When it comes to making program modifications, do you feel that making small changes a bit sooner than truly needed is preferable to waiting a bit too long to make changes? It would clearly be ideal to always hit things “right on the nose,” but this seems like it would be a tall order unless you’ve had a large body of practical experience already.
Leaving gains on the table because of “programming A.D.D.” would clearly not be beneficial, but holding on for way too long also has its shortcomings, so that is why I’m asking if you think small changes sooner is the lesser of two evils when not getting things spot on.
Do you use periodic testing or tests built into your programs for determining where you go with your athletes in subsequent training phases? Besides keeping a mind on the general qualities needed for success in a particular pursuit (whether sports-related, bodybuilding, or anything else for that matter), do you simply assess/re-assess what an athlete’s major weaknesses and needs are before designing the next phase of the training?
On a quick side note, do you find yourself doing more one-on-one work these days or do you typically train multiple athletes at once? If you prefer not to answer that, I understand.
I have just started doing mma, and needed some advice on worming up properly. I had my first ground work practice, and the next 2 days my lower back was pretty tight and sore. I was just wanting to get some tips on proper warmup techniques for this area. Thanks for any help.
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
Max_ wrote:
Hi coach,
I would like to do a specialization phase, inspired by your HSS-100, for my shoulders and my triceps. I’d like to know the kind of split you would suggest, what would be the best to do, etc.
Day 1 - Shoulders heavy
Day 2 - Lower body/Biceps
Day 3 - Shoulders volume
Day 4 - off
Day 5 - Chest/Back
Day 6 - Shoulders explosion/speed
Day 7 - off
Triceps are added at the end of the shoulders workouts, but stay conservative as they already receive a beating from the pressing work you are doing.[/quote]
Coach,
I assume the heavy shoulders day would consist of lots of various pressing. Whats does volume and explosion day consists of? Thanks
[quote]jimg21 wrote:
Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
Max_ wrote:
Hi coach,
I would like to do a specialization phase, inspired by your HSS-100, for my shoulders and my triceps. I’d like to know the kind of split you would suggest, what would be the best to do, etc.
Day 1 - Shoulders heavy
Day 2 - Lower body/Biceps
Day 3 - Shoulders volume
Day 4 - off
Day 5 - Chest/Back
Day 6 - Shoulders explosion/speed
Day 7 - off
Triceps are added at the end of the shoulders workouts, but stay conservative as they already receive a beating from the pressing work you are doing.
Coach,
I assume the heavy shoulders day would consist of lots of various pressing. Whats does volume and explosion day consists of? Thanks
[/quote]
The methods can vary…
Right now I like to use:
HEAVY DAY
heavy partial presses
heavy press (cluster form)
VOLUME DAY
Mechanical drop sets for shoulders
DYNAMIC DAY
dynamic contrasts, e.g. a circuit of progressively more explosive movements. or contrasts between one explosive lift and one normal lift.
Do you use periodic testing or tests built into your programs for determining where you go with your athletes in subsequent training phases? Besides keeping a mind on the general qualities needed for success in a particular pursuit (whether sports-related, bodybuilding, or anything else for that matter), do you simply assess/re-assess what an athlete’s major weaknesses and needs are before designing the next phase of the training?
On a quick side note, do you find yourself doing more one-on-one work these days or do you typically train multiple athletes at once? If you prefer not to answer that, I understand.
Hope all is well, and thanks for your help.[/quote]
I do have a battery of tests I use that can be done more or less often (the moe direct work you do with a client, the less testing you need).
Because of my increased duties with Biotest I now have a very limited clients base. I have a staff of 5 trainers that do all the floor work.
When it comes to making program modifications, do you feel that making small changes a bit sooner than truly needed is preferable to waiting a bit too long to make changes? It would clearly be ideal to always hit things “right on the nose,” but this seems like it would be a tall order unless you’ve had a large body of practical experience already.
Leaving gains on the table because of “programming A.D.D.” would clearly not be beneficial, but holding on for way too long also has its shortcomings, so that is why I’m asking if you think small changes sooner is the lesser of two evils when not getting things spot on.[/quote]
The problem is that lack of progression is not always due to training habituation. So changing methods or exercises as soon as you see signs of stagnation is dumb IMHO. You make changes only when you can assess what is the exact reason for the lack of progress and then you make the changes necessary to correct that specfic problem.
Understand that neural gains can be made for something like 2 weeks, So it’s easy to get a false sense of progression by changing methods or exercises every 3 weeks. You feel that you are constantly getting better, but in reality you are only getting neural gains from phase to phase with little in the way of sustainable progression in physical capacities and muscle mass.
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
AM - CNS ACTIVATION WORKOUT
A. Top half seated press in the power rack (bar starting on the safety pins, 1’’ above the head) 1-2-3 ramp loading (use a certain weight and do one rep, rest a minute and do two reps with the same weight, rest a minute and do three reps with the same weight. If you complete these sets start a new ramp with 10-20lbs more)
[/quote]
RAMP LOADING… never heard before.
What’s the reasoning behind this kind of loading? And what weight would be a good starting point. 4-5RM??
I read alot of the stuff the ‘gurus’ have out there and looked into what they preach. eg. Dave Palumbo, Chris Aceto, Hany Rambod, Chad Nicholas Charles Glass ect.
These guys are famous in the bodybuilding world because of success they have had with certain people.
However as a whole i think the the stuff you preach is the best by far. You incorparate the best of everything. You really are ahead of the game!!! Always willing to change your opinions when you realise something better comes along and you not afaird to say that. Have you ever thought about becoming a ‘guru’ in the sense that pro’s come to you for advice, id just love to see your name being thrown around as one of the best guys to get people in shape coming from the pure bodybuilding crowd.
[quote]Thy. wrote:
Thib, can you tell from your experience if many sets of 1@90-95% are better for strength than few sets of 2-4@85-90% ?[/quote]
As I told Nate Green, MY own favorite rep scheme is doing multiple sets of 1 rep. I know that I respond better to this type of training when it comes to building strength.
However it is not the same for everybody. My partner responds best to sets of 2 and 3 reps for example.
The approach I really like is the one currently being used by Dave Tate with his guys.
They gradually work up to their training max for that day, performing only singles. A training max is not an all out make-it-or-pass-out lift. It’s the most weight you can lift on that day without causing psychological distress or having to really psych yourself up.
Right off the bat that gives you are 4-6 sets of 1 above 85% of your max.
Then, when you have established you Tmax for the day you perform a prescribed number of sets and reps with a weight calculated from the Tmax.
Ex.
Week 1 80% 3 x 4
Week 2 85% 3 x 3
Week 3 90% 3 x 2
Week 4 95% 3 x 1
[quote]TMT wrote:
Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
AM - CNS ACTIVATION WORKOUT
A. Top half seated press in the power rack (bar starting on the safety pins, 1’’ above the head) 1-2-3 ramp loading (use a certain weight and do one rep, rest a minute and do two reps with the same weight, rest a minute and do three reps with the same weight. If you complete these sets start a new ramp with 10-20lbs more)
RAMP LOADING… never heard before.
What’s the reasoning behind this kind of loading? And what weight would be a good starting point. 4-5RM??
Thanks for your time.
[/quote]
The goal is to activate the nervous system without causing fatigue.
With ramp loading, the key sets are the sets of 3 reps. The goal of the previous 2 sets is to activate the nervous system to maximize performance.
Each lifting set has 2 effects:
Potentiating: any set performed with 85% or more of your max increases neural efficiency for up to 3-4 minutes. In other words it makes the CNS more effective at recruiting the powerful high threshold motor units
Fatigue: any set will also cause a certain amount of fatigue which can decrease performance
If potentiating is greater than fatigue then performance increases from set to set.
If fatigue is greater than potentiation than performance decreases.
The sets of 1 and 2 are above 85%, thus they can potentiate the nervous system, but they are not anywhere near maximal so the fatigue element is low.
The end result is a strong increase in performance.
[quote]paul496 wrote:
Thib i dunno where else to put this.
I read alot of the stuff the ‘gurus’ have out there and looked into what they preach. eg. Dave Palumbo, Chris Aceto, Hany Rambod, Chad Nicholas Charles Glass ect.
These guys are famous in the bodybuilding world because of success they have had with certain people.
However as a whole i think the the stuff you preach is the best by far. You incorparate the best of everything. You really are ahead of the game!!! Always willing to change your opinions when you realise something better comes along and you not afaird to say that. Have you ever thought about becoming a ‘guru’ in the sense that pro’s come to you for advice, id just love to see your name being thrown around as one of the best guys to get people in shape coming from the pure bodybuilding crowd.
Thoughts???[/quote]
I do work with some pros, but I do not like to use name dropping to improve my own credibility.
Pros are not good examples of what you can do with clients since these guys are genetic phenoms and will respond to almost anything.
There are very few training gurus. Charles Glass is the only one I’d call that, maybe Milos too. Most gurus are peaking experts or drug experts, not necessarily something I like to associate myself with.
Bodybuilders are the hardest, most demanding clients possible. It’s almost a babysitting job. And it is not something that will pull a lot of money in, anyway.
Ok so I’m a beginner and I am trying to do the 40 day full body every day workout. I just kind of wanted to do more than it said. My main question is am I doing too much and I’m hurting my progress on strength over the next month by doing too much. This is what I did today:
Warm-up
5 minutes of stair master
1x20 squats - 45
2x5 Squats with 175
2x5 Bench Press with 135
2x5 Dead lift with 195
2x5 Weighted Pullups - 10s
50x Clean and Press - 40
2x5 Bicep DB Curl - 35’s
2x5 Overhead Tricep - 70
10x Decline Sit-ups holding 10 behind my head
some of the weights i need to increase, but the main question is just is that too many exercises for what I’m aiming for. Thanks!
[quote]talmid91 wrote:
Ok so I’m a beginner and I am trying to do the 40 day full body every day workout. I just kind of wanted to do more than it said. My main question is am I doing too much and I’m hurting my progress on strength over the next month by doing too much. This is what I did today:
Warm-up
5 minutes of stair master
1x20 squats - 45
2x5 Squats with 175
2x5 Bench Press with 135
2x5 Dead lift with 195
2x5 Weighted Pullups - 10s
50x Clean and Press - 40
2x5 Bicep DB Curl - 35’s
2x5 Overhead Tricep - 70
10x Decline Sit-ups holding 10 behind my head
some of the weights i need to increase, but the main question is just is that too many exercises for what I’m aiming for. Thanks![/quote]
I’m the wrong guy to ask. This is about as far as can be from my training methodology. You should contact Dan John on this.
How do you keep your clients from losing strength when getting comp. ready? I’ve been dieting for a few weeks and i’m already having trouble beating my log book!
[quote]LilDaDDyDreW wrote:
How do you keep your clients from losing strength when getting comp. ready? I’ve been dieting for a few weeks and i’m already having trouble beating my log book![/quote]
It could be something related to diet (maybe you reduced nutrients too much), it could be doing too much energy system work too soon. Or it could be changing the focus of your strength program.
During a pre-contest period, until the guy is very near contest shape I like to rely on a powerlifting-like approach: I focus on heavy lifting with low reps and the goal is to gain strength.
Christian, i know nothing replaces the deadlift. But do you have any suggestions for alternatives in time of a knee injury?
Flat-back cable pull throughs i think theyre called, i used to superset with cable rows.
When training exclusively to deplete glycogen do you feel the metabolic pairings approach achieves a more full body depletion rather than the total body circuit approach? (of course when i say metabolic pairings i mean each and everybody part is utilized with different exercises).
Or would combining both strategies be more effective?
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
paul496 wrote:
Thib i dunno where else to put this.
I read alot of the stuff the ‘gurus’ have out there and looked into what they preach. eg. Dave Palumbo, Chris Aceto, Hany Rambod, Chad Nicholas Charles Glass ect.
These guys are famous in the bodybuilding world because of success they have had with certain people.
However as a whole i think the the stuff you preach is the best by far. You incorparate the best of everything. You really are ahead of the game!!! Always willing to change your opinions when you realise something better comes along and you not afaird to say that. Have you ever thought about becoming a ‘guru’ in the sense that pro’s come to you for advice, id just love to see your name being thrown around as one of the best guys to get people in shape coming from the pure bodybuilding crowd.
Thoughts???
I do work with some pros, but I do not like to use name dropping to improve my own credibility.
Pros are not good examples of what you can do with clients since these guys are genetic phenoms and will respond to almost anything.
There are very few training gurus. Charles Glass is the only one I’d call that, maybe Milos too. Most gurus are peaking experts or drug experts, not necessarily something I like to associate myself with.
Bodybuilders are the hardest, most demanding clients possible. It’s almost a babysitting job. And it is not something that will pull a lot of money in, anyway.[/quote]
Ok cool, glad to know your thoughts on this. I rate you the best anyway.