Thread: Westside questions

Originally Posted by pyro

Questions:

1. Why are we working our back twice a week? and the same thing for shoulders/triceps? You're working to failure twice a week for each muscle .e.g.

ME lower
leg exercise
hamstring/glute (weakness)
2 back exercise 4x8 reps
abs

DE lower
speed squat
2 back exercises 4x8 reps
abs

I understand the chest and quad routine, light(explosive) and heavy days..Works great for me, but I still think this routine is either unperfect or some people are changing it as they fit??

2. I see that we're doing a tricep exercise before a shoulder exercise... I was taught to hit the big muscles before the weaker muscles...

3. Some people are doing another leg exercises after speed squat on DE days....I dont blame them because is a light day, but Isnt this overworking because you already have a ME day set aside for this....

There are many mistakes I see people make and some dont even question them....They are just following some routine posted on the web but I beg to differ........

I don't see how any of it is wrong as long as you account for volume. Training things twice a week is fine and like you said the dynamic effort days are submaxilma weight (75% or lower) so you could get aways with doing them every day. This program is way less than what most olympic lifters do, doing the same lifts in different percentages 4 times a week! Would you say that they are wrong for training their hips 4 tips a week? YOu train your back twice a week on westside because a strong back yeilds a strong squat/deadlift. have you ever seen a westside guy lift? None of them have weak backs. They are animals.

Whatever they're doing, it's working. Westside powerlifters are among the best on the planet. My routine is modeled after Westside in that I do the main lifts and then auxiliary lifts to help strengthen the smaller, weaker parts of the bigger lifts. It's worked great for me and I really enjoy it. I don't do anything but maximal weights though, but I have four days a week off and every six weeks or so I take a week off to assure I get enough rest. So far I've loved the workouts and the gains.

to me westside is a template with the most important parts being the conjugate periodization (training speed strength and maximal strength all in one week) and the emphasis on training the parts (while emphasizing the weakest parts) rather than the whole.

like others said westside breeds some of the strongest, biggest motherfuckers around. its a program that allows one to tailor it to his/her needs. i basically set my program right now as westside but i tweak it around as i go because i don't like to follow a routine to the letter it seems to unimaginative to me.

Originally Posted by pyro

Questions:

2. I see that we're doing a tricep exercise before a shoulder exercise... I was taught to hit the big muscles before the weaker muscles...

Which is the big muscle and which is the weaker muscle to which you are referring?

I thought they were both smaller