I achieved optimal acceleration (1.5 rep per second) only with about 40-45% of maximum but not more (well, I don’t really know my true 1RM in row because it’s very subjective due to many possible positions, grips, cheating, etc., but that’s approximate) Is it normal or you’d expect higher result ?[/quote]
Actually they are most effective at a lighter weight for more speed (and especially a snappy turnaround between eccentric and concentric) than with more weight and less speed.
45% is around the max that I can do on my most efficient movements, in most I prefer to stay at around 30%.
[quote]Thy. wrote:
2. I never had elbow joint aches before from anything. But those row twitches gave me some irritating ache up to the next day. Is it actually the kind of ache that you’d expect and that is the adaptation sign ?
[/quote]
Those twitches, when performed right, puts a TREMENDOUS amount of force on the muscles. Yes, I would expect a high level of soreness if you did them properly. I did a great twitch workout and had a shoulders/chest soreness that lasted 8 days!!!
[quote]Italiano wrote:
Thibs, not sure if this has been answered already, but I can’t seem to find it. Should all exercises be performed with an accelerated conentric portion of the lift? Take the ‘Thib System’ articles for example, during a constant tension isolation exercise. Should you still focus on an explosive concentric, all the while keeping the muscle under constant tension throughout the exercise?
Thanks[/quote]
As I mentioned before, I try to accelerate on the concentric portion of a lift around 90% of the time.
Slower movements and constant tension are used around 10% of the time, only on isolation exercises performed at the end of a workout.
[quote]MiJuggernaut wrote:
Coach
I understand that you have recently amended some of your practices. My question is if you were to write how to design a damn good program today, what would you change? Things like splits, frequency exercise selection? I assume you would recommend your ramping strategy with 6 or less reps. Perhaps some of these variables are by themselves not the most important, but if your goal is to teach people to train themselves, I think these answers might simplify that. Thanks for your time. [/quote]
I always used ramping… ever since I began training when I was 12 I ramped instinctively. And all the coaches I had, had me ramp. So consider that everything I ever wrote has ramping implied.
[quote]Addict3d wrote:
What does a typical workout look like for you as far as working sets and warm up sets? You keep a journal on here?[/quote]
I do not keep a journal and I don’t follow a training program. Never have. I autoregulate every single workout to reach the peak physiological response for that day. So every day is its own battle, which is why I don’t ‘follow’ anything.
[quote]Costco77 wrote:
Hey CT, I normally train 6 days a week and every once in a while 5 days. I’m having trouble coming up with a good weekly split that involves all bodyparts: Chest, back, arms, legs, shoulders. I have been doing antagonistic pairs usuing your training advice of ramping and progressing with the working sets; I’m having trouble spliting up the chest, back and shoulder bodyparts. Any suggestion on how i could create a 6 or 5 day a week split?[/quote]
YOUR SPLIT IS BY FAR THE LEAST IMPORTANT THING IN YOUR TRAINING…
As long as it is not idiotic it will work.
I would do this:
train every muscle twice a week (unless you are in a spec phase)
make sure that a workout will not negatively affect the next one
As long as you do this, any split will work.
That having been said, here are some suggestions…
DAY 1 - pulling muscles
DAY 2 - pushing muscles
DAY 3 - Legs
DAY 4 - off
Repeat
DAY 1 - Chest, shoulders and biceps
DAY 2 - Legs
DAY 3 - Back and triceps
DAY 4 - off
Repeat
DAY 1 - Chest and Back
DAY 2 - Legs
DAY 3 - Shoulders and arms
DAY 4 - off
Repeat
DAY 1 - Squat workout
DAY 2 - Bench workout
DAY 3 - off
DAY 4 - Deadlift workout
DAY 5 - Overhead press workout
Repeat
[quote]colinphenom wrote:
CT, the squat rack at my gym doesn’t have pins its a hammer strength with the slide-ins. Is there any point in doing blast isos if the slide in pins are going to move up about 1/2 an inch every rep before the bar is stopped or should I just stick to the other techniques for cns activation if its losing effectiveness.[/quote]
Stick to other methods. There are plenty of them, an none is drastically better than others.
I am having trouble trying to activate my lats on a back workout. Sometimes it is a hit and miss but do I have to work more on form or does it have a to do with mind muscle connection?
With regards to my form I try to have the best possible with good contraction. More so, I cannot seem to nail a good enough contraction in my lats to get a pump out of them.
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
Costco77 wrote:
Hey CT, I normally train 6 days a week and every once in a while 5 days. I’m having trouble coming up with a good weekly split that involves all bodyparts: Chest, back, arms, legs, shoulders. I have been doing antagonistic pairs usuing your training advice of ramping and progressing with the working sets; I’m having trouble spliting up the chest, back and shoulder bodyparts. Any suggestion on how i could create a 6 or 5 day a week split?
YOUR SPLIT IS BY FAR THE LEAST IMPORTANT THING IN YOUR TRAINING…
As long as it is not idiotic it will work.
I would do this:
train every muscle twice a week (unless you are in a spec phase)
make sure that a workout will not negatively affect the next one
As long as you do this, any split will work.
That having been said, here are some suggestions…
DAY 1 - pulling muscles
DAY 2 - pushing muscles
DAY 3 - Legs
DAY 4 - off
Repeat
DAY 1 - Chest, shoulders and biceps
DAY 2 - Legs
DAY 3 - Back and triceps
DAY 4 - off
Repeat
DAY 1 - Chest and Back
DAY 2 - Legs
DAY 3 - Shoulders and arms
DAY 4 - off
Repeat
DAY 1 - Squat workout
DAY 2 - Bench workout
DAY 3 - off
DAY 4 - Deadlift workout
DAY 5 - Overhead press workout
Repeat[/quote]
Thanks CT! I just needed some kind of foundation to look at. Thanks for taking the time.
I read that you keep a low percentage of fat throughout the year for image and business reasons.
I’d like to know what kind of cardio work do you practice to achieve this goal?
I am currently practicing the three patterns found in your book (The Black Book of Training Secrets) as IBUR, 400 mt and Interval Running.
Do you think that they are suitable schemes for losing fat for a bodybuilder?
What do you think of the comparison between aerobic (such as slow and long running) and anaerobic activity (such as HIIT, IBUR, Interval Running or guerrilla cardio) to lose fat?
Thib, if I’m on spec phase on a movement like overhead press and having a dynamic day :
Let’s say I do 10 x 1 @ 80-85% that took me 10-15 minutes and I still feel energetic and explosive, should I do 3-5 more? What about if I still feel great and explosive, should I do up to 20-25 of those ?
In other words, do you have any number limit where you’d say that such work is turning into counterproductive ?
I seem to become more and more explosive after the 8,9,10th set and so on… I usually become slowered after not less than 15 sets… where should I stop ?
I read that you keep a low percentage of fat throughout the year for image and business reasons.
I’d like to know what kind of cardio work do you practice to achieve this goal?
I am currently practicing the three patterns found in your book (The Black Book of Training Secrets) as IBUR, 400 mt and Interval Running.
Do you think that they are suitable schemes for losing fat for a bodybuilder?
What do you think of the comparison between aerobic (such as slow and long running) and anaerobic activity (such as HIIT, IBUR, Interval Running or guerrilla cardio) to lose fat?[/quote]
I do not do any form of cardio besides walking with my wife. I just hate cardio and only do it if it is an absolute necessity.
But if I had to do some right now, it would be 1 or 2 sprint sessions per week and 1-2 steady-state sessions per week.
[quote]Thy. wrote:
Thib, if I’m on spec phase on a movement like overhead press and having a dynamic day :
Let’s say I do 10 x 1 @ 80-85% that took me 10-15 minutes and I still feel energetic and explosive, should I do 3-5 more? What about if I still feel great and explosive, should I do up to 20-25 of those ?
In other words, do you have any number limit where you’d say that such work is turning into counterproductive ?
I seem to become more and more explosive after the 8,9,10th set and so on… I usually become slowered after not less than 15 sets… where should I stop ?
[/quote]
Yes do more. But I would suggest moving up to 2 reps. I’ve noticed that most peoples are actually more powerful on that 2nd rep than the 1st one.
So do sets of 2 and stop when you are not feeling like you are totally dominating the weight.
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
Thy. wrote:
Thib, if I’m on spec phase on a movement like overhead press and having a dynamic day :
Let’s say I do 10 x 1 @ 80-85% that took me 10-15 minutes and I still feel energetic and explosive, should I do 3-5 more? What about if I still feel great and explosive, should I do up to 20-25 of those ?
In other words, do you have any number limit where you’d say that such work is turning into counterproductive ?
I seem to become more and more explosive after the 8,9,10th set and so on… I usually become slowered after not less than 15 sets… where should I stop ?
Yes do more. But I would suggest moving up to 2 reps. I’ve noticed that most peoples are actually more powerful on that 2nd rep than the 1st one.
So do sets of 2 and stop when you are not feeling like you are totally dominating the weight.[/quote]
Great, thanks !
I assume it would be effective to change intensity every week : 70,75,80,85% to practice all the ranges of force spectrum ?
Would you limit this type of work by time though ? If I go as long as I’m explosive it can turn into marathon for like 30 minutes and 20-30 sets!
a while back a saw a post in which you were feeling good one day and critiqued this guys workout set up for the week where he would do the following:
Monday- Horizontal push pull (2 exercises for both and performed the antagonist exercise in between each set
Tuesday- off
Wednesday- Legs with a quad emphasis
Thursday - Vertical Push pull (same concept as above)
friday- off
Saturday- Legs Hamstring Emphasis
sunday- off
I have been trying this for the past week and i am really liking it, but i just saw that post in which you recommended training something like
monday- chest and back
tuesday- legs
wednesday- shoulders and arms
thursday- off
repeat
i wouldnt have enough money to train that much and use the protocol (i am using the optimum protocal so far and its great, along with pulsing throughout the day with 25g of WH + 5g leucine) so i was wondering if i was following that first setup, would it still work? or is it that much better to do the second type where you train each muscle twice a week.
coach,
i understand that you advocate autoregulation. however, if i get a great workout i feel like i never want to stop, or have energy to spare. To avoid wearing down the CNS or just the body in particular, how many exersizes per muscle group would be too much. i usually do 3-4 exersizes per muscle group.
[quote]Addict3d wrote:
So how many sets do you do for a typical workout? Meaning how many are warm ups and how many are working sets roughly. [/quote]
i dont know if you were asking me, but if so
i just usually start at around 60 % of my one rep max for each exercise, then slowly ramp up till i cant get that number of reps anymore without grinding the reps. i usually do 1-2 “feel sets” before i start the 60%. i have done as many as like 10-12 maybe even 15 sets for each exercise depending on what i am doing. sometimes if i dont feel like increasing weight by small incriments i will do 2 sets of the same weight, then jump up for example
set 1- 60%
set 2- 60%
set 3- 65%
set 4- 65%
set 5 -70%
set 6- 70%
set 7 -75%
set 8 -75%
set 9- 80%
set 10-80%
set 11-85%
set 12-85%
(sometimes) set 13- 90%
in regards to that last set- lets say i am doing bench for sets of 3, that last set i might only do 2, because i know i wouldnt be able to accelerate the bar fast enough on the 3rd rep and i would be grinding the rep. so i would say just feel it out. and if its sets of 5, that last set might be 4 reps. just depends.
oh, by the way, sorry if i just wasted your time and you were asking CT, and not me.