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I'm only providing this for discussion, it is not mine. It seems there are some who believe that a "Feast phase" is too risky, Are they being old school, not well informed, or not knowing of adaptogen's ?

The concept of overreaching is a controversial one, as many coaches don't want to put their athletes into these overtrained situations, even it is only for a brief period of time. I also tend to err more on the side of caution and feel that putting someone purposefully into an overtrained state should not be the goal of the training program. Additionally, when working with athletes who play in sports that have long competive seasons or play multiple competitions per week (baseball, basketball, hockey, football, etc…), the goal should really be to keep the athlete healthy and free from overtraining, so that they can perform optimally come game time.

Link to the whole article: (if not allowed please remove)
https://www.ironmagazine.com/article500.html

This is a great question and one on which I'll expound briefly.

"Famine" and like over-reaching periods aren't new per se but they can be controversial. I believe the controversy stems from 2 fronts: severity and duration.

With regard to severity, BP doesn't impose an extreme (1,000k/day) or less diet. You guys privy to the details know this. Also, some other over-reaching phases incur REAL tissue breakdown. This is quite different than BP's objective of generating an anti-catabolic response, which is the real goal of Famine.

Finally, duration. The Famine is, as you know very brief and in fact this is quite a shock to most people. Other programs expousing over-reaching suggest a month or more of such over-reaching!

What became clear to the Russian (and me) is that by monitoring certain physiological measures, it's apparent on day 3. This is consistently reported by virtually everyone who runs BP and in fact, you don't need Multistix or a heart rate monitor to feel it..

More info forthcoming for sure but that's my $0.02. You raise an excellent point though, and I encourage you to bring forth controversial subjects. I like constructive dialogue and it makes this a better board.

Nice going and your link was very interesting reading..

"The question always becomes, “how much stress is too much, and how much is just enough?” Truth be told, the answer is probably going to be found in the individual, as different athletes will adapt better to different training interventions."
I enjoyed the article and that was my conclusive quote.

It's all individual, including whether or not the individual listens to his body and heeds to the signs. I used to not, if my strength was declining I thought that meant I needed to work harder......more sets, more sets to failure.

I have learned to listen to my body and notice the signs, it isn't easy to "back off" at times but I try looking at the big picture.

Good article.

Well written article there albeit slanted toward the in-season athlete.

His point is well taken though. As I outline in The Blueprint, most athletes are running in the red-zone and chronically over-trained. Simple time away will benefit them but poorly planned training cycles coupled with non-use of adaptogens usually results on only a brief stint in the growth state.

It's for this reason that we plan accordingly and rotate through 3 distinct phases.

I want to commend you again Scooter and you too Draco for your raising of the issue/commentary. This kind of dialogue only benefits all of us and hopefully, my comments have lended some insight as to why Blueprint is structured as it is. If more people read about over-reaching, supercompensation etc. vs. supplements, there would be a lot more muscle in the world...

dracotdrgn wrote:"The question always becomes, “how much stress is too much, and how much is just enough?” Truth be told, the answer is probably going to be found in the individual, as different athletes will adapt better to different training interventions."

I'll go one further and say that, at least for me, those variables can change and adapt on an almost day-to-day basis at times.

As Draco said, you've got to learn to listen to your body... key in on the signals.

Sometimes I'm keenly aware and tuned in, precision like. Others, even after all these years, dulled senses and too unaware.

I've found that the more I skew towards a raw foods diet at the table the more in tune I become, for what it's worth...