Typically, where do you fit your rotator cuff work? Is it different for your bodybuilding clients vs. your athletes?
[quote]Scottish 190 wrote:
Typically, where do you fit your rotator cuff work? Is it different for your bodybuilding clients vs. your athletes?[/quote]
When I do it, I like to do it at the beginning of the workout I’m working shoulders.
Thib,
I had a question about 1RM on my big lifts. Over the past 9-12 months, I have increased my Squat from 185 x 10 reps to 185 x 20 reps, (going below parallel). Yet during the course, my 1RM has stayed at about 265. As soon as i am bringing that weight down, at about 2 inches above my parallel my lower back feels as if it can’t handle weight and I barely get it back up. Would you know the reason why thats happening or how to improve my max lift?
Also, during past 9-12 months, my bench has gone from 135 x 10 to 145 x 26 reps, BUT max stayed at 225lbs x 1…and deadlift from 315x5 to 335x6 but max still stayed at 405x1.
Thanks for any advice or help.
[quote]bassip21 wrote:
Thib,
I had a question about 1RM on my big lifts. Over the past 9-12 months, I have increased my Squat from 185 x 10 reps to 185 x 20 reps, (going below parallel). Yet during the course, my 1RM has stayed at about 265. As soon as i am bringing that weight down, at about 2 inches above my parallel my lower back feels as if it can’t handle weight and I barely get it back up. Would you know the reason why thats happening or how to improve my max lift?
Also, during past 9-12 months, my bench has gone from 135 x 10 to 145 x 26 reps, BUT max stayed at 225lbs x 1…and deadlift from 315x5 to 335x6 but max still stayed at 405x1.
Thanks for any advice or help. [/quote]
The further away you are from you 1 rep in terms of reps, the less correlation there is. For example increasing your 3RM on a lift will transfer almost 100%, a 5RM maybe 85-90% to a 1RM… above 12 reps there isn’t that much transfer because, even though the muscle is being trained the nervous isn’t receiving the type of stimulation that leads to a lot of strength gains in the 1-3 rep range.
Or specifically “you get good at what you do”
Thibs, open-ended question here. What are your current thoughts on rest-pausing and it’s various forms? (DC vs Mentzer method, etc.) Do you still use rest-pausing often in your training or your clients’ training? If so, how do you implement it? Thanks.
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
bassip21 wrote:
Thib,
I had a question about 1RM on my big lifts. Over the past 9-12 months, I have increased my Squat from 185 x 10 reps to 185 x 20 reps, (going below parallel). Yet during the course, my 1RM has stayed at about 265. As soon as i am bringing that weight down, at about 2 inches above my parallel my lower back feels as if it can’t handle weight and I barely get it back up. Would you know the reason why thats happening or how to improve my max lift?
Also, during past 9-12 months, my bench has gone from 135 x 10 to 145 x 26 reps, BUT max stayed at 225lbs x 1…and deadlift from 315x5 to 335x6 but max still stayed at 405x1.
Thanks for any advice or help.
The further away you are from you 1 rep in terms of reps, the less correlation there is. For example increasing your 3RM on a lift will transfer almost 100%, a 5RM maybe 85-90% to a 1RM… above 12 reps there isn’t that much transfer because, even though the muscle is being trained the nervous isn’t receiving the type of stimulation that leads to a lot of strength gains in the 1-3 rep range.
Or specifically “you get good at what you do”[/quote]
Thanks Thib, I’ll try to do high sets of 3RM for Squats, Deads, and Bench and see if I can finally drive up those numbers.
What is the single best exercise for strengthing the serratus muscle? What is the best day to add that exercise; chest day?
I remember CT writing an artice about the serratus crunch… I’m a fan of that one personally
but I’m guessing there might be more options available
Christian,
In beast building part 1, on the overload and tendon strengthening session, you recommend partial bench presses in the power rack and partial sumos in the power rack. I wanted to know if there are any substitutions for these two exercises because my gym does not have a power rack.
Thibs,
I am extremely pleased with Beast Building, I just finished phase 1 and I added 20lbs to my front squat and 30lbs to my deadlift! However, I struggled to add even 5 pounds on my bench press.
Here was my schedule:
Sun: Last beast building workout
Thurs: Deadlift maxing
Sat: Bench maxing
Monday: front squat maxing
Could it be because of inadequate cns recovery? Would you recommend I test it again in two days or to continue on with phase 2?
Thank you.
Christian,
Can you explain me why the ramp is always ascendent and no descendent?. Could it start at 85% RM and go down ?.
Regards.
when training to prevent muscle loss during a fat loss stage,
is there a certain percentage of your max you aim for?
What Rotator cuffs exercises would you recommend? Just the basic internal and external rotation or are the more?
Hey CT the more I re-read your Hight Threshold Muscle Building book, Ballistic Muscle techniques, Ramping, the perfect rep, isometric holds, pin presses from a dead stop, twitch reps, explosive olympic lifts, drop-catches, jumps and clusters as techniques to activate high threshold motor units the more I believe people will miss the boat on optimally gaining from I-bodybuilder.
I now understand more but this is only after re-reading your material and now what I understand is why back in the day you only taught T-Nation readers theories because I cannot imagine how you can create a generic training program based on activating one’s CNS because everybody is unique and everyone needs to understand their own body more in terms of what is working on one day to get activated and what is not.
Exercise selection in terms of an activation exercise and a preceeding lift to maximize those high threshold motor units is individualistic and thus it seems difficult for me to comprehend how I-bodybuilder will take form.
Besides my rant, I do have a question I find it more difficult to get lats activated during a back workout. I know about the various types of row activations and dead man throwing but do you have any activation exercises for the lats to really get one ready to lift thank you.
Coach,
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For the density capacity session (in a chest spec) do i keep the weight the same for all four weeks of the spec and just try to increase the number of times i complete each exercise each week, or do i increase the weight each week?
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Am i correct in believing that the most notable results will come after the spec, when having returned to normal training?
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For the heavy lifting chest session, is 4 exercises, two ramping up sets of 3 and two ramping up sets of 5 adequate? I won’t be going to failure and will switch exercises when the movements stop being so explosive.
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And finally, for the heavy lifting session would these exercise choices be acceptable:
Bench Press from Pins (4-6 inches above chest) ramping up sets of 3
Bench Press ramping up sets of 3
Incline Bench Press ramping up sets of 5
Floor Press ramping up sets of 5
Thanks!
J
[quote]King Eric wrote:
Coach,
-
For the density capacity session (in a chest spec) do i keep the weight the same for all four weeks of the spec and just try to increase the number of times i complete each exercise each week, or do i increase the weight each week?
-
Am i correct in believing that the most notable results will come after the spec, when having returned to normal training?
-
For the heavy lifting chest session, is 4 exercises, two ramping up sets of 3 and two ramping up sets of 5 adequate? I won’t be going to failure and will switch exercises when the movements stop being so explosive.
-
And finally, for the heavy lifting session would these exercise choices be acceptable:
Bench Press from Pins (4-6 inches above chest) ramping up sets of 3
Bench Press ramping up sets of 3
Incline Bench Press ramping up sets of 5
Floor Press ramping up sets of 5
Thanks!
J[/quote]
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You should be using your max force weight… the heaviest weight you can still accelerate for all the reps… as you get stronger, yeah, you might need to add weight.
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In the past I would have said yes… now, with proper peri-workout nutrition I’d say that it’s more like 50/50.
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I’d stick to 3 exercises, 4 is overkill for most. I personally do two because I’m super efficient at low reps sets so I can normally ramp up for 8-10 sets per exercise.
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Good choices, but drop at least one.
[quote]MAF14 wrote:
when training to prevent muscle loss during a fat loss stage,
is there a certain percentage of your max you aim for?[/quote]
My own training and the one my athletes are doing doesn’t really change during a fat loss phase. I have several athletes actually break PRs deep into their diet. My partner Nick is competing in 10 days and he is still beating or equalling PRs.
With “fat loss only” clients I might do some metabolic work, but for those who want to be big and muscular I keep the lifting strategies the same as during a regular or mass gaining phase. Autoregulation just becomes more important as the training needs to be adjusted to the daily energy levels.
[quote]Rudex wrote:
Christian,
Can you explain me why the ramp is always ascendent and no descendent?. Could it start at 85% RM and go down ?.
Regards.[/quote]
No you can’t.
“Ramping” doesn’t actually refers to ramping up the weight (although this is a strategy used) but rather to ramp up the working state of the nervous system.
Provided that you always try to accelerate as much as you can on every rep, the sets with the lighter weight will wake-up the nervous system while creating very little fatigue, increasing the readiness of the nervous system; which will lead to a higher peak performance.
If you start with the heavier weights right off the bat, you will not be able to perform optimally due to a lack of CNS activation. And the fact that your first sets are the hardest will make you do the last sets in a fatigue state so that none of the sets will lead to an optimal stimulation.
CT
Firstly, what is your take on stretching? Is it a tool you use with some of your clients for injury prevention/rehab etc?
Secondly, I think I remember reading you mention that sprinting is very stressfull on the body and if someone hasn’t sprinted in a while you recommend building back up slowly, is this correct? Thanks.
Coach,
do you still find the following training technique effective for stimulating hypertrophy?
or have they lost relevance in your new thinking? or how would you tweak it today?
e.g.
front squat to back squat, no rest (8-10/max)
snatch deads to sumo deadlift, no rest
preacher wide grip to narrow grip, no rest
thx.