DEEP WATER INTERMEDIATE* PROGRAM REVIEW

In continuing with my adventures into Jon Andersen’s Deep Water training, I took on the intermediate program from his book, with a few changes.  This was challenging like the beginner program, but in a different manner, and the results were still very awesome.

BRIEF PROGRAM OVERVIEW


You basically walk around like this for 3 out of the 6 weeks

You can buy the ebook this program is in for $10 on amazon, or get it for free off Jon Andersen’s Instagram account, so I’m not going to spell out the whole thing here.  For a recap though, it’s 4 days a week of lifting.  3 of those days feature a 100 rep workout (a squat or deadlift, a powerclean and a press or push press) with some other moves, and 1 day is a bench workout.  There is a 5^th day for conditioning.  In weeks 1-2, you get the 100 reps done 10x10, week’s 3-4, it’s 100 reps in 9 sets, weeks 5-6, 100 reps in 8 sets.

WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT


Same but different

The beginner program was about staying at 10x10 for the big days and focusing on reducing rest times from 4 minutes between sets to 2 minutes between sets.  This, as you can imagine, sucks.  The intermediate program was about hitting the same total number of reps (100) but using 10x10 the first time, 9 sets the second time, and 8 sets the third time.  As you can also imagine, this ALSO sucks, but differently.  Rest times stay at 4 minutes per set the first 2 times, and you are granted as much rest as needed to get through the 8 sets on the final stretch, just so long as you get it.

In addition, there is 1 extra 100 rep day in here compared to the Beginner program. The beginner program had a “back day” that was more bodybuilder-esque, whereas this one uses a back day based around 100 reps of power cleans.  This means you spend 3 days a week working with 100 reps (A squat or deadlift day, a clean day, and a press or push press day) and 1 day doing a bodybuilder style chest workout.

Other factors to consider are that the lunges have been removed from the lower body days and replaced with box jumps on the deadlift heavy day and hyperextensions on the squat heavy day.

WHAT I DID DIFFERENTLY


Because I'm an individual, just like everyone else

Whereas with the Beginner program I tried to stick with the source material as closely as possible, with this one I made a few more deviations.  In part, this is because I couldn’t quite understand some of the decisions made with the program.  In the book, the trainee is supposed to push press 5 out of the 6 pressing days, with a strict press workout in the final week.  I preferred to stick with the beginner structure of alternating push press and press days per week.  In addition, between weeks 3-6, the squat and deadlift days quit alternating, and you end up doing 2 squat workouts back to back on consecutive weeks with the deadlift workouts book ending it. I honestly thought these were just transcription errors, because it wasn’t consistent with how the other training programs were built, so I stuck with alternating each week.

However, the biggest changed I made was in weights used.  Jon prescribed 70% of your 10rm for weeks 1-2, and then 80% for weeks 3-6.  Having just come off the beginner program, 70% with 4 minutes rest for weeks 1-2 woulda been a massive step back.  However, 80% for the next 4 weeks ALSO appeared insurmountable.  So I compromised and stuck with a hard 75% throughout the program.  It was challenging and absolutely awful, and I can only imagine what sort of animal could’ve made the jump to 80%.  This is why I put the asterisk by the title, as it technically was not the intermediate program, and in my own training log I called it the “intermediate bridge”, closing the gap between the two.

Other small changes are that I replaced the hyperextensions with reverse hypers, I did all the ab work separate from the main exercise (lift in the morning, abs in the evening), and my lightweight technique work for the lowerbody days was done AFTER the heavy workout, rather than before.  I added 100 band pull aparts on my overhead pressing days.  For the conditioning work, I stuck with using the prowler.  These were just personal preferences.

NUTRITION


This was pretty much me for 6 weeks

I discussed nutrition in my previous write-up, and nothing much changed here.   Still went with the “no carbs, all proteins and fats” approach prescribed by Jon.  Only real interesting game change here is that I implemented a legit cheat meal the evening before the last squat workout wherein I had 5 slices of stuff crust pizza.  I did this because thanksgiving fell during this training cycle and I enjoyed a good meal there that wasn’t quite cheat meal status, but still significant, and I observed my next training day being very successful, so I decided to implement this as a nutritional trump card.  I think it’s worth undertaking if you run the program, but only for the squat workout.  I wouldn’t make it a regular occurrence.  And, once again, I ate unrestricted as far as portion sizes went.  It was basically impossible to overeat on the program.

RESULTS


Deep Water has a proven track record of making you unstoppable

I started the program at 202.2lbs bodyweight, and my heaviest weight reached was 205.6.  This is a much smaller weight gain compared to the 10lbs I put on running the beginner program, but it’s also the heaviest I’ve been in about a decade, and I’m much leaner than I typically am at this weight (and also means I’ve put on 13lbs in 12 weeks).  My abs are blurry, but the telltale sign for me of fat gain is love handles, and usually by 202lbs they start spilling over my jeans, but right now I still have straight lines on my sides.  Lower back fat is accumulating, so the handles will be here soon if I keep pushing the weight up, but still in a better place than usual, and I’m still fitting a size 31” waist jeans.  Also worth keeping in mind that I’ve had zero dietary restriction as far as portion sizes go.  For 12 weeks now, I’ve been able to eat as much as I want, whenever I want, with minimal concern of fat gain.  If you like eating, that’s awesome.

As far as lifts go, the program carried me all the way through.  I went from squatting 290lbs 10x10 to finishing with 290 for 1x16 and 7x12.  Deads went 365 10x10 to 100 in 8 sets.  Similar results for cleans, presses and push presses.  I started benching 3x10 at 266lbs and finished 2x10 and 1x7 at 286lbs, going from 4 minutes rest between sets to 2 minutes rest between sets. 

What’s of more particular interest is that this was my first time seriously power cleaning since…ever.  And though I’m still awful at it, 100 reps a week, performed under a significant amount of fatigue, really forced me to get good at them.  I have a much better understanding/appreciation of triple extension than I did before, and this in turn showed up in the push presses.  I had the best push press workout of my life the very training session for them, going 4x13 and 4x12, because I was so exhausted I couldn’t rely on strength to move the weight so I suddenly discovered every single trick I could to get to lockout.  This is especially so because the push presses are the workouts AFTER 100 reps of squats, so my legs would always be shot and I’d have zero hope of using them, instead having to rely on my hips and ankles to get things moving.

But honestly, all this pales in comparison to the psychological growth of the program.  I like to think of myself as pretty tough, and this program honestly broke me.  Specifically, the squats.  I never much cared for them in the first place, and after blowing out my ACL they’ve REALLY become something I can’t stand.  After doing the very first 10x10 workout, the sheer thought of having to get it done in 1 fewer set in 2 weeks filled me with dread.  I’d honestly get upset when the next workout in the program rolled around, because it meant I was now 1 workout closer to the NEXT squat workout.  I’d catch myself thinking about it and feel my heart racing.  I did the second squat workout in the program and just about quit on the first set of 12, because I could not get my heart to stop beating and I was sweating way too much for just 1 set.  I had anxiety and fear and a whole bunch of emotions I was genuinely not accustomed to for training. 

However, after THAT workout was done, a switch flipped in my head.  Don’t get me wrong: I still racked the bar on the 100^th rep (which I failed on the first try, had to strip the bar, re-rack the weights, and then hit the final rep) and started a countdown in my head for 2 weeks, but the fear was gone.  I knew it was going to suck and I was going to hate it, but my mind was at peace with that.  To the point that, the day before the final squat workout, I was hurting.  I ate something bad, and was passing blood in my stool through 10 trips to the bathroom.  I was dehydrated and my guts were cramping, but once the workout started, I knew I was going to finish it.  I hated every single rep and set, but I knew it was getting me closer to being done, and that was enough to get me through one of the hardest workouts of my life.  Jon talks about “portals” in the program, and I’m pretty sure this was me diving through one.  I realize how dramatic that all sounds, and it’s cringe inducing to have to write it out, but it’s the honest truth.

LESSONS LEARNED, TAKEAWAYS AND CLOSING THOUGHTS


For me, it's that reason more than just "sometimes"

-Just like the beginner program, expect to limp for 6 days after the squat workout.  Also expect to field a lot of questions of “are you alright?”

-On the above, I know people are going to get chapped that you only squat heavy once every 2 weeks (same with deadlifts) and they’re going to get in their own heads about frequency, but here are 2 things to consider.  1: as someone that had knee surgery, this is the best my knees have felt in a LONG time.  Yeah, the day that I do the squat workout my knee flares up pretty good, but after that I feel awesome and very painfree.  Been a long time since I felt that.  Meanwhile, I’m definitely still getting stronger while employing the frequency of the program, and this is easily measured by the fact that I’m able to progress per the schedule.  Getting 100 reps done in 10 sets, then 9, then 8 is absolute progress.  This leads to the second point in that Jon talks about being in a constant state of recovery in order to ensure you are growing as much as possible, and I believe the frequency achieves this effect.  People observe that they are always sore when they train a bodypart less frequently, and with the frequency of this program, your legs get sore as hell after squats and your back tends to get beat up with deads, and it’s because they never get a chance to really adapt to the training style.  Sure sure “soreness doesn’t mean anything”, but maybe it DOES mean that we threw some stimulus at the body that it needs to recover from.  I think there is a method to the madness.

-I think I made the right call on the program changes here.  You can make a sound argument that push press is more “full body” than strict press, and better fits with the Deep Water paradigm, but with a goal of maintaining strict pressing strength, alternating seemed right.

-I honestly wish I pushed the calories a little harder.  I was getting nutritionally lazy as time went on.

-You have to remember that this program is more a challenge than anything else.  I’ve seen people get chapped about doing 100 power cleans in a workout or 5x10 box jumps and how that won’t train power well, but it’s honestly more about just gutting it out and getting it done.

-This program remains one of the most effective programs I’ve ever used for increasing my bench press, and that is while still benching only once a week.

-I originally planned to do 75% of my 10rm for this program and then re-run it with 80% to do the “true” intermediate program, but in all honesty this put me through the wringer so bad that it’s just not on my radar.  Instead, I’m going to give the advanced program a shot for 6 weeks, and from there I’m thinking of just doing it all over again with the beginner program set to higher percentages.