Training with complexes

[Pseudonym]

After seeing OnlyHuman talk about complexes in his journal, I thought I'd have a play too.

So although this is partly a question for OnlyHuman, I'm posting it here so others can chip in.

The routine in question is Christian Thibaudeau's 6 Weeks to Superhero (How I Build Muscle and Strip Off Fat – FAST!) See page 2 for the actual exercises.

Thibaudeau's routine calls for two complexes per workout day, each consisting of 4-6 rounds of 5 exercises. The theory is that the exercises progress from overload, to strength, to speed, to endurance as you go through the round. Then you start again.

I like that theory, as it seems to do a bit of everything. But:

- Doing two complexes a day seems like a bloody long workout - about 2 hours, by my estimates. (I just did one complex, and it took over an hour)

- It's also a pain in the arse to set everything up, because unless you take up multiple power racks, you're constantly raising and lowering the bars as you switch between top-half bench press (for example), to full range, and back again for each round.

- Rotating through 5 exercises means you take up a lot of space in the gym.

Having said that, I did get a good chest workout from it. What are your thoughts on the routine, OnlyHuman?

Has anyone tried complexes before? How have you found them?

[Kracka]

Downfall of Christian Thibaudeau

http://forums.lylemcdonald.com/showthread.php?p=122492

[Mike Zero]

*wanders into thread, sees link to tnation article, wanders out

[Pseudonym]

LOL - like that, is it, Mike?! You'll love my second question then, which was about bench press technique. In the

, Thibaudeau talks about shrugging the traps while pressing. I'd never heard this one before, and wondered if anyone else had. :-s

[OnlyHuman]

After seeing OnlyHuman talk about complexes in his journal, I thought I'd have a play too.

So although this is partly a question for OnlyHuman, I'm posting it here so others can chip in.

The routine in question is Christian Thibaudeau's 6 Weeks to Superhero (How I Build Muscle and Strip Off Fat – FAST!) See page 2 for the actual exercises.

Thibaudeau's routine calls for two complexes per workout day, each consisting of 4-6 rounds of 5 exercises. The theory is that the exercises progress from overload, to strength, to speed, to endurance as you go through the round. Then you start again.

I like that theory, as it seems to do a bit of everything. But:

- Doing two complexes a day seems like a bloody long workout - about 2 hours, by my estimates. (I just did one complex, and it took over an hour)

- It's also a pain in the arse to set everything up, because unless you take up multiple power racks, you're constantly raising and lowering the bars as you switch between top-half bench press (for example), to full range, and back again for each round.

- Rotating through 5 exercises means you take up a lot of space in the gym.

Having said that, I did get a good chest workout from it. What are your thoughts on the routine, OnlyHuman?

Has anyone tried complexes before? How have you found them?

I like to say several things and if I may... I will just address these in one post.

About T-nation: Yeah :roll: I have been browsing it for many years. They are very commercial and money hungry these days. However I find it easy to ignore that and just read stuff that I find interesting.

I like the idea of pulling articles from several authors. Some very well known and respected, some isn't very well known. My take on it is, if the article gets me interested I read it and at least I try to keep an open mind and ponder about it a little before I make my mind up and discard it. If it tickles my curiosity enough I probably end up implementing it in my training at some stage.

I really don't care about Cristian T. one way or an other (as a person) but most of his training programs I ended up trying so far have been a nice change of space. Some of them worked well for me while others did not make much of a difference. I guess it is not easy to write a cookie cutter programs that will work on every single person who ends up reading it over the net.

I'm aware of it and don't get upset if I don't reach the promise land of "holly grail" or whatever the program so post to do.

I guess, picking different programs from the net suits me as I like structure and expectations and a change of training style once in a while thus when it comes to training, I enjoy trying new stuff from several "coaches".

I'm not following the program to the letter but adhere to it enough to be able to evaluate it I think. My weight sessions take about an hour and a bit but I only do 3 rounds and only 4 exercises. I take more than enough time between sets to recover and not really in a rush.

I set my self up in one power rack and if needed I change my exercises slightly while trying to adhere to the basic "rules" of the program.

Today I did :

Pin pulls ... Starting from racked position, "walk it out", do reps, rack again.... (take away pin.. drop weight.. etc)

Deadlifts.... (Starting from racked position, "walk it out", do reps.) Rack it. (drop weight)

Hang cleans ... rack it (load back weight for pin pulls)

Weighted good morning jumps (Just hold a plate to the chest.)

Bench:

Board presses

Full bench

Speed bench

Clap push ups

This is easy just drop weight twice than stack it back on.

My thoughts so far (only been like barely two weeks) so take it for what it worth.

It is seem to be doing pretty good for fat loss so far. I did drop some BF over the last 10 days or so. Not dieting super hard either :oops: I eat clean-ish by my standards but not really by body building standards. For example I eat bread and I even made some apple cake the other day :pfft: that I ended up sampling my self before I gave away the rest.

I have a feeling that the program would serve the athletic population pretty well if they can tolerate their lower back being loaded 4 times / week.

If my goal was more hypertrophy based I would ponder about adding one isolation exercise to the program and evaluate it from there. Just a gut feeling.

Just my 10 cents worth, take it or leave it. :wink:

At the moment I enjoy it and I stick to it for a few more weeks, perhaps by then I will know better :grin: and will do a write up on it.