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

Training
321

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
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 it’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

  2. Main back movement

  3. Main chest movement

  4. Secondary back movement

  5. Secondary chest movement

  6. etc.

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

I haven’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.[/quote]

Coach, how important do you feel it is to rotate protein brands??

322

Christian, i have been on the diet\nutritian plan, outlined bellow, for 3 weeks now. But not entirely new to it all.
Im at 6’1" , 76kg , 12.5% body fat , BMR- 1925kcal , 63kg muscle mass.

My problem is that i seem not to be progressing very much at all.
I have a feeling that im not taking in enough calories, as i am on high protein diet.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

===============================================
wakeup: 0800
1 Carnitine… 1 Zinc… 5ml glutimine + 5ml creatine + 15g protein shake

breakfast: 0830
3 fish oil… VitaminC x2
Steak/fish fillet + Mushrooms/tomato + brocoli/zukini + handfull almonds + 4 egg whites and 1 whole egg + slice cheese

snack: 1030
can of tune + peice of fruit + peice of veg + 3 fish oil

lunch: 1230
chicken breast/steak + half cup portion of brown rice + slice cheese + brocoli/zukini + 3 fish oil

snack: 1500
125g can of tuna + brocoli/zukini + handfull of almonds + piece fruit

Preworkout: 1600 (30mins prior)
shake 20g of protein + 3g BCAA(2:1:1) + 5ml glutimine + 5ml creatine + VitaminC x2

Postworkout: 1730 (straight after)
shake 20g of protein + 1 carnitine + 3g BCAA(2:1:1) + 5ml glutimine + 5ml creatine + peice of fruit

Dinner: 1900 (1- 1.5 hours post)
chicken breast/steak/tuna + cup of brown rice + brocoli/zukini + 3 fish oil + peice of fruit

Snack 2100:
fruit + handfull almonds + 3 fish oil

Before bed (2300)
1 Carnitine + 5ml glutimine + 15g protein with 100ml skim milk + 100g cottage cheese/100g peanut butter

** High card day once a week
** Low protein once a week

===============================================

ps - you would have seen my chest/back spit… and have idea of my training technique.
pps - im thinking of moving my lunch time carbs to my preworkout snack. There for having carbs in system in time for my workout.

323

[quote]

I use about 20 variations of the chin-up/pull-ups and I consider all to be great exercises. Variation is key.[/quote]

20, that’s a fair old number, as you can do pronated/supinated/neutral, narrow/medium/wide grips, do you know of any great variations outside of:

Standard Chin/Pull up
Sternum/leaning back
Side to Side
Single Arm
Behind neck

Thanks

324

Thib,

I’m not sure if this thread is officially over, but on the off chance it is still going for another day or two, I have a question about an exercise you mentioned in your training.

You mentioned performing a cluster of 5 with L-Lateral raises. Does using the L-Lateral raise instead of the long-lever version help to overload the lateral delts even more when combined with the cluster method? Do you have any kind of rule of thumb for when to go with the L-lateral raise and when to stick with the long-lever version?

And I Was just wondering where the L-Lateral raise would fit on the scale of stress on the different heads of the deltoid. You had an old article showing the relative stress placed upon the various portions depending upon torso angle, grip type, and plane of movement of the humerus.

Thanks, coach!

325

[quote]ThetfordMiner wrote:
Thib,

I’m not sure if this thread is officially over, but on the off chance it is still going for another day or two, I have a question about an exercise you mentioned in your training.

You mentioned performing a cluster of 5 with L-Lateral raises. Does using the L-Lateral raise instead of the long-lever version help to overload the lateral delts even more when combined with the cluster method? Do you have any kind of rule of thumb for when to go with the L-lateral raise and when to stick with the long-lever version?

And I Was just wondering where the L-Lateral raise would fit on the scale of stress on the different heads of the deltoid. You had an old article showing the relative stress placed upon the various portions depending upon torso angle, grip type, and plane of movement of the humerus.

Thanks, coach!

[/quote]

The L-Lateral raise is better suited to when you decide to go heavy as it puts less strain on the elbow joints. The important thing is to avoid turning it into a cheated movement: at the top position the elbow should be in-line with the shoulder joint, the forearm should be parallel to the floor and the wrist in-line with the elbow.

Most people end up doing this movement with their arms higher up than their elbows, which is a mistake.

From experience it is less of an isolated exercise than other variations of the lateral raise, but it does stress mostly the lateral head.

326

Damn Thib, you’re terribly ridiculously strong, esp considering your frame. You must have that ultra charged CNS from O-lifting…!

327

[quote]Pickles wrote:

I use about 20 variations of the chin-up/pull-ups and I consider all to be great exercises. Variation is key.

20, that’s a fair old number, as you can do pronated/supinated/neutral, narrow/medium/wide grips, do you know of any great variations outside of:

Standard Chin/Pull up
Sternum/leaning back
Side to Side
Single Arm
Behind neck

Thanks[/quote]

It’s pretty easy to come up with a zillion variations. Just by using grip type and grip width you can come up with:

Wide-grip pronated
Medium-grip pronated
Close-grip pronated
Wide-grip supinated
Medium-grip supinated
Close-grip supinated
Wide-grip neutral
Medium-grip neutral
Close-grip neutral

To which you can add the mixed grip (one hand supinated, one hand pronated)

Wide-grip mixed
Medium-grip mixed
Close-grip mixed

As well as neutral/pronated and neutral/supinated

Wide-grip neutral/pronated
Medium-grip neutral/pronated
Close-grip neutral/pronated

Wide-grip neutral/supinated
Medium-grip neutral/supinated
Close-grip neutral/supinated

To which you can also add odd grip work:

Towel chins
Rope chins
Blast-straps/gymnastic rings chins
etc.

Then you can change the torso angle, etc.

So as you can see there is almost a limitless variations you an use.

328

[quote]Thy. wrote:
Damn Thib, you’re terribly ridiculously strong, esp considering your frame. You must have that ultra charged CNS from O-lifting…![/quote]

Indeed, which is why my strength progresses super fast when I get back to heavy lifting but I lose a lot of strength when I shy away from heavy lifting for too long… in that case I might actually get bigger but be weaker.

329

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
Thy. wrote:
Damn Thib, you’re terribly ridiculously strong, esp considering your frame. You must have that ultra charged CNS from O-lifting…!

Indeed, which is why my strength progresses super fast when I get back to heavy lifting but I lose a lot of strength when I shy away from heavy lifting for too long… in that case I might actually get bigger but b weaker.[/quote]

And as I’ve noticed from your posts about your training, you need less reps than traditional BB-ers because of the weight you use. I think it’s much more fun training like that for size, than a lot of 8-12 rep range.

330

Thibs

Just wanted to say thank you for keeping this Q and A, you put a lot of time into it and you are always experimenting and passing along your old and new knowledge. I am sure others are very thankful but we don’t say thank you quite often enough. I hope that 2009 continues to be a great year for you.

Take care,

Free

331

Awesome discussion this week. Thanks for all the info Thibs! This is some cutting edge stuff.

332

Thib,

I have tiny hands and fingers which stagger my progress a great deal in the deadlift. I’m confident that my back is ready for at least 180 kg rack pulls, although the grip can manage only 150 kg (I weigh 65kg) and that is with mixed grip…

I started hanging from thick chin-up bar for time daily. The bar is so thick that my hand is barely clutched and I hang till my fingers become frozen… But it’s been a week and the time is still the same : 1 min ± 5 sec. Why no neural adaptation occur? What should I change?

333

[quote]Thy. wrote:
Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
Thy. wrote:
Damn Thib, you’re terribly ridiculously strong, esp considering your frame. You must have that ultra charged CNS from O-lifting…!

Indeed, which is why my strength progresses super fast when I get back to heavy lifting but I lose a lot of strength when I shy away from heavy lifting for too long… in that case I might actually get bigger but b weaker.

And as I’ve noticed from your posts about your training, you need less reps than traditional BB-ers because of the weight you use. I think it’s much more fun training like that for size, than a lot of 8-12 rep range. [/quote]

It is my experience, and the way I’m leaning toward now, that medium and high reps are not necessary nor optimal for maximal growth… especially for natural trainees.

334

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
michell wrote:
Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
That’s what I’m using right now, and my main goal is to add size while staying lean.

Coach

What’s your training like?

Thanks

I cannot reveal it right now. It’s a new system we’ve been developing to maximize growth. I have 4 subjects on it as well as myself, we are using it along with the para-workout nutrition protocols noted above.

The program has been tweaked and modified quite a bit over the past 6-8 weeks and we are pretty close to the most powerful version, the one that will start the floodgate of a new era of bodybuilding training… hopefully.

As of this morning I’m 239lbs, in by far the leanest condition I’ve been at that weight. I was 212lbs when I started working on the program, and made the biggest gains (from 222 to 239 in 4 weeks) from what looks to be the final version of the first program of the methodology we developed.

To give you an idea, I just came back from the gym and…

Worked up to 455lbs on top half seated shoulder press
Worked up to 365lbs for 3 reps on the seated barbell shoulder press
Worked up to 55lbs DBs for a cluster of 5 reps on L-lateral raises

My partner went up to 425lbs, 280lbs and 55lbs and he is 185 on 5’8’’ (about zero percent body fat though :wink: )

Obviously that in no way gives you even a broad idea of what the whole system looks like. :)[/quote]

Coach,
Is the top half seated BB press done with the bar sitting on pins level w/ top of the head or higher?

335

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
MaximusB wrote:
Coach at some point will be hear about the system you are mentioning above? BTW, you are FUCKING strong as shit with those numbers.

  1. YES the system is being developed right now. We have been working on it for a while, we are finishing the initial testing procedures. We don’t want to put out a system that looks good on paper but doesn’t deliver in real life. We will put it out when we can guarantee results with 100% certainty.

  2. I’m decently strong for someone who is small framed. But when you’ve seen some of the lifters I’ve seen, you really wouldn’t consider these numbers out of this world. But at least I pride myself in walking the walk to the best of my capacities.[/quote]

I look forward to seeing this system when it’s done, very intriguing stuff. If you think you are decently strong, then my perception of strong is way off. Guys who were nearly twice your size weren’t throwing up numbers like that when I was in college. I guess our strength coach was pretty pathetic looking back now.

336

Coach,

For the next 11 weeks, I will have the freedom to train twice a day and I am looking to alter your Get Jacked Program.

Do you recommend twice a day training for fat loss? Would you alter the program? If so, how?

I made it through 9 weeks of the program, but then got sick as a dog and I missed 2 weeks of gym time.

I think the better question is: If you had 11 weeks and unlimited training time, how would you schedule your time if body composition was your main goal?

I know it’s a big question; I’m just looking for a jump start on what to do.

Thanks!

337

Coach,

My sticking point in the bench press is the bottom part of the movement, what is your take on improving that? Iso’s, functional Iso’s, band work, shoulder work ??

I am a tall lifter at 6’7". My wing span is almost as wide as I am tall. Once I make it through the sticking point, I normally have no problems at the top. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

338

Guys, I’ll try to answer a few more questions, but the locker room is gonna be closed for good. Tim Patterson will actually have the crew create a Thibaudeau Forum which will make it much easier for your guys to look for any info you might have missed.

Stay tuned

339

[quote]jimg21 wrote:
Coach,
Is the top half seated BB press done with the bar sitting on pins level w/ top of the head or higher?[/quote]

About 1’’ above the head. I use a sight incline on the bench BTW, to reduce spine compression forces.

340

[quote]MaximusB wrote:
Guys who were nearly twice your size weren’t throwing up numbers like that when I was in college. [/quote]

You had guys who were 480lbs in college?