Thibs New Training Questions #3

Training
81

[quote]RawMinded wrote:
hey Thib,

I’ve been experimenting with wide grip bench and wide stance squats in addition to normal grip and stance movements. I can’t go as heavy as the regular movement on these but i ramp up to a heavy 3 reps. I know that the wide grip bench stresses the shoulder alot but i still try to tuck my elbows in rather than flare them out and it has helped in not killing my shoulders. Do you see any advantage of doing wide grip and stance exercises or shall i just stick to the basics?[/quote]

I personally think that varying the grip often is a great way to keep progressing for longer. I believe that:

  1. To become very strong in a movement you must practice it often (must come from my old olympic lifting days)

  2. If you repeat the same exact movement to often you might stagnate due to neural factors

I don’t like to vary my lifts too much (e.g. dropping the flat bench for 4 weeks and doing decline DB press instead), I believe that the basics should always stay in, or stay in most of the time.

Changing your grip is a good compromise. It introduce some variation as it is just enough to change the neural pattern somewhat, but not enough so that you lose your technical efficiency in the main lift.

82

[quote]NicoT wrote:
Hi coach,

As I can only fit in 3 training sessions per week I’m doing the following, based on your previous recommendations:

  • Tuesday: Upper body
  • Wednesday: Lower body
  • Saterday: Full body

I have done already a lot of reading on this forum and am applying key principles such as perfect rep technique. When using the split above:

  1. Would you recommend working more often to max load point? The rational being that because of lower frequency, one can/should go beyond the max force point more often (lower frequency, higher intensity thus closer to failure).

  2. Any other suggestions to get as much as possible out of 3 sessions per week?

My apologies if this has been answered before and I overlooked it.

Congrats with “I, bodybuilder”, whereas some people where sceptic before the release of the programme, I think you largely exceeded the expectations of anyone![/quote]

You don’t have to to get optimal results. But you can. In that case I would work up to max force on the first two workouts and turn the third one into some form of whole body test day where you work up to max load.

83

[quote]lavi wrote:
I may be wrong, I believe I read in a post of yours recently that you don’t like to take 2 days off in a row from lifting. Is there a reason for that?[/quote]

After 2 days off, I (and most of my clients) seem to be ‘‘neurally off’’ when they get back to the gym. They are physically in shape but the CNS is in a lesser working state; it takes longer to get properly activated, or it doesn’t get properly activated at all.

84

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:

[quote]lavi wrote:
I may be wrong, I believe I read in a post of yours recently that you don’t like to take 2 days off in a row from lifting. Is there a reason for that?[/quote]

After 2 days off, I (and most of my clients) seem to be ‘‘neurally off’’ when they get back to the gym. They are physically in shape but the CNS is in a lesser working state; it takes longer to get properly activated, or it doesn’t get properly activated at all.

[/quote]

Is it a good idea to do some practice with the main lifts, such as 70-75% 3x3 to keep the CNS working even on “off” days ? It can’t hurt the recovery, right ?

85

[quote]Thy. wrote:

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:

[quote]lavi wrote:
I may be wrong, I believe I read in a post of yours recently that you don’t like to take 2 days off in a row from lifting. Is there a reason for that?[/quote]

After 2 days off, I (and most of my clients) seem to be ‘‘neurally off’’ when they get back to the gym. They are physically in shape but the CNS is in a lesser working state; it takes longer to get properly activated, or it doesn’t get properly activated at all.

[/quote]

Is it a good idea to do some practice with the main lifts, such as 70-75% 3x3 to keep the CNS working even on “off” days ? It can’t hurt the recovery, right ?[/quote]

It depends 3x3 with 75% performed with max acceleration produces a lot of force and thus involve the CNS. It keeps it working but MIGHT hurt with recovery.

If you do 3x3 with 75% with normal rep speed (no acceleration) it is not stressful on the CNS and wont hurt recovery, but it will not serve any purpose.

86

Thib,

You have said:

“Except for a few genetic freaks with formidable levers, amped up nervous systems, and power packed fast-twitch muscles, rarely will you ever see someone put up mind-blowing numbers who doesn’t look like a shaved gorilla.”

Would these individuals that do put up huge numbers these numbers respond well to I, Bodybuilder techniques or somethign else better?

Is there any generalized athlete body type (tennis player, football whatever) that should modify I, Bodybuilder in a specific way for best response?

Thanks!

87

Coach,

I was really enjoying the gym recently, experimenting with the perfect rep and all this new information i have learned from you recently, until guess what comes along…an injury. They always seem to come at the worst of times. I dislocated my shoulder playing rugby and was wondering what kind of diet/training regime you would suggest to one of your athletes if they were injured.

I will be starting physio, and as soon as i can get a bar on my back again, want to get squatting. However i won’t be able to do upper body movements for months, and it could be ages until my shoulder regains its strength.

I just was wondering, when injured what kind of diet would you suggest to your athlete concerned with keeping his physique to the best possible standard? And also do you think i should continue leg training (mostly thins like leg press, leg extension, leg curl) as it is the only thing i can do at the moment?

This has been extremely frustrating and i just cannot wait to get back gymming ! :frowning:

Thanks!

Jamie

88

Leucine and extra fish oil might help.

[quote]King Eric wrote:
Coach,

I was really enjoying the gym recently, experimenting with the perfect rep and all this new information i have learned from you recently, until guess what comes along…an injury. They always seem to come at the worst of times. I dislocated my shoulder playing rugby and was wondering what kind of diet/training regime you would suggest to one of your athletes if they were injured.

I will be starting physio, and as soon as i can get a bar on my back again, want to get squatting. However i won’t be able to do upper body movements for months, and it could be ages until my shoulder regains its strength.

I just was wondering, when injured what kind of diet would you suggest to your athlete concerned with keeping his physique to the best possible standard? And also do you think i should continue leg training (mostly thins like leg press, leg extension, leg curl) as it is the only thing i can do at the moment?

This has been extremely frustrating and i just cannot wait to get back gymming ! :frowning:

Thanks!

Jamie[/quote]

89

[quote]bwells wrote:
Thib,

You have said:

“Except for a few genetic freaks with formidable levers, amped up nervous systems, and power packed fast-twitch muscles, rarely will you ever see someone put up mind-blowing numbers who doesn’t look like a shaved gorilla.”

Would these individuals that do put up huge numbers these numbers respond well to I, Bodybuilder techniques or somethign else better?

Is there any generalized athlete body type (tennis player, football whatever) that should modify I, Bodybuilder in a specific way for best response?

Thanks![/quote]

The genetic freaks I’m talking about are either built to be great at one lift (e.g. Bob Peoples who had arms which hanged almost to his knees when standing up was built to deadlift) or what I once called ‘‘easy-hard gainers’’: individuals who are extremely fast-twitch dominant (90%+ FT fibers) but with such a fast metabolism that gaining weight is very hard for them.

The previous only need to change the program for the lift they are best suited to (they need less assistance work for it) the later will respond very well to a HTH program like I’ Bobyduilder. Tim Patterson (Biotest’s boss) is such a body-type and has responded very well to HTH.

90

Thib, do you have any ideas on how to get my left lat/left bicep more ‘neurally responsive’? My left bicep is smaller than my right bicep, and I cannot flex my left lat as easily as my right. I’m obviously right-handed and I have a feeling that my nervous system is more efficient on the right side of my upper body. Thanks.

91

Thib,

Do dead stop reps (especially the ones with shorter ROM than full movement) lead to substantial hypertrophy by themselves or they’re mostly a tool to make the following regular reps more effectiv ? In other words, do they promote a lot of growth if done in isolation ?

92

Thibs,

  1. I’ve been only low rep training for most of the past 6 months, what I’ve noticed is that anything above 3 reps seems to get exponentially harder. I deadlifted 350 (with horrendous form) but cant seem to pull 295 for more than two reps. Is there any value for doing higher reps (6-8) if the goal is maximum strength?

  2. For the last 3 weeks I replaced conventional deadlifts with halting deadlifts (1-2 count pause on knee level) and today I did regular deadlifts, oddly enough, my regular deadlift strength seems to suffer, would it be better to incorporate both kinds of deadlift in the same session?

Perhaps something similar to the deadlift routine you posted a while ago:
Set one: 3 halting Set Two: 2 Halting/1 regular Set Three: 1 Halting/2 regular etc

  1. I read somewhere that placing a tiny 2.5 plate from the midfeet to heel teaches the person to drive with the heels, otherwise the toes will touch the ground, is it true?

Thank you.

93

coach you wrote in an old thread that you use before front squat jump squat for activation.i want to ask you how many sets and reps you used and if the load is 10%-20% from best front squat.

94

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
After 2 days off, I (and most of my clients) seem to be ‘‘neurally off’’ when they get back to the gym. They are physically in shape but the CNS is in a lesser working state; it takes longer to get properly activated, or it doesn’t get properly activated at all.

[/quote]

This explains why I hit PR’s after training 9 of 10 days and hitting my 3rd bench workout in that period (day 1, 5, 9).

My nervous system must have been primed.

95

Hey CT,

Sorry I’d post this in IBB but it says I don’t have privileges?

Anyway, I’m wondering if I’m advanced enough for IBB. Like they say, its futile to train like Arnold as a beginner.

My lifts are approx. 260 bench, 450 dead, 260 front squat, 170 press @ 190 lbs and 8% body fat.

Thanks.

96

Coach thib, you’ve mentioned previously that the training techniques, concepts you’ve been presenting could be looked at like grades in school. How would you suggest progressing through the concepts. Assuming a person has a good grasp on how to perform the techniques, how often would you move through them. I remember you saying that IBB is just the beginning, so would those techniques be in the same “grade”. Essentially, i’ve been seeing good progress with the abbreviated training you recommended, so I was wondering if after the deload, you would suggest a block of one of the other techniques or mix and match them like the full body days in IBB? Sorry for the long post, thanks for all the great advice

97

Had some to time to think about it, and to put it more succinctly, it would seem to me that the way the fullbody days are structured, for someone who does not need as much muscle as possible asap, they could essentially follow that structure indefinitely, assuming the rules of autoregulation are followed. Is that correct? Or do the techniques in IBB need to be cycled? Thanks again

98

Christian, I’ve been having this dialog with myself and would like to hear if there is some truth to that and how that “truth” can be applied to improve certain body-parts.

When I started lifting I was very narrow individual and my biggest dream was to have broad shoulders, lat-spread and forearms like Bruce Lee.

So it was natural for me to focus on shoulders, back and forearms. We also had a fancy fly-machine that I liked very much, so I spent some time on it too.

I was technique nazi and tried to work with delts only on delt exercises and squeeze back, retract shoulder blades on back exercises. On flyes I was after the pump.

I mostly did machines for those body parts when I started, but now, several years later, my strongest body parts are shoulders, forearms, back and pecs ( I neglected training triceps, biceps etc which are my VERY less fortunate body parts). I don’t believe it is a coincedence. It feels like I created neural paths and learned how to activate those body-parts in a more proper way and now I’m ripping off benifits.

If there are truth to that, then there should be a method to remodel it back to that time and learn how to activate other body-parts as well. I understand that genetics will still play a role in their ability to grow. But it feels like some time we attribute too much to the genetics and too little how the things got started and what became dominant.

Some of my philosophical thoughts are - I’ve become a walking pec, shoulders, back specialization. I’m effective at activating those body parts and they “absorb” most of my nutrition and limit growth potentional for other body parts.

I like your lates stuff, with activation and etc, and hope that they will teach me what I missed in the begining - legs and arms activation.

Right now I’m wondering if there is something I can start the process. Maybe rapid contraction with bands. SOme in the morning and evening. Very low volume that might give results over months?

This is probably nothing new, but I have not read about it and thought I would throw it out and get few thoughts from you.

99

Christian, Really liking the I,BB stuff so far. I’m thinking of ways to go after the completion of the I,BB phases here and am dying to get back into a more traditional BB-Style work out, and a few questions have come up:

Is the Transition phase similar to a “standard” BBing split, with one day devoted to each body part? If not, what kind of layout will it have (if you can release that info)?

Do you still recommend HSS-100 as written, or would you modify the program to include ramping, dead starts and the other techniques you will be showing?

100

could you explain the difference between letting the load rest 10 seconds on pins before lifting verses just 1 second? I notice long rests on pins isn’t recommended in IBB, and I thought that the long rest was something you recommended to really work the nervous the system, so I’m confused.