I’ll start this thread early to get in as many Qs as possible since I’ll only be online for 2 hours.
I know I’ve looked and probably in the wrong places but couldn’t find any articles about your olympic lifting.
Could you post some examples or a program for someone new to OL’s to incorporate them into their routine?
How’s it going CT?
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What are your goals? Lifting numbers, physique, etc?
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How heavy is the sledgehammer you are using? How often do you use it per week?
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Do you think you could kick Vin Diesel’s ass?
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What’s the fastest you’ve ever ran (or seen one of your athletes run) a mile?
Hey CT I had a q’s about doing DL off of 8" platform. Where are you going to feel most of the lift in your legs or in your back? I feel it more in my back but not in a bad way but it is definitely different than a dl. Also 8" puts the bar right at my toes. The bar starts in front of my toes cause I can’t get the bar to my shin on 8". Is this where it should start? Any chance you can get back to me about workin with you with my diet & training? Did you get my PM?
Christian, I’m interested in your thoughts on training teenagers. What are the limitations if any? I’ve started training my girfriends youngest brother who is 14. For now as a beginner, he is lifting in the higher rep range, but I ultimately planned to move him into heavy training. I’m trying to sort out the myths from the facts. I’ve heard talk about not going too close to 1 rep max. How close is too close? Any input would be great. Thanks!
CT. You are a fucking genius!
Now I want to know how you periodize your yearly training?
And what do you think about CW’s high frequency ideas as far as finding a ceiling for how many times one can possibly train each movement per week or per mesocycle.
What should be the limiting factor planning out how many times per week to work a movement youre specilizing?
I mentioned to CW that I thought the way to determine optimal frequency per movement would be the number of strength qualities trained per week (if you train 4 strength qualities per week than you train each movment 4 times per week) . Is this optimal?
I think an article explaining your periodization approaches for High endurance sport athlete to Maximal Strength sport athlete would be awsome.
I hope I make sense, I just get too excited when someone like you comes on.
Amir
My ‘Black Book of Training Secrets’ has a 12 weeks break-in program.
Other than that I suggest gradually working the lifts in, starting with the easiest variations:
- power snatch from blocks
- power clean from blocks
- push press
And mastering basic assistance drills such as:
- front squat with a clean grip
- romanian deadlift
- overhead squat
Then progressing to more complex lifts:
- power clean from the hang
- power snatch from the hang
- push jerk
Then lifts from the floor, then drilling the full squat lifts.
[quote]PKP284 wrote:
I know I’ve looked and probably in the wrong places but couldn’t find any articles about your olympic lifting.
Could you post some examples or a program for someone new to OL’s to incorporate them into their routine?[/quote]
CT- how much longer do you see yourself staying in Canada? Do you ever see yourself coming to the US?
Hey Coach just wondering how you would go about setting up westside for mass?
Hi CT,
if you had to pick an article that you have written, what would be your best? I for sure would pick your " Different Destinations, Different Journeys" article. It changed my whole out look on training. I am so much stronger, have more time for my boxing and enjoy training much more.
Do you still stand by the article or is there anything you could add or have learned in the last year to improve it?
Thanks for changing my outlook on training after 17 years of wasted time!
[quote]BPC wrote:
How’s it going CT?
- What are your goals? Lifting numbers, physique, etc?
[/quote]
My goals are to take over the strength-training community and to get rid of world hunger.
[quote]BPC wrote:
2. How heavy is the sledgehammer you are using? How often do you use it per week?
[/quote]
I have one 6lbs, one 8lbs, one 10lbs, one 12lbs… ordered 20lbs and 30lbs ones.
[quote]BPC wrote:
. Do you think you could kick Vin Diesel’s ass?
[/quote]
Who really care? His bank account would probably kill mine.
[quote]BPC wrote:
4. What’s the fastest you’ve ever ran (or seen one of your athletes run) a mile? [/quote]
None of my athletes ever ran a timed mile.
I would avoid going below 5RM until the kid has developed a very good strength base AND has at least 18 months of training under his belt.
[quote]jsbrook wrote:
Christian, I’m interested in your thoughts on training teenagers. What are the limitations if any? I’ve started training my girfriends youngest brother who is 14. For now as a beginner, he is lifting in the higher rep range, but I ultimately planned to move him into heavy training. I’m trying to sort out the myths from the facts. I’ve heard talk about not going too close to 1 rep max. How close is too close? Any input would be great. Thanks![/quote]
[quote]Stacked wrote:
CT- how much longer do you see yourself staying in Canada? Do you ever see yourself coming to the US?[/quote]
I’ll answer by saying that the timing of this question is very good.
CT,
Is there a rule of thumb for checking imbalances between pressing and pulling (concerned about shoulder structure and whether or not they are healthy/balanced enough to encorporate overhead presses). Thanks,
TR
Yearly training periodization is a topic that is way outside the scope of this column. In fact I gave a 16 hour seminar 2 weeks ago on that subject and that still did not cover everything!!!
I am also a pro-frequency type of guy. As a former competitive olympic lifter I’ve gone as high as 12 weekly workouts all working the squat, snatch and clean & jerk. I do like your strength capacity idea. CW had an article called Quattro Dynamo which was similar to your own idea. But with most athletes I would stick to a limit frequency of 3x per week for each muscle group or lift structure.
[quote]AMIRisSQUAT wrote:
CT. You are a fucking genius!
Now I want to know how you periodize your yearly training?
And what do you think about CW’s high frequency ideas as far as finding a ceiling for how many times one can possibly train each movement per week or per mesocycle.
What should be the limiting factor planning out how many times per week to work a movement youre specilizing?
I mentioned to CW that I thought the way to determine optimal frequency per movement would be the number of strength qualities trained per week (if you train 4 strength qualities per week than you train each movment 4 times per week) . Is this optimal?
I think an article explaining your periodization approaches for High endurance sport athlete to Maximal Strength sport athlete would be awsome.
I hope I make sense, I just get too excited when someone like you comes on.
Amir[/quote]
Definetly the back since the trunk angle is smaller (more forward bend) than during a lift from the floor.
[quote]mike hanley wrote:
Hey CT I had a q’s about doing DL off of 8" platform. Where are you going to feel most of the lift in your legs or in your back? I feel it more in my back but not in a bad way but it is definitely different than a dl. Also 8" puts the bar right at my toes. The bar starts in front of my toes cause I can’t get the bar to my shin on 8". Is this where it should start? Any chance you can get back to me about workin with you with my diet & training? Did you get my PM?[/quote]
Ok, sounds good. Thanks, CT!
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
I would avoid going below 5RM until the kid has developed a very good strength base AND has at least 18 months of training under his belt.
jsbrook wrote:
Christian, I’m interested in your thoughts on training teenagers. What are the limitations if any? I’ve started training my girfriends youngest brother who is 14. For now as a beginner, he is lifting in the higher rep range, but I ultimately planned to move him into heavy training. I’m trying to sort out the myths from the facts. I’ve heard talk about not going too close to 1 rep max. How close is too close? Any input would be great. Thanks!
[/quote]
[quote]nabz wrote:
Hey Coach just wondering how you would go about setting up westside for mass?[/quote]
I’ll refer you to Coach Defranco’s series called Westside for Skinny Bastards… especially part one. Basically relacing much of the dynamic work with repetition work.
I’m planning on buying Low-Carb Grow!, what do you recommend to mix it w/ for tastes? What flavor do you recommend?
I enjoy reading health and fitness books, I have read “The Book of Muscle” “Hard-Body Plan” by Larry Keller and “Nutrient Timing” by John Ivy, PhD, & Robert Portman, Phd. I thoroughly enjoyed them all but I enjoyed Nutrient Timing so much I read it twice. Are there any books you could recommend that would be good educational reads?
I’m 5’6" 150lb between 12-15% bf. I’m an easy gainer so I’m constantly going through bulking and cutting phases, to try to keep my bf around 10. Instead of going through bulking and cutting phases I was reading/considering a different approach:
Eat 200 calories above caloric equilibrium.
Eat High-glycemic carbs only during the Energy and Anabolic phases surrounding my workout, which would be about 80g carbs.
Then during the growth phase (the rest of the day and the next day until my next workout) only take in at max 20 complex carbs.
One downside to this I understand is lack of energy, which I haven’t had a problem with in past with low-carb diets but if I do, I will just pop in two HOT-ROX before my workouts.
What is your opinion of this alternate approach are there modifications that will make this more successful for someone to gain muscle without fat?
Thanks!
The day I’ll stop learning is the day I’ll die!!! That having been said ‘‘DDDJ’’ is still the foundation of all the methods I use.
[quote]englishman wrote:
Hi CT,
if you had to pick an article that you have written, what would be your best? I for sure would pick your " Different Destinations, Different Journeys" article. It changed my whole out look on training. I am so much sronger, have more time for my boxing and enjoy training much more.
Do you still stand by the article or is there anything you could add or have learned in the last year to improve it?
Thanks for changing my outlook on training after 17 years of wasted time![/quote]