Questions About Training

Training
341

[quote]Thy. wrote:
Thib,
Do you still believe in “mirror training” as outlined in one of your older articles?
As recent articles indicate, you prefer to keep intensive low-rep sets even on deload, but cut volume instead.
Do you see any reason for a strength athlete to go higher reps than 5 and lower load than 80% any time of the year?[/quote]

I do still believe in the principle and it is integrated in the new system once a full cycle has been completed. But its more for mental relief than anything, the system actually is built in such a way that deloads and drastic variation is not needed nor desired.

But if using a more traditional approach to programming, yeah, the mirror approach is good.

342

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
ThorsHammer wrote:
Christian Thibaudeau wrote:

Keven (one of the test sujects for or new protocol) is a forearm freak, he wants oversized bowling pins! So I have him do staggered forearm work: between sets of his normal exercises he performs a set of forearm work. Either Thor’s hammer, wrist curl, wrist roller or ironmind captain of crush gripped.

Thib,

With staggered work, do you select one forearm movement per session to focus on or do you sometimes have the staggered sets coming from multiple choices? e.g. Thor’s Hammer throughout the session vs. something like Thor’s Hammer for a few sets, grippers for a few sets, etc.

To be quite honest I simply rotate through the various exercises. I might pick the Thors hammer between sets of my first exercise, wrist roller between sets of the second exercise and grippers between sets of the third exercise. I do not have a specific plan, its just bonus work.

ThorsHammer wrote

Do you find that pinch grip exercises can be of value in the quest for forearm size or are they mostly going to increase strength but do not possess the potential for hypertrophy like the choices you listed?

An exercise devoid of dynamic work is less effective at stimulating growth. However it an still have a positive impact if the sets are long enough (20-30 seconds) but not too long (means that its too light).

However pinch gripping will target more the fingers than the forearms per se, doesn’t mean that its a bad exercise, just that you shouldn;t expect it to contribute that much to forearms size.

ThorsHammer wrote
On one quick side note, the son of a friend of mine will be getting into training with us for the first time this Summer. Being new to training, is it possible that including some dedicated grip work right from the start can help to ensure that grip is rarely the limiting factor that it is for most over the course of his lifting career?

Yes, I’ve worked with numerous athletes who were born on farms and did a lot of manual labor as kids and their grip strength was always much higher, relatively speaking, that the main pulling muscles.[/quote]

Coach,
How often or how many days per week do you have Keven do this type of forearm training? It is my understanding that forearms, like calves , can be trained 3, 4 or even more days per week. What body parts does Keven train when he does the staggered sets for forearms? I would imagine doing these sets during pulling exercises and biceps would not be productive. Thanks in advance.

343

[quote]jimg21 wrote:
Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
ThorsHammer wrote:
Christian Thibaudeau wrote:

Keven (one of the test sujects for or new protocol) is a forearm freak, he wants oversized bowling pins! So I have him do staggered forearm work: between sets of his normal exercises he performs a set of forearm work. Either Thor’s hammer, wrist curl, wrist roller or ironmind captain of crush gripped.

Thib,

With staggered work, do you select one forearm movement per session to focus on or do you sometimes have the staggered sets coming from multiple choices? e.g. Thor’s Hammer throughout the session vs. something like Thor’s Hammer for a few sets, grippers for a few sets, etc.

To be quite honest I simply rotate through the various exercises. I might pick the Thors hammer between sets of my first exercise, wrist roller between sets of the second exercise and grippers between sets of the third exercise. I do not have a specific plan, its just bonus work.

ThorsHammer wrote

Do you find that pinch grip exercises can be of value in the quest for forearm size or are they mostly going to increase strength but do not possess the potential for hypertrophy like the choices you listed?

An exercise devoid of dynamic work is less effective at stimulating growth. However it an still have a positive impact if the sets are long enough (20-30 seconds) but not too long (means that its too light).

However pinch gripping will target more the fingers than the forearms per se, doesn’t mean that its a bad exercise, just that you shouldn;t expect it to contribute that much to forearms size.

ThorsHammer wrote
On one quick side note, the son of a friend of mine will be getting into training with us for the first time this Summer. Being new to training, is it possible that including some dedicated grip work right from the start can help to ensure that grip is rarely the limiting factor that it is for most over the course of his lifting career?

Yes, I’ve worked with numerous athletes who were born on farms and did a lot of manual labor as kids and their grip strength was always much higher, relatively speaking, that the main pulling muscles.

Coach,
How often or how many days per week do you have Keven do this type of forearm training? It is my understanding that forearms, like calves , can be trained 3, 4 or even more days per week. What body parts does Keven train when he does the staggered sets for forearms? I would imagine doing these sets during pulling exercises and biceps would not be productive. Thanks in advance.

[/quote]

He does the forearm work during his lower body session and pressing sessions

344

CT,

I just finished part 1 of the beast building program and am moving on to phase two. Before beginning, is there a problem with taking a day to recheck maximum lifts for all exercises (squats, deadlift, bench, chins, etc)?

Thanks for your time, it is much appreciated. The program is working great. I feel like a walking brick and actually have begun to get unsolicited complements on my improved physique. Thanks!

345

What exercises do you think would be wise to add to an assistance day if you’ve been drilling the olympic lifts with a setup similar to the bulgarians (Im just hitting the main o-lifts and then deads or squats. Thanks.

346

[quote]ostldm01 wrote:
CT,

I just finished part 1 of the beast building program and am moving on to phase two. Before beginning, is there a problem with taking a day to recheck maximum lifts for all exercises (squats, deadlift, bench, chins, etc)?

Thanks for your time, it is much appreciated. The program is working great. I feel like a walking brick and actually have begun to get unsolicited complements on my improved physique. Thanks![/quote]

You could test yourself if you absolutely feel the need to, but in that case you will have to take 3 days off from training after the test to get the nervous system recovered enough to start phase 2

347

Hi Coach,

Hope all is well. I noticed your use of the bottoms-up bench press and your comments that it improves the stretch reflex as the nervous system overshoots, hence increasing the standard bench press.

I was interested to know if you perform both the bottoms up lift as well as the full bench press within the same session and if so, if you perform all sets of the bottoms-up bench first before moving to the full version, or if you perform alternating sets of each. Also, do you have specific loading recommendations for these exercises?

Thanks in advance for any help and best wishes as always to you and your family,

James

348

Thib:

How should I train the calves for improving sprint and jump?.
I haven’t seen any athlete doing calf raises so I don’t know
even if it’s necessary to train them.

349

[quote]Addweight wrote:
Thib:

How should I train the calves for improving sprint and jump?.
I haven’t seen any athlete doing calf raises so I don’t know
even if it’s necessary to train them.[/quote]

I don’t like to do weighted calves work with athletes unless they are severely lacking strength, which is rarely the case with athletes. The thing is that calves SIZE can impair sprinting performance because big/heavy calves decrease stride frequency b making it harder to “bring back” the leg after the push off phase.

Why? Because you are bringing your leg back by pulling with your hip flexors… the heavier your lower leg is, the more work the hips flexors must do.

I prefer to train calves with various jumping drills.

350

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
Addweight wrote:
Thib:

How should I train the calves for improving sprint and jump?.
I haven’t seen any athlete doing calf raises so I don’t know
even if it’s necessary to train them.

I don’t like to do weighted calves work with athletes unless they are severely lacking strength, which is rarely the case with athletes. The thing is that calves SIZE can impair sprinting performance because big/heavy calves decrease stride frequency b making it harder to “bring back” the leg after the push off phase.

Why? Because you are bringing your leg back by pulling with your hip flexors… the heavier your lower leg is, the more work the hips flexors must do.

I prefer to train calves with various jumping drills.[/quote]
Ankle jumps could work?, in the same place or “sprinting” with the calves?.

351

You look real crazy on your avatar, what are your actual stats?

You said that the rest pause techniques are overtaxing to the CNS. Which frequency would you reccomend using these techniques?

352

[quote]Addweight wrote:
Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
Addweight wrote:
Thib:

How should I train the calves for improving sprint and jump?.
I haven’t seen any athlete doing calf raises so I don’t know
even if it’s necessary to train them.

I don’t like to do weighted calves work with athletes unless they are severely lacking strength, which is rarely the case with athletes. The thing is that calves SIZE can impair sprinting performance because big/heavy calves decrease stride frequency b making it harder to “bring back” the leg after the push off phase.

Why? Because you are bringing your leg back by pulling with your hip flexors… the heavier your lower leg is, the more work the hips flexors must do.

I prefer to train calves with various jumping drills.
Ankle jumps could work?, in the same place or “sprinting” with the calves?.

[/quote]

Ankle jumps would be best. I don`t like to mess with running technique by doing a drill similar, but different than sprinting.

353

Hey Coach,

I've been lifting for 8 years, the other day I realized that ive never tried a full body workout. I decided to put one into my routine currently im doing a 3 on 1 off. My ideal plan would be 3 on 1 off 3 on 1 off then full body then off.

I mainly decided to try this out as a way to shake my routine, I was just wondering if you have any suggestions for total amount of sets I should shoot for? Im looking to add strength.

354

Hi Coach,

Im moving onto the last phase of your mechanical drop set programme! I have read that you consider twice a day training the most effective method whenever possible, so would it be effective to split the heavy compounds circuit into a morning session and then perform the mechanical drop sets exercises in the evening?

Many thanks

Scott

355

[quote]MEYMZ wrote:
You look real crazy on your avatar, what are your actual stats?

You said that the rest pause techniques are overtaxing to the CNS. Which frequency would you reccomend using these techniques?[/quote]

The are not overtaxing if used properly. We use it once a week but we use other CNS-boosting methods.

In the avatar I was 225lbs on 5’8"… I actually reached a high of 240, but dieted down hard for 3 weeks get in decent photo shape.

356

Coach,

In an earlier post you said you like a heavy day, a volume day, and a contrast day during each specialization phase. In the recent overhead pressing article you gave a template for a heavy day and a contrast day. Could you provide an example of a volume day for shoulders?

Thanks.

tyler

357

[quote]tyler15625 wrote:
Coach,

In an earlier post you said you like a heavy day, a volume day, and a contrast day during each specialization phase. In the recent overhead pressing article you gave a template for a heavy day and a contrast day. Could you provide an example of a volume day for shoulders?

Thanks.

tyler[/quote]

We actually changed it to a density day. But I can’t divulge exactly how we do it.

358

thanks anyway Coach, i’ll just put together something using your mechanical drop set principles until the superprogram comes out. i’ll focus it on the rear and lateral heads since that’s where i’m weakest. still using heavy weights of course…

take care.

tyler

359

Hey Thibs,
What are your thoughts on this:
You hear it all over the place, that it’s easier for lighter guys to pull-up. I don’t see why is that - aren’t bigger guys supposed to have more muscle tissue strong enough to pull their bigger body weight? I bet a 300 lb strongman can do as many pull-ups as an elite 150 lb athlete who trains upper body for his sport. I mean, look at videos of Konstantinovs - 55 kip pull-ups and 4 clean pull-ups with +132 lb at at bw of 277…
I think if a heavy guy says that it means that his back strength sucks in relation to his size.

360

Hey Coach,

Avatar looks sick man! Nice…

Recently I have been plagued with some pain and discomfort at the top of my right shin directly under my knee. I know that it stems from my squatting. I love squats but my mobility sucks, can’t go much below parallel at all. Good form down to parallel but too much stress getting put on that part of my right leg. Unless I use the Smith (ugghh). My question is this: What exercises and stretches can I do to help with the mobility? I have limited resources and time so it would have to be something I can do at home in the evening while the family is winding down after diner.

Thanks!