Thibs New Training Questions #4

Training
941

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:

[quote]Eazy wrote:
Just a guess B, but i would assume you wouldnt want to slow the absorption of the meal down any further since you are wanting a medium speed protein source along with a med glycemic startch, and then you load up on the fiberous veggies with the red meat in the evening. just my guess though, i doubt veggies with the post workout meal would make or break you too much though.
[/quote]

A+[/quote]

Thanks Eazy and CT.

If 100g of carbs is reached in the first two meals I’m guessing it’s better to start adding carbs to the third meal than to go up to crazy amounts in the first two?

B.

942

Coach, I have been following the HP Mass routine but now I’ve been talked into doing a Push/Pull meet in 5 weeks. (I powerlift, so this won’t be my first.) My question concerns the training style of HP mass. I know you’ve said that a person could do Front and Back squats on lower body days. Could I do Deads and pin pulls?

Also, I know HP mass is mostly a building program, so for strength, do you think it is more beneficial to spread out the upper and lower days or keep them together. I have noticed that my second day in a row is generally way more productive. So I feel inclined to keep it. Its been an interesting lesson.

Thanks, loving the new ideas (well new to me)

943

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:

  1. NO staggered work as it will directly interfere with the pressing work

  2. Any heavy pressing movement will involve the triceps… if you are doing close to 30 sets of pressing a few times a week you shouldn’t have any problem building your triceps… obviously building muscle takes time. If you had a weakness before it might take some time for it to be corrected.

  3. A good exercise selection for the triceps would be: 1) Seated top-half press from pins (bar starting just above forehead) 2) Close-grip bench press (just a tad inside shoulder width) 3) top-half bench press from pins (starting just above the mid-point)

  4. I would add 2-3 isolation exercises for triceps at the end done for 4-5 sets of 6-8 reps

[/quote]

Thank you! Would you add the circuit on lower body day too? or maybe choose close-grip bench press as a main movement.

Now I don’t want you to think that I’m going to try to specialize on everything but what I want to see is how would you bring up different body parts (I hope you don’t hate this kind of questions).

A problem that some people pointed to me is that I didn’t improve my shoulder-width a lot. do you know a remedy for it. I don’t think thaat lat’s work would help in this case. I think that assistance muscles (especially rear delts and rhombs) have some fault.
(deduction from the fact that I can’t do pull-ups and the latest assistance work in the upper body day seems to help more and more.)
How would you correnct this problem?

Thank you again for answering my questions.

944

[quote]Gaby 2700 wrote:

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:

  1. NO staggered work as it will directly interfere with the pressing work

  2. Any heavy pressing movement will involve the triceps… if you are doing close to 30 sets of pressing a few times a week you shouldn’t have any problem building your triceps… obviously building muscle takes time. If you had a weakness before it might take some time for it to be corrected.

  3. A good exercise selection for the triceps would be: 1) Seated top-half press from pins (bar starting just above forehead) 2) Close-grip bench press (just a tad inside shoulder width) 3) top-half bench press from pins (starting just above the mid-point)

  4. I would add 2-3 isolation exercises for triceps at the end done for 4-5 sets of 6-8 reps

[/quote]

Thank you! Would you add the circuit on lower body day too? or maybe choose close-grip bench press as a main movement.

Now I don’t want you to think that I’m going to try to specialize on everything but what I want to see is how would you bring up different body parts (I hope you don’t hate this kind of questions).

A problem that some people pointed to me is that I didn’t improve my shoulder-width a lot. do you know a remedy for it. I don’t think thaat lat’s work would help in this case. I think that assistance muscles (especially rear delts and rhombs) have some fault.
(deduction from the fact that I can’t do pull-ups and the latest assistance work in the upper body day seems to help more and more.)
How would you correnct this problem?

Thank you again for answering my questions.[/quote]

who are these “some people”?

945

To see if I got this straight:

  1. Is it okay if I use the neural charge workouts to prime the nervous system just before the workout itself, and not the recommended hour-hour and a half before the workout? The only time I can do that warm up workout is either right before the actual workout or few hours earlier (3-4 hours). Which one would you recommend?

  2. I can use this type of NC workouts on rest days just to prevent the CNS from getting lazy, is that correct?

  3. Can I use the same NC exercises for every one of those prime-the-nervous-system warm up sessions (for example a circuit of snatches, vertical jumps and length jumps only), or do I have to change NC exercises from time to time?

946

[quote]swans05 wrote:

who are these “some people”?
[/quote]

Well 3 friends and I were talking gym stuff and they bringed up the fact that in february 2nd there will be 2 years since I started training and I asked them to help me decide on my next goal because I don’t know on what to focus next; 2 of them told me that I should focus on shoulder-width and 1 on my arm size (then they started to complement me on my good pecs).

Also some relatives (mainly cousins) were straight to the point that I need more soulder-width and to forget the arms because it’s harder (and more complicated in my case) to bring some new growth.

I still haven’t made up my mind but to be honest I’d try to improve my arms, because I haven’t registered any growth in them for almost 6-7 months. I never measured shoulder-width, but looking in the mirror says that I need some more. I don’t know how to do that but I belive that assistance work has something to do with that. I don’t know when and how to add more assistance work or if there’s something else, that’s why I asked CT.

947

[quote]Gaby 2700 wrote:

[quote]swans05 wrote:

who are these “some people”?
[/quote]

Well 3 friends and I were talking gym stuff and they bringed up the fact that in february 2nd there will be 2 years since I started training and I asked them to help me decide on my next goal because I don’t know on what to focus next; 2 of them told me that I should focus on shoulder-width and 1 on my arm size (then they started to complement me on my good pecs).

Also some relatives (mainly cousins) were straight to the point that I need more soulder-width and to forget the arms because it’s harder (and more complicated in my case) to bring some new growth.

I still haven’t made up my mind but to be honest I’d try to improve my arms, because I haven’t registered any growth in them for almost 6-7 months. I never measured shoulder-width, but looking in the mirror says that I need some more. I don’t know how to do that but I belive that assistance work has something to do with that. I don’t know when and how to add more assistance work or if there’s something else, that’s why I asked CT.[/quote]

there’s a lot of pressing which should get delts, maybe try a wide grip for some of your shoulder press sets, as well as using high pulls for your lower body activation exercises, isolation circuits which you’ve asked about before and maybe scatter some side raise sets with lower body stuff if you’re really keen

948

[quote]Gaby 2700 wrote:

[quote]swans05 wrote:

who are these “some people”?
[/quote]

Well 3 friends and I were talking gym stuff and they bringed up the fact that in february 2nd there will be 2 years since I started training and I asked them to help me decide on my next goal because I don’t know on what to focus next; 2 of them told me that I should focus on shoulder-width and 1 on my arm size (then they started to complement me on my good pecs).

Also some relatives (mainly cousins) were straight to the point that I need more soulder-width and to forget the arms because it’s harder (and more complicated in my case) to bring some new growth.

I still haven’t made up my mind but to be honest I’d try to improve my arms, because I haven’t registered any growth in them for almost 6-7 months. I never measured shoulder-width, but looking in the mirror says that I need some more. I don’t know how to do that but I belive that assistance work has something to do with that. I don’t know when and how to add more assistance work or if there’s something else, that’s why I asked CT.[/quote]

  1. It’s dumb to ask other people what YOU should focus on (unless you are a competitive bodybuilding an ask your coach).

  2. At your level of development I would not focus/specialize on anything, just bring up your whole body as much as possible

  3. Shoulder width has a lot to do with the length of you clavicle. Some people are born with narrow shoulders, even when they add muscle they might still look narrowish. I have a short clavicle, despite having very good delts I don’t look wide as a house in a shirt.

949

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:

  1. It’s dumb to ask other people what YOU should focus on (unless you are a competitive bodybuilding an ask your coach).

  2. At your level of development I would not focus/specialize on anything, just bring up your whole body as much as possible

  3. Shoulder width has a lot to do with the length of you clavicle. Some people are born with narrow shoulders, even when they add muscle they might still look narrowish. I have a short clavicle, despite having very good delts I don’t look wide as a house in a shirt.[/quote]

I understand. Thank you.
I wasn’t asking for their opinion to be more specific. I just said that I have to bring up some parts and they started to say that I have a good chest, nice traps, bigger biceps than triceps and my best firend (and training partner) said that I have good lats (he is narrower than I am, but he can do pull-ups with proper form and always beats me at armwrestling). I came to the conclusion that I have to bring the others to par but if you say that I should NOT then I won’t.

The 2 main problems that I continue having are:

  1. I can’t do pull-ups (at least not with decent form. when I do them they look more like inverted rows because my whole body gets paralel to the floor.) I don’t know how to correct that because you said to NOT emphasize the eccentric and I don’t have elastic bands to reduce resistance. Is there anyway I can fix this?

  2. My brachialis are sore right now because I did more of a blitz workout on friday. I was wanting to do some reverse curl stuff but I droped it in favour of the hamer curl stuff shown in the video. I guess I did a toatal of 20 sets for biceps. I have 3 problems here:

a) I realised that I have a thick pink-purple line in the coracobrachialis area. Is that because of too much work? (you said some alarming stuff about it in the “Look Like a Bodybuilder, Train Like an Athlete” article.) can it be healed?

b) I need to bring up my brachialis (for many months I’ve been focusing too much on the short head of the biceps and maybe if I focus more on the long head and brachialis I’ll register some new growth.) Considering the fact that I need to cut back to moderate volume (10-15 sets) how can I make sure that I hit the brachialis more and what would be a good exercise selection for this purpose?

c) In the last foundation day I had first up a superset like this:
A1. Barbell preacher curls: constant tension
A2. Barbell standing curls: max reps
Superset A completed 6 times
B1. Hammer curls: 1 second iso-hold in the middle
B2. Yelding isometrics with barbell for 12-20 seconds
Superset B completed 4 times.

My question is: Because it was constant tension I had to do a 2-3 seconds eccentric portion to keep the tension; now is that a technique that souldn’t be used because biceps don’t respond well to eccentric loading (as you said)?

I’m sorry if these question are dumb, but I can’t find the answer to them.

EDIT: BTW, a friend of mine started working out like 3 months ago and now he came to for ask for a more complete program. Is it okay if I recommend IBB or HP Mass? Also should I tell him to demphasize the eccentric or should I not bother with this kind of advice.(I think he’s not ready for that much heavy pressing for HP Mass program.)

Sorry for putting so many questions (but I guess it’s better to ask than to experiment over the long term) and thanks for the great advices!

950

CT I have been following the hp-mass proogram split as outlined in your original article, doing lats and bi’s on a Saturday. Unfortunatley due to family and work commitments I can no longer get to the gym on the weekend. I do however have a barbell, dumbbells and TRX straps at home. Should I alter my training split or could you suggest some way I could use the equipment I have at home?

951

[quote]dylan22 wrote:
CT I have been following the hp-mass proogram split as outlined in your original article, doing lats and bi’s on a Saturday. Unfortunatley due to family and work commitments I can no longer get to the gym on the weekend. I do however have a barbell, dumbbells and TRX straps at home. Should I alter my training split or could you suggest some way I could use the equipment I have at home?[/quote]

Have you got a pull-up bar? If so, you should be able (in my opinion) to do the workout at home if you get some Abs-straps. Here’s one idea:

A) Biceps-less lats exercise: Abs straps pull-ups (the pull-up version of Thib’s pulldown)
B1) Regular lats exercise: DB rows or pull-ups/chin-ups
B2) Biceps-less lats exercise: partial BB or DB pullovers - stop pulling upwards before you lose tension (not the best exercise to do here, someone might have a better idea)

C) Biceps exercise: Barbell curls
D) Biceps exercise (more brachialis and forearm focus): Hammer curls (or any of the other options discussed in the video, I think they were all done with DBs)

E) Eccentric-less circuits - You can get a sled for these and attach the TRX, or simply attach the TRX to a plate.

I hope this helps. Good luck!

B.

952

[quote]BiP wrote:

[quote]dylan22 wrote:
CT I have been following the hp-mass proogram split as outlined in your original article, doing lats and bi’s on a Saturday. Unfortunatley due to family and work commitments I can no longer get to the gym on the weekend. I do however have a barbell, dumbbells and TRX straps at home. Should I alter my training split or could you suggest some way I could use the equipment I have at home?[/quote]

Have you got a pull-up bar? If so, you should be able (in my opinion) to do the workout at home if you get some Abs-straps. Here’s one idea:

A) Biceps-less lats exercise: Abs straps pull-ups (the pull-up version of Thib’s pulldown)
B1) Regular lats exercise: DB rows or pull-ups/chin-ups
B2) Biceps-less lats exercise: partial BB or DB pullovers - stop pulling upwards before you lose tension (not the best exercise to do here, someone might have a better idea)

C) Biceps exercise: Barbell curls
D) Biceps exercise (more brachialis and forearm focus): Hammer curls (or any of the other options discussed in the video, I think they were all done with DBs)

E) Eccentric-less circuits - You can get a sled for these and attach the TRX, or simply attach the TRX to a plate.

I hope this helps. Good luck!

B.
[/quote]

B, thanks for yor suggestions. It was the bicepsless lat exercises that were my main concern. I don,t have ab straps but will now be looking to purchase some. Thanks again.

953

[quote]dylan22 wrote:
B, thanks for yor suggestions. It was the bicepsless lat exercises that were my main concern. I don,t have ab straps but will now be looking to purchase some. Thanks again.[/quote]

No problem. I suggest you try coming up with something better than the pullover, depending on what you have lying around. For example, you could attach some weights to a steel cable, run that over a pull-up bar and attach a handle at the other end, allowing you to do (among other things) straight-arm pulldowns. It all depends on what you have lying around or can build easily :slight_smile:

B.

954

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:

[quote]Eazy wrote:
CT, with the HPMass Program, any chance you could outline a carb cycle suggestion for someone looking to add mass much like you did for the introduction to the Anaconda Protocol?

I know it obviously depends on body type, how well you respond to carbs, activity level, etc. But assuming we are using either the lean mass or maximum mass gain protocol you already outlined, in your opinion where should we start for the rest of the day?[/quote]

With a TRADITIONAL diet (eating many smaller meals throughout the day)… which is NOT what I’m doing … it would look something like this…

Assuming an AM workout…

BREAKFAST
50-100g of carbs (half from fruits, half from starches)
40-60g of easily digested protein (something like 4 egg whites, 2 whole eggs + 1 scoop of protein)

PERI-WORKOUT PROTOCOL

  • As mentioned in the article

FIRST SOLID MEAL POST-WORKOUT (ROUGHLY 60-90 MINUTES POST)
40-60g of “medium speed” solid protein (fish, chicken or turkey)
50-100g of carbs with a moderately high glycemic index (rice, rice cakes, carrots, yams, potatoes…)
NO VEGGIES

SUPPER
40-60g of “slow speed” solid protein (red meat)
Lots of green veggies

EVENING SNACK
40-60g of slow speed protein, can be a mix of solid and shake (e.g. cottage cheese with low-carbs Metabolic Drive)
Lot of green veggies
25-30g Almonds

The amount of carbs would be regulated by the volume of the workout and how you look/feel (flat, full)[/quote]

CT,

I lift about 60-90 minutes after waking. The protocol is the first thing I consume in the morning. How would I change things around for this? Would I only have carbs with the protocol and the first solid meal postworkout or should I have carbs for the first 2 meals after workout?

955

I’ve bought a pullup bar (hell, it was cheap, costed the same as 10 litres of milk) with rubber bands attached to it. Hm, I was wondering whether I can use this for anything. I’m considering creating blast straps for myself, then I’ll only need a sled.

Also, it sucks. We had thick snow until christmas, then it all melted, and now there’s 10 degrees celsius (before that we had -16 for some days. hell to this weather!) so no chance to get any snow in the near future. It would have been fun to push up someone on a sled to a steep incline hill :slight_smile:

After few weeks of not lifting (the biggest mistake of my life, made me a mentally retarded slug, barely had the energy to keep my eyes open. before exams, yeah. I’ll never do the same mistake again!) I’m finally back on track. I always experience serious loss of strenght in my lower body whenever I take out time of lifting. :frowning: And more interesting, when I’m lifting regulary, but only train squat once per week, I’m also loosing strength. It seems my squats suffers the most every time I miss a day in the gym. :slight_smile:

956

[quote]Vejne wrote:
I’ve bought a pullup bar (hell, it was cheap, costed the same as 10 litres of milk) with rubber bands attached to it. Hm, I was wondering whether I can use this for anything. I’m considering creating blast straps for myself, then I’ll only need a sled.

Also, it sucks. We had thick snow until christmas, then it all melted, and now there’s 10 degrees celsius (before that we had -16 for some days. hell to this weather!) so no chance to get any snow in the near future. It would have been fun to push up someone on a sled to a steep incline hill :slight_smile:

After few weeks of not lifting (the biggest mistake of my life, made me a mentally retarded slug, barely had the energy to keep my eyes open. before exams, yeah. I’ll never do the same mistake again!) I’m finally back on track. I always experience serious loss of strenght in my lower body whenever I take out time of lifting. :frowning: And more interesting, when I’m lifting regulary, but only train squat once per week, I’m also loosing strength. It seems my squats suffers the most every time I miss a day in the gym. :)[/quote]

You could do what I have a young MMA guy doing… perform MANY sets of submaximal pull-ups throughout the day. Do 2-3 less than you can do per set. For example, if you can do 10 good pull-ups perform many sets of 7-8 spaced throughout the day. Try to do as many of them as possible without accumulating fatigue.

Regarding your strength loss… this goes hand in hand with what I have been saying: off days can actually hurt your progress. It’s better to do just a little (or better yet a neural charge or eccentric-less workout) than not doing anything.

957

[quote]jonmb11 wrote:

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:

[quote]Eazy wrote:
CT, with the HPMass Program, any chance you could outline a carb cycle suggestion for someone looking to add mass much like you did for the introduction to the Anaconda Protocol?

I know it obviously depends on body type, how well you respond to carbs, activity level, etc. But assuming we are using either the lean mass or maximum mass gain protocol you already outlined, in your opinion where should we start for the rest of the day?[/quote]

With a TRADITIONAL diet (eating many smaller meals throughout the day)… which is NOT what I’m doing … it would look something like this…

Assuming an AM workout…

BREAKFAST
50-100g of carbs (half from fruits, half from starches)
40-60g of easily digested protein (something like 4 egg whites, 2 whole eggs + 1 scoop of protein)

PERI-WORKOUT PROTOCOL

  • As mentioned in the article

FIRST SOLID MEAL POST-WORKOUT (ROUGHLY 60-90 MINUTES POST)
40-60g of “medium speed” solid protein (fish, chicken or turkey)
50-100g of carbs with a moderately high glycemic index (rice, rice cakes, carrots, yams, potatoes…)
NO VEGGIES

SUPPER
40-60g of “slow speed” solid protein (red meat)
Lots of green veggies

EVENING SNACK
40-60g of slow speed protein, can be a mix of solid and shake (e.g. cottage cheese with low-carbs metabolic drive)
Lot of green veggies
25-30g Almonds

The amount of carbs would be regulated by the volume of the workout and how you look/feel (flat, full)[/quote]

CT,

I lift about 60-90 minutes after waking. The protocol is the first thing I consume in the morning. How would I change things around for this? Would I only have carbs with the protocol and the first solid meal postworkout or should I have carbs for the first 2 meals after workout?[/quote]

First 2 meals after the workout… basically the 1st and 2nd meal post workout are the same.

958

Hello Christian,

Today I started a new training program based on the training principles you out-lined in your last few articles (and thanks again for all you do).

But I am unsure about my exercise selection since I am doing a lot more for my hamstrings than for my quads.
In literature, it is often recommended to have a quad-hamstring strength balance of 2:1 but closer to 1:1

Is it a genuine strenth imbalance that might cause injuries if the hamstrings get/are significantly stronger than the quads?

Thank you!!

959

Coach, actually you have already mentioned this pullup method earlier on this thread, so that was what I was doing so far. Even though I rarely ask or post, I keep updated on a daily basis on some threads, this included.

I must admit I’m thankful for the effort you’ve done in directing people toward the right track. For example, your thoughts on stimulants is something what I’d recommend to lot of guys who complain about burnout and fatigue while they’re consuming 500-1000 grs of caffeine with various types of other stims on an average day.

So again, thanks. Keep up the good work.

960

CT, do you still recommand the 1-arm preacher curl?
Would you try to deemphasize the eccentric portion more than in the arm training video (in the training lab)?

EDIT: Can you give a breif exeample of a biceps workout using supersets or circuits?
(would the fatigue/set be less than you explained in the lats and bi’s video with this approach?)

Thanks in advance.