Westside, Kiwi's and Training OCD!!!! welcome to my world...

lots of tools in the muscle building box mate .. trick is knowing when to change things up and use a new "tool" ... looks like you know though :)
don't think i've ever been so stressed but just trying to keep on top of it at the mo

That weight gain sounds crazy!!! Although when I ran an Epi cycle I blew up to 17 stone, though that was in about 4 weeks rather than 4 days!!!

(It was mostly water weight though )

"They are quite possibly the most sorry bunch of socially challenged and boarderline mentally ill reprobates to have ever attracted such a like-minded following of keyboard warrior wannabes." Unknown

well thats the thing i dont look like ive lost much, if any condition.. i think im still around 14%bf.. veins in the inside of the biceps are v pronounced too!!!yay! :-)

hope things calm down soon marsbar mate.. but yeah, i dont think things need t change just yet, but im gonna implement some extra stuff in now and again..

RIO- yeah, by stoppin the arms there it doesnt bring the chest in to play too much.. just like doin a partial bench rep, so helps make my 'strong range' part of the bench rep even stronger by strengthenin the tris..
floor presses are somethin i will do v soon, but gym was too busy today and no spotter either..

i am feelin the extra weight t be hoinest.. water retention in the lower back causing some big pumps, and im out of breathe a bit easier too but this will be down to the compounds rather than the extra weight i reckon.. will be addin in some steady state cardio soon.. just a couple sesins a week.. maybe even a swim or two!!

  

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Cheers bud .. hoping that things can only get better from now on but its been a few days of highs and lows so not getting my hopes up to much.  Floor presses are hard .. really tax the triceps and made harder by having to really slow down at the bottom so you don't tw@t your elbows on the floor

yeah im lookin forward to usin them t be honest!!
wil be somehtin new and somethin to aid in bench strength i hope!!

seems to be the time of yr for things like this mate..
i know i react very strangely to the weather.. i get seriously down if the weather stays sh*t for a while... and then anythin on top of that i just seem t not be able to deal with anymore!!
these next few wk are gonna be fairly w@nk tho.. so i will be diggin deep in the gym t get passed it all!

  

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good man .. don't let the bastards grind you down :)

Marsbar


Cheers bud .. hoping that things can only get better from now on but its been a few days of highs and lows so not getting my hopes up to much.  Floor presses are hard .. really tax the triceps and made harder by having to really slow down at the bottom so you don't twat your elbows on the floor

Lol - the first time I tried floor pressing I tried to get some bounce on the go at the bottom of the movement and ended up almost crushing my elbows on the floor!!! I've since learnt that correct technique dictates you lower slowly, pause at the bottom, drive back up.

"They are quite possibly the most sorry bunch of socially challenged and boarderline mentally ill reprobates to have ever attracted such a like-minded following of keyboard warrior wannabes." Unknown

thinkin of trainin today too-
think it will go somehtin like-

deads/ racks- heavy (ish)
weighted pull ups- heavy and light work
BB rows- heavy ish
Db row; for reps- light
EZ curls- heavy (ish)
pinwheel curls- reps

somehtin like that anyway..

may swith up the way i do DC.. they have another otion whih is to pretty much do push, pull legs etc.. think i may go with that for a while as this would be more suited to addin in some strength based stuff.

  

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this will work somehtin along the lines of-
according to DC-
mon- back width, back thickness, bis and forearms
tues- chest , shoulders and tris
thurs- quads hams calves
friday- same as Monday.

following monday would be push day, tues would be legs, thurs would be back, fri would be push again.. and so on!!
but im likin the day inbetween each sessin at the moment, so i may stick to day on day off! but with the same set set up as the balove in terms of muscle groupings and in that order etc

  

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ok so back from the gym..

RACK DEADS- worked up to;
-190k- 2 x 3reps --- no straps
-210k- 2 x 3 reps --- straps on
-230k- 1 x 1 --- felt heavy and lower back extremely pumped, bit twingy too.

POWER SHRUGS-
140k- 3 x 8

WEIGHTED PULL UPS-worked up to;
BW+15k- 1x5
BW+20k- 1x4
BW+25k- 1x4

BB ROWS- worked up to;
130k- 2x6

DB ROWS-
50k- 15,10 --- each arm, done L,R,L,R, no rest in between

DB CURLS-
26k- 1x7

DB PINWHEEL CURLS-
26k- 1x9

SEATED HAMMER STRENGTH PREACHERS- 1 ARM;
30k- 1x9

arms were so pumped that i dint need many direct arm sets at all, finished them off easily with 1 working set of all the exercises.
the Db rows were great, gonna kepe these in, i think it was good mixing the low rep BB rows wi some higher rep none stop DB rows, got the air in my lungs a bit too which was good!

great session overall.. i felt MASSIVE :-),  and strong today, although i do fel i have a 250k rack pull in me.. think i need t start stretchin every day cos my lower back is playin u slightly, think my hammies are much tighter than they shuold be!

  

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Very strong session mate, well done, 230kg rack dead, feck me!!! lol

cheers dude.. yeah felt a like a good sesh today!
ive just topped it off by havin a mini buffet for tea..
me and the 'mrs' made, pizza, pork pies, sausage rolls, cheese ppickle and pineapple, carrot and dip and nachos etc, and then ive just annihilated half a 6" cheesecake.. feel fat as f*ck now but sod it.. its a one off!! ill make sure the next wk or so is a v strict one!!
dint have some of the stuff id normally have in a buffet.. e.g. meat etc, but she wanted me to eat 'normal people' food :-) haha... feels godo tho!!

  

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lol at the normal ppl food hehehehe

i live around clowns and ppl with no testosterone

check my journal

good session!
nice n heavy

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yeah im gonna slowly blend my sessions into heavier ones, more strength oriented!

cheers guys

dyskee- lol.. u know wat i mena tho yeah??
normally my kind of buffet would be, chicken wings, burger, steaks, jacket spuds and pasta etc.. the gf has a different idea tho! :-)

  

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you have me beat on bent rowing!

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Mrmm: 1

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haha.. im sure u'll be there tho mate.. i went for it cos i was huting down some low reps.. mind u.. i BB row like dorian, so upper body is far from parallel to the floor... sure i read somewhere u'r more parallel in ur form??

  

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well..
im thinkin of knockin the cycle on the head.. r maybe at least just runnin epi on its own, at a lower dose.. i just generally dont feel that well!1
my stomach has got a bit wierd today again, and it feels like my kidneys are a bit sore!! im gettin a kind of ache in that area.. but i really cant tell if it is that or not tho... im gettin pretty hefty back pumps, and my lower back is pretty sore too, i.e. injury sore.. only slightly tho!! so i cant tell whether it is in the kidney area or not..!

so im thinkin of knockin everythin or just more o the stuff on the head, only have about 20 epi caps left anyway i think, so might try this and just see what happens! and the sore stomach hasnt been helped by the fact that ive slightly strained my obliques yesterday... :-(

any thoughts on my proposed knockin on the head?>??

  

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Solid work. Power shrugs rule!

Stonehenge
 
Where the banshees live and they do live well

yeah bro , i got ur point cause ur type of buffet is surely my type

i live around clowns and ppl with no testosterone

check my journal

haha.. yeah defo dyskee-
cheers iain.. really enjoyed the session to be honest..!
and yeah power shrugs are class.. gonna use dumbells now and again for them too..

just been doin some reading on some westside stuff...and havin a look at some routines which can help with strongman training.. think im gonna give some form of this a go sometimes too!! really need  a gym with some strongman stuff in! really wanna give it a go

  

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Day 1 - Max Effort (ME) squat/deadlift
Squat/deadlift/good morning - Using one of these exercises or a variation of them for no more than 3 consecutive weeks work up from a warm up in sets of 3 until 3 repetitions are no longer possible and switch to a single rep working up to 4 single repetitions of between 90-100% of your max.
Lower back work - Choose from glute-ham raises, reverse hyper-extensions, half deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts, stiff-legged deadlifts (SLDLs), hyper-extensions or cable pulls - 4 x 8-10 (weighted if need be to stay within rep range)
Abs - Any form of rectus abdominus work - 4 x 8-12
Lat work - Any form of upper back work such as wide grip chins, pull downs, barbell rows, cable rows - 4 x 8-10
Day 2- Max Effort (ME) Bench press
Bench Press of any variation working from a triple to a single.
Tricep work - Any form of core strength tricep work such as close grip bench, JM presses, Tate presses, lying dumbbell extensions - 4 x 5-10
Cable pushdowns - A variety of cable attachments may be used (flat bar, V bar, rope) - 4 x 8-12
Shoulder work - choice of either lateral or front raises - 4 x 10-12
Lat work - as above - 4 x 8-10
Biceps - Pick any bicep exercise of your choice - 3 x 8-10
Day 3- Dynamic Effort (DE) Squat
Box squat 8-12 doubles with 45-65% of 1RM
Lower back work - as Day 1
Side bends (or variation of external oblique training) - 4 x 8-12
Neck work
Day 4- Dynamic Effort (DE) Bench press
Speed bench 8-10 triples with 45-46% 1 RM
Tricep work - as Day 2
Pushdowns - as Day 2
Lat work - as Day 1
Biceps - as Day 2

above is an example of a westide routine for strength trainin..
wanted to ask some questions for those of u 'in the know' with regards to strength trainin and those who are familiar with this type of trainin, which im sure will be a fair few of u!
1- oin the dynamic effort days, i take the reps are performing 'quickly',i.e. like an explosive rep, going for speed??
2- on these DE days, do i stay with the same weight for all of the sets? it says to stay within 45-64% on squat day, and 45-46% ( im sure htis wrong??) on bench day!! so how will i know when to progress with  the weight on DE day, as the weight will be light anyway, so how will i determine when it is time to increase weight?
3-with ME squat/deadlift day, do i just rotate week after wk which one i do.. so wk 1 may be squat, wk 2 will be deads, wk 3 good mornings, wk 4 squat again?i thought bein it a strength based routine, both squat and dealift would be trained wk after wk??

any info and help would be appreciated guys..

cheers

  

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1- oin the dynamic effort days, i take the reps are performing 'quickly',i.e. like an explosive rep, going for speed??
 
Yes. However this is true of any rep you do. Power and speed should be prominant during any major lifts.


2- on these DE days, do i stay with the same weight for all of the sets? it says to stay within 45-64% on squat day, and 45-46% ( im sure htis wrong??) on bench day!! so how will i know when to progress with  the weight on DE day, as the weight will be light anyway, so how will i determine when it is time to increase weight?
 
The DE days are not about progression in the sense normally used. You'll progress when you hiot pb's and the weight for a given % increases. Normally you would keep the same laod through out a session and cycle the intensity over a training block, ie. wk1 50%, wk2 55%, or any way you want. The % are just a guide to get you started. Nothing more.

3-with ME squat/deadlift day, do i just rotate week after wk which one i do.. so wk 1 may be squat, wk 2 will be deads, wk 3 good mornings, wk 4 squat again?i thought bein it a strength based routine, both squat and dealift would be trained wk after wk??

This is trickier. personally I think this is not worth it for most people, ie rotating. When I did a lot of westside inspired training I ended up ditching seprate speed and me days for sq and dl and went with one session. The rotation was heavy deadlifting light squating (or box squating) and visa versa. For bench I would do a heavy lift followed by lighter work, but would bench heavy and straight at least once a month. I would pull heavy and straight once a month and when it was heavy squat me I would always squat straight. Further I would not always do singles but would just do a heavy session in whatever rep range or volume I felt appropriate. The other 2 sessions I would just do lighter assistance work for upper and lower body. This actually then evolved a bit further till my current plan. Which now dosn't look like 'westside' training at all.




'Westside' is all well and good, but I think most will do as well or better on other simpler plans. That dose not mean that you carn't take some ideas and use them in said plan, rather that a basic 'westside plan' is tough to get right. As you can see from my example I needed to radically change my plan away from the normal template to get it to work better for me.

I'd personally suggest you continue with a more 'basic' approach. As well when you get assess to strongman equipment that'll be out of the windo anyway as you'll have to fit in event training.

Now I'd concentrate on getting strong and big. Your current training seems to be heading you in the right direction. What you need to do is to learn how to manage your load and volume on the big 3 (4 in your case as OHP is vital to strongman).

Stonehenge
 
Where the banshees live and they do live well

just the man!!
cheers mate
yeah i understand wat ur sayin..i did think that only doin deads/ squats once avery 3 wk etc (heavy) would be slightly dettrimental on the stregnth gain side of htings..
i have a few other things i have copied and pasted which i have looked at but im findin it much more difficult to make a plan for this type of traiin.. if i was just trainin to be a powerlifter then i could probably do it as there are many of u on here and the plans, look fairly simple as u focus on the 3 lifts etc.. however, strongmen dont really train bench as a main lift, but i want to! so i need to incorporate this into it too, and keep it as a priority lift etc..
also like the idea of using push/ pull in the same sessions like used in the above routine for bench days etc.. with the bench work, then delts, lats and bis.. i like the set up there!

anyway cheers iain.. was hoping u'd pop by!!

  

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On the theme of Westside here are 3 articles from Jim Wendler of Elitefts.com. Plenty of good ideas in them. If can find any stuff on his 3/2/1 training that would also be good.


http://www.elitefts.com/documents/Triumvirate.htm%3C/a%3E


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


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

There are lots og good thing to take aways from the writing sof Louie Simmons a la 'Westside', but that dosn't mean you have to jump into doing ME, DE bands and box squats. Infact that's not really what westside training is about .


If you want to read some simple effective training that would lend itself to strongman check out TONY's journal. For a good powerlifting journal check out Fat Petes, and for a powerlifting journal that is heavily 'Westside' based check out Cricket Fire. He recently trained at Westside and would answer some of your questions!

Stonehenge
 
Where the banshees live and they do live well

nice one cheers mate! ill go check some of them out now

cheers for the help fella..
gonna give those links a read too :-)

  

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you changing your workout style to westside then?

shift from bodybuilding to powershirtlifting or just for a strength increase?

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im just gonna try base my training more on strength from now on mate.. if i wanna diet down in the future then i may, but im lookin to possibly get into some strongman stuff in the future.. not yet tho of course!! but it is more up my st i think..
unsure on the westside front as iain has said, i dont really need t follow somehtin that complicated etc.. but im gonna be gearin my trainin over to a more strength based porogram as time progresses.. still with a lot of BBin there too, but the core of each workout will be strength based

  

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Things are looking good mate, just had a first propa catch up on your journal.. one question wtf are pinwheel curls lol??

how do? hoe things are good over in ehypt fella.
pinwheels are hammers but brough across the body.. probably the way most do hammer curls, but that is their real name!1
cheers fella.
yeah stuffs goin well at the moment re. trainin!! bit sore here and there but im gettin thru it!!
hows the trainin goin out there for ya?

  

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You feelin any better mate? Did you drop the tren x or anything in the end?

Well there you go ive learnt somthing new, I prefere pulling up and across as its a better peak on the bicep that way.

Im a bit bord out here tbh, havnt found a good gym to train and my diets shocking - sure it will come together soon though.

scott- hope so mate.. yeah will prob take a bit of time before u feel completely settled etc.. great experience for u tho mate!! yeah i prefer the pinwheels too.. can be a bit more strict with them i feel and i feel it much more than reg hammer curls..

rio-
 yeah ive dropped the t roid mate and so far ive been feelin a bit better today, dropped it on sat so if it was that then coolio.. its just really uncomfortable, cant get comfy a lot fo the time.. but hopefully it will stay away now.. feels a fair bt better today so im off t the gym in a bit havin had the weekend off!!

today im gonna experiment with a new 'bench' day.
will be strength based sets for bench, so will be high sets of low reps working up to probably my 3RM for a few sets folloowed by some tri assistance work, upper back assistance work and biceps.
will update when im done.

  

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ok..
Today:

Bench-warm ups, working up to,
130kx3
135kx3
140kx3
150kx2+ an assisted, sloppy 3rd rep!
i think i should have gone to 145k. but 140k felt very easy! :-(

Skulls-
55kx10,6,6 ---> adopted the rest pause for these. bit light as i got too mnay reps, but its all good in the hood..

Db Rows-
40kx30 each arm ---> this was horrid. the uni gym only goes to 40k so i thought i would just go to failure then do 1 v strict and slow set after with holds at the top. the 30 reps was a bit overkill, but felt good on the heart.. :-(
40kx10 ---> v strict and slow, with holds at the top.

Face Pulls-
35kx12
35kx10

Pinwheel Curls-
26kx 10,5,3 ---> bit light, supersetted last set with some straight bar BB curls, 35k x 7.

all in all a v good sessoin. definately think for me,strength trainin is the way t go. i am trying to keep some BBin element to it too,e.g.
today was push pull thru the horizontal plain, my next upper session will be push pull thru the vertical plane!

but felt good on the bench, missed the last rep on 150 due to  my right shoulder, felt weak, so may add in some shoulder assistance wk on this day aswell as the other upper session.

  

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Glad your feelin a bit better mate, cracking benching as well

cheers dude..
yeah stomach's feelin much better now!!
maybe it was the t roid then.. hard t tell, it may have just been somethin that happens for a few days and was gonna pass anyway!! shame..i may start the t roid in again and if it starts up again then ill know!!
im glad its gone hto.. just made me feel like sh1t!!!

  

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Lotta fun stuff within westside.... I used to use a few exercises and theories within my training when I was employing something of a mix/hybrid routine. Really enjoyed it (altho I wasn't doing proper westside, was still more BBing angled). A few of the strength guys my way got me watching some of Louis' vids.

Limits, like fear, are often just an illusion: MJ 12/9/09
My journal

yeah im tryin to keep it slightly BB oriented too.. but i wanna concentrate on bringin up my strength big time!!goals have changed slightly so strength is gonna be the main focus, on the first lifts of every session anyway.. and the rest will be heavy ish assistance work to bring about some nice hypertrphy!!
i wanna get more into it tho.. been readin quite a lot of stuff on westside etc etc... this is gonna sound daft seein as i havce just said i have been readin about it, but who is louis? these bids could be of some help to me... on youtube?!!

  

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Louis Simmons... he is westside basically. The vids are funny. He can talk the back legs off a donkey and loves his numbers and %ages. Some of the lifting is good to watch tho. I found the vids made understanding it all a bit easier than reading thru the plethora of pages there are on it.

I gather the critisisms on it centre around their claimed heavy gear use and supreme shirts. And you need to bare in mind that the system is based all around the fact that they use very strong shirts and suits etc so how well it all crosses over to a more standard way of lifting I do not know.

Limits, like fear, are often just an illusion: MJ 12/9/09
My journal

nice one.. ill check out some of the vids on youtube then..
thats one thing.. as much as i wanna get into strength based trainin, i dont wanna start wearin a shirt and suit etc.. just seems like too much effort!! haha..

cheers mate

  

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