Coach Thib's Training Log #1

Bigger Stronger Leaner Christian Thibaudeau Coaching
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If I were to use this nutritional approach, I would use it almost exclusively during a strength cycle AND only when I’m in caloric surplus with little life stress.

I personally would not use it for athletic performance due to energy system demands (especially when you already have lower glycogen reserves). Even with the pre/intra workout fuel, it would just not be enough for me to perform well. Maybe on the first training day of the week after I’ve refueled myself with a high carb intake (from the fruits, potatoes, etc) from the day before. But later in the week my performance would almost surely go down, not only due to lowered glycogen reserves but also because of overexcitation.

To be honest I would also crash really hard mentally after a couple of weeks, even when I’m not on a caloric deficit, simply because I would be constantly amping up my brain for 6 days in a row and then try to compensate that on 1 day.

All the motivation and drive you get from elevated dopamine actually won’t do you no good if you naturally have lower serotonin levels. You body will just convert that extra dopamine to adrenaline, which will eventually lead to desensitization of the receptors, lower serotonin and GABA levels even further, and in the end it also leads to a reduction in dopamine due to increased conversion. That’s a really bad state to be in mentally. However, this will not be the case for someone who naturally has high serotonin, acetylcholine and GABA levels. They’ll probably feel awesome using this strategy.

Genetic neurotransmitter setup IS important. That’s also why there are so many food belief systems because some people swear by high carb diets. Others swear by high protein/high fat diets. I believe it has a lot to do with how they feel mentally and that’s where nutrition and neurotransmitters come in to play.

Anyway, I digress. Would I try this for strength? Under the right conditions, yes. I would definitely not use it for athletic performance because mentally speaking that would be a bad choice for me.

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Wednesday, June 22nd

I actually did an easy workout along with a golf practice. I had not planned on lifting but I am filming an online course video on Thursday and will not be able to train. So psychologically I felt the need to train even though physiologically it wasn’t required or that smart.

But I did a low-stress session. A gap workout if you want. Because I’m back to performance training, I don’t do much, if any “vanity” training in my main workouts. So from time to time, I’ll add a low-stress session for a vanity muscle or two. Even though it this specific case, it might benefit my golf game as I did forearms along with biceps.

A. Cable curls 3 x 6-8 (working up in weight to a top set in which I do as many complete reps as possible)

B. Reverse cable curl 3 x 6-8 (working up in weight to a top set in which I do as many complete reps as possible)

C. Rope hammer curl 3 x 6-8 (working up in weight to a top set in which I do as many complete reps as possible)

D. Thor’s hammer 3 x 8-10 per side

E. Backswing rotation hold (against resistance band) 3 x 20 seconds

F. Impact rotation hold (against band) 3 x 20 seconds

*I’ll try to shoot videos of those last two exercises

Golf practice

I hit the range for 60 minutes. Warmed up with short pitches, full wedges, 7 iron, 4 iron then did a “long drive” session for 35-40 minutes. I really focused hard on using my legs in the swing and it payed off. My front foot was leaving the floor à la long drive competitors and that’s pretty much the longest I’ve hit so far. Didn’t have a launch monitor but…

  • The net at the end of the range is 270 yards away
  • The range is up hill, with the end of of the range being 20 yards higher than the bottom
  • The net itself is over 20 yards high

And I was constantly hitting it in the top of the net. Which would mean at least 300-310 on the fly, with range balls that fly shorter than quality balls.

I’ll bring my tripod and film myself next time. I honestly didn’t expect to progress that fast and having anything worth filming.

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Thursday, June 23rd

I’m typing this at 5am today. I don’t have a training or golf session planned so I won’t have much to write anyway.

I will spend most of the day filming an online course. Don’t get overly excited, it will actually be in french for Xpertise360, which are partners of mine (I’m looking to do more french material with them in the future).

However, I do have a fast-twitch machine online course coming up soon (we are in the last steps of the editing process).

I might do some loaded stretching when I get back home, but it will depends on how early/late I make it back. My kids are at daycare today until 4:30, I start to film at 10am (in theory). If I make it back home around 2:30-3 I’ll have some time for loaded stretching before the kids get back home.

But that’s pretty much my plan for today.

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25

Is the structure of your training format (A,B,C,D instead of A1, A2,…) also a part of your plan to minimize neurological fatigue or is it simply how you prefer to train now?

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Both.

That’s how I’ve programmed for athletes from the start, 20+ years ago. Then had a stint with the A1/A2 approach for a while when I was studying under Charles. But went back to the A/B/C… structure with athletes a few years back.

I find that it minimizes neurological impact, allowing me to use more demanding methods and higher loads.

And personally never really used the A1/A2 approach (although I did use with body comp clients) as I found early on that I can’t focus 100% on both exercises and it actually decreases my motivation.

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27

Thought you gave up golf and now you are pounding balls on the range, hard to let go isn’t it?

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The only reason I stopped is that my wife gave birth to our second kid. With her breastfeeding (aka not sleeping) and our oldest not having daycare due to the pandemic (at the time) I couldn’t justify going to the course 3-4 times a week for a few hours on top of my training and work.

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Friday, June 24th

Training

A. Safety bar squat 5 x 3 @ 80%

B. Trap bar jump squat 3 x 3 @ 20% of back squat

C. Single leg vertical jump 3 x 3 / leg for maximum height

D. Anti-rotation neck swing drill 3 x 5 reps + hold at the end

E. Backswing loaded holds 3 x 15 seconds (incrementally increasing ROM during the set)

F. Impact loaded hold 3 x 15 seconds

G. Low-to-high cable woodchop 3 x 6-8/side

This afternoon I’ll try to go to the range. If I do, I’ll add some footage to this post.

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@Christian_Thibaudeau great to see again a training log with you, it’s always a rewarding reading

When you wrote “I used a device that measured blood glucose constantly, basically every minute” I got über interested since my fasting glucose levels are getting near pre-diabetic ranges. On top of that I was really thinking about giving a try to the carnivore diet!

Could you please tell me which device you were using? Can it be acquired without medical prescription?

Merci beaucoup

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Yes, it’s the “Freestyle libre” sensor. You don’t need a prescription for it.

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Saturday, June 25th

A. Bench press 5 x 4 @ 80%

B. Weighted dips 4 x 6-8 (increasing weight from set to set)

C. Reverse cable curl 4 x 6-8 (increasing weight from set to set)

D. Cable wrist extension 4 x 8-10

E. Thors hammer 3 sets/arm

F. Thick bar hold (185lbs for max time) 38 seconds

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Sunday, June 26th

Ok, I’m starting my first actual training phase. I’ll explain it once the first week has been completed and that I’ve worked the kinks out.

Workout

A. Stato-dynamic neck extension (20 sec hold, 10 reps, 20 sec hold) 2 sets

B. Stato-dynamic neck extension (20/10/20) 2 sets

C. Neck anti lateral flexion hold (30-40 sec) 2 sets

D. Squat 2 x 5 @ 75%

E. Bench press 2 x 5 @ 75%

F. Deadlift 2 x 5 @ 75%

G. Pallof press hold (30 sec/side) 2 sets

H. Chopper hold (30 sec) 2 setd

I. Thick bar hold 185 lbs x 49 seconds

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34

I would really appreciate if you can go into detail and show how you warm up for each training session and in general? Mobility? Stretching? Specific Exercises? Activation exercises? How many sets? reps? How does a proper Christian Thibaudeau warmup look like for all the different workouts?

Can you please share your detailed warmup routines please for lower body days, upper body days, “full body” days, squats, deadlifts, bench press?!

Thank you very much. I appreciate you for sharing all this great content because it´s very interesting even its YOUR “private Christian time”

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You will not like my answer because those who ask me this all tend to fall on the spectrum of doing way too much warm-up work, even making their warm-up more voluminous then their workout!

As I mentioned in a previous post (answer to a question), there is no such thing as a typical Thibaudeau warm-up.

It is my belief that you should do the least amount of preparation work required to perform safely at an optimal level.

I do not have a warm-up routine. I have tools that I can use depending on what I feel my body needs to best perform the upcoming workout.

It can range from simply doing light sets on on first exercise of the day up to using a complex approach including light aerobic work, loaded stretching and central activation work.

It depends not only on my workout but how I feel on that day. I’ve been training hard for close to 30 years, I instinctively know what my body needs to perform and what is superfluous and will just cause more fatigue.

But I’m not gonna lie, I normally don’t use a very extensive approach except when I’m doing stuff like the olympic lifts or complex explosive drills.

I did all of my best lifting doing pretty much only a good number of gradually heavier sets for my first lift of the day.

I did train a lot of Crossfit competitors and other athletes and noticed that those who spend the most time warming up are those who get injured the most.

Now, we could argue that they decided to warm-up more extensively because they were more prone to injury, but I personally believe that they might have gotten more injured because of the central fatigue caused by their excessive warm-up, reduction in stability and feeling plain from doing too much mobility and even overuse issues from the sheer volume of movement they were doing.

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Monday, Jun 27th

Training

A. Safety bar squat 2 x 5 @ 70%

B. Bench press 2 x 5 @ 70%

C. Deadlift 2 x 5 @ 70%

D. Neck isometric hold in athletic stance 3 x 30-40 seconds.

E. Impact DB isometric hold 3 x 20-30 seconds

F. Backswing rotation hold (posted video in an earlier entry) 2 x 20-30 seconds

G. Isochain impact position overcoming isometrics ramping up to max effort (544lbs)

This afternoon, depending on the weather (it’s raining right now) I’ll either go hit some balls or do loaded stretching.

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37

make sense! So if you work with someone they can warm-up however they want to be ready for the upcoming workout you designed? Thanks for your detailed explanations, very helpful

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Yeah, but if I see it as excessive we’ll have a talk

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Warm-up volume counts.

It can create central fatigue.

It can increase adrenaline/cortisol.

It can use up energy.

It requires time and might lead to a loss of focus earlier in your session (I find that a lot of people have a time limit for which they can stay focused during a session)

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makes perfect sense, as always!

What do you recommend in general where people should start regarding a warm-up? How can someone find out what´s necessary and what´s too much, even if the person don´t know that it is too much because it feels like it is not too much!? I hope it make sense!?

And what kind of warm-up because obviously some warm-up with stretches, dynamic, some static, some do “pump” work, some just start with the empty barbell when doing a main lift for example!?

does neurotyping play a role regarding warm-ups? minor or major?

I hope my question is not specific and I hope more people can benefit from your wisdom and recommendations.

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I’m not gonna lie. I prefer going to the dentist to talking about warming up.

In all the world of training, it is the topic that I hate the most, by a huge margin. I literally prefer to talk about endurance training than warming up. And that’s saying something.

Maybe it’s because I never needed an extensive warm-up routine myself and thus was never excited about learning about it. But then again, most of the athletes I trained didn’t do an extensive routine either and it never hurt them.

On the other end of the spectrum, I’ve seen countless “warm-up enthusiasts” get worse because of their routine.

You seem to be passionate about that topic and excited about learning more. And I could fake it and talk about the “theory”, but that wouldn’t be intellectually honest of me as it would be talking about something I don’t really do.

Now, in theory, yes, someone’s neurotype will influence how they should optimally warm-up. In fact, it is discussed in my neurotyping online course (but the material is from Mai-Linh Dovan, not me).

Someone who is overanxious (type 3 for example) will have more muscle tension and apprehension toward training so they likely need more parasympathetic work in their warm-up. Someone who is on the other end of the spectrum and needs to get amped up because they are chill (type 1B for example) by nature will need more activation work.

Type 2A tend to HATE warming-up (guess what type I am) because they need to feel excited about doing something to be motivated to do it. The exception is if they KNOW that they absolutely need to do something to be able to progress in their workouts. Then they will be motivated to do it. For example, I DESPISE wasting time doing mobility work. BUT now that I’m back to playing golf I’m very motivated to do it. For a 2A (and 1A) having to do something that they don’t get motivated by will actually kill their motivation for the whole workout… so even if the warm-up routine looks good on paper, if they find it mind-numbingly boring, it will have a negative impact on their workout performance.

This is the last time I want to talk about warm-ups. I suggest that if you really need to learn more about various approaches, you seek out different sources on that specific topic.

I’m not saying this to be rude in any way. Talking about warm-ups literally sucks the joy out of life for me. And trust me, the overall tone of this post doesn’t even do justice to my hatred of that topic.

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