You should move that box inwards a little man, don’t walk your squats out so far. Looks like you’re doing a chain yoke.
EDIT: this is obviously in reference to the guy who who wanted chain help
[quote]PlainPat wrote:
[quote]CONQVER wrote:
stb: I recently read through the book of methods and had a read a bunch of louie’s articles before. I am excited to run the system and can’t wait until rugby season is over to start.
My first of probably many questions is about the periodization. How would I use it over a few months if I have no plans of competing at any time in the near future? Also, what books or aticles go into using periodization?[/quote]
5 weeks accumulation, 3 weeks intensification 1 week deload and repeat. [/quote]
Bingo.
[quote]Vladamir wrote:
Yo STB i remember reading somewhere that you said you are a strength and conditioning coach at a college. JW do you have the athletes run the westside method? If so how do you tweak it? [/quote]
I was a Graduate Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach while getting my Master’s Degree. My head coach pretty much gave me free reign to do whatever the hell I wanted with 5 or 6 teams at a time and over the course of my degree, I got to program and train all 20+ varsity sports teams.
My first semester I tried doing some basic linear periodization and everyone ended up hurt or feeling like shit all the time. Even worse, everyone was bored. I started splitting training up three days a week so that every team had the same structure just with different emphasis based on their sports. Everyone started having max efforts, dynamic efforts, and repeated effort days.
Football needs to be good at everything. Strong, fast, and in shape. They would use all three methods every week. Soccer players need to be more anaerobic than people thing but most of them don’t give a shit about their max deadlift. So, they might only do max efforts once every 2 weeks. But, most of them are so screwed up from years of running with poor mechanics that they need an extra day a week just for mobility and rehab.
It is very easy to accommodate pretty much every training goal. I just started training a guy who wants to do a tri-athalon. I’m going to use Westside principles to get him where he wants to be.
[quote]simonsky96 wrote:
I’m a broke college senior and I want to buy chains.
I squat mid 3’s and bench low 2’s.
I was wondering how long of a chain I need to buy (without the lead one) being I am tight on my budget and can’t just buy a very long one and go from there. I understand that you don’t really need to cut them but you just loop them around so that only portions are attached.
If i’m planning on purchasing 5/8’s how long would I need to buy based on your experience? I can’t really weigh them on the store without buying them so please mind if this seems a very lazy question.
From this article:http://www.elitefts.com/documents/top_3_squat_bench.htm,,,,,,it seems i need about at most 60lbs total.
How long would you think this would be?[/quote]
The chains you need are hard to find. I got mine from an industrial supply warehouse. A little cheaper than what they sell on elite and wesitsides website because there was no shipping cost.
Ideally, 5 foot sections of 5/8inch chain would be best. That way you can double them over in a feeder chain and get a deload of the floor. Sounds like a set of those and a set of slightly smaller chains would put you at 60lbs (the 5 foot sections of 5/8 inch are around 22lbs each). You can go for shorter chains and guess the weight but I have no idea where those would be and how many you would need. Just keep in mind with the chains, they are going to last forever.
[quote]killerDIRK wrote:
Hey Simonsky96. What I did was use 2 foot long sections of chains since NONE of my movements from Squat to bench to deadlift have a “movement range” longer than 24" including my ass to grass squats. Look for a GOOD recycled metals place and see what they have lying around. The other option would be a materials supply company such as McMaster-Carr.com and order from them. Hope this helps somewhat and liftSTRONG !
3/4 " chain weighs approx 6.25 # per FOOT. So about 100# of chain would do/ 4sets of 2 feet of chain, 16feet total.[/quote]
…or just do that. haha. thanks for the helpful response. I did not know any of this.
[quote]LoveSquatting wrote:
Got some ropes, gonna try em out on DE days.
STB, what’s weak if I can’t tuck elbows properly ? It’s easy on DE days, but on ME… I bench narrow.[/quote]
Upper back and triceps. Hammer both of them until you have abs in between your shoulder blades and 45inch arms.
Could also be a technique issue. A lot of people flare too early when they aren’t riding up on their traps/neck hard enough.
[quote]Chicksan wrote:
[quote]Macmade wrote:
Hi, I’ve been following Westside for one and half month now afte following SS for 6 months and I have 3 questions in need of answer:
-
I haven’t made improvement on my bench press at all while my squat went up by 35lbs. I bench 165 at 155 bodyweight (pathetic, i know) while squatting 280 below parallel. Do you think I should continue with the upper body routine or should I subsitute upper body days with a linear progression routine.
-
I think my lats and triceps are comparatively weaker than my chest (dumbbell bench 50 for 12 each hand together) and shoulder (1RM of 110-115 standing OHP), do you think I should neglect chest and shoulder right now and seriously focus on lats and triceps? Note: the reason I say neglect is because OHP and dumbbell bench always exhaust me.
-
I bench with horribly flared elbows when benching my max. How do you think I should fix my form?
I’ve been eating plenty, gained 6 lbs after following Westside.[/quote]
In my honest opinion, all three questions directly affect each other, but Ill try my best
Your back and tris are key for a big raw bench. As the numbers for these go up, so should your bench press. Are you using correct percentages for DE day? If not, maybe try lowering them a bit until you build proper speed.
Should you neglect shoulders are chest? FUCK NO. Again, these are two components you need for a big bench. You say that these movements whipe you out, no offense brother, but this is fucking powerlifting, the shit isnt easy. Maybe try taking in some more carbs before each lift, help to carry you through the entire workout.
Learn to tuck your elbows. Form and technique are key on DE day. Make sure you are doing it properly before adding any more weight. Your elbows shouldnt be slammed into the sides of your waist, but you should have some tuck.
Dont mean to sound like a dick, and if i did, my apologies. I hope I helped a bit. The best of luck to you [/quote]
Everything he said plus a couple things:
-
Stick with one thing. Don’t mix and match programs or methods into some huge complicated mess. Your bench issue is not because of the program, it’s because your technique has some issues you need to work on, from the sounds of it.
-
OHP and DB becnhes exhaust you? Sounds like you have found some weaknesses you need to work on. Don’t neglect anything. Find stuff you suck at and work the hell out of it until you don’t suck at it anymore. Just a personal opinion on this, OHP does not help your bench press but the opposite is true. Just because you have big strong shoulders doesn’t mean your bench will be any better. I would suggest doing benches for ME work and sticking the OHP into more of an assistance and injury prevention role. Get your tricpes stronger.
-
Get your triceps stronger. Stay tighter when you bench. Get your upper back stronger. Go buy a slingshot and use it for some ME and DE work. That thing is awesome for re-enforcing food technique.
[quote]StormTheBeach wrote:
[quote]LoveSquatting wrote:
Got some ropes, gonna try em out on DE days.
STB, what’s weak if I can’t tuck elbows properly ? It’s easy on DE days, but on ME… I bench narrow.[/quote]
Upper back and triceps. Hammer both of them until you have abs in between your shoulder blades and 45inch arms.
Could also be a technique issue. A lot of people flare too early when they aren’t riding up on their traps/neck hard enough. [/quote]
Well, I’ve been doing about 20-28 sets/week for tris, for about 4-5weeks now and the bench still doesn’t go up 
What would you recommend, going for sets of 5 on ME days and 8-10 on DE days or 8 on ME days and 12+ on DE days ? So far I’ve never done less than 8 reps for my tris work and it doesn’t seem to work.
Also, what’s an appropriate upper back exercise except face pulls ? I usually do them and wide grip cables with 8+ reps, is that wrong ? Should I rely on intensity or volume, or both ?
Also, can you recommend some mobility work for the upper body ? I can’t seem to go low-bar anymore, don’t know why. Just got fucking stapled with 95% of my max… leaned forward like a motherfucker @_@
[quote]LoveSquatting wrote:
[quote]StormTheBeach wrote:
[quote]LoveSquatting wrote:
Got some ropes, gonna try em out on DE days.
STB, what’s weak if I can’t tuck elbows properly ? It’s easy on DE days, but on ME… I bench narrow.[/quote]
Upper back and triceps. Hammer both of them until you have abs in between your shoulder blades and 45inch arms.
Could also be a technique issue. A lot of people flare too early when they aren’t riding up on their traps/neck hard enough. [/quote]
Well, I’ve been doing about 20-28 sets/week for tris, for about 4-5weeks now and the bench still doesn’t go up What would you recommend, going for sets of 5 on ME days and 8-10 on DE days or 8 on ME days and 12+ on DE days ? So far I’ve never done less than 8 reps for my tris work and it doesn’t seem to work.
Also, what’s an appropriate upper back exercise except face pulls ? I usually do them and wide grip cables with 8+ reps, is that wrong ? Should I rely on intensity or volume, or both ?
Also, can you recommend some mobility work for the upper body ? I can’t seem to go low-bar anymore, don’t know why. Just got fucking stapled with 95% of my max… leaned forward like a motherfucker @_@[/quote]
Tricep exercises - Rolling DB Extensions floor or bench or incline, tate press floor or bench or incline, Pushdowns with various attachments, Skullcrushers with ez bar, jm press
Back - Kroc or DB Rows, Pendlays, Pulldowns, Pullovers, Face Pulls, Cable rows, BB Rows, chins, pull ups
And for mobility do shoulder dislocations. Put a band or broomstick somewhere you walk by often and do 10 of them everytime you walk by. You’ll get very mobile shoulders very quickly.
thanks, bro
[quote]PlainPat wrote:
[quote]LoveSquatting wrote:
[quote]StormTheBeach wrote:
[quote]LoveSquatting wrote:
Got some ropes, gonna try em out on DE days.
STB, what’s weak if I can’t tuck elbows properly ? It’s easy on DE days, but on ME… I bench narrow.[/quote]
Upper back and triceps. Hammer both of them until you have abs in between your shoulder blades and 45inch arms.
Could also be a technique issue. A lot of people flare too early when they aren’t riding up on their traps/neck hard enough. [/quote]
Well, I’ve been doing about 20-28 sets/week for tris, for about 4-5weeks now and the bench still doesn’t go up What would you recommend, going for sets of 5 on ME days and 8-10 on DE days or 8 on ME days and 12+ on DE days ? So far I’ve never done less than 8 reps for my tris work and it doesn’t seem to work.
Also, what’s an appropriate upper back exercise except face pulls ? I usually do them and wide grip cables with 8+ reps, is that wrong ? Should I rely on intensity or volume, or both ?
Also, can you recommend some mobility work for the upper body ? I can’t seem to go low-bar anymore, don’t know why. Just got fucking stapled with 95% of my max… leaned forward like a motherfucker @_@[/quote]
Tricep exercises - Rolling DB Extensions floor or bench or incline, tate press floor or bench or incline, Pushdowns with various attachments, Skullcrushers with ez bar, jm press
Back - Kroc or DB Rows, Pendlays, Pulldowns, Pullovers, Face Pulls, Cable rows, BB Rows, chins, pull ups
And for mobility do shoulder dislocations. Put a band or broomstick somewhere you walk by often and do 10 of them everytime you walk by. You’ll get very mobile shoulders very quickly.[/quote]
Im going to add to this a little bit. For tri’s on ME day, pick a compound movement and go heavy, 4-6 reps and you should be straining. Ill do my ME movement and then go into close-grip bench both flat and incline, pin press high board or JM press and I make it heavy.
I do almost the same. After the main lift I go pin presses heavy, JMs, rolling exts and some kind of cable triceps exercise, thats for tris. I’ll substitute the pin presses with close grip next week. Thanks, all!
[quote]StormTheBeach wrote:
Your lower leg should have a small degree of external rotation in it. This is a huge factor in squatting the most weight possible. If you watch your knee/shin angle, they stay exactly the same and both are facing straight forward. Every good squatter ever turns the movment into a hard hip abbduction instead of just a knee flexion/extension and hip extension. You can’t have any abbduction with a straight forward shin and knee.
Does this make sense?
#2- stretch your hips more.[/quote]
can you expound on this a bit more? especially the knee/shin angle thing hehe
[quote]simonsky96 wrote:
[quote]StormTheBeach wrote:
Your lower leg should have a small degree of external rotation in it. This is a huge factor in squatting the most weight possible. If you watch your knee/shin angle, they stay exactly the same and both are facing straight forward. Every good squatter ever turns the movment into a hard hip abbduction instead of just a knee flexion/extension and hip extension. You can’t have any abbduction with a straight forward shin and knee.
Does this make sense?
#2- stretch your hips more.[/quote]
can you expound on this a bit more? especially the knee/shin angle thing hehe[/quote]
Sure.
Stand up and put your feet where you set-up when you squat. Just do a regular squat. Pause in the bottom and look at your shin and knee angle. Stand back up. Now, turn your toes in a couple degrees. Before you begin your descent, imagine spreading the floor with your feet. This should get your weight on the outsides of your feet and you should feel some tension developing in your hips. You should also be pushing out so hard that the direction yout knee cap is facing has turned out slightly. Squat again but this time lower your hips by driving your knees out (this turns the lift into a hip abbduction rather than just a big flexion/extension). Keep your weight on the outside of your feet the whole time. Pause in the bottom and look at your shing and knee angle now. They should be pointing out, not tracked over your feet, and your hips should feel like a rubber band about to snap in half. Stand up the same way you squatted down (focusing on driving out).
Thats the difference in positioning that I was talking about. A lot of lifter lack the ext. rotation needed from the tibia/lower leg to get in a really good squatting position. If it’s hard to keep driving out in the squat:
-Get a lax ball
-Sit on the floor
-Bend your knee, put your foot flat on the floor, and straighten out your other leg
-Jam the lax ball into your lateral hamstring insertion (tendon on the outside/back of your knee)
-Keep the foot flat, use your hands to close your knee over the lax ball
-Crush all of the soft tissues until they start moving better/pain subsides
-Try not to cry, chew your tongue off, and pass out from the pain.
Does that make a little more sense now?
Makes a lot more sense now.
[quote]StormTheBeach wrote:
Sure.
Stand up and put your feet where you set-up when you squat. Just do a regular squat. Pause in the bottom and look at your shin and knee angle. Stand back up. Now, turn your toes in a couple degrees. Before you begin your descent, imagine spreading the floor with your feet. This should get your weight on the outsides of your feet and you should feel some tension developing in your hips. You should also be pushing out so hard that the direction yout knee cap is facing has turned out slightly. Squat again but this time lower your hips by driving your knees out (this turns the lift into a hip abbduction rather than just a big flexion/extension). Keep your weight on the outside of your feet the whole time. Pause in the bottom and look at your shing and knee angle now. They should be pointing out, not tracked over your feet, and your hips should feel like a rubber band about to snap in half. Stand up the same way you squatted down (focusing on driving out).
Thats the difference in positioning that I was talking about. A lot of lifter lack the ext. rotation needed from the tibia/lower leg to get in a really good squatting position. If it’s hard to keep driving out in the squat:
-Get a lax ball
-Sit on the floor
-Bend your knee, put your foot flat on the floor, and straighten out your other leg
-Jam the lax ball into your lateral hamstring insertion (tendon on the outside/back of your knee)
-Keep the foot flat, use your hands to close your knee over the lax ball
-Crush all of the soft tissues until they start moving better/pain subsides
-Try not to cry, chew your tongue off, and pass out from the pain.
Does that make a little more sense now?[/quote]
preach the way of the supple leopard bro! hahaha
I understand completely what you’re saying man.
I got obsessed with my squat stance ever since I got into using the conjugate system.
[quote]simonsky96 wrote:
[quote]StormTheBeach wrote:
Sure.
Stand up and put your feet where you set-up when you squat. Just do a regular squat. Pause in the bottom and look at your shin and knee angle. Stand back up. Now, turn your toes in a couple degrees. Before you begin your descent, imagine spreading the floor with your feet. This should get your weight on the outsides of your feet and you should feel some tension developing in your hips. You should also be pushing out so hard that the direction yout knee cap is facing has turned out slightly. Squat again but this time lower your hips by driving your knees out (this turns the lift into a hip abbduction rather than just a big flexion/extension). Keep your weight on the outside of your feet the whole time. Pause in the bottom and look at your shing and knee angle now. They should be pointing out, not tracked over your feet, and your hips should feel like a rubber band about to snap in half. Stand up the same way you squatted down (focusing on driving out).
Thats the difference in positioning that I was talking about. A lot of lifter lack the ext. rotation needed from the tibia/lower leg to get in a really good squatting position. If it’s hard to keep driving out in the squat:
-Get a lax ball
-Sit on the floor
-Bend your knee, put your foot flat on the floor, and straighten out your other leg
-Jam the lax ball into your lateral hamstring insertion (tendon on the outside/back of your knee)
-Keep the foot flat, use your hands to close your knee over the lax ball
-Crush all of the soft tissues until they start moving better/pain subsides
-Try not to cry, chew your tongue off, and pass out from the pain.
Does that make a little more sense now?[/quote]
preach the way of the supple leopard bro! hahaha
I understand completely what you’re saying man.
I got obsessed with my squat stance ever since I got into using the conjugate system.
[/quote]
Ha. Supple Leopard. KStar is a genius.
[quote]StormTheBeach wrote:
[quote]Chicksan wrote:
[quote]Macmade wrote:
Hi, I’ve been following Westside for one and half month now afte following SS for 6 months and I have 3 questions in need of answer:
-
I haven’t made improvement on my bench press at all while my squat went up by 35lbs. I bench 165 at 155 bodyweight (pathetic, i know) while squatting 280 below parallel. Do you think I should continue with the upper body routine or should I subsitute upper body days with a linear progression routine.
-
I think my lats and triceps are comparatively weaker than my chest (dumbbell bench 50 for 12 each hand together) and shoulder (1RM of 110-115 standing OHP), do you think I should neglect chest and shoulder right now and seriously focus on lats and triceps? Note: the reason I say neglect is because OHP and dumbbell bench always exhaust me.
-
I bench with horribly flared elbows when benching my max. How do you think I should fix my form?
I’ve been eating plenty, gained 6 lbs after following Westside.[/quote]
In my honest opinion, all three questions directly affect each other, but Ill try my best
Your back and tris are key for a big raw bench. As the numbers for these go up, so should your bench press. Are you using correct percentages for DE day? If not, maybe try lowering them a bit until you build proper speed.
Should you neglect shoulders are chest? FUCK NO. Again, these are two components you need for a big bench. You say that these movements whipe you out, no offense brother, but this is fucking powerlifting, the shit isnt easy. Maybe try taking in some more carbs before each lift, help to carry you through the entire workout.
Learn to tuck your elbows. Form and technique are key on DE day. Make sure you are doing it properly before adding any more weight. Your elbows shouldnt be slammed into the sides of your waist, but you should have some tuck.
Dont mean to sound like a dick, and if i did, my apologies. I hope I helped a bit. The best of luck to you [/quote]
Everything he said plus a couple things:
-
Stick with one thing. Don’t mix and match programs or methods into some huge complicated mess. Your bench issue is not because of the program, it’s because your technique has some issues you need to work on, from the sounds of it.
-
OHP and DB becnhes exhaust you? Sounds like you have found some weaknesses you need to work on. Don’t neglect anything. Find stuff you suck at and work the hell out of it until you don’t suck at it anymore. Just a personal opinion on this, OHP does not help your bench press but the opposite is true. Just because you have big strong shoulders doesn’t mean your bench will be any better. I would suggest doing benches for ME work and sticking the OHP into more of an assistance and injury prevention role. Get your tricpes stronger.
-
Get your triceps stronger. Stay tighter when you bench. Get your upper back stronger. Go buy a slingshot and use it for some ME and DE work. That thing is awesome for re-enforcing food technique.[/quote]
Understood, I’ve dropped my DE bench weight and starting to hit my tris and lats hard.
Hey guys,
MOV00050 - YouTube how is it now ? Self made rope 
How is speed ? Technique ?
Needs to be faster - second one was a grinder at the bottom - lower the weight. Also, sit back more - try to have your shins either perpendicular, or even better, past perpendicular from your feet. Lastly, there is some lower back rounding - you can remedy that by working off form a higher box towards lower (getting your hamstrings to fire up) and consciously ARCHING the lower back by pushing your butt back more and keeping your chest tall.
What I have found helps with speed off the box is to think more about opening your groin and a abducting your hips to the side - this activates the hips and glutes and catapults you off the box. See STB’s description a couple of posts above - it is golden!