I’ll make this easy to understand. With biceps, the key is creating a lot of local fatigue. So any “traditional” bodybuilding that causes a rapid pump/fatigue (supersets, partials, burns, drop sets, mechanical drop sets, slow tempo, iso hold at the end of a set, etc.) will work. It’s actually the easiest muscle to work when you stop overthinking it.[/quote]
I kind of get it better now, although if I think on what you said until now is almost the same thing.
Sorry to bother you again with biceps stuff, I really am.
Wait, did you just mention slow tempo. Why? I mean I’m not against it that much (only when it comes to biceps stuff) but you counter-recommended it so far.
I had a slow tempo-based workout 4 weeks ago and I felt really guilty that I should have followed your rocket-launch rep style better. I’m talking about 2-3 seconds eccentric (for more constant tension). I wanted to do try out reverse curls with constant tension (the tehnique being similar to the one used in a IBB video) but just to clear thing in my head, do you give a green light for this type of slow tempo work (used only for biceps)? Or whas it a typo (in the way that you didn’t actually mean slow tempo in the post)?
Anyway I will do as instructed and stop overthinking it!
And now switching to more important things (too bad I underthink these):
CT do you recommend a lot of potentiation work for someone that could not train in the past 2 weeks? Or should I just continue the cycle from where I was the last time I trained?
CT,for someone who is not so “advanced”. Would you still recommend HP mass princples(3 reps heavy and ramping) or a more skinny training approach with variable rep ranges?
I’ll make this easy to understand. With biceps, the key is creating a lot of local fatigue. So any “traditional” bodybuilding that causes a rapid pump/fatigue (supersets, partials, burns, drop sets, mechanical drop sets, slow tempo, iso hold at the end of a set, etc.) will work. It’s actually the easiest muscle to work when you stop overthinking it.[/quote]
I kind of get it better now, although if I think on what you said until now is almost the same thing.
Sorry to bother you again with biceps stuff, I really am.
Wait, did you just mention slow tempo. Why? I mean I’m not against it that much (only when it comes to biceps stuff) but you counter-recommended it so far.
I had a slow tempo-based workout 4 weeks ago and I felt really guilty that I should have followed your rocket-launch rep style better. I’m talking about 2-3 seconds eccentric (for more constant tension). I wanted to do try out reverse curls with constant tension (the tehnique being similar to the one used in a IBB video) but just to clear thing in my head, do you give a green light for this type of slow tempo work (used only for biceps)? Or whas it a typo (in the way that you didn’t actually mean slow tempo in the post)?
Anyway I will do as instructed and stop overthinking it!
And now switching to more important things (too bad I underthink these):
CT do you recommend a lot of potentiation work for someone that could not train in the past 2 weeks? Or should I just continue the cycle from where I was the last time I trained? [/quote]
Biceps should not be trained like performance muscles. So yes, slow tempo is acceptable for biceps.
No question here, just wanted to thank you for the info you’ve provided on this website.
I’ve been using your method of using ramping sets of 3 on my pressing exercises and doing upper back assistance work between almost all of the sets.
My 1RM on the bench was previously at 270 which I set last summer. I separated my shoulder in a football injury in the late fall, so I was unable to do much benching at all before Winter Break (for college.) Before leaving for vacation on December 18th, I was struggling to bench 225 and failed at 250.
Since I returned on Christmas, I have been roughly following your HP mass program and I have been doing 3-4 upper body pressing workouts per week. So, I have been using your workouts for 6 weeks, starting with a Bench Press max of less than 250.
This week I have bench pressed 295 for a PR, 275x3 for a PR, and military pressed 185 for an easy PR.
I have to give a lot of credit to you for this progress.
The keys for me have been adding the floor press between Military and Bench Pressing and continuing to do the upper back assistance work between every set.
Once again, thanks for everything you have wrote on here. And sorry for the short novel haha.
I apologize if this has already been answered but, what is your suggestion as far as peri-workout nutrition for the 3RM retest workouts? I’m planning on doing a neural charge workout in the morning (standard neural charge peri-workout nutrition) and testing 1 performance movement per day in the early afternoon/evening.
CT, Past few weeks Saturday’s Lat/Bicep day i get almost halfway through and i just start feeling like a zombie basically, motivation gets zapped. I’m confined to my home gym so i use a lot of pull/chin-up variations for lats and fatigue type work on biceps in addition to a lot of sled work for both at the end of the strength portion.
I’m wondering if this type of work is just too draining for me because as i’ve mentioned the other 4 days of performance work i feel great both during and after. I was contemplating on saturday just adding another performance upper or lower day and staggering the sets with lat/bicep work and just doing a lot of volume with the sled for both. Weekends i have off from work so its stress free and i can dial in nutrition. Would this be worth trying?
Wow … c’est incroyable! This Training Method will change the way I workout forever! So fun and exciting. Not to mention the attention from the sled work…the women are like “thats crazy”, I say no…“Its the future.”
Coach I saw in another thread your response regarding vibration training;
"The literature is interesting; but I’ve known of athletes who passed out (seizure-like reaction) when using the device… heck one olympic athlete almost got seriously injured when he passed out and hit his head on the platform!
I’ve also heard of people getting injured more often because the vibration device inhibited their reflexive protective mechanisms.
I see it much like I see electromyostimulation… when applied properly it can have some slight benefits but it can never ever come close to serious strength training".
My question is do you think there MIGHT be a benefit when utilized with neural charge workouts?
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
Biceps should not be trained like performance muscles. So yes, slow tempo is acceptable for biceps.[/quote]
Thanks for the response CT. I apreciate that you clear the mess in my head.
I haven’t been able to visit T-Nation for a couple of days and I have some new questions mainly about diet:
I was wondering what changes do you do for a PM workout in the meal plan posted in the previous pages?
Also I want to know how should I structure my carb-cycling? I experimented with higher-carbs on a daily base for 3-4 months now and I have to say I’m pleased to say that my bw droped 2-3 kg but I feel much leaner and bigger. I was wondering how a week of carb-cycling would look like knowing that I do better with 2-2.5 g of carbs/pound?(I’m mainly interested to know how many low days and how many high days to have)
(bonus question): When I find my self in situations where I can’t train (or have to reduce it to NC work only) I have to go on low carbs, right?
Now going to training questions:
For doing ramping sets of 5 what calculations for the weight do you use? Do you still use the same MTW as for ramping sets of 3 (unlikely)?
I just want to try sets of 5 on my lower body work.
What exercises do you use to bring up the RC muscles and the rear delts?
I have to bring up my rear delts because my lateral and front delt look good, but the rear one is falling behind (probabily because I haven’t done a lot of work for it until november). As for the RC work I only know face pulls (and sometimes with a big twist at the end).
(bonus one): Do you use your latest partial work for biceps work too?
[quote]Eazy wrote:
CT, Past few weeks Saturday’s Lat/Bicep day i get almost halfway through and i just start feeling like a zombie basically, motivation gets zapped. I’m confined to my home gym so i use a lot of pull/chin-up variations for lats and fatigue type work on biceps in addition to a lot of sled work for both at the end of the strength portion.
I’m wondering if this type of work is just too draining for me because as i’ve mentioned the other 4 days of performance work i feel great both during and after. I was contemplating on saturday just adding another performance upper or lower day and staggering the sets with lat/bicep work and just doing a lot of volume with the sled for both. Weekends i have off from work so its stress free and i can dial in nutrition. Would this be worth trying?[/quote]
Hi there. I’m not CT so I don’t say that I have the answer to your problem, but it used to happen to me whenever I traind lats and bi’s alone. I guess the right thing to do is to have a short NC workout before it.
EDIT: Also in my case I used to listen to some music. It bringed my motivation up.
I’ve been doing your HP mass program and am on the final week. I would like to do another cycle but I’m not sure if you’d recommend it or not. I am doing my olympic lifting in place of the NC workouts (as you recommended) and doing your HP mass exactly as written except for sled work, since my sled broke.
The OL sessions last about 2-2.5 hours and once in a while we will go for a PR. The exercises we do are snatch, clean and jerk, deads, push jerk and squat. So far I feel good and am pretty sure I’ve gained strength (got a new PR on squat and heavier weights on exercises feel easier than lighter weights on the same exericises did a few weeks ago).
I was planning on retesting my 3 rep maxes after this final week. I was going to give each lift there own day and do my normal twice a week olympic lifting workouts. So this would act as a sort of deload.
Do you think this is a good idea? Would doing another cylce (except this next one I’ll be doing sled work also) in the same manner be OK or would that be too much on my body? Any advice would be greatly appreciated since I’m not sure if I should do another cycle or not.
I’ve been trying something different on upper body sled movements. For example, i’ve been doing overhead tricep xtensions, on the concentric i extend all the way up and slightly in front of my head, as i take my forearms behind my head again to do another rep i keep the tension on my triceps by walking forward and it feels like i’m doing a slight negative. Does that defeat the purpose of eccentric less training or is it so minute that it won’t bother recovery. Hopefully you know what i’m talking about cause it’s hard to explain. thanks
CT, If I wanted to focus on squat strength, and train twice per week for lower body, how would you structure that? I want to keep using the HP Mass routine for upper body pressing and the once per week lats/biceps workout, but train legs just twice a week(not counting sled work) and with higher intensity.
[quote]illgixxer wrote:
CT, If I wanted to focus on squat strength, and train twice per week for lower body, how would you structure that? I want to keep using the HP Mass routine for upper body pressing and the once per week lats/biceps workout, but train legs just twice a week(not counting sled work) and with higher intensity.[/quote]
i do this:
mon - upper x 3 exercises
tue - upper x 3 exercises
wed - lower x 2 exercises
thu - upper x 3 exercises (bench is getting heavy so i split it over 3 days)
fri - lower x 1 or 2 exercises
sat - lats/bi’s
sun - off or 1 lower exercise if i do 1 fri
In the Look Like a Bodybuilder article, you mention using a 2 week Ab blitz:
Just curious if you had any other recommendations to bring up lagging abs, i.e. particularly effective exercises. I am preparing for a bodybuilding contest in April 2012, and ab thickness is one of the areas I am lacking.
I just want to ask you, how your training looks like these days. Its still like a HP mass program or something like power circuits from training lab? If you want, you can write your last training with all ex. and weights. I think that many of us have a big Thibgasm from that!
In the Look Like a Bodybuilder article, you mention using a 2 week Ab blitz:
Just curious if you had any other recommendations to bring up lagging abs, i.e. particularly effective exercises. I am preparing for a bodybuilding contest in April 2012, and ab thickness is one of the areas I am lacking.[/quote]