Bench- work up to 3RM
Inc DB Press- 4x10
Bent-Over Row 4x15
Rear Delt Flyes 2x15
DB Side Bends 4x15
Day 2:
Stretching
Day 3
Abs/GPP
Day 4:
Pushups- feet elevated on 20” bench 3 sets x max reps 60 sec rest
Close Grip ? bench press (JM press I think its called)
Chins 5x4
Shrugs 3x15
BB Curl 3x8
Day 5:
Abs/GPP
Day 6:
Deadlift work up to 3RM
One leg Squats 4x10
SLDL 3x8
Plate pinches 3x20 seconds
Day 7:
Stretching
Ab Routine:
A1) Ab Wheel- 5 reps 312 tempo (3 sec down 1 sec pause 2 sec up)
A2) Front Plank- 45 seconds
B1) Weighted Crunches- 8 reps 312 temop
B2) Accentuated Negative crunch- max reps w/ good form 15-1-1 tempo
C1) Weighted Hanging Knee ups (max reps w/ good form)
C2) Hanging Knee ups 10 reps
I cant really work up to a max with bench though b/c i have no spotter so i have to have exercises where if i cant complete it i can drop it… or “back out” of it if you will… examples: deads, cleans, chins, etc… so im wondering how i would structure day 1 as maybe chins as my max exercise instead of bench? would i still gain strength on my bench if i did the upper body repetition day? w/ the heavy 1/2 benches and the pushups? ill post my workout log as soon as im done with my first week… hopefully u gusy can critique my program and give me suggestions on my max upper body session. by the way my current stats are:
5’10"
154 lbs (hoping to get it down to about 140-145 for wrestling)
body fat= too much … im not fat but im not super ripped either
current maxes:
160 lb bench
215x20 parallel back squat
225x4 trap bar deadlift
115 military
115 high incline bench
135x2 clean and jerk
115x2 (3 reps on a good day) snatch
8 bodyweight chin ups
5 body weight pullups
For the reps on this program is it a fixed weight that you can do for say 4 sets whereby only the last set is really hard or are all sets taken to failure with the weight naturally decreasing on each set?
Why are you only doing abs 2 days per week? Abdominal training should be done at least 5-6 days per week. My athletes do a Charlie Francis type ab routine as part of a warmup prior to lifting weights and then an ab movement at the end of the workout. If you are looking for athletic success, abs must be done more than 2 days per week.
I had a question as well… for the ME movement how many sets should one aim for and how much spacing should one put between the weights?
Obviously when you are working on the lower end of the lifting spectrum (so to speak) you cant go up by 20 pounds each set like I see in many Westside logs. This means that a lot more sets get “bunched” within 20 pounds of your max in order to get enough volume in. Couldn’t this lead to prematurely tiring out your muscles before the final set?
I structured the program based on Joe DeFranco’s Westside for Skinny Bastards article here in T-mag… its a variation of westside… im doing abs twice per week once again based on DeFranco’s instructions… any tips on how to modify my max effort upper day?
First of all, as a wrestler, you SHOULD and actually Joe himself suggests that you should have a pulling exercise for your ME exercise and repetition method exercise. Treat the chinup as an equivalent to the bench press. Workup to a 3 to 5 rep max on all kinds of chinups and pullups, towel pullups, and flexed arm hanging for time for three sets. Repition exercises are dumbell rows, lat pulldowns of all kinds, and all kind of machine and cable rows. I do not see why you would need to train abs more than three times a week with the amount that is in the program. As for your bench press strength, yes you can build and maintain this strength with training the whole body properly but I do not think this would equate to an outstanding bench press for yourself. Anyway, train in a way that makes you a better wrestler! As Joe suggests, use a pullup for ME day. Use supplemental exercises like dumbell rows and curls of all kinds rather than tricep extenstions and dumbell bench presses. With the Westside conjugated method you have to you use your head and although its a good template, it is not set in stone! That is why they also call it cybernetic periodization. Go by what you feel as well! I used to think that if a coach wrote something on T-mag or wherever that I could not change a damn thing about it even if I logically felt it would do me better. It is good to use templates, but adjust accordingly. Even if you look in Mel Siff’s book, the great Supertraining, probably the only authoritative books on the conjugate method, he does not have one routine written in it yet it is a strength training bible. He wrote about this a lot on his Supertraining forum.
… im not fat but im not super ripped either