Good afternoon Coach Thibaudeau,
I read with interest your recent article: The 5 Worst Weight Loss Mistakes Lifters Make. I would like to know your thoughts are on a couple of alterations to phase 1 training:
Do you feel that super-setting push movement with pull or upper-lower sets or even a circuit would be detrimental (i.e. lead to greater utilization of glycogen)? Mind you, I would still make sure that 4 minutes of rest occur before returning to the initial exercise.
Same for “sneaking in” say, an exercise for calves, forearms or abs during the 3-4 minute rest period for the basic movement
Hello!
In phase one, it is suggested to perform 3-4 sets of 4-6 reps of the standard four: Push, Pull, Squat and Hinge. Recommended rest period is 4 (or more) minutes. I understand the rationale for this. However there is a high rest/work ratio. Would super-setting or performing the exercises in a circuit be detrimental, given there is sufficient rest between each exercise?
And/or, would performing an exercise in-between a set of the core exercises (i.e. press or squat) for a small muscle group such as forearm, calf or abs be detrimental in a major way?
For clarification, If I do 4 sets of 4-6 reps (~ 20 seconds) and then rest 4 minutes between each set, that is 13-14 minutes for completion of each movement and I have only done 80 seconds of work. For the 4 core movements, that is 56 minutes of time, not including warm-up.
If including some indirect work in-between is more effective use of my time.
Thanks for your reply! That may be what I need to consider. After 45 years of working out, the one thing I have never tried is “long, complete” rests between sets. It’s difficult to just sit for 4-5 minutes waiting to perform the next set and not lose focus or think of the many things that have to get done.
I’m late to this party… but I absolutely understand your thinking. It may be helpful if you think about that first phase as generally preparing you for the second phase (and so on), rather than intended to drive the desired results itself. In this case, you’re using the complete rests to build maximal strength/ output that you’ll then use to make those movements more systemically impactful/ effective in the next phase.
Hi,
Thank you so much for your email. I totally understand the reasoning behind the phases. My goal is to focus a little more on FT muscle fibers, for a couple of months. Increasing the size of IIX is quite controversial. So my scenario or question is, will training small muscle groups such as neck, forearms and calves affect the recovery of the main exercises, given I am resting at least 4 minutes between sets. The time on the smaller muscles is a max of 2 min. I was curious as to whether CT would feel that working the small muscles would deplete PC stores in the larger muscles.
I’ve tried this for the last couple of weeks and it has not been detrimental (at least subjectively). The only other research I’ve seen about long rest training comes from Pavel’s group Strong First and he recommends moving around during the long rest period(s). Having worked out for almost 50 years, I’m always open to something new. Resting 4 minutes between sets requires a lot of time, even if one is only doing 4 exercises!
I hypothesized that sneaking in a few sets for small muscle groups would save me 30-60 minutes of time, weekly, without significantly detracting from the main goal. It will also keep me focused.