Hey Coach - Do you ever use electronic muscle stimulation for anything? I have access to a decent device costing around $500 and feel like it should be useful for something either recovery based or perhaps activation based. What do you think?
CT,
I know that you view your workouts as for instance pressing in general, but do you see the close grip incline press from pins primarily as a chest or triceps exercise?
Thanks 
Hi CT
Just wondering do you train any top level golfers and if you do what is your main focus on increasing power and speed in their swings? would you use contrast training? obviously its so important to keep mobility which can always be tricky.
[quote]cyberwar wrote:
CT,
I know that you view your workouts as for instance pressing in general, but do you see the close grip incline press from pins primarily as a chest or triceps exercise?
Thanks :)[/quote]
Triceps, one of the best exercises for them.
[quote]Davinci.v2 wrote:
Hey Coach - Do you ever use electronic muscle stimulation for anything? I have access to a decent device costing around $500 and feel like it should be useful for something either recovery based or perhaps activation based. What do you think?[/quote]
I wrote a whole chapter about it in my second book (Theory and Application…) and used it extensively when I was competing in olympic lifting. In light of my current methods, I like it even more. I see it as another form of eccentric-less training to boost overall training volume. In fact, I asked Biotest’s boss Tim Patterson to buy 3 units for us to use in Colorado.
The Compex sport unit that I use has a decent activation program, which I used. And I also use it for extra workouts.
coach,
If i Incorporate a Performance Pressing day in my routine that looks something like this:
A)Overhead press variation (Seated shoulder press, Military Press, or Push Press)
B)Incline Bench Press
C) Flat Bench press
All Ramping Sets of 3
How should i incorporate the wave loading and ramping methods explained in your “Look Like a bodybuilder, Perform like an Athlete Article?”
Should i perform the week one basic ramp for all three movements? or is that too much pressing? obviously after having performing 6 sets in the max training zone on the overhead variation i would not have to perform as many activation or feeler sets on the incline press, but would i still perform the 6 sets in the max training zone for each movement?
Then what about incorporating double and triple wave ramps you mention? would it be fine to incorporate those for all three movements as well? im guess not because that would be a ridiculous amount of pressing, so perhaps i should just perform the double and triple wave ramps for only one movement out of the three?
Id also like to perform a lower body pressing day where id like to do almost the same thing (front squat, back squat, trap bar deadlift )
Question Answered in High-Performance Mass: Lats and Biceps Fatigue Loading; very good info there Thib… much appreciated!
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
[quote]Davinci.v2 wrote:
Hey Coach - Do you ever use electronic muscle stimulation for anything? I have access to a decent device costing around $500 and feel like it should be useful for something either recovery based or perhaps activation based. What do you think?[/quote]
I wrote a whole chapter about it in my second book (Theory and Application…) and used it extensively when I was competing in olympic lifting. In light of my current methods, I like it even more. I see it as another form of eccentric-less training to boost overall training volume. In fact, I asked Biotest’s boss Tim Patterson to buy 3 units for us to use in Colorado.
The Compex sport unit that I use has a decent activation program, which I used. And I also use it for extra workouts.[/quote]
That’s awesome. I noticed the same thing (eccentric-less) when I was playing around with mine since it seems to only produce contraction and then immediately relaxation.
Coach Thibs,
Thanks for all of the insightful information you have provided for interested readers and coaches like myself. In one of your earlier posts you mentioned that the pulling muscles are generally considered secondary with the exception of specific skills such as swimming. I was a collegiate swimmer myself and pulling (pull-ups, rows, etc.) was always my strong point. My question is, if you were training an athlete such as a swimmer, would you still use the same approach of training the pushing movements for performance while using higher rep sets for the pulling movements? Let’s say the swimmer was a sprinter and explosiveness in their lats was crucial for speed development.
Thanks for all of your help!
Read your new post and loved it. Do you do squats and deadlifts in the same day on your leg days or do you pick one big lift and one smaller one like squats and leg curls for example? Just asking because i know from personal experience it’s tough on your lower back doing both in the same day.
Thibs, what are your thoughts on doing good mornings as a lower body push? I compete in strongman and I feel like this movement helps me with a number of the events. Thanks.
In your recent article, you say we should pick 2 main leg movements, I am utilizing the back squat and leg press at the moment, I was doing sled for eccentricless volume but now it is too cold to use outside. Would you recommend adding in more leg lifts such as lunges, romanian split squats, or another main movement such as snatch grip deadlifts or regular deadlifts when you don’t have access to the sled?
Hi there and congratulations for one more time about your last published article.
Could you please give us some examples about eccentric-less lower body exercises?
You wrote it’s better to use for assistance work after the main lower body work (ex. power, strength, assistance exercises). Thanks again.
Hey coach,
I was doing a neural charge workout yesterday and had 2 questions:
-
Because I had done vertical jumps as one of the exercises friday I decided to do horizontal leaps instead. Is there a real difference between the 2 and if so what is it?
-
I drew a line with chalk from where I started jumping and where I finished. It seems I got a little farther on my last jumps than my first jumps but that may have been coincidence or just from warming up. I was wondering though if a.) a decrease in jump distance within a workout would show you should stop the neural charge workout (preferably before this)? and b.) if a decrease from one workout to the next shows you need a break or better recovery overall?
[quote]pumped340 wrote:
Hey coach,
I was doing a neural charge workout yesterday and had 2 questions:
-
Because I had done vertical jumps as one of the exercises friday I decided to do horizontal leaps instead. Is there a real difference between the 2 and if so what is it?
-
I drew a line with chalk from where I started jumping and where I finished. It seems I got a little farther on my last jumps than my first jumps but that may have been coincidence or just from warming up. I was wondering though if a.) a decrease in jump distance within a workout would show you should stop the neural charge workout (preferably before this)? and b.) if a decrease from one workout to the next shows you need a break or better recovery overall?[/quote]
-
Broad jumps work more the hamstrings, vertical more quads… both work equally well for glutes
-
Ideally you stop the NC workout BEFORE there is a drop in jumping performance
CT - How do you incorporate electronic muscle stimulation into your training. Right now it’s touch and go for me and I’m mostly just playing around. Today was chest/back for me, so I attached the electrodes to my chest and let it do it’s thing for 15 minutes to help activate them for the work to come and get in some more volume.
Do you prefer to use them before/after training? It’s all just very new to me…
Hello Christian,
I have two questions regarding snatch-grip deadlifts.
-
Which stance would you recommend?
Shoulder width with toes pointed out 15 to 30 degress I feel the most comfortable with. -
Does the snatch-grip deadlift strengthen the quads and hams in roughly a 1:1 ratio?
Thanks for all you do!!
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
[quote]pumped340 wrote:
Hey coach,
I was doing a neural charge workout yesterday and had 2 questions:
-
Because I had done vertical jumps as one of the exercises friday I decided to do horizontal leaps instead. Is there a real difference between the 2 and if so what is it?
-
I drew a line with chalk from where I started jumping and where I finished. It seems I got a little farther on my last jumps than my first jumps but that may have been coincidence or just from warming up. I was wondering though if a.) a decrease in jump distance within a workout would show you should stop the neural charge workout (preferably before this)? and b.) if a decrease from one workout to the next shows you need a break or better recovery overall?[/quote]
-
Broad jumps work more the hamstrings, vertical more quads… both work equally well for glutes
-
Ideally you stop the NC workout BEFORE there is a drop in jumping performance[/quote]
OK great, that’s what I thought. What do you think about that last part? If in one workout you aren’t able to jump as far as the previous workout or two would you consider that an indicator of CNS fatigue and a reason to do something to increase recovery?
Coach-
Could you please provide an example of a training cycle that focuses on increasing strength in the deadlift as much as possible? My main priority is getting as strong as I possibly can in that exercise.
Thank you in advance.
In the article you mentioned that the top weight used for the upper body pressing was 87.5% of the 3 rep max and for the lower body exercises it was 80% of the 3 rep max. Why is this?? I have an idea but not totally sure (CNS fatigue?)