Thib's 35 Minutes to Hardcore Muscle

[themaineventman]

I created a Alternating Force Curve program for myself after being inspired by “Thib’s 35 Minutes to Hardcore Muscle” article. Today was day 1 of the program and it was absolutely brutal. I had Barbell Bench Press, Machine Bench Press, Banded Bench Press for my first giant set and Bent Over Row, Machine Row, Banded Bent Over Row for my second giant set (60 second rest periods). I was naive enough to program accessory isolation movements into the workout as well… Completely unnecessary. After doing 5x5 for the two different giant sets, My chest and back were completely torn to shreds. No Isolation work needed. Probably the hardest style training I have done since doing Poloquin’s Advanced German Volume Training.

Definitely recommend it and I recommend doing it just as Thib programs it, no extra’s needed.

[Christian_Thibaudeau]

Every time I design an “extreme program” (e.g. layers, Built for Bad, Superhero complexes) I pretty much never include assistance work as the stress level from the big lifts is more than enough and we can easily go overboard. In that situation, as Doug Hepburn would say, the assistance work will actually reduce your gains.

While I have created programs with isolation work. Most of what I used with clients or myself over the years rarely included a significant amount of isolation exercises. I normally use them only to fix a weak point that is not properly addressed with the main lifts.