Getting back in decent shape after a hard year. Back up to 217 this morning, shooting to be up to 225 at the same leanness in 2 months.
Doing bodybuilding work in the AM and Olympic lifting work in the PM at the moment.
Because it's always better in black and white
Posted by Christian Thibaudeau on Tuesday, 28 April 2015
You look amazing!! Lean and mean!
You are still in good shape. Applause !!
Keep going and be 100% soon wish you good luck.
Excellent Power Look… When your new book is coming out? Also want to thank you for all the encyclopedia you are sharing here with us. a lot of information for free. and also to comment that I found your Layer System and all the method you post very effective and secure. I’am 51 now and I found your method like if they were specialized for me…
Magnificent!
CT you’re usually around this look year round right? Do you find you can “alter” your body between that power look (+10-15 pounds massive) vs. that george st pierre look (lose 10-15 pounds?). And do you train differently or just change diet…
It’s great to see a coach practice what he preaches! Nice work CT!
[quote]-Sigil- wrote:
Magnificent!
CT you’re usually around this look year round right? Do you find you can “alter” your body between that power look (+10-15 pounds massive) vs. that george st pierre look (lose 10-15 pounds?). And do you train differently or just change diet…[/quote]
That’s my normal degree of leanness. I maintain that pretty much year round. Right now I’m consuming at least 400g of carbs daily.
But I just started adding upper body/bodybuilding work about 5-6 weeks ago after only doing the Olympic lifts and basic strength lifts for over a year.
So yeah I alter my look… right now my upper body is growing and in 2-3 months I’ll have more of a bodybuilder look. When I want to downsize and go more for an athletic look I simply do less upper body work and add conditioning work.
the MAN!!!
Is there a bigger purpose doing workouts in that order or are you sitll doing am session with a friend?
Man, those arm/shoulder veins are awesome, I’m jealous! And that’s your normal level of leanness… crazy!
Could you consider posting your current upper body routine here? 
I’m not saying I would copy it, but it’s always nice and thought provoking to hear how you’re training yourself.
That’s the look I train for CT. You look like a badass CT.
You said you do bodybuilding in the AM and Olympic PM. Do have any more details on what programs you are following for each and how often you do this?
I have been doing 531 BBB for about 6 months and I want to rotate off for a little while. I was thinking of doing Chad Waterbury’s HFT program but I would really like some more details on what you are doing as it sounds similar as far a frequency goes.
Man, looks like someone is trying to smuggle bowling balls under your shoulders. Do you credit this to Push Presses?
[quote]zam1 wrote:
Is there a bigger purpose doing workouts in that order or are you sitll doing am session with a friend? [/quote]
The way I do it is suboptimal. I’m only doing the bodybuilding work first because that’s the only time my friend can train.
[quote]tsantos wrote:
Man, looks like someone is trying to smuggle bowling balls under your shoulders. Do you credit this to Push Presses? [/quote]
No.
When I was focusing only on the Olympic lifts and strength movements I didn’t have that shoulder roundness. It’s only when I started doing “Growth Factor training” for the delts that they blew up.
[quote]Evander wrote:
Man, those arm/shoulder veins are awesome, I’m jealous! And that’s your normal level of leanness… crazy!
Could you consider posting your current upper body routine here?
I’m not saying I would copy it, but it’s always nice and thought provoking to hear how you’re training yourself.[/quote]
It changes slightly at every workout.
It’s pretty simple though: I train for bodybuilding like the “Growth Factor” stuff I put out (my growth factor shoulder article as well as two posts in my forum give examples of that way of training). The workout might change a bit but it’s very similar to that.
When it comes to bodybuilding work I actually don’t plan in advance. I decide which supersets/exercises to use during the workout depending on how the muscles are responding and what I think will give me the biggest pump.
To give you an idea, this is what we did on our last shoulder workout:
PRESS GIANT SET
A1. Top half shoulder press (from top of head to lockout) 6-8 reps
A2. DB shoulder press 10-12 reps
A3. Machine shoulder press 15-20 reps
- Do 4 sets
GIANT SET LATERAL RAISES
B1. Incline (seated on 30 deg. bench) lateral raises 8-10 reps
B2. Seated (90 deg) lateral raises 8-10 reps
B3. Incline (30 deg) half lateral raises 8-10 reps
B4. Seated (90 deg) half lateral raises 8-10 reps
B5. Front raises 8-10 reps
- Do 3 sets
GIANT SET FRONT RAISE
C1. Seated (90 deg) front raises 8-10 reps
C2. Incline (30 deg) front raises 8-10 reps
C3. Seated (90 deg) half front raises 8-10 reps
C4. Incline (30 deg) half front raises 8-10 reps
- Do 3 sets
FRONT DELT SUPERSET
D1. Reverse-grip shoulder press in Smith machine x 6-8 reps
D2. DB front raises x 10-12 reps
- Do 3 sets
PARTIAL SUPERSET
E1. Lateral raise machine bottom half reps x 30
E2. DB lateral raise bottom half reps x 30
- Do 2 sets
Previous to that our last arm workout was:
BRACHIALIS SUPERSET
A1. Close-grip reverse preacher curl x 6-8 reps
A2. Standing mid-grip reverse curl x 10-12
A3. Hammer curl x 15-20
(we didn’t use the same weight for the 3 exercises)
- Do 4 sets
A4. JM press x 6-8 reps
A5. Lying DB triceps extension x 10-12 reps
A6. Rope triceps extension x 15-20 reps
- Do 4 sets
NOTE: We did A1-A3, rested 90 sec, did A4-A6, rested 90 sec, got back to A1-A3, etc.
BICEPS SUPERSET
B1. Preacher curl close-grip x 6-8
B2. Standing curl mid-grip x 10-12
B3. Standing curl wide-grip x 15-20
(we didn’t use the same weight for the 3 exercises)
3 sets
B4. Close-grip bench x 6-8
B5. Floor DB triceps extension (from deadstart on every rep) x 10-12
B6. Close-grip push ups x max reps
3 sets
NOTE: Again we alternated biceps and triceps.
ANTAGONIST SUPERSET
C1. Machine preacher curl 8-10 full reps + 8-10 bottom half reps
C2. Machine/pulley triceps extension 8-10 full reps + 8-10 top half reps
3 sets
And the last chest workout we did (If I remember correctly, it was last Saturday)
BENCH PRESS “DROP SET”
A1. Bench press x 3 reps (then decrease weight)
A2. Bench press x 6-8 reps (then put on Slingshot)
A3. Bench press with Slingshot x 6-8 reps
Do 4 sets
SUPERSET 1
B1. Dips (weighted) x 6-8
B2. Dips (no weight) x max reps
B3. Cable cross-over x 8-10
Do 3 sets
MECHANICAL DROP SET “PEC DECK” MACHINE
C1. Supinated pec deck (palms up) x 8-10 reps
C2. Neutral drip, low hands (a tad below the bottom of pecs) x max reps (same weight)
C3. Neutral grip, high hands (in line with shoulders) x max reps (same weight)
Do 3 sets
And for back we pretty much did the “Growth factor update: Back” that I posted in my forum.
[quote]rns294 wrote:
You said you do bodybuilding in the AM and Olympic PM. Do have any more details on what programs you are following for each and how often you do this?
I have been doing 531 BBB for about 6 months and I want to rotate off for a little while. I was thinking of doing Chad Waterbury’s HFT program but I would really like some more details on what you are doing as it sounds similar as far a frequency goes. [/quote]
I do not know Chad’s program. But from the best of my knowledge he doesn’t really use the full snatch and clean & jerk which so I doubt that our programs are similar.
Interesting stuff as always, CT!
Am I correct that your friend Nick is in a pretty hefty calorie deficit now since he’s between bodybuilding shows? I find it interesting that he’s doing this growth factor stuff instead of the more typical heavy lifting you seem to recommend to people who are dieting. If you have time, could you elaborate on that? 