Ask Me Anything About STRENGTH

Bigger Stronger Leaner Christian Thibaudeau Coaching
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  1. Muscle failure doesn’t provide a significant benefit over stopping on the last quality rep you can do.

  2. Going to muscle failure SIGNIFICANTLY increases central fatigue, which reduces the strength of the excitatory drive to the muscles, making it harder to recruit the high threshold motor units (which require a stronger drive to get activated, hence the HIGH THRESHOLD name) which are connected to the fast-twitch fibers; the ones with the significant growth potential.

  3. The more sets you go to failure on, the more of a decrease in effectiveness you will get from the later sets in the workout. Basically going to failure reduces the number of effective sets you can do in a workout. So even if going to failure give you one more “growth promoting/effective rep” per set, it significantly decreases the number of effective reps you can accumulate in your workout.

So in THEORY going to failure will stimulate more hypertrophy than stopping 1, 2 or 3 reps short (albeit not by as much as proponents of failure training would believe). HANG ON, THIS IS NOT A REASON TO GO TO FAILURE.

That’s why some studies comparing going to failure or not show that going to failure might give more results. But they normally do a super small number of sets for both protocols.

If you only do one set of a single exercise in your workout, YES going to failure would be more effective than not.

BUT nobody does that. People tend to do multiple sets (2-5) of multiple exercises (4-8) per workout. And that’s where failure becomes a problem and is counterproductive.

Going to failure has a MUCH stronger impact on central fatigue. Central fatigue refers to a weakening of the excitatory drive toward the muscles. The more of it you have, the weaker the signal to turn on muscle fibers get, the less likely you are to recruit the FT fibers (even if going to failure again).

Central fatigue is impacted by several factors, including duration of effort, complexity of the exercise, load and, most of all, hitting failure. Weirdly enough, and this is important, the feeling of pain, discomfort and struggle actually is one of the main causes of central fatigue! That’s because these things all send powerful signals to the nervous system and it leads to a downward modulation of the excitatory drive as a protective measure.

That last point is the main reason why going to failure causes so much more central fatigue than stopping even just 2 reps short.

Why is all of that important? Because if in theory, going to failure is superior, that’s only true if you look at a set in isolation.

What happens in real life is that going to failure RAPIDLY causes an accumulation of central fatigue. Making each set less and less effective even if they “feel” effective and hard. You simply do not recruit the FT fibers anymore, even if you go to failure.

Everytime, you go to failure, you make all the subsequent sets less effective (unless if you rest for like 6-7 minutes between sets, which is also not realistic or practical).

So while “in theory” you get more effective reps for a set to failure vs not to failure (e.g. 5-6 rather than 3-4) in the context of a whole workout you get DRAMATICALLY fewer effective reps when you go to failure on most sets.

Sorry for being long-winded. It is actually a much more complex topic than what most believe.

The benefits of going to failure are:

a) It’s the easiest way to be sure of the effort level provided in a set. Not everybody accurately stop 1 or 2 reps short of failure

b) It allows you to get a proper stimulus in less sets. But the downside is that once you are adapted to that stimulus you can’t crank it up… you are already going to failure and going to failure create more central fatigue which makes adding volume ineffective

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Yes, I did mean your program that you outlined.

Thanks Coach.

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You got it! Understand that I have been lifting for 30 years. So my technique is pretty darn good on the big basic lifts. So I don’t need frequency as much.

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Coach,

Having said that you prefer Dr. Hatfield’s CAT approach to “speed work”, do you think that using accommodating resistance in the form of bands/chains is worth doing for those who aren’t geared powerlifters like the guys at Westside?

Thanks!

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No I don’t.

It changes the resistance curve so that it is the opposite of the natural force curve and it can wreck havoc on coordination if used too much.

It works for equipped powerlifting because the gear (squat suit, bench shirt, wraps) also reverse the force or resistance curve so chains and bands work great for geared powerlifters.

They can also use used by athletes for a SHORT BLOCK as a form of accentuation training: overloading the range of motion specific to sprinting or jumping.

For more on that topic you can go read this article:

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Hi coach,

I’m finish a long powerbuilding block (3 months) and I am looking to start a strength block (4 weeks) before doing your 2-day-per-week olympic weightlifting 10 week program in July and August. In this 4-week strength block I am looking to do a lower body ‘strength sprint’ in preparation for the olympic weightlifting block. I don’t care for hypertrophy at this point and am not strong by regular strength standards (270 lb squat/370 lb DL).

Here is what I have in mind for the lower body on a Monday - Wednesday - Friday - Saturday schedule; could you let me know what you think?

  • Monday (slow eccentric)
  1. Back squat / 2. Barbell RDL / 3. Sled push 30-50 meter sprints
  • Wednesday (strength-skill for lower body followed by upper body gymnastics work)

Front squat (I haven’t trained it in a while and in preparation for oly lifting) strength-skill EMOM
followed by upper body gymnastic rings exercises

  • Friday (concentric w/ clusters or waves - would like your opinion on which would be best)
  1. Safety bar back squat (clusters or waves) 2. Trap bar DL OR Barbell RDL (clusters or waves) / 3. Sled drag
  • Saturday (upper body gymnastics rings work)

Thanks,

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What’s the best way to build off of a strength block? I’m 43 and have been lifting for about 5 years and haven’t been able to build much strength (too much volume, too little recovery, not enough calories for fear of gaining weight, etc). I’m halfway through your Cluster Training Program and want to know whether my next 6-12 weeks should focus on strength, hypertrophy, or power building.

Thanks!

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Mainly to learn how to do those exercises like, the atlas stones, keg tosses, yokes, etc. I’m unaware of anywhere to get access to any of the equipment or places that instruct on how to train that way, but I’m looking for any advice you may offer. I’m in east Orlando, Fl. Also to “To help you get stronger overall? As a conditioning tool? To help you build more muscle?” Thanks so much!

Mike

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How important do you think strength blocks are for someone who lifts mainly for aesthetics? I usually throw in some 4-8 week blocks here and there but I’ll be honest I’ve been inconsistent.

And to piggyback off that a little bit how important do you think going up in weight is for smaller muscle groups or isolation type exercises? Like a lateral raise I haven’t gone up significantly in weight in forever (I realize part of that is due to the movement). But I use intensity techniques like pre fatiguing isometric holds. Same kind of idea with say a preacher or EZ bar curl. Is chasing consistent added weight significantly better for hypertrophy than very slow incremental increases with higher intensity techniques throw in say?

Hope these questions make sense. I’ve told you this before but I think your body of work on t-nation is amazing and I’ve been following your stuff since your first article on here. Your knowledge and especially consistency is unrivaled in my opinion.

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Well, until you can find the equipment you can start with “strongman-like” exercises. For example:

  1. Farmer’s/Frame carry (either using farmer implements, a trap bar, heavy dumbbells or a wheelbarrow)

  2. Zercher deadlift starting the bar from pins below the knees to prepare yourself dor atlast stones

  3. Continental clean and press ideally using a fat bar. You can weak a leather lifting belt on the higher part of your abdomen to rest the bar on the second hitch:

  1. For Keg tosses you can probably find some empty kegs for cheap our you can throw a KB (outside of course)

I’d do one “event day” in your week and for now focus on still rather than load… see it as practice

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It completely depends on what your goal is

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I appreciate your response, brother. And I agree on many aspects of your explanation. But I also experience and have my clients experience CNF when they look at the training session and see MULTIPLE sets…lots of stuff on the screen. One big compound (squat…deadlift never recommended for MMF using 5/3/1 or comparable) with one set of a more stable or supported compound (i.e. leg press) with a direct quad hit (e.g. leg extension) taken to MMF sounds reasonable and manageable. Use Delorme approach and increase the ancillary loads once executing 12 (or more) rep to fail with initial 75% works like a charm. Maybe that methodology runs out of runway at some point…but that maybe just a genetics/capacity thing. At some point the body runs out of genetic juice. I love your stuff…Christian. Thank you so much for your time. Matt

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Prior to the surge challenge, I ran three cycles of your Pendulum Strength Series. I really enjoyed it; it was lethally effective. Strength layers were killer, too. Honestly, it seems like I could spend the next ten years running free programs you created for T-nation.

Back to Pendulum Training: How would you alter the pendulums over subsequent cycles to keep them gainz coming? Swapping a few exercises here and there seems simple enough, but would you keep the methods the same, eg 10 x 3? Or would you alternate Pendulum training with a different style of training altogether?

Thanks for all you do,
John

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Good point. Getting stronger is the main goal with any size gained along the way being a side benefit. Really, I just want to be able to feel comfortable with heavy loads instead of feeling intimidated and unstable. I love high volume work while I’m doing it, but it runs me into the ground pretty quickly. Your Best Damn workouts have served me well for adding some size, but I’d like to find see if other workout styles might work, too. The Clusters program seems to be working for me, but I don’t know how often to run a program like that.

Hope that clarifies things. And thanks for the reply.

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Depends on how long you run it for. You can do two blocks of 6 weeks with 2 weeks of maintenance work/pivot in-between where you would do lower loads hypertrophy work for moderate-low volume.

But you could try the approach that I am using, I posted it earlier in this thread.

" BLOCK 1
Week 1: 5 x 3 @ 80%
Week 2: 5 x 4 @ 80%
Week 3: 5 x 5 @ 80%
Week 4: 5 x 6 @ 80%

  • Assistance work is mostly hypertrophy work aimed at correcting weaknesses and it includes a higher proportion of single joint work and machines

BLOCK 2
Week 5: 4 x 3 @ 85%
Week 6: 4 x 4 @ 85%
Week 7: 4 x 5 @ 85%
Week 8: 4 x 6 @ 85%

  • Assistance work is mostly hypertrophy work but using a bit more multi-joint exercises. BUT there is less assistance volume than in block 1

BLOCK 3
Week 9: 3 x 3 @ 90%
Week 10: 3 x 3 @ 95%
Week 11: 3 x 2 @ 100%
Week 12: 2 x 2 @ 105-107.5%

  • Assistance work: Very small amount of assistance work (drop it completely on the last 2 weeks) . Essentially doing one multi-joint free weight exercise for each main lift. They are trained more for strength in the 4-6 range.

I’m using a lift-specific approach with one bench day, one squat day, one overhead day and one deadlift day.

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Much appreciated, CT.

Re. clusters, your Ultimate Cluster Program has four three-week blocks with different cluster styles each block. Just so I understand, are you suggesting extending the blocks to six weeks each and follow a similar progression scheme?

Re. lift-specific. This set up looks it would fit nicely with a power building program you shared a few years ago. If I was to avoid excessive volume on the assistance exercises, would you recommend something like 1 compound and 2-3 single joint exercises for 3x6-8?

Thanks again.

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I’ve got a gym in my garage, and my approach for the last few years is to reject the idea of “gym time”, so when I get home from work, I just hit the weights.

For instance, today is shoulder day, so every 30 min or so I get out there and do either barbell presses or dumbell presses. Tomorrow might be chinups day, and the next might be deadlift day.

Most of these “workouts” are done 70-90% max. I usually do anywhere from 5 to 1 reps every half hour or so.

I guess, at my age (45) I’m not so much interested in hypertrophy, or strongman, or powerlifing, so much as lifelong strength, you know? I just see people growing elderly and blaming gravity on what ails them, and I’m thinking of Jack LaLanne and just getting out there regardless how we feel.

So what are your thoughts on these interspersed workouts, vs traditional training days?