Yesterday, I made a transition into the “Westside” style of powerlifting by adopting a 9 week workout posted at Dave Tate’s site and I have a question about
Good Mornings. While bodybuilding I have seen and done these several different ways. I used to do them 3 ways - arched back, flat back and rounded back. I am curious which was the preferred style! Last night I was to work up to a 1RM and I got 340 pounds, but I was using a shoulder width stance, knees slightly bent and a flat back. Fellow Westsiders’ critique me! Should I be using a different good morning style? My current squat max is 450, how is my good morning max relative to this?
Also, I added 3 sets of chins to failure (right now at 230 - that isn’t very many) and 3 sets of 6 of bar curls. Do any of you all add back and bis work? Didn’t seem like they were include much in the program so I plan on adding a few sets here and there. Good idea?
Use mostly round and flat back GMs. Arch backed are rarely used anymore. Vary foot stance alot. Extra upper back exercise is good (chins), but ditch the bicep exercise. Useless for powerlifting. You’ll get plenty from chins and rows.
Wow, someone besides me using that program! I normally keep my back flat with a slight bend in my knees to hit my hamstrings harder. I rarely do biceps. I added weighted pullups, grip work, and some heavy flies, as a trainer and I here at school figured out my chest is very weak relative to my triceps.
Use mostly flat and rounded back GM’s. Arch backs are good when you have a meet coming up. They let you get a feel of being under competition weights. I think Dave Tate told me that a GM was about 78% of your box max. You may want to search some achives at Efs or ask him. Was your 450 off a box or a free squat? Again this all varies with stance width, etc.
Chad T
A bit off-topic, but I plan to incorporate box squats into my next strength phase. Never done them before, so is there a certain % of max on your full squat that you use to calculate how much you should use for box squats?