T NATION | The Intelligent and Relentless Pursuit of Muscle

Live Coaching: Wednesday
The Indigo Project. 5 Reasons to Use Partial Movements. By Christian Thibaudeau

Live Coaching: Tuesday
The Indigo Project. Accumulated Fatigue vs. Overtraining: Know the Difference! By Christian Thibaudeau

Live Coaching: Monday
The Indigo Project. The Power of the Pre-Bed Pulse

Live Coaching: Friday
The Indigo Project. Christian Thibaudeau's 6 Favorite Loading Schemes for Size and Strength

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Chris Shugart: @pradaboy: The gym chains are going to vary by location. I sometimes train at a 24 Hour Fitness that has an O-lift platform, battle ropes, plyo boxes, etc. A lot of times it depends on the owner. Just avoid Planet Fitness.

Chris Shugart:

Dani Shugart: @Brandon, anytime! And actually thank YOU.

Dani Shugart: @Corst, glad to help ;-)

Dani Shugart: @Prada, could it be temp and weather related? My skin is more susceptible to that sort of thing when the temps get warmer.... more oil production possibly? And I have to swap out my skin care products for the hotter months. Also, nuts/nut butters exacerbate my skin issues. You may be completely different, but thought I'd share because skin probs are really frustrating!

Chris Shugart: @itisfinished: Sure. Most have close to the same ingredients, which are mostly good. They're kept in the freezer section of health food stores. Same company that makes Ezekiel (which I generally don't recommend since it's wheat) makes one:

Chris Shugart: @pradaboy: Drinking any milk? Big cause of acne for many people. http://www.t-nation.com/...n_and_good_skin

Chris Shugart:

Christian Thibaudeau: @ coolusername... yes... my new favorite method of achieving a maximum pump is to do 5-10 reps in 3 partial ranges, then rest 10 sec. and do 5 full explosive reps... so for example on preacher curl, do 10 top partials, 10 mid partials, 10 bottom partials... rest 10 sec. and do 5 explosive reps... after the pump reps you think that there is no way you can do the 5 explosive reps.... but you can... they actually feel like a relief but when you drop the bar it feels like the biceps is on fire.

Chris Shugart:

Christian Thibaudeau: A 7/5/3 wave would look like this: 330x7/350x5/370x3 / 350x7/370x5/400-410x3

Christian Thibaudeau: @ troublesome... with 5/4/3 first wave is conservative, second is close to your best, third is either your max or a new max... with 7/5/3 the first wave is conservative the second is limit... so with a 3RM of 405 a 5/4/3 wave could look like this: 330x5/350x4/370x3 / 350x5/370x4/390x3 / 370x5/390x4/405-410x3...

Christian Thibaudeau: @coolusername... the VMO has two main functions: 1) it is the prime mover in the last degrees of knee extension 2) it stabilizes the knee joint... so it is more heavily involved during the last quarter of a squat.

Christian Thibaudeau: @ rpm... I actually talked about that possibility yesterday. What I recommended was 1-3 reps @ 105% (partial) / 1 rep @ 90% / 6 reps @ 80% / 1-3 reps @ 110% (partial) / 1 rep @ 92% / 6 reps @ 82% / 1-3 reps @ 115% (partial) / 1 rep @ 95% / 6 reps @ 85%

Christian Thibaudeau: On that same video I squat 550lbs x 5 and 600 x 1

Christian Thibaudeau: @ Chig... the only video I can think of is my 142.5kg snatch in training. My best friend of the time filmed it so he might still have it.

Christian Thibaudeau: hard to get an overload from them.

Christian Thibaudeau: @coolusername.... it's a double-edged sword. Yes, it is true that longer limbs individuals get less carryover in strength gains from partials to full ROM... well to be more accurate the more you are mechanically suited for a lift, the more carryover you get from partials. That having been said, people who are not mechanically suited for a lift will probably gain more size from partials (not *too* partials... half squats for example) because their levers are so bad for the full lifts that it's

Christian Thibaudeau: and separation. But most of all it gave me mobility and strength-mobility that I didn't have before.

Christian Thibaudeau: This allowed me to start reaping benefits from more traditional back work. That having been said, I still keep front lever work in my own training because I find that if I stop using it I start to lose some of my capacity to recruit the lats. When they were fixing a problem, rings provided rapid changes. Now that the problem is fixed they are not sufficient to continue growing at an optimal rate. As for chest development, I didn't get that much out of rings. It did improve shoulder strength ...

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Sure-fire Way to Learn the Snatch
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Kroc Rows 101
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Hard Ab Training
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by Bret Contreras and Brad Schoenfeld. Back before he was governing the state, Arnold Schwarzenegger was way ahead of his time as a bodybuilder.

Why the Bench Press is the Best Exercise
by Tim Henriques. The new trend is to bash the bench press. But how do the contenders stack up? The results will surprise you.

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