[quote]Reed wrote:
From week to week my training changes a good bit in terms of volume and intensity. How ever the movements pretty much stay exactly the same.
Bench Moves: Ill use bands, boards and or the sling shot quite often as I am one of the few raw lifters I know who has a horrible time locking out a weight. So triceps strength has been of highest priority to me. I also have had a mental mind block on this lift and finally I came to the realization that overload training worked amazing for my lower body lifts why the hell have I not tried it for my Press. Seemed like a no brainer and for the first time in months I am finally seeing progress in the press again and I am much more comfortable with it. Training is set up along these lines.
Saturday: I focus on comp style pressing. I alternate between Heavy 1-5 reps weeks using 80-95% of my 1rm and higher “rep” weeks more along the lines of 70-80% of 1rm for sets of 5-10.
Tuesdays: This is my overload day. I may be using 90-110% of my max here in movements such as Board Presses but, since it much shortened range of motion it hardly taxes my system and allows me to go heavy quite often with out feeling like I was ran over by a truck. I alternare here between Comp Style Board Presses one week focusing on 1-5 reps at a given height and then the next weeks is full range against bands or with reverse bands.
Squat and Deadlift Training: I am a huge believer in if your Squat is going up so is your deadlift. So I hardly ever go over 405 in my training UNLESS it is off of a box or with reverse bands set up. This just as with the board presses for my bench allows me to feel some heavy weight but, not tax my CNS as bad. 500 off the floor fries me for a few days I feel utter shitty but, with 650+ with decent band tension even deloaded at the top I feel great to go.
Mondays: I focus on CAT Squats and Block or Reverse Band Pulls. I hardly ever go over 365 on the squats these days. The goal here is to take work up to a weight and hit 7 sets of 5 in under 10 minutes. This has been a Sam Byrd Staple for years he swears by it and my Squat has followed suit so, therefore I swear by it.
Thursdays: Front Squat and Speed Pulls. Another Sam Byrd swears by is Front Squats. He strongly believes for a unequipped lifter a big front squat is the most important thing next to perfect technique. If you can grind a FS 500 you will crush a 600 BS considering yout in a much better postion to incorporate the posterior chain plus if you round forward slightly the bar is not going any where and you can make it happen.
Accessory work is limited to your weaknesses one of the few things Sam agrees with when it comes to West Side training is to pick 2-3 accessories that target the areas you specifically are lacking in and crush them with high volume. So for Bench I focus mainly on Close Bench, JM Presses and Various Push Downs. For Lower Days its GHR, Stiff Leg Deadlifts, and Abs.
Upper Back is trained EVERY SESSION. Usually a Vertical Pull on Squat and Deadlift Days and Rows on Bench Days.
This is about all I have for now I am on a lunch break and unfortunately this Rotessiore Chicken and 2 Packs of Rice is going to eat its self. Anytime Ill be on here around 5 or 6 so any questions on the Reverse Bands Set up I can answer I will. Was thinking of even going in to The Pit tonight and just doing a decent video explanation on it kinda like Punisher did for his pull and ROM program.[/quote]
I like the CAT squat theory you talk about. What do you base your weight lifted against? Obviously you are a great deal stronger than me and I’m curioys what weight I should try for this workout. I’m assuming you’re using something like 55-60% of your 1 rep max?
I am also a believer in my squat strength going up if my deadlifts are. I CANNOT back squat anymore and have given up on them after continuously reinjuring myself each time after months of slowly loaded weight to the bar…NO matter how slow and patient I am at loading the bar I always hurt myself again; I blew dome disks in my upper spine when I was 20yrs old squatting in the smith machine because all the free weight racks were taken one day
Luckily for me I am able to do front squats and trap bar deadlifts with no feeling of pressure on my upper spine and can go as heavy as I like or gas myself out with super high reps
Deadlifts, variations of Deadlifts and Front Squats are my main strength increase goals. I’m always looking for ways to experiment with progressing. Currently I’m utilizing 5 x 5, 10 x 10 or the 185 rep squat (or Deadlift) workouts
I have to be diligent about how often I push squats or deadlifts so I don’t overtrain or injure myself. Typically I’ll push either the front squat hard one workout and throttle back on my deadlifts the next workout and rotate vise versa next cycle in my split
