Today I started the first week of the EliteFTS beginners westside manual. I’m only doing the bench press part of it. This log is basically to keep track of things and hopefully get some feedback off some experienced guys on what i’m doing right/wrong. It’s scheduled to last 12 weeks. So without further adieu…
[quote]Hanley wrote:
Today I started the first week of the EliteFTS beginners westside manual. I’m only doing the bench press part of it. This log is basically to keep track of things and hopefully get some feedback off some experienced guys on what i’m doing right/wrong. It’s scheduled to last 12 weeks. So without further adieu…
[quote]El_Animal wrote:
What do you mean you’re only doing the bench press part of it?
Your numbers are very impressive. What are your stats? (age, weight etc.)
Cool to see someone from Ireland here :)[/quote]
By only doing the “bench part” I mean I’m following a more taditional western method for the squat and DL. It’s worked for them so far aso there’s no point in experimenting with something I’m not sure of. My bench has being going no where, hence the change.
For the record, I’m 19 (20 in a week!!), 90kg, about 5’11 and all lifts are raw and drug free.
[quote]tigerak02 wrote:
You probably won’t be able to follow westside to the tee, it’s simply too demanding on the body for the non-drugged user.
Trust me on this.
Take the 4th ME session off to re-coop from the previous 3 weeks of ME work on both the lower and upper body.[/quote]
Can you elaborate on the first sentence there? I’m starting to move in the direction of Westside, but I’ve heard pros and cons from powerlifters in my gym.
[quote]tigerak02 wrote:
You probably won’t be able to follow westside to the tee, it’s simply too demanding on the body for the non-drugged user.
Trust me on this.
Take the 4th ME session off to re-coop from the previous 3 weeks of ME work on both the lower and upper body.[/quote]
People say this, I think they’re wrong. I take off every 10th week or so (no lifting at all, usually I end up having to take a week off anyways at several points in the year when I’m away from the gym), and I do fine. Just need to eat a lot of food and get enough sleep.
[quote]tigerak02 wrote:
You probably won’t be able to follow westside to the tee, it’s simply too demanding on the body for the non-drugged user.
Trust me on this.
Take the 4th ME session off to re-coop from the previous 3 weeks of ME work on both the lower and upper body.[/quote]
Um, yeah. I don’t buy that at all. Sorry. I know many, many people who are drug free and using it to great success. I am as well. If you had a bad experience with using the principles, then that’s all well and (not so) good. But don’t go blaming the system.
And incidentally, there is no one way to follow the Westside “system”. A lot of guys take the 4th week off as you have recommended, a lot just switch up the ME exercise, and some others deload slightly but don’t take it off. It’s all personal. Vogelpohl is the posterboy for Westside success, but he doesn’t train anything like the typical 4 day template.
My experience has seemed to point to using less intensity on DE day for your assistence work. In other words, no 3RM for board press, ok? Say, 5/6 reps minimum per set. Then balls out on ME day. But then, what do I know, my bench (still) sucks. Anyway, my 2 cents.
My only recommendation is to due a repetition day instead of a speed day. I used to do speed days, and I think I wasted a lot of time doing them. I think speed deadlifting is the only dynamic lift that helped me. Your mileage may vary though.
Basically what I’m saying is that if you’re slow on a lift, do dynamic days. If you don’t feel like it’s making you faster, drop them. Don’t do speed days just because it’s classic westside.
Btw, check out the 9 week beginner’s template program from elitefts.com’s article–>programs section. It outlines everything.
I’m even rather heavy on my previos recommendation for 5 reps a set assistence work. Stay in the 8-10 range for a while, on both days. If you were going to push weight, push it on ME day. The purpose of DE day is speed, speed, and speed again, as well as building work capacity via regular repetition method work.
-I am ridiculously slow off my chest, so speed work should probably be the biggest help to me.
-Deloading… The EliteFTS manual has a build in semi-deload every 3 weeks where sets halfed, and after the 6th ME week, the next weeks volume is reduced to 2 exercises. So hopefully that should be ok.
Not to hijack your thread bro but, what if some one only need speed work on a few select lifts but not enough for an entire DE day? Could you do both DE and RE work in the same day?
[quote]El_Animal wrote:
Not to hijack your thread bro but, what if some one only need speed work on a few select lifts but not enough for an entire DE day? Could you do both DE and RE work in the same day?[/quote]
WEll as I understand it the typical Westside styled DE day only focuses on moving the bar as fast as possible in the bench press. The other lifts for the day are by and large RE.
[quote]Hanley wrote:
Thanks for the advice everyone.
My thoughts…
-I am ridiculously slow off my chest, so speed work should probably be the biggest help to me.
-Deloading… The EliteFTS manual has a build in semi-deload every 3 weeks where sets halfed, and after the 6th ME week, the next weeks volume is reduced to 2 exercises. So hopefully that should be ok.[/quote]
You should do fine by that. I wish you would try the entire training template w/ the SQT work. You’ll like it too. You don’t need to be on drugs to train w/ the Westside template Dave wrote. Get to it.
