And from the two heroes in the game (at least that I’m aware of - my knowledge of strength sports is whoever pops up on my YouTube)
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What do you mean by this? Darkhorse seems exciting hehe
1 Like
The amount of equipment and space you have to take up, for half an hour at a time, is pretty prohibitive. I know he says just turn around on the bench and row that bar, but it seems to not work out that way frequently over the course of the week.
You could probably handle it, though! @alex_uk crushed it.
2 Likes
Beast! I don’t think I’d do any sets before the death set.
2 Likes
@Frank_C thanks man! Those weren’t hard on the way up, but I hear you. The lactic acid build up by around the third drop in those death sets is unreal. I have to start locking out a lot at that point.
Today was not my day
ME Upper
- WU Circuit
-
Slight Decline DB Bench
35/20
60/12
80/4
90/4
100/8
100/7 + 70/7 -
Narrowish Grip Incline
45/8
135/6
185/3
235/nope
185/4 (slow negative)
195/4 (slow negative)
195/3 (slow negative) -
Slight Incline DB Bench
65/6
85/8
85/1
At this point, I had no gas and felt like there was little point in continuing. John has this written as 5 days straight with two days off at the end. Someone in his group asked about just dividing the off days and doing one after each ME day and he said that was a solid plan too. I think I’ll try this next week - I swear it feels like I’m hungover. My legs are so heavy it’s actually affecting my pressing, and I don’t even know how to use leg drive in the first place so that’s really saying something!
7 Likes
Yeah I had this issue with Conjugate Bodybuilding sometimes when I couldn’t take an off day between the ME days.
My next plan is written with squats and bench “ME” one after the other but they’re not really too challenging so we’ll see how it plays out (not trying to beat a record every week, only every other one)
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It’s cool to hear this feedback and to see different plans for arranging the conjugate stuff.
Westside does and off day after each Max Effort and then the dynamic days are back to back.
For a while I did the four day plan, only lifting 3 days per week, so it took 9 days to get through and I had a little extra rest. Then I did a full body sled drag extra workout sometime in the week so I wasn’t totally slacking.
Matt Wenning breaks the work up into ME, DE, assistance work and then all the extra stuff. And each week he backs off 1 area of the training. So it’s like a little build in deload that rotates around every week.
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There’s also a lot of beyond failure volume on these ME days, so they’re just tough. The DE stuff has 0 recovery impact, so doing those back to back or even rotating them around like a pseudo deload seems to make sense.
I also wonder if it would be less abusive to do the upper body day first
Yea video evidence suggests @aldebaran takes over an entire facility when he trains as standard so he’ll be fine. I have a pretty well equipped home gym which makes it easier, standard commercial gym with covid restrictions wouldn’t be good. I do love DH thought, would 100% recommend, going to finish this run at it and go for another of Brian’s programs.
2 Likes
DE Squats today, and back to my normal gym! They got a lot of cool new stuff the last few weeks. When I run this again with more variation in the main lift, I will be set.
-
Lying Leg Curls
30/12
60/10
90/6
120/4
130/10 + 100/8 + 20 partials -
DE Squats
To box, with 30s between sets
45/8 x 2
135/6
225/2 x 20
I really tried to stay really tight and explode up. I was a sweaty mess at the end. -
Horizontal Leg Press
-/10
1pps/4
2pps/5
3pps/14 x 2 -
Machine Back Extension
65/6
125/8
110/12 x 2 -
Standing Calf
3 sets -
Hanging Leg Raise
BW/9 x 3
5 Likes
DE Bench
- WU Circuit
-
DE Bench
3 different grips, 30s between sets
45/8
135/6
155/3 x 15
Felt really stable/ quick today, so maybe I’m getting this -
DB Incline
This gym has all the benches bolted down, so I don’t have the slight angles I had at the other gym; so I just dropped the weight since I’m having trouble recovering anyway
60/6
90/8
90/8 + 60/10 -
Smith Shoulder Press
45/6
135/4
175/8
195/5 -
DB Y Raise
15/16 x 3 -
Spider Crawls
5 sets -
Rope Pressdown
80/6
120/14 x 4 -
DB Kickout
25/8 x 3
4 Likes
The big dawg is back, chomping at the bit
Leave some scraps for the rest of us ya big sex machine
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My main issue when I tried to do speed work in the past is that I thought I had to be ultra fast the whole duration of the lift, because I had seen some Westside bencher do light speed benches.
Truth is, if my eccentric is too fast I lose tension. I had a interesting convo with CT, when he said that the eccentric speed didn’t really matter, stability did. Sometimes he even uses super slow eccentric on purpose on his speed work.
IDK, food for thoughts ahah
2 Likes
I don’t know why, but my head cleared up! Thanks man
Same. I’m just now getting the hang of that myself. I’m pausing a bit at the bottom and making sure I’m driving myself into the bench, vs. treating the lift like a throw - it’s absolutely two different motions.
1 Like
My favorite former Westside guy, Matt Wenning occasionally uses slow eccentrics on speed work to. Or sometimes multiple pauses during the lowering. He also mixed in feet up bench presses some of the time. Little subtle way to make it harder without going heavier.
2 Likes
That’s clever stuff. I’m definitely seeing it a little more as technique work than speed work right now. I’m still trying to be as fast as possible, but not to the point of losing tightness
1 Like
Pulling Stuff
-
C/S Row
-/8
1p/6
2p/4
3p/4
3.35p/8 x 3 -
HS Row
Because someone broke the landmine!
1pps/6
2pps/4
2.25pps/12 x 2
2.25pps/12 + 2pps/6 -
Assisted Pull-ups
-70/6
-100/10
-100/10 + midrange hold -
Seated Hammer Curl
25/10 + 5 partials -
EZ Preacher
60/6 x 3
This was a thick bar and it was tough! -
Machine Rear Delt
70/30 x 3
4 Likes
Actually spent a few days seeing customers! Then got home for a pretty full day of softball and baseball.
Anyway, this one was tough
ME Lower
- WU Circuit
-
Seated Leg Curl
1p/15
1.25p/10
1.35p/10
2p/10 x 2 -
Transformer Bar Squat!
Yup, we got a transformer bar
I set this on high bar (3) and 2 on the camber
All bars weigh 45
45/6
135/5
225/3
315/3
335/3
I had more in me, but my knee was hurting and I don’t know this bar, so we stopped there
245/5
265/5
285/5 -
Speed Pulls
135/3
225/2
295/1 x 15
10s between sets -
Hack Squat
1pps/6
2pps/8
2pps/8 + 6 + 4 -
BSS of Death
BW/5
10/5
20/5
30/8 + 8s + 20/8 + 8s + 10/8 + 8s + BW/8 + 8s -
Reverse Hyper
Knee was swollen by this point, so did these instead of RDL
25 per side/8 x 3 -
BOSU Crunch
-/15 x 3 -
Seated Calf
1p/15
1.25p/10
1p/15 x 2
5 Likes
There are definitely some things you say that no accent could do better by than a Scottish one, and this - this is the best of them all.
3 Likes
ME Upper
- WU Circuit
-
DB Bench
35/20
50/12
65/6
80/4
95/10
95/10 + 70/10 -
Incline
45/6
135/6
185/3
225/3
185/6
185/5
Slow eccentrics on the last two sets -
DB Incline
60/6
80/12
80/12 + 60/8 -
Dips
BW/16 x 3 -
Machine Rear Delt
130/10 x 3
2s flexes -
DB Side Raise Partials
35/20 x 3 -
DB Tate Press
20/12 x 4 -
DB Skullcrusher
25/12 x 3
1 Like