208: Christian Thibaudeau on Adrenaline, Muscle Tone and Optimizing Training Splits in Athletic Performance | Sponsored by SimpliFaster

Today’s episode features strength coach Christian Thibaudeau.  Christian has been involved in the business of training for the last 18 years, having worked with athletes from 28 different sports.  He is a prolific writer and presenter, having written four books, as well as presenting to top coaches and organizations all over the world. Christian is also the creator of the Neuro-typing system, which classifies athletes according to the neurotransmitters they seek out.  This system has the categories of 1A,1B,2A,2B and 3, and Christian has covered this topic extensively on this podcast, as well as many other shows. There are many intersections of the neuro-typing system, as well as other categories of individualization.  As discussed on my recent talk with Ross Jeffs, the “concentric”, “elastic” and “metabolic” sprinter types tend to fit with the 1A,1B and 2A neuro-types in regards to their strengths and optimal training regimen. One element of training that I’ve been considering a lot is optimal training splits for sprinting and jumping athletes, and reconciling 4-day training splits (or even 6-day) where there is an intensive CNS element, versus more of a “high-low” split that Charlie Francis made so popular. This new podcast with Christian digs into understanding how to give athletes their best training split by understanding the relationship of adrenaline to overtraining.  It also looks at things like muscle tone as how one can make a better assessment of an athlete, what training they may respond best to, as well as how to assess them on a daily and weekly basis, and make the best training adjustments.  Christian covers this, nutrition, child development and creativity, and much more on this information-packed show. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more. Timestamps and Main Points 6:25  Christian’s recent thoughts on child development 12:25  The importance of creativity in early age, and how to cultivate it in developmental stages 28:45 Overview and updates of the neurotyping system from a perspective of COMT, serotonin, adrenaline, and methylation 53:15 Muscle tone, neuro-types and training splits 1:17.55 The role of carbohydrates, cortisol, and adrenaline in training Quotes “Any type of blue light or screen time is the number one enemy to child development” “You will always have what I call grinders… they will never become the stars, and the stars are those that have that little extra something, and that comes from creativity” “That’s one trait of high acetylcholine individuals, they will be more creative” “Some people will break down adrenaline super-fast, and if they can do that, they can tolerate a lot more training stimulus.  That is why some people naturally can tolerate a boatload of volume” “COMT is the enzyme that breaks down adrenaline.  The one that is fast will break down adrenaline very quickly after release, on the other hand if I have someone with a slow variation of the COMT enzyme, when you release adrenaline it stays high forever” “The type 3 is very similar to the type 1a from a genetic perspective.  Both have poor methylation, both have slow COMT, they don’t clear out adrenaline fast” “Carbohydrates control adrenaline” “The 1B is only aggressive under high adrenaline… they will be super chill until it counts” “The 1B if he fails he will just try again.  The 2A, looking foolish is destructive, because what others think of him is super important” “Anxiety is nothing more than your brain firing too fast for you to control it” “That person (who has high muscle tone) always has high adrenaline.  To me that person has slow COMT, he doesn’t break down adrenaline fast” “9 times out of 10 what we call overtraining is a desensitization of the beta-adrenergic receptors”