CT , your new program kind of sounds like your approaches in the yearly program in Jeckyll Hyde
Will it be so much effective than that? And will make the book worthless ? 
Thibs,
for the lower body part
LOW END STRENGTH
A1. Trap bar deadlift standing on a platform
Work up to a 5RM
A2. Power clean from blocks (1āā above knees)
5 reps
B1. Snatch-grip deadlift
Work up to a 3RM
B2. Power clean from blocks
3 reps
C1. Eccentric-only deadlift
Work up to the heaviest weight you can lower to the ground under control
C2. Power clean from blocks
1 rep
D. Goodmorning 5 x 5
E. Tire flips
3 x 15
What is the set range to reach the 5rm for trap bar deadlifts and 3rm for the snatch-grip deadlift? Is there a movement to substitute for tire flips? Perhaps some high rep conventional deadlift on a platform?
Thib,
Since thereās an approximate carryover of +/- 15-degrees ROM carryover from isometric to dynamic work, would there be a fairly large carryover effect to dynamic movements even if performing only anti-rotation and anti-extension/flexion work for the core? For example, an ab wheel rollout or any exercise focusing on stability versus producing movement. I ask this because the total amount of active spinal flexion is not particularly great, so the carryover from isometric work would seem to be more significant than large ROM exercises where youād need more isometrics at multiple portions of the ROM.
Or does it boil down to specificity of the type of contraction?
Thereās a lot of focus these days on training focusing on preventing movement around the lumbar spine and optimizing force transfer through the trunk. And Stuart McGill has mentioned that the spine only has so many bending cycles, so those should be used wisely. Given this, Iām wondering when specific dynamic abdominal training is desirable and/or specifically needed.
[quote]talmid91 wrote:
BlakedaMan wrote:
Hey Coach!
Assuming you had someone (in this case, me) who for the next 9-10 weeks has effectively limitless time to train and sleep as often as needed, who naturally has a great recovery capacity, who has the means to follow your new para-workout protocol to the T (barring the Anaconda of course), who has access to limitless good quality calories, and whose primary goal is to gain absolutely maximal muscle mass and doesnāt mind gaining some fat, what kind of program would you put this person on?
As of now, Iām doing 2-a-days per your recommendations in that 4 part series you wrote (basically, heavy in the morning and higher reps at night), but I was wondering if you had a better suggestion for someone with pretty much everything going for them for the next 9-10 weeks.
Thanks so much!
BT
Iām in the same situation so id like to know as well.[/quote]
Iām sure thereās quite a few of us now that itās summer. Best time of the year for making progress!
I tore the sternal head of my left pec 3 months ago and Iām getting surgery in 3 weeks.
The doctor said I would be off from pressing for 3 months after surgery.
I donāt want to just do nothing the next 4 months.
My main goal is fat-loss.
How do I go about using this time that I have before Iām able to lift again?
Should I just train my lower body as hard as I can the next 4 months and diet to lean down?
Something like this:
Before surgery:
Squats, DL, pull-ups, arm work, interval cardio
After surgery:
Leg press, Leg machines, interval cardio
A couple of months after surgery Iām going to gradually start to add arm work, pull-ups, and pushups back in until I can do pressing again.
Does that look ok.
Any advice would be really appreciated.
Thanks
[quote]Mondy wrote:
Thibs,
for the lower body part
LOW END STRENGTH
A1. Trap bar deadlift standing on a platform
Work up to a 5RM
A2. Power clean from blocks (1āā above knees)
5 reps
B1. Snatch-grip deadlift
Work up to a 3RM
B2. Power clean from blocks
3 reps
C1. Eccentric-only deadlift
Work up to the heaviest weight you can lower to the ground under control
C2. Power clean from blocks
1 rep
D. Goodmorning 5 x 5
E. Tire flips
3 x 15
What is the set range to reach the 5rm for trap bar deadlifts and 3rm for the snatch-grip deadlift? Is there a movement to substitute for tire flips? Perhaps some high rep conventional deadlift on a platform?[/quote]
There is no prescribed number of set because we canāt know how many sets youāll need to hit your 5RM or 3RMā¦ Shoot for 4-6 work sets.
There really is no substitute for tire flips. The only alternative would be continental and press (to be illustrated in my next post).
CT,
The past month and a half Iāve added volume and weight to my workouts. Also, Iāve been training close to 5 or 6 days a week and getting noticeably stronger. Iām still motivated and Iām almost 100% sure my muscles and CNS arenāt overtrained but Iām starting to feel some aches in my joints: wrists, hands, elbow. Iām hesitant to take a week off or so because of my gains. Any recommendations?
Thank you.
You basically deadlift/row the bar to the middle of the legs and hold it there. Then you use a powerful hip swing and leg drive to bring the bar to the shoulders. To give you a better idea, a lot of strongmen use this technique in the log clean and press.
Look for the last exercise in this article:
Hi CT,
At the gym this morning I was doing a superset of weighted dips and upright rows when I realized that my triceps are terribly weak and lagging. To be fair, I had done clean and jerks and shoulder presses two days ago, and they may have been a little weak from that, but in general when I am doing compound exercises I find my triceps to be my weak link. Since I am not rushing to get to school I have more time in the gym now, so do you have any good ideas for getting my triceps up to par and then exceptionally strong? They are especially important for me for basketball since they are key in dribbling, passing, and shooting! I am willing to be terrible on the court for a while if it will allow me to eventually have a much stronger shot/dribble/pass.
Currently for triceps I am doing weighted dips and shoulder presses on alternating training days, which are every other day, and C&Js for my leg movement on some days. I tried incorporating tricep kickbacks as a finisher today and I ended up going down to 15 lbs dumbbells and still not having a full ROM!
On the other hand (or other side of my humerus) my biceps are helping my pulling a lot after I had incorporated preacher curls after a few of my workouts. I am sort of surprised/worried that I have been able to add add 10 lbs to my upright row every workout, and still have slightly thick and easy sets (today, for example, was UR: 5,5,4,4,4,3,3, while dips were only 4,4,4,3,3,1,2).
I have come back to front squats because I have lost a lot of squatting power and jumping height, which, I think, is a correlation; besides which it is certainly good for me to have a large strength base. Anyway, I was having trouble today, granted that it was my first time in a month or so, with the bar resting on my clavicles and leaving a red line, and with caving forward. What can I do to prevent my back from rounding out? I tried exaggerating my backās arch in my setup, but found that when I focused on power (only sets of 3) I would cave forward inevitably.
I recently got a TENS/EMS for the purpose of promoting circulation/recovering faster, I am not sure if you are familiar with them. Here is my question about them anyway, though: for speeding recovery, what sort of settings do you set your TENS to? I have it currently at 6 hz and at duration and intensity that produces a sort of gentle pulsing. Does a stronger current, such as one that produces a more definite contraction, work better for accelerating recovery?
Thanks in advance
[quote]A_G wrote:
CT , your new program kind of sounds like your approaches in the yearly program in Jeckyll Hyde
Will it be so much effective than that? And will make the book worthless ? :)[/quote]
Just because it uses a specialized approach doesnāt mean that it will be like previous spec program published in the past. The spec aspect of the new system is merely one of the many facets that make it a superior approach. It will not be even remotely close to what I used in the past.
sorry if im forcing thisā¦
Bump
Hi CTā¦ A few of us would love to hear your advice on this topic:
Thanks in advance
Damien
Im a wrestler in the 152 class, I like lifting(Iāve been seriously lifting for about ten months) as much or even more than wrestling and Iām thinking about getting into powerlifting. In wrestling we do a lot of cardio and our lifting isnt very good. Most of the kids there dont lift except for during the season conditioning, so there is no such thing as form. I was wondering if doing my own would be beneficial to both powerlifting and wrestling.
We do primarily circuits with 45 sec at a station, and drills.
I do a pretty traditional powerlifting scheme with little cardio, and I do the olympic lifts just because i like them.
Please let me know your thoughts.
Thank you for the reply! Iāve done one lower body workout so far and I have never felt such soreness in my lower back before, Iām simply loving it. Canāt wait to see where my deadlift ends up in a month or two with the program.
Coach Thibaudeau,
What periodization models you see as the best ones for bodybuilding?
Accumulation - Intensification ?
Poliquinās undulating periodization ?
Some other?
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
Thy. wrote:
Thib, how would this change just for strength in the big movements?
Cycle 1:
Day 1 - Whole body heavy normal
Day 2 - Whole body explosive
Day 3 - Whole body heavy partials or isometrics
Cycle 2:
Day 1 - Whole body heavy
Day 2 - Upper body partial/explosive contrast
Day 3 - Lower body partial/explosive contrast
Cycle 3:
Day 1 - Squat and assistance
Day 2 - Bench and assistance
Day 3 - Deadlift or clean and assistance
Each cycle lasting 3-4 week
[/quote]
Thib, what are you talking about with āheavy contrastā and āexplosive contrastā?.
Tahnks.
Thib,
When it comes to grip training, how critical is this for throwing sports like the javelin, discus, hammer throw, shot put, etc?
I was also wondering if you had any general guideline for how long should you wait before using a powerful training method again? Youāve spoken in the past about not abusing special methods so that you can get the maximum out of them when thy are used. So I was wondering if there was a recommended ādown timeā between uses or if it is more of a continuum with results being in proportion to the length of time between uses.
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
Thy. wrote:
Thib, how would this change just for strength in the big movements?
Cycle 1:
Day 1 - Whole body heavy normal
Day 2 - Whole body explosive
Day 3 - Whole body heavy partials or isometrics
Cycle 2:
Day 1 - Whole body heavy
Day 2 - Upper body partial/explosive contrast
Day 3 - Lower body partial/explosive contrast
Cycle 3:
Day 1 - Squat and assistance
Day 2 - Bench and assistance
Day 3 - Deadlift or clean and assistance
Each cycle lasting 3-4 week
[/quote]
Thanks, Thib.
Am I right that explosive contrast is like heavy 1 rep@95% followed by something like 80% for 5 at high speed for about 3-4 circles?
And also regular explosive is 10x3@40-50%?
Hi CT,
Do you have to lift very heavy to have a muscle tear, lets say while benching?
Iām asking this because lately I changed my routine to a low rep oriented one (4-6 rep), I almost always been between 10-15 rep for the last 2 years and half. I had great muscle development, but Iām kind of weak.
As I said Iām weak, bench pressing 205 lb for 4-5 reps is the best I can do right now, but the muscular stress is very different from what Iām use to and Iām wondering about a possible muscle tear.
Do you have advice about things I could do to prevent it? Do I have to think about it even if Iām not an advanced bodybuilder?
Thanks
Coach,
Lower body maintenance and upper body growth. I recently finished dropping to my desired weight not too long ago, but was a little displeased with the results. I had built some decent muscle (I emphasized too much on pwer cleans, deadlifts and squats) and maintained much of my strength in my legs, but my upper body looks 3rd world (leaving me unbalanced). To make it worst, I have a wide-waist even when very lean, which makes me look even more blocky.
I want to gain muscle again, but this time really focusing on my upper body (namely arms, traps, wide lats and wide shoulders) with atleast maintaining my lower body strength. This way when I drop back down again, I will look a lot more balanced.
What would you briefly recommend as far as training goes? Extremely heavy low rep, low set leg movements on leg day?
Iām considering a 4 day split (legs one day, shoulders/back/chest on the other three), but what would you advise?
Thanks for the time!
Hey CT
quick question
Ive been hearing since many years that gains in lean mass(long term) can be only achieved by consistently adding weigtht to the bar and all the various drop sets, forced reps, static holds etc do is increase the pump and cause sarcoplasmic hypertrophy which will not make CONSISTENT reliable muscle growth over an extended period and these āgainsā diminish quickly unless one uses that āadditional lean massā to get stronger by reverting to low vol/high intensity training .
If this phenomenon is correct then what is your take on maintaining the quick muscle gains made by using these techniques and are they really short term?
Thanks for your time!