Around 20 years ago, I was knee-deep in my first fitness instructor qualification. I’d read the textbook back to front and, like all teenagers, thought I knew it all.

Then, one night, I logged onto an old-school fitness forum – yes, I’m that old – and found a post from a strength coach who was incredibly popular on there at the time: Chad Waterbury.

He was talking about something called the 10 x 3 method.

I must have read it wrong, I thought. Maybe Americans put their sets and reps the other way around, in the same way they write dates. Because obviously he meant 3 sets of 10, not 10 sets of 3. Right?

Wrong.

It was probably a fairly significant turning point in my training career: the realisation that there are many ways to skin a cat, and that the familiar 3 sets of 10 was not a sacred formula handed down from the iron gods. It was simply one way of organising your work.

Waterbury’s method flipped that conventional prescription on its head. Rather than performing 3 longer sets, you complete 10 short sets of 3 reps. The total remains the same – 30 reps – but the heavier weight, lower fatigue per set and greater emphasis on speed and quality create an entirely different training effect.

Twenty years later, I still think it’s potentially one of the best ways to organise your lifting when you want to build strength and muscle simultaneously – without dragging every set towards failure.

The clue is in the name. Choose a big compound exercise and perform 10 sets of 3 reps, using roughly 80% of your one-rep max – or a weight you could lift for around 5-6 clean reps.

Rest for between 60 and 120 seconds, then repeat until you’ve completed all 30 reps. Waterbury originally advised beginning with 60-second breaks and increasing them by 30 seconds if your performance drops off before the final set.

The devil is definitely in the detail here. This isn’t 10 brutal sets taken anywhere near failure. You’re deliberately stopping each effort early enough to keep your reps sharp, powerful and repeatable.

Think of it as accumulating heavy, high-quality work rather than testing how much punishment you can endure.

Waterbury recommended using the method with compound lifts rather than small isolation exercises. Squats, bench presses, deadlifts, rows, dips and weighted chin-ups are all fair game. The bigger the movement, the more muscle you can put to work and the more worthwhile those 10 sets become.

There’s nothing inherently magical about organising 30 reps into 10 sets. What the method does is allow you to combine a relatively heavy load with enough total volume to drive both strength and muscle gains.

You Can Lift Heavier Than You Would for 3 x 10

Attempting 30 consecutive-ish reps in traditional sets of 10 demands a fairly conservative weight. Split those same reps into sets of 3 and you can move a much heavier load.

Waterbury typically prescribed around 80% of your one-rep max. According to his original Waterbury Method, the heavier loading was intended to improve intramuscular coordination and recruit high-threshold motor units – the fibres called upon when your body needs to produce large amounts of force.

In plain English: you’re exposing your muscles to genuinely heavy weights without sacrificing the total work required to make them grow.

Your Reps Stay Fast and Powerful

Sets of 10 have a habit of slowing down. The first few reps might look crisp, but by the end you’re often grinding, shaking and bargaining with a higher power.

Three-rep sets finish before that dramatic drop-off. Waterbury instructed lifters to control the lowering phase, then attempt to lift the weight as quickly as possible. The bar itself may not move especially quickly when the load is heavy, but the intention should always be explosive.

This gives you plenty of practice producing force while your technique is still intact, rather than reverting to increasingly ugly reps under fatigue.

It Builds Muscle Without Requiring Failure

You do not have to fail every lift to make progress. With 10 x 3, you begin with a weight you could theoretically lift for another 2-3 reps, but cut each set off at 3.

That leaves you fresh enough to reproduce your effort across all 10 rounds. By the end, you’ve still accumulated 30 heavy reps – a substantial dose of volume – but no individual set should leave you stapled beneath the bar.

Waterbury argued that many trainees actually finish the protocol feeling relatively invigorated rather than demolished.

That may not sound hardcore enough for social media, but it can make the method easier to recover from, easier to progress and considerably easier to repeat.

All that being said: you’re still finishing all 10 sets with 2-3 reps of failure. Studies have suggested this is the sweet spot for muscle growth.

Choose one compound exercise and warm up thoroughly, gradually building towards your working weight.

Begin with approximately 80% of your one-rep max, or a load you could lift for 6 perfect reps. Perform 3 controlled repetitions, driving the weight upwards with as much intent as possible.

Rest for 60 seconds and go again.

Continue until you complete 10 sets. If your reps begin slowing dramatically, your form changes or you fail to complete all 3, the weight is too heavy or your rest periods are too short. Extend your breaks towards 90 or 120 seconds before reducing the load.

Once you can perform all 10 sets cleanly, increase the weight at your next workout. Waterbury’s original four-week plan raised the loading from 80% in week one to 82.5%, 85% and finally 87.5%, although most lifters will be better served by adding weight in smaller increments whenever they complete every prescribed rep.

Don’t attempt to perform 10 x 3 on every exercise. Waterbury himself warned that this would create an unmanageable amount of work. In his original programme, just one movement per session received the 10-set treatment, while the remaining exercises were performed for 4 sets of 6.

Rotate that main movement across the week, giving your legs, pressing muscles and pulling muscles one heavy spotlight each.

Monday

• Back Squat – 10 x 3
• Dip – 4 x 6
• Barbell Row – 4 x 6
• Hanging Leg Raise – 4 x 6

Wednesday

• Bench Press – 10 x 3
• Romanian Deadlift – 4 x 6
• Overhead Press – 4 x 6
• Barbell Curl – 4 x 6

Friday

• Weighted Pull-Up – 10 x 3
• Dumbbell Bench Press – 4 x 6
• Reverse Lunge – 4 x 6 per leg
• Hamstring Curl – 4 x 6

Train on non-consecutive days, keep your exercise selection stable for at least four weeks and aim to make small, measurable improvements.

The 10 x 3 method isn’t a loophole that allows you to bypass effort. Thirty heavy reps are still 30 heavy reps. But by spreading that work out, you can lift heavier, move with more intent and build strength without allowing fatigue to turn every set into a survival exercise.

Sometimes, the simplest way to breathe new life into your training isn’t to reinvent it – it’s to turn it on its head.

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