The Value of a Flushing Set

First of all I would like to thank you for the great article you have on Bodybuilding.com. It was very helpful and I plan on following the routine you had on there. 

I was planning on buying your book so I can follow a more detailed approach but unfortunately I am won't be able to anytime soon. I am a Soldier in the United States Army and currently deployed to Afghanistan. I will be coming home to the United States very soon but because of that we are not allowed to order stuff or get stuff in the mail because the NCO's would have other more important things to do than mail.  Seeing the reviews about your books I will definitely order that book asap. 

 -I am in Afghanistan so on my downtime I go to the gym, I try to workout with my buddies but most of the time I go by myself, I try to workout Monday through Friday and Saturday+Sunday would be rest days. I do Chest, Back, Legs, Shoulder and Biceps+Triceps. Each muscle has their own days, this is what I was told to do. I have about 5-10 Exercises each workout day and I do 3 sets of 10 with weight that I can handle. 

-You said eat, specifically eat 6 meals a day. The 3 main meals + 2-3 snacks. Me being in the army and being just a Private First Class i do not make a lot of money so I just won't be able to put all my money on supplements and food. I do have access to the Military Cafeteria so when I get back I will be able to make sure I eat those 3 meals a day but those 3 snacks I am pretty sure i will be able to eat while at work which goes to my question what snacks should i eat and how much? Would eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or protein shake in between breakfast and lunch be sufficient or should I eat something else? 

-I plan on starting the workout routine you suggested on the article you made, the working 3 times a week with 3-5 minutes rest in between sets. I also understand I should stick to low sets and do the pyramid technique you suggested. So I understand the low sets which I would assume 3-4 maybe even 5 sets and the pyramid sets 10-8-6-15 but my question about the pyramid sets is the weight. I am planning to start all over and use your workout routine. Given my brief description of myself, what weight should I start or at least should I do mid weight or heavy weight? How would I know what weight is the right weight, like with a certain weight I should be able to do 10 reps easy or medium or hard? 

-You said in the article "The ectomorph is still a newbie. The fact that he is still skinny means he is still at a young "training age" regardless of his chronological age. He needs to practice and warm up on the movement with higher reps before tackling heavier and heavier weight. And the ectomorph definitely needs to tackle the heavier weights in order to gain size." 

Call me dumb but I do not completely understand this. Are you saying I should practice working out with low weight + high reps before I start with the low sets+pyramid reps or are you telling me to WARM UP with the high rep + low weight before starting any exercise? 

-What is a "flushing set". You said do a pyramid set of 10-8-6-15. The last set with 15 reps would be the "flushing set" what exactly is this? That being said how long will I do this workout? 4-12 weeks? or just increase weight after each week? or until i gain a certain amount of weight and start doing the workout that I used to do or something similar to it? 

Thank you in advance and I also apologize for the typos and very long email. More power to you sir! 

-Dante


My Answer: Way too many questions for me to sift through, so I'm going to give you short answers. 

Yes, eat PB&J sandwiches and protein drinks in between meals.

As far as weight, load up enough weight to hit the target reps for each set. So if it says 10 reps, then choose a weight that allows you to eke out TEN (1O) REPS in strict form. No need to do warm-up sets, since the 10 rep set serves as a warm-up. 

A flushing set is a high rep set. It is the final set for an exercise, and it is meant to flush the muscles with blood. You gain more size if you add flushing sets.