I’m thinking of starting the “I,Bodybuilder” workout but the gyms in my area are all quite limited in terms of equipment and I may not be able to follow the training schedule too accurately.
For example, I have no olympic cage with pins, machine weights such as the leg curl and leg extension only offer a maximum weight whereby I can already comfortably do 15-20 reps in a set etc.
Can anyone offer advice on how I can compromise on what lifts to do in order to train with the necessary intensity required in the I,Bodybuilder workout?
Unless I am prepared to actually buy a car and then drive for at least an hour each way, it’s not going to be possible to attend a real gym! To be fair to the crappy one that I go to now it does have most of the basics. I guess the I,Bodybuilding workout will have to wait until I live in a city.
Well I’d also have to give up my job to make time to travel and train so far away. I do train regularly and pretty intensly at my current gym, it’s just lacking in a few items of equipment that’s all.
[quote]mcgeta wrote:
Well I’d also have to give up my job to make time to travel and train so far away. I do train regularly and pretty intensly at my current gym, it’s just lacking in a few items of equipment that’s all. [/quote]
How about let it be simple enough to just accept you can’t do the program? Look, people have gotten big without I,BB before, or the supplement protocol. Now, Im not saying they are not effective, but even CT would tell you they are not necessary to build an impressive physique.
But in order to workout decently, you have to have “some” sort of equipment. If your gym provides the basics then stay there and milk out what you can from it.
What “basic” equipment does your gym have anyways?
Then don’t do I, Bodybuilder? Why not continue what you’re doing, assuming it’s working for you, and try out I, Bodybuilder in the future. Hell, by that time there might be a new thibs-super program by then.
In fact, you’d probably be better off asking thibs what you can do, though I sort of doubt the efficacy of a compromised version, but meh.
[quote]mcgeta wrote:
Unless I am prepared to actually buy a car and then drive for at least an hour each way, it’s not going to be possible to attend a real gym! To be fair to the crappy one that I go to now it does have most of the basics. I guess the I,Bodybuilding workout will have to wait until I live in a city. [/quote]
Oh, boo! I drive almost an hour each way every week just to do my back workout and pay the expense of two gyms, not to mention the extra gas. That’s not even when there’s a couple feet of snow on the ground and ice on the roads.
[quote]mcgeta wrote:
Unless I am prepared to actually buy a car and then drive for at least an hour each way, it’s not going to be possible to attend a real gym! To be fair to the crappy one that I go to now it does have most of the basics. I guess the I,Bodybuilding workout will have to wait until I live in a city. [/quote]
Oh, boo! I drive almost an hour each way every week just to do my back workout and pay the expense of two gyms, not to mention the extra gas. That’s not even when there’s a couple feet of snow on the ground and ice on the roads.
It’s even uphill both ways-- … and I LIKE IT…[/quote]
If you are fairly short, you could do front squats off of the uprights of a bench. Perhaps substitute deadlifts for squats for a big lower body movement. At least IBB doesn’t suggest going to failure so you might be able to get away without a rack (for a while at least).
I’m doing the I,BB workout and I have to train at two different gyms. One is a small gym with everything close together (perfect for the 5-set circuits) but doesn’t have a decent leg extension machine and the gym with a plate loaded leg extension is huge and there’s no way you can monopolize 4 pieces of equipment at once since they might be on the other side of the room.
Without a power rack you can’t do the lifts from pins which defeats the purpose of some of the workouts. However that doesn’t mean you can’t take the concepts from IBB and build a program that will work with the equipment you have.
Oh, boo! I drive almost an hour each way every week just to do my back workout and pay the expense of two gyms, not to mention the extra gas. That’s not even when there’s a couple feet of snow on the ground and ice on the roads.
It’s even uphill both ways-- … and I LIKE IT…[/quote]
What does the other gym have that merits all that extra time/money?
[quote]JonBlood wrote:
How good is I,BB really? Are the gains super-human, unlike anything ever seen before?![/quote]
Yes, It’s good.
However, don’t expect to gain 15+ pounds doing this program. The people given as an example for these “super-human” gains are highly experienced individuals under the watchful eyes of coaches, doing the movements perfect and very strict on their supplementation and food intake.
And especially don’t expect to gain much if you’re new to the game. The ability to harness the explosive power of your muscle used in the workout requires a very good mind-muscle connection. That is something that can only be developed with time spend in the gym. Then there’s the form issue. Your form has to be impeccable and, especially if you’re training alone, you need to be able to realize when you’ve hit mechanical breakdown.
There’s also and ego thing. You have to hang your ego at the door if you’re doing this program. Those are some big ass dude’s doing those videos, and when I first watched them I was like “Fuck…I can work with those same weights those guys are using!” And I could. Or at least that was the case until I understood what “max force” and “mechanical breakdown” was. I restarted with a workout partner to make sure my form was perfect and my motion fluid. My working weight dropped a decent amount, but the got my ass-kicked feeling increased.
I would consider myself somewhere between intermediate/advanced as far as lifting goes and I’ve had good results using the programs so far. I’m only halfway through the second phase but I’m up 3lbs and have seen an increase in vascularity. The only complaint I have is my shins and knees are bruised as hell from all the deadlift variations. That’s it for my personal complaints. My lower back, however, has developed a mind of it’s own and has been cursing Thibs for the last 48 hours.
I, Bodybuilder works because of the principles of the perfect rep and the supplementation timing.
I have switched the exercises around to focus on specific muscles and to work with my specific gym.
I have still seen the greatest gains of my 10+years lifting.
CT has said that the current I, Bodybuilder routine is just the basics to teach us how to incorporate the perfect rep.
Two “regular” guys on here that have used it, or variations of, are ACTrain and Mighty Stu. Check out their threads and you will learn even more about what to do.