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L-Carnitine Tartrate is better for physical performance while Acetyl-L-Carnitine has been shown to be better for brain function and cognitive performance. As for fat loss, oral carnitine has a very weak positive effect, and it's mostly in elderly populations. Anecdotally, I know some competitive bodybuilders swear by injectable carnitine (obtained from veterinary supply stores), but take that with a grain of salt as I'm not sure how much human research there is on that. That being said 3g fish oil + 1g carnitine daily is good for general health, blood flow, brain function, etc. Just don't expect miracle results from the combo.
Not a big fan of it to be honest. The reason is because if someone is struggling with strength in a chin up, they need more relative strength / neurological work. The pulldown variation post-chin up would just serve to further fatigue the motor pattern at a lower threshold. Fine for hypertrophy, but if performance in the chin up is your goal, then it's not the best option. Think QUALITY over QUANTITY here. After a hard set of chins + ISO holds, it would be far better to take a long rest and prepare for another high output set of chin-ups. Hope that makes sense.
Tons of work for the biceps, brachialis, brachioradialis as well as the lower traps and lats in the shortened position. Then transfer those into specific strength with flexed arm hang isometrics with the chin above the bar, building up in duration over time.
Thanks for the update and the clarification. Okay, in looking at your goals and experience, I would absolutely NOT recommend doing "conditioning" complexes with the Olympic lifts.
I think your best bet is to put Olympic lifts on your other lifting days, and use other means to develop your conditioning (assault bikes, rowers, ski ergs, sleds, battle ropes, etc).
Since you want to build proficiency, just put the snatch or clean and jerk as the first lift on your 2 lower body days. If you wanted to, you could also put a VERY low volume of work in on your upper body days as well, keeping it light and focusing on technique (something like 3 sets of 2 @ 70%) or hitting different variations. If you manage your volume and intensity across the board, you can make this workable without burying yourself into the ground.
Good luck!
As of right now, peptides are not available for human use without a prescription. Your best bet for knowledge is going to be medical journals, PubMed, or a site like the one linked below where they summarize the findings in medical journals regarding certain supplements and peptides. Here is a good read on BPC-157:
Can you be a bit more specific? When you say "conditioning" what are you looking to develop?
I know Charles was not a big fan of using WL movements for creating fatigue resistance since it's a sport in and of itself and is very technically demanding (form breaks down as you get tired and do a lot of reps).
Are you trying to get better at weightlifting movements or are you just trying to use the lifts to build lactic capacity / aerobic power / etc?
Complexes can work, but I only recommend trying them if the client or athlete is very proficient at the Olympic lifts and the weight stays fairly light. Here is one that makes is way around the track and field circles for throwers. It's called the "British Circuit"
10 Front Squat
10 Power Snatch
10 Back Squat
10 Power CleanDo 2-4 rounds depending on how badly you want to empty the contents of your stomach.
If you are looking to build alactic tolerance while still preserving technique you could try "on the minute" or EMOMs for your WL movements.
Start a clock and at the top of every minute, do 1-3 reps of a weightlifting movement. The remainder of the minute is your rest. Can be done for anywhere between 10-60 minutes depending on your conditioning and skill level.
Good luck!
Hard to describe mobility routines on a forum, but as a general rule, I think you should take every joint in your body through it's full ACTIVE range of motion every day. Slow and controlled is the name of the game and spend time controlling the spots where it's the hardest as that's where you likely need the most work. Mobility is nothing more than strength and stability at specific joint ranges of motion, which can only be cemented in CNS through active muscular contraction. Hope that makes sense.
I'm not sure if Charles ever published the soccer training materials, Coach Jance would be able to answer that one a bit better. As for general advice, keep in mind that during the early adolescent / pre-teen years you have a very unique window of being able to influence their maximum ceiling for alactic / explosive potential moreso than any other phase of life. This means medball throws, jumps, and short sprints with full recovery should be a major component. Think high power output / low skill exercises that are simple to teach and easy for them to understand and perform well. In the weight room, teaching proper lifting technique takes precedence to lay a foundation for future hard phases. Keep the program super simple and only progress them in load when they demonstrate perfect technique. No need to do complicated exercise rotations, or get too crazy with periodization schemes. Focus on a handful of basic exercises and get them to do these exercises well and you can't go wrong!
Depends on your goals, your training volume, your food intake for the rest of the day, etc. Impossible to say without doing a deep dive on the rest of the variables, but if you're around 10% body fat and doing twice per day workouts, I'd say anywhere between 75g-200g of carbs in that first meal post-workout would be fine. I know Charles used to do 200g post-workout when he was doing 2-a-days for a frame of reference based on size.
As a general rule, the weaker something is, the more often you can train it because the training does not induce a drain on adaptive reserves when you are super weak. As an example, if you get rotator cuff surgery, you will be doing strength exercises multiple times daily in rehab until the muscles become strong enough to warrant more recovery, at which point you will gradually space out the sessions to allow for recovery as you get stronger. I will say that doing this for the lower back is certainly possible, but you must tread very cautiously. The lower back can take a long time to recover if you take it past a certain threshold of volume and intensity. If you wanted to do this, I would recommend only 1 day of "hard" training with things like deadlifts or good mornings. The rest of the sessions should consist of a low-volume of less-taxing exercises. 45 degree back extensions, horizontal back extensions, McGill bird-dog exercises, reverse hypers, multifidus chops, suitcase deadlifts, etc. Do less volume than you even think you need to and build up accordingly as you get stronger. It takes a long time to develop the proficiency to train the erectors multiple times per week. Elite Olympic weightlifters come to mind, but it takes years to be able to build up to that type of frequency, and there is no eccentric on the erectors with Olympic lifts, so keep that in mind as well. Use performance as your guide, if your performance begins to suffer, it means that you aren't recovering from the volume or intensity (or exercise difficulty) that you have selected. Again, yes you CAN do this, but just because you can doesn't always mean you SHOULD. Good luck!
First of all, change your mindset that you are limited with your equipment. If you take just one exercise, let's say a prone incline dumbbell spider curl as an example, you have many different options for variation. First you can change the grip. Pronated, supinated, neutral, zottman (supinated concentric / pronated eccentric), neutral to supinating, etc. Then with each of those variations, multiply by the number of degrees of bench angles you have available on your adjustable bench. Then from there, consider tempos and pauses. You can do super slow eccentrics, super slow concentric, isometric pauses at 30 degrees elbow flexion, 50 deg, 90 deg, 110 deg, etc. You can do 1 and 1/4 reps at the top or the bottom. You can do eccentric overloaded reps after you reach failure. You can do ISO dynamic reps where you hold for 15 seconds at a fixed joint angle and then perform your reps for the set. This is an entire year or more worth of variation for just for ONE exercise, the prone incline DB spider curl. You've got a lot of tools in your toolbox!
When trying to get jacked, you have volume, frequency, and intensity. Two of these can be high at any given time while one needs to be low. This leaves you with lots of options to cycle through for you various hypertrophy training cycles:
Low volume / low intensity / high frequency
High frequency / High intensity / low volume
High volume / High intensity / low frequencyEtc you get the idea. Play with those ratios based on your needs and you will be good to go. Also, as Jance pointed out, do not overlook the impact of multiple elevations in muscle protein synthesis and the opportunity to bathe the muscles you are trying to grow in proteins, carbs, creatine, etc.
Good luck!
Hey Frank, just to add my 2 cents in here, most of the time when people aim for the fastest possible fat loss, they end up failing. The more aggressive the deficit and the more restricted the food list, the more likely the client will be to go off the rails at the first moment of weakness. When you lose fat extremely fast, your leptin tanks and your ghrelin goes sky high. These are your appetite regulation hormones. Leptin signals you that you are full and ghrelin signals that you are hungry. So basically, when you try to do it too quickly, you are in a situation where you are constantly ravenously hungry and when you do eat, you can't perceive when you are full!! NOT a good situation! Also, for people who lose body fat the fastest, they tend to rebound the fastest and gain fat at a rate and magnitude that exceeds their rate and magnitude of loss. I've seen many yo yo dieters end up fatter than they started not long after their crash diet ends. Your best bet for losing fat and keeping it off is a sustained MILD calorie deficit with plenty of protein and fiber, and being mindful of not being overly restrictive. The more sustainable it is, the more likely a client can follow it for long enough to lose fat and keep it off with out the crazy hormonal mess that comes with doing a crash diet. Charles certainly has some awesome rapid fat loss tips, and they absolutely work, but not everyone is a "robot" with the discipline to stay the course through the torturous diet and the hormonal swings. Best of luck to you!
Hey Bryan, you can find them at any drugstore! I've been using one with elderberry in it lately, Sambucol.
Anything glycolytic in nature (lactic acid buildup) will benefit from having carbs to fuel the session. You may be able to get by with having a shake or something small, but even more important is glycogen replenishment from the day before. The more volume you train with, the more carbs you eat, plain and simple! Eat tonight for tomorrow's workout!
Great answer Jance. I will also add that if you eat enough fiber from real food, you do not need to supplement with it. I typically eat 1-2 pounds of raw greens per day in addition to fiber from fruits, grains, etc. As long as I stay consistent with it, I do not need any additional fiber. Lots of individuality on this one and the only other thing I'll add is that any changes to fiber (either adding or subtracting) should be done GRADUALLY. Give each small change 2 weeks before you make an additional change and ensure plenty of liquid as well.
