Okay, looks like it’s time for another Westside thread. As always, this is the place to go to for Westside training info on this board. The key word is “simmonstate”.
Have at it!
For the last two weeks I’ve been forced to cram my two DE days into one workout doing both DE box squats and DE bench and then the supp work plus prehab stuff for both upper and lower body. The workouts are a little longer, but with supersets on the supp work it’s not so bad. I realize this isn’t optimal, but I can’t seem to find a way around it some weeks when other things get in the way of my gym time.
It seems better so far to do this than to have to skip one workout completely, but does anyone have any ideas about the volume of supplemental work? Should I increase it on the ME days in order to cut down on the DE day, or should I just have a longer workout on my DE day? I hate it when this happens, but I know it’s going to happen again soon… stupid job!
So far on these weeks, I’m sticking with Mon, Wed, Fri with Friday being the mixed DE day.
I’m ready to be abused and flamed now, so go for it Goldielocks.
why would i flame you if you had the right idea and it has been working for you? You cant argue with success. John Bott just answered a similar question as this on the elite q and a. check for the name of the person asking as Jay Floyd. I wonder who that might be.
dave tate suggests for those who train 3 times a week in the 8 keys article to go:
monday ME squat
wednesday ME bench
friday DE squat
monday DE bench
wednesday ME squat
…
and continue on.
I WOULD LISTEN TO DAVE
(he’s one strong mutha)
Goldberg, thanks. I’ll have to go check that out. I haven’t read much from those forums like I should due to some problems viewing the site from my home PC. No idea why, but the site just doesn’t work at home since I got WinXP installed.
Glute, thanks… I needed that little push to think “outside the box” I hadn’t even considered that before because it seemed to be too long between sessions. Sounds like a good plan, though.
Not sure if anyone does this… just thought I’d throw it out there -
I’ve been training abdominal strength on bench days right after warmups and before DE/ME work. Weighted crunches, pulldown abs, heavy rotation shit… etc.
Then after squat days, I work on trunk stability like from CT’s newest ab training article… ab wheel supersetted with static holds/planks…
When I was training heavy abs after squat days… my back always felt like shit and it was affecting my workout… this is working much better.
I spoke to Simmons at the worlds and we discussed my squat, he came to the conclusion that i have plenty of speed/strength but not enough strength speed and he told me i needed to increase my resistance to slow me down and increas my time under tension. I read his Circa-Maximal phase article and am implementing a modified version of that to prepare for nationals in November. Have any of you used the circa maximal phase and how has it worked for you?
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Goldberg, he called you Goldielocks. Hahaha.
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I’m gonna go around posting the word “simmonstate” on a buncha other threads just to screw over char-dawg.
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I’m wondering if theres some way to incorporate the Olympic lifts into a Westside routine. For example, as of right now, my training goals are sport-specific. I may decide to compete in PL someday but right now I’m focusing on other sports. Currently, I’m implementing Westside to help me in the 100m in track. Also, I’m using it to help increase my GPP for speedskating. Heres my question. Since the speedskating season comes before the T&F season, I could probably “deprioritize” the ME and DE Bench days since very little upper body strength is needed in speedskating.
As I stated earlier, I’d like to incorporate the Olympic lifts into a Westside program. So I was wondering what you guys would think of something such as doing a 5-week cycle of say cleans or snatches (hehe, snatches) with a set-rep scheme of something like 10x3 on what would normally be the DE Bench day and a set-rep scheme of say 5x5 on what would normally be the ME Bench day.
Now, I’d probably implement something like a light bench workout on GPP days something like 3x20 just to make sure I don’t lose my bench form (which probably won’t happen, but I’m just trying to throw out ideas here).
My bench numbers probably wouldn’t decrease that much as I’d still be doing the same ancillary work as I normally would on a Bench day. Except the main exercise would be a clean or snatch.
Please don’t flame me too hard as absolutely none of this is cast in stone and as I said earlier, I’m just throwing ideas out there to help people see what I’m wanting to do.
I was on a Greyhound bus for 14 hours yesterday, I couldn’t just sit there and turn my brain off completely, this is just what I came up with.
chrismcl…
i used a hybrid OL/westside program that was pretty successful for improving my throwing when i was on the highland games circuit. i posted it on the origional westside questions thread. i developed it by taking suggestions from louie and dave themselves and experimenting for 2 years, and i think it (at least for me) was pretty damn effective.
chriss, CT allready described a plan for incorporating O-lifts on westside DE days.
I just did the first week of it, and its very nice. you would gain strength and speed, including on your westside lifts. the o-lifts are used only as power output generators.
Note:I think you need to be somewhat proficient at the o-lifts for that though, because they are only performed once a week, and for a skill lift thats not alot. you can add some light o-lifts in other days to fasciliate the technique.
here it is
Just started Westside training yesterday. Originally had planned to start in Sept, but reading all these Westside threads got me pumped to start asap.
I’ve read through both Westside threads at least twice, and read through a lot of stuff on EliteFts. Dave Tate’s 9-week beginner routine (from EliteFTS & 8 keys) was briefly mentioned a few times on the Westside threads. Someone mentioned that you should stick with the 9-week intro program as laid out, because everything was in there for a reason. Someone else said that maybe you should mix up 2,3,4,5 board presses into the routine during the max-effort board press stage (to get accustomed to the various board depths). Another person said that you should stick with 3-rep maxes in the beginning (for GM’s), until you get more used to the lift (from 8 keys).
What is your recommendation for a beginner routine? Stick with the 9-week program as laid out, or make some modifications? Maybe even switch up the max-effort exercise more often (instead of every 3 weeks)? Goldberg mentioned not just doing one type of GM for 3 weeks at a time, but switching around.
By the way, I am maybe an intermediate level lifter (9 years experience). Bench (300), Squat (365), Deadlift (455). Numbers are not impressive, but considering where I started from (6 ft, 135 lbs ‘skinny bastard’ who could only bench 155) – I think it’s decent (currently 205 lbs @ 12%, and still 6 ft). Anyways, those numbers will be going up.
Sorry this post is so long, but I thought it might also help others who are considering Westside training or just starting out.
I switched to Westside during my last year of college football and during that time incorporated olympic lifts into my program. What i did was do light cleans or snatches for several five sets of two before my dynamic squats. It worked well as a warmup and it of course worked on bar speed. On max effort lower body day i would first do a max in an olympic lift or variation, such as high pulls with varying grips for triples, snatches from the hang or floor, clean from hang or floor as well as the clean and jerk. Afterwards i would do my max effort squat,dead or good morning variation. It got my hang clean up to 365lbs. Keep in mind that the westside techniques were origionally taken from soviet olympic lifters so the concepts are similar, but i will say this, i went three months without cleaning and just from dynamic squats i had no drop off in clean when i returned to doing them.
Oh Shit, You all in for it now. I started Westside this week and I’m going to be pestering the crap out of all you. I’m still going to be reaching for that 10%BF goal but I just want to get in on some of this Big Iron fun!
I’m thinking of putting a journal up in the DP so you guys can critique my lifting plan as I get my feet wet.
You young’uns had better watch out, I’m looking to get hella lot stronger and come after your big lifts!
One day our baseball team was maxing on power cleans. I had just gotten done with dynamic squats and four sets of 6 reps with 375 on romanian deadlifts. After all that i decided to see if i could power clean 275. the best they could do was 225. I did it easy. My power clean pr is 335. So thats pretty good considering i havent done cleans in two years and i was already thirty minutes into my session. The baseball pussies were quite pissed.
Qtip-those are good numbers to start out with. My numbers when i started westside. 365 box squat. <315 bench. 495 Deadlift. One year later with a couple of months missing in there because of injuries from cheerleading. 600 box squat. 363 bench. 584 deadlift. I would say you are in very good shape starting out.
i agree with goldie, that is an impressive foundation, my best clean was 330 as well. hey goldie, what bodyweight were you when you cleaned 330?
No one responded before so i will ask again, has anyone tried the Circa-maximal phase on dynamic day to increase their strength speed and if so how did it work for you?
Char-dawg – In your original post you mentioned that you would be giving Westside a try for a couple of months. I would be interested to hear about your results and insights.
These threads were my intro to powerlifting, so thanks to all!
OGuard. Circa max is for some serious lifters. if your not squatting 700-800+, then don’t try it. The band tension and or chain is extrememly heavy, and can extremely dangerous if your not up to par.
OGuard, err … didn’t finish my post.
but if you squat 700+, I don’t think it would be a big problem. you might want to try it out, but the people who have lifts in the 700-800+ levels … they seem to swear by the cycles.