12 Week WS Routine .... help!

Ok, I tried to put together a 12 week WS routine running on 2 week mini-cycles. I wanted to put this out here and see if all you experienced vets could check it out and make comments or suggestions. I've been following a lot of you on elite and respect what you have to say. I've already gotten some help from Benchmonster ... thanks a lot for that Bench, it's been a big help.

In case you haven't read my intro, I'm going at this raw, no equipment and no gear. Please keep that in mind when reviewing the routine. You'll notice I added some more full ROM movements on ME days to ensure that I maintain power at the bottom of my lifts (since I won't have the aid of equipment). Thanks in advance for anyone who can offer any advice.

Please ignore the huge "page 1" in the middle of the Gif file ... I'm a compu-tard and the only way I could get my Excel sheet on here was to paste it into Paint. My bad.

hey... its really good that you are thinking this far ahead, but you are gonna find things changing throughout the cycle. you may peak early on soem ME exercises and need to switch off right away.

also, you need to think about your %s a little on DE day. are you gonna use bands?

you may do a lot of changing as irishpower has said..keep it from becoming routine.....sometimes we decide on a ME or maybe a tri exercise once we get there.....keeps it interesting for us.and good thinking on going more full range stuff since you will be raw....chains and bands???

Yeah, that looks great. In fact, I might steal a couple of your routines here and there. However, I agree with what the other guys are saying: you never know what's gonna happen up ahead. I think this is where experience really helps in allowing you to know when and how to deviate from the set plan.

I agree about keeping it open. This was pretty much a template to work from depending on how I felt and what I felt needed more work on that particular week.

I think once I run a full 3 months or so of WS, I'll be a better judge of what's working and what's lacking in terms of strong and weak points. Right now I have barely a clue. I know that my squat lacks in power out of the hole, so I need to work on my glutes, hips, hams, and abs (which had been SERIOUSLY neglected until now). And I know that my deadlift has the same problem, if I can break it from the floor, it's mine. My problem is breaking it from the floor, and the deads from the block and all the posterior work should help that along. My bench ... christ, my bench ... who knows ... seems to me that my biggest problems are mental with the bench. If I even think for a half a second, "hey, that looks heavy," I'm done. It's usually not even worth getting on the bench at that point.

I haven't considered bands yet, but I do have a question about them. I've read all the articles and don't remember crossing this point anywhere in them. Ok, the bands add resistance at lockout, that much I know. My question is this, what's the difference in adding bands for heavier lockouts and just adding more plates to the bar?

Would you all recommend that I use the bands? Will they offer the same advantages when lifting raw? I can't see why not, but I could be, and probably am, wrong.

Appreciate the help fellas.

The bands accomidate resistance, so its much different than just adding more plates to the bar. The force of the bar pushing down will be different at everypoint inthe lift when using bands. When you load 500# of plates of the bar....it will weigh 500 throughout the lift. This allows to you build momentum, and it also helps you find your mini-max ie sticking point. The bands are definitely worth using in my opinion.

Chad T.
www.CarolinaPower.net

Correct. Remember that the further the band stretches, the more tension gets transferred to the bar, meaning that you've got to learn to accelerate in order to compensate for the increased resistance. Personally, I wouldn't go 1 week without at least some sort of band work.