west side program

[scottninpo]

any bros out there that do westside, how are the results for you, i know JGK has been talking about it the last couple of days, what about it bro?

[JGK]

Well, the first month I did it (last month) my bench press went from 255-295, my deadlift went from 350-405, and my squat went from 375-395. It is a fun routine and I am constantly learning new stuff to do with it. I had been doing a three-day split before for a period of about 5 or 6 months and hadn't gotten great results from it in the areas I was most concerned with (strength mostly). I would get much better results if I could ever get my diet straightened out. Right now it is crap and I'm not getting near enough protein and too much fats. I got paid at my new job friday though and went out and got my own groceries to eat off of for the next month.

It is pretty easy to set one up once you find the templates and stuff at elitefts.com and westside-barbell.com.

Basically you have a Dynamic Effort day for squat/dead and bench press that is worked at or around 50% of your max using explosive reps. Then you have a Max Effort for squat/dead and bench press where you do triples and work your way up to singles and a 1rm for that session. Every couple of weeks or so you rotate the ME exercises. So for one period you might do floor press for ME bench press and deadlifts off of pins for ME deadlift/squat day. Then the next period you might do incline bench on ME bench and box squats on ME squat/dead. Also each day you do assistance exercises to strengthen the various components of the lift you are working. As you become more advanced you start incorporating various General Physical Preparedness workouts into your routine where you do things like sled drags.

[slobberknocker]

Works for a lot of people. I didn't really like it, but I know a lot of Westside lifters that are very strong.

[scottninpo]

i've always heard positive things about west side, but it just seems so darn complicated, i come from a powerlifting background, so i don't like to do sets where i don't use maximum weight, but i'm still going to give it a try when i get board of DC training

[JGK]

Yeah, it is a little complicated. I use a wave right now for dynamics. In four week cycles I work from 50%-60% of my max and then retest and do it again. I didn't really understand why they say to work with the lightweight but from what I've read it helps train your fast twitch fibers to give you more power out of the hole.