Chad Waterbury

Has anyone read the new artical on t-nation written by Chad Waterbury? Tell me what yall think.

Nope. I don't think much of Chad Waterbury. I did his full-body-routine about a year ago and it didn't do much for me.
 
i think just about everything chad writes up is worth giving a try. hes a smart guy with a lot of experiance.
i read his articles on ABBH, TBT, ABBH2, POWERFUL 10X3, and THE WATERBURY ROUTINE.

i did abbh, and powerful 10x3. both difficult, yet fun in their own ways. simple to understand. got pretty good results. im thinkin about doing the waterbury routine some day. just after i give bill star's linear 5x5 a
 
yeah, have read it. Good article, the nervous system and training isent new, but the thing he said about terminating the set when speed slows is new to me. Though, back when i ran an oly lifting program, i did. I did tripples at like 80 and 85%, which is a percentage i can squeeze out way more than 3 reps from. All the reps were equally fast, and my squat has never gone up that much ever.
So i kind of did what he implies, without thinking it over.
 
Link to article? Chad Waterbury is generally a pretty good person to take advice from. But Jman, I remember when you were using his method and weren't too impressed.
 
I thought it was pretty interesting, myself. Chad Waterbury, along with John Beradi and many others, are among my favorite writers. It makes since logically. I just can't wait for more information on it.
 
awesome. thanks for that link.
it rocked.

but would it really be practical to follow his advice and terminate EVERY set once the speed gets slow on EVERY training method you use if your goals are to get bigger and stronger? seems very controversial.
 
I like the sound of it, it definately has good reasoning behind it. I'll be waiting for a bit more research to be done before I start thinking about adopting this though
 
Some of these trainers do like coming up with absolute rubbish, which neither helps nor hinders your training in an average scenario. However, for some reason people think it's all great, and so the reputation goes through the roof.
 
i think he has something and that there is a chance that it could lead to a breakthrough. but im not going to believe everything i read until there is more support going into his claims.
 
Well, What he says makes sense. Think of it this way.

If more muscle fibers were recruited as your repetitions increase then the weight lifted should get easier as the repetitions raise. Meaning, Your 10RM should be higher then your 1RM. However, this isn't the case... Simply speaking, The muscle fibers recruited, adjust to weight being lifted (regardless of speed of movement) but movement itself can be the deciding factor aswell.

By "very" large motor units he is specifically talking about Type 2b muscle fibers. Type 2b muscle fibers contract the fastest While type 1 contract the slowest (slow twitch MF). Of course I'm neglecting to mention the "in-between" fibers 2 and 2a.

Now, He is stating (without directly stating it) that once your lifts begin to slow. You are no longer using type 2b(and other type2MF). You are using type1, the slow twitch. Now, Physiologically speaking. Type 2(&a/b) are naturally "larger" then type 1. Meaning if hypertrophy is the main goal. Exercising past the point which type 2/a/b are no longer being used. Is of little use.

Now, This is not new. If one studies muscle fiber's in general. They would understand this simple principle.

For the record, I am not a human anatomy expert here so take what I say with a grain of salt here...
 
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heh...it sounds like you are. :O
so is it true that speed is very important when developing size and strength? iv had programs which switch up how fast you lift(NROL)
and do you think its a good idea to stop the set when your reps are getting slow?
 
heh...it sounds like you are. :O
so is it true that speed is very important when developing size and strength? iv had programs which switch up how fast you lift(NROL)
and do you think its a good idea to stop the set when your reps are getting slow?

Lol thanks PB,

I lift my weights at a comfortable speed. I don't believe lifting as fast as possible (without compromising form) is any real benefit(IOW,will make a real world difference.)
If the weight is heavy enough, the body will adjust and recruit all fibers as needed. Remember though, I say this with muscle fiber recruitment as muscle fiber recruitment as my ONLY reasoning.

Getting in that last 2-3 reps where its slow is important. As when the slow twitch fibers are activated, The form of energy which is most heavily used. Is blood Triglycerides. Meaning, once we hit that "slow" period we "IN THEORY". Could increase fatty acid metabolism due to the need to fuel these slow twitch muscle fibers, The ideal source of fuel for type 1Mf.

So, In conclusion?
For hypertrophy ALONE, we might not need to push past those final slow reps. However, with weight loss as ones main goal. I think those last reps are very important.
Beyond all that, There could be a difference in hormonal output in contrast between doing and not doing those last couple of slow reps...
 
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