Westside - Lower Max Effort Exercises

Training Powerlifting
21

@-sie-
Congrats on the squat! how long have you been training for? My biggest recommendation is keep track of what you’re doing for your workouts…especially your ME exercises and PR’s. If you are doing front squats for a couple of weeks (just as an example), you want to know that you did 315 x 1 so next time that exercise comes around you are doing better than that. You also want to be able to see what contributed to raising your squat and deadlift…and what didn’t.

For the bench, it’s the same deal. Just run a program for 8 weeks and see what kind of gains you make. The more I think about it, the more I’m inclined to agree with squirt about volume, and I’m an equipped lifter. I learned this lesson when I visited Southside Gym to get some one-on-one coaching from Matt Rhodes and Vincent Dizenzo…they taught me the meaning of “volume”. I lost count of how many reps I did that day, they were mostly triples to break in the shirt and we kept moving up in weight and I kept missing what I wanted and they took me back down and I’d hit the weight and they’d move me back up and I’d miss…I didn’t even do any assistance work and I swear that I was sore from my calves up to my traps. I think that one of the biggest things overlooked is your training partners. Most of these guys that are beasts are training with other beasts that are pushing them to do their best always…people who believe in you even when you doubt yourself. Otherwise you’re inclined to put your tail between your legs and settle on a 5 lbs. PR when you might have been good for 20 lbs…and I figure anyone who has trained alone has done this.

@squirt
In response to “bugging” folks…I visited Louie years ago and as I mentioned I went up to Southside a few years back. When I first started training I must have been about 14 or 15 years old and this guy walks into the gym who had no neck and he was benching with boards on his chest…He was throwing up alot of weight but I have to admit I was a teenager with an ego out of this world and I thought to myself “WTF is this idiot doing?” Come to find out that idiot was a top 10 / 181 lbs. lifter at the time, good friends with Angelo Berardenelli, visited Westside frequently…now trains with Paul Childress. He helped me out alot…as did Anthony Ricciuto and his sister Laura, who both trained at my gym. Anthony has stayed with the sport all these years later and writes for PLUSA…I don’t think you’re bugging anyone. It’s one thing that I really love about the sport…most guys are really willing to help each other out. Out on the platform we’re cheering for each other. Yes there can be arguments and whatnot, especially online…which I hate…but most of it is all for the best.

22

[quote]Fletch1986 wrote:

[quote]matsm21 wrote:

[quote]StormTheBeach wrote:

Like I said, I am a little further along than you and I am slowly realizing assistance work is a waste of time.[/quote]

I’m realizing the same thing…if you’ve got a good base, all it does is beat you up.[/quote]

What’s a good base? I don’t have anywhere near the strength or experience STB has, but I find I start getting hurt if I slack on assistance. I have to work my back and triceps hard after my ME to keep mys shoulders healthy and I have to hit my hams and lower back pretty good to avoid hip and back problems. Thoughts?[/quote]

It all depends. There is no right, wrong, or good answer to that. Everyone isn’t just different, everyone is the total opposite of everyone else. My ME/DE Upper days are a totally different format because I need to work the hell out of my back as well. Ditching the stupid stuff on the lower days makes me feel awesome all the time. It takes a long time and a lot of trial and error. Sorry I can’t really answer the question but you can do it yourself if you start keeping the most detailed training log you can stand to keep track of. That will really let you know if what you are doing is helping or hurting.

23

[quote]Matsa wrote:

[quote]StormTheBeach wrote:
I am a little more advanced than you but it has taken me a couple years to figure out what works best. This general template has been giving me RIDICULOUS results in the past couple months:

Week 1:
Squat Variation for 1rm
DL Variation for 6rm
Heavy Core work/Grip

Week 2:
DL Variation for 1rm
Squat Variation for 6rm
Heavy Core work/Grip

Week 3:
Good Morning Variation for 1rm
Whatever the hell I feel like for a 6rm
Core/Grip

Week 4:
60% Squat and Deads

Like I said, I am a little further along than you and I am slowly realizing assistance work is a waste of time.[/quote]

Hey Storm, what do you do for core and grip?[/quote]

For core: Anything but a crunch and anything you can hold a ton of weight with.
For grip: Fat Bar Deadlifts, Captains Of Crush, BB Loaded Plate Pinches, Regular Plate Pinches, Sledgehamer Walks, Plate Flips(45lb Bumper Plates). Those are just my favorites.

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Thanks for the advice Unstable.

I am currently keeping a record of what I am doing and including anything of note.(bad nights sleep, too many beers)

Seems to be working out ok, noticed I need to incorporate more deadlifting and variants as that has dropped off a little.

Also think I have spent too much time on prices for a raw lifter and need to switch bench ME to something more pec dominant as that seems to be weak point at the moment. (decline press?)

As for how long I have been training. I spent about 15 months ‘working out’.
I was doing split routines and squatting on a smiths machine.

What little I knew (and still don’t know!) Then February this year I decided enough was enough and moved to a gym with a squat rack and haven’t looked back. Been following powerlifting programs since then, Bill Star 5x5 for example.

Started Westside about 3 months ago but some of that was learning how not to do it!

My current lifts are 400lb / 225lb / 445lb at 175-180 bodyweight.

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what do you mean by “pec dominant”?
for a big bench, you want to work your delts, triceps and lats. Your pecs will get some work from your bench training but I wouldn’t think of the bench press as having anything to do with pecs.

Find someone nearby to look at your bench form…you might have to drive for a couple of hours or whatever but it will be worthwhile…same goes for your other lifts. You want to learn all the little technical tricks that you can.

26

Yeah sorry about that brain fart I was typing this whilst I was going through exercises for my next cycle. What I meant by ‘pec dominant’ (but pec dominant is the wrong word) was more delt , lat dominant.

I am trying to find where my weak points are (I know everything is probably my weak points at this stage)

Maybe you can advise?

My bench is 100kg for 5
My overhead Press is 60kg for 5
My close grip bench is 80kg for 5
My row is 90kg for 5

Anything look unbalanced there or would you say it is just more practice and more technique?

I hear you on getting someone to look at it there are a few guys in the gym who recently went to the WPC and did quite well so I might ask them. However I never want to bother them.

27

Just talk to the guys who went to the WPC…they should be happy to help you, it’s part of the sport.

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[quote]-sie- wrote:
Thank you all for the great replies and discussion has helped alot.

I will have to test swapping out the ME exercises every 3/4 weeks and swapping each week and see what works best.

Is this the same principle for the Bench ME work too?

If box squats don’t help raw lifters what would be a good replacement? 60% pause squats?
(I am not saying box squats are or are not helping me it is too soon to say I am just asking in case!)

On a plus note I hit 400lb squat yesterday![/quote]

Congrats on the squat, it must be working for you.

I know a raw lifter who does a shit ton of box squats, and has a 740 raw squat in competition, and left plenty on the platform.

He also does TONS of pause squats about 1-2 inches below required depth. He does this both light for speed, and heavy. Not max effort, but heavy. I have added them in both light and heavy as he suggested to me and noticed a huge gain. It was just one factor, well over 50lbs to my raw PR in 12 weeks suggests to me that it works. Lots of stuff was also changed though, but I feel like those were very beneficial.

He also does lots of special exercises. Tons of stiff leg deads, tons of zerchers, he is constantly changing something.

Referring to frequency of change, I have trained with Cheryl Clodfelter, if you keep up with multiply lifting you have probably heard of her… she told me once that she never does the same thing 2 weeks in a row. Either band/chain/rep/exercise is changed each week.

I have found that changing the reps week in and week out has helped me improve my form more, rather than changing exercises constantly, just changing the reps that I on. Trying for a 3 rep max is sufficiently different from a one rep max that it keeps my gains coming.