CT Prime Time

hey ct, what do you prefer when squatting (for size AND power), ass to the grass or parallel?

thanks CT
my weak point is when the bar is about 10 inches off the chest (triceps strength?) I also feel I lack starting strength is speed work something you would recommend?
Should I just change all my bench for close grip and include some shoulder press and chins and dips around 3-5 sets of 5 reps?
Thanks again

hey big chris=)

do you have specific guidelines to set schemes like chads set rep bible?
I want to start your spec.zone circle but don?t know out of which points I should know my volume tolerance.

Do you got guidlines like 9-12 sets when training with 5 to 7 reps and
7-9 sets when doin 10 or stuff?

Ok, finished the last cycle, felt great, good progress. Thanks for all the help CT.

My next question regards isometrics. I’m weak off the bottom of the DL. Lower back is not the problem. Routine is lower body 3x/week, Mon/Fri heavy, Wed is speed.

I’m looking at adding isometric holds at the bottom of the DL, either 2nd or 3rd in the routine (out of 3 exercises).
Rough draft looks like this:

Wednesday
Speed pull/deficit
Snatch
Isometric hold

or

Speed pull/deficit
bulgarian squats/super high step ups
isometric holds

I remember you said something about order of exercises with isometrics, but I couldn’t find what I was looking for. Would it be optimal to put isometrics on a speed day? Would it be ok to do them second/third instead of 1st? and would a snatch width grip interfere or enhance the effect I’m looking for, for weakness at the bottom?

Hi CT,

I really want to increase the size of my forearms as they probably my least developed bodypart.

Please can you suggest how I can increase their size? I never use straps in my training and never have done. Any advice or a routine would be great.

Many thanks
Dan E

CT,
A few years ago my squat was a lot stronger than my back, but I wasn’t falling foward about 1/4 of the way up. Now my lower back is a lot stronger, and I am having a problem tipping foward. any suggestions?
Thank you for you time
Will42

Hi Chris, I wanted to get your opinion on my adaptation of Renaissance Body Development. I like the idea of legs/push/pull, but wanted to have “normal” pulling movements like rows and pull-ups, but also Oly lifts. I adapted the GPP based on the equipment I have available, so there’s some weighted and unweighted stuff. Here it is:

Begin each day with a 10 minute warmup jumping rope a la Coach Davies’ Renegade Rope Training

Weights (set and rep schemes varied week to week):

Monday

Back Squat
Power Clean
Bench Press
Bent Row

Wednesday

Deadlift
One-Arm DB Power Snatch
Military Press
Pull-up

Friday

OH Squat
Power Snatch
Incline Bench
Upright Row

Do 15 minutes of high-intensity cardio or GPP using the following exercises as a guideline:

Rowing
Sprinting
HIIT
Burpees
Power Clean or Power Snatch Burpees
Gymnastics-type Conditioning
Farmer’s Walks
Tabata
Pull-up Burpees
Bear Complex with a light weight
Variations on Bear Complex

Finish with 20-30 minutes of low-intensity cardio such as jogging, fast uphill walking, etc. (optional)

Any recommendations for changes are certainly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

The Thib is back, so feel free to ask away!

CT, thanks for answering our questions! on your Emphasis Specilization routine, I can easily see breaking this up in Push, Pull, Legs for specilization relying on a lot of compound movements.

  1. If I wanted to roatate the specilization weekly instead of every 4 weeks is the program less effective since there is shorter accumulation periods? It would look something like:

Week 1, 4 Push Focus
Week 2, 5 Pull Focus
Week 3, 6 Leg Focus
Week 7 Off

  1. If I converted to a 3 day a week program, brekaing up the rest of the body over all three workouts performed at the end of the routine, would a 15 min rest between the specilization series and the other exercises be enough to minimize fatigue build up from a higher volume of work?

[quote]CRisenhoover wrote:
CT, thanks for answering our questions! on your Emphasis Specilization routine, I can easily see breaking this up in Push, Pull, Legs for specilization relying on a lot of compound movements.

  1. If I wanted to roatate the specilization weekly instead of every 4 weeks is the program less effective since there is shorter accumulation periods? It would look something like:

Week 1, 4 Push Focus
Week 2, 5 Pull Focus
Week 3, 6 Leg Focus
Week 7 Off
[/quote]

I wouldn’t recommend a weekly change of focus. The “shortest” cycles I would recommend are 3 weeks long.

[quote]CRisenhoover wrote:
2. If I converted to a 3 day a week program, brekaing up the rest of the body over all three workouts performed at the end of the routine, would a 15 min rest between the specilization series and the other exercises be enough to minimize fatigue build up from a higher volume of work? [/quote]

Ideally you’d have a split workout (2 daily sessions with at least 3 hours in-between). However if that’s not practical you can do the non-specialized work after your target work. However do not exceed 6 total exercises per session.

[quote]Will42 wrote:
CT,
A few years ago my squat was a lot stronger than my back, but I wasn’t falling foward about 1/4 of the way up. Now my lower back is a lot stronger, and I am having a problem tipping foward. any suggestions?
Thank you for you time
Will42[/quote]

It could be because your hip flexors are too tight or your hamstrings too weak.

thanks for the response!

Hi CT,

With regards to carb cycling whilst in a caloric deficit, how would you determine initially what macros to set for someone who is slightly insulin resistant (which you stated before as easily holding fat around love handles/ lower chest area)

CT,

I’ve recently started competing in OL as a master and was pretty happy to total 160 kg at 83.5 kg. However, in my seemingly never ending quest to clean 225, I recently (thank the Big Guy upstairs minorly injured my left wrist on a squat clean with 200 when my left elbow hit my left quad and bent my left wrist back.

I digress, but wanted to ask you if you thought a 4 day/week program was better than a three day in prep for a meet on 10/29. With the 4 day/week i would be snatching twice per week and C & Jing twice per week. With the 3 day/week program, I would be Snatching and C & Jing each day with 1 assistance exercise (ie. front, back or OHS, or snatch grip deads) I’m a full time attorney, but could feasibly manage the 4/day prgram. 1. which should i do to try and hit 165 kg-170 kg.? 2. How can I clean the 225? My all time best Pclean and squat clean recently is 215. Thanks a bunch!

Nick

[quote]xil wrote:
Hi CT,

With regards to carb cycling whilst in a caloric deficit, how would you determine initially what macros to set for someone who is slightly insulin resistant (which you stated before as easily holding fat around love handles/ lower chest area)[/quote]

First calculate your energy expenditure…

First step: Calculating your basal metabolic rate

Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) simply means the amount of energy used by your body during a 24-hours period if no activity is performed. In other words, if you are inactive for 24-hours straight, you would still ?burn? the amount of calories equivalent to your BMR.

Your BMR is a function of your size, sex and age. It is also influenced by your metabolic status (hypo or hyperthyroid state for example). We can calculate that BMR with the following formulas (by Harris-Benedict):

For men
BMR = 66 + (13,7 x weight in kg) + (5 x height in cm) - (6.8 x age)

So for a 30 years old bodybuilder of 220lbs (100kg) on 5?11? (178cm) it comes up to:

BMR = 66 + (13,7 x 100kg) + (5 x 178cm) ? (6,8 x 30)

BMR = 2122 calories per day

For women
BMR = 655 + (9,6 x weight in kg) + (1,7 x height in cm) - (4,7 x age)

So for a 28 year old figure girl of 132lbs (60kg) on 5?6? (165cm) it comes up to:

BMR = 655 + (9,6 x 60kg) + (1,7 x 165cm) ? (4,7 x 28)

BMR = 1380 calories per day

Second step: factoring-in activity level

The amount found using the Harris-Benedict formulas is what your body burn everyday even if you do nothing all day. Obviously the more active you are, the more you?ll burn fuel. So Energy expenditure will be increased when your activity level goes up.

To get an adequate estimation you need to multiply your BMR by an activity level factor.

Sedentary: doing nothing all day (sleeping and watching TV) = BMR x 1.0

Very light activity: doing nothing physical. Working a desk job or on a computer and not performing any type of physical activity during your day = BMR x 1.2

Light activity: having a non-physical job (desk, computer, etc.) but performing some sort of physical activity during the day (e.g. above average walking) but no hard training = BMR x 1.4

Moderate activity: having a non-physical job, performing some sort of physical activity during the day and including a daily workout session in your routine. This is where most of you are at = BMR x 1.6

High activity: either training + physical job or non-physical job and twice-a-day training sessions = BMR x 1.8

Extreme activity: a very physical job and daily training hard = BMR x 2.0

So if our 220lbs bodybuilder with a BMR of 2122 calories/day is moderately active, his daily energy expenditure is bumped up to 2122 x 1.6 = 3395 calories/day. This is the amount of food to consume to maintain present body weight.

Now we can establish nutrients levels.

In your case I suggest a 40% protein, 40% carbs and 20% fat intake. This is only for the average/moderate days.

We will use our 220lbs bodybuilder as an example.

He has a daily energy expenditure of 3395kcals. To loose fat he choose to decrease his calories by 10% … so on average he wants to consumer 2716kcals.

His intake on average days is thus:

Protein: 40% x 2716kcals / 4kcals = 272g
Carbs: 40% x 2716kcals / 4kcals = 272g
Fat = 20% x 2716kcals / 9kcals = 60g

As a rule of the thumb We can say that:

High(er) carbs intake = 125% of average
Moderate carbs = 100% of average intake
Low(er) carbs = 75% of average intake

So his adjusted intake becomes:

High(er) carb days:
272g proteins
340g carbs
60g fat

Moderate carb days:
272g proteins
272g carbs
60g fat

Low(er) carb days:
272g proteins
206g carbs
60g fat

These are the starting amounts… ***Every 3 WEEKS you reduce carb intake by 25g/day.

So for example on the 4th week carb levels would become 315g, 247g, 181g.

Obviously these numbers are for our sample bodybuilder, you will have to do your own calculations.

I would suggest a 4 days split, with the 4th day being a “meet simulation day”.

For example:

DAY 1 (snatch emphasis)
Power snatch from blocks
Snatch-grip deadlift
Overhead squat
Power clean from hang (light)

DAY 2 (jerk emphasis)
Split jerk
Power clean and push press
Front squat
Power snatch from hang (light)

DAY 3 (clean emphasis)
Squat clean from blocks
Clean-grip deadlift
Back squat
Push jerks (light)

DAY 4 (meet simulation)
Snatch (work up to max)
Clean & jerk (work up to max)

3 weeks is kinda short to peak though.

[quote]Nick Radonjic wrote:
CT,

I’ve recently started competing in OL as a master and was pretty happy to total 160 kg at 83.5 kg. However, in my seemingly never ending quest to clean 225, I recently (thank the Big Guy upstairs minorly injured my left wrist on a squat clean with 200 when my left elbow hit my left quad and bent my left wrist back.

I digress, but wanted to ask you if you thought a 4 day/week program was better than a three day in prep for a meet on 10/29. With the 4 day/week i would be snatching twice per week and C & Jing twice per week. With the 3 day/week program, I would be Snatching and C & Jing each day with 1 assistance exercise (ie. front, back or OHS, or snatch grip deads) I’m a full time attorney, but could feasibly manage the 4/day prgram. 1. which should i do to try and hit 165 kg-170 kg.? 2. How can I clean the 225? My all time best Pclean and squat clean recently is 215. Thanks a bunch!

Nick[/quote]

CT,
I asked you a couple weeks ago about training during hockey season. For the last month or so we have been practicing on mon and wed. Based on your advice I have been performing a whole body day w/ about 6-10 reps on tuesdays. On friday I have been doing “ME” squat/dead doing one rep w/ a 3RM and doing the same for bench on saturday- with supplemental and assistance exercises on these days as well. In a couple weeks we start having games- starting then we will have 5 weeks of games friday and saturday this semester and then another 5 weeks of the same starting next semester (mid january). How would you alter training during these periods where games are added to the practices? I was thinking I would keep the whole body rep day on tuesday and add a similar day on sunday. How do you think that would work? Thanks for your help,
TR

Hi CT,

When performing high volume during an accumulation bodybuilding phase (training each muscle group once a week), should I be feeling soreness in the trained muscles in the days following my workouts? If my muscles aren’t sore, does it mean that I’m not training hard enough?

Does the same hold for strength training during intensification phases?

Thanks!

Soreness is not an indication of a good workout. It really depends on various factors including training status, conditioning level, your body’s inflamatory response and your nutritional status.

You don’t need to be sore the next day to have a good workout.

[quote]JDavid wrote:
Hi CT,

When performing high volume during an accumulation bodybuilding phase (training each muscle group once a week), should I be feeling soreness in the trained muscles in the days following my workouts? If my muscles aren’t sore, does it mean that I’m not training hard enough?

Does the same hold for strength training during intensification phases?

Thanks![/quote]

To clarify … soreness is not indicative of progress. If it were I would simply have to hit your legs with a baseball bat to make them grow!!! Progress = progress, nothing else!