Westside/PLing Training Thread

[Dre_Cappa]

I am on the WS4SB program and just finished my 3rd week of ME on the flat bench. My bench sucks and I really want to bring it up to speed. Can I try board presses on the FB next, or do I have to cycle off all variations of it for the next 2-3 weeks? Any suggestions? [quote]Mr. Bear wrote:
DE Bench

Warmup
45 degree back raise
Ab pulldowns

Bench
205, 6x3

225x1
275x1
300x1

I’ve been working on a few things in my setup and I felt like I had a ton of leg drive today. The 300 was easy, and I haven’t gone heavy to chest in awhile.

Pull ups
Pull downs
Cable side raise
Band pull aparts

2 sets of each exercise.

My school apparently wasn’t let in on the fact that it’s 70 degrees outside and heating the weightroom is no longer a necessity. I left an amazing line of crack sweat on the chair in the cafeteria; it sucks when you’re sitting with a girl, you have to simultaneously exit the chair and push it back under the table.

Bear[/quote]

[anon31651765]

Finally hit 265 (PR) on the deadlift.

Beat the shit out of me though, so my good mornings and RDL were “light” at best.

[Matt_McG]

ME Bench- 4/19/06- Wed

A)Close Grip Rack benches w/ pause(2 inches off chest, middle finger on ring)
95x7
135x5
175x5
195x6
215x4
225x3
235x3
PR 245x2
PR 235x4

B)DB Flat Bench (semi sup grip)
95x6 80x6 90x6 85x8

C1)BB Bent Over Rows (supine grip)
235x8 225x8 225x7(1)

C2)DB Shrugs (2 sec pause at top) (w/straps)
125x9 125x10 125x8(2)

D)BB Curls (wide grip)
100x7 100x4 (95x2) 95x4(2)

Notes: Last week, after my ME exercise, I warmed up with 75lb and 85lb DBs on flat bench before going to the 95s. I skipped that this week and I think it didn’t allow me to progress bc my tris were ready from the ME exercise, but my chest wasn’t really ready for heavy loading. I dropped down to 80 for an easy 6 to get the chest ready, but it was kinda fucked at that point. Next week, I’ll go back to the brief warmup before my 2nd exercise.

Also, rather than doing my pin presses from a dead stop and starting on the concentric, I started the bar high to do a eccentric and didn’t full rest the bar on the pins, although I did pause.

Grip still limited me on back work although not as much as last week I don’t think.

-MAtt

PS- Not sure if I made improvement on my ME movement. Before I started the bar from the lower position and raised it and here I did the opposite. Here are my PRs from weeks 1 and 2.

Week 1 Week 2

240x0 235x3
225x6 245x2
230x4 235x4

Overall strength progress or not? Either way, I need more sleep.

[gags]

today’s w/o
MEUB
1.clean+press- 1853
switched to hang c+p 1853,4,3
2.push press w/ light bands- 1354,3,4
3.pullups- bw8,8,8
4a.hammer curls-507 604
4b.1arm tri ext db- 4012 457

i need alot of work on my cleans form wise,the push press with bands was pretty cool, if you dont keep speed up you’ll never lock it out.

[Mr_Bear]

[quote]Drecappa wrote:
I am on the WS4SB program and just finished my 3rd week of ME on the flat bench. My bench sucks and I really want to bring it up to speed. Can I try board presses on the FB next, or do I have to cycle off all variations of it for the next 2-3 weeks? Any suggestions? Mr. Bear wrote:
DE Bench

Warmup
45 degree back raise
Ab pulldowns

Bench
205, 6x3

225x1
275x1
300x1

I’ve been working on a few things in my setup and I felt like I had a ton of leg drive today. The 300 was easy, and I haven’t gone heavy to chest in awhile.

Pull ups
Pull downs
Cable side raise
Band pull aparts

2 sets of each exercise.

My school apparently wasn’t let in on the fact that it’s 70 degrees outside and heating the weightroom is no longer a necessity. I left an amazing line of crack sweat on the chair in the cafeteria; it sucks when you’re sitting with a girl, you have to simultaneously exit the chair and push it back under the table.

Bear

[/quote]

It would be fine for you to do board presses for ME work. PM me if that doesn’t answer your question or if you want to go in to more detail.

Bear

[Mr_Bear]

DE Squat/DL

Sled dragging

Parallel box

250x2x8

Speed Pulls

off of 2 in plates

285x1x8

45 degree back raise
Roman Chair abs

Bear

[wrestler189]

DE Bench

Speed Bench w/ chains, med grip- First time I’ve used chains, so I did alot of adjusting with them. We bought around 50 lbs of chains from home depot and a couple carabiners. I need to figure a better setup.
135/3, 135/3, 135/3, 145/3 for next 3 sets, 135/3, 185/1, 205/1. The heavier singles at the end felt good and fast.

ME 4 bd press w/ bands- Mini band strung up under the bench. I didn’t like this too much. Next time I’m going to try rack lockouts or something else.
135/5, 185/5, Close grip-205/3, 185/5.

BB Row- 135/5, 145/5 150/5, 155/5, 155/5.

Blast Strap rows- 4x12

DB Bench- Did these with palms facing and regular bench grip. 60/10, 70/9, 65/10, 60/10

Finished with a set of pushdowns and Tate presses.

[bigflamer]

Yesterdays ME Bench

-15 mins on the treadmill followed by stretching.

ME Flat Bench
(I go all the way to the chest since I just today made some 1, 2, & 3 boards for pressing. My max effort lifts in the future will include some board pressing.)

135x10
185x5
205x3
225x2
275x2
295x2
315x1

Bent Over BB Rows
135x8
155x5
175x5
175x3

Close Grip Bench Press
185x5
185x5
185x5

[u]Dips[/u]
3 sets of 5 @ body weight

I then did some abdominal work followed by some Tate presses that weren’t worth mentioning. I had a little hiatus due to my mismanagemrnt of a hectic schedule and I’m paying for it. I did a DE squat session two days previous to this and my legs were REALLY sore.

The good news is that I finally put together my boards for pressing and I have all of the materials to build my squat boxes. I just have to build them. If there’s one thing I am good at it’s procrastination.

I felt really strong yesterday. I don’t know if listening to the new Clutch CD had anything to do with that, but those mofo’s ROCK!

Bigflamer

[bigflamer]

[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
Finally hit 265 (PR) on the deadlift.

Beat the shit out of me though, so my good mornings and RDL were “light” at best.[/quote]

Irish,

Good job on the PR dealift. Hitting a PR always makes me feel good the rest of the day.

[BigMG]

ME Bench

warmed up for about 15 mins various shoulder movements and so on.

Floor Press (worked up to a 1rm, close grip)- 45x10, 95x10, 135x5, 185x5, 225x3, 255x3, 275x3, 295x3, 315x1, 335x1, 365x1, 385x1 new pr, 315x3x2.

decline tri kickbacks- 40lb dbx12x5

reverse close grip pulldowns- 100lbsx12x5

seated db cleans- 20lb dbx10x5

Overall a great day and my pr felt very strong. So far this cycle has been going very well. I’ve been hittin pr’s every week and hopefully it will not stop!!

[bigflamer]

A couple of questions for anyone who cares to answer.

1) Does working ME on the deadlift on my DE squt day sound right? I would of course switch it up on ME squat day with DE deads. I pull sumostyle and it felt allright when I tried it a couple times previous.

2) With max effort lifts as follows:

Squat: 400lbs
Bench: 315lbs
Deadlift: 400lbs

Would it be too soon to start using gear? I will eventuially compete and I intend to use gear, however I’m still new to the PL game. Should I just concentrate on getting stronger raw? I realize that’s not very strong for a guy who weighs 270lbs, that’s why I’m wondering if I should keep working on getting strong on my raw lifts first.

[lifter_2]

[quote]bigflamer wrote:
A couple of questions for anyone who cares to answer.

1) Does working ME on the deadlift on my DE squt day sound right? I would of course switch it up on ME squat day with DE deads. I pull sumostyle and it felt allright when I tried it a couple times previous.

2) With max effort lifts as follows:

Squat: 400lbs
Bench: 315lbs
Deadlift: 400lbs

Would it be too soon to start using gear? I will eventuially compete and I intend to use gear, however I’m still new to the PL game. Should I just concentrate on getting stronger raw? I realize that’s not very strong for a guy who weighs 270lbs, that’s why I’m wondering if I should keep working on getting strong on my raw lifts first.
[/quote]

Not sure what you mean exactly by the first Q.

1. Do you mean doing a DE deadlift, followed by a ME squat on the same day?

2. Or do you mean doing a deadlift on DE day, and a squat on ME day?

For #1, you’d probably be too tired after DE work to work up to a max effort on a secondary exercise, particularly with squats and deads. This doesn’t mean that it can’t be done, it just may be something that you’ll have to find out for yourself.

For #2, I wouldn’t see a problem to that setup, as you would be maintaining your speed on deadlifts, and working on your strength for squats. For the next training cycle, I’m assuming that the exercises would change (DE squat, ME deadlift).

This would be a good way to go about it, as the idea behind the conjugate method is to emphasize certain abilities in a training cycle, while maintaining others. You may want to record your progress on continued ME deadlift training, as not everyone can handle it and make continued gains. Some ME waves for the guys at WSB go:

week 1: squat
week 2: deadlift
week 3: squat

As for equipment questions, I wouldn’t know (however, i’m guessing that it’s not too early to start using equipment, as long as your technique is good).

Hopefully some others can post their thoughts as well.

[devilBASTARDdog]

[quote]bigflamer wrote:
A couple of questions for anyone who cares to answer.

1) Does working ME on the deadlift on my DE squt day sound right? I would of course switch it up on ME squat day with DE deads. I pull sumostyle and it felt allright when I tried it a couple times previous.

2) With max effort lifts as follows:

Squat: 400lbs
Bench: 315lbs
Deadlift: 400lbs

Would it be too soon to start using gear? I will eventuially compete and I intend to use gear, however I’m still new to the PL game. Should I just concentrate on getting stronger raw? I realize that’s not very strong for a guy who weighs 270lbs, that’s why I’m wondering if I should keep working on getting strong on my raw lifts first.
[/quote]

On your first question:

I last week I experimented with doing a DE Dead and 5x5 squat (around 75% 1RM) on the same day and I liked it a lot. Tomorrow I’m gonna switch it and go DE Box Squat and 5x5 Dead. I stil have a max effort day where I work a Lower body movement to a 1RM or an attempt. Hope that helps.

DD

[devilBASTARDdog]

ME Upper (20060419)

ME Close Grip BP (Pinkys inside rings): 45x10, 95x10, 135x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x5, 245x3, 265x1, 285x1 PR!, 265x2

DB Press: 100x6 (Just for the hell of it)

Skull Crushers: 95x5, 95x5, 95x5, 95x5, 95x4

Dips: 45x10, 45x9+1

V-Pressdowns: 75x10, 75x4 + 55x6

BB Rows 5x5: 195#
BB Rows: 135x15

Face Pulls 3x15: 35#

Curls

I realize that was a lot of volume, but it just felt right and I’m trying to put on some size.

DD

[gags]

[quote]bigflamer wrote:
A couple of questions for anyone who cares to answer.

1) Does working ME on the deadlift on my DE squt day sound right? I would of course switch it up on ME squat day with DE deads. I pull sumostyle and it felt allright when I tried it a couple times previous.

2) With max effort lifts as follows:

Squat: 400lbs
Bench: 315lbs
Deadlift: 400lbs

Would it be too soon to start using gear? I will eventuially compete and I intend to use gear, however I’m still new to the PL game. Should I just concentrate on getting stronger raw? I realize that’s not very strong for a guy who weighs 270lbs, that’s why I’m wondering if I should keep working on getting strong on my raw lifts first.
[/quote]

1. yes, sorta, read james smith stuff on elitefts, he goes over this in one of his articles
   2.never used gear, but from what i understand using gear will help your raw lifts by acclimating you to the heavier weights, even with gear you still have to try, as far as i understand it.

[gags]

today’s w/o with devildork

a bunch of sled sprints, forwards and back with 154lbs sled, a bunch of sand bag walks with 160lb sandbag, arm over arm pulls with sled(154) and some other crap. pretty fun.

[wrestler189]

ME DL

ME Rack pull- bar at knees.
225/8, 275/5, 315/5, 345/5, 365/3, 385/1, 405/1, 425/1. I got 425 allright and felt like trying 445, but the bar didn’t budge. Too heavy.

Concentric GMs- 135/10, 175/5, 165/6, 160/8. I’ve done these for 4 weeks but I feel that I don’t need to change them yet.

Pull Thrus- 60/15, 70/15, 70/12, 65/15.

Side Bends- 60/20, 60/20
Med ball leg raise- 11/20
Weighted situp- 25/20, 25/20

Tried some reverse hypers, got to 10 but my back was dead, so I stopped.
Finished with curls.
Yesterdays DE bench felt like a bad workout, but today I was in the zone and felt great.

[bigflamer]

Thanks for the responses from everyone.

lifter, I was pretty damn spent after todays DE squat and when I considered moving into some ME deadlifts, I knew it was not gonna work.

[quote]lifter wrote:
2. Or do you mean doing a deadlift on DE day, and a squat on ME day?

For #1, you’d probably be too tired after DE work to work up to a max effort on a secondary exercise, particularly with squats and deads. This doesn’t mean that it can’t be done, it just may be something that you’ll have to find out for yourself.

For #2, I wouldn’t see a problem to that setup, as you would be maintaining your speed on deadlifts, and working on your strength for squats. For the next training cycle, I’m assuming that the exercises would change (DE squat, ME deadlift). [/quote]

I like what you proposed in #2. This or possibly what Devildog proposed in the 5x5 squat along with deadlift. I’m gonna try both and see what works best for me.

I’m also gonna save my pennies for a squat suit and also a bench shirt and start working with them. I’m also gonna contact the meet director for an upcoming meet and see if I can work as a spotter in the meet. This might give me an idea on how a meet works before I dive in.

Thanks alot guys, I really appreciate it!

Bigflamer

[bigflamer]

Todays DE Squat Session

*Warmed up with 20 mins on the treadmill followed by a bunch stretching

[u]DE Squat[/u]
-135x10
-165x5
-185x5
-225x3
-Eight sets of 255x3

[u]Plate Pulls w/45lb plate[/u]
-Ten reps w/each leg

[u]Good Mornings[/u]
-95x5
-115x5
-135x3

[u]SLDL[/u]
-135x8
-155x5
-185x3

[Matt_McG]

[quote]bigflamer wrote:
Todays DE Squat Session

*Warmed up with 20 mins on the treadmill followed by a bunch stretching

[u]DE Squat[/u]
-135x10
-165x5
-185x5
-225x3
-Eight sets of 255x3

[u]Plate Pulls w/45lb plate[/u]
-Ten reps w/each leg

[u]Good Mornings[/u]
-95x5
-115x5
-135x3

[u]SLDL[/u]
-135x8
-155x5
-185x3

[/quote]

Hey, what percentage of your max was the squats done with? They seem quite high to be in the 50-60% range in comparisn to your good mornings and SLDLs. I’m just curious.

-MAtt