Hey Everyone,
Just a quick question about Waterbury’s Anti Bodybuilding program.
It lists day one as ten sets per muscle group, three reps per set. So am i just basically picking one excercise for chest and one for back, and doing ten sets of three for each excercise?
anton
That’s right.
Yes and you’re alternating between the two: three reps bench press. Rest. Three reps row. Rest. Bench. Rest. Row…you get the idea. Remember to rest for a minute between sets.
yep, just pick one exercise for each. I don’t know if you really HAVE to do it this way, but look at his example exercises for day one. He says to pick the barbell bench and a rowing exercises using a pronated grip and keeping the distance between your hands the same for both exercises.
Oh yes. Just did that yesterday myself.
Was quite refreshing actually finishing up a workout in well under an hour. And in the early sets you seemed pretty strong, but by the last few (assuming you went with the 80% like it says) you do notice some weakness.
The part I’m confused about is that he says to rest between “supersets” (ie train chest, rest 60 secs, train back, rest 60 secs, train chest, rest 60 secs, etc.
But to me, a “superset” is performing one set of a particular exercise, and then immediately performing another set of a different exercise, either for the opposing bodypart, or the same bodypart. Then resting.
In that case, I’d perform two different exercises for the chest “supersets”, rest 60 seconds, and then perform two different exercises for the back, rest 60 seconds, etc.
Hmmmmmm. Any comments?
When they say supersets they just mean do the chest exercise, rest, then do the back exercise and go back and forth. You need the rest in between, doing the back exercise right after the chest exercise would take away some of the value of the back exercise.
Never mind, to the above post. Shugs set me straight on that. You actually do rest after each and every set…
And thanks, jon.
Mike,
Your original question about the definition of a superset is a valid one. Many strength experts, including Mel Siff, define supersets as performing two exercises with no rest in between. Whereas, Tudor Bompa defines it as antagonist training with little or no rest between exercises - this is also how I define it.
Everyone seems to define supersets differently. When I state “supersets” I refer to antagonist training with short rest periods. Therefore, the arm training option falls under many trainer’s definition of the superset. I could have called the arm option “antagonist” training, and maybe in hindsight, it would have been a clearer definition.
But I think it has been cleared up for you by other posts.
Ok, I have a question about this now.
I’ve finished the first week, and now am starting week 2 where the sets or percentage of max go up.
Wondering about switching the workouts up. For day 1 I did flat bench and rows, and that was 80% max 10 rep 3 sets. So am I supposed to continue always doing those exercises on that same scheduled day with just the reps upping?
If so, that would also mean on the other upper body day (dips/pullups/high pulls) I end up doing the 5 sets of 10 reps every time also.
Im asking if it has been determined that the horizontal upper body plane responds better to the low reps all the time and the vertical plane prefers high reps?
Likewise question for lower body, since I would like to do deads with higher reps at least once and not always pull them heavy with low reps…
I would just do it as stated for the 3 weeks. After that you could switch it up. I think Chad said in another post that you can switch it up after the first 3 weeks so that you are squatting low reps and deadlifting for higher reps. So you would be switching the bench and row days to 5x10, the deads to 5x10, the squats to 10x3, and the dips/chins to 10x3. So you would be swiching the sets and rep protocols around.
Jason nailed it, A.L…
Chad said the following in a PM to me:
“If you are still experiencing results by the end of the program, switch the movement plane with the method and execute another 3 weeks. For instance, the horizontal upper body movements will be utilized with the 10 x 3-5 parameters, and so forth.”
The same switch would be made regarding the lower body, too.
Ok, I’ll go for it that way then.
Thanks
Another question on this program.
On vertical back day, I do pullups/dips/high pulls.
Now the dips/high pulls are no problem since I can always do more than bodyweight, but I have a question on the pullups.
It says to go off your max, which of course on a pullup is vastly different than what you can do for any amount of reps. I mean I can do a max pullup with weight added, but I cant even do bodyweight only for 5 sets of 10.
So how do I go at 65% of it? On the first week I just did as many at bodyweight as I could, then gave myself 28# assistance for the others. So should I just lower the amount of assistance, or should I try to actually add weight for some and not make enough reps?
Antiliberal-
I asked Chad this same question once and his solution was simple: just switch your horizontal push/pull days with the vertical. Hence, you’ll be doing 10x3 dips/chins and 5x10 presses/rows. It made things alot “easier” for me.
Wouldn’t another option be to use the lat pulldown machine until you build up your strength to do unassisted chin-ups?
Mike,
Yes, many trainees cannot perform 5 x 10 bodyweight pull-ups. Therefore, use the lat pulldown machine.
Yuck, I hate the lat pulldown machine chad. I just find it hard to do and keep focus on lats without failing due to arms.
Actually the thing is I can do 5 sets of 10 chin ups, or closer grip pullups even, just cant do them if I start widening out my grip a lot (like I prefer to do). Those super wide grip suckers are quite taxing, I cant do more than 4-5 of them in a set.
Just moving to pullups over the last 3 months has given my a huge increase in strength compared to the lat machine for the previous year.