I used to be (and partially still) a westside advocate. Now, I’m currently doing Bill Starr’s Heavy Light Medium program with these exercises (in order according to priority):
Either one of the oly lifts (Or any direct variation/s that makes you go to a full front/overhead squat position at the part where you duck under. I may even pause at the bottom… and maybe put some chains.)
A type of squat (from zercher to back)
A posterior chain dominant movement
A heavy pressing movement
Rows/chins/pull ups (or any other direct variations of the lifts)
After these 5 exercises, I’d do some isolations and/or ab and oblique exercises.
OK, I’m reluctant to post, because I’m so new to this, but I’m just answering in regard to my own strength gain effort.
For progression I have been told that your body adapts to reps faster than it adapts to movements.
So I use the same weight until I can do 8 for at least 2-3 sets. When I reach that point I increase to a weight I can do no more than 3ish reps total, then repeat the process. That was making my own schedule.
However, recently I switched from an EOD split (heavy lifts 6 days a week) to the War Room program and I really have benefited from the time off. So I guess I could most recently say that more time off has made me stronger.
I have questions about progression which I feel is going slower than should though.
My program is 3 heavy/moderate full body days Monday-Wednesday-Friday and 3 light full body days (greasing the groove/active recovery) Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday.
I have very few exercises in my program… here they are:
OL Squats
Front squats
Deadlifts
Bench press
Squat cleans (from the floor)
Squat Snatch (from the floor)
Clean pulls
Push Press
Standing press
Bent barbell rows
Pull-ups/Chins
Glute-Ham Raise
Various abdominal exercises
I do five exercises on each of the three heavy/moderate days:
squat variant
press variant
pull from the ground variant
Upper body pull variant
Core exercise
I change the intensity, volume and rep/set scheme throughout the week and every few weeks.
On “greasing the groove” days (Tu-Thur-Sat), I perform the following exercises:
The OL lifts are technique only and the loading is minimal. The Squat, Bench, DL and chins are all done between 60-80% of my 1 RM.
On Tue & Sat, I also add a KB circuit and on Saturdays I add neck, grip, calf and rotator work and sometimes go for a run or do some intervals.
Every day of the week 2x per day (upon waking up in the morning and in the evening) I go hiking with my dogs for about an hour (2 hours total per day).
I also throw in some BJJ/Sub-grappling a few days per week.
Right now I do a light OL program as Rx’d by my coach, similar to above but no real weight. In addition I am on my 2nd cycle of GVT 10x10 [after my rehab and conditioning] going for 4 days with the lifts:
Row
DB overhead press
Bulgarian split squats
Snatch grip DL
the lower days are pure terrorism. the split squats are like doing 2 lifts at 10x10. The worst was last week when i selected a slightly too light weight and ended up actually pushing out 10 full sets of 10. Getting appropriately stalled out on heavier weights this week was relieving.
I do exercises (2 wu sets) 3x5 (1 down set) 5 exercises a session, 5-6 sessions a week and push the weight up for 3 weeks and then take a deload of 85% load.