I am trying to employ CT’s protocols for max performance and hypertrophy in the hopes of eventually becoming a competitive natural bodybuilder. CT’s stuff is proven and his principles seem logical. The only problem is every time I think I have nailed it I sit down and watch the next training lab video and feel like I am royally screwing up. I hope anyone will post here who is having some difficulty properly implementing these training protocols!
First question:
Day 1 I performed upper body pressing primary emphaisis with secondary lower body emphasis. I activated with plyo push ups. I ramped up with military press then Incline Bench then flat Bench using prescribed ramp protocols and tested MTW for 3 reps. I alternated most pressing sets with sets of rhomboid,trap and rear delt work. Then for my lower body emphasis i performed the back squat with the week one ramping protocol after activating with the power snatch. Day 2 was exactly the same as day one except I used different assistance exercises and rapmed the conventional deadlift instead of the squat. Day two also change activation excercises. Day 3 I did activation circuit using the bench press, Jump squat and BB row followed by two lat movements (pulldown and cable row) and two bicep movements (preacher curl and alt hammer curl)
Problem: I am not sure at all if this is the correct use of the protocol, also the doms in my legs made walking like torture for days and I am dreading tomorrows lower body pressing day when I was planning to squat and deadlift two days in a row. CT am I getting the gist of the protocol or am I way off base? Are these DOMS unavoidable? Should I be working in strength training circuits like from the most recent video? Thanks in advance.
neural charge days are meant to use exercises that are pretty much stres free to the joints and muscles…bench presses will stress the NS even with a light wt, jump squats will driill your arse muscles (not that way) and bent rows require spinal control (i’m pretty sure CT has said not to use these at all actually)
i’m on day 2 of my 1st go around and no soreness from yesturday (military, incline, flat like you but back squats for lower exercise + deads today)
maybe you were too concerned with actually getting a training effect from the neural charge day other then actual neural charge, if that makes sense
if you haven’t done high frequency training bewfore then you’ll get sore definitely when starting this
[quote]swans05 wrote:
neural charge days are meant to use exercises that are pretty much stres free to the joints and muscles…bench presses will stress the NS even with a light wt, jump squats will driill your arse muscles (not that way) and bent rows require spinal control (i’m pretty sure CT has said not to use these at all actually)
i’m on day 2 of my 1st go around and no soreness from yesturday (military, incline, flat like you but back squats for lower exercise + deads today)
maybe you were too concerned with actually getting a training effect from the neural charge day other then actual neural charge, if that makes sense
if you haven’t done high frequency training bewfore then you’ll get sore definitely when starting this[/quote]
Thibs actually uses Benches along with medicine ball throws and power snatches when demonstrating the neural charge exercises and mentions that he might use bb rows in th same clip. If I am not mistaken the stress is reduced by using a low training load. I used 55% of max for 3-5 reps on both upper body moves and body-weight only for the jumps. Thanks for the input but I think the neural charge workout felt and worked great. Perhaps I simply need to get acclimated to the higher volume. I have trained mostly with higher frequency in the past but never this many sets.
day 2 today and feeling fine it seems…could you have not calculated rthe right wt for the max training zone? other then that it will be a case of getting used to it but you’ll acclimatise pretty quickly as you, well, have to, even just to get through the 1st week!!
neural charge for me tomorrow but not sure on exercises yet…dropped a bit of wood on my big toe yesturday so i can’t “tippy toe” so maybe just a medicine ball circuit with overhead throws, maybe shot put throws, overhead slams etc
I don’t really wanna do gym moves for them if i can, we’ve got a boatload of volume already