FST-7

Very very interesting stuff here. I'm definitely going to incorporate this into my next bulk.

Anybody else hear about this or try this? It is all the rave on the forums and the magazines right now. Talk about blasting the **** outta your muscles in a very short amount of time!

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http://www.giantpt.net/training/fst-7_accelerated_muscle_growth_par...

By Robin Roelofsen, GIANT!
After Hany Rambod's articles on FST-7.com

Lately, you hear many bodybuilders talking about ‘sevens’, ‘7s’ or FST-7. Great bodybuilders like Phil Heath and Jay Cutler already use this system, and it helps them to break through their genetic barrier, but what exactly is FST-7?


What Exactly Does FST-7 Stand For?

FST-7 is a system of training developed by well-known coach Haney Rambod. FST stand for Fascia Stretching Training and is meant to stretch the tissue around the muscle (the fascia). The 7 stands for the seven sets you do of the last exercise for a muscle group.

FST-7 includes factors inside and outside the gym. The first thing we will discuss will be weight training.


Do Your Fascia Limit Your Muscle Growth?

The high percentage of collagen fibers gives the deep fascia (the tissue around your muscles) its strength and capability to keep its shape. The amount of elastic fibers (elastine) in the fascia determines the flexibility of the fascia. In other words, some people are built with thicker fascia then other people.

Most genetically gifted bodybuilder have thinner fascia, which make their muscles look bigger and fuller, the kind of muscles you see on super heroes in comic books. Ronnie Coleman and Phil Heath are two great examples of bodybuilders with thin fascia, who gain bigger muscles quite easily. Try to picture it as blowing up a balloon versus trying to do the same with a hot water bottle. Both Jay Cutler and Nasser El-Sonbatty are examples of bodybuilders with thicker fascia. Although they also built an impressive size and muscle mass, their muscles never had the fullness and roundness bodybuilders with thinner fascia have.

The average bodybuilder has even thicker fascia then the bodybuilders we just mentioned. Some people inject substances like Synthol into their muscles to stretch their fascia in order to allow their muscles to grow bigger, but that is not a particularly healthy solution. Okay, it does stretch your muscle fascia, but that is not the best way to achieve this.


No Two Stretches Are Created Equal

Hany Rambod is not the first that discovered the importance of stretching your muscle tissue. John Parrillo and Dante Trudel (known for his DoggCrapp training methodology) use aggressive stretching in their training methods. Although Rambod thinks they are on the correct road, stretching the fascia by means of lengthening the muscle is not the best approach. The basis of FST-7 is stretching the muscle from the inside out by enlarging the muscle. This goal is reached by going for the best pump possible during your workout.


Should I Train Heavy, Or Should I Just Pump My Muscles Using Light Weights?

To make one thing very clear, FST-7 is not all about pumping up your muscles; that is just one part of the method. Rambod also believes that a big muscle equals a strong muscle, and that you should definitely use heavier weights for sets of eight to ten reps. Heavy weights build muscle thickness and muscle density, but they do not give you the full, rounded muscles you are after.

On the other hand, a great muscle pump will give you some of roundness you are after, but it will never give you extreme muscle mass you can achieve when working out with heavy weights and straight sets. What you need is a combination of maximizing your strength and getting a maximum pump during the same workout. The following workout is an example of a biceps training FST-7 style, showing you how to combine both goals:

Alternate Dumbbell Curls: 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps
Machine Preacher Curls: 3 sets of 8-12 reps
EZ Bar Curls: 7 sets of 8-12 reps (30-45 seconds rest between the sets while sipping water)

You can look at doing a ‘7’ set as blowing up a balloon. We keep the rest periods very short, because when you rest, a little blood will leave the muscles. It is a bit like blowing up a balloon with a tiny hole in it; even though the balloon will blow up, a little bit of air will escape. The plan is to build up your pump set by set, so it will be at its maximum at your last set. When you rest periods are too short, you will not have enough energy to successfully complete all seven sets.

Another frequently asked question is, do I have to use the same weight throughout your set. If you can, great, but it is no problem to lessen the weight once or twice if that is what it takes to keeps the reps in the given range. Sometimes you may even want to raise the weight you are using, but that hardly ever occurs.


How Often Can I Work My Muscle Groups This Way?

It is best to train your muscles once a week. Due to the larger volume of muscle cells, your muscles will be sore for too long to enable you to train them more often. The larger amount of microscopic tears in your muscles FST-7 causes, makes it necessary to have a longer recovery period then you would need with regular workouts. Smaller muscles like arms and calves should be trained twice a week. This gives you twice as often the opportunity to stretch the fascia in these often stubborn muscles.

The following split program is designed for an athlete who wants to give his stubborn arms extra attention:

day 1: biceps, triceps and calves
day 2: legs
day 3: rest
day 4: chest and triceps
day 5: back and calves
day 6: shoulders and biceps
day 7: rest

There are of course many variations of designing a program, depending on the goals of the athlete.


What Exercises Are Best Suited For ‘7’ Sets?

Some exercises are better to do ‘7’ sets with than others. Heavy compound exercises like squats and deadlifts are no good choices in this case for two reasons. Foremost, these exercises incorporate multiple muscle groups, so they are not good for isolating an individual muscle. Next to that, these exercises require a lot of technique, which often decreases when doing multiple sets in a short period of time.

Machine exercise are mostly good choices, since machines force you into a certain movement trajectory, therefore making it easier to isolate a certain muscle. Stack loaded machines also make it convenient to switch between heavier and lighter weight. The following exercises make good choices for ‘7’ sets:

Back width: machine pullovers or cable pullovers

Back thickness: chest supported seated rowing machines

Chest: peck deck or pec flye machine or cable crossovers

Shoulders: machine lateral raises with arm pads

Quadriceps: leg extensions, leg presses

Hamstrings: seated leg curls, lying leg curls

Biceps: EZ bar curls, cable front double biceps curls

Triceps: cable pushdowns with a rope, overhead cable extensions, lying French presses (skull crushers)

Calves: standing or seated calf raises, toe presses (rotate these exercises)


When Should I Do My ‘7’ Sets?

The best time to do your ‘7’ sets is as the last exercise for a muscle group. If you do these first, you will not be able to use the heavy weights in your regular sets that you need to build mass.

Finishing a workout with a great pump is something bodybuilders have already been doing for a lot of years, without knowing this stretches the fascia and maximizes muscle growth. It is tempting to do your pump sets sooner when you have problems getting a pump, but in that case it is better to do some 21s to get the blood flowing, so you can do your heavy sets before you finish off the muscle with a ‘7’ set. Keep in mind that you do ‘7’ sets at the end of your muscle group workout, which means that you will have to do more of these extended pump sets when you train multiple muscle groups in the same workout.

Some sample FST-7 workouts:

Triceps
Close-grip Bench Press: 3-4 x 8-12
Regular or Machine Dips: 3 x 8-12
Overhead Cable Extensions: 7 x 8-12
(or, for the advanced athlete, Skull Crushers: 7 x 8-12

Chest
Incline Dumbbell Press: 3-4 x 8-12
Incline Dumbbell Flye: 3 x 8-12
Flat Hammer or Dumbbell Press: 3 x 8-12
Pec Deck or Cable Crossover: 7 x 8-12

Quadriceps
Leg Extensions: 3-4 x 8-15
Squats: 4 x 8-12
Hack Squat or Leg Press: 3 x 8-15
Leg Extension or Leg Press: 7 x 8-15

Shoulders
Seated Dumbbell Press: 4 x 8-12
Barbell or Dumbbell Front Raise: 3 x 8-12
Dumbbell Lateral Raise: 3 x 8-12
Lateral Raise machine: 7 x 8-12

Some more workout samples will be posted later.

Next time we will discuss the nutritional part of FST-7.

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More information contained in this file linked from FST-7.com:
http://www.fst-7.com/articles/146-musclemag-feature.pdf

Musclemag Feature about FST-7

Written by Administrator
Monday, 01 December 2008 09:58


If you’re Hany Rambod, the 33-year-old resident of San Jose whose roster of personal-training clients includes over a dozen professional bodybuilders, it’s results that matter. In fact if you don’t make muscles grow, you literally don’t bring home a paycheck. Hany insists the muscle-building process — or lack thereof for many of us — is really quite simple, and growth is predicated on fascia tissue that encases the muscle. “Fascia that surrounds the muscle can act to limit its size,” he says. The fact is that skeletal muscle tissue is enclosed in this sheath of dense connective tissue. Fascia primarily protects your muscles and helps maintain their positioning, however, Hany contends that it can also hinder your muscles’ ability to grow. “The thicker the sheath is, the greater the restriction on each muscle’s growth potential,”he says. Conversely, as Hany explains, the exact opposite is also true when the sheath is very thin. The density of this sheath is ultimately determined by your individual genetics, but that doesn’t mean it has to limit your growth potential and leave you doomed for lagging bodyparts. The question, then, is how can you overcome the restrictions in place from what your mom and dad gave you? After years of personal research and a great deal of trial and error, Hany says the answer to breaking through muscle resistance lies in a program he developed called Fascial Stretch Training (FST-7). He’s got more than a few IFBB pro physiques who can attest to its results — think Ray Arde, Bill Wilmore and Troy Brown, just to name a few. FST-7 encompasses several factors both in and out of the gym. Here’s a breakdown of how to follow this system to reach your goals (which for our purposes will be applied to chest and arm training):

Rule #1

You have to stretch before, after and during your workouts.

“Basic stretching is used while warming up or cooling down from exercise,” Hany explains. “This particular type of stretching targets the superficial part [surface layers] of the muscle(s) and its attachments.” While stretching is typically thought of as a way to help prevent injury, improve muscle recovery and ultimately support better growth Hany points out that “stretching the fascia is different.” As Hany explains, stretching aggressively during your workouts, particularly when a muscle is engorged with blood, loosens the sheath encapsulating that muscle. Although the scientific data on this point is extremely limited, many experts and bodybuilders believe stretching during your workout triggers greater potential for growth. Tom Platz, Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Parillo and Dante Trudel are just a few who support this theory. Though Hany agrees with them to an extent, he argues that fascial stretching is best achieved by working from the inside out — through muscle volumization via gorging the target muscle with blood — not simply by elongating the muscle itself. Therefore, his training system requires you to perform basic stretching before, during and after your workout, and you must complete a higher volume of sets (pump sets) for the final exercise to ensure maximum expansion of the fascia. Try to hold each stretch for up to 30 seconds, and concentrate on feeling the pull in the muscle. Make sure you don’t bounce in and out of stretches and focus on moving slowly throughout. It’s important to note that when you stretch between sets, you do so with every exercise except for the last one. On your last move you’ll instead be applying a different technique (explained in Rule #4).

Rule #2

Do basic and heavy moves first.

“Using a higher-volume [approach] facilitates growth by filling the muscle with nutrient-rich, fascia-stretching blood,” explains Hany. “But [low-volume] heavy training is [also] important to stimulate muscle growth.” FST-7 is therefore designed with the value of both heavier and lighter training in mind. Use a low volume (three sets in the 8–10-rep range) and choose basic, compound lifts (for density and thickness) to start your workout. The barbell bench press is a good choice for chest. Keep in mind, Hany says, “The exercise you start with [will] actually depend on your physique.” For example, if you lag in the upper chest area, start your workout using movements such as incline dumbbell or barbell presses. “If you’re one of the rare individuals blessed with a totally balanced chest, you have a little more freedom in your exercise selection,” he says. You’ll then follow your compound exercises with isolation movements to focus on developing muscle fullness and roundness. Although Hany generally recommends finishing your workout with machine isolation movements as the final exercise, in some cases free weights are better suited depending on the muscle group being trained. When doing chest and biceps for instance, “An isolation exercise such as cable crossovers is best for pecs while EZbar curls seem to work better for biceps,” Hany says. The exercise you select should allow you to completely focus on that muscle and force as much blood into it as possible. “If assisting muscles [are called upon] to stabilize, you simply won’t be able to force the required blood volume into the desired muscle.” Hence, the focus for your last exercise is both on single-joint and machine movements whenever possible.

Rule #3

Increase the volume and decrease your rest periods on your final exercise.

After years of experimenting in the gym using trial-and-error methods, Hany determined that seven sets on the last move in your workout is ideal. (He does confess that “The number isn’t absolute and depends on [the bodybuilder’s] recovery ability.”) More important than the number of sets is stretching the fascia of the targetmuscle at the right times: at the end of eachset on your final exercise. This is when the muscle is the most filled with blood and at its maximal size. “Normal rest periods vary anywhere from 1–2½ minutes depending on the bodypart,” says Hany. “This allows the body sufficient time to recover in order to handle maximum weight on the next set.” However, the goal of the seven sets is to maximize your pump by forcing as much blood into the muscle as possible, not to allow you to move the most weight. “The length [of normal rest periods] is too long and would allow some of [this] blood to flush out,” he says. “Think of it as filling up a balloon that has a small leak: Your muscles slowly lose the blood being pumped into them.” The goal here is not to move the most weight, but rather to achieve the best pump possible. Therefore, on your final exercise reduce the rest periods to a maximum of 30–45 seconds between sets. You’ll still be partially fatigued from your previous set, which means you’ll sacrifice some of the weight you can normally lift, but the pump and burn will increase exponentially.

Rule #4

Flex! Utilize isometrics during your between-sets rest intervals.

While you may not be predisposed to standing in front of a crowded gym and flexing your muscles after a set, that doesn’t mean this technique is without value — you just need to find a place to do it when no one’s looking! By performing short isometric holds (timed flexing of the target muscle) during your between sets rest periods, you can further increase the amount of pressure on the fascia. The key here is to build exponentially on your pump sets so the muscle fascia reaches its maximum state of expansion by the final set. Start by holding the muscle in the flexed position for 10 seconds at a time, and then slowly work your way up to 30 seconds.

Rule #5

Drinking water between sets is essential.

Interestingly, drinking water during your rest intervals is critical on your final seven sets. “Water makes up the majority of your blood volume,” says Hany. “More volume in the muscle requires more water — it’s important to drink water throughout the entire workout, but it’s especially important during the sevens.” Hany instructs his clients to sip about 2 ounces of water during each rest period, before and after the isometric holds. Not only is water important because it helps to increase muscle volume, but it also acts as a vehicle for absorption of muscle- building vitamins, minerals, amino acids and oxygen into the muscle. Simply drinking water, of course, doesn’t automatically lead to more muscle growth. You still need to increase calories using key macronutrients such as protein. “I’m currently developing an FST-7- specific nutrition program,” Hany says. “I’ve tested many different foods and supplements to see what items maximize recovery from these workouts.” When he does, expect to read about it here!


FST-7
CHEAT SHEET

Here’s a summary of the rules to follow for the FST-7 program:

1.STRETCH BEFORE, AFTER & DURING YOUR WORKOUTS.

2.DO BASIC AND HEAVY MOVES FIRST.

3.INCREASE THE VOLUME AND DECREASE YOUR REST PERIODS ON YOUR FINAL EXERCISE.

4.FLEX! UTILIZE ISOMETRICS DURING YOUR BETWEEN-SETS REST INTERVALS.

5.DRINKING WATER BETWEEN SETS IS ESSENTIAL.