Aap's Training/Progress Log

Training Beginners
1

Hey, I’ve been reading T-Nation for a few months now and I thought I’d post up what I’ve been doing, who I am, etc. I’ve been wrestling for six years and each offseason I tell myself I need to be stronger. I wrestle in the offseason, but I never actually established a lifting program.

As a result, I beat stronger guys with technique and leverage. About a month before this season, as a senior, I started using DeFranco’s Westside for Skinny Bastards, but stopped once the season really got going. Now, I don’t know if I’ll wrestle in college, but I’d like to gain strength mainly for myself, so I can have the strength AND the technique.

Since the end of the season, I started lifting again. I’ve decided to go with Westside Template as per this article: Westside Barbell Training - Workouts and Advice Two ME days, one day of rest, two DE days, then the weekend off.

I’m about 6’4", 190lbs. I’ve wrestled at the 189lb weight class for 4 years. As of tonight, I haven’t maxed my squat, but my deadlift 1RM is 375lbs and my bench 1RM is 225lbs. At the beginning of wrestling season, my BF was calculated at 10%.

My main goal is to gain strength, recognizing that hypertrophy will be a side effect. At the same time, I’ve decided to add cleans to my ME bench day to add mass to my back and traps, since I think these are a little lacking.

I’m going to take some pictures tomorrow for reference.

2

Tonight for ME Upper Body I did the following, adding hang cleans and the push press in the place of lat/shoulder work to the template:

5x3, 4x1 Bench Press, up to a 1x220lbs final set.
4x10 Skull crushers at 75lbs.
4x10 Cable Pushdowns (rope) at 70lbs, emphasizing form.
3x5 Hang Clean to Push Press at 95lbs.
4x10 Neutral Grip Chins with 40lb assistance.

3


Pictures from after tonight.

4


The back.

5

Alright, I’ve modified the program to be more like Joel Marion’s Westside for Bodybuilders.

Tonight, I changed the ME exercise to decline bench, and set a new PR of 240lbs. I dunno if the decline is an easier movement or what, because the previous week I was having trouble up by 225, my previous 1RM. I was a little pressed for time, so I did 5x10 wide grip bench (125lbs) for supplemental chest, and then 5x10 military press (100lbs). I chose the military press because without lots of time, I reasoned that a compound exercise would be better than isolation work.

6

are you moving up a weightclass, if not why are you using a strength/hypertrophy program over WSFSB (tried and tested for athletes)