Chad Waterbury, Author at T NATION

Tip: Mix Things Up with this Deadlift Variation

Chad Waterbury — Tue, 03 Jul 2018 11:00:00 +0000

The traditional deadlift should be a staple strength exercise in any program, but sometimes you want to mix things up to promote variability in your training. One of my favorite non-traditional barbell exercises is the deadlift side step (DSS). The Deadlift Side Step The Benefits Greater activation of the glutes. The band activates gluteal fibers

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Tip: Go Random For Ridiculous Gains

Chad Waterbury — Sat, 26 May 2018 17:00:00 +0000

Soviet Variability The Soviet Union officially ended on December 26, 1991. Three decades prior to that, weightlifting competitions across the globe were ruled by Soviet athletes. They set so many world records and gained so many titles from the 1960s through 1990 that it's now known as the "golden age" of weightlifting. And Soviet athletes

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Tip: The Top 3 Training Splits

Chad Waterbury — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 15:00:00 +0000

Frequency Each body part should be trained twice per week. Anyone, regardless of recovery ability or experience, can benefit from upping the training frequency of each body part to twice every week. Weekly Workout Plan The breakdowns I feel are most effective for devising weekly training cycles are: Plan 1 Day 1: Train Day 2:

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Tip: Use Exact Antagonist Exercises

Chad Waterbury — Tue, 03 Apr 2018 15:00:00 +0000

Arnold often trained chest and back together, going back and forth between exercises for each. Today we call that agonist/antagonist training. Antagonist refers to opposing exercises. In other words, an upper back exercise is an antagonist to a chest exercise, and a biceps exercise is an antagonist to a triceps exercise. When creating a program,

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Tip: The High Performance Mindset

Chad Waterbury — Thu, 29 Mar 2018 15:00:00 +0000

Mental toughness and top performance comes from a healthy mindset. I'm talking here about the state of your mind when things turn hellish. The prefrontal cortex is the area of the brain that helps make good decisions related to movement and performance. The neurotransmitters, noradrenaline and dopamine, are greatly increased during periods of stress, and

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Tip: The Return of Long Duration Cardio?

Chad Waterbury — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 16:00:00 +0000

HIIT It or Quit It? In the 1990s, two key pieces of research headed by Dr. Izumi Tabata and Dr. Angelo Tremblay on high-intensity interval training (HIIT) were the impetus for a dramatic shift in the way people perform "cardio." Long, slow jogs were quickly replaced by nausea-inducing, high-intensity intervals. Since HIIT is relatively new

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Tip: Boost Workout Recovery in the Shower

Chad Waterbury — Wed, 02 Aug 2017 11:00:00 +0000

The benefits of cold water immersion have been known for eons. But it wasn't until the recent popularity of "The Iceman" Wim Hof that chilling out in freezing cold water has become en vogue. I recently gave his cold shower therapy a try. The Method It's simple: At the end of your usual hot shower,

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Tip: Build Gymnast Biceps

Chad Waterbury — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 17:15:00 +0000

An intense isometric contraction is terrific for muscle growth for two reasons. First, it quickly recruits the largest motor units because it's a maximum voluntary contraction. Second, isometrics increase the neural drive between the motor cortex in your brain and the trained muscle. Gymnasts use a lot of isometric contractions when training on the rings.

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Tip: The Best Chest Exercise You've Never Tried

Chad Waterbury — Mon, 30 Jan 2017 16:00:00 +0000

To build chest muscles quickly, stimulate growth with high frequency training (HFT) and challenge the muscle through its primary function. The primary function of the pecs is horizontal adduction of the shoulder joint, which is what you do during dumbbell flyes or the pec deck exercise. The problem with these exercises is that they can

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Tip: Build Bigger Biceps With Isometrics

Chad Waterbury — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 15:00:00 +0000

An intense isometric contraction is terrific for muscle growth for two reasons. First, it quickly recruits the largest motor units because it's a maximum voluntary contraction. Second, isometrics increase the neural drive between the motor cortex in your brain and the trained muscle. Gymnasts and Big Biceps Want to know how those rings gymnasts built

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