Coach Thib's Training Log #1

Training
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Then you REALLY don’t know me, can’t read between the lines properly or understand me.

My first priority is absolutely not to look good. It is to perform better.

When I give a seminar I always wear a hoodie, so it doesn’t matter how I look or if I have a vein pop out. Plus, my seminars start at 9am, we arrive at 8:30am to set everything up and the gym basically open at that time. I have no time to train before a seminar. Plus, a seminar completely drains me (I present for 6-7 hours per day), I wouldn’t add a training session on top of that.

YES I care about how I look when I give a seminar. As I said, I have low self-esteem and knowing that I look decent gives me more confidence when I present. But is not at all my main priority.

THIS IS WHY I DIDN’T WANT TO POST MY JOURNAL IN THE FIRST PLACE: People analyzing me and pretending to know me.

Honestly, your post makes me want to stop posting my journal.

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don´t do that. There are a lot of people out there and on this forum who learn from you, day in and day out, every day. Just because a keybord warrior/idiot like me claims something about you that´s not true it´s not a reason to stop this journal! Everything I said was not dead serious, it´s a forum, a hobby for 99,9% of us and if Im wrong about you, so be it, I don´t care and you should either. Ignore me because that´s my last post. I´m sorry if I offended you or if I went to far. I wish you and your family all the best and thanks for all the valuable informations, advice etc.

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Thursday, June 30th

Lifting

A. Deadlift 2 x 5 @ 75%

B. Bench press 2 x 5 @ 75%

C. Weight dips 3 x 5 (increasing weight to a top set)

Golf-specific section
Here the logic is to gradually build toward the full rotational motor of the golf swing. Each exercise increases the range of motion and coordination demands.

D. Isolated hip rotation 4 x 8-10

E. Rotation to impact 4 x 8-10

F. Full rotation 4 x 8-10

NOTE: I’m still severely lacking in the final rotation of my hips toward the target, likely due to lack of hip internal rotation. This is something I need to fix as it often leads to slight pulls in my oblique.

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Hi Thib,

It looks like you are using a classic GPP type of preperation with strength development by traditional big lifts plus some specific golf related exercises and practise.

Will you shift from a strength development focus (less big lifts) to power training and/or increase the golf related training ? By power I mean Mb throws, jumps, throws sprints etc.
Some people suggest a power phase of training, others prefer going straight to higher quality/volume sports specific training.
My personal preference is for going to more sports specific work. My view, perhaps slightly cynically, is that power phases are a sports science mentality which ignore the needs to groove technique and specific fitness.

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Yes, that’s exactly it.

But I do it in a layered approach.

I started with more isolated and stable exercises to either build the structures required for the sport-specific exercises or the stability to do them safely.

That’s why I had more isometric and slower speed work at first.

Today I actually started introducing some higher-speed movements, albeit still more segmented ones.

As I introduce a new “layer” of methods (higher speed segmented work in this case), I take out some other stuff, but I do not substitute everything at once.

Every week I add more "complex/power-oriented/sport-specific exercises and also increase the overall focus on speed while decreasing other types of work.

It could be called a sequential-conjugated approach.

Jumps will start to get introduced in roughly 2 weeks (I don’t really use “weeks” of training. Right now my microcycles are 5 days long)

Throws will be worked in shortly after that while jumps become more complex/specific.

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My logic is that at the moment my power production potential far out surpasses my capacity to decelerate and absorb force.

I actually started right away with high-speed work (e.g. med ball throws and overspeed swing work with underload/overloaded clubs) and kept pulling my obliques and deep rotators. That’s why I had to take a step back and do slow speed, stability, and isolated work.

I was also not segmenting my explosive movements properly: I would initiate my rotations with the torso rather than the hips. This is likely both learned behavior and a strong dominance of my obliques and rectus abdominis compared my glutes and abductor strength.

My belief when it comes to motor learning is to first build position awareness, then segments under control, then segments with speed then integrate into a gradually more complex movement structure under control then with high-speed.

You’ll start to see a bit of that when I post about my workout from today.

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To be 100% honest, the 2-4 basic strength lifts that I’m doing aren’t really done with the aim of improving my golf performance. It’s mostly to maintain the biggest proportion of my muscle mass and general strength as possible while doing the least amount of work possible.

I went with a strength-skill approach (very high frequency and fairly easy load/reps combinations) to keep to a minimum the daily impact on recovery. And I picked the least amount of exercises possible, again, to be able to invest more time/volume/effort on specific work and sport practices.

If I were to do everything solely to get better at golf or hit it longer, I likely would not do the bench press, or dips. These don’t help and might even hurt.

I would keep doing deadlifts (RDLs really), top-half squats, more single-leg work (which I will actually start doing soon), olympic lifting variations from the hang (which I will start adding next microcycle) and probably “lats” work.

I think that strictly from a barbell movements perspective, an olympic lifting-like approach to exercise selection is more adequate than one focused on the big basic strength lifts.

And maybe that’s where I’ll eventually go. But it’s summer and I’m not 100% committed to JUST focus on sport performance, I still want to look jacked poolside!

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Now I remembered an article of yours in which you described that depending on the way you train, your weight and body fat percentage (I’m writing from memory) didn’t move at all, but simply that the muscle distribution was different depending on whether you train as bodybuilder, powerlifter or Olympic athlete. But in all cases you have maintained almost the same body weight. You have only changed visually.

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Friday, July 1st (Happy Canada Day!)

Strength work
A. Deadlift 3 x 5 @ 70%

B. Bench press 3 x 5 @ 70%

Specific work
C. Three contractions hip rotations (positional iso hold, controlled rotations, explosive rotations
4 x 10-15 sec + 8 + 5

D. Squat and hip rotation
4 x 8-10

E. Swing integration (this is where you see why I need stability and mobility work).
4 x 6-8

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71

That is 90% accurate. I never mentioned that my body fat stays the same. My body fat will change quite a bit depending (mostly) on nutrition.

For example, about 18 months ago my focus was to get back over 500lbs on back squats (did 525 on safety bar squat which is equivalent to 545-555 on barbell back squat) but in the process of doing that my body fat crept up significantly (on purpose because I was essentially force-feeding myself). I actually went up to 228-230lbs from my normal weight of 212.

And recently, I focused on body composition and essentially trained and ate like a bodybuilder so I went down to 194lbs because I was super lean.

If I keep eating the same but change my training style, yeah, my weight/body fat will stay the same but the muscle mass will be distributed differently.

I think that’s one way (maybe the only way?) to make “improvements” once you pretty much reach your genetic ceiling when it comes to the amount of muscle you can carry.

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73

@Christian_Thibaudeau
Thanks for your reply it makes a lot of sense. I think it means that due to your background in strength training your strength will easily exceed a normal semi serious recreational golfer. Oly lifting and sprints means the same for your power abilities. So skill training should be a major focus for improving your golf.
It also makes sense for you to want to continue strength training for aesthetic reasons. The best training approach for a sport is not always the best for your health or looks !

I guess most semi serious recreational sports people dont have strength and power capabilities so far ahead of their skill levels. So do require more of a GPP approach.

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I would agree with that.

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Saturday, July 2nd

Today was an easier workout because my back is a tad achy from the rotational work.

A. Bench 3 x 3 @ 85%

B. Shrugs 3 x 6-8

C. Neck extension 3 x 12-15

D. Neck flexion 3 x 12-15

E. Neck lateral flexion (band) 2 x 12-15

F. Reverse cable curl 3 x 8-10

G. Rope hammer curl 3 x 8-10

H. Wrist extension 3 x 10-12

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76

@Christian_Thibaudeau, I know that doesn’t matter, but I finished first week of your Layer System: I got DOMS everywhere! I hate you! (I’m joking)

I’m going to follow the program for 5 weeks, before I going to holiday/deload (10 days)

Thank you for the program.

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START OF TRAINING CYCLE, BRIEF EXPLANATION

The past 2 weeks or so have been what I call a “pre-cycle exploration”. Not unlike what could be seen as a transition between two hard training cycles. Performing just enough work to avoid degrading but not so much that it prevents me from fully recovering for the start of the next hard cycle.

It’s also a period where I “play around” with some exercises and methods to see what will be included in my actual cycle, how and how much of it. It also allows me to better evaluate what my body needs.

Those of you who have been reading my journal for the past 2-3 weeks will surely think that my training was all over the place and lacked an actual structure. And it did! But now you know why.

It could actually have been an even longer transition period. I take however long I need to figure out what approach I need for my upcoming cycle, which can be fairly long if my goal is improvement in performance rather than muscle mass.

So here is a brief overview of my upcoming training phase which will start tomorrow.

The use of training “units” or “blocks”

I have several training units which are concentrated forms of training aimed at the development of one main thing.

Within a workout, I can use several units. I could have 2, 3 or even 4 different units in a specific workout or training day (divided into two sessions).

Those units are:

Strength unit: the goal here is pretty obvious; improve strength and the capacity of the nervous system to send a strong excitatory drive to the muscles. This is more of a general preparation block and I do not really pick my exercises to be specific to my main goal (golf power).

Power unit: this includes high-speed/acceleration work, mostly in the form of plyometrics, jumps, throws and other explosive movements. It can also include overspeed work for my golf swing. This unit includes both specific and general power exercises.

Specific/transfer unit: I personally prefer to think in terms of “transfer” rather than “sport-specific” exercises. This includes movements that share some dynamic correspondence with the sport movement (golf swing). They can either be segmented movements or more complex one that are of a similar movement structure than the swing. It doesn’t have to copy the sport gesture, but share similar segmenting (order of joint/muscle interaction), dynamic or temporal elements.

Stability/Strength leaks unit: These are exercises aimed at strengthening the main potential strength leaks (core, neck, forearms/grip) and stability/capacity to decelerate and absorb force.

Aesthetic unit: this is work that I do strictly to emphasize the development of some muscles to get the look that I want and like.

Skill-stability unit: this refers to exercises that improve the capacity to reach the proper positions in the sporting action (swing in my case). This can include mobility work as well as positional isometric exercises.

There is also some conditioning work used.

Only the strength unit is strictly periodized

While I do follow a basic template (which I will give tomorrow), only the strength unit used a pre-planned periodization. The content of the other units is adjusted based on my constant evaluation for day-to-day. Not something that I recommend to most, but with my experience level, it can work.

The strength unit looks like this:

Day 1: 85%
Week 1 – 9 total reps
Week 2 – 12 total reps
Week 3 – 15 total reps
Bench press
Deadlift
High pull

Day 2: 70%
Week 1 – 12 total reps
Week 2 – 15 total reps
Week 3 – 20 total reps
Bench press
Deadlift
High pull

Day 3: 80%
Week 1 – 9 total reps
Week 2 – 12 total reps
Week 3 – 15 total reps
Bench press
Deadlift
High pull

Day 4: 75%
Week 1 – 12 total reps
Week 2 – 15 total reps
Week 3 – 20 total reps
Bench press
Deadlift
High pull

Day 5: 90%
Week 1 – 4 total reps
Week 2 – 6 total reps
Week 3 – 8 total reps
Bench press
Deadlift
High pull

NOTES:

  • The total reps are per exercise
  • The loads don’t change during the block. It will be adjusted in the next block
  • The reps per set vary from 2 to 6 (day 1 = 3, day 2 = 5-6, day 3 = 3, day 4 = 5-6, day 5 = 2)
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78

Sunday, July 3rd

Strength unit
A1. Deadlift 3 x 3 @ 85%
A2. Bench press 3 x 3 @ 85%
B. Snatch high pull from the hang 3 x 3 @ 85%

*Note: A1 and A2 are done together, resting shortly between deadlift and bench and about 3 minutes between sets. This is NOT to get a specific effect, it’s to save time. I train at 5am and need to be done when my kids wake up.

Strength leaks unit
C. Pallof press 3 x 10 each side
D. Neck extension 3 x 8-10
E. Neck flexion 3 x 8-10
F. Reverse hyper 3 x 15
G. Thick bar wrist extensions 3 x 8-10

Transfer/Specific unit
H. Cable hip twist (controlled) 3 x 10
I. Clubbell 1-arm lateral swing (essentially a half back swing and half follow through) focusing on using the hips rotation to accelerate the clubbell. 3 x 45 seconds.

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79

Sunday, July 3rd UPDATE

Had some time to do a second micro-session. I used it to do light work to develop proper segmenting in my swing and firing the hips first. The goal is not to mimick perfectly the golf swing, but in fact to exaggerate some components (feel vs. real) to make it easier to transfer the skill.

I did mostly clubbell 1-arm lateral swing (like I did earlier). I started with “technical work” for 3 sets of 8-10 reps then did 15 reps EMOM for 10 minutes.

And I introduced the “clubbell twist press”. My goal with this one is to eventually progress to the same movement but more explosively, throwing a medicine ball this way.

I almost started the video by saying “Hello Primals”… lol

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80

LOL!! Liver King is definitely a Passive screen time habit I need to break, but I can’t look away, glad you caught yourself hahaha!

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The sad thing is that he is actually promoting a very positive message, but is kinda killing his credibility among the more advanced/knowledgeable lifters by doing a Mike O’hearn and not only claiming to be natural but going out of his way to deny using steroids.

But I get it, it would completely destroy his brand and marketing appeal.

When you think about it, throughout history, the “ancestors” he claims to build his lifestyle on never were “jacked”.

Even the more “modern” ancestors like Roman, Greek and even Viking warriors were not big and muscular. History and training are two of my passions, and the average Roman soldier was around 5’7" and 145-155lbs (albeit lean), Viking warriors were a bit bigger at an average of 5"9" 165-170. But none of them looked like Liver king.

As a comparison, Liver King is 5’7", 195lbs and less than 8% body fat. Which is a good 40lbs of muscle over ancestral warriors (and more) and leaner.

The same thing goes for all the tribes still living the ancestral way. While some of them look lean, none of them are “jacked”.

If “the ancestral lifestyle” was as anabolic as Liver King claims, those who actually lived that way for their whole life (not just a part of their adult life like Liver King) would all be jacked. But they aren’t/weren’t.

Liver King, on Mark Bell’s podcast, when asked if he took steroids, gave the typical answer: “I’m like this because I’ve been training for 30 years, I train every day twice a day”.

Unknowingly giving the strongest argument to actually SUPPORT his steroid use!

What do steroids do? They jack up your body’s capacity to recover and positively adapt (grow) from training. The more drugs you take, the more training you can do.

Heck, when Louie Simmons was asked if he took steroids he said: “Personally, I’ve done anabolic steroids straight for the last 28 years. There’s no possible way I can train the way I do without taking anabolics,” (Source: The Mad Monk of Power Lifting )

And that’s from 4 main weekly workouts lasting around an hour and a few “extra workouts” lasting around 20 minutes. Liver King claims to train balls out 9-12 times per week.

Simply put, he could not perform the amount of work he claims to do at the level of effort that he reports using (and I honestly have no reason to doubt that part) without anabolic support, regardless of how good his nutrition and lifestyle is.

In his case, it’s not a matter of steroids compensating for hard work but rather steroids allowing him to train as hard and as much as he does.

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