Hey Coach
Do you recommend taking TRIBEX the same way as Alpha Male, with the full dose before bed or splitting it up to morning and night like the label says? Thanks.
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
educote wrote:
I am interested as to your overall caloric intake
I don’t really rely on calorie counting. The body doesn’t recognize ‘‘calories’’ which are just a measure of heat, it recognize nutrients.
So it would be more fair to talk about total nutrients intake.
As far as what it was… man… this was 3 years ago. I do not have precise data about it anymore (I changed my computer 5 times in that period and lost some stuff).
I wasn’t deficitary at all times. I had periods of higher food intake, mostly by raising my fat intake as my protein intake was fairly stable at 300-350g per day on average.
educote wrote:
, what your goals were at the time
Mostly to maintain my body composition where it was as far as body fat as concerned while adding a bit of lean body mass.
Understand that being a personal trainer/strength coach is a paradox of some kind: if you are in great shape (lean and muscular) you will make more money as people will trust you more.
However if you are TOO muscular (as in too big) your business actually starts to go down. Why? Because trainers will make money mostly from training average Joes.
We do talk about our athletes more as they are good for publicity, but unless you work for a specific team your clientele will be at least 70% average peoples. And there is a point with this type of clientele where being too muscular is actually a turn off.
Most average Joes (guys) will look for a trainer who looks like something they would like to achieve. And being ‘‘bodybuilding big’’ just isn’t that look for most.
Being bodybuilding big WILL get you are certain type of clients (those who want to be bodybuilders) but this is a very small market.
And needless to say that since most women are afraid of getting ‘‘too big’’, looking like a freak is the best way not to get their business.
Plus there is the whole steroid stigmata. While it is possible to get very muscular naturally, the average Joe automatically assume that anybody with muscles is using roids. So as a trainer, being huge can actually rub you of some credibility by raising some doubts about steroids use.
Now I can afford to get a bit bigger because my business is going well and my reputation is solid. But 3-4 years ago I still needed to get a good client base and being 190lbs at 6% body fat was more marketable than being 225lbs at the same level of body fat.[/quote]
Interesting read, Thib.
I hadn’t thought about this from a trainer’s perspective before.
[quote]bballsavant wrote:
Hey Coach
Do you recommend taking TRIBEX the same way as Alpha Male, with the full dose before bed or splitting it up to morning and night like the label says? Thanks.[/quote]
All before bed.
CT,
My brother does not train at all, but he eats a very clean diet consisting of copious amounts of green veggies, healthy fats, and lean protein sources. Each day he also eats 2 servings of berries, but his total carb count never seems to get above 50 grams/day.
He functions quite well and feels physically and mentally great all of the time , so I was wondering if this is because he is fat adapted or if the berries and trace carbs in veggies and the occasional serving of nuts that he has keep his liver glycogen full so as to prevent him from becoming fat adapted while still supplying the fuel he needs to function given his activity level.
I’d like to get your thoughts on this if you do not mind sharing them. As always, thanks for your time.
I registered for this! CT awesome job i am looking forward to learning alot from your answers
thanks
Thibs
Are you familiar with layne norton the natural pro. He is gaining popularity now and i am curious if you agree with his views.
For instance, his training philosophy is that your body can almost adapt to any kind of training within reason.
also, he is known for his conditioning, that he also translates onto his clients. He is certain though that lowering carbs is not the way to go.
have you read up on him at all?
CT,
Would you suggest that a male using Rez-V use it year-round at 3 caps/day for its beneficial effects on estrogen metabolism or would using it at 3 caps/day in shorter blocks broken up by periods of simply using 1 cap/day to approximate a diet rich in resveratrol and receive its many other health benefits be preferable?
If option 2 is preferable, what are your thoughts about using another supplement such as calcium d-glucarate, DIM, or a combination one such as Poiquin’s Green Tea Excellence to benefit estrogen metabolism during the periods of 1 cap of Rez-V/day usage?
[quote]T-Bone81 wrote:
CT,
Would you suggest that a male using Rez-V use it year-round at 3 caps/day for its beneficial effects on estrogen metabolism or would using it at 3 caps/day in shorter blocks broken up by periods of simply using 1 cap/day to approximate a diet rich in resveratrol and receive its many other health benefits be preferable?
If option 2 is preferable, what are your thoughts about using another supplement such as calcium d-glucarate, DIM, or a combination one such as Poiquin’s Green Tea Excellence to benefit estrogen metabolism during the periods of 1 cap of Rez-V/day usage?[/quote]
Normally supplements affecting the adrenals (cortisol for example) and sexual steroids (testosterone, estrogen) should be rotated every 2-3 weeks for better effect.
However since resveratol is MUCH more than an anti-estrogen I feel that keeping it in for a longer period of time is more beneficial than cyling it for shorter periods.
So in that regard, blocks of higher doses lasting 4-6 weeks followed by 1-2 weeks at a reduced dosage would be a better option.
Remember to have your REZ-V first thing in the morning, on an empty stomach.
[quote]WalkingGunShow wrote:
Thibs
Are you familiar with layne norton the natural pro. He is gaining popularity now and i am curious if you agree with his views.
For instance, his training philosophy is that your body can almost adapt to any kind of training within reason.
also, he is known for his conditioning, that he also translates onto his clients. He is certain though that lowering carbs is not the way to go.
have you read up on him at all?[/quote]
I know of him, his work and his accomplishments.
In a way I do agree with him that the body is a fantastic adaptive machine. This has been demonstrated time and time over in the training of olympic athletes who can sustain long periods of 25-40 hours of training per week.
However the problem that I have with telling people that the body can adapt to anything is that it will lead to excessive loading too soon and thus to overtraining and injuries (heck, even Layne himself tore his pec recently).
YES the body can be adapted to support a lot of training stress. HOWEVER it does so by VERY gradually building-up its work capacity and recovery. If you raise your workload too fast you WILL risk exceeding your recovery capacity and injuries. The thing is that gaining muscle is an emotional issue… most people who want muscle want it YESTERDAY. This type of behavior opens the door wide open to training excess. And telling people that the body can adjust to anything just invite problems.
Heck, even elite Bulgarian lifters (know for their super high workload) build up their volume, frequency and intensity over a period of several years, not months! And despite that they STILL have a relatively high rate of injuries.
Understand that while muscle tissue can recover very fast… the CNS and hormonal systems can eventually adapt at a moderately fast rate too… tendons are VERY slow to regenerate and this is something that doesn’t improves much.
As far as his dieting views goes, I don’t agree with him in the sense that some peoples WILL need to lower their carbs to really lose a lot of fat. Not everbody needs to do so however. As I mentioned in my old thread, no diet is universally optimal for everybody, and there have been some very successful folks recommending dietary techniques flying in the face of what a lot of experts recommend. That’s why I’m for dietary customization: adapting the diet to one’s body.
And a vast majority of individuals will lose fat faster with less chances of muscle loss when using a low carbs diet.
VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE
For professional reasons I will not answer questions regarding:
- My opinion of other coaches or specific training systems (DC training, Max-OT, etc.). The reasons are that
a) often people ask those questions to gain ammunitions for online debates on other sites or forums. They end up misquoting me and this puts me in a bad situation.
b) you can’t argue with results. If a system has produced results it means that it works. Now, nothing works forever, so I am not ‘‘pro-systems’’ in that I think that sticking to one precise methodology blindly is a mistake over the long run. I feel that it is much more important to understand the underlying principles that make training effective.
This is my answer to ‘‘is the XWZ system effective?’’: if it’s based on systemic progression, yes it will be effective. But every effective program needs to be changed or cycled to progress over the long run.
c) I think that every successful authority, writer or coach in this field has something to contribute and we can learn from all of them. Some have more to contribute than others and with some you have to weed through more BS to get to the good part. BUT I feel that it is a big mistake on my part to burn any bridges by critiquing a colleague.
- Note that I DID answer the question about Layne Norton, but only because I felt that saying that ‘‘the body can adapt to anything’’ without giving more details about the rate of adaptation and how to ramp up training demands is opening up the door to injuries.
-
Anabolic steroids and other drugs: they are illegal and I do not want to be associated with them. I’m a trainer and a coach, not a pharmacist.
-
Complete program critics: understand that a thorough program analysis actually takes me more time than writing a new program! My schedule is way too busy to critique every program sent my way, and answering only to a few would be unfair to others.
Furthermore, it is a paying service that I offer so it wouldn’t be fair to my paying clients.
-
Question reposts: I mentionned this a million times already… I DO NOT respond to people who repost their questions. I feel that this is rude… kinda like saying in a somewhat aggressive voice ‘‘dude, answer me now’’. As I mention I have a limited schedule. I do try to answer as many questions as I can but I sometimes have to make choices. So if I don’t answer you it doesn’t (always) mean that I don’t like you or that you can’t ask other questions. BUT if you repost a question you can be sure that I will be much less tempted to answer you in the future.
-
Injury questions: I feel that it is irresponsable to answer specific injury questions without being able to assess the individual myself.
I WILL PERIODICALLY REPOST THIS MESSAGE TO MAKE SURE THAT THIS FORUM RUNS SMOOTHLY AND THAT EVERYBODY ENDS UP SATISFIED.
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
NiallC wrote:
so…can we repost a question you might have browsed over there last week or last month sometime seems this page is quicker 
ha
Try it and you will be FOREVER on my blacklist. Even making the joke is kinda annoying to my ears.[/quote]
thib when i actually meet you (its going to happen) you are probably going to want to hit me because of my constant questions haha.
you got lucky in may that i couldnt afford my accodation for the the bio sig haha.
and i m writing a book called
“twelve ways to annoy people with a smile”
i see no 1 on the new york best sellers list 
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE
For professional reasons I will not answer questions regarding:
- My opinion of other coaches or specific training systems (DC training, Max-OT, etc.). The reasons are that
a) often people ask those questions to gain ammunitions for online debates on other sites or forums. They end up misquoting me and this puts me in a bad situation.
b) you can’t argue with results. If a system has produced results it means that it works. Now, nothing works forever, so I am not ‘‘pro-systems’’ in that I think that sticking to one precise methodology blindly is a mistake over the long run. I feel that it is much more important to understand the underlying principles that make training effective.
This is my answer to ‘‘is the XWZ system effective?’’: if it’s based on systemic progression, yes it will be effective. But every effective program needs to be changed or cycled to progress over the long run.
c) I think that every successful authority, writer or coach in this field has something to contribute and we can learn from all of them. Some have more to contribute than others and with some you have to weed through more BS to get to the good part. BUT I feel that it is a big mistake on my part to burn any bridges by critiquing a colleague.
- Note that I DID answer the question about Layne Norton, but only because I felt that saying that ‘‘the body can adapt to anything’’ without giving more details about the rate of adaptation and how to ramp up training demands is opening up the door to injuries.
-
Anabolic steroids and other drugs: they are illegal and I do not want to be associated with them. I’m a trainer and a coach, not a pharmacist.
-
Complete program critics: understand that a thorough program analysis actually takes me more time than writing a new program! My schedule is way too busy to critique every program sent my way, and answering only to a few would be unfair to others.
Furthermore, it is a paying service that I offer so it wouldn’t be fair to my paying clients.
-
Question reposts: I mentionned this a million times already… I DO NOT respond to people who repost their questions. I feel that this is rude… kinda like saying in a somewhat aggressive voice ‘‘dude, answer me now’’. As I mention I have a limited schedule. I do try to answer as many questions as I can but I sometimes have to make choices. So if I don’t answer you it doesn’t (always) mean that I don’t like you or that you can’t ask other questions. BUT if you repost a question you can be sure that I will be much less tempted to answer you in the future.
-
Injury questions: I feel that it is irresponsable to answer specific injury questions without being able to assess the individual myself.
I WILL PERIODICALLY REPOST THIS MESSAGE TO MAKE SURE THAT THIS FORUM RUNS SMOOTHLY AND THAT EVERYBODY ENDS UP SATISFIED.[/quote]
maybe if this was pasted into your 1st post on this page as thibs rules or something. so its the 1st thing people see when they open your q&a.
my 2cents
ok thib i have a genuine 1st time question from me.
and sorry for making 3 posts i m have a study day so my mind is going with ideas. you know yourself.
alot of coaches like charles or yourself have masters degrees in exercise… but charles and others have often said, the degree wont make you a good trainer.
i believe i have the potential to be a good trainer,but i dont have a degree of any kind.
what would your opinion be on that?
and also, how do you find having the degree helps with your understanding the technical aspects of exercise.
i find i often have trouble understanding these things, while the practical stuff… programme design i find alot easier.
i understand alot of that is dependant on the individual, and i m not asking “thib am i a good trainer” but only… how being optimistic could a degree in exercise impact my abilities as a trainer.
thanks for your time on that one i appreciate it
Thib,
This may be a bit of a shot in the dark, but do you know anything in terms of the safety of infrared radiation for cooking?
I was considering getting a convection oven for cooking most of the meat that I eat since it looked easy and effective, but one model I looked at used infrared radiation in addition to convection while the other model was just a “traditional” convection oven. This left me unsure of which model to choose when it came to the most “healthful” option
If you have any thoughts on this matter, I’d love to hear them, but if this question was beyond the scope of this forum I definitely understand.
[quote]NiallC wrote:
ok thib i have a genuine 1st time question from me.
and sorry for making 3 posts i m have a study day so my mind is going with ideas. you know yourself.
alot of coaches like charles or yourself have masters degrees in exercise… but charles and others have often said, the degree wont make you a good trainer.
i believe i have the potential to be a good trainer,but i dont have a degree of any kind.
what would your opinion be on that?
and also, how do you find having the degree helps with your understanding the technical aspects of exercise.
i find i often have trouble understanding these things, while the practical stuff… programme design i find alot easier.
i understand alot of that is dependant on the individual, and i m not asking “thib am i a good trainer” but only… how being optimistic could a degree in exercise impact my abilities as a trainer.
thanks for your time on that one i appreciate it
[/quote]
I all my years of college I probably had classes with 200 students, of which I would trust maybe 1 or 2 to write a somewhat decent training program.
They do teach you the basic biomechanics and physiology science and the good colleges might even show you how to use some of that info. But in truth, there isn’t much that I actually learned in college that I use as a coach.
I feel that it gave me three things though:
-
The basic knowledge of how to search for information. Plus it facilitated my understanding on WHY some of the stuff we do, work. But very little, if any, of what I do in the field has anything to do with what I learned in college.
-
Credibility to the lay public. A degree automatically give you a certain legitimacy in your field, even if you are an incompetent! The average Joe is always very impressed by that piece of paper.
-
Free access to labs and libraries (online and a real one). I actually worked as a research assistant in biomechanics and on my free time I was free to conduct my own little experiments with force plates, EMG, EMS etc.
I really think that most coaches with a degree (or not) will tell you that it actually means nothing in the real world.
In my experience to be successful as a coach you need 4 things. Not all coaches have all four… you can be successful by having only one and playing your cards right. But the more of those things you have, the better your chance of succeed are:
-
Looks: let’s face it, you ARE your own best advertisement. If you are in great shape and look like something your potential clients’ goal then you are a much easier sell.
-
Accomplishments: it could be in the sporting world (a lot of coaches/trainers are former high level athletes) or even by having written books and articles that are fairly well distributed.
Understand that I’m not talking about being a high school jock here… I’m talking of being a former pro athlete or international level amateur.
- Knowledge: you must know your stuff and people must be able to see that. However this is a double-edged sword. If you act like a know-it-all about what you know and always talk in complex lingo it will have a negative effect. You must be able to take something complex and be able to explain it in 1 minute to the average Joe with ease.
Note that a degree can be in that category because even though it doesn’t make you smart, to the average Joe it gives you an ‘‘aura’’ of being smart!
- Coaching accomplishments: if you have worked with big name athletes or celebrity it will also be a great business card. In reality it doesn’t mean much because even the dumbbest trainers can be lucky and be hired to coach a high level athlete.
[quote]ThetfordMiner wrote:
Thib,
This may be a bit of a shot in the dark, but do you know anything in terms of the safety of infrared radiation for cooking?
I was considering getting a convection oven for cooking most of the meat that I eat since it looked easy and effective, but one model I looked at used infrared radiation in addition to convection while the other model was just a “traditional” convection oven. This left me unsure of which model to choose when it came to the most “healthful” option
If you have any thoughts on this matter, I’d love to hear them, but if this question was beyond the scope of this forum I definitely understand.[/quote]
Nope, I’m a grill type of guy. This is honestly not a subject that I researched.
[quote]NiallC wrote:
i believe i have the potential to be a good trainer,but i dont have a degree of any kind.
what would your opinion be on that?
and also, how do you find having the degree helps with your understanding the technical aspects of exercise.
i find i often have trouble understanding these things, while the practical stuff… programme design i find alot easier.
[/quote]
A degree will not really help you understand that stuff. A few of the more scientific classes might, but in reality most students will learn that stuff for the exam and forget about it later.
IMHO the best way to become good at understanding the technical stuff is to constantly read about it and try to make links to the real world as you do. The more you do, the clearer it will become.
But really, it doesn’t matter if you don’t know all the complexities of the Krebs cycle or the action potential process. As a trainer the REALLY important thing is being able to answer their questions.
If they ask you something and you don’t know the answer it will show. But most of the time the questions will be about an exercise or a training technique and why you are using it.
When they ask a question you must be able to give them an easy to understand answer. And that’s where experience is often more important than book smarts. When I started out I would always give clients a super academic answer that they didn’t understand and that turned them off. When that happens your link with your client becomes weaker and he is much less likely to continue working with you.
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
NiallC wrote:
i believe i have the potential to be a good trainer,but i dont have a degree of any kind.
what would your opinion be on that?
and also, how do you find having the degree helps with your understanding the technical aspects of exercise.
i find i often have trouble understanding these things, while the practical stuff… programme design i find alot easier.
A degree will not really help you understand that stuff. A few of the more scientific classes might, but in reality most students will learn that stuff for the exam and forget about it later.
IMHO the best way to become good at understanding the technical stuff is to constantly read about it and try to make links to the real world as you do. The more you do, the clearer it will become.
But really, it doesn’t matter if you don’t know all the complexities of the Krebs cycle or the action potential process. As a trainer the REALLY important thing is being able to answer their questions.
If they ask you something and you don’t know the answer it will show. But most of the time the questions will be about an exercise or a training technique and why you are using it.
When they ask a question you must be able to give them an easy to understand answer. And that’s where experience is often more important than book smarts. When I started out I would always give clients a super academic answer that they didn’t understand and that turned them off. When that happens your link with your client becomes weaker and he is much less likely to continue working with you.
[/quote]
Everything Christian has said on the topic is spot on. But just to add to what he has said, I am currently a junior and in the process of getting my physiology degree. While most of it is know it for the test and then never see it again (action potentials came to my mind too), there are some things that I read about on training but didn’t totally understand the ins and outs or the whys of them until we covered them in school and I was able to actually understand it. The first thing that comes to my mind is synapses and synaptic facilitation. But no doubt, that list he provided above 100% truth.
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
NiallC wrote:
i believe i have the potential to be a good trainer,but i dont have a degree of any kind.
what would your opinion be on that?
and also, how do you find having the degree helps with your understanding the technical aspects of exercise.
i find i often have trouble understanding these things, while the practical stuff… programme design i find alot easier.
A degree will not really help you understand that stuff. A few of the more scientific classes might, but in reality most students will learn that stuff for the exam and forget about it later.
IMHO the best way to become good at understanding the technical stuff is to constantly read about it and try to make links to the real world as you do. The more you do, the clearer it will become.
But really, it doesn’t matter if you don’t know all the complexities of the Krebs cycle or the action potential process. As a trainer the REALLY important thing is being able to answer their questions.
If they ask you something and you don’t know the answer it will show. But most of the time the questions will be about an exercise or a training technique and why you are using it.
When they ask a question you must be able to give them an easy to understand answer. And that’s where experience is often more important than book smarts. When I started out I would always give clients a super academic answer that they didn’t understand and that turned them off. When that happens your link with your client becomes weaker and he is much less likely to continue working with you.
[/quote]
thanks for the two brilliant replys.
great advice. i guess what i got this morning is the standard “insecurities” we all get from time to time
it is motivation for me to work hard at my studies and learnings. being part dyslexic it can make it difficult to retain technical information but i dont let it hamper my own progress.
in my personal recession (as i refer to the last 6 months) things like my physical shape have been hampered as badly as my bank account…as you say… you are your own sales tool.
alot of it is also clearly experience aswell.
thanks for that i m no longer as pressured to have letters after my name. to be honest if i did something in a degree sense a business degree might interest me more at the moment. or somrthing to do with rehabilitation.
as for trainers answering clients. i dont like bitching about other local trainers. but one pt…(unqualified may i add) was trying to explain in english… to a polish fella how he was over training… and started going on about the creatine phosphagen system… i mean i understood him and even i got lost.
so i agree 100% on trying to make everything understandable.
Thib,
I was wondering if you could provide a list of the following things
-
the neural factors involved in strength gain
-
individual body-structure and biomechanical related factors that relate to one’s ability to generate force
-
factors involved in increasing muscle size, both functional/sarcomeric and non-functional/sarcoplasmic hypertrophy
The list can be as general as you like without any added details. I was just curious to see all of these factors, so that I could then research individual ones on my own.
Thanks for your time, coach.