[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
If your shoulders are overpowering, I would drop all shoulder pressing work and minimize the amount of direct shoulders work (maybe 6 sets per week).
If your shoulders are average compared to the chest you could perform as much as 9-12 sets, avoiding all pressing work.
I would avoid close-grip press (or use it alternatively with the floor press) but I could see dips as being acceptable, but it depends on how you are feeling.[/quote]
I think I’ll just replace floor press with dips then, and move floor press to the explosive day, where it probably should have been in the first place. Then, my 3 spec days look as follows:
Heavy
-Incline press
-Bench press
-Close grip
As stated before, nothing fancy, just heavy lifting.
Density/Capacity
-Mechanical drop, DB pressing
A1 - High incline
A2 - Med incline
A3 - Flat
-Dips
I wasn’t sure how else to fulfill this day. I workout in a home gym and can only have one bar and one set of DBs at a time, so I can’t do crazy supersets or anything. Is this drop set still a good idea, or would something else like
A1 - BB bench wide grip
A2 - flyes
A3 - BB bench close grip (much stronger than wide for me)
work better?
Also, would it be best to do the dips (tricep focused) before the circuit, or after?
Explosive/Volume
-Inc DB press
-Inc Flyes
-DB bench press
-Flyes
-Floor Press
I was going to do it like this: Keep the load for the presses at weights i can accelerate for every rep, and then use max weights for the flyes. I figured I could get decent density/volume doing it this way, does this sound good?
Would you recommend a combination of explosive reps and “feel the muscle” continous tension isolation exercises or just explosive reps for all compound and isolation exercises?
Would you recommend a combination of explosive reps and “feel the muscle” continous tension isolation exercises or just explosive reps for all compound and isolation exercises?[/quote]
I like constant tension for isolation exercises, but never on compounds.
Understand that I am not talking about explosive reps though… I’m talking about the heaviest weight you can still dominate. The actual speed of movement might not be super fast, but your intent IS to explode with the bar.
On compounds I use “accelerative intent” reps more than 90% of the time. On isolation I’d say that I split it 50/50
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
nba2008 wrote:
hey quick question about your get strong, get fast, get vertical article
there are days 1,2,3, and 4. 2 upper and 2 lower body days.
what should the split be
like monday, tuesday, thursday friday or
monday, wednesday, friday, saturday or …???
Monday, tuesday, thursday, saturday[/quote]
I’ve actually got a similar question. Right now I’m doing legs on Monday, chest on Tuesday, back on Wednesday, shoulders on Thursday and arms on Friday. Everything with 2-3 main exercises and 1-2 “extra” exercises, 3-5 sets, ramped, 10 reps (less on last set, planning to try rotating rep ranges every couple of weeks; also, arms day has 3 exercises for the triceps and 3 for the biceps, supersetted in antagonist pairs). Should I keep the weekly schedule like this or:
A) Add a break in the middle and do Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday
B) Drop the arms day and add a one triceps exercise on chest day and one biceps exercise on back day, or maybe even another one on legs (biceps) and shoulders (triceps) days. That would be scheduled for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday.
Full Squat vs. Rack Squat (pins set to bottom position)
Full Squat vs. Box Squat
Thanks, I am trying to determine where my weakness is (similar to how to used the Rack Bench vs. Full Bench for AC, Nate Green and Stu), so I can bring my squat up.
I read your list of exercises you try to keep in your program constantly (pull ups, back squats etc), are there any circumstances under which you would swap one out?
In terms of strengthening the quadratus lumborum would dumbell side raises and side extensions be optimal choices? Thanks.
Just wanted to get your opinion/advice on my current program.
Here’s how it looks:
Monday: Legs/Back/Biceps
Back Squats 3x12
Reverse Lunges 3x6
Stiff Legged Deadlifts 3x6-10
Weighted Pull Ups 3x4-8
Rows of any kind 3x6-10
Bicep Work 1-2 exercises 3x6-12
Tuesday: Chest/Shoulders/Triceps
Bench Press 5x5
Incline DB or BB 3x5-8
Military or Push Press 4x6-8
Weighted Dips 3x5-8
…Then maybe throw in some rear delt work or other tricep work
Cable Crunches 3x12-15
Thursday: Legs/Back/Biceps
Deadlift 5x5 or x8 x6 x6 x4 x4
Front Squats 3x12
Yate Rows 3x6-10
Weighted PullUps 3x5-8
Pull-Throughs or other ham/glut work 3x8-12
Bicep Work
Friday: Chest/Shoulders/Triceps
DB Bench 5x5
Incline DB or BB 3x5-8
Military or Push Press 4x5-8
Weighted Dips 3x5-8
…rear delt or other tricep exercises
Cable Crunches 3x12-15
So far I have been getting good results with this and the reason my squat reps are higher, 12 reps, is because I am working on fixing my form. I had the problem of the knees caving in and leaning forward, so I picked a weight started with that and been improving ever since, usually adding 10lbs each squat day. Hope to reach doing reps with 350lbs soon and eventually 400lbs.
EDIT: I usually do cardio 2x a week, one day sprints and another day being longer distance cardio.
Just a follow-up question to your words on exercise variation and muscle growth:
For the main exercises (bench, pull-ups, front squats, etc.), do you like very slight changes every 6-8 weeks, so that the trainee is still doing basically the same movement?
For example:
changing grip width of foot stance a couple inches
changing to a slightly different variation of an exercise, such as going from a Bulgarian split squat to Bulgarian jump squat, where your foot actually leaves the ground),
or changing rep range of the exercise, but putting a new exercise before it, in order to get additional muscle fibers in play
Just wanted to get your opinion/advice on my current program.
Here’s how it looks:
Monday: Legs/Back/Biceps
Back Squats 3x12
Reverse Lunges 3x6
Stiff Legged Deadlifts 3x6-10
Weighted Pull Ups 3x4-8
Rows of any kind 3x6-10
Bicep Work 1-2 exercises 3x6-12
Tuesday: Chest/Shoulders/Triceps
Bench Press 5x5
Incline DB or BB 3x5-8
Military or Push Press 4x6-8
Weighted Dips 3x5-8
…Then maybe throw in some rear delt work or other tricep work
Cable Crunches 3x12-15
Thursday: Legs/Back/Biceps
Deadlift 5x5 or x8 x6 x6 x4 x4
Front Squats 3x12
Yate Rows 3x6-10
Weighted PullUps 3x5-8
Pull-Throughs or other ham/glut work 3x8-12
Bicep Work
Friday: Chest/Shoulders/Triceps
DB Bench 5x5
Incline DB or BB 3x5-8
Military or Push Press 4x5-8
Weighted Dips 3x5-8
…rear delt or other tricep exercises
Cable Crunches 3x12-15
So far I have been getting good results with this and the reason my squat reps are higher, 12 reps, is because I am working on fixing my form. I had the problem of the knees caving in and leaning forward, so I picked a weight started with that and been improving ever since, usually adding 10lbs each squat day. Hope to reach doing reps with 350lbs soon and eventually 400lbs.
EDIT: I usually do cardio 2x a week, one day sprints and another day being longer distance cardio.
[/quote]
I mentioned it 10 000 times in the past: I don’t do program critique. It’s actually takes me more time to properly critique a program than to write a new one. I only have so many hours in a week and have to pick my battles. Furthermore, if you read all of my recents posts on autoregulation, ramping, the perfect rep, ‘What doesn’t really matter…’, etc. you’ll know that I’m not that fond of programs anyway.
Thib, does medial delt have much of an impact in bench press ? If I were to increase the strength of this head through isolation exercises like side raises, would it influence my bench power ?
For a shoulder spec phase where would you put in chest work? Would you put it before one of the shoulder workouts (ie. before density-capacity day for shoulders)?
Example:
Monday: Shoulders - heavy lifting
Tuesday: Lower Body
Wednesdays: Chest, Shoulders - density capacity
Thursday: Rest
Friday: Shoulders - high volume/explosive work
Saturday: Back and Arms
Also, do you prefer high volume or explosive work (ie. power snatch and power cleans) for the shoulders?
When I did the functional isometric deadlifts (below knee position) after doing the quad complex, my lower back just seems to lack the endurance and starts rounding despite only using 70% of my 1 rep max. What exercise would you recommend me to focus on? Perhaps some goodmornings or back extensions?
Thank you! I’m loving your beast building program, I’m on the 2nd week of phase 2, in a month I added 30lbs to my deadlift, and 20lbs to my front squat, cant wait to max out after phase 2 =)
When I did the functional isometric deadlifts (below knee position) after doing the quad complex, my lower back just seems to lack the endurance and starts rounding despite only using 70% of my 1 rep max. What exercise would you recommend me to focus on? Perhaps some goodmornings or back extensions?
Thank you! I’m loving your beast building program, I’m on the 2nd week of phase 2, in a month I added 30lbs to my deadlift, and 20lbs to my front squat, cant wait to max out after phase 2 =)[/quote]
Glad to hear about your progress!
The problem is probably lack of both spinal and thoracic erectors strength.
I would use seated goodmornings, posterior chain blaster and neck extensions with a neck harness (actually hyperextend, not something I normally recommend, to work the thoracic erectors).
6-8 reps per set for the first 2, 15-20 reps per set for the last one.
About max force set : it’ll vary from day to day, but is it generally a load of about 80% for 3 reps, 85% for 2, and 90% for 1 ? (as a broad estimation)
Why I’m asking : I tend to accelerate/dominate all weights almost equally except for the last rep of the heaviest set. For example, I might breeze through an almost maximal set for 3, all reps solid and fast. Then put another 2.5 kg, do 2 reps the same way, and then immediately stall and fail or grind super hard through the 3rd rep.
