[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
[quote]forbes wrote:
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
[quote]never_got_ripped wrote:
CT, can I use dumbells instead of barbells for doing bench presses in I bodybuilder?
[/quote]
No… and you can’t use a machine, kettlebells, bamboo stick, a soloflex, a bowflex, etc. either.[/quote]
CT, can I use Jessica Alba for the bench press?[/quote]
No… I’m already using her for swings and the power snatch.[/quote]
I’m using her for Hip Thrusts.
Too easy, lol.
Hi Coach!
I have noticed that my teardrop is more developed than the rest of my quads. Could this be because I have flat feet? Just curious.
Also, what do you think about the smith machine squat, done in such a manner that the back stays vertical all the time (like a hack squat machine)? I have no leg press available, so I thought I’d give those a try. I guess what I wonder is, are there any reason not to do them?
Thanks!
CT,
I’m doing a microcycle of neural charge workouts as a deload week. Do you think it’s better to do a different movement specific circuit each day, full body circuits or a mix of both throughout the week? Should I go for a pre-planned amount of days for the deload or just stop the deload when I feel extremely motivated to train?
I’ve been doing variations of your push-pull-legs-arms routine you posted on your forum up until starting this deload.
Hi Coach
I am interested in your thoughts on acceptable flexibility/mobility standards for intermediate lifters. For example, I have read the likes of Berardi who use measurements like the overhead squat to judge this and recommend lifters should be able to perform this movement in perfect form.
How important is this aspect to you when dealing with clients predominantly interested in hypertrophy? Also coach, could you tell us how flexible guys like Daryl are?
Many thanks in advance for your time.
JB
[quote]jonmb11 wrote:
CT,
I’m doing a microcycle of neural charge workouts as a deload week. Do you think it’s better to do a different movement specific circuit each day, full body circuits or a mix of both throughout the week? Should I go for a pre-planned amount of days for the deload or just stop the deload when I feel extremely motivated to train?
I’ve been doing variations of your push-pull-legs-arms routine you posted on your forum up until starting this deload.[/quote]
I’d go for 5-7 days… start when you feel like killing the weights, but do at least 5 days.
I do suggest changing at least some of the movements everyday… you can repeat them during the week, but do not repeat a whole workout twice.
Hey CT, what do you think the effect would be if someone had to do a lot of push ups most days in addition to what they were usually doing?
Basically I’m expecting to have to do push ups at night for some school activity for the next 5 weeks or so. I’m only going to be working out 2x per week during this period due to time constraints, basically close to full body each time. My plan to “get around it” is by stopping around 30, for example, if I can do 50 so I don’t go near failure but I’m interested to see if you think this could cause any issues or the best way to go about them so they don’t interfere with my actual workouts.
Thanks a lot!
I feel like I may have missed something somewhere, but do you recommend doing concentrated spec workouts like this?
Day 1: AM: Full body neural charge w/ upper performance focus
PM: Upper Performance: Ramped- Military, incline bench, flat bench then max rep- high pull, facepulls,
Flies
Day 2: AM: Isolation circuits- deadstop laterals, standing laterals, deadstop front raise, standing front
raise
then Cable Flies, flies, short flies, incline push ups
PM: Eccentric-less front raises, facepulls, front press all w/ sleds
Day 3: AM: Neural Charge w/ upper body focus
PM: Upper performance: Ramped- DB military, DB incline, DB bench then max rep- high pull, facepulls,
incline flies, flat flies
Day 4: Full body Neural Charge
Day 5: Pulling: Pull ups, bent over rows, rack pulls
Day 6: Legs: Front squat, back squat, top half squat, leg curl, calves
Day 7: Off
Day 8-14: Repeat week 1
I would do a spec phase like this for two weeks. After each spec phase I would do 3-5 days of full body neural charge workouts. After the pressing spec phase, i would perform a pulling spec, then a leg spec. Hopefully i’m not too far off with all of this.
Hi CT,
I dont know if you understand this question or if it even make sense at all, but anyway here goes.
Supposed during a one week training cycle. If the night after my workout I have insomia or only 2 hrs of sleep, how much growth potential would one be wasting away assumming nutrition and training is adequate?
I usually have around 8 hrs of sleep the rest of the week. This issue of insomia usually occurs once or twice a month, and usually after a damn good workout. There is relatively short DOMS during the one week cycle (soreness sets in after next day) and my strength is still increasing decently for most lifts week by week ( or at least most of the time).
This post might be a bit off regarding training, but interesting none the less.
Do you find that A-people/Larks (easy to wake up early) have an easier time activating the nervous system in the gym?
I myself am a B-person (night owl) and always struggle getting up, but never struggle to be up late at all, and find that it does take quite a while to get activated at the gym. And if I train 0-3 hours after getting up I never really perform well. I have my best performances in the evening.
I found that I benefit from activation movements a lot!
And more regarding activation.
I play guitar, and before playing you usually warm up for a while.
When I’ve done neural charge work-outs at the gym, and feel the “buzz” from the activated nervous system I just go straight into playing and advance quicker making less mistakes, and basically having a better overview of my playing. My fingers just flow, from the get go.
So, your training methologies also makes better musicians. lol
CT
You suggested a template for a 3 day split as follows:
Mon - Upper performance + some lower body
Wed - Foundation
Fri - Lower body + some upper performance
I know that this set up is not optimal, but could you please give me a little advise on how to set up the Monday + Friday workouts?
Monday -I was thinking pushing alternated with traps/rhoms/rear delts + lower circuit focusing on hams which are a week point for me? (not sure how I would set this up though?)
Friday - Squat ramping in 3-5 then drop to 70% and then max reps + push strength circuit (inc bench, db press, db bench same as livespill video) + 1 trap/rhom/rear delt circuit?
I would start off Monday’s workout with a upper push activation, and Friday with a lower.
I’m looking forward to your videos outline effective N charge workouts with limited equipment, as the gym in my apartment only has:
Lat pull-down, db’d going up to only 10kg, leg press, dip station, chest press (can also be used as a machine row), low cable row. They’re all on this kinda lame workout station. I’ve been doing jumps and push ups, as well as some of the excercises you kindly outlined in a previous post.
I’m doing the N-Charge workouts 2-3 times a week either before or after 25-30 mins incline walking.
I’ll be using 1 FINiBAR + 1 scoop of Surge Workout Fuel + 2 ANACONDA and 2 MAG-10 Para workout, then 3 scoops of Metabolic Drive Muscle Growth + scoop of Metabolic Drive 1 hour later.
Thanks in advance
moogweasel
CT,
I have enjoyed all the new information and have a question regarding set up. I can train 4-5x/week but only have like 45 minutes.
So here goes:
Question 1:
On leg day I was thinking of ramping 1 big movement and then moving into one of the circuit types. How would you recommend setting up the leg days
Option A
Day 1
ramp squats
circuit posterior chain
Day 2
Ramp Hip Extension dominant movement
Circuit for quad dominant
Or
Option 2
Day 1
Ramp squats
Circuit quad dominant
Day 2
Ramp Hip dominant
Circuit P-chain dominant
Question 2:
Upper body days: I can get in 2 or maybe 3 upper workouts again for 45 minutes
So we could do a similar structure like
option 1
day 1
ramp pressing
circuit back/pulling
Day 2
ramp back
circuit chest
or
option 2
day 1
ramp press
circuit pressing muscles
day 2
ramp back
circuit back/pulling
Or would you recommend something different?
I can/will fit in neural charge workouts during the day based on how I feel using the list of movements you typed up a while ago.
Thanks
Hey CT what type of program would you design for someone is law enforcement or special forces?
[quote]nickj_777 wrote:
Hey CT what type of program would you design for someone is law enforcement or special forces?[/quote]
This is a bit broad for a simple forum… it wouldn’t be much different than the way I’m training most athletes. We would use a mix of explosive lifting, heavy work, eccentric-less training, neural charge workouts and strength/power circuits.
that is a perfect answer thank you very much
Thibs,
Do you include seated row, t-bar row and barbell/pendlay row on performance day for rhomboids as staggered sets?
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
[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.[/quote]
Hey, Rugby! Something I can identify with.
CT answered exectly what I thought when I read the post.
Here’s something else to consider…
To get over the advantage line or break the line think 45degrees.
If you get used to applying maximum force at 45 degrees you will have 1) max acceleration to take the gap 2) Enough forward drive to make a gap.
Both of these will work well for you as inside centre.
An extra bonus is when you use the 45degree drive to tackle… Good times.
[quote]thrasher_09 wrote:
Thibs,
Do you include seated row, t-bar row and barbell/pendlay row on performance day for rhomboids as staggered sets?[/quote]
I already answered a question very similar to this one (regarding barbell rowing). In theory you can use these exercises, but in reality they are too neurally draining and would negatively pressing performance. THAT HOLDS TRUE FOR BENT OVER ROWING, PENDLAY ROW AND UNSUPORTED T-BAR ROW. Seated rowing would be fine.
Hi coach, with everything you’ve seen so far, for someone trying to do a neural charge workout at work, what’s the minimum amount of time needed to get the desired effect? Would it be effective to do a few 5 minute bouts throughout the day? Just trying to fit this into a typical work day, thanks
I’ve found this in the comments section in some article at elitefts:
"Auto-Regulatory Clustering
Clustering refers to the rest-pause method: you use a heavy load and do single reps with short rest intervals. This allows you to do a lot of reps with a near maximal load while still having a high training density. I like to use auto-regulatory clusters, meaning that I never have a set number of reps to complete, rather I let the completion of each rep dictate if I continue or not.
Iâ??ll stop a set of cluster reps when I can no longer lift the weight fast enough (or smoothly enough). You can use a stopwatch and have a partner time the overcoming portion of the lift or go by feel; it doesnâ??t make much of a difference in most cases. This table will give you a time target to shoot for:
Load (Test 1 RM for that particular lift)
Rest between reps
Overcoming time threshold
Target number of total reps
90-95%
30 seconds
1.2 seconds
5-8
85-90%
25 seconds
1 second
7-10
80-85%
20 seconds
0.8 second
9-12
75-80%
15 seconds
0.6 second
11-15"
As I understand, this is a pretty old writing of yours. With your methods evolving, do you still find this a good way to train? Seems like great stuff to me. The rep range/intensity/rest time recommendations are very appealing.
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
[quote]thrasher_09 wrote:
Thibs,
Do you include seated row, t-bar row and barbell/pendlay row on performance day for rhomboids as staggered sets?[/quote]
I already answered a question very similar to this one (regarding barbell rowing). In theory you can use these exercises, but in reality they are too neurally draining and would negatively pressing performance. THAT HOLDS TRUE FOR BENT OVER ROWING, PENDLAY ROW AND UNSUPORTED T-BAR ROW. Seated rowing would be fine.[/quote]
What day would you recommend doing these exercises? I believe on teh foundation day you are hitting the lats more… so in order to hit the whole back, what day would exercises like bent-over rows fit best on?