One of my favorite types of training is a little known muscle building strategy known as FST-7 training. I first read about this style of training a few years back and heard it was invented by the same trainer who had trained several Mr. Olympia winners including Ronnie Coleman and Phil Heath.
FST-7 is an amazing training strategy that I’m confident can maximize anyone’s lean muscle building genetics. This article is going to dive into FST-7 training. What is is, how to do it and why it is so effective at building lean muscle mass.
What is FST-7 Training?
FST-7 training refers to a style of training that stretches out the fascial tissue by performing 7 sets on short rest times. The key with FST-7 training is that you are performing 8-10 repetitions with only 20-30 seconds between each set. You will be performing 7 straight sets. It is essentially drop sets on steroids.
This sounds like a ridiculous way to train but is practiced by some of the best bodybuilders in the world. If its used by the guys who are paid to build muscles and have the best bodies in the world, think of how it could help you pack on slabs of lean muscle mass.
Why does FST-7 training build muscle?
FST-7 training actually maximizes your muscle building genetics. The science is quite simple. Underneath your skin you have something called fascial tissue. This is a stretchy tissue that is located above your muscles and below your skin. The thinner and more flexible your fascial tissue is, the faster you will be able to build lean muscle mass.
The thicker and “tougher” your fascial tissue is the harder it will be to build lean muscle mass. FST-7 training stretches out the fascial tissue and thus improves your muscle building genetics through the high repetition and short rest time training.
This can be used by just about any injury free athlete to maximize muscle building genetics or to bring up a stubborn muscle group. I am a huge fan of practicing FST-7 training with my biceps and triceps. Since I have longer arms it is harder for me to build my arm muscles. I have recently been able to add an inch of size to my arms in a few months using heavy volume FST-7 style training.
How to Perform FST-7 Training?
The best way to perform FST-7 training is to perform 1 or 2 exercises of a muscle group at the end of your workout. For example – you should never start out your workout with FST-7 as this will fatigue your muscles quickly which will make your entire workout less effective.
My equipment of choice for FST-7 training is machines and dumbbells. Here are the following FST-7 exercises that I perform on my workout days:
- Chest Day: I will start my chest day off with the typical compound exercises such as the bench, incline, db, fly, etc. Then I will end my workout with FST-7 Low Cable Fly’s or FST-7 pec fly machine. This will maximize your chest training results.
- Leg Day: After doing all the compound lifts in my lower body I will perform FST-7 training on the leg extension machine and hamstring curl machine. These two machines are fantastic for building lean muscle mass in the legs with FST-7 training.
- Back Day: After performing all the major back lifts, I will head to the Lateral Pulldown machine and blast out an FST-7 set of underhand grip lateral pulldowns that drill my major back muscles and also biceps. This is one of my personal favorites!
- Arm Day: I typically perform arm days on my push and pull workout days but here are a few of my favorite FST-7 style arm workouts. For my biceps I love to do the Ez Bar curl or the double bicep cable curl machine. These put a ton of tension on your biceps with the FST-7 style of training. For triceps I love to do the Triceps Rope extension and the underhand grip triceps press down. Using machines for your arms puts constant tension on the muscle during FST-7 style training which is exactly what you want.
- Deltoids and Traps: Deltoids and traps are great for FST-7 style training. For my traps I lower the weight and do FST-7 with Db shrugs. For deltoids, I perform 1 Arm db Lat raise(1 arm at a time).
As you can see there are a ton of different ways to perform FST-7 training to maximize your time spent in the gym.
Here is a quick Summary of how it works:
- 7 sets, 20 seconds rest between, 8-12 reps per set.
- Perform FST-7 at the end of your workout of a particular muscle group.
- Keep constant tension on the muscle throughout each set!
- Don’t worry about the weight, worry about the tension. Don’t be an ego lifter.
Have you tried FST-7 training before?