Critic my Westside Routine

[Anthony]

I've never really trained as a powerlifter or used westside, but I want to try it. Here's a routine I came up with after reading many articles and bouncing some questions off PowerManDL. Let me know what you think.

The cycle is based on using an exercise for 2 weeks and then switching to something that is more taxing (ie, good mornings-->squats-->box squats-->etc). Every 4th week I will use a RE day for recovery. At the end of the cycle, I will test my new max for squat/bench/deadlift.

I may reduce volume in Groups 2-4 if time is a factor (only have 1 hour which includes driving to the gym, changing, etc).

week 1 ME - good mornings / bench
week 2 ME - good mornings / bench
week 3 ME - squats / 4" board press
week 4 RE - full squat / db bench (recovery)
week 5 ME - squats / 4" board press
week 6 ME - box squats / 6" board press
week 7 ME - box squats / 6" board press
week 8 RE - full squat / db bench (recovery)
week 9 ME - deadlifts / 8" board press
week 10 ME - deadlifts / 8" board press
week 11 TEST squat/bench/deadlift
week 12 REST


Monday ME Squat
---------------
warmup sets
20% 1rm x 5 reps
30% 1rm x 5 reps
40% 1rm x 5 reps
50% 1rm x 5 reps

Group 1 - main exercise (2-5 minute rest)
60% 1rm x 3 reps
65% 1rm x 3 reps
70% 1rm x 3 reps
80% 1rm x 1 reps
90% 1rm x 1 reps
95% 1rm x 1 reps
100% 1rm x 1 reps
105% 1rm x 1 reps

Group 2 - supplemental exercise (1 minute rest)
# x 8 reps x 3 sets ghr or sldl

Group 3 - accessory exercise (1 minute rest)
# x 8 reps x 3 sets crunch
# x 8 reps x 3 sets reverse hyper

Group 4 - prehabilitation exercise (1 minute rest)
# x 8 reps of 3 sets pull throughs


Tuesday ME Bench
------------------
warmup sets
20% 1rm x 5 reps
30% 1rm x 5 reps
40% 1rm x 5 reps
50% 1rm x 5 reps

Group 1 - main exercise (2 to 5 minute rest)
60% 1rm x 3 reps
65% 1rm x 3 reps
70% 1rm x 3 reps
80% 1rm x 1 reps
90% 1rm x 1 reps
95% 1rm x 1 reps
100% 1rm x 1 reps
105% 1rm x 1 reps

Group 2 - supplemental exercise (1 minute rest)
# x 8 reps x 3 sets jm press

Group 3 - accessory exercise (1 minute rest)
# x 8 reps x 3 sets db row or seated row or tbar row
# x 8 reps x 3 sets lateral/front db raises

Group 4 - prehabilitation exercise (1 minute rest)
# x 15 reps of 1 set pressdowns


Thursday DE Squat
---------------
warmup sets
20% 1rm x 5 reps
30% 1rm x 5 reps
40% 1rm x 5 reps
50% 1rm x 5 reps

Group 1 - main exercise (1 minute rest)
60% 1rm x 2 reps x 8 sets box squat

Group 2 - supplemental exercise (1 minute rest)
# x 8 reps x 3 sets ghr or sldl

Group 3 - accessory exercise (1 minute rest)
# x 8 reps x 3 sets crunch
# x 8 reps x 3 sets reverse hyper (1 minute rest)

Group 4 - prehabilitation exercise (1 minute rest)
# x 8 reps of 3 sets pull throughs


Friday DE Bench
---------------
warmup sets
20% 1rm x 5 reps
30% 1rm x 5 reps
40% 1rm x 5 reps
50% 1rm x 5 reps

Group 1 - main exercise (1 minute rest)
60% 1rm x 2 reps x 8 sets bench press

Group 2 - supplemental exercise (1 minute rest)
# x 8 reps x 3 sets jm press

Group 3 - accessory exercise (1 minute rest)
# x 8 reps x 3 sets db row or seated row or tbar row
# x 8 reps x 3 sets lateral/front db raises

Group 4 - prehabilitation exercise (1 minute rest)
# x 15 reps of 1 set pressdowns


Monday RE Squat
---------------
warmup sets
20% 1rm x 5 reps
30% 1rm x 5 reps
40% 1rm x 5 reps
50% 1rm x 5 reps

Group 1 - main exercise (1 minute rest)
75% 1rm x 8 reps x 3 sets full squat

Group 2 - supplemental exercise (1 minute rest)
# x 8 reps x 3 sets ghr or sldl


Thursday RE Bench
-----------------
warmup sets
20% 1rm x 5 reps
30% 1rm x 5 reps
40% 1rm x 5 reps
50% 1rm x 5 reps

Group 1 - main exercise (1 minute rest)
75% 1rm x 8 reps x 3 sets db bench

Group 2 - supplemental exercise (1 minute rest)
# x 8 reps x 3 sets jm press

[BigCorey75]

looks good

[Hercule]

That looks great man. Good luck w/ westside, its a great program.

[Paul Stagg]

On the ME day, I would do one less set over 90%

If your PR is 300 (assuming your PR is your max), do warmups as prescribed, then when you get to the singles, do one at 90%, one around 95%, then one that breaks your PR.

Listen to your body, and work what's weak.

[PowerManDL]

I told him not to even worry about %'s, just to hit a max one week and try to break it the next. See how much he listens ;)

[Saturday Fever]

It doesn't sound complicated enough if you just try to beat PRs every week.

[Anthony]

lol, the percentages are based on last week's PRs. ;)

[Saturday Fever]

That's not what we meant. Instead of saying, "I'm going to work at these percentages", just work. Don't make your mindset such that you want to get to 90% and such and so forth. Use the mindset that last week you got 230 up, this week you're getting 235. What you do to get there, in the end, is irrelevant.

[KingJustin]

I have no business altering any of your advice, but to me it seems that just trying to increase your max every week wouldn't work (somewhat indirectly)...

Isn't one of the big points on the ME days to get at least 3 sets between 90 & 100+%, so that your body gets more used to those heavy weights?

http://www.elitefts.com/documents/beginner_mistakes_jimw.htm

[Hercule]

If you read the articles thoroughly, it is stated several times that the main goal is to lift more than you did last week. Its not rocket science, its just a powerlifting program. Forget percentages, formulas, etc., and just beat a PR every ME day.

[Paul Stagg]

Yep.

My point is that more than 3 lifts over 90% will probably end up being counterproductive.

If my PR is 300, i would do something like this:

45x20
95x10
135x5
185x3
225x3
245x3
275x1
295x1
305x1

[KingJustin]

What I'm saying is that if you do something just to improve from 300 to 305 then it might not pay off in the long run. Example:
If your PR is 300 and you think 305 is achievable you might do:
150 x 6
200 x 3
225 x 2
250 x 1
280 x 1
305 x 1

Then, next week you might try to get 310 and you might miss it because you didn't really move all that much weight this workout, and you didn't force your muscles to get stronger. Using Paul's ME Bench "workout", you probably would have a better chance because you are doing more sets and moving more weight this week and thus getting stronger.

[PowerManDL]

That's two lifts above 90%. Why wouldn't you get stronger?

[Saturday Fever]

Do you understand the science behind Westside?

Strength is increased 3 ways.

Maximal effort
Dynamic Effort
Repetitive effort

The wording is surely wrong because Supertraining is at home and I'm drawing on memory but the idea is this.

You do your set of maximal effort lifts following a scheme like Paul's. You finish that work with repetitive work on assistance lifts. Something like 5 sets of 8 skullcrushers with a constant weight. And it should be enough weight that everytime you get to that 8th rep, you're spent. You take your rest period and you go again. This method is also just as effective if you do heavy sets first or lighter sets/more reps with the weight increasing and the reps decreasing. Though science says there's a small advantage to doing the heavy sets first. And I have personally found the best results doing constant weight that kills me every time.

Then maybe you do some more triceps work, or you follow with work for the lats or maybe the shoulders. Thus, to this point we have used both the maximal and repetitive methods. Next session we'll do dyanmic work followed by the rep'd assistance work.

Remember that what you do on bench alone is not the sole factor in how you do on bench. How you do on bench is a combination of your maximal work, your speed being trained by the dynamic work, and the repetitive work you've done to the primary movers. You can't look at it as simply as, "Well if you do 9 reps this week, that doesn't scale in the grand scheme of things."

[PowerManDL]

Yeah, what he said too.

[noraa]

If you read some of Jims articles over at elitefts, the major problem that newbies at westside make is large jumps up to the new RM
You need adequate volume at high weights to maximally increase strength.

[Saturday Fever]

A newbie really shouldn't be doing Westside, in my opinion. You need a base of balance. And honestly, if you asked me, I'd say a newbie should exploit the "honeymoon" period and just do whatever routine they find since initially anything they do is going to work out for them. When that mindset stagnates, then would be a good time to invest in Westside. And of course I'd hope nobody went to Westside, or any serious PL routine, without a workout partner or two.

[Anthony]

Just to clarify - the number of sets and percentages on ME days won't necessarily be followed exactly - it's just a guideline and I know that. Eventually I can see myself playing it by ear, but until I get in the groove I want some guidelines. I do appreciate the comments and tips, though. :)

[PowerManDL]

Dave Tate's got an article up on T-Mag either this week or last week dealing with n00bs and Westside.

He makes the point that they can use it, but that they're gonna have different "weaknesses" than other lifters....namely, their entire body and general exercise forms.

[Anthony]

After talking to CR I decided to make some changes. I changed the order of my ME exercises and completely removed squats/deads/bench - variations only. I also added speed deads every second week after speed box squats on my DE Squat day, to help keep form on deads. Group 4 has been removed. Oh, and I changed the build up on ME day. Again, the percentages are just a guideline for me to follow. Take a look and let me know what you think.


week 1 ME - high box squat / 4" board press
week 2 ME - high box squat / 4" board press
week 3 ME - rack pulls / 6" board press
week 4 RE - full squat / db bench (recovery)
week 5 ME - platform pulls / 6" board press
week 6 ME - low box squats / 8" board press
week 7 ME - low box squats / 8" board press
week 8 RE - full squat / db bench (recovery)
week 9 ME - good mornings / 10" board press
week 10 ME - good mornings / 10" board press
week 11 TEST squat / bench / deadlift
week 12 REST


Monday ME Squat
---------------
warmup sets
20% 1rm x 5 reps
30% 1rm x 5 reps
40% 1rm x 5 reps
50% 1rm x 5 reps

Group 1 - main exercise (2-5 minute rest)
60% 1rm x 3 reps
70% 1rm x 3 reps
80% 1rm x 1 reps
90% 1rm x 1 reps
95% 1rm x 1 reps
100+% 1rm x 1 reps

Group 2 - supplemental exercise (1 minute rest)
# x 8 reps x 3 sets sldl

Group 3 - accessory exercise (1 minute rest)
# x 8 reps x 3 sets crunch
# x 8 reps x 3 sets reverse hyper


Tuesday ME Bench
------------------
warmup sets
20% 1rm x 5 reps
30% 1rm x 5 reps
40% 1rm x 5 reps
50% 1rm x 5 reps

Group 1 - main exercise (2 to 5 minute rest)
60% 1rm x 3 reps
70% 1rm x 3 reps
80% 1rm x 1 reps
90% 1rm x 1 reps
95% 1rm x 1 reps
100+% 1rm x 1 reps

Group 2 - supplemental exercise (1 minute rest)
# x 8 reps x 3 sets close grip bench

Group 3 - accessory exercise (1 minute rest)
# x 8 reps x 3 sets tbar row
# x 8 reps x 3 sets side db raises


Thursday DE Squat
---------------
warmup sets
20% 1rm x 5 reps
30% 1rm x 5 reps
40% 1rm x 5 reps
50% 1rm x 5 reps

Group 1 - main exercise (1 minute rest)
50% 1rm x 2 reps x 8 sets box squat
55% 1rm x 6 reps x 3 sets deadlift (every second week)

Group 2 - supplemental exercise (1 minute rest)
# x 8 reps x 3 sets sldl

Group 3 - accessory exercise (1 minute rest)
# x 8 reps x 3 sets crunch
# x 8 reps x 3 sets reverse hyper (1 minute rest)


Friday DE Bench
---------------
warmup sets
20% 1rm x 5 reps
30% 1rm x 5 reps
40% 1rm x 5 reps
50% 1rm x 5 reps

Group 1 - main exercise (1 minute rest)
50% 1rm x 2 reps x 8 sets bench press

Group 2 - supplemental exercise (1 minute rest)
# x 8 reps x 3 sets close grip bench

Group 3 - accessory exercise (1 minute rest)
# x 8 reps x 3 sets tbar row
# x 8 reps x 3 sets side db raises


Monday RE Squat
---------------
warmup sets
20% 1rm x 5 reps
30% 1rm x 5 reps
40% 1rm x 5 reps
50% 1rm x 5 reps

Group 1 - main exercise (1 minute rest)
70% 1rm x 8 reps x 3 sets full squat

Group 2 - supplemental exercise (1 minute rest)
# x 8 reps x 3 sets sldl


Thursday RE Bench
-----------------
warmup sets
20% 1rm x 5 reps
30% 1rm x 5 reps
40% 1rm x 5 reps
50% 1rm x 5 reps

Group 1 - main exercise (1 minute rest)
70% 1rm x 8 reps x 3 sets db bench

Group 2 - supplemental exercise (1 minute rest)
# x 8 reps x 3 sets close grip bench