First Person: TC
The Comeback Trail
by TC


It's time to flip the script on your favorite Testosterone writers
and see just what they're up to in the gym. Who's putting up outrageous
numbers? Who's leaving the cardio bunnies all hot and bothered? Who
walks the walk and who just talks the talk?

I don't write many training articles anymore.
It's not that I don't have plenty of ideas that might be of
interest to readers, it's that I'm not working as a coach or
trainer and as such haven't tested out my programs on scores of
clients.
Therefore, any training articles I might write could be, perhaps justly,
criticized.
I accept that, but I'm going to make an exception because a lot
of people — okay, maybe just a few — have asked about how the
various Testosterone staff members, including me, train ourselves.
And that's exactly what this program is, a snapshot of my current
training program.


Some Background
First, the briefest of background notes. For the last year, I've
been plagued by ailments. First a shoulder that hurt so badly that I
couldn't sleep on my right side. This was compounded by a perplexing
leg problem: my right leg hurt from the bottom of my foot to the top
of the hamstring. Lower leg flexion was almost impossible.
As a result, I couldn't work legs or my right shoulder for months!
I consulted everyone. I had inconclusive X-Rays. The Doc wanted me to
have an MRI (he conveniently had a machine in his office) because he
was sure I had a torn meniscus. I refused because I felt the symptomology
was all wrong.
He thought my shoulder problems were from a weak rotator cuff. He gave
me a prescription for four, count-em, four sessions with a physical therapist.
(I declined.)
I had multiple ART sessions. I had several Myofascial release sessions.
I prayed to obscure but ultimately uncaring Gods.
Finally, after poring through the archives at T-Nation, the answer to
my problem with my leg dawned on me. It was my feet, more specifically,
my shoes. I'd been wearing low-to-the-ground, almost devoid of support Skechers for
several years.


The Skechers did me in, too.
As an experiment, I bought an expensive pair of dress shoes. The pain
in my foot and knee went away almost immediately.
Within days, I could work legs again! Apparently, the Skechers had inflamed
the fascia on the bottoms of my feet, and that had in turn affected the
fascia up my entire leg, in addition to altering my gait and causing
knee pain.
Consequently, I threw my Skechers into the gaping maw of Hell (let the
demons have sore feet!) and replaced them with a variety of sturdy shoes.
As far as the shoulder, I have Chad Waterbury to thank for fixing that
problem. He performed every mobility test on my shoulder known to man
and I passed every one of them. What he did find was that my neck was
tighter than the strings on an inbred Appalachian banjo picker's
banjo.
The excruciating pain in my right shoulder was directly related to tight
muscles in my neck!
I started stretching my neck every night and the pain in my shoulders
has started to subside.
But I had to come up with a program that would nurse my shoulder back
up to where it's supposed to be, bring my dead lift back up to where
it was, and simultaneously beef up my quads while maintaining or maybe
even growing everything else.
A tall order, I'll admit.
So I developed something that was largely high-rep and slow tempo. Furthermore,
each body part was to be worked with 3 back-to-back-to-back exercises,
each attacking that particular body part from a different angle or grip.
I didn't want to go too heavy on the shoulders while it was still
tender, and using these long durations, slow tempo, allowed me to work
the dickens out of them without using a lot of weight.
I got the idea from an exercise prescription devised by Charles Poliquin
for shoulders, but I adapted the method to most body parts. The workouts
are relatively short, but each individual set is extremely long and excruciatingly
painful. In fact, each set, if done correctly, ends up with me hunched
over and grabbing the offended body part until the pain subsides.
Unfortunately, at least in terms of trying to explain the workout, I've
complicated it up a little. While the purpose of these multiple slow-tempo
tri-sets is hypertrophy, I am, as mentioned, also simultaneously trying
to bring up my 1RM deadlift to where it was by employing a 6-week progression
based on a Russian powerlifting program.
Oh yeah, and I'm also doing German Volume Training for my quads.
Again, I wanted to use something high volume but with relatively low
weight to bring my quads back without aggravating the fascia.
Nutty, huh?
Maybe, but it's a blast.


My Nutty, Complicated Program

Monday
The majority of my workouts are based on what Charles Poliquin calls "Omni-Reps".
They're extremely painful but they're extremely fun.
Omni-Reps are an extended series of three exercises performed one after
another before taking a rest. (Most of the Omni-Sets are designed to
be done at the same station. In other words, if one of the movements
involves a cable machine, bring your dumbbells or barbells to that station.)
On Mondays, I do Omni-Reps for triceps, shoulders, and chest. (I begin
with triceps because they're my weakest body part.)

Triceps
A1) Straight bar cable pulldowns.
*3 x 8-12, 40X0 tempo

Note: These are done just as you would a standard straight bar pushdown,
but with the palms facing up towards the ceiling.
A2) Straight bar cable pushdowns.
3 x 8-12, 40X0 tempo
A3) Overhead triceps extensions with rope.
3 x 8-12, 40X0 tempo.

*Remember, each set within the Omni-set is done back-to-back-to-back
with no rest. However, rest 2 minutes between Omni-sets by cradling
your triceps and weeping softly.

Shoulders
A1) Lateral dumbbell raises on incline bench.
*3 x 8-12, 40X0 tempo

Note: These are arms-relatively-straight-out-to-the-sides lateral raises,
not those horseshit, much-easier elbows-bent laterals. Plus, they're
done while leaning back on a incline bench to prevent your sorry ass
from cheating.


Lateral dumbbell raises on incline bench.