A Couple Questions

[Tom Treutlein]

1. I feel like my spine is being compressed when I have immense amounts of weight on my shoulders doing squats or heel raises. Is this dangerous? Does it normally feel this way? Is it something I'll have to adjust to with intense weights?

2. Protein powder isn't FDA approved. Is this bad? Why isn't it?

3. When is it most important to have food in terms of during the week in your split? On or off of training days?

4. The program I'm on now has me doing 3x3 for week 1, 3x5 for week 2, 5-3-1 for week 3, then 10-8-6 for week 4 before returning back to week 1 again. Why the sudden jump in reps? Perhaps to give the muscles time to recuperate after last week going all out with a rep max on the last set? Is this necessary, or only if one feels they need to recover more? I feel the first 3 weeks cycled would produce better results. Opinions?

 

[slobberknocker]

1. That's pretty normal

2. Protein powder is fine. Just don't use it for a substitute for food. Get most of your protein from real food, and supplement with the powder. Make sure you drink plenty of water.

3. You need food on all days. You grow everyday. Immediately after I workout, I have some simple sugars and 60 grams of protein powder. 2 hours later I eat a well balanced meal. The rest of the time, I eat every 2-3 hours, making sure I get in plenty protein.

4. I don't know the specifics of your program. Do you have a link to it?

 

[Tom Treutlein]

The program I use is the BFS (bigger, faster, stronger) training program. The main idea of the program is to train Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Each day, two core lifts are done, followed by auxillary exercises. For example, Monday is Flat Bench Press and Squats. Wednesday deadlifts and power cleans. Friday is inclined bench press and a squat variation, such as box squats.

The 4 week cycle is as follows:
Week 1 - 3x3
Week 2 - 3x5
Week 3 - 5-3-1
Week 4 - 10-8-6 (4-4-2 for Deads/Cleans)

Those are the rep schemes for the core lifts. All auxillary exercises are done 2x8. On all training days, abs, calves, forearms, and grip work is done, since those are such small muscle groups and they recover so quickly.

Input?

 

[Tom Treutlein]

Input?

 

[Thaibox]

1.Normal, unless there's pain involved

2. There are several companies that have been independently tested and have come out with solid results, simply look for those and you're good.

3.

You need food on all days.

If you're training calves correctly, you can't hit them 3X/week

I'm presonally against mixing heavy core lifts. For example, if you train squats to an adequate level, you won't be benching as good as you can be 10 minutes later. But, that's just me.

 

[Tom Treutlein]

Okay well, can anyone possibly tell me why the program would have you doing 10-8-6 with reps on the 4th week? Would it be to give the muscles time to recover after maxing out the week before, using lighter weight with more reps? Or would it help to stimulate growth? Anyone?

 

[slobberknocker]

Maybe just variation, like the Westside principle of not doing the same thing two weeks in a row, so your muscles/cns are always in a state of shock. That'd be my guess.

 

[Tom Treutlein]

Sounds good... Anyone else?