A few days ago I was reading an article written by Jim Wendler on rep work, which he recommands cycling through DE bench for 3wks and then RE work for 3 wks to maintain bench speed.
Now this has got me thinking. If one trains in a sport which hands speed is important, should he cycle through some upper body DE work in WS4SB? By Upper body DE work, it needs not to be DE bench with bands and/or chains, I also mean plyo push-ups, med ball throws etc.
I’m jsut wondering if its more ideal to do RE exersises that aren’t directly related to the ME exersises:
Ie say the ME is flat bench. Would it be better to do a pulling RE exersise such as pullups on RE day as opposed to db presses or does it not really matter?
[/quote]
You do BOTH…
After ME bench, you do some BENCH SUPPLEMENTAL…
then…
then some lat/delt/trap work.
it’s already all written down, provided free of charge.
From WS4SB3, page 7, workout template Max-Effort Upper Body
A. Max-Effort Exercise �?? work up to a max set of
3-5 reps in one of the following exercises:
Thick bar or regular barbell bench press »
Barbell floor press »
Rack lockouts / » Suspended chain lockouts
Incline barbell bench press (regular grip or close grip) »
Close-grip bench press (index finger on smooth part of »
bar)
Weighted chin-ups »
Board presses or foam presses »
Chain bench press (*recommended for not-so-skinny »
bastards)
Band bench press (*recommended for not-so-skinny »
bastards)
Reverse band bench pres » s (*recommended for not-soskinny
bastards)
B. Supplemental Exercise �?? perform 2 sets of max
reps in one of the following exercises. (Choose a weight
you can perform for 15-20 reps on the 1st set. Use the same
weight for both sets and rest 3-4 minutes between sets).
» Flat DB bench press (palms in or out)
Incline DB bench press (palms in or out) »
DB floor press (palms in) »
Barbell push-ups (wearing weighted vest) »
Blast strap push-ups (wearing weighted vest) »
» �??Criss-cross�?? chain push-ups
» �??Triceps death�??
Chin-ups (don�??t perform these if you chose to do »
weighted chin-ups for your first exercise)
C. Horizontal pulling / Rear delt superset - Superset
one exercise from �??Group 1�?? with one exercise from �??Group
2.�??
Perform 3-4 supersets of 8-12 reps of each exercise.
Group 1
DB rows »
Barbell rows »
Seated cable rows (various bars) »
T-bar rows »
Chest supported rows »
Group 2
Rear delt flyes »
Scarecrows »
Face pulls »
Seated DB �??power cleans�?? »
Band pull-aparts »
D. Traps �?? Perform 3 �?? 4 sets of 8-15 reps of one of the
following exercises:
DB shrugs »
Barbell shrugs »
Safety squat bar shrugs »
Behind the back barbell shrugs »
E. Elbow flexor exercise - Perform 3-4 sets of 8-15
reps of one of the following exercises:
Barbell curls (regular or thick bar) »
DB curls (standing) »
Seated Incline DB curls »
Hammer curls »
Zottmann curls »
Iso-hold DB curls
So I’m entering my sixth week doing WSFSB, and all I keep thinking is, “what the fuck was I doing before this?” I’m more or less new to maximal work (usually never went heavier than 5x5), and I’m wondering if you’d all think I was crazy for adding in an extra ME leg exercise (without the assistance exercises).
Just as an example, I did Oly back squats on Wednesday, hit 190 for 4 reps, couldn’t have done any more. Today (Sunday) I was itching to squat, so I worked up to a single at 225, then did a triple at 205. Obviously my squat is exploding, and I see no reason to wait an entire week between sessions. I’m eating a crapload, I just started mega-dosing BCAAs and I also picked up some Power Drive.
Maybe I’ll do singles one day and shoot for around 5 reps the other. I figure if I start to stall, I’ll take a break then move back to deadlifts. A couple weeks ago I did a single at 345 (sumo), it’ll be interesting to see if that’s improved.
Oh, by the way, that squat video in the first post is one of the hottest things I’ve ever seen. =O
[quote]wfifer wrote:
So I’m entering my sixth week doing WSFSB, and all I keep thinking is, “what the fuck was I doing before this?” I’m more or less new to maximal work (usually never went heavier than 5x5), and I’m wondering if you’d all think I was crazy for adding in an extra ME leg exercise (without the assistance exercises).
Just as an example, I did Oly back squats on Wednesday, hit 190 for 4 reps, couldn’t have done any more. Today (Sunday) I was itching to squat, so I worked up to a single at 225, then did a triple at 205. Obviously my squat is exploding, and I see no reason to wait an entire week between sessions. I’m eating a crapload, I just started mega-dosing BCAAs and I also picked up some Power Drive.
Maybe I’ll do singles one day and shoot for around 5 reps the other. I figure if I start to stall, I’ll take a break then move back to deadlifts. A couple weeks ago I did a single at 345 (sumo), it’ll be interesting to see if that’s improved.
Oh, by the way, that squat video in the first post is one of the hottest things I’ve ever seen. =O[/quote]
If you think you can handle it and you improve, I can’t really see the problem. If you start to stall, revert to what you were previously doing to get the good results.
In the off season, I was squating 2x per week. Only once was working up to a max. The 2nd session was more high reps.
I just wanna say that I fucking hate barbell bench press. I would almost swear that my DB press is better at the moment. I’m doing 3x8 with 80’s as my assistance, and I seriously doubt I could hit 160 for 8 with a barbell.
Could it be because I bench more with my shoulders when I use a barbell? It’s not the ROM, I get a full stretch on every rep with the DBs.
Anyway, I did manage to hit 160 for a single yesterday on the incline bench. I’m about to go squat, I’m really psyched. I’m shooting for 210x3. I hit 205x3 on Sunday but I wasn’t happy with the depth on the last rep, to be perfectly honest.
Aight, time to deload, maybe. It might just be because I squatted too much today, but I felt burned out by the end. We’ll see. I feel like I may be overloading my spine, I might switch back to deadlifts.
I did hit 200 for 5 reps. I took a second before that last rep, so I’m thinking I’d max out at around 235, 10 pounds heavier than Sunday. About three hours later I decided I needed to front squat, so I worked up to a single at 195. That’s still a bit on the high side compared to my back squat, but it’s definitely losing ground.
Wow, it’s weird that good mornings aren’t listed in the new version. I’m doing the original program (sort of) and currently using good mornings as the hip extension exercise on ME day. I don’t see any problem with it, as long as you perform it correctly.
I think I’m gonna squat tomorrow again. This’ll be the last time before I switch back to deadlifts. Shooting for 240. That’ll be up 15 from a week ago, which seems kinda stupid, so I’m not sure how it’ll go.
All right, I hit 235 for one then 215 for three. That’ll wrap up my squatting experiment for now. I put 35-40 pounds on my squat in 3 weeks, so I’d call it a success. I can’t say that I gained any faster than I would have, but I managed to progress while satisfying my need to squat often.
[quote]Reef wrote:
When do you increase the weight on the upper body RE movement? [/quote]
Reef,
The cheeky answer would be “it depends” - it you train for a sport that long duration upper body muscular endurance is needed, then you would take it to higher reps than other people.
If your goal is hypertrophy then I would recommend increasing resistance when the 3 sets combined total reps hits 60.
I’ve been doing three weeks, and I think I’m just going to switch back and forth between the two routines I’ve done so far. This way I’ll always have a point of reference from at most three weeks ago.
I had been lifting for about two years when I started and had lost some mass over the summer, but that all came back and then some with this program. I’ve put on about 10 lbs of new mass over the last six weeks. I was 6’ 195 lbs, now up to 215. If you’re new to maximal strength training (as I am) this is a phenomenal program.
Cool, I got some nice carry over from squat to deadlift, about 20 lbs. My reverse lunges jumped up as well. I also did pull-throughs, damn those things torched my erectors! I’m gonna be crying tomorrow.
Ooh, almost forgot, anyone ever try splitting up their sessions? I usually lift before and after work (I work at a gym), with my max effort before and the assistance work after.
[quote]JoeG254 wrote:
Are you guys switching up your supplemental excercises as often as your main lifts?[/quote]
Yep. Loui says that after 3 weeks of doing an exercise above 90% of your max you need to switch. I imagine there’s a similar relationship for the supplemental exercises done with weights below 90% of your max, especially if you’re going balls out on your supplemental lifts.
That and I care about hitting rep PRs on Barbell Rows about as much as I care about my ME numbers (a lot) so I switch exercises in order to bring all of them up.