Review of 'Muscle Revolution' By CW

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

I asked my girlfriend for this book for my birthday, and it arrived this morning. Although I’m in the midst of final exams, I rifled through the book this afternoon.

My thoughts:

-By FAR the finest training manual I’ve ever seen. I liked ‘Beyond Bodybuilding’, some of Fred Hatfield’s books, I thought ‘Serious Strength Training’ by Bompa was decent, but this manual far exceeds any printed material on training I’ve come across.

-I should qualify what I say by admitting that I strongly believe in this kind of training. When I graduated college 4.5 years ago, I weighed about 190. I’ve gained about 50 pounds of muscle since then training this way, albeit with simpler set-ups for the most part than Chad prescribes.

-It should be stressed that this book represents a COMPLETE SYSTEM. There’s really nothing left out as far as the factors one needs to consider in planning their training long-term. I believe most people (especially ‘program-hoppers’) should buy this thing and make it their training bible.

If this was the only training resource you consulted for the rest of your training career, I believe the large majority of you would get optimal or near-optimal results.

-How can I say something like that having only read the book once, and quickly? I admit I’m familiar with a lot of the material in the book since I’ve read most of Chad’s work, but it’s all expanded on in the book, with a lot of new ideas, especially concerning strategies w/ progression schemes, nutrtion, supplementation, and recovery strategies. In many ways the book affirms a lot of the things I think I ‘know’ about training, reminds me about a lot of the things I may have forgotten, points me towards things I’ve never considered, and brings wholly unique ideas to the table.

-I’m not a fan of people saying shit like this when they’ve never actually applied any of the information, so I must say that in the past I’ve used Chad’s BBB, ABBH, and QD programs to the letter, and incorporated his ideas in all my programs. It’s all worked great for me. QD especially gave me whopping gains.

-The quality of the book is extremely high. It’s full color, it’s beautifully constructed, I think I caught 2 or 3 errors in the text (which is pretty phenomenal for a training manual) and it’s pretty well written.

-The ‘Total Strength Program’ is brand new, so I have no idea if it works, but it is interesting and different from other strength programs I’ve seen, and pretty different from any of Chad’s other work that he’s made public.

-In sum, if you’re at all on the fence about buying this thing, I highly recommend it, you’ll get a lot more than you’re paying for. This coming from someone who’s been very disappointed with at least 90% of the strength-training books I’ve read.

Well done, Chad. You’ve created an invaluable resource.

Your fanboy,
Ramo

2

someone should give you a free shirt because you just sold me on it.

3

Ramo,

I’m honored and humbled by your review. I can’t tell you how much it means to me.

Reading posts like this makes the year-plus effort and the huge financial investment more than worthwhile.

Thanks isn’t enough - but thanks!

1 Like
4

i’m also sold. i’ve heard nothing but good things, but this has tipped me over.

5

Where is this book available ?

[Moderator Note: Go to the bottom of the list of Biotest supplements in the eStore.]

6

Thanks for the review, funny thing is, I just finished placing my order for the book when I saw your post. Good thing it was a favorable review!

7

ordered mine 2 days ago - waiting impatiently!

8

I might just have to buy this book.

9

Anyone else have a review to post… another one and I may just have to put a copy in my next supplement order.

10

[quote]Houshin Akai wrote:
Anyone else have a review to post… another one and I may just have to put a copy in my next supplement order.[/quote]

How’s this:

“With the ability to combine academic research with real world in-the-trenches training experience, Waterbury has broken all the rules and raised the bar with Muscle Revolution. Whether you’re a
fitness professional or just a fitness enthusiast, you need this manual in your library.”
–Alwyn Cosgrove

Or this:

“Chad Waterbury is one of the top body transformation and performance coaches in the world today. His ideas have influenced and transformed thousands. In his new book, Muscle Revolution, Chad codifies the Waterbury system, making it easier than ever to understand this system and apply it. But the best part of the whole book - tons of free programs - in fact, close to a year’s worth! I’m glad Muscle Revolution is part of my training library!”
–Dr. John Berardi

11

[quote]Houshin Akai wrote:
Anyone else have a review to post… another one and I may just have to put a copy in my next supplement order.[/quote]

Here are three more from T-Nation members:

“I just finished reading the book. Amazing. Simply amazing. Gonna see the progression all the way through. Will be posting stats/pics every three programs.”
–almostabb

“I got the book in the mail last night, and to be honest I couldn’t put it down. Not only is it filled with valuable information… its a fun read (almost like a fiction novel) not a typical boring “do this this and this”. I can’t wait to finish reading it and see what kind of results I can get. Thanks Chad!!!”
–Needinghelp

"I got the book in the mail today and read through most of it. Overall it is a great book. I really found the energy systems training, posture correction, and TSP to be the best new useful information. I really need to bring up my squat, so I am looking forward to trying the TSP and seeing how it works for me.

I recommend this book for anyone. Being a long time T-Nation reader, I found some useful new information and its handy to have it all in one easy to reference source."
–Derok

12

Wow, Chad sure does deliver a good response fast! Good enough, placed my order. Looking forward to it, the response has just been overwhelmingly positive so far.

13

Here’s reviews from the members of jpfitness forums:

forums.jpfitness.com/showthread.php?t=21483

(I’m “Simon C”),
Enjoy

14

[quote]Houshin Akai wrote:
Wow, Chad sure does deliver a good response fast! Good enough, placed my order. Looking forward to it, the response has just been overwhelmingly positive so far.[/quote]

Thanks!

15

I have to agree with the review. While reading the book, I was impressed with the explanations that Chad gave for why he recommeds certain things. It wasn’t too much to bore a novice yet it was enough to inform someone with experience.

His TSP is a very interesting program that anyone can easily modify to their personal goals (Chad explains how).

As a bonus, if you are familiar with CW’s programs, you can understand the concept behind TSP as well learn a few new things (I picked up a few new ideas) as well as see how CW likes certain exercises done (that helped me on a couple as well).

The photos he uses are very good (all color) and they help demonstrate what he is talking about. I even liked his ‘side bar’ points that help explain some stuff but aren’t absolutely necessary for the novice trainee.

If you like CW’s programs or his ideas, you will like the book. Just be warned, the more familiar you are with CW’s programs, the faster the book reads. That isn’t a negative since I read every word in that book. I’m even looking for some of the books he recommends at the end.

Arioch

16

[quote]Ramo wrote:
I asked my girlfriend for this book for my birthday, and it arrived this morning. Although I’m in the midst of final exams, I rifled through the book this afternoon.

My thoughts:

-By FAR the finest training manual I’ve ever seen. I liked ‘Beyond Bodybuilding’, some of Fred Hatfield’s books, I thought ‘Serious Strength Training’ by Bompa was decent, but this manual far exceeds any printed material on training I’ve come across.

-I should qualify what I say by admitting that I strongly believe in this kind of training. When I graduated college 4.5 years ago, I weighed about 190. I’ve gained about 50 pounds of muscle since then training this way, albeit with simpler set-ups for the most part than Chad prescribes.

-It should be stressed that this book represents a COMPLETE SYSTEM. There’s really nothing left out as far as the factors one needs to consider in planning their training long-term. I believe most people (especially ‘program-hoppers’) should buy this thing and make it their training bible.

If this was the only training resource you consulted for the rest of your training career, I believe the large majority of you would get optimal or near-optimal results.

-How can I say something like that having only read the book once, and quickly? I admit I’m familiar with a lot of the material in the book since I’ve read most of Chad’s work, but it’s all expanded on in the book, with a lot of new ideas, especially concerning strategies w/ progression schemes, nutrtion, supplementation, and recovery strategies. In many ways the book affirms a lot of the things I think I ‘know’ about training, reminds me about a lot of the things I may have forgotten, points me towards things I’ve never considered, and brings wholly unique ideas to the table.

-I’m not a fan of people saying shit like this when they’ve never actually applied any of the information, so I must say that in the past I’ve used Chad’s BBB, ABBH, and QD programs to the letter, and incorporated his ideas in all my programs. It’s all worked great for me. QD especially gave me whopping gains.

-The quality of the book is extremely high. It’s full color, it’s beautifully constructed, I think I caught 2 or 3 errors in the text (which is pretty phenomenal for a training manual) and it’s pretty well written.

-The ‘Total Strength Program’ is brand new, so I have no idea if it works, but it is interesting and different from other strength programs I’ve seen, and pretty different from any of Chad’s other work that he’s made public.

-In sum, if you’re at all on the fence about buying this thing, I highly recommend it, you’ll get a lot more than you’re paying for. This coming from someone who’s been very disappointed with at least 90% of the strength-training books I’ve read.

Well done, Chad. You’ve created an invaluable resource.

Your fanboy,
Ramo[/quote]

Good post dude. This goes on my christmas list.

Not the post, the book.

17

[quote]Arioch wrote:
I have to agree with the review. While reading the book, I was impressed with the explanations that Chad gave for why he recommeds certain things. It wasn’t too much to bore a novice yet it was enough to inform someone with experience.

His TSP is a very interesting program that anyone can easily modify to their personal goals (Chad explains how).

As a bonus, if you are familiar with CW’s programs, you can understand the concept behind TSP as well learn a few new things (I picked up a few new ideas) as well as see how CW likes certain exercises done (that helped me on a couple as well).

The photos he uses are very good (all color) and they help demonstrate what he is talking about. I even liked his ‘side bar’ points that help explain some stuff but aren’t absolutely necessary for the novice trainee.

If you like CW’s programs or his ideas, you will like the book. Just be warned, the more familiar you are with CW’s programs, the faster the book reads. That isn’t a negative since I read every word in that book. I’m even looking for some of the books he recommends at the end.

Arioch[/quote]

Thanks for the review - much appreciated!

18

After reading this thread, I have decided to buy CW’s book!

19

Sold me on going out and grabbing it too, although I was going to buy it eventually anyway.

20

been working out for 2 years. would this book be for someone 59 and not as serious (though somewhat serious) as most here.