Look Like A Bodybuilder Perform Like An Athlete

If you can do it, sure. I took it out because a lot of people didn’t have access to these tools. I wanted to go with the simplest program possible and have people build up on it if needed/desired.

I like wave loading but I find that when you use a fixed weight you can more easily judge the quality/degradation of a set. And the intensity waving during the week allows for better neural recovery than always going hard at it.

I’m still kinda confused whether and how I should choose my assistance work especially regarding intensity and loading.
Let’s take the upper body push day as an example:
I do my cleans combined with my presses and push presses and could potentially do some light facepulls (light weight many reps but no failure) in between the actual main sets?
when (and if) choosing assistance work should it be based on the main lifts of that day ( so upper body assistance on upper body main workout and lower body assistance on lower body main workout) or the complete opposite?

And one last question regarding rep explosiveness and reps per set: should I always feel like I have one or two reps left in the tank ( probably grinded out a bit)?
I’m asking because I gave it a try today and I couldn’t really distinguish if my reps were “explosive” enough. by saying that I mean that the movement was still accelerating but in the 4th or 5th set the second or third rep wasn’t as fast as lets say the very first reps of the workout but still was feeling like I could do some additional less accelerating reps…

once again Christian. thank you

In this article you mention not emphasizing the eccentric. Does that only apply to this system? In the past you’ve written about increasing mTOR through emphasized eccentrics, most recently in your updated Layer System article. If one is not able to train every day, are emphasized eccentrics still a good method to use for increased hypertrophy?

What results are you getting with clients interms of losing body fat while gaining muscle for natural trainee?
No offense Christian love your work but where are the before and after pictures ?
I am a fan of Nick Mitchell, Charles Poliquin coaches who have real results who preach finish a set to technical failure which I think is beyond the point you are prescribing.
Wouldn’t training less but harder yield the same results?

  1. You’ll notice that I recently wrote an article about training to failure and why it is effective. I just don’t believe it is optimal when doing big compound lifts because of the stress on the nervous system. Read these recent articles of mine: The Single Best Muscle-Building Method - T Nation Content - COMMUNITY - T NATION and Forced Growth: A New Way to Build Muscle - T Nation Content - COMMUNITY - T NATION

  2. This system is based on the training of Olympic lifters, which is the sport I first practiced. It is how I personally like to train. While I do want to improve my body as much as possible I also care about being super explosive and strong, no just size for it’s own sake.

  3. Does it help to get lean? Oh yes, look at the most explosive athletes they all tend to be very lean, often despite crappy diet. I train a lot of athletes this way and they are lean and muscular, moreso than most who focus all their energy on body composition and they don’t obsess over diet as much. Explosive work improves insulin sensitivity which helps you get leaner. Explosive work improves body composition mostly by putting the body in an optimal hormonal and immune situation, not by forcing caloric expenditure.

  4. That having been said if you read my work you will notice that when I want to get someone leaner I resort to loaded carries, prowler pushing and sprints. I believe that he lifting work is there to make you stronger and more muscular while the diet and conditioning work is how you get leaner.

  5. There are many ways to train to get results. I believe that the training approach that works best is the one that better fits your psychological profile. I personally find traditional bodybuilding training boring and it kills my motivation to train this way. Ultimately the training approach that gets you the most motivated will bring ou the best results. I have also trained IFBB pro bodybuilders so its not like I am agans bodybuilding and bodybuildng training.

  6. Just because I’m not going to failure does’t mean I’m not training hard. I explode every rep with all I’ve got. I personally believe that doing a 265lbs+ snatch is harder than a set of bench press to failure, but that’s just me.

  7. Charles and Nick (that I both know personally) would agree that doing the explosive lifts (snatches, clean and push press, clean & jerks, snatch high pull) to failure is a bad idea. In those lifts “failure” is when you can’t accelerate the weight optimally anymore. They would also agree that breaking form on deadlifs and squats because you are going to failure is no a good idea. On snatch-grip deadlift for example proper lifting posture gives out WAY before muscle contractile failure is reached. I don’t believe that continuing t push when posture gives out is a good idea.

  8. I actually talked to Nick about 2 weeks ago and we were discussing his clientele. Mostly businessmen who can only gather the time to train 2-3 times a week. Of course if someone cannot train frequently the proper strategy will be different.

  9. I am giving 3 seminars at Nick’s gym in April and May, he hired me to work with his staff. Interpret that as you wish.

  10. Charles is a friend of mine. He actually paid for my honeymoon. We also gave some seminars together and still exchange quite a bit. Again interpret that as you wish.

  11. Because I don’ get real world results? I’ve worked with many pro and top national level bodybuilders and figure athletes. Crossfit athletes who went to the Crossfit Games as well as average Joes jus wanting to get in shape. I don’t use before and after pics because I’m not looking to get more clients (which is the purpose of before and after stories). When I post things it’s impressive lifts by athletes I work with (e.g. Jason Houde’s 290lbs snatch, 380lbs clean & jerk, 370lbs power clean… I could post physique pictures since a 6’1" and 220lbs and 5.4% body fat he looks like a more jacked Chaning Tatum … you could also google Jessica Cote-Beaudoin with whom I’ve been working for 5 years, you’ll find plenty of pics of her). Or Patrick Bernard (IFBB pro, although Aceto does his diet) I prefer to post performance videos than physique shots but that’s jut me.

  12. And this is worth repeating: there are many different ways to train and ultimately the one that will work best is the one that better fits your psychological, neurological and physiological profile.

  13. And again, not all exercises are the same, /if you threat a snatch or clean & jerk the same way you threat a biceps curl, you have a bad understanding of training! This system is based on high performance movements, maximizing athleticism and fast twitch properties while minimizing neurological impact. The exercise selection reflects that and the exercises selected are not trained the same way as a biceps curl or leg press. That being said I do mention that one can add “bodybuilding work” to the program if he wants more development in some muscles.

  14. Understand the purpose of the program. Would I use this approach with an IFBB pro bodybuilder? No, of course not (I have trained quite a few of them). This program is designed for people who want to be explosive, strong and athletic while also improving theway they look. Don’t analyze a golf swing and say “there is no way you’ll hit a lot of homeruns during a baseball game swinging like that”. When I analyze someone I look at what he is looking to accomplish what is the end result he is looking for, and select the best modality to reach that goal.

4 Likes

Good Afternoon Sir,

After having read both this article and the two mentioned in point 1 of this reply to HD8, as well as the article posted by Bert Contreras regarding continuous tension, I was wondering if there was a way to marry what seems like two opposed protocols. For example, following the upper body day, would it be beneficial to perform one or two sets of partial flyes to failure once or twice a week, either on the upper body day or before the lower body workout? A few isolation exercises to failure might make for some sort of hybrid workout without taking up too much additional time.

Thank you.

Thank you for your response. I have a better understanding now of the methods you wrote about. Excuse my skepticism its just I only listen to people with results and there is a lot of BS online.
Oh I reread my question I didn’t mean to imply you don’t get results I meant I listen to people who get results hence me commenting here.
Seems like tnation just wants new articles all the time with coaches who aren’t even in shape themselves you excluded of course.
Or coaches who are so young they haven’t produced much real world results again yourself excluded.
Personally my shoulders are killing me so I stop training them as frequently and did more back work while stopped bicep work as it aggravated my shoulders.
But my shoulder problem still exists thats why your article intrigued me.
The DOMS is excruciating at the proximal end of my bicep tendon to shoulder tie in.
Your explanation about doing Back & Biceps every 5-6 weeks could explain my issue how I am making it worse. Back & Biceps are my strongest areas.
My issue personally is my tight thoracic i.e. I can’t bring my arms up vertical without hyperextending and I can’t fully supinate my forearms so I am working on these imbalances.
Should I fix that first or do your program with all the pressing while fixing my issue?
Will cycling Back and Bicep work make that much difference in your experience?
Thanks

CT has defacto the most effective, real training insights ever. He’s pretty legendary and wish would promote his work more.

I’ve tried everything and always go back to his performance style, nothing is ever quite as “enjoyable”.

The failure stuff I’ve done, it’s fine (phil hernon 3 sets only, this was with compound movements), intense but kinda arbitrary (sometimes the first set would be too heavy, feel odd, not activated) and my performance goes all over the place. I get to train every day so performance style/high freq. blends well.

Any workout where i Just pump away on a machine without having moved body through space or explosively moved a heavy barbell feels horrible for me. Like I haven’t rained, even if my muscles do get trashed by such concentrated isolation work.

And dunno if CT has mentioned but “anabolic support” supposedly makes isolation/pump effective whereas natural have to focus on performance + poundage. Perhaps why IFBB can train differently…

CT when it comes to explosivenss and performance training, where would you rank bodyweight moves (even weighted) done explosively. Say a handstand pushup done explosively vs. a push press. Weighted pushup/dip vs. bench. Explosive/perfect contraction front levers and chins vs. straight arm pulldown or seated/barbell rows etc.

Might just be pulling this out of my ass but seems like you look at body weight stuff more favorably these days (chinup article, dips best for chest, weighted dips >= bench, etc.) and even lot of NC stuff can be done with just bodyweight (explosive pushup/chins, lunges and jumps).

Is weight just weight and tension all that matters or does moving body through space vs. fixed weight impact physiology differentl (neural, hormonal, metabolic signals)

True. I am giving a seminar this weekend and its something I talked about.

You can’t look at what an enhanced bodybuilder does and think ‘‘I will work for me, I’ll just get a little less gains because I’m not on gear’’. It doesn’t work like that. Anabolics completely change what you need from your session.

To gain muscle you need to increase protein synthesis.an enhanced bodybuilder already has elevated protein synthesis 24/7 because that’s what anabolics do. They don’t need the training session to act as a stimulus for enhanced protein synthesis… basically they could simply pump away to pull nutrients into the muscles to take advantage of the already high protein synthesis and they will grow. A natural trainee HAS to stimulate protein synthesis with his training, simply pumping up is not necessarily and efficient way to do this.

Also, when you do excessively stressful sessions (tons of volume, going to failure on a lot of sets, etc.) you increase cortisol production more. Cortisol is fabricated from pregnenolone, same as testosterone. So the more cortisol you produce, the less ‘‘material’’ you have left to produce testo. So if a natural trainee goes overboard too often his testo/cortisol ratio will be bad (favor catabolism) and gains will be much harder to come by. An enhanced bodybuilder doesn’t have that issue since he artificially elevate his testo level.

I’m not pro or against anabolics. But you simply need to understand that you are not dealing with the same body when someone is enhanced.

Yeah it’s only a matter of resistance. The main drawbacks of bodyweight exercises is that it is harder to modulate the load. Even adding weight kinda change the movement. And there is also the technique issue, not everybody can do some of the more advanced drills properly.

But if the resistance is adequate and form solid, bodyweight exercises will work just as well. In fact the movement that built my ;lats the most was training on the front lever.

For someone familiar with your body of work, it was really confusing to read this article though. Especially because it was a weird rehash of the old HPmass article. Especially when just having read your new’ish articles on failure training and minimising CNS fatigue.

How does the training for failure concepts and minimising CNS fatigue fit into this?

Maybe the editor should state that it’s an updated article? The whole thing about “no longer holding back” was also in the old article… so it’s just a bit mind-fuzzling to read.

I always loved training like this though.

Norcient, actually the original HP mass article had been missing for some reason. A lot of people asked where it was, which is why we decided to reprint it. BUT some stuff has evolved in my own training since then, mostly in relation to my selection of exercises as well as volume of work sets. So we took the original and modified it so that it would better represent my current application.

As for ses to failure. I have tons of use that I can use depending on what I’m trying to accomplish. I do not include all of them in every program /I do or write.

Can you explain why there is more volume and intensity on pulls than squats? It’s interesting because i’ve always read to do the opposite.

A properly executed snatch deadlift (NOT a regular deadlift with a wide grip which is what most people seem to do) involves the quads almost as much as the squat. When it is done correctly I see it as a quads exercise with the added benefit of stimulating the back.

The goal is not to do a certain ratio of exercises, it is to stimulate the proper muscles.

Christian, just started program today. Two questions:

  1. Wraps for work sets of SGHP and deadlifts?

  2. I tore my right pec years ago, so it is smaller/weaker. Any recommendations for this bi-Lateral weakness such as adding some non-taxing volume or should I use db presses instead of bar. I know I will lose some of the intended training effect with this though.
    Thanks much

Interesting since we hear closed kinetic chain > open (squat > leg press, pullup > lat pulldown, so one would think weighted pushup > bench, weighted handstand pushup > press etc)

If tension is just tension, how would you describe stuff like chains and bands (which change force curve) and ring work (“microoscillations”)…are they actually impactful beyond just novelty

What i don’t understand and maybe you can talk a bit about this…how do you increase protein synthesis as a natural while also not increasing the cortisol production too, which i feel it would be a natural consequences on going heavy and for volume.

Thanks!

Straps are fine

For the imbalance you could do some band flies only for he weaker pec on top of the regular work. You can use DB for the bench press but not for he other exercises.

The key is increasing protein synthesis more than cortisol. And from your post you do not seem to understand exactly why cortisol is increased during a session.

Cortisol will be increased mostly by high volume of work which requires the use of a lot of energy in the session. The main function of cortisol during training is to MOBILIZE STORED ENERGY. If you don’t need to mobilize energy as much you wont raise cortisol as much.

Specifically I’m talking about burning up glycogen. Sets of 3 reps, even with a lot of weight, do not really require a lot of energy mobilization because they rely on the phosphagen energy system, not glycolysis. When doing an intense effort glycogen use becomes significant only after 12-15 seconds of effort. Sets of 3 reps will last about 10-12 seconds so you wont use up that much glycogen over the whole session which means less cortisol production since the need to mobilize stored energy is lower.

Another thing you can do is consume pre-workout nutrition (PLAZMA) containing carbs because studies have shown that pre-workout carbs decrease cortisol production during the session. Why? Because it gives you readily/easily available energy that doesn’t require mobilizing (thus intervention of cortisol).

The other thing that might raise cortisol is anxiety during the session or psyching yourself up for a lift. Which is why I always recommend to NOT get psyched up prior to a lift.