[quote]Charles3264 wrote:
Sorry for the questions
1)
but what is the westside dynamic day?..you know i m french…thanks
I need explosiveness also thats why my trainer gives me a day like that…he says the same thing as you…about the importence of the cns stimulation (explosiveness, twitch, negatives and power).
Thanks again CT [/quote]
Westside barbell is a powerlifting team based out of Columbus, it basically introduced bands, chains and explosive work to the work of powerlifting.
merci!! No wonder my trainer has a powerlifting base(he competed powerlifting and strongman)…i really like his approach of training…looks a lot like yours and gave me amazing results in the last year. Thanks Christian !
Coach,
My wrists really seem to be the weak point when it comes to my pushing exercises and I was wondering if fat bar or fat bar equivalents (Fatgripz) could help strengthen my wrists or alleviate some of the pain I experience under heavy loads. I’ve got great grip strength and my forearms aren’t suffering but my wrist still has a twinge in it. My acceleration through the lift is really suffering and I value your feedback on this.
I have a quesition regarding training with twitch reps and ramping:
Somewhere you wrote something like this (couldnt find it anymore;please correct me if its wrong):
Twitch reps:
You wrote:
about ramping:
You also wrote:
To give you an idea…
ACTIVATION TECHNIQUES:
These techniques can be used at the beginner of the workout, for the muscle to be trained (works best if you are only training one muscle group OR using a powerlifting approach where ypu focus on one lift) or contrasted with regular exercises (one activation, one stimulation, one activation, one stimulation… always ramping up the weight).
My Question:
Lets say Im gonna do Chest/Beck:
1.
first thing you could do is warming up until at 60% of your chosen RM for the day, then do ramp
2.
you could start at 30% of your chosen RM(or 1RM!?) with doing twitch reps, increasing weight until you can no longer do twitch reps ; then start with your ramp of working sets at 60% RM.
For how many exercises could I use the 2.second approach?
could/should I just use it for the first two exercises, maybe A1 bench A2 Bent over Row?
What whould you do after the first 2 exercises, lets say for B1 Military Press B2 Pullup; whould you do just a ramp, or whould you also use warmup sets or twitsh reps?
Thanks in advance.
Greetings Marcel
CT,
I’m pretty sure I grasp your current training philosophy, but one thing still eludes me. How do you progress over time? I’ll be the first to admit I’m still a noob, until fairly recently, I relied on following pre-written programs and, predictably, I got nowhere. But the thing I liked about programs, is that they always had clear parameters on when to increase the weight (e.g. once you get 5x5 add 5 pounds, or once you increase reps by 20% increase weight by 5%). When you train intuitively and work up to a daily max on a lift, how do you get to handle more weight? Do you just keep chugging along until one day you get a PR for 3 reps? Or do you periodically reevaluate you 1RM to determine that you’re lifting at 60-85% intensity? Sorry if this came across as a stupid question, it’s probably really obvious or assumed, but I simply don’t understand.
Thank you for your time,
BJack
i had a question regarding lactate inducing circuit training.
lets say i am going to do the circuits presscribed in your “destroying fat” article (3 sets of A, rest, 3 sets B, rest, 3 sets of C) and then i did 30 min steady state cardio immediately after (70% of max heartrate). i am using an approach to where after i subtract my protein calories from my daily total allowance, i split the reminder with 70% carbs and 30% fat. in my case thats 160 carbs.
i am having trouble figuring out where i put these carbs. just use the periworkout protocol? i.e. SWF, SR, FINiBARs and be nothing but veggie carbs rest of day? or should the carbs be placed somewhere else since it is lactate training and not heavy lifting?
Thanks CT
Hey CT,
Let’s say I’m ramping with sets of 3 for my main movement of the day (eg front squat) and before my last set I still think I can get another set of 3 but only get 2 and know I can’t complete the third so I stop the set. My question is whether I made a sub-optimal decision to go for that last set, or if it was worth trying for it. Obviously that last rep was pretty grueling so is that going to tax the CNS too much, or is it alright if that happens on only one rep per workout?
On a similar note, do you find most people recover their CNS at a similar rate or is there a lot of deviation here?
Thanks for your time.
Hi CT,
I thought I’d throw this question at you because of your experience with hockey players. I have an issue when I take wrist shots, it feels like electricity shoots through my forearms. Also, when I do heavy curls, setting the weight down shoots pain through my forearms. Sort of like shin splits but in the arms. Have you come across this issue before? Is there any exercises/stretches I could do to help alleviate? It might just be something I need to see the doctor.
Thanks,
Ryan
Hey CT,
I had a question about the use of twitch reps. I know they are used as an activation technique and was wondering the best way to use them, for example…would you
(a)perform a set of twitch reps and then perform a normal ramp set say 3 reps as you do in your experimental arm workout(set of twitch reps, set of 3, set of twitch reps, set of 3)?
or would you
(b) perform all your sets of twitch reps and then start your normal ramping sets ( set of twitch reps, set of twitch reps, set of 3, set of 3, etc)?
2) how many set of twitch reps would you perform prior to your ramping sets?
thanks for your time,
teebone2223
I was wondering the same thing teebone (question #3 that is)
Hey CT,
Quick question when doing a spec phase lets say on bench. You bench on day 1,3,5. Is that all you do is bench? Or do you add other exercises on somedays?
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
ParagonA wrote:
Coach,
I’ve always incorporated a lot of dead stop trainig into my routines. E.g. doing bench presses with a 2 second pause at bottom position (when the bar touches the chest). Typical speed 5-2-X-0. Always felt this helps me bust strenght plateaus.
Obviously, there is not much turnaround speed involved in this technique.
Do you recommend such techniqes or would you rather drop all the dead stop training and focus on producing max force at the turnaround point?
I do advocate a fast turnaround when doing REGULAR REPS. The key is not so much the fast turnaround, but overloading the stretch position in a movement.
A rapid turnover does this by creating almost a whip-like effect.
However this is not the only technique that creates a large loading in the stretch position. Movements from a dead stop also do so… they completely remove the eccentric preload and stretch reflex and the muscles themselves are forced to do more work.
So while being polar opposites, both methods are good at overloading the stretch position.[/quote]
I’m really glad this got brought up, I plan on doing a powerlifting meet in early December. The lady who judges the bench is known for LONG pauses on the chest.
I’ve been working on pin pressing and also fast turn around on regular reps. In addition, would you recommend multiple sets and/or multiple reps with full competition-style pauses on the chest to prepare?
Any other bench advice?
Hey Thibs, this might perhaps be the most stupid question I have ever asked regarding training or the most important.
Anyway here goes…
How do you feel before a workout? How do you feel after a workout - the first few hours, the next day etc?
and
How should you/I feel before and after a workout? Is there something you should be looking out for other than the obvious progression in weights over time?
The reason I am asking is that I am currently on a maintenance/deload week after coming off a hypertrophy phase, Im using the same weight but reducing the volume by just over a half for all workouts. The interesting things is that on each workout this week I have set PBs on all my lifts, for instance I was benching yesterday ramping up the weight each set until I could not achieve my target number of reps - at which I stopped working that bodypart. Normally, at 130kg I only get 3 reps, but yesterday I pushed up 4 relatively easy and felt that I could have completed yet another if only I had a spotter. The same thing happened for rows and for squats this week.
But here is the issue, my normal workout includes much more volume and at the end of it my muscle and I feel pretty shattered. But when I autoregulate it takes alot will of power not to go and crack out a few more sets, I feel as though I have much more to give. I am probably as you once described a stimulus junkie but I like to know that I have worked out the muscle effectively and in the process perhaps overdo it. How do you and those that you have trained under the autoregulation principle feel after you workout? Are there any signs that suggest you should do more, would any situation warrant doing more?
Thanks for reading.
NIguy
Hi Thib,
I have a question related to finding a coach/trainer who actually embraces bodybuilding.
These days it seems like most coaches out there have a significant bias against the pursuit of bodybuilding/being a physique competitor. Even many of the articles put up on this site that focus on performance or pre/rehab often seem to have a definite slant against exercises you might only seen being done by bodybuilders or their techniques and methods. That’s not to say that all things bodybuilding are brilliant and that structural balance and performance aren’t great, but many times it just seems like people are being conditioned to throw bodybuilding under the bus and think that many things done by bodybuilders are terrible for structural balance, joint health/integrity, and things of that nature.
Lately me and a training partner of mine have been searching for a relatively local coach/trainer who specializes in bodybuilding but still has a solid overall background/knows how to keep clients healthy and on track to reach their goals. Trouble is, most of the local trainers we’ve met with are either hardcore on the “Bootcamp/group fitness” bandwagon or are big into corrective exercise. While I understand that corrective exercise has an important role to play, I think it becomes a crutch when guys push it to extremes and spit on bodybuilding in the process…and the local trainers/corrective-focused guys we’ve chatted with seem to be sorely biased against bodybuilding.
Now with all due respect to guys out there like Cressey, Robertson, Cosgrove, Bill Hartman, Gray Cook, Mike Boyle, etc., Working with any one of them wouldn’t seem like the best fit/decision if building a bodybuilder “worthy” physique is the ultimate goal. While their knowledge base is beyond reproach and applicable to many disparate goals, I think they would all concede that they are not “go-to” guys when a clients primary goal lies in the realm of bodybuilding.
Sorry for the especially long post, but do you have any advice on how to find someone to work with personally who understands all of the things that go into a proper program (such as structural balance, maintaining joint health, and a host of other things) but who will not be afraid to tailor programs toward the main goal of building the absolute best physique possible within our own genetic potential/ceiling? I’m getting frustrated with running into people who look down upon me for not being into the group fitness thing, tell me that if I am not using kettlebells and a TRX than I am a dinosaur doomed to mediocre results, who tell me I should focus solely on bodybuilding because things like lateral raises in the frontal plane will ruin my shoulders over time, or who seem to think that any dynamic ab work will leave me in the chiropractors office eventually.
I’m not quite at my wits end but am steadily getting there. While I am not quite pining for the days when Nautilus training centers were en vogue, I can’t fathom how it is now viewed as something of a crime if being in a relatively typical gym and focusing on bodybuilding pursuits is some sort of crime. I don’t bad mouth the TRX/kettlebell guys, the bootcamp guys/girls, or even the Cross Fitters, but for some reason they have no qualms about knocking my area of interest, and the sentiments have seemed to infect most of the crop of local trainers/coaches.
Hey CT,
If someone wanted to add significant size to their upper chest, medial delts, and arms in a couple of weeks, do you have any suggestions? Work for the rest of the body could be brought down to maintenance levels.
[quote]Derock wrote:
Hey CT,
If someone wanted to add significant size to their upper chest, medial delts, and arms in a couple of weeks, do you have any suggestions? Work for the rest of the body could be brought down to maintenance levels. [/quote]
In a couple of weeks? I’d recommend going to church and asking God! I get results fast, but adding significant size in only two weeks is asking quite a bit.
Which of your books would be your first recommendation for me to read? My main goal is acheiving maximum strength for my size, whatever my size may be. I’m currently
80%powerlifter/20%bodybuilder.
I’m not a huge fan of learning from books, but they can be good to have around. I like Waterbury’s Huge in a Hurry, although I’m currently doing a split routiine.
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
Derock wrote:
Hey CT,
If someone wanted to add significant size to their upper chest, medial delts, and arms in a couple of weeks, do you have any suggestions? Work for the rest of the body could be brought down to maintenance levels.
In a couple of weeks? I’d recommend going to church and asking God! I get results fast, but adding significant size in only two weeks is asking quite a bit.[/quote]
Sorry, maybe I need to rephrase that. I’m not talking about a complete transformation, but regaining some size that was previously there before muscle loss. Maybe about 1/4 to 1/2 inch on the arms when the arms were previously over an inch bigger with muscle.
hey ct - thanks for all previous answers youve given me, very helpful and appreciated.
My question tho, Can/should eccentric dropcatch type exercises be used frequently? so that weights above 1RM can be utilised in the eccentric portion??
cheers
Matt.
[quote]krsoneeeee wrote:
hey ct - thanks for all previous answers youve given me, very helpful and appreciated.
My question tho, Can/should eccentric dropcatch type exercises be used frequently? so that weights above 1RM can be utilised in the eccentric portion??
cheers
Matt.[/quote]
in the drop an catch you are not using anywhere near your max on a lift, around 30-50% is the normal, it’s the acceleration of the load before catching it that causes a high force production upon reception.
The same rules that apply to plyo also applies here: no more than 4 weeks straigth, 2-3 times per year max.
Hi Coach!
What do you think about a training circuit day with a sandbag, in a program?
exercices are :
-side to side bang cleans
I do this circuit 3 times…10 reps each exercices. I vary the weight of the bag 30 to 80 pounds depending of the exercice. Do you have any other exercices to suggest. Thanks.
By the way i ve bought your high threshold book can t wait to give it a reading
Cheers
Charles