Westside For Skinny Bastards?

Training Bodybuilding
1

I posted here a few weeks ago saying how I was just getting back into weightlifting.Since then I’m happy to say I’ve progressed to the stage were I want to try WfSB and have joined a gym so have full access to free weights/machines etc.I’m just a bit confused by the system in some respects:

-Is the working up to 3-5 reps on the max effort days done by doing 3-5 reps of progressively heavier weights,say about the fifth set being the max 3-5 reps?

-Is the Max Effort Upper Body day always chest and shoulders or can you swap biceps or triceps for them and put chest and shoulders on?Looking through WfSBII I saw there was very little in the way of biceps and triceps work at all,is this on purpose or is it just that you alternate shoulder/chest one week and biceps/triceps the next week?

Sorry if these are old questions but been looking through stuff about WfSB for a few hours now and if anything the mass of information has confused me more than anything else.If someone can help me understand this it would be great as really want to have this ready for hitting the gym on Monday!

2

[quote]crua wrote:
I posted here a few weeks ago saying how I was just getting back into weightlifting.Since then I’m happy to say I’ve progressed to the stage were I want to try WfSB and have joined a gym so have full access to free weights/machines etc.I’m just a bit confused by the system in some respects:

-Is the working up to 3-5 reps on the max effort days done by doing 3-5 reps of progressively heavier weights,say about the fifth set being the max 3-5 reps?

-Is the Max Effort Upper Body day always chest and shoulders or can you swap biceps or triceps for them and put chest and shoulders on?Looking through WfSBII I saw there was very little in the way of biceps and triceps work at all,is this on purpose or is it just that you alternate shoulder/chest one week and biceps/triceps the next week?

Sorry if these are old questions but been looking through stuff about WfSB for a few hours now and if anything the mass of information has confused me more than anything else.If someone can help me understand this it would be great as really want to have this ready for hitting the gym on Monday!

[/quote]

you find your three to five rep max by doing sets of 3-5 reps while progressively ramping up the weights until you find your max.

The thing about WEstside is that it is for powerlifting so that is why max effort upper body is always chest and shoulders. But i suppose that the beauty of westside is that the template is very flexible so i suppose if you want to you could swap out the max effort days to something else.

The thing is that on max effort days i have seen that they don’t do the actual lift, for instance bench press. They work on their weaknesses which is for most people at lockout so they work triceps.

For max effort they would do like close grip board presses which is a good mass and strength builder for the tris. The only thing i would think that you would be underworking possibly doing westside would be biceps. I guess you could thro in extra sets of bi’s or whatever. Hoe i answered some of your questions.

3

There is very little bicep work for 2 reasons- A) You should be using a lot of compound movements like chins and rows for your accessory lifts, which all hit the biceps hard.

B) It is a modified powerlifting program. If you’re more concerned about the size of your biceps than the amount of weight you’re putting up in the major lifts while simultaneously gaining some size (diet is a large factor in this) then I would choose another program more oriented towards your goals. Biceps are accessory work.

Kubo

4

[quote]crua wrote:

-Is the working up to 3-5 reps on the max effort days done by doing 3-5 reps of progressively heavier weights,say about the fifth set being the max 3-5 reps?[/quote]

You got it. Once you find that, try to break that max the following week.

Floor Presses and Board Presses are great movements for building tricep strength and size. Give them a try for awhile and see for yourself. As for biceps, throw them in each upper body day if you want to.

Keep in mind that WSFSB is a program mainly designed for athletes who are doing more than just lifting weights. There’s plenty of wiggle room for average lifters to add other movements.

5

Honestly I think you need to read a little bit more on his site, because he’s answered all of those questions in his Q&A- and also provided a lot of other valuable info, but I’ll try to help you out.

1.) It depends on how much weight you lift. a guy who squats 900 pounds isn’t just going to do that on his 3rd set. Start with an empty bar, and work up, making big jumps at first and then smaller jumps as you get closer to what you think your workset would be. If you were going to try a 3-rep max at 225, it might look like:

bar x 5
95 x 5
135 x 5
155 x 3
185 x 3
205 x 3
225 x 3
205 x 3 (optional if you feel like you have more left)

At 495 x 3, it might look like this:

135 x 5
225 x 5
275 x 5
315 x 3
365 x 3
405 x 3
455 x 3
495 x 3

2.) The max-effort upper body day is NEVER chest and shoulders. It is ME Bench, meaning, a day designed to build your bench press. So your exercise selection will be one that will help increase your bench press. A slight difference, but an important one. Honestly I would suggest following the layout strictly for at least 2 cycles (lasting 4 weeks), to give yourself a feel for what works and what doesn’t and what you like and what you don’t.

As for biceps/triceps… One thing I can GUARANTEE you is that your triceps are going to blow up using this program. I don’t know how you didn’t see any triceps work because this program is practically based around it! Benching (if done powerlifting-style, as this program assumes), board-presses, floor-presses are all great tricep builders and you should also be doing 2-3 sets of a tricep isolation movement in your upper arm superset on the RE Upper day. As far biceps, you should be doing 4-6 sets of direct bicep work per week, along with a bunch of lat/back work. For a beginner, that will be enough to stimulate growth.

I will say that I loved this program and made some tremendous strides on it. My arms definitly put on a lot of size, more in the triceps than biceps, but I made some good gains on that too. My shoulders got bigger, my back got bigger and stronger and my legs have definitly blown up. I also think that this program is a lot of fun, as it gets you competing against yourself and every workout you are trying to set a new record, whether it is total weight on the ME days or total reps on the RE days. And for a relative beginner, you can really set a new personal record every session, so that makes it an awesome program to be on. Plus, with the popularity of the program, there are a ton of resources out there and a lot of guys that can help you tailor this program to your goals.

So my final advice to you:

Follow the program by the letter for a pair of 4-week (3 work weeks and 1 deload) cycles, then start experimenting with making changes.

6

Thanks for all the information everyone.Mainly its just the set up differed so much from what I had been doing myself: Shoulders/chest/back, biceps/triceps, legs and core splits(I know not a great set up but was just setting some rep limits etc as getting back into training after a long break).So as such just needed some idea how to swap from an isolation style routine to a supplemental routine.

Thanks again for the help and I’ll post here again once I’ve gone through a full cycle.