today/s w/o
Basketball for 1.5 hrs
ahhahahahah, sorry i’m bored
hey guys, this is tied in to westside, but it’s also sorta calling in on some of your guys epxerience.
I’m 5 months deep (17 years old) into serious lifting and have been on ws4sb for 6 weeks now. Today was ME day, second week of normal benches. However, instead of breaking my pr of last week as I was hoping to, I have trouble hitting the same weight and can’t manage to bump up to my two rep max.
Notes: I did have a particularley intense trap session on saturday, but I didn’t feel too sore that day. However the night before I did have a tight back and a bit of a spasm on the lower right side.
My calories have been in order (3800 on on days, 3500 off.)
Is this just a matter of me having to switch ME exercises every week?
I’m sorta worried, I want to get my strength up as much as I can and this is the second time one of my ME lifts have stalled for a week (the last time is because I let the lift go on for too long.)
[quote]Naphta wrote:
hey guys, this is tied in to westside, but it’s also sorta calling in on some of your guys epxerience.
I’m 5 months deep (17 years old) into serious lifting and have been on ws4sb for 6 weeks now. Today was ME day, second week of normal benches. However, instead of breaking my pr of last week as I was hoping to, I have trouble hitting the same weight and can’t manage to bump up to my two rep max.
Notes: I did have a particularley intense trap session on saturday, but I didn’t feel too sore that day. However the night before I did have a tight back and a bit of a spasm on the lower right side.
My calories have been in order (3800 on on days, 3500 off.)
Is this just a matter of me having to switch ME exercises every week?
I’m sorta worried, I want to get my strength up as much as I can and this is the second time one of my ME lifts have stalled for a week (the last time is because I let the lift go on for too long.)
[/quote]
First i would not switch ME every week, some people might(i guess some do better on it), but if you dont do it for at least 2 or 3 weeks, especially at your training age, how do you know if your program is working? as far as missing the me lift pr, i believe Dave tate has said something about not hitting pr’s every week(i’m sure someone can help me out here), dont remember exactly what it was , but my version would be you could chalk this up to having a bad day, perhaps you havnt been getting enough sleep,food, too much school stress, whatever. i wouldnt necessarily worry too much. also maybe you should post your training week so we can see if your doing much work, etc. my 2cents
[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
Today’s workout was packing in as much food as I could find.
I can’t figure out if I want to puke or my stomach just wants to burst, Alien style.
Either way, I’m probably three pounds heavier after today.[/quote]
my favorite workout-- good stuff
My training week is as follows:
Tues:
ME upper body
Me Lift ( work up to a 3 rep max in 6-8 sets)
Accesory exercise (4*10-12) of some type of dumbell bench, or at times, dips.)
Rows(4*8-12)
traps (3*12)
Extra trap work (weak point/grip traning): two tri-sets of Heavy barbell and Dumbell Shrugs
Thurs:
A standard Me lower body day, although last week I had some extra time so I did some hise shrugs ( maybe not a good idea)
Saturday:
De Bench
Tricep exercise
back exercise
Trap rotuine (weak point again)
Powerpulls (trisets, 26)
Powercleans (35)
Overhead shrugs (120)
Snatch Cuban Presses (120)
While I know this looks like a lot of volume on the traps, this was just last week and I backed off (am nowing only doing traps twice a week). I took as many recovery steps as I could, including lots of sleep, overeating contrast showers) sp I really don’t think it was a recovery issue.
Maybe you’re right and I simply had a “bad” day… still a bit unsettling though.
Naphta:
Even if we knew everything about your life and training, we may not be able to diagnose what the exact problem was. That being said, you didn’t mention an off week, if you’re not taking one, do a deload every fourth or fifth week.
Also, you can’t expect to hit a PR every time you’re in the gym. You’ll learn to train based on how you feel; when you feel good, go after the PR, but if you doubt that you can hit it, just get 3-6 lifts in over 90%.
Sticking with it is the big thing. Give it a couple years and you’ll be strong as hell.
Bear
Naphta–
i think we all basically said the same thing in different words. you cannot expect to hit pr’s every time in the gym,and you dont want to switch ME every week.
on a side note, you say you have only been training seriously for 5 months, maybe you might want to lay off the DE day and do an RE instead(Defranco talks about this for newbies i.e. skinny bastards) or switch it up every week(DE wk1,RE wk2,etc), Just a thought-- good luck, Gags
I’ve been kinda lazy about posting training sessions, but here’s todays ME bench:
-warmed up with 15 mins on the treadmill then stretched.
[b]ME Bench[/b]
135x5
165x5
205x3
225x3
275x3
295x2
325x1(PR!)
335x1(New PR baby!!)
[b]Bent over BB Rows[/b]
135x8
155x5
185x3
185x3
[b]Dips[/b]
BWx5
BWx5
BWx3
BWx3
[b]Close grip BP[/b]
185x5
205x3
205x3
205x1
I then did some skull crushers followed by some abdominal work. Man I was jacked about the PR! Today felt really good.
I’m thinking I might pull my pennies together and look at purchasing a bench shirt or a squat/deadlift suit. Probably won’t be able to afford both of them right now, guess I have a decision to make; do I purchase the bench shirt or the squat/deadlift suit first?
Hmmmmm, decisions decisions.
[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
Do you guys use rack pulls as an ME or assistance work?
[/quote]
Both
I?m sorry if this?ve been asked before but where can I find a site that describes westside style training ? basicaly why they are doing RE DE ME days and when to place them in. To put it simple , the basics of it.
Oh, and I?ve read WS4SB already.
[quote]Lindow wrote:
I?m sorry if this?ve been asked before but where can I find a site that describes westside style training ? basicaly why they are doing RE DE ME days and when to place them in. To put it simple , the basics of it.
Oh, and I?ve read WS4SB already.[/quote]
Bear
Thanks for the advice everyone. One more quickie:
I’ve noticed the floor press as an alternate me exercise but it hasn’t been I don’t see it used much, is there a reason? My gym doesen’t have normal powerracks so I can’t do lockouts. The only real alternates I have are dips, floor presses and towel presses
[quote]Lindow wrote:
I?m sorry if this?ve been asked before but where can I find a site that describes westside style training ? basicaly why they are doing RE DE ME days and when to place them in. To put it simple , the basics of it.
Oh, and I?ve read WS4SB already.[/quote]
http://elitefts.com/documents/template.htm
this article is pure gold. it explains the “standard” westside template in-depth. it helped me a ton
[quote]Naphta wrote:
Thanks for the advice everyone. One more quickie:
I’ve noticed the floor press as an alternate me exercise but it hasn’t been I don’t see it used much, is there a reason? My gym doesen’t have normal powerracks so I can’t do lockouts. The only real alternates I have are dips, floor presses and towel presses [/quote]
Floor press is a great exercise because it takes out most leg drive from the press, and if you use good form, the floor breaks up the eccentric/concentric chain.
I use it as an ME and assistance exercise. I usually floor press at least twice a month.
Yesterday I did some assistance and other light work.
DB Snatches, leg curls w/mini band, 45 back raise w/band, band GMs, band pushdowns, farmers walks, bodyweight rev.hypers, and light ab work.
My back felt allright on the raises.
Today was DE Bench.
Speed bench- bar, 95, 135/5, 4x3 @ 155, 4x3 @ 165, 1x3 @ 185 and 205.
BB Row- 135/5, 155/5. I switched to pullups for the next few sets.
Close grip incline BP- 135/5, 185/5, 165/5, 165/5, 165/5, 175/5.
Blast strap row- 15, 15, 12, 12
BS pushup- 12, 12
DB Shrugs- 100/15, 100/12, 90/15.
Pushdowns w/ various bars- 3/15.
thanks for the quick replies, I?ll be sure to read through evrything
ME Upper
ME Bench Press (Middle finger on rings): 45x10, 95x5, 135x10, 185x5, 225x3, 265x3, 265x1-3(ass came up on last 2), 245x3, 245x3
Skull Crushers (5x5) 95#
BB Rows (5x5) 195#
Dips: 0x10, 0x10, 50x10, 50x7, 0x12
Machine Rows: 140x15, 150x10, 150x10 150x12
DB Shrugs: 100’sx10x3
DD
Today was a little weird. My bench is shitty so I think I’m gonna switch to triples around 90%1RM for a bit and see if that helps along with a Repetition day in place of the DE day. I’ll go by feel and see if this helps.
PS: I hate my gym. Pansiest place in the world.
DD
today’s w/o
DELB
1.avg. band squat- 18510s2r(med. stance)
2.snatch grip Deads-3154,4,3 had to use straps
3. Back ext-mini band 10,9,9
3 hrs later- Kbell class-very hard
Anyone have some good ideas on including some conditioning work?
i was thinking maybe just some extra w/o’s including basketball, intervals, more kbells. i have an idea of how i want to do it, just curious as to others thought’s.
ME bench
Close Grip incline
255x1, easy
275, stalled out because I started too low.
2 board
275x4
275x3
295x2
Seated Cable Rows
Bear
Hey guys, I need some supplement advice. I have some softball tournaments coming up and some are all day long. Any supplement advice to help keep me going throughout the day? BCAAs? Glutamine? Post your response or PM if you have any advice. Thanks.