Feedback on Art of Waterbury

I am aiming to start this program in the next day or two. Anyone here done it and have comments about it?

My last few programs have been since November last year: Lift Fast, Get Big; ABBH1 (did it for 3 weeks b4 switching up, basically due to a bit of boredom with it altho it was pretty good) and Big Boy Basics which i have just finished. As said, im going to give A of W’bury a go and then aim to hit ABBH II after that. (during footy season last year (may - october), i did Strength focused mesocycle and Outlaw strength and cond).

Just a side note, i usually dont do programs for longer than 6 - 8 weeks at most. It is on average 5-6 weeks tho so im always on the search for new programs.

Ofcourse this site is an endless resource for a fun program to do and CW’s spreadsheet gives me plenty of ideas. Also interested in CT’s superhero(?) program too…

anyway, hope some of you guys can give me some feedback on A of W. cheers.

JimmyOZ…I think AofW may have been the most challenging for me so far (SOB was pretty tough too). For AofW, you’re constantly changing something…adding weight, adding sets, decreasing rest intervals. Provided your selecting your loads properly, it should kick your butt pretty good. Let us know how it goes.

[quote]gottatrain wrote:
JimmyOZ…I think AofW may have been the most challenging for me so far (SOB was pretty tough too). For AofW, you’re constantly changing something…adding weight, adding sets, decreasing rest intervals. Provided your selecting your loads properly, it should kick your butt pretty good. Let us know how it goes. [/quote]

cheers mate…i liked the look of it for those reasons, its a change from most of the other programs i have been doing. I chose it ahead of ABBHII due to the fact that i will be squatting twice a week with diff parameters so thats good, the last few months i have made progress in my legs which i am aiming for…down the track, ian kings leg programs will be a focus, until then, i will try and improve the legs some more so they can handle his workloads…LOL…

ill keep you posted

I haven’t got any feedback for AOW, but just out of interest, what kind of gains did you see on the Outlaw Strengh and conditioning program? Because I am interested in giving it a go! thanks.

Yeah the constant change was kinda weird. Honestly I didnt LIKE it–but it gave some good results for me. Go for it.

[quote]ando88 wrote:
I haven’t got any feedback for AOW, but just out of interest, what kind of gains did you see on the Outlaw Strengh and conditioning program? Because I am interested in giving it a go! thanks.[/quote]

ando, as i said, i did it during footy season, so it was more a maintaining kind of program for me. I didnt gain in size, but i was hitting and running harder and longer. It really helped for my footy, keeping me in shape that way…coupled with the extreme heat and nature of aussie rules footy, i came out of it extremely fit at the right time of the season. Definately give it a go.

first day went something like this

push press 10 x 3 135lbs
chin ups 10 x 3 35lbs
GM’s 10 x 3 115lbs
standing calf raises 10 x 3 270lbs
decline bench 10 x 3 185lbs
fingerstip pull ups 10 x 3 at BW

they were fairly conservative poundages so ill add as needed.

took me about an hour to complete.

i was pretty much fkd afterwards tho, so i am looking forward to the rest of the weeks workout…its good to get the tough one out the way first.

day 3 was brutal…hadnt done 12 reps in a set for a while, well, 6 exercises of 3x12…

im looking forward to tonight 4x6

That would then complete the first week of it…i think this will be a good program for the next 6 weeks that will tie in with the beginning of footy very well, then after that i can look at SFM again or conitnue on a similar path with ABBH II…

ok, well, i said i was looking forward to the 4x6 wo…well, it was brutal, esp the cleans…im gonna be fkd for footy tonight…

this is going to be a real challenging next 5 weeks…ill need plenty of sleep and keep eating the house down…ill have footy training each tuesday so im going to have to work around that too…should be interesting.

[quote]JimmyOZ wrote:
ok, well, i said i was looking forward to the 4x6 wo…well, it was brutal, esp the cleans…im gonna be fkd for footy tonight…

this is going to be a real challenging next 5 weeks…ill need plenty of sleep and keep eating the house down…ill have footy training each tuesday so im going to have to work around that too…should be interesting. [/quote]

Embrace the pain JimmyOZ…embrace it!

cheers mate

thanks for the encouragement :smiley:

I finished the Art of Waterbury program at the end of January. I supplemented it with Alpha Male and ate/slept a ton. I gained ten pounds over four weeks. I’m guessing that it was probably half fat and half muscle. I’d come home from a workout and eat a big plate of homemade spaghetti and meatballs (pork, beef, veal) after a serving of Surge.

The most noticable gains were in my arms which were probably a by-product of gaining weight more than anything else. I put in some good strength gains in bench (10 pounds) and deadlift (50 pounds). But I only found this out after I tried to go for PRs when the program was over.

The tough thing about the Waterbury programs for me is not going to failure. It’s so ingrained within me to push all the way when I lift. When I have adhered to his programs, however, I have always made great gains.

[quote]chiefy wrote:
I finished the Art of Waterbury program at the end of January. I supplemented it with Alpha Male and ate/slept a ton. I gained ten pounds over four weeks. I’m guessing that it was probably half fat and half muscle. I’d come home from a workout and eat a big plate of homemade spaghetti and meatballs (pork, beef, veal) after a serving of Surge.

The most noticable gains were in my arms which were probably a by-product of gaining weight more than anything else. I put in some good strength gains in bench (10 pounds) and deadlift (50 pounds). But I only found this out after I tried to go for PRs when the program was over.

The tough thing about the Waterbury programs for me is not going to failure. It’s so ingrained within me to push all the way when I lift. When I have adhered to his programs, however, I have always made great gains. [/quote]

cheers chiefy, where are ya in NY? what program did you do after AoW? I would like to go back into intense heavy low rep work again like LFGB or something else thats 4x6 5x5 6x4 etc…too many options…lol

Hey, I’m finishing up AoW this week. Here are some random observations / thoughts:

the good mornings on the 10x3 day have left my hamstrings sore every time.

the workouts are taking me 1-1.5 hours to complete. I get really tired and hungry at an hour though, so I’ve started doing a pre-workout shake, and sometimes a few sips during.

sets of 12 squats just about set me on my butt. The rest of the workout breezes by.

this is the first time I’ve done power cleans, and my shins do not appreciate it.

This may not have been a timely answer but I felt like sharing.

I’m in Manhattan, on the Upper West Side. I go to a so-so gym. They have a squat rack and that’s all I really need.

I’ve been doing my own style of workouts lately with a West Side/Waterbury feel. I’ve been trying to work on the three big lifts but also incorporate them into a full body feel. I’ll do the dynamic and max effort lifts, etc. and focus on one lift for a session but work other body parts afterwards with a Waterbury “no failure” approach. At first it was tough, but now that I’ve adjusted I’ve seen great gains. My deadlift keeps getting stronger which is scaring me a bit. Just acquired some new stretch marks on my thighs. My girlfriend bitched like crazy about them. She was like, “You’ve got to stop doing squats.” Sorry baby, no way.

Anyway, the AoW is fantastic, glad you’re into it. One thing I’ve found with the Waterbury workouts is that sometimes it’s possible to get too into them. I was doing them for six months and realized that I had to start doing other stuff. I was doing all this full body work, when I switched and started on a body part split again I made gains because I hadn’t exhausted certain muscles groups in such a long time. But now since I have gym time constraints I’m back with the full body. I guess it’s a lifestyle thing.

cheers for that thoughts guys…i too am taking about 1 hr and change to complete the workouts…pretty new territory for me too…usually its 45-50 mins max…

chiefy, im in brooklyn, park slope to be exact, the gym is like you say, it has a squat rack, 1 only but it does the trick…when i do cleans in a tight area, ppl just get the fk out of my way, only idiots walk past just as im on the way up…

i was thinking of doing a westside style afterwards too and i have been doing alot of full body stuff the last 8 months or so…i just try and pick programs that allow me to squat 2x a week and hit all the big lifts as much as possible. I havent done heavy deads in a few months so id like to do that again…

anyway, cheers for the input all, much appreciated…im looking forward to day 1 of week 2 tonight…

jimmy

I’ve been doing my own style of workouts lately with a West Side/Waterbury feel. I’ve been trying to work on the three big lifts but also incorporate them into a full body feel. I’ll do the dynamic and max effort lifts, etc. and focus on one lift for a session but work other body parts afterwards with a Waterbury “no failure” approach. At first it was tough, but now that I’ve adjusted I’ve seen great gains. My deadlift keeps getting stronger which is scaring me a bit. Just acquired some new stretch marks on my thighs. My girlfriend bitched like crazy about them. She was like, “You’ve got to stop doing squats.” Sorry baby, no way.

Anyway, the AoW is fantastic, glad you’re into it. One thing I’ve found with the Waterbury workouts is that sometimes it’s possible to get too into them. I was doing them for six months and realized that I had to start doing other stuff. I was doing all this full body work, when I switched and started on a body part split again I made gains because I hadn’t exhausted certain muscles groups in such a long time. But now since I have gym time constraints I’m back with the full body. I guess it’s a lifestyle thing.[/quote]

I’m definitely feelin’ ya on this one Chiefy. i have done a few CW programs, AofW included–I saw great strength gains on AofW, but, in hindsight i wasnt eating enough to properly gain muscle, soo–EAT EAT EAT!!

But, like I was sayin, i was doing full body stuff for so long that I just switched back to bodypart split and progress is through the roof. Stick with the AofW and follow it, push yourself and eat plenty, and hell yea, the powercleans on the 4 x 6 day are an asskicker!

-the boomster

[quote]JimmyBoom wrote:
I’ve been doing my own style of workouts lately with a West Side/Waterbury feel. I’ve been trying to work on the three big lifts but also incorporate them into a full body feel. I’ll do the dynamic and max effort lifts, etc. and focus on one lift for a session but work other body parts afterwards with a Waterbury “no failure” approach. At first it was tough, but now that I’ve adjusted I’ve seen great gains. My deadlift keeps getting stronger which is scaring me a bit. Just acquired some new stretch marks on my thighs. My girlfriend bitched like crazy about them. She was like, “You’ve got to stop doing squats.” Sorry baby, no way.

Anyway, the AoW is fantastic, glad you’re into it. One thing I’ve found with the Waterbury workouts is that sometimes it’s possible to get too into them. I was doing them for six months and realized that I had to start doing other stuff. I was doing all this full body work, when I switched and started on a body part split again I made gains because I hadn’t exhausted certain muscles groups in such a long time. But now since I have gym time constraints I’m back with the full body. I guess it’s a lifestyle thing.

I’m definitely feelin’ ya on this one Chiefy. i have done a few CW programs, AofW included–I saw great strength gains on AofW, but, in hindsight i wasnt eating enough to properly gain muscle, soo–EAT EAT EAT!!

But, like I was sayin, i was doing full body stuff for so long that I just switched back to bodypart split and progress is through the roof. Stick with the AofW and follow it, push yourself and eat plenty, and hell yea, the powercleans on the 4 x 6 day are an asskicker!

-the boomster
[/quote]

cheers boom

another question, what splits did you guys do afterwards? and to be honest, i havent come across many on this site, which i havent actually looked for, its been mostly full body stuff…anyone point me in the right direction, or should i just hit search…also, any specific ones would be a great help too…cheers.

When I do splits I try to do an upper/lower split rather than just chest or shoulders or whatever. I love the feeling of doing two big leg workouts a week. Plus you still get that CW effect with working body parts extra times duiring the week.

[quote]JimmyOZ wrote:

another question, what splits did you guys do afterwards? and to be honest, i havent come across many on this site, . [/quote]

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