I’m currently starting your carb cycling codex for mass gain. I’m 135 lbs @ 15% BF, so my days look like this:
High - 2800 cal, 250g carbs
Med - 2600 cal, 200g carbs
Low - 2400 cal, 150g carbs
I’ll gradually increase my caloric intake to 3200, 3000, and 2800 within the next 4 weeks.
Weekly:
Mon: Weights AM, Taekwondo PM (High)
Tue: Circuit training AM, Taekwondo PM (Low)
Wed: Same as Mon (High)
Thurs: Same as Tues (Low)
Fri: Weights AM (Med)
Sat: Circuit, Taekwondo AM (Med)
Sun: Off (Low)
Would you recommend increasing carbs/calories to compensate for the Taekwondo training, or switching one of the P+C meals around so it’s prior to PM training?
Also, would you recommend using a fat burner to minimize fat gain while following this protocol?
When working with a person new to training, would you prefer to use many sets of few reps (with sub-maximal weights) on a select few exercises or the more standard recommendation of fewer sets and higher reps?
On the one hand, it takes time to build tendon strength before moving on to true lower rep heavy work, but at the same time, it seems like higher frequency with low reps (albeit it at very manageable weights) and lots of sets would be ideal for motor learning to groove technique while still getting volume.
Or is it simply a matter of closely monitoring technique on a moderate number of sets in the 10-12 range at the very beginning? i.e. so long as form is excellent and you’re leaving a very slight bit in reserve at the end of sets, things should be fine?
Great to have you back!
It depends on the individual. A motor moron (a beginner who was completely sedentary before) will first need to learn how to use its muscles. This means neural-focused training:
Technically perfect reps (lots of sets of medium reps 4-6 range with his 8RM or so for compound and 6-8 reps for isolation work)
High frequency of hitting each muscle group (whole body training 3-4 times a week)
A 50/50 blend of compound and isolation work. Isolation is needed to develop the capacity to activate each muscle group
If a beginner has a strong physical background (e.g. was always involved in sports growing up and is still active, has a physically demanding job, is naturally strong, etc.) Then you can train him like a ‘‘regular’’ gym rat.[/quote]
This process is something to do from the start or after 1-2 weeks preparatory training? Do you believe the endurance-strength (low sets, low intensity, 15 reps/set) is useless for the beginner? Thanks again.
I have been doing some thinking,
to try and find out what kind of
body I would get, when I am done cutting.
Just like you, I come from a wealthy family with some weight problems, so I have actually never tried to be lean.
And besides studying I’m working as a fitness/bodybuilding instructor, so I also
see it as a part of my job.
I have strong shoulders, triceps and chest. Even though I feel my right chest is more thick and muscular, but I can “jump” with my left one, and not the right chest… Wirred… I am 5’10"
I do good at squat, but my deadlift suck.
Do you know of anyone I can compare myself with?
Honestly, I usually compare my body type with yours. I really think thats the way im going to look, when/If I get to your level.
But I guess thats also because your my idol.
I forgot, I have another question for you
I hope you can answer.
In my previous post I told you, that I work as a fitness/bodybuilding instructor.
I have this guest at my gym I sometime talk with.
The other day he told me that his right pec and left, are not the same.
He showed me, and I really had to agree with him. They really arent the same. The right pec is bigger and more form, than the other.
I told him to switch from BB benchpress to do DB benchpress, Incline DB and so on and focus on technique. And while doing Incline, he should look in the mirror.
Hey CT,
I jsut had my first contest last saturday and have a question about the post-contest water rebound. How long does it usually take for the body to balance out the amount of water being held? And is there anything i could do to try and rid of this excess water?
It’s been 4 days since the comp and i’m still feeling very soft and looking bloated.
[quote]xsquatx wrote:
Hey CT,
I jsut had my first contest last saturday and have a question about the post-contest water rebound. How long does it usually take for the body to balance out the amount of water being held? And is there anything i could do to try and rid of this excess water?
It’s been 4 days since the comp and i’m still feeling very soft and looking bloated.
Regards.[/quote]
It depends on your diet mostly. Most guys will go hog wild right after a show, which is somewhat understandable after weeks of deprivation. However to avoid negative sides like a water rebound, you should go back on a good diet ASAP.
See, people make the mistake of going straight from a very strict diet to eating everything in sight. In an ideal world, after a contest you should GRADUALLY increase food intake.
Now, the rebound also depends on whether you used pharmaceutical diuretics or not. I do not want to touch the subject as I do not discuss any form of drugs, but suffice to say that pharmaceutical diuretics will lead to a rebound in aldosterone production, the hormone responsible for holding water. In other words if you used pharma diuretics you will hold water to a much greater extent and for a lot longer thna if you didn’t.
What can you do? Go back to a low carbs diet until the bloat is flushed, keep on training hard, drink a TON of water to downregulate aldosterone production, you can take a HERBAL diuretic (NOT a pharma diuretic as it will just stretch the problem) and take epsom salt baths (400g of epsom salt in super hot water for 20-30 minutes).
You once wrote (I believe it was in regards to Hugo Girard’s diet) something like “a high protein, moderate fat diet works well for most people.” I was wondering what exactly you mean by both "high"and “moderate.” Would it be something like 1.5 grams per pound of LBM for protein, and 0.5 grams per pound of LBM for fat?
You once wrote (I believe it was in regards to Hugo Girard’s diet) something like “a high protein, moderate fat diet works well for most people.” I was wondering what exactly you mean by both "high"and “moderate.” Would it be something like 1.5 grams per pound of LBM for protein, and 0.5 grams per pound of LBM for fat?
[quote]ab1975 wrote:
This process is something to do from the start or after 1-2 weeks preparatory training? Do you believe the endurance-strength (low sets, low intensity, 15 reps/set) is useless for the beginner? Thanks again.[/quote]
Sets of higher reps are not useless for beginners. For one thing ‘‘the pump’’ will help them feel a muscle working and will thus develop a better mind-muscle connection.
Also, beginners can improve their strength and hypertrophy with a load as light as 50-60% of their max. So with them sets of 12-15 reps are fine.
I’m due to commence a new phase based on your Refined Physique Transformation article and hoped you could answer a short point regarding lactate-training.
In general, how close to failure should you go during these sets (I know Poliquin for example talks about sets to failure)? And should you use drop sets to maintain the rep range requirements?
Many thanks in advance for your time.
Hi Coach,
First I want to say that i’m not asking for an assesment as you said it’s impossible to make an accurate solution for me over the internet. Recently, while deadlifting, i felt a slight pain in my lower back, which i never experienced before.
As soon as i felt something was wrong, i stopped and kept myself from exercises that put a lot of stress on it such as back squat, military press, and all the variations of deadlifts. I was planning on going on a fat loss phase where deadlift and full squatting were going to take a big chunk of my workout routine and I’m very frustrated at the moment.
And since this is the first time dealing with the pain on the lower back from an exercise, i’m completely clueless to how i should go about dealing with it. Any advice on exercise selections, active-recovery methods, general guildlines to how long i should wait before attempting DL and squats again would be greatly appreciated!
Btw, hope you had a good vacation and it’s great to have you back!
Hey Coach,
I have a question regarding twice-a-day workouts. I know from your Black Book of Training Secrets you should not work the same physiological facet in both sessions, and you should keep the sessions short.
I’ve had success with your metabolic pairings and wanted to know if you could split these workouts in two. Such as hang clean/press + burpess and thrusters + vertical jump + bw squat in the morning and then snatch dl + swings and 20 minutes of low steady state cardio at night? Or should I just suck it up and do one session?
Thanks
I have a few question for you. About 2 weeks ago I told you that I trained first thing in the morning without eating. You recommended that I consume at least 24g of protein and some BCAA. I am starting that fist thing in the morning, how long before I work out does this need to happen? I just purchased Metabolic Drive-Low Carb can I use this as my 24g of protein or should I use GROW? I also use Surge Workout Fuel, Should I continue to use this through my workout? And finally I also purchased ReceptorMax for some insulin issues (superiliac fat), the doses say 6 caps a day, in your experince does it usually take more than one bottle to produce results. I understand that the last questions is case sensitive, just wanted your input from experiance.
I have a few question for you. About 2 weeks ago I told you that I trained first thing in the morning without eating. You recommended that I consume at least 24g of protein and some BCAA. I am starting that fist thing in the morning, how long before I work out does this need to happen? [/quote]
Ideally, around 30 minutes.
[quote]ncruse wrote:
I just purchased Metabolic Drive-Low Carb can I use this as my 24g of protein or should I use GROW? [/quote]
Low carb MD is not an ideal choice due to the presence of the slower to absorb casein. I do not believe that it will be signifcantly worse, but GROW whey would be a better choice.
[quote]ncruse wrote:
I also use Surge Workout Fuel, Should I continue to use this through my workout? [/quote]
Yes
[quote]ncruse wrote:
And finally I also purchased ReceptorMax for some insulin issues (superiliac fat), the doses say 6 caps a day, in your experince does it usually take more than one bottle to produce results. I understand that the last questions is case sensitive, just wanted your input from experiance.
[/quote]
It depends on your diet and the severity of your resistance to insulin. If you use Receptormax and continue to eat a lot of carbs, the effects will take a lot longer to be seen.
[quote]fnf wrote:
Hey Coach,
I have a question regarding twice-a-day workouts. I know from your Black Book of Training Secrets you should not work the same physiological facet in both sessions, and you should keep the sessions short.
I’ve had success with your metabolic pairings and wanted to know if you could split these workouts in two. Such as hang clean/press + burpess and thrusters + vertical jump + bw squat in the morning and then snatch dl + swings and 20 minutes of low steady state cardio at night? Or should I just suck it up and do one session?
Thanks[/quote]
Do them all in one session, otherwise the metabolic enhancing effect is likely to be greatly diminished.
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
ncruse wrote:
Welcome Back CT
I have a few question for you. About 2 weeks ago I told you that I trained first thing in the morning without eating. You recommended that I consume at least 24g of protein and some BCAA. I am starting that fist thing in the morning, how long before I work out does this need to happen?
Ideally, around 30 minutes.
ncruse wrote:
I just purchased Metabolic Drive-Low Carb can I use this as my 24g of protein or should I use GROW?
Low carbs MD is not an ideal choice due to the presence of the slower to absorb casein. I do not believe that it will be signifcantly worse, but GROW whey would be a better choice.
ncruse wrote:
I also use Surge Workout Fuel, Should I continue to use this through my workout?
Yes
ncruse wrote:
And finally I also purchased ReceptorMax for some insulin issues (superiliac fat), the doses say 6 caps a day, in your experince does it usually take more than one bottle to produce results. I understand that the last questions is case sensitive, just wanted your input from experiance.
It depends on your diet and the severity of your resistance to insulin. If you use Receptormax and continue to eat a lot of carbs, the effects will take a lot longer to be seen.
[/quote]
I’m due to commence a new phase based on your Refined Physique Transformation article and hoped you could answer a short point regarding lactate-training.
In general, how close to failure should you go during these sets (I know Poliquin for example talks about sets to failure)? And should you use drop sets to maintain the rep range requirements?
Many thanks in advance for your time.
JB[/quote]
Lactate circuits should be seen as ‘‘cardio/energy system work’’ with weights. Do not go to failure, the goal is whole body lactate accumulation. The whole body should be hurting from the lactate and failure might happen, but it’s not a goal.
'couple quick questions. I recently switched up my program. I’m doing EDT upper/lower split on Mon Tues and Th Fri. Anyway, i’ve been making some decent progress and i plan on doing this for about 6 more weeks. I’m just concerned with losing strength. I was thinking about switch to 5X5 push/pull on Th/Fri. Any thoughts? concerned about burning out/recovery
Also, my gfs grandparents are coming over from italy for the summer, so i’ll have some massive eating to do. Where can I get your “get jacked fast” program?
I was curious to know if there are ideal training splits for strength vs. hypertrophy?[/quote]
To be honest, the training split you use is about the least important factor in planning your training. As long as there is no negative effect from one workout to the next you’ll be fine.
An example of a situation creating a negative effect would be to do a hard triceps or shoulders training the day before working chest… the triceps or delt work will diminish the performance during the chest work and that’s not good.
[quote]hckyman147 wrote:
Also, I’ve heard some coaches say to complete each set to failure, and others say to end the set before failure (when the reps slow down). You spoke on this in a previous article, and it showed up in your recent Numbers of Muscle building. I was wondering if you could expand on the two philosophies.[/quote]
Simply read part I of my ‘‘Thib system’’ series… the answer is there.
'couple quick questions. I recently switched up my program. I’m doing EDT upper/lower split on Mon Tues and Th Fri. Anyway, i’ve been making some decent progress and i plan on doing this for about 6 more weeks. I’m just concerned with losing strength. I was thinking about switch to 5X5 push/pull on Th/Fri. Any thoughts? concerned about burning out/recovery[/quote]
Good idea, but keep the same body breakdown on thu/fri (upper/lower).
[quote]HelmetMJC wrote:
Also, my gfs grandparents are coming over from italy for the summer, so i’ll have some massive eating to do. Where can I get your “get jacked fast” program? [/quote]
