Hey everyone!
I would like to start by saying I’m new to the forum but a long time reader of T-nation articles. Best advice out there.
Anyways, I’ve started running Coach Thibs Best Damn program looking for a change of pace. Strength is my end goal but haven’t made much progress in that for a while. Decided to go with the original to focus more on muscle mass for a while. So far I love it and it’s really what motivated to get a bit more involved in the forums.
I would like to hear some of your opinions in regards to exercise selection though.
Big 3 and variation twice a week. Front squat and squat (instead of Hack squat), RDL and dead lift (instead of GHR/Reverse Hyper since none available anyways), and I like the bench and db incline split in the original. Would do the double rest/pause for these except the DB bench.
Over head/ Delt work. I love the KB snatch and would do that instead of the front raises. Also would prefer to do push pressing instead of the strict pressing. 6-8-10 for the KB. And last would replace the bent lateral flyes with a 5-1-5 pyramid of laterals, bent laterals, and bent Y raises. I find my shoulders (including joints) respond much better to flyes with lower weight and higher volume.
Lastly, was considering replacing the leg extensions with high rep BW lunges and the leg curls with KB swings.
I know all about how tinkering too much with plans can get too far off track from the purpose of the program so would love to hear thoughts about what should be good, what may be too far off the mark, and any ideas or suggestions.
Thanks everyone ahead of time for the feedback, and thanks Coach Thib for such an awesome program.
Remember that is is a program about muscle building, so have to pick exercise that you know work for you for building muscle (and not just look cool)
Front squat and back squat are fine. Deadlift I’m not so sure as for really building muscle. Last program i did with CT I replaced GHR/hyper by hip thrusts with the coach’s blessing and these were fantastic.
Push pressing is fine Especially. KB snatch I’m not really a big fan here as there’s very little TUT.
Same for Swings I find it hard to concentrate on my hammies and don’t fell much there even with 50 kgs. These movements are all about explosion. Why don’t you like leg curls?
Extensions sure I didn’t do them for like 3 years because of knee surgeries. I suggest leg press or maybe bulgarian split squat with double contraction
Dead lift I was unsure about as well. The hip thrusts are a great idea though.
It is definitely not as much TUT as a flye. But holding the over head lockout position for 2-3 seconds i find gives me a better pump. Feels better on my shoulders than most flye variations too.
I actually do like the lying leg curl a lot. I’m not as much of a fan of the seated variation, which my gym only has. Again, mainly looking for a way to incorporate swings, but also get a little more work for the glutes. Although if I go with hip thrusts as mentioned above, that probably won’t be a concern. I was also thinking of doing cable pull throughs here, or DB RDLs.
My split squat definitely needs some work so I’ll probably go with that one.