[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
Actually I found pulling muscles to respond best to sets of anywhere between 6 and 12 reps. I don’t feel like sets of 3 reps are great (although they still work) for the back. It’s not that sets of 3 don’t work. But I found that the back (lats to be precise) do respond better to higher reps and as such it is a better investment to train the lats in the higher rep zone.[/quote]
What about Power Shrugs & Power (Widegrip) Upright Rows?[/quote]
Notice that I mentioned specifically that I was talking mostly about lats (quote: “But I found that the back (lats to be precise) do respond better to higher reps”). Traps work is part of the upper body performance assistant. Refer to the text I posted, specifically this part where I talk about the traps, rhomboids and rotator cuff muscles:
“These muscles should be trained at the same frequency as pressing muscles (during the same workout). They do not need to be trained as heavy and with the same training techniques, but you shouldnÃ?¢??t go light either. Remember that these muscles must be strong enough to facilitate the job of the powerful pressing muscles”
So sets of 6-8 reps are generally what I recommend.
BTW. I wouldn’t really consider the power upright row as a pure pulling movement. Yes, you are “pulling” on the bar, but a lot of the movement is performed by utilizing a leg drive (lower body pushing) and the deltoids are heavily involved (deltoids are among the upper body performance muscles).[/quote]
coach, when do you work the mid back muscles for thickness?[/quote]
I stagger sets of rhomboid, rear delts and traps work between sets of upper body pressing… I use sets of 6 to 8 reps.
[quote]Gaby 2700 wrote:
Hellow, CT. I whent through your book (High-Threshold Muscle Building) for the fifth time now and I don’t get some stuff and I’d be very gratefull if you’d explain it. (although it might sound stupid)
First up is that you say that you should always strive to increase the acceleration or the load, yet a chapter ater you talk about the benefits of eccentric-acentuated work as a superior stimulus.
Now I see you exploiting explosive reps more and more and using eccentric-less training a lot.
Second up: I don’t get the term force cureve.
If you could give me some answers I’d apreciate it. [/quote]
Accentuated eccentrics do provide a powerful growth stimulus. BUT they are very hard to recover from. As such I recently came to the conclusion that they are not always a good “investment”.
While it may provide a good stimulation, if overdone it increases your recovery needs drastically and drains the nervous system faster. This means that you will not be able to train as often and will not be able to tolerate as much volume. To me, volume and frequency are keys to stimulating maximum growth.
Furthermore, accentuated eccentric loading has been shown to decrease glycogen replenishment after training. In other words, not only do you have more to recover from when accentuating the eccentric; the recovery process is actually slower! In fact, the negative effect of accentuated eccentrics on glycogen replenishment lasts for as much as 3 days…that’s 3 days with impaired recovery capacities!
So they can be a good tool, if used at the right time, and with the right volume. When I use accentuated eccentrics it is normally for 1 or 2 sets at the end of a training session.
Eccentric-less work is used mostly to help recovery by increasing nutrients flow to the muscle. It is also a way to boost volume without drastically increasing your recovery needs.
[quote]T100 wrote:
CT, Will you still be adding videos to Live spill or somewhere else on the forums? They are highly valuable learning tools.
Cheers[/quote]
Yes we will[/quote]
^agreed, I can’t wait for more. I always get a few good ideas out of them. Very cool and interactive for your consumers. Thanks to everyone involved, especially Thibs for sharing all his ideas and “secrets” with us
i read you recommend rather doing above 6 reps for pulling movements. If training once a day, i guess its still wise to ramp up a power row or any row movement with 3 reps, and doing after that the higher rep movements? Thats at least something I do every 3rd week after sticking to 3 to 5 reps only.
I personally feel i accelerate best in the 3 to 5 range. What about force production in the higher rep range, guess it’s necessary to put on a weight that can be still accelerated the same way for 6+ reps? Or do you concentrate yourself on something else than acceleration itsself during those higher reps?
Interesting to see about the rep ranges, I’ve come to many of the same conclusions - like we talked about earlier in a Livespill.
What is natural to the body? That is usually the way to train the muscles. Grip width and position on various exercises. If someone asks you to push a car, where do you place your hands? Usually a pretty narrow grip. So why do people insist on benching with a wide grip? No wonder pecs tear and rotators get shot. Biceps curls and triceps extensions, use dumbbells and a neutral grip, avoid locking the elbow but let it move naturally.
Foot placement on squats, drop down from a box and land as softly as possible. Look at your feet. That is usually a very good placement for both squats and deadlifts.
Some questions:
Bent Rows, Seated Rows or T-bar rows, do you also put those in a staggered set approach with upper body performance days?
Deadlifts and rack pulls, I prefer keeping reps around 3-5s, do you also consider them a hip dominant leg exercise? I would add some higher rep work for quads on this day - then the next leg day it’s heavy front squats/squats with some lighter hamstring work.
Calves I’m guessing also respond to a variety of loading schemes like legs? I personally like a DC-hybrid superset with 10-12 reps seated calves, holding the bottom position 5 secs on each rep, then go immediately to donkey calf or seated leg press calf (I do one leg at a time, less plates on the sled is needed) ramping to 6-8 reps, then Myo-reps e.g. 7 +3+3+3+3. I also recommend holding the bottom position for 2secs on each rep to eliminate elastic energy from the powerful Achilles tendon.
Thanks a lot for the replay, coach. Actually is quite funny to me because today on the bus I talked to my training partner and he tells me that he’s sore from the last friday’s arm workout. Now what bothers me is that I’ve baarely been sore for like 2 days (I want to specify that I used a lot of accentuated eccentrics and some max reps).
Now I think that you get what I meant through my questions in the livespill. I could really use some guidelines and tips because I need to find a way to shorten my workouts a little and to optimize gains while on a higher activity level. My main problem are my upper arms (for the rest of the body is quite simple to stimulate growth since I learned about the CNS and ramping and fast tempo is really working for my back, chest shoulders and legs), I tought that eccentrics whould help me, because I have long limbs, but right now I don’t know what to do anymore. If anyone (including you, CT) can give me some advice I’d really be gratefull.
Yes, I found that different muscle groups and movement patterns respond to different training stimuli.
[/quote]
Thanks for the long response, coach! Would you put legs in the high performance muscles category? Also, when using different rep ranges for different muscles, would (in your experience) autoregulation take care of getting roughly the suitable number of sets, or should there be a number to (roughly) aim for?
B.[/quote]
Correct… that was part of an article about the upper body. Legs are “weird” in that they tend to respond equally well to most types of rep ranges. They also need a lot of volume to grow, but training them with a lot of lifting movements can be draining on the nervous system. The best way to train them is to focus on two big basic movements, one hamstring isolation exercises and A LOT of sled work.
We use heavy squats, trap bar deadlift, front squats and leg press to stimulate with heavy lifting (2 exercises per workout) and bulk up the training volume by doing a lot of eccentric-less work with the sled/prowler.
For example we normally do 3-4 different exercises with the sled/prowler:
Backward walking in a crouched stance (knees bent 90 degrees)
Sled pull-through
Prowler pushing
Pulling the sled, walking with straight legs
Normally we do several sets of 20-30 yards and try to increase the volume over time.[/quote]
Hey coach i must have missed that upper body article where is it? Or anyone who knows where it is, let me know, my 2 favorite coaches are CT and Tate they should go into buisness for eachother.
Yes, I found that different muscle groups and movement patterns respond to different training stimuli.
[/quote]
Thanks for the long response, coach! Would you put legs in the high performance muscles category? Also, when using different rep ranges for different muscles, would (in your experience) autoregulation take care of getting roughly the suitable number of sets, or should there be a number to (roughly) aim for?
B.[/quote]
Correct… that was part of an article about the upper body. Legs are “weird” in that they tend to respond equally well to most types of rep ranges. They also need a lot of volume to grow, but training them with a lot of lifting movements can be draining on the nervous system. The best way to train them is to focus on two big basic movements, one hamstring isolation exercises and A LOT of sled work.
We use heavy squats, trap bar deadlift, front squats and leg press to stimulate with heavy lifting (2 exercises per workout) and bulk up the training volume by doing a lot of eccentric-less work with the sled/prowler.
For example we normally do 3-4 different exercises with the sled/prowler:
Backward walking in a crouched stance (knees bent 90 degrees)
Sled pull-through
Prowler pushing
Pulling the sled, walking with straight legs
Normally we do several sets of 20-30 yards and try to increase the volume over time.[/quote]
Hey coach i must have missed that upper body article where is it? Or anyone who knows where it is, let me know, my 2 favorite coaches are CT and Tate they should go into buisness for eachother.
[/quote]
It hasn’t been published yet, although I posted a few tidbits on my forum. The article will be one of the first combo article+video+livespil
It hasn’t been published yet, although I posted a few tidbits on my forum. The article will be one of the first combo article+video+livespil[/quote]
Its really exciting to see the direction you and T-Nation is going, pushing the boundaries and doing new things rather than staying the same and just maintaining its already (high) standards. This is why its the best website of its kind by far, genuinely a cut above the rest. Thank you!
[quote]Pat_Butcher wrote:
It hasn’t been published yet, although I posted a few tidbits on my forum. The article will be one of the first combo article+video+livespil[/quote]
Its really exciting to see the direction you and T-Nation is going, pushing the boundaries and doing new things rather than staying the same and just maintaining its already (high) standards. This is why its the best website of its kind by far, genuinely a cut above the rest. Thank you![/quote]
CT, I really appreciate your training methods. I want to gain 20 pounds of muscle without gaining fat. Do you think its possible. If so, can give me the training and diet plans of how to do that. Any help from you will be appreciated.
[quote]never_got_ripped wrote:
CT, I really appreciate your training methods. I want to gain 20 pounds of muscle without gaining fat. Do you think its possible. If so, can give me the training and diet plans of how to do that. Any help from you will be appreciated.
[/quote]
[quote]never_got_ripped wrote:
CT, I really appreciate your training methods. I want to gain 20 pounds of muscle without gaining fat. Do you think its possible. If so, can give me the training and diet plans of how to do that. Any help from you will be appreciated.
[/quote]
hey man, no disrespect, but i really dont think asking CT for something over and over again will get him to do anything but get annoyed. There have been times where i asked something and it never got answered. maybe it got lost in the jumble of other questions, maybe he just didnt feel like answering me. regardless, 95% of the time i get my question answered in the end by doing research from various studies, and most of all AMONG THIS FORUM. there is a never ending plethora of info on so many subjects that CT and other people in the trenches have covered. If you really want a question answered, most of the time you can answer it yourself by finding information and coming to a reasonable and testable conclusion on your own. Also, dont be afraid to expiriment, took me a while to figure out what works for me. So go get your readin on buddy!!
P.S.- of course its possible to put on 20 pounds of muscle without gaining fat. Hell, Darryl put on 15 solid pounds while LOSING fat using CT’s methods
What do you think about performing an activation circuit right before a regular lifting session instead of a single activation exercise? I know you’ve said people who train once a day can do a neural charge/activation session 30 min before and then do the regular session but what if I were to perform the circuit and jump into my regular lifting the second i felt explosive and in the zone?
Say I’d be doing an upper body performance day and instead of starting with bench press from pins for activation instead i’d do bench press from pins, bench press, and hammer strength bench in a circuit using a load thats between 50-60% for only 2 explosive reps to cause minimal fatigue and stop the circuit right when i get in the zone and jump into my first exercise.
What do you think about performing an activation circuit right before a regular lifting session instead of a single activation exercise? I know you’ve said people who train once a day can do a neural charge/activation session 30 min before and then do the regular session but what if I were to perform the circuit and jump into my regular lifting the second i felt explosive and in the zone?
Say I’d be doing an upper body performance day and instead of starting with bench press from pins for activation instead i’d do bench press from pins, bench press, and hammer strength bench in a circuit using a load thats between 50-60% for only 2 explosive reps to cause minimal fatigue and stop the circuit right when i get in the zone and jump into my first exercise.
[/quote]
It would likely work as long as you do not create any fatigue. But performing a circuit instead of a single activation movement also has a good upside: it starts the workout with a fast pace which puts you in the zone quickly.
[quote]never_got_ripped wrote:
CT, I really appreciate your training methods. I want to gain 20 pounds of muscle without gaining fat. Do you think its possible. If so, can give me the training and diet plans of how to do that. Any help from you will be appreciated.
[/quote]
Dude, don’t re-post.[/quote]
The guys are right, I do not like when people re-post. I see it as a lack of respect… like DEMANDING an answer. I try to help as much as I can, but I’m only human and sometimes I will miss stuff or sometimes a question is beyond the scope of a Q&A section.
In your case it’s the later. Asking for a complete workout and diet plan is WAYYYYYY beyond the scope of this forum. Imagine if I had to create an individual program and diet for every single person on this forum… my day would never end!
CT, given your experience playing rugby and training athletes, are there any movements you feel should be focused on for rugby performance? My programming currently focuses on a lot of front squats, deadlifts, power cleans, power upright rows and weighted chinups/pullups.
I’ve wondered about good mornings, as the horizontal torso position is something pretty standard in rucks and scrums, but I also don’t think I’ve ever seen you suggest them.
For any position-specific concerns, I play 12 this year, but am occasionally called on for 6 or 7.
[quote]get-it-done wrote:
CT, given your experience playing rugby and training athletes, are there any movements you feel should be focused on for rugby performance? My programming currently focuses on a lot of front squats, deadlifts, power cleans, power upright rows and weighted chinups/pullups.
I’ve wondered about good mornings, as the horizontal torso position is something pretty standard in rucks and scrums, but I also don’t think I’ve ever seen you suggest them.
For any position-specific concerns, I play 12 this year, but am occasionally called on for 6 or 7.
Thanks
[/quote]
The best investment for you would be to buy a prowler (www.elitefts.com)… prowler pushes (short bursts with heavy weights) is the best exercise you can add to your program. Since there is no eccentric, you can do these on a daily basis.
