4/25/2008
2pm
Rack Lockouts 245X3 225X5 225X5 225X1
Realize I failed to do 80% of my max X 1
Realize I was over-trained X 1
Realize “Best Building” is 6 Max Effort Workouts in a week X 1
Quit Beat Building and Stopped my workout before
any further over-training could be done X 1
I was always skeptical that this program wouldn’t work.
The “Motor Skill Acquisition” workouts have me doing 4 “Multiple Exertion Method” Max Effort Workouts a week. At Westside, lifters would only do their Max Effort Exercise in a fashion like this where one lifts 80-85% of their max for multiple sets with short rest periods.
The Isometric/Explosive workout is another Max Effort workout using the “Maximal Isometric Method.” Again, if one uses Isometrics within the Westside Template, they’d only do it once a week for Squat/DL and once a week for Bench Press.
The Overload workout is another Max Effort workout using “The Maximal Restricted Range Method” AND Super-Maximal Eccentrics. This workout alone should have been enough of a red flag to me that this program will over-train me.
I’m not gonna try to do the idiotic thing and just keep going through this program. A week ago I could do Incline Dumbbell Bench Press with 95s for 10 reps but now I can’t even finish a set of Rack Lockouts with 225? I wounder why. It’s probably because I’ve done 5 max effort Bench workouts this week already.
I’m just gonna return to my usual training and stop flat benching. My Dumbbell Bench Press went from 75lbs to 100lbs in less than a year and the transition from 80s to 95s was in less than 4 months I think. My Squat and Deadlift will start to rise as long as I’m not following a program where I’m doing Max Effort Squats and Deads multiple times a week.
I feel like such a Douche. Should have known to never use a program that no one else has used. All I have to show for it is shame, a wasted week of what could have been good training, and the knowledge that I should never try a routine I find on the internet that no one has actually used all the way through. CT clearly knows how to get strong but I can see why he doesn’t like to write training routines. In his defense I did try to do as much work as this program would allow. I took all the opportunities to train 2-a-days. I did pretty hard lifts for my 15 minutes of “beach” work and I tried to do as many sets as possible thinking that getting in over 15 sets was a good idea.
This type of program just is so far from what’s worked for me in the past. I feel like I’ve already found a formula that works for every lift but the bench press, so I’m just gonna tweak it so that even my bench improves.
EDIT 5/8/2008: It’s pretty clear that I didn’t give this program much of a chance after I had just one bad workout.
But as you can see I’ve been able to consistently make PRs every training session between this post and the 8th of May now that I’ve switched to a 3-on 1-off split wit only 2 Max Effort workouts every 8 days.
The Truth is, I expected too much from this program. But I’m also convinced that my current way of training is bringing me faster, better gains. I may try Beast Building Part 1 again if my Flat Bench Press is still stuck. In fact, I’m gonna add it into my Favorite Articles section to remind me.
