8/10/2019 Beast Building Part 1 http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/beast-building-part-1 1/20 Beast Building, Part 1 3 Months to Personal Bests and New Found Thickness by Christian Thibaudeau Recently, I said that I hated writing articles giving out specific programs. I feel that as a coach it's a much better approach to explain concepts and techniques, rather than just giving out the application. Well, I'm about to contradict myself. Because this article is the first installment of a three-part series that'll turn you into a thick, dense, and rugged beast in three short months. Get ready to need bigger shirts and more plates. However, as a bonus, this first edition will also dish out plenty of information so that if you decide not to follow the program right now, you'll still walk away feeling like you learned something. So, without further adieu, let's get it on! Phase I: Jacking You Up The goal of this first phase is to prime your body for the subsequent training phases. Basically, we want to jack up your nervous system efficiency so that you'll be much better at recruiting the all-important high-threshold motor units (HTMU's), sometimes known as the fast-twitch fibers. http://www.t-nation.com/portal_includes/articles/2008/08-07 of 20 2/9/12 5:22
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Note: Declines are a slightly inferior choice in this specific case because there isn't as much total
muscle mass being involved due to the relative inactivity (compared to other presses) of the deltoid.
Overall lower body: sumo deadlift, snatch-grip deadlift, deadlift standing on a podium, conventional
deadlift, back squat, front squat, overhead squat
Note: I generally prefer a deadlift to a squat because more muscle groups are involved, especially in
the upper body. In that case, the better choices are the sumo, snatch-grip, and podium deadlifts
because they involve the lower body more than other types of deadlifts. That's not to say that squatsaren't a good choice. Far from it! You could perform a deadlift on Monday and a squat on Thursday,
Note: Normally, you select a pulling exercise that directly antagonizes the selected pushing exercise.
If you select a horizontal pressing movement (bench press) then you're better off with a horizontal
pulling exercise (bent-over row). Likewise, it's best to pair a vertical pressing movement (military
press) with a vertical pulling movement (chin-up or pull-up). If you go with an incline pressingmovement, both choices in pulling movements are acceptable.
A Special Note on Frequency
Motor skill acquisition training isn't overly taxing because none of the sets are that challenging. That's
actually the goal! Because this isn't a draining session, you can actually perform it twice in one day if
Don't add days, however, because it'll screw up the design of the week.
Benefits of Isometric Exercises
Since our second type of workout involves the use of isometrics, we'll first run through the nitty grittyscience behind their effectiveness. Here's an excerpt from my latest book, High Threshold Muscle
Building:
1. Isometric strength, or the capacity to produce force during a static muscle action, is higher than
concentric (lifting) strength. In most individuals, isometric strength is 10 to 15% higher than
concentric strength (Schmidtbleicher, 1995). This high force production can be used to spark positive
neural adaptations that can lead to a significant increase in strength. Remember, the more force you
produce, the more high-threshold motor units you recruit.
2. In most individuals, more HTMU's are recruited during a maximal isometric action than during a
regular lifting movement. This is especially true in beginners. In that regard, isometric exercises canbe used to develop the nervous system's capacity to recruit these HTMU's. As your CNS becomes
more efficient at recruiting HTMU's during isometric actions, its overall capacity to tap into these
powerful fibers will also increase. As a result, you'll eventually become more efficient at recruiting
HTMU's in regular lifting movements. More HTMU's recruited equals more muscle growth and
greater strength gains.
3. Isometrics can be used as a potentiating method. Potentiation is the act of making a movement
more efficient by pairing it with a previous activity. Potentiation can either be stimulated by explosive
movements or by maximal voluntary contractions. The later being called "post-tetanic potentiation."
The tetanus refers to a state of muscular activation that occurs either during a long muscular
contraction or a very intense contraction. The tetanus can be explained as the summation of all the
available motor units.
It's been found that the force of the twitch of a muscle fiber is more important after, rather than before,
the brief tetanus. This effect is present even five minutes after the tetanus (O'Leary et al. 1997,
Gullich and Schmidtbleicher 1995). In fact, during a seven-second tetanus, the capacity to apply force
decreases by 15%. While this capacity is increased by 28% after one minute, 33% after two minutes,
and 25% after five minutes (O'Leary et al. 1997). So, it appears that the capacity to produce force is
greater two to three minutes after the cessation of the tetanic effort.
This increase in the capacity to produce force after a certain stimulation is called post-tetanic
potentiation (PTP). The most effective way to promote a large PTP is to place an intense stimulation
on a muscle via a maximal effort/maximal tension contraction for a length of 5 to 10 seconds (Brown
and von Euler, 1938, Vandervoort et al. 1983).
PTP can increase contraction strength, especially in fast-twitch fibers (Bowman et al. 1969, Standeart,
1964). PTP also improves the rate of force development (Abbate et al, 2000). So, it can be used to
potentiate both heavy lifting and explosive movements (Gullich and Schmidtbleicher 1997).
PTP works by increasing the phosphorylation of the myosin light chains, which makes the actin-
myosin more sensitive to calcium in the subsequent twitch (Grange et al. 1993, Palmer and Moore
1989, O'Leary et al. 1997). This isn't chiefly important, but, if you wish, you can grab a physiology
textbook and review the sliding filament theory of muscular contraction to see how this would
increase the capacity to produce force.
To make a long story short, maximal isometrics would seem to be the best way to take advantage of
the PTP phenomenon for a couple of reasons:
A) The force production is higher during an isometric action. More force produced equals greater
potentiation.
B) Isometric movements are less tiring than concentric/regular exercises. As a result, potentiation
(which improves performance) is increased while fatigue (which decreases performance) isn't
significantly elevated. The end result being a greater improvement in force production potential.
To take advantage of this method, you should perform a five to ten second maximal isometric action
(of an overcoming nature) two to three minutes prior to a heavy (or explosive) set of a regular
exercise. This potentiating effect can be used to further increase strength, power, and size gains.
4. Isometric exercises can be used to strengthen a weak point in a lift. The strength gained from
isometric exercise is "angle specific," meaning that you increase strength mostly at the angle beingtrained (there is a 15 degrees carryover). This can be seen as both a limitation and benefit. A limitation
in that to strengthen the whole range of motion, you must train at least three joint angles per
movement. But, the benefit is that isometrics can be used to strengthen a specific point in a
movement's range of motion (sticking point).
For example, if your bench press sticking point is at the mid-range of the concentric portion, you can
utilize isometric work at that specific position to strengthen that weak point without significantly
increasing fatigue or increasing the required post-workout recovery time.
5. Isometric strength is important for several athletic actions. For example, every movement that
requires the athlete to hold a pre-determined body position (e.g. alpine skiing's bent knees position)
requires great isometric strength. Actions where there is a rapid switch from eccentric to concentric
(running, changes of direction, etc.) also need isometric strength since before the switch can occur, the
resistance must be stopped and that requires both eccentric and isometric strength.
6. Maximum intramuscular tension is attained for only a brief period in dynamic exercises. This is
mostly due to the fact that the resistance has velocity and acceleration components. On the other hand,
with isometric exercises you can sustain that maximal tension for a longer period of time.
For example, instead of maintaining maximum intramuscular tension for 0.25 to 0.5 seconds in the
concentric portion of a dynamic movement, you may sustain it for around three to six seconds during
an isometric exercise. Strength is greatly influenced by the total time under maximal tension. If youcan add ten to twenty seconds of maximal intramuscular tension per session, then you increase your
Or, if you prefer to go with a vertical pressing movement, you can do:
• Military press isometric hold and push press with 65 to 75% of your max military press
The isometric exercise is performed for sets of six to nine seconds, obviously pushing as hard as
humanly possible. Don't go above ten seconds because ATP-CP stores are pretty much depleted after
ten to twelve seconds, which leads to a drop in maximal force production. This is bad for a neuraldevelopment phase. However, longer isometric holds can be used during hypertrophy phases.
For the explosive exercise, the objective is to produce a very high level of acceleration on each
repetition. This is why you should limit your reps to no more than:
• 3 to 5 for the Olympic lifting variations and speed version of the traditional strength exercises
sets (100 to 200 reps) to improve tendon structural integrity and recovery for decades.
All and all, this session will desensitize your inhibitory reflexes, allowing you to use a greater
percentage of your strength. It'll also improve the structural integrity of your tendons, as well as the
efficiency of your nervous system.
The first part of the workout includes the overload training itself. Just like with the practice
training/motor skill acquisition, you'll train these basic movement patterns:
• Upper body pushing
• Overall lower body
• Upper body pulling
But this time you'll use two exercises per movement pattern. The two exercises are to be of the same
movement pattern (e.g. horizontal pressing: bench press), but the first one is a partial movement while
the second one is an accentuated eccentric movement. Both exercises are performed alternatively (e.g.
one set of A1, two minutes of rest, one set of A2, two minutes of rest, one set of A1, etc.).
Good pairings include:
Upper body pushing: partial bench press in the power rack (bar starts above the sticking point) plus
manual eccentric bench press
In the manual eccentric technique, you use a bar weight of 70 to 80%. Your partner applies pressure
on the bar during the eccentric/lowering portion of the movement. The goal is to lower the bar in five
seconds. As long as you can lower it in five seconds, he can apply more pressure. If the bar drops
down faster, he should reduce the amount of pressure applied.
At the end of the eccentric phase, the partner releases the bar and lets you lift it back up to the starting
position. When doing manual eccentrics, sets of three to five reps are performed. The partner adjusts
the resistance depending on your fatigue level.
Overall lower body: partial sumo deadlift in the power rack (the bar can start anywhere from
mid-shins to just above the knees) plus eccentric-only deadlift
The eccentric-only deadlift used to be a favorite of Olympic lifting coach Pierre Roy. Use anywhere
from 90 to 110% of your max deadlift. Going heavier than that's dangerous and isn't more productive.
You pick up the bar from a pair of blocks (so that you barely have to lift it up to get to the startingposition), then take two steps back to clear the blocks. You then proceed to lower the bar to the floor
as slowly as humanly possible.
Shoot for at least a five-second lowering phase, but seven to ten seconds is better. One thing that's
very important is that you should lower the bar using a perfect body position and technique — arched
lower back, chest out, hips back and down. You can use either a sumo or conventional stance. During
this type of exercise, only one repetition is performed.
Upper body pulling: partial pull-ups and negative pull-ups
In the partial pull-ups, you start from the bottom position and pull yourself up as high as you can.
Select a load (if you add weight) that'll only allow you to pull yourself halfway up to the finish
position.
In the negative pull-ups, use around 10% more weight than for the partials. Use a bench to get into the
proper position (the finished position of a pull-up) and lower yourself down as slowly as humanlypossible. Since this exercise is technically easier than the eccentric deadlift, you should aim to lower
yourself in at least ten seconds, with fifteen seconds being better. If you can lower yourself down
under control in fifteen seconds, add more weight. Again, only one repetition is performed.
For the partial movements, you shoot for sets of three to five reps with as much weight as you can
handle. You then take 90 to 120 seconds of rest before moving on to the eccentric exercise.
Each pairing (or complex) is performed for four to five sets.
The second portion of the workout is much simpler. You simply pick one exercise for the movementpatterns above and perform 100 to 200 total reps. That's it.
Note that these reps don't have to be performed straight through. You can take short pauses of five to
ten seconds during the set. Also, pick a very light load. The goal here isn't to hit muscle failure; this
isn't a muscle-building movement. The objective is simply to increase blood flow and tendon integrity.
supported dumbbell row, lat pull-down (only pick one)
What About Isolation Work?
It's pretty easy to see how this first phase of training will build a lot of strength. It's also fairly obvious
to most that this increase in strength will also lead to gains in overall muscle thickness and density.
But what about the guns, man? Sure, there's no isolation work for the biceps (or any other muscle
group, for that matter), but don't worry. Isolation exercises will make a comeback in Phase II, and
especially Phase III.
In the mean time, you won't lose any arm size on this program. Heck, you'll be pulling and pushingheavy weights four times a week! Is that enough to make your arms grow? In some people, yes. In
others, no. But one thing's for certain, it's enough to maintain arm size for the duration of this phase.
But, if you're the kind of person who goes crazy if he doesn't have his curls, then feel free to add tento fifteen minutes of "beach work" at the end of the second skill acquisition session.