Chad Waterbury has a challenge for you

Author: Michal Kraml

Bodybuilding / Fitness

14.04.2011

11 minut čtení

You know the story: prisoners train every day, often without better equipment, and look great.

How do they do it? Don't they know that you don't exercise your muscles every day? They know basically nothing about physiology, have very limited options when it comes to diet, and yet many of them are in better shape than you. That's not fair!

What's going on here? I recently came across a training method that may help us with this question. This will probably be one of the easiest ways to stick meat on your chest, upper back, shoulders, arms and top of your legs. And if you do it right, you'll stay sculpted even without dietary changes.

Plus: It's just supplemental training. You can add it to your current training program. And it won't take you more than a few minutes each day.

First, let me tell you how I discovered this method. Then I have a little challenge for you. It's gonna take 60 days.

How it all started

Last year, Robert hired me to help him strengthen and fix his aching joints. He'd just turned 40 and was in decent shape. But he needed professional help to move forward. So I designed a program to help him improve his joint strength and condition.

After four weeks, he had great results in strength, muscle and mobility. He was moving better and faster. He felt stronger.

When he looked at the upcoming part of the program, he asked if he could add push-ups during the day. Normally, I allow clients to do them anytime because it's okay with anyone. But Robert's shoulder was pretty messed up to begin with. I told him he could have push-ups, but I had to ask why he would want to do something like that.

"The more push-ups I do, the more chiseled I get," he replied.

At that moment, about a million thoughts ran through my head. First of all, he didn't say anything about wanting to sculpt, so I kept him at maintenance-level calories in.

Then, I also didn't believe that adding push-ups would actually do anything for fat loss. Although I do know how effective high-frequency workouts are for transforming the body.

Since he wasn't tracking weight loss with his diet, it was the perfect time to test this hypothesis.

So I let him do push-ups whenever he wanted for the next four weeks. When we met afterwards, his waist circumference was an inch smaller... without dieting.

I figured he was adding about 100 push-ups a day to our workouts. Of course, his shoulder started freaking out again. Some of that binder work fixed it. But I had to admit, the rest of his plan was working. The push-ups had sculpted him and his chest had grown about an inch in that month.

A better way

I asked what his expectations were for the third, one-month phase of our training. He told me he wanted to add muscle and continue to sculpt. Of course, he wanted to keep doing 100 push-ups every day.

I had to remind him that we had to repair his connective tissues for those push-ups. But I had a plan.

I designed a supplemental program that could be done every day. High-frequency training to help him add muscle, sculpt and not damage his joints. We added those workouts to the ongoing program.

The first of his 30 days of "extra" training looked like this:

10 reps.
Back lunge without weights: 10 reps with each leg
10 repetitions

Of course, he thought that was too easy. So I told him about the rest of the workout. I said, "This is day one. The next day you'll do 11 reps of each. Day three, 12. At the end of April (day 30) you'll do 39 reps of each exercise."

That's how this training program came about.

Robert's results

I measured my client last April before he started this program. After he finished, I measured him again. The results were as follows:

Chest (over nipples).

Even though he was doing far fewer push-ups than the month before, he had gained a full inch on his chest. He gained a decent chunk of that gain on his upper back, thanks to the inclusion of push-ups.

Arms: Half an inch bigger each.

This was no surprise. Shrugs are a very effective arm exercise. In terms of intensity, the push-ups are the most challenging of the three exercises. That's why he was able to get the best results out of them.

The top of the legs:Half an inch more on each thigh

Thigh muscles respond best to varying intensity and rep range. Cyclists have huge thighs. Weightlifters have huge thighs, too. Even though the load (his body weight) was small, the volume of training was large enough to ensure muscle gain.

Waist (across the belly button).

This result surprised me the most. Those extra workouts were great for fat loss. It also explains why his weight stayed basically the same as he gained muscle. He really traded fat for muscle.

What can you expect

As far as Robert's results go, there are a few things to keep in mind.

First, he ran a relatively strength program (low volume training, high load, maintenance calorie level). In other words, his main program wasn't designed to put muscle on him. That needs more volume of work and more calories. But he still put on muscle and lost fat.

Second, after a month of this program, his shoulders were healthier than when he started. When he was just doing a bunch of push-ups, he compromised the health of his shoulder joint. So adding in some work can be done, but you need to keep the ratio of pushes to pulls in balance and add in work for joint health (face pulls, centrifugal rotation exercises 'external rotation,' trapeze raises 'trap raises').

Third, not many people have tried this method. Since April, I've had four more clients add it to their program. Each of them had a different goal in their main program. All of them have seen results similar to Robert's. Best of all, it seems that the longer you stick with the method, the better the results.

These are the results I've seen with my clients and you can expect them too.

More muscle. More girth in your chest, arms and legs.
Less fat. Smaller waist circumference.
Improved recovery. (This program is actually 'active recovery').
Greater endurance. It won't be too hard to figure out that this program will add reps to your max in push-ups, push-ups and lunges with your own weight. For my athletes, it has also increased the time it takes to exhaustion during demanding anaerobic activities like pushing a load (sequence push). And it improved aerobic endurance as well. It makes sense. Even Tabata taught us that high-intensity work will improve our aerobic capacity.

Challenge

Do you want to undergo sixty days that will make you more muscular and sculpted? If so, here are the details.

1. If you can do more than ten push-ups at a time, start with ten push-ups, ten lunges with each leg, and ten push-ups on the first day. Add one rep each day until you have sixty-nine on day sixty.

If you only do single-digit number of push-ups with your own weight, start with one repetition of each exercise. Thus, on day sixty, you will be doing sixty reps of each exercise.

2. Divide your reps as needed.

When you get to higher repetitions, you won't be able to do them all in one set. Spread them out throughout the day.

Most of my clients do this circuit before breakfast. For example, one split his day of thirty-two into four rounds of eight reps. It took five minutes to work them out.

Have your main workout later in the day. In general, try to have at least six hours between your main and supplemental workouts. You don't need supplements (nutritional) around those side workouts. Keep them around your main workout.

3. Don't add.

The first week should go like nothing. You need to add volume gradually so your body gets used to it and can recover from the workouts. This program is the same as other high frequency programs. They are like interest. A little bit each day will make a major difference after a while.

If you start at ten reps, you'll do 735 reps of push-ups, lunges and push-ups in the first month. And between the 30th and 60th day, the volume increases even more. In that period, you'll do another 1635 reps!

4. Use variations.

Use different versions of the recommended exercises. Use all types and widths of grips for the push-ups. Place your palms different distances apart for push-ups. Lunges can be done forward, backward, and sideways.

No strict rule applies here. My clients change grips every few days. Give yourself a variation each day that you feel like doing.

5. Don't adjust your main program.

It doesn't matter what program you're currently on. This is a supplemental program and has no effect on your main program.

Ready?

Even if the daily volume is small, the total amount of work you'll do in this workout is scary. You'll be surprised, though, how little muscle you'll feel after a few weeks. This program improves your recovery ability, which is essential for faster muscle growth.

Measure yourself, take pictures, and get started. I'll be posting regular advice on LiveSpill.

Get started today!

Workout Summary

I'll do more than 10 push-ups