Anybody else got Chad’s book? I just finished reading it and I’m going to start tomorrow or Sun. I had my V-Diet plans screwed up in March by coming down with mono. Chad’s book will probably be a good thing to get me back to where I was. I lost a lot of strength and some size. I also like how he was mobility drills and stretching addressed in his book. Those are things I always felt like I needed to be doing. Any thoughts or comments appreciated.
There’s an Article Discussion thread on Get Huge in a Hurry: http://www.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding_article/get_huge_in_a_hurry_1
You may find some useful answers. Good luck!
I think some of the things he wrote are good things to chew on. As the basis of an entire programing philosphy I am skeptical. If someone has never trained this way I can see results happening but in experienced lifters who often combine speed components in their training this approach is not novel.
Good luck and let us know what it does for you.
Yeah I dont necessarily think there is one magical system or training philosophy. I even bough Ellington Darden’s new H.I.T. It was interesting, and a good break from what I was doing. I actually saw some gains for about 3 or 4 weeks. But if you follow his outline he would have you down to working out 3 times in a two week period. Im not going to workout less than 3 days a week. I think I’ll go through most of the workouts like he has them outlined and see what happens.
Yeah, I’m in the process of copying it all at my local Borders. sinister laughter followed by thunder and lightning
[quote]taddpole wrote:
Anybody else got Chad’s book? I just finished reading it and I’m going to start tomorrow or Sun. I had my V-Diet plans screwed up in March by coming down with mono. Chad’s book will probably be a good thing to get me back to where I was. I lost a lot of strength and some size. I also like how he was mobility drills and stretching addressed in his book. Those are things I always felt like I needed to be doing. Any thoughts or comments appreciated.[/quote]
Yes, I have this book. I am on week 10 from the beginning. I was familiar with full body training but the fast twitch recruitment is new to me. So far I have gotten stronger and bigger. The strength I have gained is tricky to asses because it’s a pain to figure out what the right weight to use is. But once I settled on a weight I could do 4-6 reps with the same speed I aimed at increasing 5lbs every workout on upper body and 15-25 on lower body unless it was a single limb exercise. On most exercises I was able to increase weight weekly. I used a stop watch and kept to the rest intervals. This is a real killer and will have you sweating. I have 6 weeks to go before it gives me a week off. So far very happy with it.
Most people seem to like the workouts.
I hate it when people bash Chad or another author; the irony is, if you’ve trained the OPPOSITE of what Chad is advocating in this book, you will still potentially see results by switching to his routines, simply by virtue of doing something “different” than what you’ve been doing for a long time.
Isn’t that the concept behind “mirror training” ?
I like it when people bash Chad; he is rude and ignorant as fuck. What did he say in that one article? Something about bodybuilders being stupid, a waste of skin and not worth the air they breathe? I know it was something like that
I’ve read it, an currently doing the get big phase the book promises a pound a week or so, and I’ve managed to hit that consitently so far.
Chad is one of the smartest dudes around, and his point of view NEEDS to be heard. I think he is moving quite fast towards making certain things clearer for the training population, but imo he has a way to go with some of the areas he is thinking about.
As long as you see where he is coming from and what his program is expected to do ANDDDDD you train hard and eat to grow/lose you SHOULD see results.
I try to incorporate many of his ideas in my training from time to time. But you need to understand what the idea is, as well as not lose sight of the whole “progressional” thingamajig.
Pretty sure PX got a signed copy.
[quote]DanErickson wrote:
I like it when people bash Chad; he is rude and ignorant as fuck. What did he say in that one article? Something about bodybuilders being stupid, a waste of skin and not worth the air they breathe? I know it was something like that[/quote]
How is him stirring up shit any different than when Poliquin does it?
And people bust out their kneepads and form a single file line to blow CP every time a new QoS article comes out.
Even some of the authors do it.
Ah I had know idea he talks a lot of smack as well. I haven’t read much of his stuff. I’m fairly turned off from a lot of the authors on this site in general.
Sorry I havent been back. I only get on at work. Yeah I went through the first workout of get started Sat and it was a little tougher than it looked on paper. By the time I was done I was sweating and tired. Going heavy on mid pulley cable rows just isnt going to work. I dont consider myself really strong but there isnt enough weight on the stack.
Somewhere between the mobility drills and the split squats and the stretching I made my quads and glutes really sore. Hips a little too. I also took his advice on eating more fruit. I was always kind of afraid of eating too many carbs but even with eating 4 servings of fruit and about 4 to 5 servings of vegetables I’m still under 150 grams of carbs. And it really ups your volume of food without a ton of calories. May have to up my calories some though.
[quote]tnt2005 wrote:
I’ve read it, an currently doing the get big phase the book promises a pound a week or so, and I’ve managed to hit that consitently so far. [/quote]
So what does your eating look like? Are you following his recommendations? The only thing a lot different for me was he recommended fruit with every meal. I’m eating fruit now with every meal except supper. And I’m not eating vegtetables with every meal, but I’;m eating them 3 times a day and usually 2 to 3 servings worth at a time. Protein is a little over 1 gram per pound. Fats are usually around 120 140 grams a day.
I’m on the unloading phase of get big phase one. I was relatively new to lifting before getting this book (maybe six-ish weeks under my belt) and I have stayed about the same weight and have seen slight gains in muscle size, but my strength has greatly increased and my fat has gone way down.
I can’t always stick to his exact eating regimen but have learned a great deal about what to put in my body and when.
A lot of people dont like CW because he isn’t afraid to suggest that the way they have been training for so long might be wrong. Sure they got good results, maybe due to genetics, maybe hard work, and maybe their training wasn’t that bad after all. But CW, is looking for sound principles that are fool proof (if you follow them) and will work for the majority of people.
Sure there is some merit to body-part splits, slow lifting, and high volume plans. The problem is that these programs usually only work for a certain group of people, and can be easily misused.
CW gives you some programs to follow in his books/articles, but more importantly he gives you principles to follow so that you can modify what he’s given you to progress under ANY circumstances. If you have a physical job you might cut the volume down from 25 reps per movement to 20, or if you can only make it to the gym twice per week, you might up the volume to 40 reps.
Like someone else above suggested, any program CAN work, it just depends on who uses it and how they use it, and I think CW makes it easy to understand some of these variables.
A lot of it is semantics. CW would say he’s simply trying to help guys add the most muscle the most efficiently with an emphasis on strength/performance. To those who consider themselves “bodybuilding” purists, they would say "what is the fukcing difference between “bodybuilding” and “adding muscle”?
I see CW’s target market as somewhere between the Men’s Health types and a typical T-Man/bodybuilder.
That said, most of his programs involve adding reps, sets or weight on a week to week basis, so it’s hard to complain.
I like the 25 Method the best of all his programs, because you end up moving a lot more weight over the course of your sets…some of the sorest DOMS I’ve ever had (over my whole body) is when I used 25 Method with a split of
A:
Deads
Military Press
Weighted Pull-Ups
B:
Squats
Bench
Rows
with a 5 lb increase each week for each time I did it (did it 3x per week, ABA, BAB). Even if the 5lb increase would be “too much” under normal progressions, it was okay with this because it just mean more 1-3 rep sets at the end to get to 25. That + food = growth. You can throw in some abs/calves and direct arm work if you want.
Did my second workout yesterday. 10-12 rm. 35 reps. I didnt like reps that high on deadlifts. but I did them. They made my back and hamstrings sore. But the hamstrings could be from bike riding. I really like the stopping when youre speed slows and haveing a certain number of reps. It seems to make more sense each tiem I do it.