Thib Basic Principles

7/30/2019 Thib Basic Principles

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The Thib System Variety and Rules for Progression

Basic Principles Behind My Updated Training Philosophy

A lot of people have trouble "getting" me, at least when it comes to training. This might be

because of my diverse training background. While most coaches tend to come from a single

background (powerlifting, athletics, bodybuilding, etc.), I've actually trained and competed in mostof them.

When I was a football player, I was trained by a great athletic strength coach named Jean Boutet.

Not many people know of him because he never cared to market himself, but the guy worked with

several Olympians and pro athletes.

His knowledge base is only surpassed by guys like Charles Poliquin. From the age of 14, I was able

to train under his supervision. To say I learned a lot is an understatement.

While competing in Olympic lifting, I trained under Pierre Roy, the former national team coach,

whom coach Poliquin called "the smartest man in strength training." I was also able to trainalongside several Olympians, former Olympians, and other world-class lifters. So again, I had a

wealth of knowledge to devour.

Along my way, I gained a tremendous amount of knowledge from Charles Poliquin, so much so

that he became my mentor. I can relate to him because his background is also remarkably diverse.

The fact that he's worked with hundreds of Olympians, pro athletes, and bodybuilders makes him

a unique source of overall training knowledge. I soak up as much info from him as possible.

In addition to my tutelage, I've dabbled in bodybuilding, having lived the lifestyle and competed in

a few shows. I've also partaken in a couple strongman competitions for some fun on the side.

The end result is that I often come out like someone who's a generalist more than a specialist. I'm

not just a bodybuilding coach, or just an Olympic lifting coach. I'm a symbiosis of all possible

training methods.

Understandably, those who want to design their own "Thibaudeau routine" can have trouble

doing so because it's hard to pinpoint my exact training style.

While I do use a wide array of methods, I have several basic principles that regulate my way of

programming. And here they are!

Principle #1: The Point of Fatigue Induction is Exercise Dependant

One of the most hotly debated aspects of training is whether or not to train to failure. Failure is

simply the incapacity to maintain the required amount of force output (Edwards 1981, Davis

1996).


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In other words, at some point during your set, completing more repetitions will become more and

more arduous until you're unable to produce the required amount of force to complete a

repetition.

Even Testosterone has proponents of both approaches! On one side, you have guys like Chad

Waterbury and Charles Staley who are against training to failure.

Heck, sometimes they even recommend stopping a set when the reps start to slow down, which

is waybefore muscle failure! Their main point is that training to failure puts a tremendous stress

on the central nervous system (CNS).

The nervous system takes as much as five to six times longer than the muscles to recover from an

intense session. So by constantly going to muscle failure, you can overload the CNS so much that it

becomes impossible to train with a high frequency. And they're right!

In fact, it's possible to drain the nervous system so much that it takes so long to recover that the

muscles actually start to detrain while the CNS is still recovering. So you end up in a catch-22.

On one hand, you need to train otherwise your muscles will start to lose the gains that were

stimulated by the previous session. But on the other, if you train before your CNS has recovered,

you'll have a subpar session which won't lead to much progress and might even cause you to

regress over time.

Stepping up for the other side, you have more great coaches, like Charles Poliquin, who

recommend pursuing a set until your spleen explodes! Their point is that to maximally stimulate

muscle growth you need to create as much fatigue and damage to a muscle as possible.

This is in accordance with the work of famed sport-scientist Vladimir Zatsiorsky who wrote that amuscle fiber that isn't fatigued during a set isn't being trained and thus won't be stimulated to

grow.

Taking a set to the point of muscle failure ensures that this set was as productive as it can be.

Remember, simply recruiting a motor unit doesn't mean that it's been stimulated. To be

stimulated, a muscle fiber must be recruited and fatigued (Zatsiorsky 1996).

What about CNS fatigue? While it isn't the only cause of muscle failure, CNS overload isn't to be

overlooked when talking about training to failure. The nervous system is the boss! It's the CNS that

recruits the motor units, sets their firing rates, and ensures proper muscular coordination.

Central fatigue can contribute to muscle failure, especially the depletion of the neurotransmitters

dopamine and acetylcholine. A decrease in acetylcholine levels is associated with a decrease in the

efficiency of the neuromuscular transmission. In other words, when acetylcholine levels are low,

it's harder for your CNS to recruit motor units.

So, if we look at the argument from this vantage point, we also have a catch-22. Stopping a set

short of failure, while not worthless, might not provide maximal stimulation of the muscle fibers.


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You might recruit them, but those that aren't being fatigued won't be maximally stimulated.

However, if you go to failure, you'll ensure maximal stimulation from the set, but may cause CNS

overload, which could hamper your long-term progress.

So which one is it, really? If I want to grow as fast as possible should I go to failure or not?

You should do both! In fact, going to failure or not should be an exercise-dependant variable. The

more demanding an exercise is on the CNS, the farther away from failure you should stop the set.

However, in exercises where the CNS is less involved, you should go to failure and possibly

beyond.

The following table shows when you should stop a set of an exercise:

Type of Exercise CNS

Involvement

When to Stop the Set

Olympic lifts, ballistic exercises, speed lifts with 45-

55% of maximum, plyometrics, and jumps and

bounds

Very high When the speed of movement

decreases.

Deadlifts (and variations), goodmornings (and

variations), squats (and variations), lunges and step-

ups, free-weight pressing (overhead, incline, flat,

decline, and dips), and free-weight/cable pulling

(vertical and horizontal)

High One to two reps short of

failure. Accept some speed loss

but don't go to failure.

Machine pressing and pulling, chest isolation work,

quadriceps isolation work, hamstrings isolationwork, lower back isolation work, and abdominal

work

Low Go to failure on at least one set

per exercise; you can go tofailure on all sets.

Biceps isolation work, triceps isolation work, traps

isolation work, calves isolation work, and forearms

isolation work

Very low Go to failure on all sets. You

can go past the point of failure

(drop sets, rest/pause, etc.) on

one to two sets per exercise.

Principle #2: Use the Best Exercises for Your Needs

I'm letting the cat out of the bag: While big compound movements are the most

effective overallmass-building exercises, isolation exercises aren't worthless. In some individuals,

isolation work will be more effective at stimulating growth in specific muscles than the big basics.

This is due to both mechanical and neural factors.

Mechanical Factors


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Some people aren't built for some compound lifts. For example, long-legged individuals aren't

built for squatting. They won't be able to maximally stimulate lower body growth by only doing

squats, front squats, and leg presses.

They'll need a more thorough approach, including the use of isolation work like leg extensions and

leg curls, as well as a lot of single limb work like lunges and Bulgarian split-squats. On the shortside, those with stubby legs are built for squatting and can get complete lower body development

simply by squatting.

The same applies for other basic movements as well. The bottom line is that the less adapted your

biomechanics are to a movement, the more secondary and isolation work you'll need to make the

muscles involved grow.

Neural Factors

Due to muscle dominance, some people won't be able to optimally recruit a target muscle group

during the execution of a compound movement. When you're doing an exercise, your bodydoesn't know that you're trying to make a certain muscle bigger. It only knows that a big ass

weight is trying to crush you, and if you don't lift it, you'll cease to live! So to ensure you're around

for the next issue ofPlayboy, your nervous system will shift the workload to the muscles better

suited to do the job.

If you're doing a bench press and you have overpowering deltoids and/or triceps, chances are your

pectorals will receive little stimulation. Those individuals can get their bench press numbers sky

high without actually building much of a chest.

To get the pecs they want, they'll need to use more isolation work. However, those individuals

with dominating pecs won't need much, if any, isolation work for that muscle group.

As you can see, it's not a matter of compound being better than isolation (or vice versa). It's about

finding the proper ratio of compound and isolation work that your body structure needs to grow.

Everybody can gain a significant amount of overall muscle on their body by only working hard on

compound movements. However, 90% of the population, if not more, will need to make proper

use of isolation exercises to build a complete physique.

If you're pressed for time, only doing the basic compound movements will get you 80% of the way

toward a great physique. But if your goal is to be an aesthetic Adonis, you'll need isolation work to

go that extra 20%.

Principle #3: Keep Your Training Sessions Under 60 Minutes

Cortisol is a stress hormone that's released during bouts of training. Some is needed, but too much

cortisol, especially if it stays elevated after the training session, can greatly decrease muscle

growth and strength improvements.


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Cortisol is catabolic, meaning that it leads to the breakdown of stored substrates. During exercise,

this can be useful since it'll breakdown stored glycogen into glucose and stored fat into fatty acids

to provide energy for the working muscles. However, post-training it'll continue to breakdown

glycogen which slows recovery. It also breaks down muscle tissue into amino acids, making it

harder to add muscle mass.

Furthermore, since both cortisol and Testosterone are both made from the same raw material

(pregnenolone), constantly elevated cortisol levels will eventually lead to lower Testosterone

levels.

Cortisol output during training has been correlated with training volume; the more work being

done during a session, the more cortisol is produced. This is especially true when metabolic-type

training (high reps, short rest intervals) is used.

To avoid overproducing cortisol, you want to keep your sessions short, around an hour or less.

Another reason to avoid long sessions is related to mental focus. Regardless of how much you lovetraining, at some point your focus will go in the crapper during a long session. The work performed

in that state will be unproductive and could even lead to bad habits that'll screw you in the long

run.

You can train more than one hour per day, but split your daily volume into two workouts. In fact,

splitting your daily workload into several shorter sessions is much more effective, as it leads to

both lower cortisol production and higher Testosterone levels. It's been shown that when two

daily sessions are used, Testosterone production is higher after the second workout than after the

first.

When training twice a day, it's best to train the same body part(s) during both workouts. I like to

take this opportunity to train different types of contractions or goals on both occasions. For

example:

Option 1: Muscle Building Emphasis

AM: Compound movements

PM: Isolation work

Option 2: Strength and Size Hybrid

AM: Heavy lifting (2 to 6 reps)PM: Moderate loading (8 to 12 reps)

Option 3: Muscle Building or Strength Emphasis (Depending on AM Load)

AM: Concentric/regular lifting

PM: Eccentric work


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Option 4: Performance Training

AM: Explosive lifting

PM: Heavy lifting

Option 5: Powerlifting or Olympic Lifting

AM: Competition movement

PM: Assistance work

It'd be a mistake to immediately jump to the maximum amount of training you can do with two-a-

days. There should be a progression toward that amount of training.

Week Session 1 Session 2

1 40 to 50 minutes 20 minutes

2 40 to 50 minutes 20 to 30 minutes


4 50 to 60 minutes None




8 50 to 60 minutes None

To judge if a workout was productive, but not excessive, look for three things:

1. At the end of the workout you're tired but not drained.

2. You feel a pump in the trained muscle. The intensity of the pump will obviously depend on the

type of training that you did, but you should feel the muscles that were trained.

3. Two to three hours after the completion of the session you should yearn for more training. If

you're still tired or lack motivation to train after this amount of time, chances are the session wasexcessive.

Principle #4: Contraction Type Depends on the Movement

This goes hand-in-hand with the first principle mentioned. There are basically three ways of

executing a movement when it comes to the speed of execution/type of contraction.


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1. Constant tension movement: You never release the contraction of the target muscle group

during the execution of the exercise. Basically, the muscle you're trying to stimulate must be kept

maximally flexed for every inch of every rep of every set. Never let it relax, not even between each

rep!

The goal of this type of contraction is to prevent blood from entering the muscle during the set.This creates a hypoxic state because oxygen can't enter the muscle. It also prevents metabolic

waste (lactate, hydrogen ions, etc.) from being taken out of the muscle during the set. Both of

these factors increase the release of local growth factors like IGF-1, MGF, and growth hormone

which will help stimulate growth.

By the way, the use of isometric contractions also falls into this category.

2. Accelerative concentric, controlled eccentric: In this type of contraction, you're trying to

accelerate during the actual lifting portion of the movement and lower the weight under control.

You go to the exercise's full range of motion, but you briefly pause (around one second) between

the stretch position and the following lifting action. This short pause will negate the contribution

of the stretch-shortening cycle to the force production.

You see, three things can contribute to producing force when you're lifting a weight: the actual

contraction of the muscle, the activation of the reflex known as the stretch-shortening cycle (also

called the myotatic stretch reflex), and the fact that muscle tissue is elastic, much like a rubber

band.

When trying to maximize the amount of actual work the muscle itself must perform, you want to

minimize the action of both the stretch reflex and the elastic contribution of the muscle's

structure. By doing a simple one-second pause before lifting the weight, you can accomplish that

and thus maximize the amount of force that the muscle must produce.

When you're lifting the weight, try to contractthe muscle as fast as you can. This doesn't mean

focusing on lifting the bar as fast as you can. Rather, it means that you should attempt to tense the

muscle as hard as possible right from the start of the lifting motion. This will maximize the

recruitment of the highly trainable fast-twitch fibers.

Finally, when you lower the weight, do so under control. The eccentric portion of the movement is

where most of the muscle damage occurs (micro-tears of the muscle fibers) and is a powerful

growth stimulus.

3. Using the stretch reflex: With this type of lifting, you want to involve the stretch reflex and

elastic component of the muscle. Thus, you want to lift the load as fast as possible. This explosive

lifting will improve the capacity, over time, of the nervous system to recruit the fast-twitch fibers.

It isn't effective by itself to stimulate maximum growth in those fibers because you can't fatigue

them sufficiently (the time of contraction and duration of the muscle tension per rep is too low).

But by lifting this way on some movements, you'll become better and better at activating the fast-


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twitch fibers. When you're more efficient at doing that, every single other exercise becomes more

effective.

So, when do you use each technique?

Every time you do an isolation exercise, use constant tension. Every time! The goal of an isolation

exercise is to completely focus the stress on the target muscle. You want a maximal local effect,

and to do that you need constant tension. Without constant tension, isolation exercises are

pointless. This is actually one of the main reasons why isolation movements get a bad rap. People

don't know how to do them properly, and as a result, they end up not being effective at

stimulating growth. But when done using constant tension, they're very effective at it.

Don't try to use constant tension lifting with compound movements. Not that it's impossible, but

it's a waste of time. The goal of a compound movement is to overload several muscles. By nature,

you can't isolate a muscle during a multi-joint exercise, and attempting to do so will make the

exercise much less effective than it should be.

With regular compound movements, you want to use the second technique: accelerative lifting,

short pause in the stretch position, and a controlled eccentric. This will magnify the hypertrophic

effect of the big movements by overloading the involved muscles as much as possible.

Finally, the explosive lifting is best kept for exercises such as the Olympic lifts, plyometrics, and

various jumping drills and throws. While these movements won't directly build mass, they'll

improve your capacity to stimulate growth by improving your neural efficiency to recruit muscle

fibers.

Principle #5: Ideal Training Frequency

Training frequency per body part is the "single-set vs. multiple sets" of this decade. In the late '70s

and early '80s, the raging debate was between proponents of single-set training versus those who

preferred the high volume approach.

It was Arthur Jones vs. the Weiders; Mentzer against Arnold. The debate was never truly settled

because, in some regards, both camps were right. But at the same time, neither of them were the

indisputable truth.

The fact is that both low and high volume training have their own pros and cons and can be used

effectively given the right circumstances.

The same can be said about training frequency. Just like with the volume debate, the frequency

fisticuffs continue. I can guarantee you that one camp will never get to break out into "We Are the

Champions" for the simple reason that both absolutist sides are right... and wrong!

There's no such thing as a perfect training frequency per muscle group. Only optimal training

frequency based on the other training variables, your lifestyle, and your recovery capacity. There


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are, however, some broad guidelines that can be used to select the optimal training frequency

that you need to use:

The harder you work a muscle group during a session, the longer it'll need to recover. Ifyou typically perform super draining workouts (either via high volume or intensive

methods), your training frequency per muscle group will need to be lower than if youdon't kill the muscle every time you hit the gym.

The more muscle damage you create in a session, the more recovery time you'll needbefore the trained muscle(s) can be hit hard again. Muscle damage is mostly a function of

mechanical work and eccentric loading. Most damage occurs in the 8 to 12 reps per set

range (or sets lasting 30 to 60 seconds with a heavy load). When the eccentric portion of

the movement is emphasized (via slower eccentrics, accentuated eccentric methods, or

eccentric-only training) the damage is also greater.

This is why Olympic lifters can train on the competition lifts six days a week. Olympic lifters rarely

perform more than five reps per set, and the eccentric portion is all but eliminated because the

bar is dropped to the floor at the end of every lift. Low mechanical work plus no eccentric equals

the capacity to train the lifts extremely often.

Training frequency is also dependent on the level of nervous system fatigue that's inducedduring each training session. If you don't tire out the nervous system, you can obviously

train more often. However, at some point the CNS must be challenged if it's to become

more resilient.

The more often you can stimulate a muscle without exceeding your capacity to recover,the more you'll progress. First, you must actually stimulate the muscles to grow. Sure, you

can perform a few sets of easy exercises everyday (even several times a day), but if none

of these "sessions" represent a challenge, there's no stimulation.

Then there's the aspect of exceeding your capacity to recover. You can be 100% convinced that

super-high frequency training is the Holy Grail of muscle growth, but if you aren't allowing your

body to recover, you simply won't progress! You must strike the perfect balance between

stimulation and recovery to progress optimally.

So what frequency do I recommend? Again, it's an individual thing. It depends on training style

and what's going on outside of the gym (i.e. that thing called "life"). But, assuming you're training

according to my new principles, the optimal training frequency per muscle group is two sessionsevery five to seven days.

Those with a good recovery capacity or a stress-free life can aim for two sessions per muscle group

every five to seven days. Individuals with an average recovery capacity or a more demanding life

should shoot for two sessions every eight to ten days.


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It isn't written in stone that every single muscle group has to be hit directly with this frequency.

Indirect work (e.g. triceps getting some work when the chest is being trained) can also be factored

in.

If you're to hit each body part twice every five days, or in other words, using a three-day cycle with

one day off, a good split looks like this:

Day 1: Chest and back

Day 2: Lower body

Day 3: Arms and shoulders

Day 4: Off

Day 5: Repeat

Or if you're more of an upper/lower kind of guy:

Day 1: Lower body

Day 2: Upper bodyDay 3: Trunk (abs and lower back)

Day 4: Off

Day 5: Repeat

These two options are for those with a great recovery capacity andlittle life stress (you must have

both going for you).

If you have either a good recovery capacity or little stress then a six-day cycle will be a better

option for you. You can go with any one of these three options:

Day 1: Chest and backDay 2: Lower body

Day 3: Off


Day 5: Off

Day 6: Repeat

Day 1: Lower body

Day 2: Off

Day 3: Upper body

Day 4: Trunk (abs and lower back)

Day 5: Off

Day 6: Repeat

Day 1: Whole body

Day 2: Off

Day 3: Lower body

Day 4: Upper body


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Day 5: Off

Day 6: Repeat

If you're average (or below) in your capacity to recover and/or your life is a mess, you should

bump it up to a seven-day cycle. You then have these options:

Day 1: Chest and back

Day 2: Off

Day 3: Lower body

Day 4: Off


Day 6: Off

Day 7: Repeat

Day 1: Lower body

Day 2: Off

Day 3: Upper body

Day 4: Off

Day 5: Trunk (abs and lower back)

Day 6: Off

Day 7: Repeat

Principle #7: Vary Your Training Often... But Not too Often!

Rarely do you see someone changing their workout at an optimal frequency. They either change

their workouts too often (the "I want to try that program I read about today" phenomenon) or not

often enough (the "I can stay on the same routine longer than the same woman" phenomenon).

Both of these knuckleheads have it wrong.

If you don't change your program often enough, your body will fully adapt to it and as a result the

workout won't represent a challenge anymore. When it stops being a challenge, there's no need

for the body to adapt, change, and grow.

If you change it too often, then you never actually give your body a chance to progress from a

program. The one universal rule of gaining size or strength is progression. Every week you must

become a bit better and work a little harder. But it's kind of hard to show progress when you

never stick to a program for more than one week.

As a rule of thumb, you should stick to a program for four to six weeks. After that, switch to a new

one. There's no need to change every single training variable, though. Generally, the less progress

you're making at the end of your current program, the more changes you should make on your

next one.


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Principle #8: Progression is the Real Key to Success

The real secret to building muscle and strength is toprogress. You must challenge your body on a

consistent basis and find ways to progressively ask more of it. If you do the same thing over and

over, you'll still look the same ten years from now.

Now, there's more than one way to progress. What we're looking for are ways to make our bodies

work harder. This is progress, and it's what'll lead to growth. Here are a few ways to make your

body work harder.

1. Increase the load: You can challenge your body by adding weight to the bar and performing the

same number of reps per set. For example, if you did 225 pounds for ten reps on the bench press

last week and put up 230 for ten this week, you've forced your body to work harder.

Obviously, this method of progression has its limitations. You can't just keep adding weight to the

bar every week and expect your body to adapt. You'd increase your bench press by 260 pounds ayear simply by adding five pounds to the bar per week if this were possible. Unfortunately, it's not.

This first method of progression, while it can be used with any exercise, is better suited for

compound movements.

2. Increase the reps: Another way to make your body work harder is to do more reps per set with

the same weight. For example, if last week you did 225 for ten reps and this week you do 225 for

12 reps, you've progressed. Just like with the previous method, you can't add reps like this every

week.

3. Increase the average weight lifted for an exercise: This is very similar to the first method,except whereas increasing the load refers to lifting more weight on your max set, this refers to

lifting more weight on average for an exercise.

Let's say you perform four sets of ten reps on the bench press:

Week 1

Set 1: 200 pounds x 10 (2,000 pounds)




Total weight lifted = 8,550 pounds

Average weight per set = 2,137 pounds

Average weight per rep = 213.7 pounds (214 pounds)

Week 2


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Total weight lifted = 8,750 poundsAverage weight per set = 2,187 pounds

Average weight per rep = 218.7 pounds (219 pounds)

As you can see, even though the same top weight was reached during both workouts, on week

two you lifted five pounds more on average. This is progression!

4. Increase training density: You can also progress by increasing the amount of work you perform

per unit of time. This refers to decreasing the rest between sets while using the same weight. By

reducing rest intervals, your body is forced to work harder and recruit more muscle fibers due to

the cumulative fatigue phenomenon.

This method of progression is better suited for either a fat loss program (in which case it can be

used with any exercise) or isolation movements during a mass-gaining phase.

5. Increase training volume: This is probably the simplest progression method. If you want to

make your body do more work, then do more work! This means adding sets for each muscle

group. For example, on week one you might perform nine work sets for a muscle group and bump

it to 12 on week two and 14 on week three.

While this can work, it shouldn't be abused, as it can lead to overtraining. Most trainees shouldstick to no more than 12 total sets per muscle group 90% of the time.

6. Use intensive training methods: The occasional inclusion of methods such as drop sets,

rest/pause sets, tempo contrast, iso-dynamic contrast, supersets, and compound sets is another

way of making your body work harder. It also shouldn't be abused, as it constitutes tremendous

stress on the muscular and nervous systems.

Furthermore, intensive methods, as we saw earlier, should be used to accomplish a specific

purpose, not to trash the muscle for the sake of trashing it!

7. Use more challenging exercises: If you're used to doing all your training on machines, thenmove up to free weights. You'll force your body to work harder because you have to stabilize the

load. If you use only isolation exercises and start including multi-joint movements, you'll also make

your body work harder because of the intermuscular coordination factor.

8. Produce more tension in the targeted muscle group: It's one thing to lift the weight; it's

another to lift it correctly in order to build size! As I often say, when training to build muscle,

you're not lifting weights; you're contracting your muscles against a resistance. You can improve


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the quality of your sets, thus making your body work harder, by always trying to flex the target

muscle as hard as possible throughout the duration of each rep.

This method should only be used with isolation exercises.

9. Increase the time under tension by lowering the weight under control: I'm not a huge fan of

precise tempo recommendations, as I find that they can interfere with training concentration.

However, when a muscle is under constant tension for a relatively longer period of time (45 to 70

seconds), more hypertrophy can be stimulated.

The best way to do this without having to use less weight is to lower the weight even slower, while

still focusing on tensing the muscles as hard as possible the whole time.

10. Increase the lifting speed: The concentric part of a strength training movement is where

you're "lifting" the weight. In that phase of the contraction, the force formula applies:

Force = Mass x Acceleration

If you lift a certain weight with greater acceleration, you increase the amount of force you

produce, thus making the set harder.

It takes a lot more force to throw a baseball 50 yards than to throw it five feet. The weight is the

same, but you must accelerate the ball more. More acceleration equals more force.

This method of progression is best used for Olympic lifts, ballistic exercises, speed lifts, and the

like.

As you can see, there are several ways that you can use to improve the quality and demand of

your workouts on a weekly basis. The more often you can progress, the more you'll grow, period!

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