Thib, i ve read somewhere that you should soak nuts (such as cashews,macadamias etc) and seeds (pumkin,sesame) over night, to re hydrate them and make them more digestable.
any substance to this statement?
Man NiallC, when i read that question it made me choke. But it is a good question.
[quote]NiallC wrote:
Thib, i ve read somewhere that you should soak nuts (such as cashews,macadamias etc) and seeds (pumkin,sesame) over night, to re hydrate them and make them more digestable.
any substance to this statement?[/quote]
I honestly have no idea. Never heard about that or seen anybody do it.
EDIT: After some research it would seem that rehydrating nuts and seeds can remove some enzyme inhibitors that would theoretically hurt the digestive process. It seems to be quite a common practice among ‘‘raw eaters’’ so there might be some validity to it.
However I still have never seen anybody actually do it and have not worked with clients who had problems digesting dry nuts.
In terms of increasing strength and hypertrophy, when is making a change to an exercise which increases its difficulty and makes it more challenging without requiring adding more weight to the bar(or even requiring a decrease in load used) beneficial versus counterproductive. For example, there are ways to make a comparatively lighter weight feel very challenging and provide a solid training effect, yet unstable surface exercise is typically panned for providing too little of a stimulus to the prime movers.
Does it come down to whether an exercise forces the intended target muscle(s) to work harder versus when it merely reduces overall stability so much as to cause a significant decrease in the load used?
Also, “BOSU circus act training” aside, are there ever instances where you’d find adding an element of moderate instability into exercises useful in either upper or lower body training?
Thib,
Is the picture above an accurate depiction of a “spider” curl? If so, would doing strict curls in a prone position on a chest-supported row bench be a good approximation of the exercise for those without an actual “spider” bench?
And I was wondering if you had a picture of or a link to a picture showing proper form while using a standing preacher curl bench. All I have found is pictures of seated ones and ones with butchered form.
Coach,
Do you have any personal experience following Crossfit? If so,for how long and what was learned from it?
[quote]clary wrote:
Coach,
Do you have any personal experience following Crossfit? If so,for how long and what was learned from it?[/quote]
No, although I have used GPP and circuit to condition my athletes, but never as a complete (or rather incomplete) training system.
[quote]ThetfordMiner wrote:
In terms of increasing strength and hypertrophy, when is making a change to an exercise which increases its difficulty and makes it more challenging without requiring adding more weight to the bar(or even requiring a decrease in load used) beneficial versus counterproductive. For example, there are ways to make a comparatively lighter weight feel very challenging and provide a solid training effect, yet unstable surface exercise is typically panned for providing too little of a stimulus to the prime movers.
Does it come down to whether an exercise forces the intended target muscle(s) to work harder versus when it merely reduces overall stability so much as to cause a significant decrease in the load used?
Also, “BOSU circus act training” aside, are there ever instances where you’d find adding an element of moderate instability into exercises useful in either upper or lower body training?[/quote]
IMHO unstable exercises should NEVER be used to build muscle or strength. They can be used as an activation exercise, but for this purpose they often don’t require a lot of external loading.
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
NiallC wrote:
Thib, i ve read somewhere that you should soak nuts (such as cashews,macadamias etc) and seeds (pumkin,sesame) over night, to re hydrate them and make them more digestable.
any substance to this statement?
I honestly have no idea. Never heard about that or seen anybody do it.
EDIT: After some research it would seem that rehydrating nuts and seeds can remove some enzyme inhibitors that would theoretically hurt the digestive process. It seems to be quite a common practice among ‘‘raw eaters’’ so there might be some validity to it.
However I still have never seen anybody actually do it and have not worked with clients who had problems digesting dry nuts.[/quote]
personally i ve simply found them easier to eat. esp at breakfast.
thanks thib
[quote]jdk2006 wrote:
Coach,
I’ve felt a bit run down in the gym lately because I’ve been working a lot. Is it possible I was overtraining. I took 4 days off and am about to get back into it. What signs should I look for to see if I am overtrained or if the 4 days off was sufficient and what do you suggest to prevent it as far as supps and food? [/quote]
Overtraining? Not likely… overreaching? Possible, but still unlikely. You most likely simply suffered from accumulated fatigue.
Read tip no.5 in this article
CT,
I’m looking at adding 1-2 epsom salt baths per week to my recovery routine. Are they best done on the day of training (after the session) or on an off day?
eg I train M-W-F-Sat, and looking to use bath after every second session. Would I benefit more (or would it even make a difference) if I took the bath Wednesday after training or Thursday.
Thanks
Even though ALA has a poor conversion rate to the more valuable, highly touted, and physique-enhancing omega 3’s EPA and DHA, are the amounts of it found in things like walnuts and pumpkin seeds still valuable to help balance the omega 3 to omega 6 ratio?
CT, I’ve been having problems with chest development compared to limb development. You wrote an article about developing your back despite stronger limbs, do you have any tips for doing the same for the chest? Should I just add in more isolation chest work (crossovers, bench machine etc)
thib what would be the optimal dosage of taurine per meal/per day… and is there any time when one should not take it?
[quote]NiallC wrote:
thib what would be the optimal dosage of taurine per meal/per day… and is there any time when one should not take it?
[/quote]
Taurine is one of the trickiest products to take. In most people, and contrary to what we are led to believe by energy drink compamies, taurine is a neural inhibitor… as such it has a calming effect.
This is actually the reason why energy drink cies include it in their drinks! The stimulants enter into action quickly and get you amped up, then the taurine kicks in and put you down… so what do you do? You buy another energy drink!
The thing is that taurine is inhibitory in around 75-80% of the population and can be a stimulant in 20-25%.
Coach Thibs,
You wrote in a thread in the T-Cell that waking up 2-3 hours after falling asleep is a sign of reactive hypoglycemia.
The trouble is, I am working with a BioSignature Trainer, and we are using a lot of tools to fix any blood sugar problems (cinnamon in excess among many other things). I am also eating a very low carbohydrate diet and upwards of 40g of fiber per day.
I have read that mercury amalgams can cause hormonal fluctuations beyond control. I have 4 of them. Do your instincts suggest I may benefit from having them removed?
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
NiallC wrote:
thib what would be the optimal dosage of taurine per meal/per day… and is there any time when one should not take it?
Taurine is one of the trickiest product to take. In most people, and contrary to what we are led to believe by energy drink compamies, taurine is a neural inhibitor… as such it has a calming effect.
This is actually the reason why energy drink cies include it in their drinks! The stimulants enter into action quickly and get you amped up, then the taurine kicks in and put you down… so what do you do? You buy another energy drink!
The thing is that taurine is inhibitory in around 75-80% of the population and can be a stimulant in 20-25%.
[/quote]
ok… thats cool to know but for insulin management what would a a dosage, or… with what you are saying, would it be more suitable for adrenal fatique… few hours before bed… if you are one of the 75% of people that would be neurally inhibited by taurine
When trying gain mass, should I change the exercise I am using if I am not gaining any strength at it? And should I change an exercise in the routine if I am gaining strength at it, therefore reaching progressive overload?
[quote]Player wrote:
When trying gain mass, should I change the exercise I am using if I am not gaining any strength at it? And should I change an exercise in the routine if I am gaining strength at it, therefore reaching progressive overload?[/quote]
If you are progressing … don’t change it.
If you are NOT progressing it’s a more complex matter. First you must determine the reason why you are not progressing:
-
Have you stalled on the exercise? In this case you probably already increased your strength significantly on the movement over the past weeks/months but your gains have stopped… you should also be gaining strength on OTHER movements (not just for that muscle, but overall) you are using which indicates that you have stalled on the movement, not stalled in general.
-
Are you a ‘‘victim’’ of exceedingly fast progressing on related movements? It is quite possible that you are actually not progressing on a movement because you are progressing super fast on others related ones! How can that be? Let’s say that for chest you are doing:
Flat bench press
Incline DB press
Dips
Over the past few weeks your bench press numbers have been climbing up at an alarming pace! (which is good). Your incline press has also improved. Yet, you are actually getting weaker on the dips… what the heck is happening? Have you stalled on the dips?
Maybe not. The problem is likely to be that since you are using a lot more weight on the first movement (bench press), thus putting a lot more stress on the muscles, and using more weight on the incline press (also adding more stress) when you get to the dips the muscles involved are more tired then they are used to simply because of the improved performance/workload on the other movements.
If that is the case, replacing a movement by another might not be a solution since there will be an equal amount of fatigue with the new movement. Cutting the third movement altogether until progression on the other one stops (reducing the total workload to allow the body to recover from the increased stress) might be a better option.
- Is a weak link in the movement holding you back? A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. So it is quite possible that you have stopped progressing on an exercise because there is a weak muscle preventing the stronger ones to lift more weight.
For example, in the bench press the triceps, chest and delts are the main muscles involved. If your triceps are super weak (the bar will die out during the last portion of the movement) they will prevent you from adding more weight on the lift even though the chest and delts might be able to handle a greater load.
In that case the solution will depend on your goal. A powerlifting/athlete will look at it from a performance point of view: adding more work focusing on the weak link while he keeps on training the main lift. A bodybuilder might change the exercise for one where the weakest muscle will not be as important, thus allowing him to continue to stimulate the ‘‘non-weak’’ muscle groups while he fixed his weak point.
- Have the ‘‘fast neural adaptation period’’ run out? The first 2-3 weeks you perform a movement the strength increase comes primarily from neural adaptations (intermuscular coordination, intramuscular coordination, high threshold motor units activation, rate coding, etc.) and very little, if any actually comes from actually building muscle.
Since neural adaptations do not require tissue remodeling/building they occur rapidly, but the body is fully adapted just as fast. That’s why, after 2-3 weeks of doing a movement, strength gains will slow down. At that point the fast neural adaptations are completed and now additional strength gains must come from tissue remodeling and building which takes a lot more time.
Some people will interpret that as a plateau, but in reality it’s just that they have switched from stimulating mainly neural gains to stimulating muscle growth. Since muscle growth takes more time, gaining strength will also be slower.
Should you change a movement when that happens? Some coaches recommend that you do… and if strength is your only goal, then I would tend to agree. But if your goal is to build muscle it would be a mistake to change right away. Why? Because you are actually changing an exercise before it had the time to stimulate a significant amount of hypertrophy.
- Have you stalled because of bad planning/excessive fatigue? Sometimes you will fail to make strength gains only because you are tired. Either because of excessive training, badly planned workouts, life stress, a tiring job, improper rest and nutrition, etc.
If that is the case, changing the exercises around will not be a viable solution… sure you might resume strength gains for a week or two, just because you are learning to be better at the new lifts. But you are not solving the actual problem (fatigue) and as a result you will never be able to resume proper gaining.
In that case a drastic volume and/or frequency reduction might be in order.
[quote]NiallC wrote:
Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
NiallC wrote:
thib what would be the optimal dosage of taurine per meal/per day… and is there any time when one should not take it?
Taurine is one of the trickiest product to take. In most people, and contrary to what we are led to believe by energy drink compamies, taurine is a neural inhibitor… as such it has a calming effect.
This is actually the reason why energy drink cies include it in their drinks! The stimulants enter into action quickly and get you amped up, then the taurine kicks in and put you down… so what do you do? You buy another energy drink!
The thing is that taurine is inhibitory in around 75-80% of the population and can be a stimulant in 20-25%.
ok… thats cool to know but for insulin management what would a a dosage, or… with what you are saying, would it be more suitable for adrenal fatique… few hours before bed… if you are one of the 75% of people that would be neurally inhibited by taurine
[/quote]
I’d use it more for adrenal fatigue. There are literally dozens of things you can take to manage insulin, taurine would not be among my first choises and I don’t like using more than 5 TOTAL supplements at once (and that includes fish oil, a multi and HCL… so only 2, or at the most 3, other supplements at any given time).