CT Prime Time: 8/1

Training Powerlifting
61

I’d add a cup of oatmeal (natural) or yams in the morning.

Instead of doubling your Surge, I’d take one serving post workout, and a second serving 1 hour later (still a double serving, but spread over 2 intakes).

[quote]RIT Jared wrote:
CT-

I have been doing JB’s no-nonsense nutrition for a bit over 6 months now and seem to be a little stagnant with both muscle gain and fat loss. Initially, it was great and I was both gaining muscle and losing fat. I’m hovering around 8-9% bodyfat now. I have doubled my servings of Surge, but what else would you recommend? I am not a FFB so to speak, but I do think that I gain fat fairly easily if I don’t watch the carbs— or maybe this is just my misconception. I’m assuming you are fairly familiar with JBs program but besides Surge, the carbs I get are from greens, veggies and fruits-- there are no starchy carbs or oats/bread to speak of, Would you say this is halting my progress? Should I look into a carb overfeed or something of that nature? Thanks.[/quote]

62

Do not go into carbs overfeed. Increase them gradually and all of them either in the morning or post-workout.

As I mentionned start with a cup of oatmeal or yams … it should help you a tad. If after 2 weeks you are not gaining fat you can bump it to 1 1/2 cup. Etc.

[quote]RIT Jared wrote:
CT-

I have been doing JB’s no-nonsense nutrition for a bit over 6 months now and seem to be a little stagnant with both muscle gain and fat loss. Initially, it was great and I was both gaining muscle and losing fat. I’m hovering around 8-9% bodyfat now. I have doubled my servings of Surge, but what else would you recommend? I am not a FFB so to speak, but I do think that I gain fat fairly easily if I don’t watch the carbs— or maybe this is just my misconception. I’m assuming you are fairly familiar with JBs program but besides Surge, the carbs I get are from greens, veggies and fruits-- there are no starchy carbs or oats/bread to speak of, Would you say this is halting my progress? Should I look into a carb overfeed or something of that nature? Thanks.[/quote]

63

It’s very frustrating because I know i can eat that much food. Alot of times i have to drink some of my calories in the form of shakes. I pretty much don’t gain fat no matter what i eat. And i still cant’ time to eat that much food. Here’s one of my favorite shakes though.
6 oz milk
1 banana
2 tablespoons peanut butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 scoops protein

Somewhere around 720 calories and doesn’t really fill you up that much. Lots and lots of fat in it, so its good before bed.

64

And its also frustrating to see a guy like DAfreak who ways a good bit over 200 i would guess and little ole me weighing 154 eat the same amount of food for bulking, haha.

65

Hey CT:
I jumped into Monday’s thread because I didn’t see a new thread for Wednesday. In regards to your “Renaissance” article I was wondering if you don’t have access to sledgehammer training, if you could use a dumbbell and swing it just like the sledgehammer? I have very small hands. Instead of it hitting a tire, I just let it go through my legs or off to the side and it decelerates in my hands. Is the GPP meant to be weight based? Could you use Chad’s GPP ASAP type exercises if access was a problem? I don’t want to try to change your program, but I don’t have access to these things and still love the idea of that whole concept. Thanks for any help you can give.

66

CT–
Some time ago in your lair of the ice dog forum a poster asked you about what he needed to do in order to train for special ops? Has your approtch changed any in regards to special ops training? And how would you set up a program, and what lifts would you use (I imagine compound lifts).
Thanks
Will42

67

[quote]binford wrote:
And its also frustrating to see a guy like DAfreak who ways a good bit over 200 i would guess and little ole me weighing 154 eat the same amount of food for bulking, haha.[/quote]

And the thing is, that I feel that the amount of food he needs to bulk is quite high!!! You are just an anomaly :wink:

68

Yeah which sucks really bad. So unless there becomes more hours in a day or my metabolism slows down, i dont see myself gaining any weight. So i just try to get strong for my size, which i dont think i’m all that strong.

bench- 245
squat- 300
deadlift- 325
pullups- 3 reps with 65lbs on dip belt
dips- 3x8 with 25lbs, never really maxed out here.

At a bodyweight of 155lbs and 5’8". I’m strong for my size at my gym but i work out at the local YMCA where guys my size are happy if they can bench their bodyweight, its sad really.

69

Here is something I am having trouble in figuring out the best way to go about heavy lifting and/or going for PR’s…

I know when lifting heavy your CNS needs more time to recover to be able to give your best effort. BUT, if I wait, say, 3-5 minutes before attempting a PR or near PR, when I lift the heavy load I kinda feel like it is a little shocking to my body since I haven’t touched the heavy load for minutes. But, if I only wait ~90 seconds, I may still have some lingering fatigue from the previous set. What to do, what to do?..

Thanks,

Danny

70

CT, in regards to shoulder overhaul, you listed the workout for the accumulation phase. how about the intensification phase or would it remain the same?

71

CT,

I love the sound of the Emphasis Rotation program mentioned in the ‘Super Beast in the Making’ thread. Would it be possible for you to post an example of a shoulder or forearm specialisation?

Many thanks for all the great info and advice you provide us here!
Dan

72

A study by Matuszak et al. (2003) studied the impact of the rest between two 1RM tests.

What they did is have the subject test their 1RM on the back squat. Then they rested either 1 minute, 3 minutes or 5 minutes and attempted that same 1RM again.

The interesting findings are:

  • With 1 min. of rest, 76.5% of the subjects were able to successfully lift the 1RM on the second attempt.

  • With 3 minutes of rest, 94.1% were able to lift it.

  • With 5 minutes of rest 88.2% were able to lift it.

Basically it seems that 3 minutes is a good rest interval when attempting maximum lifts. However, since the success rate was still fairly high after only 1 minute, we can assume that anything between 2 and 3 minutes would be best.

[quote]Dboy wrote:
Here is something I am having trouble in figuring out the best way to go about heavy lifting and/or going for PR’s…

I know when lifting heavy your CNS needs more time to recover to be able to give your best effort. BUT, if I wait, say, 3-5 minutes before attempting a PR or near PR, when I lift the heavy load I kinda feel like it is a little shocking to my body since I haven’t touched the heavy load for minutes. But, if I only wait ~90 seconds, I may still have some lingering fatigue from the previous set. What to do, what to do?..

Thanks,

Danny[/quote]

73

Coach, where can I get some info on soviet weightlifters (especially Rigert)?
Are there any articles, books…
Thanks

74

First of all … you guys know that I don’t like being asked about posting complete programs on the forums. Writing a good program isn’t something that can be done in 10 minutes you know! Sometimes I might “feel like it” so I will include one in a reply without being asked. But other than that it is just to long to do …

Anyway, to answer your question…

I never considered a forearm specialization phase and feel that with most peoples it would be a waste of time.

The best forearm specialization for the forearms is to loose your lifting straps. Perform heavy dealifts, heavy pulls, heavy rows without any gripping aid or straps. No amount of wrist curl can beat that!

As for shoulders a good emphasis program would look like this (not that for a shoulder emphasis we only use 2 weekly workouts instead of the 3 we’d normally use for other bodyparts, this is because the shoulders are heavily involved in all chest and back work).

DAY 1 - Heavy workout

A. Barbell shoulder press
4 x 4-6 reps
120 sec. of rest

B. Reverse grip (curl grip) barbell shoulder press
4 x 6-8 reps
90 sec. of rest

C. Seated dumbbell shoulder press
3 x 10-12 reps
60 sec. of rest

D. Seated row to the neck
3 x 10-12 reps
60 sec. of rest

DAY 2 - Volume/density day

A1. Leaning away side lateral
4 x 6-8 reps
no rest

A2. Dumbbell bent over raises (rear delts)
4 x 6-8 reps
90 sec. rest

B1. Cable lateral raise
3 x 10-12 reps
no rest

B2. Reverse pec deck (rear delts)
3 x 10-12 reps
90 sec. rest

C. Cuban press
3 x 12-15 reps
60 sec. rest

[quote]Dan E wrote:
CT,

I love the sound of the Emphasis Rotation program mentioned in the ‘Super Beast in the Making’ thread. Would it be possible for you to post an example of a shoulder or forearm specialisation?

Many thanks for all the great info and advice you provide us here!
Dan [/quote]

75

[quote]Hrastnik wrote:
Coach, where can I get some info on soviet weightlifters (especially Rigert)?
Are there any articles, books…
Thanks[/quote]

Try:

Many interviews with former soviet lifters

76

CT:

In regards to your Rennaisance Body Development article: http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=700722

What are some alternates you would suggest for agility drills? I have a aerobics area that I can do drills in during the night, but when I work out in the day, the place is packed. Is there anything I could do, say, in the weight room? I know you were okay with KB work, but what about lightweight o-lifts? Anything else you would suggest?

Thanks for the help.

77

You could use skipping rope, various types of jumps, stuff like that. Kettlebells are fine because many of the drills are actually balance/flexibility challenges. With the olympic lifts, I only see the overhead squat as acceptable.

[quote]MikeKid wrote:
CT:

In regards to your Rennaisance Body Development article: http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=700722

What are some alternates you would suggest for agility drills? I have a aerobics area that I can do drills in during the night, but when I work out in the day, the place is packed. Is there anything I could do, say, in the weight room? I know you were okay with KB work, but what about lightweight o-lifts? Anything else you would suggest?

Thanks for the help.[/quote]

78

I’ll use this thread to answer today’s questions too.

79

CT!

Im going to cut and my questions from the progressions thread if you dont mind.

Id really like your opinions as well.

Thanks!

1.What type of progression is best suited for what strength quality improvement or is a combination of various loading patterns going to allow for s synergistic effect? e.g for MS development is adding weight enough? Is adding reps for endurance-strength emphasis enough?

  1. What type of un-loading is recommended for specific types of focused mesocycles? e.g when a mesocycle is emphasizing MS is the un-loading concept the same as for a hypertrophy emphasis mesocycle?

  2. How does the CNS adapt over-time to high-end intensity of load; can a pattern of progression that gradually emphasizes (over the course of months or a year) higher percentages of training sets being devoted to 85% and/or more intensity ranges allow the CNS to become more resiliant to fatigue accumulation?

  3. What frames of referance do you coaches use to discern between novices, intermediates and advanced trainees? How many years of hard training before you would call someone an advanced trainee?

Amir

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
I’ll use this thread to answer today’s questions too.[/quote]

80

CT,

What did you do to get a raise from TC? Any tips?

Broke in IN…
MR