For all the westside users, and even if your not a westside user. Anyone have any thoughts on the 3 days per week program Westside made on the “Training Templates” Manual. I’m just wondering since the program is this:
Week 1-
Day 1 ? Dynamic bench press
Day 2 ? Max effort squat/DL
Day 3 ? Max effort bench press
Week 2
Day 1 ? Dynamic squat/DL
Day 2 ? Dynamic bench press
Day 3 ? Max effort squat/DL
Week 3
Day 1 ? Max effort bench press
Day 2 ? Dynamic squat/DL
Day 3 ? Dynamic bench press
The question here is alright on the first week u see Day 2 has a ME Squat/DL, the the next week you have the Dynamic Squat/DL…thats five days…does this mean that the effectiveness of the method decreses since your allowing 5 days rest? Some days you’ll perform one lower body training, some days 2 (same with the bench) as the manual says. It also says it does great for injury prevention and recovery.
Im wondering if anyone has tried this program, ive thought about trying it a few times (of coruse swtiching a few things how i want and all) but anyone try it?..if so could you please tell me your gains and such. thanks.
ALSO one more thing in a recent article Jim Wendler made he said its better to train smart then hard…a few other lifters have said this also. Everytime i hear this i dont know i wonder a lot. Now i think training hard and smart together will do wonders (obviously)…but what im wondering about is when they smart what do they exactly mean? does anyone know what they mean when they or anyone says train smart.
Like if you follow “rules” and all…like lets say u follow a westside program and u follow the rules…obvivously tweaking it to how u want it, after 3 weeks changing your ME exercise and perhaps even deloading so overtraining doesnt occur…is this training smart?
dl-
As I stated in another recent post, I attended an Elite Fitness/Westside seminar on May 7th and 8th in Shenandoah, PA. Jim Wendler spoke at length about training smart. However, I do not remember if I heard ever say not to train hard. Although he did inform us to take days off when feeling ill or overly fatigued, he did state that training is hard work and that one must have a serious attitude towards training. What I think he means by smart training is that one must follow a program that is tailored to one’s own needs, not always look to others for help in matters that they themselves have more knowledge in handling, should not follow overly complicated programs written by some strength coaches, should take days off or cut workouts short when necessary, and deal with all other matters in their training responsibly.
I have that Training Templates manual and I am using a three day program. This is what I have done since last summer except that I do not use speed day. I use a max effort day and a bodybuilding day. Three day programs do work. Even if four day programs would be better for some people, there are people who just can’t make it to the gym more often.
Go to elitefts in the articles a bloke called Rhodes outlines a 3 day split that gave him good results.
To the best of my knowledge Big martin used/uses this type of program. Alos Dave Tate talks about this in the eight keys, so if he says it is good by all means give it a shot.
Will42
The first thing you have to decide is why you want to use that template. There are various reasons to go 3 days a week - recovery and only being able to hit the gym 3 times a week are the biggest ones.
It is a fine template that allows for more recovery between sessions. It’s hard to say if there would be any measurable differences between running a 3 day a week and a 4 day a week template for large groups of people. It will have to be trial and error for you, as n=1.
BigMartin runs a slightly different schedule. He has a heavy bench night and a speed/rep bench night along with just one squat night usually. The squat session is treated as both a DE and ME session. He does this because he found he can recover better this way.
If you have further questions, remember that you can email the Q&A at elitefts for help.
Thanks a lot for all the great feedback guys. I can make it to the gym every day/hour of the week lol cuz its in my basement. I think the best thing out of the 3-day a week program would be recovery. I think we all can admit that lifting heavy for a while that elbows and shoulders can feel beat up. I’m going to give it a shot after 2 cycles of a different program i’ve made for myself. Oh and yeah I read that article by Matt Rhodes, thanks guys.
dl- time will tell.