On your mark? Let’s go!
Hi Chad,
What do you typically do for a warmup? You’ve probably answered this before, but say you’re heading into the gym for a full body workout, using mostly poundages greater than 70% of your 1RM. You just get there? What does Chad Waterbury do?
Hi CW,
Would you reccomend any modifications to your ABBH program to include interval sprinting a la CT’s Running Man? I am extremely happy with my strength+size gains doing both of these programs, but the gains seem to only be occuring on my lower body at the expense of my upper body. Help!
Hey Chad,
here is a split I put together for myself. Your feedback would be much
appreciated. My goals are to increase Strength (especially in my bench) and size. I am training the bench press muscles three times a week due to trying to focus on 3 different strength attributes. I will follow this program for about 3 weeks then I will change the heavy exercises around and do 6 X 4 for the assistance exercises. Do you think this is too much volume for the pushing exercises? Is it retarded to have
a day for hypertrophy and a day for max strength?
Day 1 Lower Body Explosive
Box Squat 8-10 X 2 - 50%-60% Plus Green Bands
Romanian Dead Lift 4 X 5 - 7RM
Seated Calf Machine 4 X 12
Decline Crunch - BW
Day 2 Hypertrophy Bench
Bench Press 8 X 3 - 5RM
Chest Supported Row 4 X 6 - 8RM
Seated DB Cleans 4 X 6 - 8 RM
Front Raises 3 X 12 - 15RM
Day 3 Heavy Lower Body
Good Mornings, Deadlift, Squat (roated every other week) 8 X 3 - 5RM
Ball Glute Ham Raise 3 X 10 - BW
Step ups 4 X 6 - 8 RM
Standing Calf Raise 3 X 12 - Stack
Ball Crunch
Day 4 Upper Body Explosive
Explosive Pushup 10 X 3 - BW or Speed Bench with 50% plus mini band
Seated Overhead Press 4 X 6 - 8RM
Cable Row 4 X 6 - 8RM
Lat Pull to the face 4 X 6 - 8RM
Day 5 Max Effort Bench Day
Floor Press, 2 Board Press or CG BP 5 X 1 - 2 RM
Barbell Row 4 X 6 8 RM
Light work for shoulders.
CW! Do steroids have any effect on CNS recovery?
Amir
[quote]Norweige wrote:
Hi Chad,
What do you typically do for a warmup? You’ve probably answered this before, but say you’re heading into the gym for a full body workout, using mostly poundages greater than 70% of your 1RM. You just get there? What does Chad Waterbury do?[/quote]
Well, warm-ups are very individualized. Since I don’t have any joint issues, and since I’ve slowly weaned myself off warm-ups over the years, I don’t do much. I typically perform 2-3 sets with 75-90% of the TRAINING load, not the 1RM. For instance, if you perform 10x3 on the bench press with 250 lbs, you would perform a warm-up similar to this:
Warm-up Sets
180x3
200x2
225x2
Such a warm-up scheme works well for most trainees. Although, other exercises (eg, squats) require more warm-up sets for some lifters. Therefore, a few extra sets are sometimes mandated. Use your best judgment. But, you must be confident when you start your first work set. If you’re not, you should throw in a few extra warm-up sets.
Hey Chad,
Something I’ve been thinking more about lately is how a lot of high-level bodybuilders and strength-athletes use what many of us would consider sub-optimal programming. Now I’ve tended for awhile to believe that nutritional status was far more important than the specifc training program used when it comes to hypertrophy, one thing I have trouble wrapping my head around is how guys can do almost the same workouts week-to-week year round, continue to progress, and become highly successful bodybuilders.
The obvious answer seems like ‘great genetics!’ but is that really all there is to it? Plenty of guys with great genetics have observed that they need to change their programs very often, sometimes week to week. Guys that lift at Westside Barbell change very frequently, and I don’t think many of these guys got shortchanged genetically.
What I’m getting at is the possibility that some lifters might do better to keep their program largely the same year round (at least as far as structural gains are concerned,) whereas others need constant variety, and others some smaller measure of variety. One might be led to believe that there is some separate element, be it psychological or physiological, that causes this difference.
Have you observed this in your clients? Do you think it’s possible some lifters can get optimal results by keeping their program mostly the same?
Appreciate your time!
[quote]Charles Atlas wrote:
Hi CW,
Would you reccomend any modifications to your ABBH program to include interval sprinting a la CT’s Running Man? I am extremely happy with my strength+size gains doing both of these programs, but the gains seem to only be occuring on my lower body at the expense of my upper body. Help![/quote]
Sprint training can be performed any place that feels best. Some do sprint training before weights; some do it after; others do it on off days. If your upper body is lagging, I don’t recommend performing them before the workout since you’ll be fatigued before your upper body workout. Although, you could perform them before your lower body workout. Most often, I have my clients perform them on off days to increase GPP.
[quote]Chushin wrote:
Hey Chad,
Just a quick note to thank you for your help. After years of effort with little to show for it, your articles are helping me to finally make some progress. Still a long, long way to go, but at least I now have an idea of how to get there.
Thanks again,
C[/quote]
Thanks! It’s my pleasure.
[quote]popilek wrote:
Hey Chad,
here is a split I put together for myself. Your feedback would be much
appreciated. My goals are to increase Strength (especially in my bench) and size. I am training the bench press muscles three times a week due to trying to focus on 3 different strength attributes. I will follow this program for about 3 weeks then I will change the heavy exercises around and do 6 X 4 for the assistance exercises. Do you think this is too much volume for the pushing exercises? Is it retarded to have
a day for hypertrophy and a day for max strength?
Day 1 Lower Body Explosive
Box Squat 8-10 X 2 - 50%-60% Plus Green Bands
Romanian Dead Lift 4 X 5 - 7RM
Seated Calf Machine 4 X 12
Decline Crunch - BW
Day 2 Hypertrophy Bench
Bench Press 8 X 3 - 5RM
Chest Supported Row 4 X 6 - 8RM
Seated DB Cleans 4 X 6 - 8 RM
Front Raises 3 X 12 - 15RM
Day 3 Heavy Lower Body
Good Mornings, Deadlift, Squat (roated every other week) 8 X 3 - 5RM
Ball Glute Ham Raise 3 X 10 - BW
Step ups 4 X 6 - 8 RM
Standing Calf Raise 3 X 12 - Stack
Ball Crunch
Day 4 Upper Body Explosive
Explosive Pushup 10 X 3 - BW or Speed Bench with 50% plus mini band
Seated Overhead Press 4 X 6 - 8RM
Cable Row 4 X 6 - 8RM
Lat Pull to the face 4 X 6 - 8RM
Day 5 Max Effort Bench Day
Floor Press, 2 Board Press or CG BP 5 X 1 - 2 RM
Barbell Row 4 X 6 8 RM
Light work for shoulders.[/quote]
Your plan looks sufficient provided you put rest days in the proper order. I’d recommend your plan on an 8-day schedule.
Day 1 LB explosive
Day 2 UB hypertrophy
Day 3 Off
Day 4 LB hypertrophy
Day 5 UB explosive
Day 6 Off
Day 7 UB maximal
Day 8 Off
Day 9 Repeat
If you feel like the UB work is too demanding, I suggest you lower the volume of Day 2.
Chad,
I’m getting ready to wrap up the 4th week of WM. I’m making good gains on the program and am thinking about “re-upping” again for another 4-week stint. Should I do this, provided I change up the exercises, or move onto to one of your other programs? Thanks.
[quote]AMIRisSQUAT wrote:
CW! Do steroids have any effect on CNS recovery?
Amir
[/quote]
Good question.
Even though steroids are generally geared towards skeletal muscle recovery, I think the mental boost that many roids give (eg, Dianabol) would also help with CNS recovery. But Cy Willson is the best person to ask.
[quote]Chad Waterbury wrote:
Charles Atlas wrote:
Sprint training can be performed any place that feels best. Some do sprint training before weights; some do it after; others do it on off days. If your upper body is lagging, I don’t recommend performing them before the workout since you’ll be fatigued before your upper body workout. Although, you could perform them before your lower body workout. Most often, I have my clients perform them on off days to increase GPP. [/quote]
Thanks CW. I’m doing them on off days now, so I guess the upper body thing is just the way the cookie crumbles. Thanks for the response.
-CA
Chad,
I enjoy your articles and look forward to meeting you at Staley’s bootcamp in Oct.
Take care,
Ryan
HI Chad, i want to put on mass, and you’ve written some of the best training program i’ve ever seen, can you number the program related to their effectiveness of gaining mass?
(1=most effective…6=least effective)
A) S.O.B.
B) AofW
C) QD
D) WM
E) Single’s Club
F) TBT
[quote]Ramo wrote:
Hey Chad,
Something I’ve been thinking more about lately is how a lot of high-level bodybuilders and strength-athletes use what many of us would consider sub-optimal programming. Now I’ve tended for awhile to believe that nutritional status was far more important than the specifc training program used when it comes to hypertrophy, one thing I have trouble wrapping my head around is how guys can do almost the same workouts week-to-week year round, continue to progress, and become highly successful bodybuilders.
The obvious answer seems like ‘great genetics!’ but is that really all there is to it? Plenty of guys with great genetics have observed that they need to change their programs very often, sometimes week to week. Guys that lift at Westside Barbell change very frequently, and I don’t think many of these guys got shortchanged genetically.
What I’m getting at is the possibility that some lifters might do better to keep their program largely the same year round (at least as far as structural gains are concerned,) whereas others need constant variety, and others some smaller measure of variety. One might be led to believe that there is some separate element, be it psychological or physiological, that causes this difference.
Have you observed this in your clients? Do you think it’s possible some lifters can get optimal results by keeping their program mostly the same?
Appreciate your time![/quote]
This is a very good post. It involves many facets that are well-beyond what I’m willing to write out, but I’ll address a few key points.
-
Genetics - as you mentioned, genetics play a huge role. Is the issue of genetics merely enough for some elite bodybuilders? Yes. Some are so damn genetically predisposed to gaining muscle that it’s scary (eg, Casey Viator). I would consider genetics to be the most important factor. If something causes growth, why change it (providing the growth continues)?
-
Exercise Selection - some lifters, especially O-lifters, began their lifting career with exercises that cause profound muscle growth. Since these same exercises (O-lifts) tend to cause the slowest adaptation, said exercises can be performed for months without stagnation. In other words, a lifter will quickly adapt to preacher curls, whereas snatches vary enough from rep-to-rep to cause a slightly different stimulus. The issue of total muscles involved is also important. The more muscles involved in a lift, the longer it takes to adapt.
Therefore, some lifters can perform nothing but snatches, squats, presses, and pulls without ever stagnating. In fact, such exercises are recommended for that purpose.
- Training Goal - if a lifter is primarily interested in elite levels of maximal strength, exercises should be rotated more often. The reason? It’s necessary for p-lifters to really push the intensity on certain key exercises. Once you push the intensity of a certain exercise for a few weeks, adaptations take place that causes quicker accumulation to the demand.
Once again, good question.
[quote]gottatrain wrote:
Chad,
I’m getting ready to wrap up the 4th week of WM. I’m making good gains on the program and am thinking about “re-upping” again for another 4-week stint. Should I do this, provided I change up the exercises, or move onto to one of your other programs? Thanks.[/quote]
I suggest the AofW, Hybrid Hypertrophy, or SOB training as an intermediate program. Choose whichever sounds best before returning to the WM.
Chad,
My olympic lifts (clean&jerk, snatch) have come to a stand still, due to shoulder issues. My left shoulder tends to dislocate when doing heavy overhead pressing, and thus my OH lifts are rather pathetic. Do you have any suggestions for exercises I could do to strengthen my shoulders so that OH lifts are not so dangerous?
I have tried CT’s shoulder overhaul, but the OH lifts killed me.
I know this has probably been answered in some form before, but I have never seen anything specific concerning it.
I am fine with horizontal pressing, however. My bench is about 275, and I have no issues with it.
If I bathe in Power Drive and soak my meals with Spike I think, and Im just hypothesizing mind you, I might just be able to knock out two aggressive MS workouts per week. Any opinions?
But honestly, Im very interested in this CNS and steroid issue so Ill type to Cy and let you know what he thinks if you happen to miss out on the action.
Thanks again!
Amir
[quote]Chad Waterbury wrote:
AMIRisSQUAT wrote:
CW! Do steroids have any effect on CNS recovery?
Amir
Good question.
Even though steroids are generally geared towards skeletal muscle recovery, I think the mental boost that many roids give (eg, Dianabol) would also help with CNS recovery. But Cy Willson is the best person to ask. [/quote]