Coach,
Tore my bicep and didn’t get it taken care of right away. Long story short I have a cadaver tendon holding my left bicep together so that arm will be out of commission for awhile. Should I train my other arm normal on all my upper body workouts or what do you suggest, thanks!
Coach,
I’ve been using a lot of compound movements lately, such as push presses, push jerks, power cleans, squat cleans, etc. My issue is that my shoulders are very “tight” despite my dynamic warm-ups for the first few sets and usually loosen up nicely about midway through my workouts. It’s almost like a pinching sensation in the shoulders.
Is there a particular warm-up/exercise you would recommend to loosen up/warm up my shoulders so they are loose and prepared for explosive/fast movements like these? I really enjoy the overall physique benefits of these lifts and would like to make them a bit less painful.
Thibs, I really hope you can give me a few tips here on something that’s been bugging me for a while.
How can I get my low/mid traps to blow up? I mean like Dorian Yates size. I’m pretty unsatisfied with that portion of my back. Rest of my back is usually in good shape and I am happy with the strength gains I’ve seen. Only two exercises I’ve really noticed that hit it are overhead squats and prone trap raises/ 10-2 raises. The 10-2 raises obviously won’t be any good for hypertrophy because of load restriction.
Any tips on a few exercises or maybe a complex you like to really bring out that portion of the mid back? I do tons of rowing already, although I’m sure there are specific angles and grips that I am not using which would hit it better. The rows seem to hit the rest of my mid back well, just not the low trap portion. Maybe I should start using a pre-fatigue with low trap raises.
I have a specific “back day” per week, as well as doing some low intensity back work on bench days and possibly as a warm-up on leg days.
Question about the “paper folding” exercise? Do I always have to use new sheets of paper? Or can I unfold a piece of paper and reuse it the next day?
[quote]Perpalicious wrote:
Question about the “paper folding” exercise? Do I always have to use new sheets of paper? Or can I unfold a piece of paper and reuse it the next day? [/quote]
You have to use new sheets as often as possible otherwise it loses its resistance.
[quote]jstines wrote:
Coach,
I’ve been using a lot of compound movements lately, such as push presses, push jerks, power cleans, squat cleans, etc. My issue is that my shoulders are very “tight” despite my dynamic warm-ups for the first few sets and usually loosen up nicely about midway through my workouts. It’s almost like a pinching sensation in the shoulders.
Is there a particular warm-up/exercise you would recommend to loosen up/warm up my shoulders so they are loose and prepared for explosive/fast movements like these? I really enjoy the overall physique benefits of these lifts and would like to make them a bit less painful. [/quote]
All three performed for 2-3 sets of 12-15 very light, just to progressively enhance mobility.
[quote]Nman wrote:
Coach,
Tore my bicep and didn’t get it taken care of right away. Long story short I have a cadaver tendon holding my left bicep together so that arm will be out of commission for awhile. Should I train my other arm normal on all my upper body workouts or what do you suggest, thanks![/quote]
Yes, do train the other side. YES you will develop somewhat of a size imbalance, but that would happen anyway. But there is a lot of evidence that there is a neural cross-transfer between limbs from opposite sides. For example, training the right arm will help reduce strength losses on the left arm by improving neural efficiency.
Hi CT… A few of us would love to hear your advice on this topic:
Thanks in advance
Damien
[quote]Nman wrote:
Coach,
Tore my bicep and didn’t get it taken care of right away. Long story short I have a cadaver tendon holding my left bicep together so that arm will be out of commission for awhile. Should I train my other arm normal on all my upper body workouts or what do you suggest, thanks![/quote]
Yes, do train the other side. YES you will develop somewhat of a size imbalance, but that would happen anyway. But there is a lot of evidence that there is a neural cross-transfer between limbs from opposite sides. For example, training the right arm will help reduce strength losses on the left arm by improving neural efficiency.
Thibs,
My lower back region has quite a lot of fat compared to the rest of my body, which supposedly indicates a thyroid gland problem. I’ve been supplementing with forskolin (20mg) a day for the past three weeks with no improvement. Am I missing something?
[quote]Mondy wrote:
Thibs,
My lower back region has quite a lot of fat compared to the rest of my body, which supposedly indicates a thyroid gland problem. I’ve been supplementing with forskolin (20mg) a day for the past three weeks with no improvement. Am I missing something?[/quote]
Lower back is insulin more than thyroid. Thyroid is mid-axilary fat (armspit/rib cage area).
Thib,
Jim Smith of the Diesel Crew recently had a guest blog post on Eric Cressey’s website about modifying the scapular wall slide activation exercise in order to achieve relativelyhigher levels of activation. Jim says that “The muscular activation will be exponential to the conventional movement, thereby improving and magnifying the benefits.”
Do you think the method pictured in the following link would be especially effective, or would it be no more effective than doing the more standard version for lower level MU activation and then letting heavier loading and coordinated effort on a primary exercise like full ROM pull-ups with depression and scapular retraction take care of higher threshold activation?
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 doesn’t mind gaining some fat, what kind of program would you put this person on?
As of now, I’m 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
What does your Assesment look like?
What Exercises do you most often use for Legs?
Especially if you want to correct imbalances?
CT- If someone can only train 3 days per week, and only once per day, what would you consider to be the best split? Thanks.
[quote]FERCHCORE wrote:
CT- If someone can only train 3 days per week, and only once per day, what would you consider to be the best split? Thanks.[/quote]
For what goal? An specific strength and weaknesses?
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
FERCHCORE wrote:
CT- If someone can only train 3 days per week, and only once per day, what would you consider to be the best split? Thanks.
For what goal? An specific strength and weaknesses?[/quote]
Just to build size, with some strength to back it up. No specific weakness to work on, just a general overall program.
Coach,
If DB bench press variations can be more conducive to pec development than barbell benching, should care still be taken to limit the elbow flare on most DB bench pressing (either decline, flat, or incline)?
I’m trying to get a feel for the risk-reward ratio when it comes to flaring the elbows. Some seem to approach the elbows-flared style like chicken little and make it sound like your shoulders will explode if using these too often. Others overly downplay the risk from regular use of that style. And then you have some coaches who contend that the “real-world” difference in results is not significant enough to merit the extra stress placed on the shoulders when using the elbows-flared style with DB’s or barbells.
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
Mondy wrote:
Thibs,
My lower back region has quite a lot of fat compared to the rest of my body, which supposedly indicates a thyroid gland problem. I’ve been supplementing with forskolin (20mg) a day for the past three weeks with no improvement. Am I missing something?
Lower back is insulin more than thyroid. Thyroid is mid-axilary fat (armspit/rib cage area).[/quote]
Is there a list of areas of where fat is located and what the problems are?
[quote]Loui.s wrote:
Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
Mondy wrote:
Thibs,
My lower back region has quite a lot of fat compared to the rest of my body, which supposedly indicates a thyroid gland problem. I’ve been supplementing with forskolin (20mg) a day for the past three weeks with no improvement. Am I missing something?
Lower back is insulin more than thyroid. Thyroid is mid-axilary fat (armspit/rib cage area).
Is there a list of areas of where fat is located and what the problems are?[/quote]
Google biosignature skin folds.