Coach Thib's Training Log #1

Training
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Monday, August 1st

More on the 1/6 loading scheme: one thing that is important to understand is that the sets of 1 should not be a max, even on that last wave.

The sets of 1 are there to potentiate the nervous system and also make the subsequent set of 6 feel lighter by contrast, both of which can improve performance.

Essentially the “work sets” are the sets of 6.

That’s not to say that the sets of 1 have no impact. After all, they will fall in the 88-92.5% range and will have a strong neurological training effect.

In reality, you don’t even have to ramp up the sets of 1; you could stick with the same weight for all 3 waves (as long as it’s heavier than the heaviest set of 6 it will work). The reason why I’m ramping up is that I train at 5am and feel better if I can start more conservative on my sets of 1.

Activation/Strength leaks
A1. Neck extension 3 x 12-15
A2. Wrist extension 3 x 8-10

Main lift
B. Bench press (1/6 scheme)
3 gradually heavier warm-up up to 225lbs x 6

1 x 1 @ 265
1 x 6 @ 245
1 x 1 @ 285
1 x 6 @ 255
1 x 1 @ 305
1 x 6 @ 265

Assistance / Aesthetics
Honestly, I was supposed to do dips as the main assistance exercise but I really didn’t feel awesome today. I’m not gonna lie, it would have been smarter to not lift today. But when you wake up at 4:30am to do train it’s hard to make the decision to not go on with your workout when than first set feels like crap!

So I did the next best thing and just did low stress exercises after my main lift.

B. Trap bar shrugs 3 x 8-10

C. Reverse triceps pressdown 3 x 8-10

D. Triceps pressdown 3 x 8-10

2 Likes
164

It’s very impressive that you say you don’t really press that heavy anymore due to your shoulder injury, but you’re getting over 200 pounds! That’s super impressive to me and probably lots of other people. Great work and thanks for sharing your knowledge!

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Wednesday, August 3rd

I didn’t train yesterday. Didn’t plan to in the first place (although I’m known for skipping days off) but my wife is currently suffering from post-weaning depression. That is essentially oxytocin withdrawal from stopping breastfeeding and it can be NASTY.

My wife did suffer a clinical depression years ago and this post-weaning depression episode is a lot worse. It is a challenge for her to be out of bed for more than 10 minutes without crying (and she is a SUPER strong, hard-headed woman).

So I’m essentially in full daddy mode with the two kids because it happens to also be a vacation week for our daycare provider.

Since Madyson took on the habit of waking up early, I actually had to wake up at 3:30am this morning to train at 4 so that I could get my workout in.

Fun timing for a deadlift workout! You’ll be understanding about me not pushing the deadlift hard today.

Activation/Strength leaks
A1. Neck flexion with plate on forehead 3 x 15
A2. Standing cable crunches 3 x 12

Main lift
B. Deadlift I moved away from the 1/6 scheme for the deadlift and used 3/2/1 waves. I’m not going to give you a fancy explanation why, it’s simply that doing sets of 6 reps on deadlifts at 3:50am kinda turned me off! But 1-3 reps is manageable psychologically. And these were not “hard” 3/2/1 waves. Typically you work up to a maximal effort 3/2/1 wave. I only worked up to about an 80-85% level of effort and focused on technique,

My waves were:
325 x 3
345 x 2
365 x 1

345 x 3
365 x 2
385 x 1

365 x 3
385 x 2
405 x 1

Easy work but sometimes you just have to mail it in.

Assistance work
I actually did a bit more assistance work than I had planned. After the deadlift I was energized, that’s the benefit of low reps submaximal multi-joint exercise: they amp up the nervous system without causing much central or peripheral fatigue.

C. T-bar row 2 x 10, 1 x 8 adding weight on every set

D. Trap bar shrugs 1 x 12, 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1 x 6 adding weight on every set

E. Cable upright row 3 x 12 (fixed weight)

F. Rope row 3 x 10/side

G. Preacher curl 1 x 10, 1 x 8 , 1 x 6 adding weight on every set

8 Likes
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Thanks for sharing

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CT, do you think through the vulnerability, experience life someone who is 2A or 2B can act like 1B “Is not affected by what others think of him, but still has consideration for them”, “less seeking respect and pleasing others” ?

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Please post this is its own thread. This doesn’t belong to my personal training log

1 Like
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yes, sorry for my carelessness!

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Friday, August 5th

Today was a “felt like it” day. Basically, I trained the way I felt like and not the way the plan called for.

While most of the time, you should follow a plan, sometimes it’s better to do what you want to do if it allows you to train harder (more motivated).

As a coach who makes a living in large part by selling programs and coaching people I shouldn’t say this, but really, the plan you do actually matters less than what people think (unless you have to peak at a specific time or prepare for a very specific goal).

If day-in and day-out you get good workouts, that what you do it not idiotic and that your level of effort and focus is high enough to stimulate adaptations, it will work.

I think the biggest values of a program are:

  1. Makes you more motivated (especially if you like following a plan or if the program is designed by someone you respect)

  2. Acts as a reminder to focus on progression (every program worth it’s salt should have a progression model built-in)

  3. Typically gives you a proper training / Rest ratio (a) with deloads, b) with volume cycling c) by having a finality… e.g. a 12 weeks program, after which you typically do an easier week of training until you figure out what you want to do).

If you can get all of that without a program, you can progress just as well simply by training hard or non-stupid stuff.

Activation/Strength leaks
A1. Neck flexion 3 x 15
A2. Wrist roller 3 x 3 up and down + max wrist flexion at the end

Strength circuit
B1. Bench press
B2. Deadlift
B3. T-bar row

*Doing sets of 5 reps, ramping up from set to set. When I can no longer add weight on an exercise, I drop it from the rotation.

Did 5 full sets and 1 more with only bench and row

Hypertrophy circuit
C1. Preacher curl 3 x 8
C2. Trap bar shrugs 3 x 8
C3. Rope row 3 x 10/side

4 Likes
171

If it’s not too much to ask, I would like to see an example of how you ramp up your sets?

In my mind, ramping up is the same as going up in weight from set to set but you seem to use both terms separately, hence the question.

I learn a lot quicker from (visual) examples.

Btw, I’m currently testing the first block from the training cycle you wrote the other day to peak the OH press and Back squat. I have never felt better. Everythings feels the way it should, I’m not drained and highly motivated. My focus and concentration is also greatly enhanced up to 2-3 hours post-workout, which is great because I can get a lot of work done faster. I feel awesome, thank you.

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Well, both are pretty much the same. The main difference, and it’s semantic really, is that in a ramp you do not have a predetermined number of sets to do.

Another small difference is that in a ramp I start lighter, but technically speaking you could say that with regular sets where you add weight from set to set you do the same if you include warm-ups. But even then, I tend to include more light set during a ramp than in the warm-up of regular sets.

An example of regular sets could be:

Prescription: 3 x 6-8 (let’s say that the first work set is 225 x 8)
Set 1 (warm-up) bar x 10
Set 2 (warm-up) 135 x 8
Set 3 (warm-up) 185 x 8
Set 4 (first work set): 225 x 8
Set 5 (second work set): 235 x 8
Set 6 (third work set): 245 x 6

And an example of a ramp would be:

Set 1: Bar x 10
Set 2: 135 x 6
Set 3: 155 x 6
Set 4: 175.x 6
Set 5: 195 x 6
Set 6: 215 x 6
Set 7: 225 x 6
Set 8: 235 x 6
Set 9: 245 x 6

As you can see, another difference is that in a ramp you stick to one number of reps (e.g. 6) whereas when I add weight from set to set I give myself some leeway by using a range (e.g. 6-8)

Three observations:

  1. In reality the difference in training effect between both is minimal, most of the time.

  2. Ramping is best suited for lower reps. In the example above I used 6 reps, but I normally do not use a ramp for anything more than 5 reps, and typically more for 3 reps as you can create too much fatigue in the earlier sets.

  3. Ramping, because it doesn’t have a predetermined number of sets to do, is autoregulatory and volume/load is adjusted pretty much automatically to your capacities for that day.

6 Likes
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This is exactly what I needed to see, thank you for your interest in explaining.

Thanks Coach, enjoy your weekend!

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I’m one of those who don’t like to have a strict training program, it simple kills my motivation…

But if you train all the time without a program. Should you still recommed to follow some kind of structure? For ex stick to the same exercise or reps for a couple of weeks?
Thanks for sharing your training and knowledge!

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Well, the most important is to have:

  • ONE overarching goal which is your governor. You can change things around but the content of the program should still be geared toward reaching that goal or working toward that goal.

  • A set of principles you respect. For example, me I’m a big basics kinda guy and free-weight, multi-joint exercises will pretty much be the cornerstone of my programs. I use single-joint exercises only to emphasize certain muscles (either lagging muscles or those that I want to “exaggerate”)

I also tend to work based on a template.

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Sunday, August 7th

As you might have noticed, I’ve been all over the place with my training. This always happens when I don’t have a specific goal to train for.

In the absence of a goal I lack focus and want to find motivation through excitement and swing left and right to find the type of training that excites me.

The one thing that I find to help me regain focus when I don’t have a specific goal is to try to invent a new training system, work out its kinks, make adjustments and come up with something cool and effective.

So I took 2 days off and I decided to create a new system.

I’m working on a training approach influenced by the phylosophy of old-time strongmen with some Pavel and Anthony Dittilo thrown in there.

It will have 3 main workouts that focus on strength development using a minimalist approach and 1-3 optional sessions utilizing mostly single-joint exercises for hypertrophy purposes. These later workouts are done in-between the main ones (which are done every other day) and are skipped if I don’t feel recovered.

The main workouts will use three patterns:

  • Overhead press
  • Deadlift
  • Curl (sue me… but again, these were the three dominant lifts of old-time strongmen)

Each will be trained with 3 different exercises/method. ONE per session.

  • Full range
  • Top half range
  • Overcoming isometric

The main strength workouts will be:

DAY 1
Deadlift full range
Overhead press partials
Curl isometrics

DAY 2
Deadlift isometrics
Overhead press full range
Curl partials (cheated curls)

DAY 3
Deadlift partials
Overhead press isometrics
Curl full range

Right now I’m thinking of using a ramp to a 2 or 3RM for the full range and partials and utilizing 6 seconds max effort isometrics. But I might play around with other ranges to see what works best.

The smaller workouts will use 3 exercises (not counting neck/forearm work), likely in the 6-8 reps range.

7 Likes
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Monday, August 8th

Here are the first two sessions of this new plan, The heavy sessions (3 main workouts) will be more strictly planned and the extra hypertrophy sessions will be a lot more variable depending on how I feel.

Sunday’s workout

A. Deadlift full range ramp up to 415 x 2… not heavy by any means, but I haven’t deadlift heavy in eons and my lower back felt 'weak" due to hip flexor inflammation from my last golf practice.

B. Overhead press, top half range from pins, ramp up to 230 x 2

C. Curl overcoming isometrics on isochain 6 sets of max effort for 6 seconds

Monday’s workout

A1. Zercher hold 4 x 15 seconds
A2. Cable crunches 4 x 10

B. Rope upright row 1 x 12, 1 x 10, 2 x 8 , 2 x 6

C. Rope hammer curl 2 x 10, 2 x 8, 2 x 6

D. Preacher curl 4 x 5

E. Rope triceps pressdown 1 x 10, 2 x 8, 2 x 6

4 Likes
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I just found your content and have so much catching up to do.

Thanks for giving it another shot. Sucks that people ruin it for you (and the rest of us who are actually grateful that you take the time to do what you do.)

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Wednesday, August 10th

Sorry guys, forgot yesterday’s update. Just lots of work overall. But I did train and, as usual, started morphing the plan :smile: But since I’m developing a new system, that’s less bad than usual.

Here are my workouts for the past two days.

Tuesday’s workout

A. Overcoming isometrics deadlift with Isochain 6 sets of 6 seconds

B. Full range shoulder press ramped up to 205 x 2 then did 8 x 2 with 195lbs

C. Cheated EZ bar curl ramped up to 125 x 2 then did 5 x 2 at 105lbs

D. Top 1/2 preacher curl (machine) ramped up to 57.5lbs x 2 (which means nothing as this is specific to this machine) then 5 x 2 at 47.5lbs

Wednesday’s workout

A. 1/2 deadlift (block pull below knees) ramped up to 465 x 2 (again, QL/hip flexor is making my back tender, playing it safe)

B. 2/3 shoulder press from pins (starting from the bottom 2/3 position) ramped up to 225 x 2 then did 3 sets of 2 with 105 but supersetted with 8-10 reps on lateral raises

C. Full range strict EZ bar curl, ramped up to 100lbs

D. Rope triceps pressdown 4 sets of 6-8

5 Likes
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Hi Coach,

Ive tried yeilding isometrics with John Littles max contraction and pyramid protocols, but never overcoming isos. Would they more of a nervous system primer of sorts? Many thanks.

On a side note, love this log :+1:

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Overcoming isometrics

  • Improves force production and firing rate of the recruited fibers (can be improved long term)

  • Strength is gained predominantly at the trained joint angle, there is a carryover of about 15-20 degrees both sides.

  • Useful to improve strength at a specific joint angle (a joint angle that is relevant to a lift or sport/weak point)

  • No muscle damage (except when performed in the stretched position, which is extremely rare)

  • Low energy expenditure

  • Excellent to improve whole body stiffness at a specific joint angle

  • Use 1-3 positions depending on the goal (strengthening of the whole range of motion, of a single joint angle, or potentiation)

2 Likes
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Friday, August 12th

Took yesterday off, both to get more work done (working on a new kick-ass training project with @Tim_Patterson ) and to give my wife a bit more recovery time.

Today’s workout was:

A. Shoulder press from pins (from eyes level) 3/2/1 waves

Wave 1
185 x 3
195 x 2
205 x 1

Wave 2
195 x 3
205 x 2
215 x 1

Wave 3
205 x 3
215 x 2
225 x 2

B. Close-grip bench press 185 x 12, 205 x 12, 225 x 10

C. Rope triceps pressdown 4 x 8-12

D. Reverse-grip triceps pressdown 3 x 8-12

6 Likes