Today’s podcast is with Christian Thibaudeau. Christian is a Canadian strength coach with over two decades experience, is a prolific writer, and has worked with athletes from nearly 30 sports. He is the originator of training systems such as the NeuroTyping system and Omni-contraction training. Christian is a wealth of training knowledge, and in addition to his extensive experience, he walks the talk in his training, competing in weightlifting and bodybuilding.

I always enjoy having Christian on the show, as he is an absolute wealth of knowledge in multiple areas of human performance. I’ve had a significant number of revelations across my time speaking with Christian that have had a profound impact on my approach to programming and training.

On the episode today, Christian talks about aspects of the nervous system and training stress, both in shorter-term cycles and waves of work, as well as year-to-year recovery concepts to restore the body and mind. Christian also covers ideas on training to failure, pre-fatigue and muscle activation work in relation to athletic skill development, loaded stretching for strength, and more. This was an awesome show, and it’s always great to have Christian on the podcast.

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View more podcast episodes at the podcast homepage.

Timestamps and Main Points:

6:58- Optimizing Neurological Training for Maximum Gains

8:22- The Importance of Structural Abilities in Training

13:29- Neurological Factors and Performance Fatigue

24:23- The Impact of Skill Mastery on Performance

25:58- Enhancing Performance through Systemic Stress Management

31:51- The Importance of Rest and Recovery

35:20- The Impact of Mental State on Training Performance

39:22- Optimal Muscle Growth through Post-Failure Technique

45:00- Targeted Muscle Growth through Low Volume Training

53:20- Maintaining Bar Proximity for Olympic Lifts

1:02:44- Enhancing Performance with Iced Calves

1:10:07- Optimizing Health with Magnesium Supplementation

Christian Thibaudeau Quotes

"The reality is that when we are talking about training methods that are focused on neurological changes, which would be pretty much all power training methods, reactive training, plyometrics, pros, even the Olympic lifts, and even strength training, as far as in the very low ranges or isometric stuff like that, they all have a very short duration of what effective training can be." - Christian Thibaudeau

"But if your body is not ready, what happens is you're creating lots of low grade systemic inflammation. You are causing stress on those tissues, and you don't always feel the pain, but it's still there, and it still sends signal to your brain, which will create inhibition, preventing you from performance, from performing at your best." - Christian Thibaudeau

"But I'm telling you, if you do a four to six weeks period where you devote as much focus and thinking into designing a recovery program than you do programming your performance program, dude, when you come back from that, you're going to be a freaking machine." - Christian Thibaudeau

"I think it's a mistake to try to do everything with the same tool. Each tool has its purpose. Don't try to nail a nail with a saw. That just doesn't work well." - Christian Thibaudeau