Gobbla's Guides, Muscle Revolution

[gobbla]

Who is this guy and what is this product?

Chad Waterbury is one of the world’s leading experts on developing muscle for the goal of enhancing performance. His novel training methods are used by athletes, bodybuilders, figure models, and fitness enthusiasts of all ages and from all walks of life. He has an M.S. in Physiology from the University of Arizona, and he specializes in the neurophysiology of human movement and performance. He currently trains, consults and lectures around the country, and also contributes to numerous newsstand and online publications

What does this product claim?

* The Total Strength Program—Waterbury’s most advanced and ingenious 12-week program for building more strength and muscle mass than you ever thought possible.
* How to train for every goal—more muscle, more strength, better sports performance, less body fat—or a combination of goals.
* How to use food and supplements to gain, lose, or maintain weight while improving body composition.
* Waterbury’s most popular programs—from Anti-Bodybuilding Hypertrophy to Quattro Dynamo—and a guide to using all of them in a year-long program.

Where can I get it and how much does it cost?
$39.95

Review:
Binding\Design\Paper Quality
This is a very proper looking softbound. High quality semi-glossed paper and crystal clear pictures. It’s very professional and is obvious that care was taken to produce a high quality product.

Layout\Format
Sound editing. Easy to read with no distinguishing formatting flaws or praises. Everything is “as it should be”.

Content Usability
It is NOT a stand-alone product. One of the biggest things that annoys me about fitness products is 60 pages of how to do an exercise. This one doesn’t have any exercise descriptions for the normal workouts at all (Total Strength Program does have pictures and descriptions). Even as someone that has been pretty enthusiastic about training and having done Waterbury routines before I didn’t know all the exercises were.

I tend to run under the philosophy of “You don’t need to know the answers if you know where to find them”. The answers “can” be found on T-Nation, but you should never have to go searching. If the entire move set was at a central location then it wouldn’t be too bad…but it’s not…so that sucks. If you were somewhere that you didn’t have internet connectivity (let’s say “the gym”) then you’re pretty well fucked.

Does it do what it says\Review
This is probably one of the better products that no one will ever use and most people have no reason to buy. Chad obviously put a lot of work into this manual and some of areas that I enjoyed were barely mentioned by…anyone, as far as I can tell.

It’s a pretty darn complete product as far as this sort of product goes. To start with Chad goes into his philosophy about training and sets the tone for the rest of the book. As far as getting success in a given program it has to do what you want it to do (a program to match your goals). Chad spends a large portion of the book giving windows that your workout needs to fall in if you want to get the appropriate response. There’s a brief section on nutrition and interestingly enough a section on energy system training.

The party is rounded off with most of Chad’s programs modified to a 3x per week setting and 3 complete programs for the Squat\Deadlift\Bench Press.

Novice:
You’re not going to like it. You’re not going to use the parameter windows (¾ of the book). You’re about the workouts, admit it! You CAN’T use (some of) the workouts in the book without going to T-Nation, in which case you’re already looking at the workouts…for free. So why spend $40 on a book to look at programs that you need to the free version anyway? Anyone?

Enthusiastic Amateur:
You might like it. Personally I think the parameter windows are interesting. There’s a great deal of potentially profound concepts presented. On the same hand most “sections” could be (and are) books of their own. If you pay attention you can get enough out of each concept to apply it well enough to get by, but you’re probably not going to really “get it”. It would be better to think of the book as a springboard to other areas OR as a quick reference.

Final Thoughts:
There are three potential reasons to buy this book. The Cliff note version of programming theory, the T-Nation workouts, and the TSP workouts. There’s no convincing reason to buy it for the T-Nation stuff. The TSP things are a big of a “bonus” for me. Can you find a power lifting program on your own? Is their a convincing reason to use these vs. something from Westside or Powerlifting USA? That's not to say that the section is poor, it’s not reason enough to buy the book. If you’re not specifically interested in the theory portion then the entire book gets a pass. In my mind this would be a great gift to buy someone that likes fitness books. Spending $40 isn't horrendous, it's probably more than most will justify on themselves.

[Lisa~]

Great job on the review. I like the way you divided the sections. It's a real "tell it like it is" review with your honest, unqualified opinion. Thanks for taking the time to write the review.

I am interested in hearing if some of the others who bought the book agree or disagree with this review.

[Mahler]

You are two for two, Tony.

Nice one.

[ParanoidAndroid]

Good review, thanks for doing this.

Originally Posted by Lisa~

I am interested in hearing if some of the others who bought the book agree or disagree with this review.

I have the book and agree with the review. NOT worth buying for the workouts, but if you love reading about lifting/ect. than you may like it. Personally I regret spending $40 on it--nothing in it that's groundbreaking or even "revolutionary".

[He-man]

This is a good buy, but you have to understand I have been doing waterbury workouts for the last year and a half and love his programs. Although, I have done most of his programs through t-nation he did change some of them to make them 4 weeks long instead of 8 or however long they originally were. So there are some differences between the t-nation programs and the book programs.

Will this book change your life, no. Will it change some things about your routines in the gym, probably. I am obviously a waterbury fanatic, but I increased my pre-workout protein consumption in my shake because of chad's recommendations and I have noticed.

Also like the progression of his programs for certain goals, and although I havent tried the TSP yet, I definately plan on trying it within the next year. It was forty bucks but it was definately worth it, Chad telling us how he got started, giving summaries of his philosophy of training and tidbits on nutrition, supplementation, stretching, and energy system work. If you have been working out for 6 months and have a thirst for more knowledge you can't go wrong. Its worth more than 40 dollars in supplements thats for sure.

I would however recommend someone to complete a few of Chad's programs over at t-nation before buying the book to get a feel for his work. I constantly use it as a quick reference guide and will reread it myself this summer. It is helpful to consult both the t-nation articles and the book, but most people have internet access if they are doing chad w routines. Hey I'm only on dial-up, but Chad is one guy who has benefited from the internet revolution. Safe to say there would be no Muscle Revolution without it.

Do you need it? No

Will it improve your training knowledge? Probably

Is it groundbreaking? Not really, unless you have been doing curls in the squat rack!

Is it a great comprehensive summary in one place that many beginners-intermediate level lifters want? Most definately!!!

If you are a chad disciple like me I'm sure you already have the book, so there is no need to tell you to get it, unless you have had no internet recently and just got out from under that rock.

Cheers

[K Manley]

I agree with the general sentiment here; its a good book but those that are going to shell out $40 (or more depending on shipping) for it have probably already been indoctrinated into CW's methods and know a lot of it already. Personally I did learn some new things and it was great to see his system laid out in its entirety. I would liken it to buying a boxed set from a popular band: A lot of hit songs you already have, some new tracks for the completests, not quite commercial enough for the casual listener but the overall value depends on how big a fan you are.

I really like your reviews Gobbla, very balanced approach.

[Frank.S]

I agree with the "hey, ive already read this, for free!!" part of the book. If you have never read on t-nation, you would probally find the book much better.

I think the strength program is a little to general, but thats just me, most will really like it I imagine. Ive given my book away now, the person I gave it too thinks its a really good read.

Would I buy it again for the price, plus some stupidly expensive shipping to canada? nope.

I bought it the first day it came out, I guess I was expecting more stuff on the CNS and interesting techniques that ive never heard of before etc. I know chad has a neuro-sci background and I was hoping for some in depth stuff in that area, hoping for a better look at overtraining, volume management, intensity and the brain. Its aimed at people more new to lifting imo.

[Chris Correia]

Thanks, G.

Thanks everyone else who's chimed in and shared.

[WorkinOnIt]

I have to jump in and say that IMHO the book is terrific and absolutely worth the price, whether or not you are familiar with all Chad's T-Nation postings.

In no particular order, here are my reasons for really liking this book:

1. Writing style is direct and to the point. It is thankfully free of the chatty "ha ha" style of many fitness books (passages like "It's about as successful as Britney Spears in rehab . . ."). Chad is straight to the point. the writing is lean with no fat.

2. Chad has tweaked many of the routines and improved them from their initial T-Nation versions.

3 The convenience of having Chad's take on energy systems, workout routines, nutrition, etc. all in one convenient volume is more than worth the price.

4. The goal matrix that lays out a yearlong plan according to your goal (i.e. fat loss & muscle building; strength & lose fat; etc.) is terrific.

5. The flexibility and customization of the routines is also great.

6. For me the routines and nutrition have worked.

On the negative side, not all the moves are illustrated/described in the book, but a quick T-Nation search provides descriptions.

Plus, Chad has been great about replying to inquiries posted in the Muscle revolution Section of this forum. He's provided thoughtful and complete answers to the questions.

I have--and have used--many of the other usual suspects: NROL, BOM, ML. Muscle Revolution is every bit as good, and in some instances even better.

[mom2w]

Anyone who knows me, knows I'm a Chad-o-phile. That said, I have a love-hate feeling with MR.

Love: Everything put together in one place. I don't have to go searching on t-nation to find it and then read pages of posts to get more detailed info. Plus, things he's discovered since writing the original articles are updated and more user friendly.

Hate: There wasn't much new information that I hadn't previously read. If I hadn't been doing CW programs for a few years, this wouldn't be an issue.

One tip: if you're trying to follow his nutrition information, I suggest you check out his Figure Program article (not sure if it's still on t-nation or just at muscle with attitude now). In that article he goes into figuring percentages for each meal (and meals vs snacks) plus gives a sample workout day meal plan. The book is good, but this part really made it crystal for me.

[JoshDunn]

I'm glad I bought it. Great info that may have been out there for free but for me the price was worth it to physically hold the book in my hand.

The more I spend on the internet the more I appreciate physically having a piece of work on my shelf and that I can hand to a friend to read without sending them to the hellish t-nation site.

[K Manley]

Originally Posted by JoshDunn

The more I spend on the internet the more I appreciate physically having a piece of work on my shelf and that I can hand to a friend to read without sending them to the hellish t-nation site.

totally agree, to that end it would be great if Chad had the supplemental material needed (exercise descriptions, original program articles etc.) hosted on his own site.

[gobbla]

Originally Posted by K Manley

totally agree, to that end it would be great if Chad had the supplemental material needed (exercise descriptions, original program articles etc.) hosted on his own site.

I agree 100%. A lot of the guys put out a product that's lacking and then come out with a "supplemental" item or "bonus" that should have been included originally. Sometimes they charge or have the ladies swoon for the "bonus". Chad will likely do this the right way and simply offer the information that's already out there in a very concise format that will nullify most of the above "complaints". At the very least move up to 2/3 sections that go to at least "good", the third just being a personal choice.

For the record on this one. It was a painful review to right. I "like" MR. I've looked at it every single time I've taken a crap in the past 4 months. The problem I had stepping back is judging what criteria I'd have to recommend it to someone else.