Well, with everyone making modifications to their training, I might as well also. I have made good progress on my deadlift using the conjugate system and will see on Monday how much my squat has gone up. My bench needs a little more work (only up 10lbs), but I think weaknesses in my back might have something to do with it - I lose my tightness and arch at the bottom.
Here is the plan:
Monday: ME Lower
· Box Squat/Free Squat/Deadlift/Rack Pull
· 3-5x5 Good Mornings/Olympic Squat
· 2x20 RDL
· 4 Sets Abs
Tuesday: DE Bench
· 8x3 Bench Press (Normal or Close Grip) -> Heavy Triple
· 4x8-10 DB Press/Skull Crushers
· 5-6x5 Rows (CS or T-bar)
· 4x10 OH Press/Shrugs
Thursday: DE Squat
· 12x2 Box Squat (bands/no bands) -> Heavy Single/Double
· 6-8x1 Deadlifts
· 3 Sets Pull-ups
· 4 Sets Weighted Hypers
· 4 Sets Abs
Saturday: ME Bench
· Floor Press/Bench Press/3 Board/Incline
· 5x5 Decline Close Grips/Pin Press
· 5x10 Rows (BB or CS)
· 4x10 Rear Delts
· 2 Sets Barbell Curls
· 2 Sets Low Back/Abs
The ME exercises will be rotated on a weekly basis, and supplemental/dynamic exercises will be rotated every 3rd or 4th week depending on how my body responds. I may be rotating the GM/Squat a bit more often, b/c I feel that my quads are wasting away with all of the box squatting that I have been doing (and also to get a feel for free squatting more often).
6 comments:
Kyle. Simplicity. You needs it
I actually like it. It should give some modest improvements at least. Nothing wrong with rotating exercises although it's a lot of record keeping for my taste these days. You should see my old Westside logs. My training looked a lot like this and it helped my squat, my deadlift a little bit (it improved but was actually never more than my squat, much like today). Bench on the other hand pretty much didn't improve.
I recommend more pressing. The way to do that, in my opinion, would be to go 5 x 3 on DE day up to you heavy triple AT LEAST. If you're going for 205, let's say, I'd do 190/3, 195/3, 200/3, 205/3 x 2 or something. You could do 2 sets on every one of these and still probably be fine. Tate presses are just tricep extensions so I wouldn't rely on them too much. On your ME days make sure you get at least 3 reps over 90%. I feel like that did actually help.
Add more squatting on your DE day too.
Oh, and how's the weight gain coming?
Ok, thanks for the recommendations. I may move the DB presses to my DE day. And increase the box squats from 10x2 back to 12x2. On my ME days I try to get in at least 3 heavy singles, but sometimes I judge it wrong (like the GM's I did on Monday).
And weight gain is going well. I am ~215 right now. Dining hall food helps a lot even if it does taste like crap.
Careful with increasing sets on your DE lifts depending on how you use bands. Dave does well with his band work and it's never that high volume. Bands can add a lot of intensity since they are resistance themselves. I was thinking more with straight weight.
On an ME day Dave will often go ME lift then a variation of the main lift for sets of 3-5. It's a little hard to look through his training log because it's a little more disjointed (sometimes you get things like ME deadlift and block pulls for sets of 5 on different days) but the principle is the same: he does his ME work but also doesn't neglect heavy sets in the 3-5 rep range.
I think the most neglected thing in a Westside style program is the 70-85% volume that never gets done (the 5x5, 5x3, 3x3 stuff which build solid muscle and strength). I'm sure it's why I didn't do so well on it.
@Jake: sorry :'( my training logs really are disjointed, despite the best of my intentions. You're right about the intensity, though. I do like following ME work with 3-5 reps work for the reasons you state.
@Kyle: do your thang; swing your chain. but make sure to free squat before a meet. QED™.
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