Essential Waterbury: Program Design
by Chad Waterbury
No matter how well versed you become in the strength and conditioning
world, it never hurts to get to the bare bones of it all. My niche is
the nervous system, but I often learn a thing or two with even the most
remedial nervous system lectures. You've all heard Einstein's
maxim to make everything as simple as possible, right? Well, if you're
someone who benefits from my programs and methods, this article is for
you. Yep, I'm going to strip my principles down to the waxed hoo-hah. Not only that, but I'm also going to devise a
system that you can follow to build bigger, faster, stronger muscles. Actually,
I've been asked quite a few times by the T-Nation bigwigs to write an
"Essential Waterbury" article, but I've always been hesitant for one
reason or another. I figure there are simply too many variables that
determine what kind of training advice I should give to a person. Let
me explain. If someone asks how many reps he should do, and how many
times per week he should train each primary muscle group, I'll often
reply with:
How many reps have you been doing?
How many times per week have you been training?
What's your available training time?
How long have you been consistently training?
Blah, blah, blah?
Yada, yada, yada? You
get the idea. But I'm learning a better way. When such a question is
posed to me, it would probably be more beneficial to the person, and
less time-consuming for me, to say something like this:
Train
all muscle groups that you want to develop three times per week with 3,
6, and 9 reps for each workout. When that stops working, get back to
me. You see, what that answer does is build a system of
principles that people can relate to. Those are concrete parameters,
plain and simple. This is precisely the reason why so many people are
familiar with the 10 sets of 3 reps that I recommend for hypertrophy.
Sure,
anyone could say that 10x3 is nothing more than marketing, hearsay, or
hyperbole. But the fact of the matter is the majority of people I've
worked with respond well to 10x3. That's why I've recommended it so
many times. It's popular because 10x3 is a
system.
That's important. It doesn't take a 180 IQ to understand how to do 10
sets of 3 reps. It does, however, take some experience and training
knowledge to aimlessly merge through countless parameters in order to
figure out what works best for you. That's fine and dandy, but wouldn't
you rather just know what parameters have worked for the majority of my
clients? What are becoming ubiquitous in this industry are
pieces of advice filled with nothing but ambiguity. You know what? I
don't want to follow that trend; I want to devise
systems.
The Power of Building Systems I
haven't researched the numbers, but if the Zone Diet isn't the most
popular diet of all time, it's damn close. For those of you who're
still using an Apple II computer, I'll tell you that the Zone Diet is
based on eating a 40/30/30 caloric balance of carbs, protein, and fat
with each meal.
The
Zone became so popular because it's a system: you eat a 40/30/30 ratio
with each meal, regardless of the foods you choose. As such, the food
combinations are endless. Beyond that 40/30/30 balance comes
intelligent food selection. Now, I don't want to turn this into a
comprehensive review of the Zone Diet, but the foods you ultimately
choose will make a big difference on that, or any other, eating plan. However,
many people get great results with the Zone even when their food
selections are less than optimal. They get great results because the
40/30/30 system assures that they'll get adequate carbs, protein, and
fat with each meal. And getting an adequate balance of macronutrients
with each meal is the most important step. Once you get that in place
you can start to tweak your food selections. Do you see where
I'm going with this? I hope you do because this type of system should
also carry over to your training. First you must get the big stuff in
place (i.e., build a system). From there, you can tweak the parameters
to meet your specific needs. Dr. John Berardi beautifully portrayed what I'm talking about when he wrote 7 Habits of Highly Effective Nutritional Programs. In that article he laid out key principles that metamorphose into a nutritional system.
A Quick Rant If a person asks me for advice on how to build bigger quads, I might tell him to do front squats for 10 sets of 3 reps.
And from that simple piece of altruism, a backlash will sometimes ensue.
"Ten sets are too much."
"Doing one movement isn't enough to cause substantial growth."
"The load is too light."
"The load is too heavy."
"The rest periods are too short."
"You can't build muscle without going to failure." I
encourage you to give the advice from us coaches an honest try before
diving head first into internet attacks. Listen, it's not difficult to
tear apart any statement made by any writer. Let me repeat that
statement because it's paramount, and I'll even italicize it so you
won't forget:
It's not difficult to tear apart any statement made by any writer. I could do it all day long, and you probably could too. But where does that get us? Nowhere. So fuck that nonsense. It's
time for us coaches to build systems and principles based on what the
majority of our clients respond well to. Save the fringe market for
one-on-one training sessions. Stick to the advice that your grandpa has
surely told you, "Stand for something or you'll fall for anything." Here's what I stand for.
The Essential Waterbury Lower Body Movements:
• Alternate between a squat and deadlift variation with each subsequent workout.
• Alternate between double-leg and single-leg movements with each workout.
• Choose single-leg movements over double-leg movements, but don't neglect either.
• All squat and deadlift variations must be with free weights.
• Good mornings are limited to one workout each week.
• Train your hip abductors/adductors at least twice each week.
• If you perform leg curls, do them on the same day as your squat movement.
•
If you perform calf raises, alternate between straight leg (standing
calf raise, leg press calf raise) and bent leg (seated) variations with
each workout.
• The leg press should only be used for calf raises.
• Avoid leg extensions. Every fourth week perform nothing but bodyweight exercises for the lower body (pistols, bridges, box jumps, etc).
•
Don't repeat the exact same movement in the same week. For example,
squats with a wide stance are different than squats with a narrow
stance.
Lower Body Example for 2x/week Monday: Front squat, band hip ab/adduction, leg curl, leg press calf raise Thursday: Single leg dumbbell deadlift, cable hip ab/adduction, seated calf raise
Lower Body Example for 3x/week Monday: Snatch grip deadlift, band hip ab/adduction, leg press calf raise Wednesday: Bulgarian split squat, cable hip ab/adduction, leg curl, seated calf raise Friday: Single leg dumbbell deadlift, machine hip ab/adduction, standing calf raise
Lower Body Example for 4x/week Monday: Snatch grip deadlift, band hip ab/adduction, leg press calf raise Tuesday: Bulgarian split squat, leg curl, seated calf raise w/toes out Thursday: Single leg dumbbell deadlift, machine hip ab/adduction, standing calf raise Saturday: Front squat, cable hip ab/adduction, reverse hyper, seated calf raise w/toes in
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