[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.
[/quote]
This is garbage. Westside is totally customizable; it’s a system not a specific program. So long as you’re not “training like Chuck” or just copying any advanced lifters routine, westside is perfectly suited for lifters of any level.
With that said, you have to know you’re body; westside is a lot about feel. This is why it can be difficult for beginners, and if you don’t want to blunder through a year of training, you would be best to find some advanced trainers to help you out. Following a beginners program should start you in the right direction.
Even Louie does this; he recommends dumbbell presses as a ME exercise every few weeks. It isn’t necessary though, generally lifters just take a week or two after competitions (Louie also recommends that beginners compete every 8 weeks or so).
My advice is, follow the westside beginner’s routine, plan to compete (or at least hold a mock competition), take an easy week, and do it again.
[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]jlesk68 wrote:
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…
To Andy B… I’m competing in the WDFPF world champs about 3 weeks after the 12 week program is due to finish.
As for the 4 Board Presses, I think you gyus are probably right about dropping em cos there’s only maybe 3 inches of movement, BUT i’ve only one week left of them and then i’m scheduled to go onto rack lockouts. Plus it just feels damn cool loading up 3 plates!
I think the next time 4 boards are scheduled to come around I’ll switch to 3 boards. Would that be ok??
Are you competing RAW? If so, forget any board over 2 and forget lockouts, stick to what’s going to help to get the bar off your chest, like illegal wides, heavy dbell presses, I wouldn’t worry too much about DE Bench for now, if the weight is too heavy no speed is going to get it up, I would replace the speed bench with Illegal wides one week and close grip benches the other week 5 sets of 6-8 reps.
[quote]jlesk68 wrote:
Are you competing RAW? If so, forget any board over 2 and forget lockouts, stick to what’s going to help to get the bar off your chest, like illegal wides, heavy dbell presses, I wouldn’t worry too much about DE Bench for now, if the weight is too heavy no speed is going to get it up, I would replace the speed bench with Illegal wides one week and close grip benches the other week 5 sets of 6-8 reps.[/quote]
Yeah, I’m competeting raw (for now). I don’t know how right you are about speed not being important tho, if the weight was too heavy presumably it would never come off my chest? I usually miss benches 2-4 inches off my chest, once I get it past there I can muscle it up with my tris. Is this not a sign of not pressing fast enough?
ThWhen I used the ME/DE day approach for benching, my raw strength shot up. (Sadly, it did not have the same impact on my shirted bench.) However, as others have said in so many words, some rep work will help you a lot as well. I see a few ways to approach this- replace your DE with 4-6 sets of 5, early in the cycle to improve your base strength and bring the DE (speed-triples) work back in the last 4 or 5 weeks before your meet to get your speed up. If you are competing raw, do you speed presses with a definite pause at the bottom- this will pay off at meet time.
Also, you could work up to a max triple on your ME day rather than a max single. (However, I would recommend max or near-max singles from time to time.) Alternatively, on your ME day, you could work up to a max single or triple and them drop 10-15 kilos and to a few drop sets of 3 to 5 reps.
As far as overtraining or the rigors of the conjugate approach go, just listen to your body. Based on your strength levels, I doubt you will have any problems with overtraining as long as you are getting plenty to eat and sleep. If your shoulders feel like crap- do board presses or floor presses instead of full range presses. If your back is screwed up going into an ME squat/dead workout, either cut the weight or do something that doesn’t require a lot of back strain- such as as sumo rack pulls or high box squats.
I was at 91kg today pre-workout. I want to get down to 88kg by the first week of September, this will allow me to eat more than enough to recover in the run up to my comp on the 11th of novmeber and not have to worry about going over 90kg at the weigh in. I say 88kg cos I’ve found if i go any lower I start to lose strength.
31/07/06 Deadlift day
Rack pulls (from below the knees, pin no 40):
warm ups to 140kg
140kg 1x3
150kg 1x3
160kg 1x3
170kg 1x3
180kg 1x3
190kg 1x3
Good mornings: 90kg 2x6, 1x8
Bent over rows (pinky on rings): 80kg 2x8, 85kg 1x8
Pulldowns: 60kg 1x12, 70kg 3x8
Shrugs (with farmers handles): 50kg per hand, 4x12
Funny thing is, I don’t think any of you are deemed as “elite” drug-free lifters so going 90-100% week in and week out even with the conjugate method will eventually lead to overtraining.
[quote]tigerak02 wrote:
Funny thing is, I don’t think any of you are deemed as “elite” drug-free lifters so going 90-100% week in and week out even with the conjugate method will eventually lead to overtraining.
[/quote]
Wait hold on, so you’re saying it’s EASIER to overtrain when you have a less efficent CNS that’s say is functioning at 40-50% whereas as an “elite” lifter’s is probably up around 80%.
If that’s the case you’re saying that’s it’s easier to overtrain when you’re body is handling lighter loads than it theoritically could if the CNS was functioning to the best of it’s ability??
[quote]Hanley wrote:
tigerak02 wrote:
Funny thing is, I don’t think any of you are deemed as “elite” drug-free lifters so going 90-100% week in and week out even with the conjugate method will eventually lead to overtraining.
Wait hold on, so you’re saying it’s EASIER to overtrain when you have a less efficent CNS that’s say is functioning at 40-50% whereas as an “elite” lifter’s is probably up around 80%.
If that’s the case you’re saying that’s it’s easier to overtrain when you’re body is handling lighter loads than it theoritically could if the CNS was functioning to the best of it’s ability??[/quote]
Bro, at your 198 weight class the elites are pulling 650-700+ lbs. You are barely pulling 425.
Think about it logically. Do you think an elite lifter will be maxing out every week with that kind of poundage and not feel any effects?
Compound that with DE/ME Bench days, can you honestly think that the unsupplemented elite lifter can tear up their bodies like that?
And plus, I train with elite USAPL lifters so I know what I am talking about.
[quote]tigerak02 wrote:
Hanley wrote:
tigerak02 wrote:
Funny thing is, I don’t think any of you are deemed as “elite” drug-free lifters so going 90-100% week in and week out even with the conjugate method will eventually lead to overtraining.
Wait hold on, so you’re saying it’s EASIER to overtrain when you have a less efficent CNS that’s say is functioning at 40-50% whereas as an “elite” lifter’s is probably up around 80%.
If that’s the case you’re saying that’s it’s easier to overtrain when you’re body is handling lighter loads than it theoritically could if the CNS was functioning to the best of it’s ability??
Bro, at your 198 weight class the elites are pulling 650-700+ lbs. You are barely pulling 425.
Think about it logically. Do you think an elite lifter will be maxing out every week with that kind of poundage and not feel any effects?
Compound that with DE/ME Bench days, can you honestly think that the unsupplemented elite lifter can tear up their bodies like that?
And plus, I train with elite USAPL lifters so I know what I am talking about.
[/quote]
I NEVER claimed to be anywhere near elite. Where did I say that??
I consider my deadlift my weakest lift so I don’t care if you try to knock me on that.
Lets not forget I’m only 19 and PL’n less than a year.
Today’s workout… I couldn’t train with my training partner today so I had some incompetent fool lifting off to me on the board press, he damn near killed me on the second set and since there was literally no one else in the gym i had to call it a day on the boards and move on.
Bro, at your 198 weight class the elites are pulling 650-700+ lbs. You are barely pulling 425.
And plus, I train with elite USAPL lifters so I know what I am talking about.
[/quote]
I just checked the USAPL ranking list. I rank at no. 16 on the squat list and I fall jsut outside the top 20 (by like 10lbs on the bench and deadlift and a few less on the total), plus I belive these lifts include equipped results?
And jsut for a laugh I has a look at the RAW (yes it’s in caps on the page) list and I rank: 4th in the squat, 7th in the bench and 7th in the DL. Oh and my total makes it to top 5. So there. I’m top 5 in the USAPL “RAWWWWW” ranking list. HA.
Close stance squats: (no belt)
60-100kg 1x8
110kg 1x8
120kg 1x8
90kg 1x20 (chuffed at that cos BWx20 has been a long time goal)
DE deadlifts:
100kg 6x1
Standing Calf raises: 3x8
Thoughts… time to start working my hammies hard again. I’ve been concetrating on getting quad strength up and I’m fairly happy with where my close stance squats are now.
I’m gonna switch back out to power squats from next week. 120 5x5 and add 5kg/10kg a week
My next big goal is 140kg for 8. I’d say I’ll be close when I switch my stance back out side and put on a belt.