate my body fat levels with diet and FT training.

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