CC - for years now you have provided thorough, well thought out and insightful advice to a metric ton of beginning trainers on this forum. Not sure if you’ve been through this on here before, but I feel like it would be really cool to see a brief outline of your training history and an over view of how you train today.
Thanks!
[quote]atg410 wrote:
CC - for years now you have provided thorough, well thought out and insightful advice to a metric ton of beginning trainers on this forum. Not sure if you’ve been through this on here before, but I feel like it would be really cool to see a brief outline of your training history and an over view of how you train today.
Thanks![/quote]
+1
what a great idea! Can’t believe it hasn’t been done before
Thanks for the spotlight but, sorry to say, there’s nothing all that interesting or noteworthy.
Pretty much this, but replace black with skinny.
I’ll get back with all the dirt later this afternoon, guaranteed, but it’s gonna take a bit. As verbose as I can get, I need some time to throw together something readable.
Real quick: Right now (and for the last 6 weeks) I’m lifting 3 days a week following a program found here on the site. In two weeks, I start a super-fun summer cut and will be training 4 days a week, also following a program from this site. Details, history, and fun facts will be shared later.
[quote]Chris Colucci wrote:
Thanks for the spotlight but, sorry to say, there’s nothing all that interesting or noteworthy.
Pretty much this, but replace black with skinny.
I’ll get back with all the dirt later this afternoon, guaranteed, but it’s gonna take a bit. As verbose as I can get, I need some time to throw together something readable.
Real quick: Right now (and for the last 6 weeks) I’m lifting 3 days a week following a program found here on the site. In two weeks, I start a super-fun summer cut and will be training 4 days a week, also following a program from this site. Details, history, and fun facts will be shared later.[/quote]
I’m more excited/nervous about this than I usually am for my dates with underage girls <3
I was never really athletic and never did sports outside of gym class, but when I was 14 or 15, I started training in Kenpo Jiujitsu. (Fun Fact #1 - one of the guys my Sensei studied under was the “notorious” Nimr Hassan, who studied directly under Mitose).
I started lifting in high school when I was an unmuscular 170 pounds, 6’2", and tired of being called “lanky.” I made all the usual mistakes that teenagers do - I overemphasized supplements and under-emphasized food, followed dumb programs, followed Flex magazine as gospel, changed programs too often, turned down advice from more experienced lifters.
In a weird coincidence, a guy at my dojo worked at GNC and told me they were hiring, so I soon got a job there. Not surprisingly, this did little to increase my knowledge of effective training. Even though I was reading five or six muscle magazines each month, I wasn’t getting anything close to uber-jacked even though I was now training at a pretty great, serious gym.
(Fun Fact #2 - The first gym I belonged to eventually closed its doors and, years later, reopened just a few blocks from where I currently live. So the gym I go to now is actually the same one I went to almost 15 years ago, same owner, just a new location.)
Eventually I got certified through the ISSA as a trainer, began working with clients for all sorts of goals (athletes, non-athletes, elderly, young kids, etc.), and I started studying what coaches and trainers, not professional bodybuilders, had to say about effective training. Over the years, I’ve experimented a ton, gotten up into the high 220s, never broke 230 that I can remember. Never got “sloppy” with a squishy muffin top and moobs, but never really got 8-pack shredded either.
Recently (as in, the last two or three years), I’ve “remembered” the importance of goal setting. Simple as it is, I kinda spent a lot of time satisfied with just doing something in the gym a few days a week, staying generally active, and basically coasting.
On the whole, this “coasting” has lead to a rut that I’ve consciously been trying to break. (Fun Fact #3 - a few years ago, I met with some New York T-Nation members including the Mighty Stu. One of the dudes took some video and in it, well, let’s just say it reinvigorated my enthusiasm for seriously productive training.)
One way I’m trying to fix the situation is by getting back to setting specific time-based goals. Last year, I attacked the DB clean and press 75x12 and I played around with John McCallum’s High Protein, High Set routine. (And yep, those both turned into articles here.) The year before, it was a half-bodyweight bent press (old school Sandow-era move). Each of these goals took a few months of dedicated focus, which was good for my body and brain.
This year, I’ve made an unofficial resolution to only follow training programs from the Article Archives here because, on some level, you shouldn’t listen to a BMW salesman who drives a Honda to work. Know what I mean?
So far this year, I’ve done:
Waterbury’s ABBH 1 - The Anti-Bodybuilding Hypertrophy Program
Waterbury’s ABBH 2 - The Anti-Bodybuilding Hypertrophy Program
and Henriques’ 8-Week Basic Strength Program - 8-Week Basic Strength Plan
In a few weeks, I’m starting a month of Cosgrove’s Complexes for Fat Loss - Complexes for Fat Loss
After that, who knows. I’ll probably decide 3 or 4 weeks from now.
As of last week, I’m 214 (and still 6’2") with some abs if I flex on an empty stomach in perfect lighting. Ha. I’m not stressing about weight, so I’m fine if I end up fairly “light” as long as I end up looking “good.”
Strength-wise, I’m nothing near impressive or, frankly, worth mentioning and any of the big lifts. Suffice it to say, my strength on the basic lifts has suffered a good bit by my frequent coasting and, while effort has never lacked, consistency with the tried and true basics has.
I had a low back issue a few years ago, and I admit to using it as a cop-out for minimal squatting and benching. It’s something I am trying to catch up on.
Food-wise, I keep it simple. I don’t like to count macros, but I probably “should” (and likely will when trying 100% to cut). Each meal has an animal protein focus with the carb portion “clean” and relatively-small. 1 or 2 protein shakes a day, peri-workout nutrition on lifting days, a glass or two of red wine or bourbon a few days a week usually with dinner or while cooking. 
I don’t drink any alcohol on days I lift, but I may rationalize a Pepsi.
I’m a member of a local CSA farm, so I get a box of different locally-grown organic vegetables every week and make sure to finish the mix. It’s 6 months a year and this season actually just started last week. I definitely recommend checking out http://www.localharvest.org to find local organic produce near you.
“Cheat days”, or overt crap-eating days, will happen maybe two or three times a month. Days where life just surprises you with craziness, so you end up with pizza and a dozen garlic knots for dinner. No biggie in the grand scheme of things. Eating pizza, drinking wine, and watching Netflix with someone you love is anabolic, I’m pretty sure of it.
We do eat/live organic and BPA-free as much as possible. (Fun Fact #4 - My gal worked for some of the first lawyers to sue BPA-containing baby bottle manufacturers years ago.) The stuff is horrendous. Try not to get paranoid and overboard with it, but the less toxins in your body, the better, obviously.
I think that covers the broad strokes. Anything particular I can clarify or expand on, just ask.
[quote]Claudan wrote:
I’m more excited/nervous about this than I usually am for my dates with underage girls <3[/quote]
Um.
Okay.
You’re… welcome?? I think.
[quote]Chris Colucci wrote:
The year before, it was a half-bodyweight bent press[/quote]
…
[quote]rds63799 wrote:
[quote]Chris Colucci wrote:
The year before, it was a half-bodyweight bent press[/quote]
…[/quote]
Did you ever get that one Chris? Sounds like a pretty tough goal…I’ve tried some light bent press and one hand press and they are no joke.
Thanks for taking the time to type out your response. Given your current goal of working from the plans present in the article archives, have you come across any program that you think would be a good fit for beginners or intermediates that doesn’t get the attention of some better known programs?
[quote]atg410 wrote:
[quote]rds63799 wrote:
[quote]Chris Colucci wrote:
The year before, it was a half-bodyweight bent press[/quote]
…[/quote]
Did you ever get that one Chris? Sounds like a pretty tough goal…I’ve tried some light bent press and one hand press and they are no joke.[/quote]
I did, and rds knows it, and he busts my chops every chance he gets because he wants me to write something up about training for it but I keep dodging him.
Tell ya what, rds, in light of this honor of a thread, I’ll dig out my old training notebook from that year and really will try to put something together even if it’s just a thread (probably ending up in the Conditioning forum, as a heads up).
[quote]atg wrote:
Given your current goal of working from the plans present in the article archives, have you come across any program that you think would be a good fit for beginners or intermediates that doesn’t get the attention of some better known programs?[/quote]
That’s a tough one because there are like 15 years worth of archives and a few dozen qualified coaches with different approaches to training. Thibaudeau’s older stuff (like bodypart-specific programs and “traditional” bodybuilding technique tweaks) is still solid even though his current training is drastically different.
I think I recommend Clay Hyght’s “Blending Size and Strength 2.0” pretty often. It’s a great 4 session/wk, upper-lower, bodybuilding split.
Dan John’s programs are brilliantly simple and most would be especially great choices for young lifters. Kinda like Starting Strength, even if a beginner wants to “look like a bodybuilder”, there’s something to be said for developing a solid base with the kind of compound-dominant program Dan often describes.
I think Waterbury’s stuff is awesome though overlooked/forgotten/considered “uncool” but, to be fair, a lot of principles Thibaudeau is talking about today are exactly what Waterbury was talking about almost 10 years ago.
That’s absolutely not a knock on anyone, just that somehow Waterbury’s input got an undeserved reputation as being “not useful for bodybuilding” when the principles are actually very beneficial. And it’s a reminder that, 8 or 9 times out of 10, successful coaches will agree on most topics. It’s armchair trainers that yell the loudest about “‘So and so’ said this is how you’re supposed to train and you’re not doing it like that so you’re doing it wrong!”
[quote]Chris Colucci wrote:
[quote]atg410 wrote:
[quote]rds63799 wrote:
[quote]Chris Colucci wrote:
The year before, it was a half-bodyweight bent press[/quote]
…[/quote]
Did you ever get that one Chris? Sounds like a pretty tough goal…I’ve tried some light bent press and one hand press and they are no joke.[/quote]
I did, and rds knows it, and he busts my chops every chance he gets because he wants me to write something up about training for it but I keep dodging him.
Tell ya what, rds, in light of this honor of a thread, I’ll dig out my old training notebook from that year and really will try to put something together even if it’s just a thread (probably ending up in the Conditioning forum, as a heads up).[/quote]
about time!
seriously though the only reason I bust your chops about it so much is because I know you’d do a good job of explaining it. It’s a really hard exercise to try and teach yourself, as I’m sure you know.
[quote]rds63799 wrote:
seriously though the only reason I bust your chops about it so much is because I know you’d do a good job of explaining it. It’s a really hard exercise to try and teach yourself, as I’m sure you know.[/quote]
Ha, thanks man. And yeah, it’s a weird exercise to get a handle on. Partly because it’s, ya know, 100-something years old and reliable info is hard to come by, and partly because the kettlebell guys have been saying “do it this way”, but after a little reading on my own, golly gee whiz… Saxon wasn’t using RKC-approved bent press technique.
Quick version: There are guidelines, but there’s no one specific, strict way to perform it. Basically, it takes a lot of trial and error, and sometimes tweaking foot stance or body positioning from set to set, to gradually figure out what works, what doesn’t, what positions feel strong, etc.
Also, the hand that isn’t holding the weight has an important job of bracing against the same side leg to increase total body stability. Waving it out at your side, for balance or whatever, is inefficient.
For squirts and giggles, I figured I’d toss this in here even though I posted it in the April Check-In thread.
For three of the four months between the pics, I was doing the ABBH 1 and 2 programs. So, yeah, anyone who says full body workouts cause arms to shrink is talking out of their arse. They might not be certified sleeve-stretchers, but I don’t think they’re exactly petite.
I’ll be putting up another progress pic (most likely more than just an arm shot) in the August Check-In thread when the time comes. Public accountability is a harsh and unyielding mistress.
Here’s another follow up question based on your over view - you’ve been through a few programs in the past year, and it sounds generally, like you are someone that likes to mix things up on a fairly frequent basis - how do you decide when to switch gears/change programs/alter variables and still stay on track in terms of larger goals?
thanks!
[quote]atg410 wrote:
Here’s another follow up question based on your over view - you’ve been through a few programs in the past year, and it sounds generally, like you are someone that likes to mix things up on a fairly frequent basis - how do you decide when to switch gears/change programs/alter variables and still stay on track in terms of larger goals?
thanks![/quote]
For that matter Chris, what are your own larger goals? It didn’t seem to be a clear strength, size, or weight loss goal. I could have missed something when reading that.
From what I’ve seen it looks like it’s more “get familiar with various training methodologies in order to incorporate them into the way you train others”.
Interesting thread.
What supps are you taking? Does Biotest give you stuff like Plazma to try/give you a discount on their stuff?
What exactly did you eat yesterday?
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