thanks for that. it’s all there. no more pointless training arguments ever needed again. 
(this should be on the home page)
Listen, some exercises or training techniques contribute very little to stimulating growth. But they use a lot of juice (nervous and metabolic energy) which will hinder your performance and results. If an exercise can give you 5% more stimulation but causes 20% more fatigue, then your gains will actually diminish.
can you be more specific, or provide examples?
excellent article!
CT, you’re starting to sound like Dan John - everything works for a while, focus on the big lifts. Marriage has made you old and cranky. 
J/K
[quote]MikeTheBear wrote:
CT, you’re starting to sound like Dan John - everything works for a while, focus on the big lifts. Marriage has made you old and cranky. J/K[/quote]
You forgot poor…
Hi CT,
From reading Staley and Waterbury, I got the idea that a good way to ensure strength/muscle progression was to make sure you continue to increase in “work per unit time.”
In other words, you could increase volume on an exercise within the same time portion of a workout; OR you could have less volume, and still be increasing in work per unit time.
Does this principle apply in autoregulation, as you see it?
Thanks,
Brian
Great article CT. I just want to be clear about something. When you said:
"This means that these non-idiotic splits will work well for everybody:
Upper-lower splits (requires 4 weekly workouts)
Push-pull-legs (requires 6 workouts per 8 days)
Antagonist pairings (requires 6 workouts per 8 days)
Lower-Upper-Total body (requires 3 weekly workouts)
Push + quads, Pull + hamstrings (requires 4 weekly workouts)
Total Body Training* (requires 2-3 weekly workouts) "
You weren’t purposely leaving out;
Squat Based,-Bench Based,-Deadlift Based,-Press Based
were you? I guess this would be 8 workouts every 9 or 10 days.
Copy/Paste/Save/Print/mark up with yellow highlighter… add to ever expanding Thibaudeau library -lol
S
Hey coach yesterday i trained chest and tried to apply these principles,
Bench Press (3 reps per set) - started about approx 50% of max and worked up to my 3 rep max, the last set was eye popping intensity. this took me 8 sets.
Neck press (7 reps per set) - started with 40% of my max and worked up to 6 sets on the final reaching a difficult 7 rep max. i feel i could have done 1 more set but was too afraid of “doing too much”.
should i have kept going? i felt i accomplished something but did not feel a huge amount of satisfaction. total training session took me 50 mins to complete.
Coach,
I think your stuff is outstanding. I’ve read alot of information from alot of people, alot of it just comes across as either BS or something you’ve already heard. My opinion is that your writings are somewhat cutting edge, and I get no BS meter going off, it just feels like the truth.
However, I find myself being confused by your articles. My main goal is and always will be strength, however getting bigger and looking good do cross my mind. I’m following Wendler’s 5/3/1, something that to me came across as a simple, easy to understand method towards getting stronger.
I’ve lately been really focusing on your “perfect rep” method, with success. I’m waiting for the I, Bodybuilder program to come out, just to see what its all about. There’s a few excersises I really grasp the fast turnaround, such as all pushing moves. Rows and squats are harder to get it down. I began to believe that lifting this way will lead to possibly greater gains in muscle than I’ve seen before.
With this article, I feel disheartened afterwards. You say that sets/reps aren’t important, just what it does for you. That can sort of make me feel foolish for following wendler’s program, as it calls out for 5 sets of 10 reps on 2 excersises after my main lift. Also, it makes me feel as though having 3 sets already set, with what percentage of my max to use, it seems like you would be against that. I’ve been attempting to auto-regulate my last set, either pushing it for as many reps as I can if I feel good, or just doing a few if I don’t. Then I’ve been working on ramping the 5 sets of assistance work, guesstimating what weight I can handle for a tough 10 then counting back 5lbs for 5 sets. If I make it to the weight I set out, great. Sometimes I get to a weight that is giving me a tough time before that, and just stay there for the remaining sets, but I’ve always been doing the 5 sets.
I’m curious about what you would advise, as I like this program and believe that the way the main excersise is laid out, in 2 years I will be considerably stronger than I am now. I’m wondering, if split/program doesn’t matter, how would you use these auto-regulating methods here, and dictate what to do with assistance?
[quote]ironshaolin wrote:
Coach,
I think your stuff is outstanding. I’ve read alot of information from alot of people, alot of it just comes across as either BS or something you’ve already heard. My opinion is that your writings are somewhat cutting edge, and I get no BS meter going off, it just feels like the truth.
However, I find myself being confused by your articles. My main goal is and always will be strength, however getting bigger and looking good do cross my mind. I’m following Wendler’s 5/3/1, something that to me came across as a simple, easy to understand method towards getting stronger.
I’ve lately been really focusing on your “perfect rep” method, with success. I’m waiting for the I, Bodybuilder program to come out, just to see what its all about. There’s a few excersises I really grasp the fast turnaround, such as all pushing moves. Rows and squats are harder to get it down. I began to believe that lifting this way will lead to possibly greater gains in muscle than I’ve seen before.
With this article, I feel disheartened afterwards. You say that sets/reps aren’t important, just what it does for you. That can sort of make me feel foolish for following wendler’s program, as it calls out for 5 sets of 10 reps on 2 excersises after my main lift. Also, it makes me feel as though having 3 sets already set, with what percentage of my max to use, it seems like you would be against that. I’ve been attempting to auto-regulate my last set, either pushing it for as many reps as I can if I feel good, or just doing a few if I don’t. Then I’ve been working on ramping the 5 sets of assistance work, guesstimating what weight I can handle for a tough 10 then counting back 5lbs for 5 sets. If I make it to the weight I set out, great. Sometimes I get to a weight that is giving me a tough time before that, and just stay there for the remaining sets, but I’ve always been doing the 5 sets.
I’m curious about what you would advise, as I like this program and believe that the way the main excersise is laid out, in 2 years I will be considerably stronger than I am now. I’m wondering, if split/program doesn’t matter, how would you use these auto-regulating methods here, and dictate what to do with assistance?[/quote]
What I mean is that if you understand how to do the perfect rep and how to autoregulate, then every non-idiotic program will work.
I, BODYBUILDER will only be one program using what we call MAX FORCE training. Max Force refers to always attempting to produce as much force as you can given the weight, and that means trying to accelerate any load as fast as you can… F = mass x acceleration; you can compensate a lack of mass (weight) by accelerating it more. Max force reps occur slightly below the maximum you can lift for a given rep number. For example, the max force for 3 reps per set is generally attained when using a weight you could lift 5 times, but lift it for 3 reps being as explosive as possible.
I actually really like the 5-3-1 approach because:
-
The perfect rep and max force principles are very easy to apply to this program since you do not use a maximal weight.
-
Autoregulation is built in the program with that last set of max reps … the autoregulation occurs on that last set: the number of reps you reach will be determined by your fatigue level on that day.
-
Autoregulation is also built in by allowing a lot of leeway when it comes to assistance exercises selection.
[quote]superdad4 wrote:
Great article CT. I just want to be clear about something. When you said:
"This means that these non-idiotic splits will work well for everybody:
Upper-lower splits (requires 4 weekly workouts)
Push-pull-legs (requires 6 workouts per 8 days)
Antagonist pairings (requires 6 workouts per 8 days)
Lower-Upper-Total body (requires 3 weekly workouts)
Push + quads, Pull + hamstrings (requires 4 weekly workouts)
Total Body Training* (requires 2-3 weekly workouts) "
You weren’t purposely leaving out;
Squat Based,-Bench Based,-Deadlift Based,-Press Based
were you? I guess this would be 8 workouts every 9 or 10 days.[/quote]
Good catch, yeah, that is a split I really like and use a lot myself.
awesome mini article (rant) whatever it’s called. good to see some sence of unity in what we all strive for. I’m glad to see you like 5/3/1 as this is what I’ve been doing while waiting for I,BB. I appreciate the insight in auto-regulation and the perfect rep. I’ve been trying to lift everything as explosive as possible. Awesome read, thanks Coach… I’m looking forward to more of what awaits
[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
- Regardless of the number of reps you plan on doing, start at 50% of your maximum and gradually increase the poundage you are using while still trying to push the bar as fast or hard as you can. Only do the selected number of reps on each set (even the sets with 50%) and stop when you reach peak performance for that number (the top of the mountain for that exercise on that day).
[/quote]
Thibs, previously you have mentioned starting in the 60-70% range. I am assuming this depends on the rep range being used for a given exercise (lower rep-range). Regardless, I would like to know if you recommend following this approach for every exercises during the workout? If so, and doing 3 exercises for a muscle group, would it make sense to make larger increases in weight during the second and third exercises so a max force weight is reached sooner, and the volume of the workout won’t be super high?
thanks
Coach
How about intensification/accumulation phases, do you still use/recommend those?
Staying at 6 or fewer reps has been very productive for me, how do you choose between say, 5 rep sets and 3 rep sets? If these questions do not represent anything important, that would be interesting too. Great rant. I think all of it is finally sinking in. Thanks.
Awesome stuff, I really enjoyed reading it!
[quote]MiJuggernaut wrote:
Coach
How about intensification/accumulation phases, do you still use/recommend those?
Staying at 6 or fewer reps has been very productive for me, how do you choose between say, 5 rep sets and 3 rep sets? If these questions do not represent anything important, that would be interesting too. Great rant. I think all of it is finally sinking in. Thanks.[/quote]
Well not in what the average reader thinks of them: low reps (heavy weights) and high reps (moderate weight) phases… although I never done them this way myself.
I was introduced to accmulation and intensifation by Olympic lifting coach Pierre Roy, when I was still training for olympic lifting.
His accumulation phases were based on sets of 6 reps, his intensification phases were based on sets of 3 reps and his peaking phases were based on 3-2-1 waves.
This, I still do. But I do not pre-plan when a phase is gonna end or start. I let my body tell me when it needs a break from the super low-reps stuff, at which point I move up to mostly sets of 6.
“stimulate each muscle group twice in a 6-8 days period” means theres 4-6 days of rest time for that muscle group right(sorry about that)? about how many sets/ex should you do per muscle group when you have that much time to recover?
What do you think about choosing an exercice(lift) and doing(or trying the perfect rep,3 quarter eccentric, last quarter faster to strecth pos and fast concentric)… 1 rep for 9 reps… about60 seconds between reps 3rm?
and what do you think about this kind of wave 1, 1-2, 1-2-3, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4-5 reps using 5rm?
[quote]Charles3264 wrote:
What do you think about choosing an exercice(lift) and doing(or trying the perfect rep,3 quarter eccentric, last quarter faster to strecth pos and fast concentric)… 1 rep for 9 reps… about60 seconds between reps 3rm?
and what do you think about this kind of wave 1, 1-2, 1-2-3, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4-5 reps using 5rm?
[/quote]
I don’t like too many sets with the same weight, it seems that the nervous system switches into econo-mode and only the strict minimum is done motor-unit recruitment-wise, leading to lesser activation.
That having been said, this actually might work because the demand changes from set to set even without a change in resistance. I’d have to try it.
let me know…thanks for the answer coach… i was doing this for these exercice…
-snatch rack pulls
-1 arm incline db press
-front squats
- chins
my trainer was giving me this pour m habituer a l effort…je me preparais a un test physque ou la fatigue s accumule durant le parcours…