T Nation

Going Beyond the "Best Damn Workout"

Christian Thibaudeau Coaching
#1

Hi

I’ve been doing the “Best Damn Workout for Naturals” for 10 weeks now, or 10 x 6 days cycles. Started in mid-november and I enjoyed the program thoroughly. I’m really happy with the added size on hamstrings, arms, upper chest and mid-back. One thing I really enjoyed is that you can train daily and stay fresh. Every workout is fun and you come to the gym enthusiastic. The almost daily nature of the program kept me focused on eating perfectly too. I can’t say I’ve seen much strenght gains though, but that wasn’t the purpose of the program either.

All in all a great program that I’d recommend to every natural lifter, so thank you a lot for that. “Natural” is somewhat subjective here as I use a ton of biotest products. Specifically, the supplement plan was 1 dose plazma for w-o and 1 dose Mag-10 after. I used Indigo 4 pills/day and Alpha Male 4 pills/day and a dose of metabolic drive before bed time.

I was looking to build on the foundation of the program since it worked so well, but try to aim it a bit more for fat loss. What would your thoughts be for this?
I was thinking about supersetting exercices to increase density or replacing the last exercice of the workouts with 4-6 sets of loaded carries.

Thank you

#2

I did the Best Damn for awhile too and had some great gains. However, now I am a bigger fan of CT’s Strength/Skill Circuit program on his Thibarmy site as it incorporates the best of both worlds. You still have a daily hypertrophy focus, yet you work in the big lifts as well for strength. In addition, if you can get down to 1M only rest between the big lifts, it definitely gets your heart rate going. You might want to check that program out and tweak to fit your goals as necessary.

#3

Just want to add here, what a FANTASTIC way to train. Mike & Cper I might be mistaken but it seems like you guys are looking for a more strength/performance element (repeated, heavy barbell movements for example) that feels mISSING from this program.

I feel the same way so what I’ve been doing to make Best Damn Workout quite compatible with strength/skill style (without destroying the integrity of the program/hypertrophy gains) is to treat the FIRST TWO main exercises as the main dish -> ramped up in 3 reps and a heavy PRIMER set (1 rep, maybe isometric hold) 20-50% weight ABOVE my first (and technically “only”) work set.

This replicates the “performance” element/ramping that we’ve all come to appreciate with CT’s style.

As an example I push day I would ramp up in 3’s on the bench and go past my first work set of 5/rest pause by quite a bit to prime the nervous system. Similarly with a frankenstein squat on that day.

I’m also using compound exercises (for the first two major movements of every workout) most of the time and only doing the machine/isolation if I feel particularly worn down (almost never) or if I just want to “pump” it out. This also serves to really juice my perfomrance/intensity on the 3rd and 4th (and 5th and 6th) exercises which are for more “ancillary” muscles & assistance movements naturally

CT if you don’t mind comment on this approach? I find it satisfies my performance craving while combining this bodybuilding, 1 top set low vol/high freq approach.

Also mike i’d be curious to hear how you compare the Strength/Skill circuit (this is the 6 day, 3 lifts lots of power cleans right) vs. best damn in term sof enjoyment & also size/physique gains?
thanks

#4

*also to add: has anyone tried focusing on the same compound exercises for the push and pull categories? More practice and strength gains. Variation comes from different intensity method on the top set…
CT thoughts/drawbacks on this? Thx