Thib's Q&A - Up to the End of May

Training
281

Thib,

I notice that a number of coaches often use things like combination exercises and barbell complexes when designing fat-loss training protocols.

While some of these may have a practical aspect in terms of needing limited equipment/if being performed in a crowded gym, do you feel that performing exercises separately and in circuit fashion (so that each exercise may be loaded more precisely) will always be superior if that is an option?

282

CT,

Quick background of me:

  • Been training for many years so have a good foundation
  • In 2008, didnā€™t train for the entire year (got fat and weak)
  • Spent the last 20 weeks getting back in shape (205 lbs down to 185, gains in strength all around). Iā€™m 5ā€™9" by the way.
  • Been using a low carbs (not ketogenic) approach the entire time. Not really using supplements besides the staples.

Current thoughts:

  • Iā€™m happy with my progress, but I still have some fat I want to lose, mostly in the gut area. I think it may be an insulin sensitivity problem.

My tentative plan:

  • Take 1 week where I lighten the training load and have more carbs (only post-workout). The idea is to kind of take a week off since Iā€™ve been doing this for 20 weeks.
  • Resume diet, but add Fish Oil for insulin sensitivity.
  • Also add Alpha Male since I think I may have lower testosterone based on skinfold tests.

Does this sound like a good plan assuming that I need help with testosterone and insulin sensitivity? Any suggestions would be hugely sppreciated!

Thanks.

283

CT

Iā€™m a 220lb male trying to gain mass but keep a lower bodyfat Iā€™d guesstimate Iā€™m between 12 to 16% bf right now if that matters. Iā€™m trying your pulsing protocol and wondered if you would mind commenting on my plan.

Morning 2 scoops Grow! whey

3 to 4 hours later 3 scoops Grow! whey 5 grams L-leucine

3 to 4 hours later 3 scoops Grow! whey 5 grams L-leucine

3 to 4 hours later 3 scoops Grow! whey 5 grams L-leucine

Dinner 20oz meat and plate full of veggies whatever the chow hall offers, 2 scoops low carb Metabolic Drive 4 fish oil 5 grams l-leucine

On training days I have 1 scoop Surge Workout Fuel and 1 scoop of Surge Recovery 30 minutes before training
2 scoops of Surge Recovery within 10 minutes along with pineapple slices after training

Iā€™m somewhat limited by the chow hall foods here in Afghanistan.

284

Coach,

Iā€™m pretty sure youā€™ve answered this, but Iā€™m having a difficult time finding it. Iā€™ll be starting Get Jacked Fast next Monday, so right now Iā€™m buying all the supplements the program calls for. Two questions:

  1. During weeks 9-10, do I follow the pre/post-workout supplement protocols for both workouts? (pre-workout drink, AM workout, post-workout drinkā€¦ pre-workout drink, PM workout, post-workout drink).

  2. Whatā€™s the recommended type of protein powder for the post-workout drinks? Whey isolate?

I really appreciate the help, Coach. Thanks in advance for kicking my ass!

Joe

285

[quote]Steihl wrote:
CT,

Quick background of me:

  • Been training for many years so have a good foundation
  • In 2008, didnā€™t train for the entire year (got fat and weak)
  • Spent the last 20 weeks getting back in shape (205 lbs down to 185, gains in strength all around). Iā€™m 5ā€™9" by the way.
  • Been using a low carbs (not ketogenic) approach the entire time. Not really using supplements besides the staples.

Current thoughts:

  • Iā€™m happy with my progress, but I still have some fat I want to lose, mostly in the gut area. I think it may be an insulin sensitivity problem.

My tentative plan:

  • Take 1 week where I lighten the training load and have more carbs (only post-workout). The idea is to kind of take a week off since Iā€™ve been doing this for 20 weeks.
  • Resume diet, but add Fish Oil for insulin sensitivity.
  • Also add Alpha Male since I think I may have lower testosterone based on skinfold tests.

Does this sound like a good plan assuming that I need help with testosterone and insulin sensitivity? Any suggestions would be hugely sppreciated!

Thanks.[/quote]

That seems fine. However I would not target two hormonal manipulations at the same time.

Fish oil should be a staple in any diet anyway, but Iā€™d go for Receptormax instead of Alpha Male. It will further help with insulin sensitivity while at the same time helping with testosterone at the receptor level.

286

[quote]gladiator88 wrote:
Coach,

How much does Poliquin charge for a first time checkup , just to find out where Iā€™m at physically. I would like to know more about biosignature analysis, Gastrointestinal, endocrine tests and etcā€¦

Is there an email or # I can contact him personally.

ThankS[/quote]

I do not know Charlesā€™ personal fee, but you can probably take the number you have in your head and add 2 zeros at the end of it.

Furthermore, he is traveling a lot for conferences so he is hard, if not impossible to get a hold of.

As for me giving away his personal contact number on a public website would be pretty much like putting a death warrant on my head! Go to his website, there are ways to contact him there.

287

[quote]daffyduck wrote:
Just for the sake of variety. Would other extremely lean protein sources such as shrimp, chicken breast be okay to substitute for the egg whites and pork tenderloin in the new pulsing protocol.
Thanks[/quote]

I see fish and shellfish as being acceptable. Chicken might stilll be too slow to digest.

288

[quote]JSMaxwell wrote:
Coach,

I just want to say ā€œthanksā€ for being willing to discuss this. I feel like I am witnessing a discussion on a very cutting edge nutritional concept in its early stages, and Iā€™m learning tons. [/quote]

That is the important thing thoughā€¦ it i still in its infancy and that is the reason why I do not want to discuss it too much and make wrong assumption. Iā€™m still experimenting and researching this subject. I DO NOT HAVE A REAL PROTOCOL YET. Only the stuff Iā€™ve been doing so far and that have led to good results.

Do not blindly use it thinking that this is the end of the road, it is not. Everyday Iā€™m collecting some new tidbits of info that may make the system even more effective.

289

[quote]Alexisonfire2230 wrote:
Christian, great reading on nutritian so far. I just have a quick off topicā€¦

I have a day in my split where i just do shoulders and traps.
What is the best tempo and number of reps for Standing DB Shrugs for hypertrophy? [/quote]

Lifting explosively, holding the contracted position 2 seconds, lowering under control but not slowly on purpose. Sets of 6-8 reps done in this fashion would be effective for most, I personally prefer to go heavier for sets of 4-6.

[quote]Alexisonfire2230 wrote:
And is ā€˜productiveā€™ to superset with Incline Rear DB Flyes?

[/quote]

Itā€™s a superset I like, but I prefer to execute the rear delt flies raising the arms above the shoulder line (both arms forming a wide V).

290

I came across an article from Lyle Mcdonald which includes a table of the absorption rate of protein powders and whole food proteins.

-good-sources-of-protein-speed-of-digestion-part-2.html

Egg proteins and pork tenderloin are listed. Interestingly enough, raw egg and whole egg proteins are at 1.4g/per hour and 2.9g/per hour whilst pork tenderloin is listed at 10g/per hour!! (faster than whey isolate). If you read the comments later on the page, Lyle does state that the pork tenderloin is ā€œassuredly incorrectā€. From reading the article, it looks like studies regarding digestion rates of whole protein foods is still in its infancy, so I wouldnt think twice about substituting out egg whites and pork tenderloin for other ā€œseeminglyā€ fast digesting whole protein foods.

291

Coach when using casein hydrolysate do you still use the same amount of grams and is it only best postworkout?
What about preworkout?

Also, if you can get a mix using the casein hydrolysate would you recommend using other types of proteins with it. (ex CFM, isloate, hydrolyized etc. )

thanks

292

[quote]brmnstl wrote:
Coach when using casein hydrolysate do you still use the same amount of grams and is it only best postworkout?
What about preworkout?

Also, if you can get a mix using the casein hydrolysate would you recommend using other types of proteins with it. (ex CFM, isloate, hydrolyized etc. )

thanks [/quote]

I will not answer any question on this subject until the end of my experimentation. Suffice to say that my current para-workout protocols are:

PROTOCOL 1 (normal one, used with most workouts)
Alpha-GPC 2 caps 45 minutes before workout
Surge Workout Fuel 2 scoops 20 minutes before workout
Anaconda 2 scoops during workout
Surge Recovery 2 scoops if it was a priority workout or Anaconda 1 scoop if it was a normal workout, post-workout

PROTOCOL 2 (once a week, during a priority workout)
Alpha-GPC 2 caps 45 minutes before workout
Surge Workout fuel 3 scoops 45 minutes before workout
FINiBAR 2 bars, 30 minutes before workout
Surge Recovery 3 scoops 15 minutes before workout
Anaconda 2 scoops during workout

293

This Amino Acid Pulsing diet sure has gotten everyone excited!

I am simply following best I can, from information you have given and will assess weekly.

My basic understanding of setup - pulsing with fast/est absorbing protein throughout the day and slower at nightā€¦

thanks for the info,

GJ

294

Coach,

Can you throw us any kind of bone on Anaconda and when it could possibly be available? I am about out of Grow! Whey and trying to decide to stick with that until Anaconda or buy some Whey Hydrosylate in the interim which will not be from Biotest obviously. Even if you said like ā€œbe out sometime 4th Quarter this yearā€. :slight_smile:

Thanks and thanks for all the great info you are sharing on the tidbits you are learning. Itā€™s cool stuff.

295

[quote]shoelessjones wrote:
Coach,

Can you throw us any kind of bone on Anaconda and when it could possibly be available? I am about out of Grow! Whey and trying to decide to stick with that until Anaconda or buy some Whey Hydrosylate in the interim which will not be from Biotest obviously. Even if you said like ā€œbe out sometime 4th Quarter this yearā€. :slight_smile:

Thanks and thanks for all the great info you are sharing on the tidbits you are learning. Itā€™s cool stuff.[/quote]

I have zero ideaā€¦ sorry

296

Hi CT,
I got two questions. One regarding training and one regarding supplements

I normally alternate between 2 different exercises - say 1 set of bench press,rest 60 sec and then 1 set of
pullups and so on. But now i am in a crowded gym so itā€™s difficult alternating between two equipments.
So what will be the best alternative.Say you are working chest and back on one day which is better

  1. do all the exercises for the chest and then move to back exercises
    2.After all the sets of first chest exercise move to first back exercise and then 2nd exercise of
    chest and so on

What is ur opinion on Ultimate Nutrition and TwinLab. I looking for basic things like whey,creatine,BCAA and glutamine. These are easily available in my country

297

Thibā€¦This will be a quick question and only require you to answer with a single letter.

I know you have written about the constant tension technique for isolation movements but I am still slightly confused.

do you A: flex the target muscle group as though you are posing on stage while completing the exercise with no rest n etween sets in a ā€œpumpā€ type movement. (Which btwā€¦gets a massive pump)

or B: Just complete the movement in a ā€œpumpā€ type movement making sure that it is in a range of movement where the muscle is doing all the work (bottom bit of flies, whole range of motion of most other isolatino exercises)

Thank You

298

[quote]jeenumj wrote:
Hi CT,
I got two questions. One regarding training and one regarding supplements

I normally alternate between 2 different exercises - say 1 set of bench press,rest 60 sec and then 1 set of
pullups and so on. But now i am in a crowded gym so itā€™s difficult alternating between two equipments.
So what will be the best alternative.Say you are working chest and back on one day which is better

  1. do all the exercises for the chest and then move to back exercises
    2.After all the sets of first chest exercise move to first back exercise and then 2nd exercise of
    chest and so on[/quote]

  2. Main back movement

  3. Main chest movement

  4. Secondary back movement

  5. Secondary chest movement

  6. etc.

[quote]jeenumj wrote:

What is ur opinion on Ultimate Nutrition and TwinLab. I looking for basic things like whey,creatine,BCAA and glutamine. These are easily available in my country

[/quote]

I havenā€™t used these companies in over 10 years. The only sups I use are from Biotest, some from Poliquin and some others from a small Quebec company. I can only vouch for these as I have not used any other brand in eons.

From what I remember, Twinlab used to be fairly decent around 1993-1996 then the company took a drop and the efficacy of the products became it an miss.

299

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
brmnstl wrote:
Coach when using casein hydrolysate do you still use the same amount of grams and is it only best postworkout?
What about preworkout?

Also, if you can get a mix using the casein hydrolysate would you recommend using other types of proteins with it. (ex CFM, isloate, hydrolyized etc. )

thanks

I will not answer any question on this subject until the end of my experimentation. Suffice to say that my current para-workout protocols are:

PROTOCOL 1 (normal one, used with most workouts)
Alpha-GPC 2 caps 45 minutes before workout
Surge Workout Fuel 2 scoops 20 minutes before workout
Anaconda 2 scoops during workout
Surge Recovery 2 scoops if it was a priority workout or Anaconda 1 scoop if it was a normal workout, post-workout

PROTOCOL 2 (once a week, during a priority workout)
Alpha-GPC 2 caps 45 minutes before workout
Surge Workout fuel 3 scoops 45 minutes before workout
FINiBAR 2 bars, 30 minutes before workout
Surge Recovery 3 scoops 15 minutes before workout
Anaconda 2 scoops during workout

[/quote]

Is this standard or would you adjust the amounts if you were on a Fat-Loss phase?

300

[quote]Pickles wrote:
Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
brmnstl wrote:
Coach when using casein hydrolysate do you still use the same amount of grams and is it only best postworkout?
What about preworkout?

Also, if you can get a mix using the casein hydrolysate would you recommend using other types of proteins with it. (ex CFM, isloate, hydrolyized etc. )

thanks

I will not answer any question on this subject until the end of my experimentation. Suffice to say that my current para-workout protocols are:

PROTOCOL 1 (normal one, used with most workouts)
Alpha-GPC 2 caps 45 minutes before workout
Surge Workout Fuel 2 scoops 20 minutes before workout
Anaconda 2 scoops during workout
Surge Recovery 2 scoops if it was a priority workout or Anaconda 1 scoop if it was a normal workout, post-workout

PROTOCOL 2 (once a week, during a priority workout)
Alpha-GPC 2 caps 45 minutes before workout
Surge Workout fuel 3 scoops 45 minutes before workout
FINiBAR 2 bars, 30 minutes before workout
Surge Recovery 3 scoops 15 minutes before workout
Anaconda 2 scoops during workout

Is this standard or would you adjust the amounts if you were on a Fat-Loss phase?[/quote]

Thatā€™s what Iā€™m using right now, and my main goal is to add size while staying lean.