Hey everybody! I joined a powerlifting club at my college at the end of this past school year and have been lifting this summer making a little bit of progress, but not as much as I would have liked to. I have read a lot of articles concerning powerlifting and have become somewhat knowledgeable about what it is and what it takes, but I figured that I’d get some personal feedback.
I was wondering if anybody had any suggestions about what kind of lifting regiment I should be following and what kind of supplements I should be taking to maximize my workouts. Right now I’m currently lifting 4x a week, two upper body days and two lower body days, and taking protein and a multi-vitamin. Any suggestions and help is greatly appreciated.
any chance of seeing what your training sessions look like? training history? are you eating enough? goals? body weight? what progress have you made? how does that compair to what you were planning on?
I’ll give you today’s lower body workout:
10 sets of 2 reps of parallel box squats @ 55%
10 sets of 1 rep deadlift @ 55%
2 sets of 10 reverse hyperextensions
2 sets of 10 dumbbell side bends
2 sets of hanging bent knee leg raises
I’m 19 years old and have been lifting since I was a freshman in high school. I played hockey, lacrosse, and rugby while in high school. My goals are to lose body fat while, but to keep the muscle that I currently have or even gain muscle. I’m 6 foot, 250 pounds. I’ve lost about 5 pounds since the beginning of the summer, but i want to lose close to 20 by the end of summer and then continue to lose the fat and replace it with muscle.
My goals that I set at the beginning of the summer was to add 25 pounds onto my bench, 50 pounds to both my squat and my deadlift. My squat and deadlift are coming along good, but my bench is not doing very well. I also have no idea if i’m eating enough or not because i’m trying to lose weight but also gain muscle at the same time which i know is pretty hard to do. My diet is not spotless but i try my best to stay away from the junk food. hopefully this will help u. if u need anything else just ask. thanks a lot
thats all i did because i read somewhere that i should have a dynamic day and a max effort day and today was my dynamic squat day. i do the same with my upper body workouts. should i not be doing this?
You’re doing “the westside method” or “WSB method” or “conjugated training”. This workout consists of two “max effort” days and two “dynamic effort” days a week with accessory each day. Read more about it here http://www.elitefts.com/documents/a_beginners_guide.htm
if you haven’t. It’s fairly popular, I’m surprised the other poster didn’t recognize the dynamic lower body day. Anyway, is this what the club is doing? Like, do you guys work out together? If so, I’d stick with it, especially if some of the others really know what they’re doing. If you guys all work out separately and at different times then maybe play with the idea of something with more volume in the three big lifts, or more volume in general if you want to lose weight.
Gaining strength and losing weight at the same time is NOT easy to do and impossible for some. I’d say you’re not making all the progress you want on either because you need to focus on one at a time. If you want to lose weight I’d start watching calories and carbs and do something like a 5x5 style program. If you want to gain strength start eating more often and make sure you get post-workout-shake. At 19 you probably don’t need many supplements. Multi-vit, protein is good but maybe add creatine and/or fish oil. Westside is a good program, if you want something a like it but a little different google “westside for skinny bastards”.
what i found with dynamic deadlifts is i need to use more weight usualy around 70%. have you tried upping the sets of assistance and dropping the number of reps as well as pushing the assistance weights up hard?
as for dropping weight thats down to your diet as in your calorie balance( need to be in a negative in order to lose weight weather you do that by dropping calories or increasing activity levels) maybe try chucking in some sled dragging or prowler pushing if possible as it will help with improving the hamstring and glute strength or even H.I.I.T
another thing while i remember make sure you read everything on elitefts.com and everything writen by louie simmons specialy if u training with the conjugated system. even the stuff that looks boring like articals on back and abs it all helps. even print it out and put it next to the toilet. the more you read the better as far as im concerned and im sure many agree.
as in protein and the like? personaly i havent any experience i tend to stick with full milk and something calorie dense like steak and pasta an hour or so before lifting and drink lucazade when training simply because i like the taste but thats just me
I think that training using the westside template in any form and trying to lose weight at the same time is retarded. Generally people gain weight when they start this type of training. You are not going to be able to handle the volume for very long and your lifts are going stall pretty quick.
Strength and fat loss are two different goals. You either have on or the other. You can’t have both. Decide which is more important.
Your best bet would be to follow along the club’s training system or find some kind of mentor (does your club have a coach?) within the club who could teach you the ropes.
Internet articles and advice are confusing, contradicting, and are overall not worth shit. They will only serve to slow you down considerably.
surely it makes sence to read up as much as possible about the training system he is using? other wise he might as well just be pissing in the wind. knowledge is always useful then its up to him to decide what he wants to use and what he thinks is shit. just an idea?