Thib Is Back - Q&A April 5-12

Training
21

CT,
Reading your Carb Cycling Codex article makes me want to explore carb cycling.
I am a powerlifter and mostly concerned with strength, however I would like to cut my body fat down a little bit.

Are there any considerations for strength athletes with carb cycling?
Are there any negative effects on strength?
I was planning to take it very slow with the fatloss.

Any help would be great.
Thanks

22

I’m currently doing a strength program with big compound lifts, 4 sets of 4-6 reps for most exercises excluding abs and calves.
My question is how important is rep tempo if I’m trying to increase strength? I’m currently lifting explosively and lowering slow and controlled however it would probably be a 2 second lowering phase.
Is it important to remove the stretch-shortening cycle or should I take advantage of it if trying to increase strength?

23

[quote]hit the gym wrote:
Hey Thib, happy to hear you had a good trip!

I remember you recommending a while back not rolling the shoulders when doing shrugs.

Not really related but what do you think of turning the weights when doing Seated DB Shoulder Press? (Starting position palms facing ears)

Is it a variation you use?

Thanks[/quote]

Yes, it places less stress on the shoulders. All my clients who have a history of shoulder problem press this way.

24

[quote]daffyduck wrote:
Hey Thib, welcome back! I hope you had a good vacation. My question is why does the Q&A have the dates April 5-12, are you going somewhere else after this week, or will you create a new thread weekly to prevent it from piling up.[/quote]

I will start a new thread weekly. When there is too many posts in one, some computers take forever to load the pages.

25

[quote]pro.nub wrote:
I’m currently doing a strength program with big compound lifts, 4 sets of 4-6 reps for most exercises excluding abs and calves.
My question is how important is rep tempo if I’m trying to increase strength? I’m currently lifting explosively and lowering slow and controlled however it would probably be a 2 second lowering phase.
Is it important to remove the stretch-shortening cycle or should I take advantage of it if trying to increase strength?[/quote]

When lifting for strength do not bother about using a specific tempo. Simply control the weight on the way down and explode (or try to) on the way up.

26

[quote]nz6stringaxe wrote:
(In short)
A)What are your thoughts are on additional ESW during a mass phase (consisting only of strength training)?[/quote]

It can be a good thing by allowing you to avoid piling on fat while ingesting more food. However if overdone it can definitely hurt your gains.

Too much low-intensity cardio has been shown to interfere with strength gains, possibly by inducing slow-twitch properties to fast twitch fibers.

Too much interval or high-intensity ESW can place too much of a burden on the CNS and drain glycogen which will be needed for the strength training portion of the training.

So yes, some ESW during a mass gaining phase is ok, even desirable. But there is a fine line not to cross. So err on the side on cautiousness.

[quote]nz6stringaxe wrote:

B)Do you recommend AGAINST any particular, typically ‘health-promoting’ foods while on a mass phase?[/quote]

Not generally, the only problem might be a low caloric density. In other words, most of these foods take up a lot of ‘‘stomach space’’ without giving you a lot of maxronutrients and energy. This can make eating the required amount of food more difficult if you do not have a good appetite.

[quote]nz6stringaxe wrote:
C)What is your opinion on dieting slowly versus suddenly, and how to best combat metabolic slowdown? [/quote]

I think that a middle of the road approach is best Certainly you do not want to lose fat at a slower pace than what is optimal. You shouldn’t be on a ‘‘diet’’ for more than 10-12 weeks, so if you do too slow you will not make significant progress.

However by being too drastic in your cut you risk losing muscle mass and running into many other problems.

I like to use short 1-2 week(s) phases of very intense dieting within a longer more conservative phase. For example, do a 12 weeks cutting phase with two 2-weeks blitz during that time.

27

Hi Chris, you showed a while ago some exercises to help develop the ‘V shape’ of the lower abdominals, I tried to search your articles but couldnt find them. thanks a lot.

28

Thib, welcome back.

  1. Hopefully you didn’t mention this before, but I’ve been wondering how you went from Oly lifting to bodybuilding (or, bodybuilding-oriented training)? I’ve been doing Oly lifting the past 5 months and competed once (almost qualified for nationals, didn’t thanks to an hour and a half in the sauna beforehand), but for me the workouts have just become very dull and repetitive.

I didn’t get that motivation to lift like I usually do (hence, why I’ve stopped right now).

  1. I’ve never really heard you talk about anything regarding warm-ups/mobility/etc. Do you take the foam rolling/mobility approach beforehand, not do much of a warm-up at all, or do something completely different?

Thanks.

29

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
Candriano wrote:
Hey Thib,

I was just thinking of new workout strategies and wondered if you came across anything like this. I haven’t actually tried it, but it’d have a typical 3 day workout split plus an extra day that can change from week to week.
So like,
Day 1 (Chest+Back)
Day 2 (Legs+Calves)
Day 3 (Shoulders+Arms)
Day 4 Change every week

On the fourth day you can do any body part that might be lacking or you feel you didn’t work hard enough. Also I figured you can get the benefits of doing a new workout that would shock the muscles every week and still track your progress on the other 3 days. I’m not going by anything scientific so this could all be broscience.

I also figured most people constantly change their workouts and never stick to anything so maybe that varied workout could help those people that find it hard to do the same thing for a month or two.

I doubt this is a good program, b/c I’ve never read about it before, but who knows. What do you think?

Thanks for reading coach

Funny you mention this approach because that’s one I just used with a client!

I actually like this approach because it reduces the negative impact of a bad workout. For example, if during the week you back training sucked for some reason, you can get a second stimulation to make sure that you got optimal growth in that muscle.

Two things to remember though:

  1. Always have a day of rest prior and after the ‘‘fourth’’ workout, to avoid any negative carryover.

Something like:

Mon: Chest/back
Tues: Legs
Wed: off
Thu: Arms/delts
Fri: off
Sat: touch-ups
Sun: off

  1. Don’t just train a muscle because you like to train in on Saturday, this workout has to have a purpose… either to bring up a lagging bodypart or to touch-up a muscle that was understimulated during the week.[/quote]

Coach,
I have been following this kind of split recently and using the 4th day/Saturday workout for something similar to what you suggest. Sarting soon, my weekends will not allow me to go to the gym at all on saturday. Is it still possible to do some low volume on body parts that need additional work on Friday or should I should I just not work out at all on Friday. That would give me three consecutive days of non lifting. Thanks

30

Hey Thibs,

Welcome back, hope you had a great time. Do you know when the new physique clinic will be coming out?

And is it still only available to United States Residents?

Cheers,

CoS

31

Coach,

In weeks 9-10 of Get Jacked, are we to split the prescribed post-workout shake between the 2 sessions on Monday and Tuesday or have a full shake after each session?

Thanks, Get Jacked is definitely getting me “jacked”!

32

When using a stimulant like HOT-ROX for fat loss, how long would you use it before cycling off in order to prevent adrenal fatigue?

Thanks Coach.

33

Followup:
Would 1-2 interval sessions or 1 and 1 interval and low intensity sessions per week be a good ‘limit’?
I actually wondered about the benefits of alactic sprinting as well, especially since that was the one Fat Loss “Horseman” in your Destroying Fat article you didn’t expound upon much. Thoughts?

I’m understanding that you prefer a modest caloric deficit in a dieting phase with 1-2 week periods of extreme energy restriction spaced apart within the greater phase. I could see how this helps keep training from heading south, but how would you specifically approach training for these ‘blitz’ weeks?

34

Regarding your new program.

Hey,

Just bought the program, my original plan for the summer was to train AP/PM sessions.

Would I benefit from doing your 12 week program AP/PM style, I was thinking of keeping the original template and adding 20-25 minutes of the first exercise(s) on the morning, maybe 4 x 5 or 5 x 5 ?

I would greatly appreciate your thoughts and input on it. If it wont improve the efficacy of this program, then I wont do it, but if it will, then I want to do it the right way.

Thanks.

35

[quote]PB Andy wrote:
Thib, welcome back.

  1. Hopefully you didn’t mention this before, but I’ve been wondering how you went from Oly lifting to bodybuilding (or, bodybuilding-oriented training)? I’ve been doing Oly lifting the past 5 months and competed once (almost qualified for nationals, didn’t thanks to an hour and a half in the sauna beforehand), but for me the workouts have just become very dull and repetitive.

I didn’t get that motivation to lift like I usually do (hence, why I’ve stopped right now).[/quote]

Well I didn’t really get directly from olympic lifting to bodybuilding. Even when I was olympic lifting, I would still include some ‘‘beach work’’ from time to time.

What happened is that I got injured and couldn’t perform the olympic lifts for a while.

This happened pretty much at the same time as I began to write for T-Nation. At that time I used pics of myself at the time. I wasn’t concerned about aesthetics, just about getting stronger, and pretty much ate anything and everything (which was evidenced by my 40’’ waist).

A reader pointed out (sent an email to TC!) that they ‘‘let anybody write for their magazine’’, that I looked like shit and wasn’t someone to listen to for training advice.

I took that personally and took the opportunity to get ripped. In the past I always was afraid to diet down, in fear of seeing my lifts go down. But with the injury it didn’t bother me too much.

So I basically went down from 18% bodyfat to a little under 8% and all of a sudden became known as this body transformation expert.

Anyway, I kinda got hooked on having a good looking, lean and muscular body and naturally made the transition to bodybuilding from that point.

But I do not limit myself to one training style. I like to train for aesthetics, but I also love training for raw strength as well as doing the olympic lifts. So my own training is basically a blend of all of that.

[quote]PB Andy wrote:
2. I’ve never really heard you talk about anything regarding warm-ups/mobility/etc. Do you take the foam rolling/mobility approach beforehand, not do much of a warm-up at all, or do something completely different?

Thanks. [/quote]

I do recommend dynamic mobility drills to athletes, but with regular clients I do not really emphasize it unless they have a specific problem.

36

[quote]ChokeOnStrength wrote:
Hey Thibs,

Welcome back, hope you had a great time. Do you know when the new physique clinic will be coming out?

And is it still only available to United States Residents?

Cheers,

CoS[/quote]

I don’t believe that there will be another one. Some bigger things are coming up though.

37

[quote]jstines wrote:
Coach,

In weeks 9-10 of Get Jacked, are we to split the prescribed post-workout shake between the 2 sessions on Monday and Tuesday or have a full shake after each session?

Thanks, Get Jacked is definitely getting me “jacked”![/quote]

Good question.

Have only whey protein (2 scoops) after the AM workout, which is strength lifting and doesn’t require much glycogen replenishment.

After the PM session, go with the regular post-workout meal.

38

[quote]ajweins wrote:
When using a stimulant like HOT-ROX for fat loss, how long would you use it before cycling off in order to prevent adrenal fatigue?

Thanks Coach.[/quote]

It depends on each individual as well as the amount of stress in their life and their consumption of other stimulants (coffee for example).

But normally I’d recommend a 4 week on, 2 weeks off approach.

39

[quote]Quadforce wrote:
Regarding your new program.

Hey,

Just bought the program, my original plan for the summer was to train AP/PM sessions.

Would I benefit from doing your 12 week program AP/PM style, I was thinking of keeping the original template and adding 20-25 minutes of the first exercise(s) on the morning, maybe 4 x 5 or 5 x 5 ?

I would greatly appreciate your thoughts and input on it. If it wont improve the efficacy of this program, then I wont do it, but if it will, then I want to do it the right way.

Thanks.[/quote]

  1. The program already as a phase of AM/PM training.

  2. Dividing the daily volume in two sessions will always be superior to doing the whole volume in one session. So yes, if you can afford splitting the volume in two, do it.

  3. Do not add too much volume if you are using split training. Perform 2/3 of the AM workout as planned (this means doing 4 exercises out of 6 for example); in the PM session perform 3-4 sets of the first two exercises of the AM workout and the 2 remaining exercises from the AM session.

40

Thib,

Would you recommend against HIIT during periods of dieting in which glycogen is already low(near the end of the week during the Anabolic Diet for example)?

Thanks.