Old-school Training in a Modern Era, with Christian Thibaudeau and Tom Sheppard

Jan 17, 2025

Guest

Tom Sheppard

Guest

Christian Thibaudeau

Tom Sheppard, head coach at Thibarmy and powerlifting specialist, and Christian Thibaudeau, veteran strength coach and author, chat about returning to old-school strength methods. They discuss why pre-steroid training still works. Topics include odd lifts, clusters, progressive range-of-motion, loaded stretching, patience in progression, and fixing plateaus with specialization.

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ANECDOTE

How A Coaching Request Became A Long-Term Partnership

Tom recounts contacting Christian to coach him, which grew into a lasting professional partnership.
That initial decision led to online coaching, seminars, book coauthorship, and a move to Ohio to work with EliteFTS.

INSIGHT

Old-School Strongmen As Drug-Free Strength Models

Old-school strongmen are the best model for drug-free strength because they developed exceptional strength without performance-enhancing drugs.
Christian notes pre-1960s lifters used creativity and heavy partials to overload connective tissue, nerves, and fascia for strength gains.

INSIGHT

CrossFit Helped Revive Big Lifts But Aesthetics Pull Back

CrossFit raised interest in big lifts, pulling some people toward weightlifting, powerlifting, and strongman.
But mainstream aesthetics-focused training and social-media-driven expectations pull popularity away from heavy old-school approaches.

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Strength Training used to be simple. People simply focused on lifting the heaviest weights possible to build strength. Trainers and co-authors of The Overload System for Strength, Christian Thibaudeau and Tom Sheppard, are getting back to the old-school training methods that have provided results for decades. In this episode, the duo discusses why those old-school methods still make sense today and how to incorporate them into your training.

The Overload System for Strength https://ecs.page.link/XUXNS

Christian Thibaudeau

Christian Thibaudeau is a strength and conditioning coach with over 22 years of experience. He has taught seminars in over 20 different countries and has worked with athletes in 28 sports at all levels - high school to professional and Olympic athletes - as well as the everyday lifter. His training has also led him to work with competitors in the CrossFit Games and the Mr. Olympia bodybuilding competition. An athlete himself, competing in football, rugby, golf weightlifting, and bodybuilding, Thibaudeau is the author of several strength and conditioning books, including The Black Book of Training Secrets, Theory and Application of Modern Strength and Power Methods, High Threshold Muscle Building, and The Maximum Muscle Bible, in addition to multiple training DVDs. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in exercise science from Quebec University, where he also worked as a research assistant before moving on to full-time coaching.

Tom Sheppard

Tom Sheppard is head coach at Thibarmy and works with a wide variety of high-level athletes from all backgrounds. His philosophy is based on learning how to use the body as one integrated unit and optimizing athletes' lifting mechanics based on their body type. This approach has brough him particular success in the sport of powerlifting, where he has produced countless British, European, and world champions and record holders. In addition to his role at Thibarmy, he also works closely with EliteFTS, creating educational material, working with high-level lifters to improve their performance, and delivering seminars on the international stage, including the 2022 SWIS Symposium.

Watch on YouTube https://ecs.page.link/FXyuz

Human Kinetics https://ecs.page.link/is5vj