Thread: Any one do a heavy/light day each week

Are the light days your doing speed work? I don't know the science behind the speed work, but I'm def not going to argue with the westside guys.

It's hard for me to grasp that moving 50-70% of your 1RM as fast as possible would help you with sub-maximal loads.

All the people I know who have done Westside have told me that even with such a little weight, the speed days are very hard.

West side speed work is for form development, increasing the speed of your presses for explosiveness and to prevent CNS over-training, because their heavy days are effing heavy and taxes the CNS (Central Nervous System) pretty good.

For bodybuilding, I'm not sure if you need a weekly heavy-light approach, unless you're hitting 1-3RM's all day, in which case it's not maximally beneficial for muscle hypertrophy. That said, having a whole week dedicated to deloading every now & then is a good idea.

West-Side barbell is meant for strength and power primarily, aesthetics is a far second. They want to push heavy weight, not look good standing in front of the mirror. Some might use West-Side barbell in their bodybuilding routine when switching from high volume to high intensity, but the core of West-Side is big 1RM's.

Originally Posted by VolcomX311

West side speed work is for form development, increasing the speed of your presses for explosiveness and to prevent CNS over-training, because their heavy days are effing heavy and taxes the CNS (Central Nervous System) pretty good.

For bodybuilding, I'm not sure if you need a weekly heavy-light approach, unless you're hitting 1-3RM's all day, in which case it's not maximally beneficial for muscle hypertrophy. That said, having a whole week dedicated to deloading every now & then is a good idea.

West-Side barbell is meant for strength and power primarily, aesthetics is a far second. They want to push heavy weight, not look good standing in front of the mirror. Some might use West-Side barbell in their bodybuilding routine when switching from high volume to high intensity, but the core of West-Side is big 1RM's.

It seems like most popular designed programs are for the purpose of strength and not aesthetics ( Riptoe, madcow, westside). Is there any PROVEN programs designed for bodybuilding primarily? Im all for strength and size but if ones more interested in bodybuilding.......... are they to rely on muscle and fitness and other magazines for routine ideas?

I have used Defranco's westside for skinny bastards in college, it is a little more geared toward looks, but not much. You can add some vanity work in at the end of each day, extra sets of arms, chest, etc. However, pushing heavy weight every week will build some quality mass if your diet is geared towards it. Might be a good option to do for a month or two then switch back to your regular bodybuilding type routine to give your body some adaptation to handle. As far as another program I have done, I also did 6 days a week, chest/back, shoulders/arms, quads/hams. I did heavy chest light back on Monday, then on Thursday light chest heavy back, same for the other pairings, higher volume on the light body part, lower volume on the heavy body part, had great gains, but be careful to overtrain, I was also aided by some anabolics at that time. You could easily pair the above into a 4 day a week program as well. Good luck bro.

Originally Posted by beeazy

It seems like most popular designed programs are for the purpose of strength and not aesthetics ( Riptoe, madcow, westside). Is there any PROVEN programs designed for bodybuilding primarily? Im all for strength and size but if ones more interested in bodybuilding.......... are they to rely on muscle and fitness and other magazines for routine ideas?

Not at all. Basically, I don't think any program should be used exclusively, year round. At least if you're not Dorian Yates (HIT) on hot sauce or David Henry (DC). It's good to switch back and forth from high volume and high intensity. Most pro bodybuilders take the 15-6 reps approach, which according to academia is the optimal range for hypertrophy, though I'm not saying academia is the end all authority, of course people can have subjective reactions to certain forms of stimulus. The West-Side principle in question was whether he should do the heavy days-light days on a weekly basis approach and unless his heavy days look like a traditional West-Side heavy day, with uber heavy weight, he probably doesn't need the intra-week light days due to the lack of CNS-overload.

I switch from heavy and light reasons, where for a few months I do a hybrid of HIT and 5x5, then switch back to higher volume 15-6 or 8 range. I'm not against high intensity by any means. HIT and DC were high intensity methods built for the sake of bodybuilding, whereas, West-Side's foundational principles are to up your competitive powerlifting 1RM. The root of West-Side differs from HIT, DC, 5x5 in what it ultimately wants to achieve.

All weight lifting will stimulate the four adaptations of the muscle to a certain extent, power, strength, hypertrophy and endurance and all programs are inherently good at emphasizing one of these adaptations. All will be benefited no matter what you choose, but some will emphasize the upper echelon, primarily power or upper/middle (power/strength), middle (strength/hypertrophy) or lower (hypertrophy/endurance) and finally primarily endurance. Different programs will stimulate the maximal adaptions of one of these tiers and West-Side leans heavily toward the (power/strength).

Just started 5/3/1/ which is a nice mixture. While the prescribed minimum reps for each workouts rep-out set is always 5 or lower, the weight isn't what you'd normally assume to lift for those reps. So, even though it says 5 reps, I'm really lifting a weight I can do 7-12 times (depending on a number of factors). The assistance work is much lower intensity though: 5 x 10 @ 50-60%, so very easy on the CNS.

Before 5/3/1 I always used a variety of intensities each session. I always started with heavy lifting on one of the four major lifts: squats, dead, bench, and military. I always perform those lifts at submaximal loads. Any mid- or higher-rep work will be supplementary work with other exercises I feel work better with higher reps, like dumbbell bench rows, incline chest press, romanian deadlifts, split squats, etc. I recently used baby got back and also added back squats as a high rep in addition to the 5 x 5. My two lower days looked like this (minus the two isolation exercises at 3 x 15 each workout):

Lower Pull (push accessory)

Deads: 5 x 5
Good Mornings: 3 x 8
Back Squats: 3 x 20

Lower Push (pull accessory)

Back Squats: 5 x 5
BB Split Squats: 3 x 8
BB Romanian Deads: 3 x 20

My 5/3/1 program (3x/week):

Squats: "5/3/1"
Squats: 5 x 10 @ 50-60%
Planks: 5 x 1-2 mins

Bench: "5/3/1"
Bench: 5 x 10 @ 50-60%
DB Bench Rows: 5 x 10

Deads: "5/3/1"
Deads: 5 x 10 @ 50-60%
BB Split Squats: 5 x 10

Military Press: "5/3/1"
Military Press: 5 x 10 @ 50-60%
Chinups: 5 x 10

Originally Posted by Phineas

Just started 5/3/1/ which is a nice mixture. While the prescribed minimum reps for each workouts rep-out set is always 5 or lower, the weight isn't what you'd normally assume to lift for those reps. So, even though it says 5 reps, I'm really lifting a weight I can do 7-12 times (depending on a number of factors). The assistance work is much lower intensity though: 5 x 10 @ 50-60%, so very easy on the CNS.

Before 5/3/1 I always used a variety of intensities each session. I always started with heavy lifting on one of the four major lifts: squats, dead, bench, and military. I always perform those lifts at submaximal loads. Any mid- or higher-rep work will be supplementary work with other exercises I feel work better with higher reps, like dumbbell bench rows, incline chest press, romanian deadlifts, split squats, etc. I recently used baby got back and also added back squats as a high rep in addition to the 5 x 5. My two lower days looked like this (minus the two isolation exercises at 3 x 15 each workout):

Lower Pull (push accessory)

Deads: 5 x 5
Good Mornings: 3 x 8
Back Squats: 3 x 20

Lower Push (pull accessory)

Back Squats: 5 x 5
BB Split Squats: 3 x 8
BB Romanian Deads: 3 x 20

Wendler's 5/3/1 is spreading like wildfire these days. I have a couple friends getting strong as hell on 5/3/1.

I recently switched from it, there alot of things you can go trhough..

I've seen lots of guys doing Wendlers, seems like it is very easy to follow.

ill check out wendlers 5/3/1

volcom: what do you mean by this?

" Most pro bodybuilders take the 15-6 reps approach, which according to academia is the optimal range for hypertrophy"

Whats 15-6 reps approach? 15 sets each with 6 reps?

Originally Posted by beeazy

ill check out wendlers 5/3/1

volcom: what do you mean by this?

" Most pro bodybuilders take the 15-6 reps approach, which according to academia is the optimal range for hypertrophy"

Whats 15-6 reps approach? 15 sets each with 6 reps?

The 15-6 rep range, sorry, i should have clarified. They like to go 15 reps, 12, 10, and down to 8-6 reps as the sets progressively pyramid, "in general."

Training your body 2X/wk, heavy/light is a very popular method on a push/pull program. I would try it for a couple of months and see how it goes. I used to do this method, and it worked great.

The main thing is to see if it works for you. For many people training heavy all the time leads to over-training and injury.

I have a heavy and a dynamic day for lower, but not for upper.