Wow, forgot about this. Oddly this program is very much in line with my current thinking. I would only change the sets for ramping sets of 3 or 5 reps on the strength exercises and might change the GPP stuff to be more strength and power focused (more focus on heavier weights and shorter distance or sets; more focus on speed)[/quote]
Great, thanks! I re-read it yesterday and realized how applicable it is to my current goals. And I remembered Pascal Caron from this article after you mentioned him on your Random Thoughts - Modified Canadian Complex routine. He sounds like a beast! [/quote]
He was. Probably one of the most gifted fast twitch machine I’ve ever saw.
[quote]Italiano wrote:
Thibs, I am lagging in my upper chest compared to my overall chest development. I can’t find it, but I believe I read one of your posts not too long ago mentioning somewhere along the lines of “how most muscular powerlifters with big benches have great overall chest deveopment, and only perform flat bench presses”.
Do you have any tips or suggestions to bring up the upper chest? Or should I just keep trying to increase my bench, and hopefully over time the upper portion of the chest will fill out?
Thanks[/quote]
Go heavy on the bench, powerlifting style. For example ramping sets of 3 to 5 reps.
Then drop down the weight to 60% of the max you reached and perform 3 sets of max reps on the wide grip bench press to the neck.[/quote]
by max reps i assume you mean until one can no longer accelerate the weight and NOT failure, correct?
[quote]Italiano wrote:
Thibs, I am lagging in my upper chest compared to my overall chest development. I can’t find it, but I believe I read one of your posts not too long ago mentioning somewhere along the lines of “how most muscular powerlifters with big benches have great overall chest deveopment, and only perform flat bench presses”.
Do you have any tips or suggestions to bring up the upper chest? Or should I just keep trying to increase my bench, and hopefully over time the upper portion of the chest will fill out?
Thanks[/quote]
Go heavy on the bench, powerlifting style. For example ramping sets of 3 to 5 reps.
Then drop down the weight to 60% of the max you reached and perform 3 sets of max reps on the wide grip bench press to the neck.[/quote]
Coach
I have the same problem, but I got injured doing wide grip bench press to the neck in supraspinatus.
I have no pain if I put my elbows close to torso. Do you have another choice to fill up the upper pec in these cases?
[quote]Italiano wrote:
Thibs, I am lagging in my upper chest compared to my overall chest development. I can’t find it, but I believe I read one of your posts not too long ago mentioning somewhere along the lines of “how most muscular powerlifters with big benches have great overall chest deveopment, and only perform flat bench presses”.
Do you have any tips or suggestions to bring up the upper chest? Or should I just keep trying to increase my bench, and hopefully over time the upper portion of the chest will fill out?
Thanks[/quote]
Go heavy on the bench, powerlifting style. For example ramping sets of 3 to 5 reps.
Then drop down the weight to 60% of the max you reached and perform 3 sets of max reps on the wide grip bench press to the neck.[/quote]
by max reps i assume you mean until one can no longer accelerate the weight and NOT failure, correct?[/quote]
Some deceleration is acceptable. But not to the point of grinding.
CT, I’ve posted this in phase 1 of i bodybuilder but I guess that thread is considered obsolete and probably should now as it was released two months ago(idk). So I’m trying it here.
I’ve tried 5-5-5, 7-7-7, curls off the straight end for preachers, going heavy on biceps to the point that my wrists hurt, going lightweight and failing usually reaching about 30 reps or so, and I just can’t get my damn biceps to grow. tips?
I oddly enough have to point out that I had an easier time during high school as my biceps were only a little bit bigger, but I found myself curling 35’s with ease. And this was hs, a time where most of us just picked up weight and started lifting, making sure our form was good(it just had to look good, bench press had no swinging bar, biceps elbows were tucked in arms straight, etc.) but other than that all we were concerned with was the dumbbell or the barbell had to go down or up. We probably just fucked around with weights two times a week, no going serious, and definitely didn’t care about diet. It was what tasted good: pizza, donuts, burritos, fried rice, etc. Would you have an explanation for that or it’s as simple as “even when only three years go by, things were a lot easier those few years ago, and you can’t train the way you did back then.”?
My opinion would be to stop concentrating on lifting biceps and really concentrate on getting your back built up.
Ive gone through and did the back phase of IBB for only 2 weeks the first time and the rest of IBB for 2 weeks each. after I was done I was doing 55 lbs on hammer curls! I started off maybe being able to do 40lbs on hammer curls for a reference. I can also curl 60lbs normally.
anyways working out the back should bring up your biceps is what I was trying to say… prior to IBB my biceps had plateaued, the most I could ever curl normally was 50lb weights… now I can rep those.
Awesome work street-dreams! Did you do this on Anaconda? At first, I was hesitant to start i bodybuilder because I lift some light weights, like 165 for 8 reps on bench press, even worse for incline, biceps are just like yours for weight, squats are killer at 20 reps for 195 lb, and shoulders eh, barbell shoulder press probably rep at 135, IF I START WITH THAT EXERCISE. But now, I guess I BODYBUILDER, LET’S DO THIS! Also, I see this is your second post, THANK YOU FOR REPLYING.
preworkout-few sips of Xtend(BCAA + glutamine and citruline malate)w/glycergrow mixed in
intraworkout- few sips of Xtend(BCAA + glutamine and citruline malate)w/glycergrow mixed in
post workout- on gold standard whey 2 scoops w/ milk
I also take a good multi and fishoil
and most importantly food.
I’m pretty sure you had trial and error during your sets. what were your rest periods normally? Wow, you went through the whole IBB and only posted twice? geez I also can see Kevin struggled through most of his heavy sets even though they were only probably 3 reps each, so am I doing something wrong if I’m not panting like him? Do I need to take any other supplements? I only have whey protein and creatine at my dispoal right now and I don’t even know how to take creatine but I usually only take whey protein post-workout.
How were you able to find the right weight? Any other advice you have for me being someone who’s already tried IBB? Thanks. This probably makes things a lot easier. Most of us search the entire web for a good workout program and IBB is now a good answer, and from your progress, probably the best answer.
The way I progressed was I started light and worked my way up in the sets… if I got to the end of the sets without being challenged I did an extra set with a heavier weight… usally the same amount of weight id been adding thru the first sets. If this still was too light, next week id start off one or 2 sets weights above than on the first set I did… for example
lets say bench press for instance
3x6 sets
3x90 3x110 3x130 3x150 3x170 3x190 if I didnt feel challenged on set 6 I might add a 7th set at 3x200 and start next week at 3x110 and Finnish at 3x 200 or start at 2x130 and Finnish at 3x200 still.
kinda like sliding the whole thing to the right(heavier) as you closer to your 1rm youll have to ramp less… this might mean you might have to spend at least 3 weeks in one phase because the first week you might not be challenging yourself enough.
edit: most of the time my rest was pretty non-existent. 30 secs in between supersets and maybe 30 secs in between HEAVY lifts. you might need more rest however.
CT, somebody said you were a night eater, but I’m taking it with a grain of salt. My question is how would you set up workout nutrition if the majority of your workouts range from 10:30 p.m. to 12 am? For right now, all I’ve been and can only do is a post workout strictly protein shake.
If I’m not mistaken conventional one arm dumbell rows are done with a neutral grip. Is there any difference and advantage in using a pronated/suppinated grip over a neutral one? If so, how it affects back muscles recruitment?
Thib, what’s your opinion about the importance of mantainig constant tension (squeezing the muscle every inch of every rep) in order to grow?. Techniques like partial reps (avoiding the part of the exercise in which muscle loses tension) or blood oclussion are useful or crap?.
[quote]dchviet wrote:
CT, somebody said you were a night eater, but I’m taking it with a grain of salt. My question is how would you set up workout nutrition if the majority of your workouts range from 10:30 p.m. to 12 am? For right now, all I’ve been and can only do is a post workout strictly protein shake.[/quote]
I do not train in the evening. The latest I will train is at 4pm. I don’t know where the night thing comes from as I’m normally in bed by 9pm and wake up at 5am.
I have several threads on peri-workout nutrition. I suggest that you browse through them before asking your question.
[quote]Addweight wrote:
Thib, what’s your opinion about the importance of mantainig constant tension (squeezing the muscle every inch of every rep) in order to grow?. Techniques like partial reps (avoiding the part of the exercise in which muscle loses tension) or blood oclussion are useful or crap?.[/quote]
Nothing is ‘‘crap’’… everything works, but to a degree.
Here is something from an article I’m working on:
''Does that mean that slowish, constant tension reps are ineffective? No it doesn’t. They are less than optimal, and will not stimulate growth via a high force production. But they can still lead to some hypertrophy by creating an hypoxic state (oxygen deprivation in the muscles).
When a muscle is contracting, blood can’t enter the muscle. So oxygen transport to the muscle is stopped and so is waste product removal. During a slow contraction, blood entry is cut off for a significant amount of time (especially if you also use a slow eccentric tempo) which creates that hypoxic state as well a metabolic waste product accumulation. Both of these have been shown to increase the release of local growth factors and can lead to muscle growth.
It’s all good in theory, but in real life it’s just not that effective. At least not when compared to other options. But it can still be used from time to time (infrequently) on isolation exercises.‘’
[quote]Addweight wrote:
Thib, what’s your opinion about the importance of mantainig constant tension (squeezing the muscle every inch of every rep) in order to grow?. Techniques like partial reps (avoiding the part of the exercise in which muscle loses tension) or blood oclussion are useful or crap?.[/quote]
Nothing is ‘‘crap’’… everything works, but to a degree.
Here is something from an article I’m working on:
''Does that mean that slowish, constant tension reps are ineffective? No it doesnâ??t. They are less than optimal, and will not stimulate growth via a high force production. But they can still lead to some hypertrophy by creating an hypoxic state (oxygen deprivation in the muscles).
When a muscle is contracting, blood canâ??t enter the muscle. So oxygen transport to the muscle is stopped and so is waste product removal. During a slow contraction, blood entry is cut off for a significant amount of time (especially if you also use a slow eccentric tempo) which creates that hypoxic state as well a metabolic waste product accumulation. Both of these have been shown to increase the release of local growth factors and can lead to muscle growth.
Itâ??s all good in theory, but in real life itâ??s just not that effective. At least not when compared to other options. But it can still be used from time to time (infrequently) on isolation exercises.‘’
[/quote]
Why producing maximun force is the best way to increase muscle mass?, why not maximun power?
[quote]Addweight wrote:
Thib, what’s your opinion about the importance of mantainig constant tension (squeezing the muscle every inch of every rep) in order to grow?. Techniques like partial reps (avoiding the part of the exercise in which muscle loses tension) or blood oclussion are useful or crap?.[/quote]
Nothing is ‘‘crap’’… everything works, but to a degree.
Here is something from an article I’m working on:
''Does that mean that slowish, constant tension reps are ineffective? No it doesn�¢??t. They are less than optimal, and will not stimulate growth via a high force production. But they can still lead to some hypertrophy by creating an hypoxic state (oxygen deprivation in the muscles).
When a muscle is contracting, blood can�¢??t enter the muscle. So oxygen transport to the muscle is stopped and so is waste product removal. During a slow contraction, blood entry is cut off for a significant amount of time (especially if you also use a slow eccentric tempo) which creates that hypoxic state as well a metabolic waste product accumulation. Both of these have been shown to increase the release of local growth factors and can lead to muscle growth.
ItÃ?¢??s all good in theory, but in real life itÃ?¢??s just not that effective. At least not when compared to other options. But it can still be used from time to time (infrequently) on isolation exercises.‘’
[/quote]
Why producing maximun force is the best way to increase muscle mass?, why not maximun power?[/quote]
Power is basically force x velocity. So if you maximize force and focus on acceleration your power output will be important anyways.
I just went trough the “newest training questions” and the “perfect rep” threads but I just cant find the CTs power circuit program. Have any of you guys bookmarked it?
It went something like 4-6 exercises, 85 % max, 3 reps, 30s rest, keep moving from exercise to exercise and drop exercises when you cant do 3 reps anymore until you only have 0 exercises left. Or something like that.
what are your thoughts on dips as an exercise? more specifically, i’ve read that dips with a large ROM can put the shoulder at risk of an injury and would like to know what you have experienced with this exercise. i used to do both weighted and unweighted ones through a full range of motion, but haven’t focused on them as of late. as a relatively long-limbed individual (6’1 with a 6’3 arm span), my triceps are a weak point in pressing exercises and i know that lots of powerlifters use dips to help their bench.
if it’s relevant, my shoulders are currently healthy and i have no injury history aside from a mild ac joint separation a year and a half ago.
i may be over-analyzing things but i’m a little confused. the following is from your “What I Am Doing Now” thread…
Each workout lasts around 30 minutes and consists of doing 8 sets of 3 reps with the maximum weight I can accelerate (around 85%) then drop down by 20-40lbs (depending on the lift) and perform 5 sets of 5 reps.
for the main movement in my workouts ive always used the 8x3 AS the ramp. then after i reach my max force 3 REP weight i drop down to about 80-85% of that and do the 5x5’s sometimes followed by a max rep set…