Coach Thibs,
Reading your recent reply pertaining to BCAA supplementation, would the 5g of Leucine be taken only pre-workout, post-workout, or 5g spread out through the day (morning, midday, evening, & peri-workout)?
THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!
Sent you an e-mail earlier today. Just wanted to give you a heads-up to look out for it as I know you get a ton.
I look forward to your reply.
[quote]dphillips wrote:
Coach Thibs,
Reading your recent reply pertaining to BCAA supplementation, would the 5g of Leucine be taken only pre-workout, post-workout, or 5g spread out through the day (morning, midday, evening, & peri-workout)?
THANKS IN ADVANCE!!![/quote]
In an ideal world…
5g pre-workout
5g during workout
5g with each meal
Christian I just want to thank you for answering all the questions that people bring to you. Not trying to have a kumbaya moment here but thanx.
CT,
After I am finished with the workout program I am doing now, I plan on doing full body workouts in the summer. And I have a few questions.
-
If I am doing full body workouts, 1 major excerise per major muscle a day, how many days a week should I workout. I am thinking 2 days on, 1 day off, and so on, but what do you think? By the way I have been working out for 8 years and I can handle a lot of workload.
-
I am also considering doing 10-15 mins of kettleball work for conditioning and tone after lifting. I want to target a lot of core muscles and stabilizers. Is this a good idea, and if so do you have any suggested excersises or routines?
-
I am planning on working out in my garage and I am limited by my own equipment. I have a bench, barbell, pull-up bar, and dumbells. Are there any exercises I can do to replace squats?
Thanks!
I was going back reading over your “The beast evolves” article and I was just wondering about a quote I took from it.
“Only once in my competitive career did I go on a diet and that was to make weight for an Olympic-lifting competition. I used the Anabolic Diet and did lose a bunch of weight going from 225 down to 187 in two months. However, I didn’t have much more definition at 187 than at 225! I lost muscle and obviously performed very badly at the competition. This only reinforced my belief that I had to eat everything in sight to get as strong as possible.”
In your opinion why did you lose so much muscle and not get good results with the anabolic diet? All in all it’s really not that much different than what you suggest now. High fat, pretty high protein, low carbs, and a carb up every 7 days or so. The only significant difference I see between that and your current recommendations is that your carb ups are much more moderate now (but you also said above you used a 6 day low carb 1 day “binge” approach to initially lose all your fat in your transformation)
Thank you
Hi Coach,
Which method would you say is the one that allows you to put muscle more efficiently, considering fat vs muscle gains.
Targeted carbs.
Low carb M-F and refeed during the weekend.
Carbs cycling.
Carb timing.
Other that you have tried.
Which one would you select now with your actual knowledge.
Thank you.
[quote]TEKEN wrote:
Hi Coach,
Which method would you say is the one that allows you to put muscle more efficiently, considering fat vs muscle gains.
Targeted carbs.
Low carb M-F and refeed during the weekend.
Carbs cycling.
Carb timing.
Other that you have tried.
Which one would you select now with your actual knowledge.
Thank you. [/quote]
The thing is that it depends on one’s physiology.
Take me for example, I respond well to a high protein, targeted carbs approach. Too much carbs and I gain fat real easily.
I can also eat very infrequentely (once or twice per day) and still be able to progress in the gym and not lose muscle mass.
My ex-girlfriend Christiane, a national level natural bodybuilder is the opposite when it comes to dieting. She can actually diet down for a show on 300g of carbs per day and actually respond badly to too much protein.
Biotest’s head man Tim Patterson is even further on the spectrum: if his protein intake is too high relative to his carbs intake he will actually lose muscle mass!
So it is impossible to say “this is the absolute best way to eat for size and it is applicable to everybody”.
The only thing that I found to be true in the extreme majority of individuals is that a perfectly planned peri-workout nutritional plan is the most important part of a nutrition program, especially one designed to gain size.
[quote]Needmassquick wrote:
I was going back reading over your “The beast evolves” article and I was just wondering about a quote I took from it.
“Only once in my competitive career did I go on a diet and that was to make weight for an Olympic-lifting competition. I used the Anabolic Diet and did lose a bunch of weight going from 225 down to 187 in two months. However, I didn’t have much more definition at 187 than at 225! I lost muscle and obviously performed very badly at the competition. This only reinforced my belief that I had to eat everything in sight to get as strong as possible.”
In your opinion why did you lose so much muscle and not get good results with the anabolic diet? All in all it’s really not that much different than what you suggest now. High fat, pretty high protein, low carbs, and a carb up every 7 days or so. The only significant difference I see between that and your current recommendations is that your carb ups are much more moderate now (but you also said above you used a 6 day low carb 1 day “binge” approach to initially lose all your fat in your transformation)
Thank you[/quote]
To be honest, back then I didn’t fully grasp what proper dieting was. And did not fully understand the implication that low-carbs eating had on training and especially energy systems work. I was just an athlete back then, not yet aware of all the subtleties of proper training and eating.
The problem is that while using a low-carbs approach I performed too much high intensity energy system work/cardio such as intervals or various lengths/duration. I would also train way too much overall. So I actually ended up burning muscle tissue for fuel because my high intensity demands far outweighed my energetic intake. I had to breakdown muscle tissue into amino acids, then turn these amino acids into glucose to be used for high intensity fuel.
Back then I had no idea about proper peri-workout nutrition and would often not eat anything up to 3 hours after a training session.
In retrospect it wasn’t so much the diet that was a problem, but rather the interaction between diet, training and energy systems work that was way off.
[quote]MaximusB wrote:
Christian I just want to thank you for answering all the questions that people bring to you. Not trying to have a kumbaya moment here but thanx.[/quote]
Thanks, Max. I’m trying my best to help people.
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
To be honest, back then I didn’t fully grasp what proper dieting was. And did not fully understand the implication that low-carbs eating had on training and especially energy systems work. I was just an athlete back then, not yet aware of all the subtleties of proper training and eating.
The problem is that while using a low-carbs approach I performed too much high intensity energy system work/cardio such as intervals or various lengths/duration. I would also train way too much overall. So I actually ended up burning muscle tissue for fuel because my high intensity demands far outweighed my energetic intake. I had to breakdown muscle tissue into amino acids, then turn these amino acids into glucose to be used for high intensity fuel.
Back then I had no idea about proper peri-workout nutrition and would often not eat anything up to 3 hours after a training session.
In retrospect it wasn’t so much the diet that was a problem, but rather the interaction between diet, training and energy systems work that was way off. [/quote]
lol I was going to say almost that exact same bolded sentence as I was reading it. Thanks, that makes a lot of sense.
I noticed what you said about how targeted carb approach works well for you and looking at your old pics I’d say we have similar body types
Right now I’m doing a TKD basically with 100g carbs on workout days and 50g carbs on off days. I also have a carb up day on saturday of about 300g. (I’m the one who only lost 4lb. of fat in 11-12 weeks).
Regarding switching from a targeted approach to more of an AD style diet (but with a more moderate 1 day carb up) would it be better to
-
Do my normal carb up this saturday and then start my no carb all week plan on sunday and carb up next saturday (may 2nd)as I would all saturdays from now on (well until the cut is over) or…
-
Skip my normal carb up this saturday and start with all low carb and not have my carb up until next saturday?
Thanks again!
I have been following your Refined Physique Transformation article for the last 10 weeks and it has worked great so I want to thank you for that. For the last 3 weeks or so I have been playing pickup basketball once or twice a week and was wondering what I should do for supplements during and post game, should it be the same as a regular workout? The games are full court and usually faced paced.
I try to keep my playing time to around 90 minutes but sometimes I play for about 2 hrs. I am pretty sure this is not ideal but is there something you would suggest to do to limit the damage done? I am following the WSFSB template for lifting and have not needed to do any additional cardio to keep my fat loss progress going.
Thib,
Two questions:
-
Do you think that the reduction in the load used if performing deadlifts, rows, pull-ups, etc. with thick-grip implements for 3-4 week cycles is more than offset by the benefits when switching back to regular diameter bars on these exercises? I’m particularly interested in the ability to stimulate new strength and size gains after using thick bars.
-
How do you feel about the use of weighted push-ups (with an X-Vest, wearing chains in an x-pattern, etc.) as a primary or secondary pressing movement? If loaded sufficiently so as to cause fatigue within a given rep range, can this exercise be used so prominently and be maximally effective in terms of strength and size?
Thanks coach!
Coach,
Quick question. I was just wondering when your next 12 week program is gonnna come out on T-Nation.
Thanks
Coach,
Decided that i wanted to try out the 16 weeks of HSS-100, but before i do i have two questions:
- on the “back/traps” day and the “chest/shoulders” day, do i do the two supplementary exercises for the traps and shoulders before or after doing the 100rep set? i’m thinking before as the point of the 100 is to get your blood delivering the goodness of what your drinking to the muscles, but wouldn’t mind some confirmation?
2)Does cardio fit into this at all? again, i’m thinking of doing it on on the Back/trap day and the chest/shoulder day, as on the leg days i’m working abs as well. but this was more of a time based decision so if there is any reason to do it on any other day, please let me know
Thibs,
Right now I’m performing a 1-2-3 ladder routine with my 6rm for my squat. How would I know when to increase weight? Perhaps when I complete the ladder routine for 8 times in a workout?
Any idea on how to perhaps reduce shoulder width? I’m 48cm wide at a 5ft8 frame, my parents/peer commented that I am awkwardly wide, I also keep bumping into things because of it.
I’m heading to McGill for college, so I was wondering how much you charge per session/client or workout. Hopefully I’ll save up enough money to have a training session or two with you.
[quote]slaveofhades wrote:
Coach,
Quick question. I was just wondering when your next 12 week program is gonnna come out on T-Nation.
Thanks[/quote]
What 12 weeks program? Right now I’m working on a new system, two parts have been written so far. I can’t tell you much more than that. But it is beyond effective!
[quote]Needmassquick wrote:
Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
To be honest, back then I didn’t fully grasp what proper dieting was. And did not fully understand the implication that low-carbs eating had on training and especially energy systems work. I was just an athlete back then, not yet aware of all the subtleties of proper training and eating.
The problem is that while using a low-carbs approach I performed too much high intensity energy system work/cardio such as intervals or various lengths/duration. I would also train way too much overall. So I actually ended up burning muscle tissue for fuel because my high intensity demands far outweighed my energetic intake. I had to breakdown muscle tissue into amino acids, then turn these amino acids into glucose to be used for high intensity fuel.
Back then I had no idea about proper peri-workout nutrition and would often not eat anything up to 3 hours after a training session.
In retrospect it wasn’t so much the diet that was a problem, but rather the interaction between diet, training and energy systems work that was way off.
lol I was going to say almost that exact same bolded sentence as I was reading it. Thanks, that makes a lot of sense.
[/quote]
As I told Biotest’s head man Tim Patterson, my great strength is also my greatest weakness: I have a deep love for everything “training”… I’m like a child; I want to try everything and anything and play with it. Sadly, sometimes the results are not that good 
Thankfully, with my experience I pretty much have most of my mistakes behind me! On the good side of things, it allows me to help you guys avoid making those mistakes.
[quote]pumped340 wrote:
I noticed what you said about how targeted carb approach works well for you and looking at your old pics I’d say we have similar body types
Right now I’m doing a TKD basically with 100g carbs on workout days and 50g carbs on off days. I also have a carb up day on saturday of about 300g. (I’m the one who only lost 4lb. of fat in 11-12 weeks).
Regarding switching from a targeted approach to more of an AD style diet (but with a more moderate 1 day carb up) would it be better to
-
Do my normal carb up this saturday and then start my no carb all week plan on sunday and carb up next saturday (may 2nd)as I would all saturdays from now on (well until the cut is over) or…
-
Skip my normal carb up this saturday and start with all low carb and not have my carb up until next saturday?
Thanks again![/quote]
Go with 14 days straights of low-carbs before having your first carb-up.