Tuesday the 10th: CT's Here For Your Needs!

Coach,

What are your thoughts on using your ‘Easy-Hard Gainer’ routine with overfat athletes?

The program’s volume, frequency, and focus on compound lifts seem like they would lend themselves to training a fat athlete in caloric deficit.

If appropriate, what alterations should be made to the program to suit this purpose?

Thanks very much,
Zak

[quote]deshawn wrote:
I am using MAG-10 for the last two weeks of the on the second phase of the Easy Hard gainers. Any suggetions on what do do next to keep the gains. I am 42 years old and still recover pretty well. Thanks.[/quote]

Ideally you’d go with a 4 weeks cycle of Carbolin 19. That would allow you to continue to progress. Adding Alpha Male to the mix to get your natural T production back on line would also be very beneficial.

As far as nutrition goes, I recommend lowering your calories by 10-15% for the last 3 days of your MAG-10 cycle then increasing it by 10-15% over your initial level for a week. This will have a rebound effect that will be quite anabolic and will help you retain and even gain size.

As for the training. I’d use one of Chad’s program for the first 2-3 weeks of your recovery program before going back to a higher volume approach.

[quote]Ramo wrote:
Coach,

What are your thoughts on using your ‘Easy-Hard Gainer’ routine with overfat athletes?

The program’s volume, frequency, and focus on compound lifts seem like they would lend themselves to training a fat athlete in caloric deficit.

If appropriate, what alterations should be made to the program to suit this purpose?

Thanks very much,
Zak[/quote]

Yes, that is a good solution IF the individual in question has a background in strength training (because the EHG program uses relatively heavy loads).

Low intensity energy system sessions (treadmill at 3.0-3.2mph and 12 degrees incline for 30 minutes) should be done 3-4 times per week.

Hello:

I cannot get any Carbolin 19 shipped to Alberta? Any suggestions? Which of Chad programs do you think is best suited. I want to try your Pillars fo Strength or Eastern Boddybuilding for my higher volume program. It is great to see and awesome Canadian Strength coach. Thanks for your help.

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
deshawn wrote:
I am using MAG-10 for the last two weeks of the on the second phase of the Easy Hard gainers. Any suggetions on what do do next to keep the gains. I am 42 years old and still recover pretty well. Thanks.

Ideally you’d go with a 4 weeks cycle of Carbolin 19. That would allow you to continue to progress. Adding Alpha Male to the mix to get your natural T production back on line would also be very beneficial.

As far as nutrition goes, I recommend lowering your calories by 10-15% for the last 3 days of your MAG-10 cycle then increasing it by 10-15% over your initial level for a week. This will have a rebound effect that will be quite anabolic and will help you retain and even gain size.

As for the training. I’d use one of Chad’s program for the first 2-3 weeks of your recovery program before going back to a higher volume approach.[/quote]

CT

I posted this in 2 of your other threads and it got lost in the crowd. I’m posting it here in hopes of finally catching your attention:

You have written two specialization programs in Pillars of Strength and Shoulder Overhaul, but you take different approaches to the workouts in the new leg program. Someone asked why you use conjugate periodization in the leg program instead of accumulation and intensification blocks here:

downintucson wrote:
You seem to be going away from separate accumulation and intensification blocks. Looks as though you are combining methods in the same week. Is this an extension of pendulum training? Was wondering because your routines work really well on me. I currently use separate acc. and int. blocks. If you’ve found a better way to arrange training, I’ll likely follow your lead.

and you replied:
I still use intensification and accumulation blocks. They are the basis of my whole periodization scheme. However, this is a specialisation program to be used outside the scope of a regular block structure to bring up a lagging body part, in this case the legs.

However in the shoulder program, which is also a specialization program, you stick with traditional accumulation and intensification. If you were to write that program again now would you reccomend a conjugate periodization as in your legs program or stick with what was originally prescribed? I am going to do a shoulder specialization sometime soon and was wondering if I should use conjugate periodization or accumulation / intensification. If you wouldn’t mind I would like to know the reason for your selection too (not testing your knowledge, just trying to further my own).

One more thing, a while back someone asked about proper posing and suggested writing an article about it. Are you planning on writing such an article? I think lots of readers would benefit from it.

Thanks so much Coach Thib

Coach,

Thanks for the response…why would lower-intensity energy systems work be better than interval work or a mix of the two (1 day per week of interval runs, 2 days of low-intensity ES work)?

Is it just an issue of overtaxing the CNS because of the high loads used in training? If so, what should be modified to permit the athlete to perform 1 or 2 weekly high-intensity interval sessions?

Or is the answer simply that the low-intensity route is best in this case for the goal of body-composition improvement and maximum muscle preservation?

Thanks again

[quote]Ramo wrote:
Coach,

Thanks for the response…why would lower-intensity energy systems work be better than interval work or a mix of the two (1 day per week of interval runs, 2 days of low-intensity ES work)?

Is it just an issue of overtaxing the CNS because of the high loads used in training? If so, what should be modified to permit the athlete to perform 1 or 2 weekly high-intensity interval sessions?

Or is the answer simply that the low-intensity route is best in this case for the goal of body-composition improvement and maximum muscle preservation?

Thanks again[/quote]

Because:

a) I assume that the overfat athlete will be on a reduced calories diet … in that case I don’t like high intensity ESW as it can be catabolic.

b) I learned from Chris Aceto that overfat individuals have a harder time using fat as fuel, especially during higher intensity training. So going low intensity, long duration is better for them.

c) High speed work can be hard on the joints of overfat individuals.

I am currently training to get back into wrestling in college again, but I am also training my little brother who is still in high school (sophomore but mature for his age). I have designed our lifting workout off of the West-Side template pretty much except for some repetition lifts.

I just changed the ME upper body exercises from bench to rows figuring some pulling movements may be better for wrestling. I switch the ME exercises every 1-2 weeks and the supplemental exercises about every week. We don’t have access to a GHR machine so I’ve incorporated partial DL’s and RDL’s as a substitute. I am currently saving up for a Reverse Hyper so we don’t need to lay across a tall box with our feet strapped to bands or weight.
Here is a sample of our workout:

Max Effort (lower body)
Box Jumps 4x5
Box Squats: max set of three with at least 5 warm-up sets
Lunges: 3x10
Partial Deadlifts: 3x15
Reverse Hypers: 6x5
Grip Training: 3x
Abs: TBA 2x
MR Neck: 2x

Max Effort (upper body)
Plyometric Pull-ups (pull up past bar and catch yourself): 3x5
Pull-ups: work to a max set of three with at least 5 warm-up sets
Close-Grip Bench: 5x4 (heavy)
Thick Bar Curls: 3x12
Same for Grip Training, Abs, and neck.

Dynamic Effort (lower body)
Power Cleans (light): 3x5
Box Squats: 8x2 @55% of max 220
1-Foot Squats: 4x8
Reverse Hypers: 2x timed
Same for Grip Training, Abs, and neck.

Repetition Method (upper body)
Pull-ups with Towel: 3x to max
Rows: 4x5
Med-Ball Bench: 8x2
Shoulder Forward Press: 4x10
Shrugs (thick bar-imitated by wrapping towel around bar.): 3x8
Same for Grip Training, Abs, and neck.

MR- manual resistance
DB- dumb bell
GT- grip training
MB- med ball
SB- stability ball

My questions are:

  1. First off, does this lifting workout have too many exercises on it? Besides that, how does it look?

  2. Do I include GPP work such as sled dragging on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s which is our recovery days? Will it cause over training because we both attend wrestling club 4x per week already and wrestle in Freestyle tournaments almost every Saturday?

  3. We currently lift MWF; should I increase it to four days a week or leave it?

Sorry for asking so many questions, I actually have a lot more but at the risk of being a total pain in the ass I’ll hold off until later.

Thanks a lot CT

[quote]grrrinder wrote:

I have followed your program as outlined including grip work for 4 weeks. When I tested my max on Monday, I found that my chin up reps went from 4 to 8. My question is that now that I have finished the four weeks, what do you recommend as a routine to continue to increase my number of Chin Ups? I can perform one set of 8, and then my reps start falling to 6,5,5,etc…
[/quote]

What is the reason for the decrease in reps? Where do you feel is your weak point? Arms, forearms, hands, lats, rhomboids?

Now that you have made great improvements (doubling your capacity in 4 weeks); if you are to further improve we must focus on correcting your individual weak point(s).

[quote]grrrinder wrote:
My goal is to perform multiple sets of 10-15 repetitions.
[/quote]

I say that you should breakdown that goal in 2 smaller ones:

a) Being able to perform 10-15 chin for one set

b) Being able to maintain that level of performance for several sets

I suggest working on only one of these goals at a time. Spending 4-6 weeks on each one (more likely 6 weeks on the first one and 4 on the second one… it’s easier to develop the capacity to recover and maintain strength than it is to increase strength in the first place).

CT,
I think it was last night you posted an outline of a great plan to “bullet proof” ones lower back, and you listed some low back exercise that one can hit up 4 times a week. What are some favorite ab movements of your to compliment those? Thanks for your help.
-Greg

Hey CT, got a quick question for you. When your working with beginners or a weak individual do just start them off with bodyweight exercises then move to the weightlifting stuff (i.e. squats, deads, compound stuff etc) or do you mix the two.

Another question is when do you feel that a trainee should move to more advanced stuff. For example benching his or her bodyweight, 1.5 * bodyweight for squats and deads etc. BTW the 1.5 number is arbitrary, just a number I?ve seen thrown around. Thank You

What’s the best way or excersises to improve vertical leap? What’s the fastest 40 you’ve seen and how was that 40 obtained if it was one of your client’s? How would you define athletcism and the best way to become “athletic”?

What would you recommend for a football player looking for a workout but doesn’t want a cookie cutter program but wants a specfic program for his needs but doesn’t know how to go about it? thanks

Coach,

I read a previous Prime Time regarding OVT, that you had clients making better progress while leaving out the iso movement of the first few supersets? I was just curious as to what sort of rest interval they were taking in between sets?

Thanks