by Christian Thibaudeau
It's time to flip the script on your favorite Testosterone writers and see just what they're up to in the gym. Who's putting up outrageous numbers? Who's leaving the cardio bunnies all hot and bothered? Who walks the walk and who just talks the talk?
Today, we stole Christian Thibaudeau's training journal out from under his bed, and man, are you in for a shock.
Me, the master of split training, the slayer of whole body training is actually doing, wait for it... whole body workouts!
Heresy? Hypocrisy? Opportunism? Hardly! As I've mentioned several times in the past, I don't have a single training philosophy. I believe that one should strive to understand the pros and cons of various types of training and select the proper application depending on what you're trying to accomplish.
As I said in the first part of my Beast Building series, hitting each muscle group or movement pattern often but at a low volume is best to develop neuromuscular efficiency. On the other hand, for maximum growth, hitting each muscle group less frequently but with a greater workload is a better approach. That's why I use both systems in my own training and that of my clients.
There's no universally best program — only optimal programs for a given individual in a specific situation.
Why am I Doing This?
Before explaining what I'm doing in the gym, I'll start off by letting you in on my main goals.
Recently, I hit a personal best of 405 pounds on the incline press and was very pleased about that. Not that it's an extraordinary lift, far from it, but inclines have always been a bad lift for me. Now that it's conquered, my next pressing goal is a 435-pound floor press (performed with a one to two second pause at the bottom). Again, I've always sucked at the floor press compared to my regular flat bench, so reaching a high level of performance (for me) on that lift would be very gratifying.
I also want to deadlift 600 pounds in both the conventional and sumo deadlift. The deadlift has always been my nemesis because of my body structure. With short legs, a long torso, and short arms, I'm built to squat and press. But sadly, this is by far the worst body type for picking up heavy things from the floor.
Plus, since I'd been training mostly for size and aesthetics over the past five years, I've kinda neglected the deadlift. Wait a minute, strike that. I stopped training the deadlift!
So, as pathetic as it was when I was training it intensely, it's even more laughable now. Hopefully, within the next eight weeks the problem will be solved.
For now, I'm satisfied with my current overall size. I'm not Ronnie Coleman, but I can hold my own against most hyooge guys. At 5'8", I'm anywhere between 228 pounds (at 10% body fat) and 212 (at 6 to 7% body fat). Plus, I do have a small frame, if that counts for anything.
However, I do wish to increase my overall back thickness and regain the leg size I had when I was an Olympic lifter. Because of my strong shoulders and exercise selection when I was an Olympic lifter, when I began training for aesthetics I had a lousy chest, as well as small biceps. So these were my priorities.
I'm proud of the improvements I've made in those muscles, but in doing so I neglected my legs. I reasoned that since they were my strongest point, I didn't need to train them all that hard to still be able to stand my ground.
So, now the pendulum has swung back to my legs and back. My legs will come back quickly because they were once tree trunks, and regaining muscle is easier than building it in the first place. My back has always been a sore spot for me, so building it up to my high standards will require some blood and sweat.
Like my overall size, I'm satisfied with my current degree of leanness. However, I do have one weak area. Take a wild guess. It's my damn back, again!
Right now, according to a 12-fold body fat test, I have no more than 4 mm of fat anywhere on my body (in some areas I'm under 2 mm, which is almost nothing). However, the subscapular (mid-back) fold is at a whopping 15 mm! Talk about unbalanced.
Fat storage, when it's concentrated in this area more than anywhere else on the body, means a history of insulin resistance. So, I'll use some dietary and supplement strategies to regulate my blood sugar and improve my insulin sensitivity. This should allow me to lose some fat on my back without having to drastically reduce my caloric intake.
My training is actually less structured than in the past. Rather than following a chart or a piece of paper, I have a certain number of guidelines to live by. This allows me some leeway to keep things fresh, while still respecting a general plan. I see it as a mix of instinctive and structured training.
What are these guidelines, you ask?
1. Train five to six days a week.
2. Train at least parts of both the upper and lower body at every session.
3. Never go below 80% of my maximum on my main work sets.
4. I don't have to go all out at every session. For example, if I don't feel super strong I might perform only two reps with a weight that I could do four to five times. As long as I stay at 80% or above, I'm fine.
5. Include a deadlift and press variation in every workout.
6. When I feel strong and my form feels solid, I turn on the machine!
With my guidelines in mind, I created an exercise bank from which to pick my two main movements:
Easy days: 3 to 4 sets of 3 to 5 reps, leaving 2 to 3 reps in the tank
• Deadlift from mid-thigh
• Sumo deadlift from mid-thigh
• Snatch-grip deadlift from mid-thigh
• Romanian deadlift
• Dumbbell Romanian deadlift
• Power shrugs (deadlift from mid-thigh plus shrug)
• Good Mornings
Moderate days: 4 to 6 sets of 2 to 3 explosive reps, stopping before it slows down too much
• Clean pull from blocks
• Clean pull from hang
• Clean pull from floor
• Snatch pull from blocks
• Snatch pull from hang
• Snatch pull from floor
Hard days: 6 to 9 sets of 1 to 3 reps, close to a maximal lift or even working up to a daily max
• Conventional deadlift
• Sumo deadlift
• Snatch-grip deadlift
• Conventional deadlift standing on a podium
• Sumo deadlift standing on two 25-pound plates
• Snatch-grip deadlift standing on a podium
Easy days: 3 to 4 sets of 3 to 5 reps, leaving 2 to 3 reps in the tank
• Rack lockouts
• Decline press
• Decline bench press
• One-arm standing barbell press
Moderate days: 4 to 6 sets of 1 to 3 reps, leaving 1 to 2 reps in the tank
• Four-board press
• Three-board press
• Military press
• Dead-start bench press (bar starts on pins in the power rack, two inches from the chest)
• Close-grip bench press
• Dumbbell bench press
• Dumbbell incline press
• Dumbbell push press
Hard days: 6 to 9 sets of 1 to 3 reps, close to a maximal lift or even working up to a daily max
• Bench press
• Push press
• Incline press
• Floor press
• Two-board press
My basic training schedule looks like this:
Day 1: Hard deadlift and easy pressing
Day 2: Hard pressing and easy deadlift
Day 3: Moderate deadlift and moderate pressing
Day 4: Off
Day 5: Easy deadlift and easy pressing
Day 6: Hard deadlift and hard pressing*
Day 7: Off (or another easy deadlift and easy pressing workout)
* From my experience as an Olympic lifter, I always had better results if I had an easy day prior to maxing out, rather than an off day.
So from the moment I walk into the gym, I know exactly what kind of day I'll have. All that's left is to simply pick the two main exercises for that day.
I'll then add accessory work as follows:
• For an "easy" lift, I can have more accessory work since the main movement is less draining. I'll normally pick two assistance movements that work at least one of the muscles involved in the main movement. Note that it's two total accessory exercises for that day, not two per muscle. For the deadlift I pick a hamstring, quadriceps, upper back, lower back, traps, or biceps exercise. For the pressing movement, I go for chest, deltoid, or triceps exercises.
• For a "moderate" lift, I cut the accessory work to one exercise for any one of the involved muscles. Again, note that it's one total accessory exercise for the day, not one accessory exercise per muscle.
• For a "hard" lift, I don't perform any accessory work since the involved muscles have already had plenty of stimulation!
Getting back to my schedule, the completed form looks like this:
Day 1: Hard deadlift (no accessory exercises) and easy pressing (two total accessory exercises)
Day 2: Hard pressing (no accessory exercises) and easy deadlift (two total accessory exercises)
Day 3: Moderate deadlift (one accessory exercise) and moderate pressing (one accessory exercise)
Day 4: Off
Day 5: Easy deadlift (up to two accessory exercises) and easy pressing (up to two accessory exercises)*
Day 6: Hard deadlift (no accessory exercises) and hard pressing (no accessory exercises)
Day 7: Off (or another easy deadlift and easy pressing workout)
* If I plan on trying a max on day six, I'll avoid any accessory work on day five. Basically the day five workout is to prime the nervous system, while still allowing full recovery to take place. If I don't plan on trying for a max on day six, then I'll do my accessory work on day five.
Finally, I include remedial exercises. These are staggered between sets of the main movements.
These movements include:
• Abdominal exercises
• Crushing grip work (Captain of Crush grippers either for reps or holding closed for a certain time)
• Forearm form (Thor's hammer forearm rotations and wrist roller)
These are done instinctively, not for a specific number of sets and reps. But, I perform at least one remedial exercise after each set of the main movements.
I obviously want to drop some fat. Right now, I'm around 6 to 7% body fat (6.2% to be exact). My goal is to drop down to 5%, specifically by dropping my "back fat." So there's no need for drastic caloric cuts.
But, since subscapular (upper back) fat indicates a history of insulin resistance, I'll still have to monitor my carb intake. However, being very lean I can still have some carbs in my diet. As Charles Poliquin would say, "You earn the right to eat carbs by being lean." The carbs will be consumed only peri-workout to maximize performance and recovery.
My base diet is as follow. I might change a few things here and there on some days, but this is how I eat 90% of the time.
200 g of red meat (I normally have horse meat, bison, or deer meat, which are all very lean)
Celery or cucumbers at will
3 Flameout capsules
1 scoop of Surge Workout Fuel (I start drinking it before the workout and sip it throughout)
20 branched chain amino acid (BCAA's) tablets (10 before training and 10 after)
40 g of powdered BCAA's during the workout (mixed in with Surge Workout Fuel)
2 scoops of Surge Recovery post-workout
1 scoop of Grow! Whey post-workout (mixed in with Surge Recovery)
200 g of white meat (chicken or turkey)
Salad of green veggies
1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil
3 Flameout capsules
4 whole omega-3 eggs
Celery or cucumbers at will
200 g of fish (salmon, trout, or mackerel)
Celery or cucumbers at will
3 Flameout capsules
2 whole omega-3 eggs
100 g white meat
2 scoops of Low-Carb Metabolic Drive
3 Flameout capsules
The 12 capsules of Flameout per day are roughly equivalent to 30 to 40 grams of regular fish oil. I take this much because fish oil is probably the best natural product to improve insulin sensitivity.
I follow this diet from Monday through Saturday. I have my body fat tested weekly (12-fold measure using Coach Poliquin's protocol) and if it dropped compared to the prior week, I'll have half a cheat day on Sunday consisting of two or three cheat meals.
I already mentioned my use of:
• Surge Workout Fuel
• Surge Recovery
• BCAA's
• Flameout
• Low-Carb Metabolic Drive
• Grow! Whey
My other supplements have two main purposes:
I use one scoop of Power Drive in my post-workout shake to favor CNS restoration. When I have a hard workout, I also use Spike prior to my workout to prime the nervous system.
I'm already using Flameout for this purpose, but to that I add two products designed by Charles Poliquin specifically to improve blood sugar control and insulin sensitivity. I use Fenuplex and Insulinomics, each at two tablets per meal. Both can be found on Charles Poliquin's website.
I also have three tablets of Ultra HCL 3.0, once again from Poliquin, with all of my solid meals to improve digestion. After all, the important thing isn't how much you eat, but how much you can absorb!
That's what my training life looks like right now. Once I've reached my goals, mainly my strength goals, I'll give my joints and nervous system a break and get back to a more typical bodybuilding workout.
The good thing is that the strength gained from this phase, as well as the neural improvements that come with it, will make my subsequent bodybuilding training all the more effective. I've always had my greatest growth spurts when I switched back to a bodybuilding program after a successful strength phase.
Hopefully this time won't be any different, and we'll see a brand new level development for Da Thib!
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