When I read about WS4SB, all the ME exercises should be performed by “working up to a max set of 3-5 reps”.
To be honest, I don’t fully understand what Joe DeFranco means by this.
Should you warm up and slowly put on more and more weight until you reach your max-weight for 3-5 reps? That might take 3-4 warm-up sets and just 1 real heavy set? Right?
Yes, just one max set. However, I find that I don’t make much gains doing that technique. Maybe it’s because the volume of the max set is too low (5 reps only). Instead, I do as many near max sets as I can where I complete 5 reps.
Okay.
Another question, what do you think of doing plyos for dynamic-effort lower body exercise instead of box-squats?
More beneficial?
Do you mean box jumps? Coz if you do, box jumps are plyos as well, plus you can do lots of them unlike depth jumps because they’re not hard on the joints.
If you did mean box squats, WS4SB doesn’t recommend them for DE day. Do box jumps.
I know, but why don’t they recommend doing box-squats with light weight, bands etc.?
It is some kind of westside template, why have they changed from dynamic box-squats to plyo exercises?
Joe reccomends the plyos(box jumps, etc) because WS4SB is designed for athletes, as opposed to a strict Westside powerlifter.
I also like to mix it up by doing Oly lifts occasionally on DE day.
Jumping has a better carryover into sport force development than squatting with bands and chains.
Plyos are fine for dyanmic effort, but make sure they’ll benefit you so as not to waste your time. If you’re not squatting around 2x bodyweight, you’d probably make faster progress just getting stronger. I wasted some time with stuff like this when I needed to just squat more.
[quote]rmccart1 wrote:
Plyos are fine for dyanmic effort, but make sure they’ll benefit you so as not to waste your time. If you’re not squatting around 2x bodyweight, you’d probably make faster progress just getting stronger. I wasted some time with stuff like this when I needed to just squat more.[/quote]
I’ve always set it up with two lower body days. One with the main lift beign a squat variation, and the other a deadlift. I also added calves. If you want to be a powerlifter or just want to be strong, and don’t play a sport that is how I would suggest doing it.
[quote]boatguy wrote:
I also like to mix it up by doing Oly lifts occasionally on DE day.[/quote]
Yes, oly lifts are cool for DE day. I actually do them all the time.
[quote]Control_61 wrote:
When I read about WS4SB, all the ME exercises should be performed by “working up to a max set of 3-5 reps”.
To be honest, I don’t fully understand what Joe DeFranco means by this.
Should you warm up and slowly put on more and more weight until you reach your max-weight for 3-5 reps? That might take 3-4 warm-up sets and just 1 real heavy set? Right?[/quote]
No, it means do some warm up sets, then do many sets working your way up to a max.
Lets’ say your max is 100. Well, warm up with say 20 for 10 reps. Then do say, 30 for 10. Then 45 for 8. Then 55, etc… so maybe :
65 x8
75 x8
80 x7
85 x7
90 x5
93 x5
95 x4
97 x4
99 x4
99 x3
99 x3
Something like that. Note these figures are NOT accurate particularly I am trying to illustrate that you work up to the max effort at the end in small steps, you get enough volume along the way.
Note it is the MAX EFFORT for THAT DAY. It is not necessarily your personal best, ever. You just have to strain for that day for say, 3 sets at greater than 90% of your ability for that day.
Obviously a personal record is ideal but hey, maybe you will get that next week. The key is to get enough volume, not jump through from warmp up to the max, and to get 3 sets or so at high intensity.
Note also that you don’t get exhausted in the early sets. The weight isn’t enough to get you exhausted just enough to really get some good workout on the way to the max.
Instead of starting a new thread, I will just make another post here!
I’ve been following a variation of a westside template, and the only true difference between it and WS4SB is the upper body reptition day VS. the upper body dynamic effort day.
I’ve been using the upper body dynamic effort day as a “recovery” day in the meaning that it isn’t CNS intensive compared to the other 3 sessions.
Is the repetition day in WS4SB CNS intensive or how would you describe it?
Thanks.
It’s intensive for some, not for others. It depends on a lot of things: work capacity, experience etc. Play around with it and see how you recover. If you’re feeling good, stick with it. If not, then reconsider. And remember to try and leave one in the tank instead of going to concentric failure, at least until the last set. That should help with the intensiveness.
how do you guys feel about doing your max effort sets like this.
i change exercises every 2 weeks. so the first week i do like this example
bar x 20
40 x 15
60 x 10
80 x 5
90 x 3
100 x as many as possible
and then the next week i would do like this
bar x 20
40 x 10
60 x 5
80 x 3
90 x 1
100 x same as last week
101 x same as last week
102 x same as last week
…
until i cant do the same reps as last week. this have given 2-3 cycles for the last 2 cycles.
could i do this smarter or what ?
I will post another question here! 
Does anyone here have some tips about how to rotate the upper body max effort exercise?
The exercises I can perform:
Should I stay with the same exercise for perhaps 3 weeks? And then rotate? Anyone has any tips about how to rotate?
I’m getting good results with 2 weeks full range, 2 weeks partial range. I only use 4 exercises. I think using too many is a bad idea since the gap between returning to them is too long.
My set up is two weeks on the following, triple in week 1, single in week 2:
Close Grip Bench
Floor Press
Bench against doubled minibands
2 Board Press
what i do is a week scheme…
week 1 = 5 reps max
week 2 = 3 reps max
week 3 = 1 rep max
and then rotate the exercice…
exercice…
-flat bench,incline,decline,Floor press
Im curious to see if people use db for max effort sometimes!!
[quote]Control_61 wrote:
When I read about WS4SB, all the ME exercises should be performed by “working up to a max set of 3-5 reps”.
To be honest, I don’t fully understand what Joe DeFranco means by this.
Should you warm up and slowly put on more and more weight until you reach your max-weight for 3-5 reps? That might take 3-4 warm-up sets and just 1 real heavy set? Right?[/quote]
I do also train the WS4SB schema.
I try to explain it with an example.
You can perform 3-5 reps with 100 max. In this set you reach muscle failure within the 3-5 rep.
So warm up and to gain a certain volume you start with, for example, 70.
70 x 5 reps
80 x 5 reps
85 x 3 reps
90 x 3 reps
95 x 3 reps
97,5 x 3 reps
100 x 3-5 reps
I do it this way. I try to get 5 reps in the last max set. If i can afford it, i increase the weight in the session and do another set with a higher max weight (only when i feel strong enough to get at least 3 reps in the next set)
If i can`t afford 5 reps with the weight, i try it the next training. So you can increase your max weight in the 3-5 rep schema. You also have to adjust the warm up sets, but you can choose it for you in which pattern you do the warm up, higher or lower weight jumps.
Hope that it get a little bit clearer
[quote]Control_61 wrote:
Instead of starting a new thread, I will just make another post here!
I’ve been following a variation of a westside template, and the only true difference between it and WS4SB is the upper body reptition day VS. the upper body dynamic effort day.
I’ve been using the upper body dynamic effort day as a “recovery” day in the meaning that it isn’t CNS intensive compared to the other 3 sessions.
Is the repetition day in WS4SB CNS intensive or how would you describe it?
Thanks.[/quote]
Normally there is always a little intensity for the CNS also in the repetition day, but not in the way like in the Max-Effort Day. It is relatively low.