MonStar's Walking on the Westside!

Westsssiiidddeee!!!

Damn does it feel great to back at home with my training. I decided to look back on my past journals and see which I kept the longest, and which I had the best gains with. Of course, Westside won with flying colors. Of course, with SF's assistance and support, I think nearly anything is possible with this program. I am going to be doing the basic Westside program, using the following split:

1. ME Bench
2. DE Squat/Deadlift
3. Rest
4. DE Bench
5. ME Squat/Deadlift
6. Rest

My rest days are not set in stone, but they're most likely going to happen every 3rd day. But we'll see how things go, of course.

My diet is going to be clean, the only thing that I'm counting is protein. I'm not at all going to be worried about calories, or anything like that. I am going to be doing a M1T cycle folowed by Nolva for my PCT, so hopefully my gains will be good on this. We'll see what happens, of course.

Wish me luck guys!

ME Bench (45 minutes, 21 sets)

Suspended Bench Presses: (bar touching chest)

135 x 3
185 x 3
225 x 3
275 x 2
295 x 2
315 x 1
325 x Miss

I was honestly happy today with 315 even though it's definitely not a PR for me. Just because I haven't done these Westside style exercises in so long, I expected my strength to have been gone. Nice to see I can still throw around a few amount of weight. Not too shabby at all, IMO.

Tate Presses:

45's x 11
55's x 9
70's x 6!
40's x 16

Good sets today of Tate presses! I do these lying down on a flat bench, BTW. Worked up to the 70's for 6, nice PR there. Triceps were on fire from this damn exercise. I really feel like this exercise completely translates into bench lockout strength.

Flat DB Presses:

110's x 8
110's x 7
110's x 7
110's x 6

Good sets here today, especially after the Tate presses.

DB Front Raises:

50's x 7
60's x 5
60's x 5

Nice sets of front DB raises, front delts were trashed. Going to work on my strength on these in the next few weeks.

Cable Pressdowns:

Stack x 12
Stack x 11

Burned out my triceps with these 2 sets here today. Pretty damn good. Shooting for 20-24 total sets on my ME days and 25-29 total sets on my DE days. Just as a rough estimate for how much volume I'm looking for.

Diet/Supplements:

Preworkout: 1 scoop of whey protein + skim milk, 25mg ephedrine, 25mcg T3, 5mg M1T
During Workout: 20 oz. Gatorade + 5g creatine
Postworkout: 1 scoop of whey protein + skim milk
Meal 1: 2 scoops of weight-gainer + skim milk
Meal 2: tuna wrap, 5mg M1T
Meal 3: pasta salad + tuna
Meal 4: low-fat turkey chili + crackers
Meal 5: 3 tbsp. of peanut butter, 5mg M1T

Diet was pretty solid today, not too bad. I honestly wasn't all that hungry today, for some reason. Protein intake was low, around 230g or so.

Today is my first day starting my M1T cycle as well. Going to be doing 15mg a day for approximately 4 weeks, depending on how I feel. And I'm following this up with 4 weeks of Nolva, BTW.

Sleep: 6.5 hours. Woke up for absolutely no reason at all this morning.

Weight: 223.5 lbs. Higher than usual. I am going to start weighing myself every couple days instead of every day.

Damn, look at that strength. You were made for Westside and powerlifting Mike Nice w/o.

Now when you do the Suspended Bench for reps, do you bring the bar back down and pause with it on your chest for a few seconds before the next rep?

Rocco: Hey man, thanks for the support bro! Really appreciate it. Nice to see the first post in my new journal is actually supportive and positive, not some kid telling me I'm a failure, lol.

Now when you do the Suspended Bench for reps, do you bring the bar back down and pause with it on your chest for a few seconds before the next rep?

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Exactly. You're right on the money Rocco, when you come back down you rest the bar on the pins for a couple seconds, then explode back up.

What is a Tate press?

I can't remember which thread it was in, but P-funk thought that doing two max effort workouts on consecutive days was not a good idea. One week, due to circumstances beyond my control, I wound up having to do such a thing, and I agree whole-heartedly. My suggestion would be ME upper, DE lower, rest. Then DE upper, ME lower, rest.

The schedule I'm using is Mon ME Upper, Wed ME Lower, Fri DE Upper, Sat DE Lower. I like having a day off after a max effort workout.

lookin good as usual mike

du: Tate press is named after Dave Tate, Westside powerlifter, and this is what it looks like:







CaptainDeadlift: Wow, interesting point bro, I've never thought about that before but it honestly makes perfect sense. I'm switched my split in my first post. I'm going to do ME bench, DE squat/DL, then DE bench followed by ME squat/DL. Thanks for pointing that out!

fUnc: Thanks bro, I appreciate the support.

DE Squat/Deadlift (65 minutes, 26 sets)

Speed Deadlifts:

315 x 3
315 x 3
315 x 3
315 x 3
315 x 3
315 x 3
315 x 3
315 x 3

Bar speed needs some serious work! The bar moved slower than ever today. I haven't done deadlifts or trained legs for that matter in months. I can't believe how much I have lost in such a short time period. Whatever, I'll be back into the swing of things in no time.

CG Cable Rows:

245 x 9
245 x 9
275 x 6
275 x 6

Good sets today, nothing too extraordinary.

Hack Squats:

320 x 10
320 x 9
370 x 5
370 x 5

My legs were shaking like crazy after these 4 sets today! I really couldn't believe how out of shape my legs have gotten. I was honestly really dissapointed in how pathetic my legs are at this point.

Support Rows:

165 x 10
210 x 5
210 x 5

Hyperextensions:

115 x 6
115 x 6
115 x 5

Hypers were officially flat out painful for my lower back and hamstrings. I'm going to focus on these a lot more in the next month or so.

Rope Cable Crunches:

160 x 20
160 x 20

Incline DB Curls:

40's x 8
50's x 5

Finished up with some abs and biceps, good sets. I am going to be doing my biceps on my DE days and just a few sets for sh*ts and giggles.

Diet/Supplements:

Preworkout: 1 scoop of whey protein + skim milk, 25mg ephedrine, 25mcg T3, 5mg M1T
During Workout: 20 oz. Gatorade + 5g creatine
Postworkout: 1 scoop of whey protein + skim milk
Meal 1: 2 scoops of weight-gainer + skim milk
Meal 2: pasta salad + grilled chicken
Meal 3: tuna + crackers
Meal 4: 1/2 peanut butter sandwich
Meal 5: low-fat turkey chili + crackers
Meal 6: 1% cottage cheese + yogurt

Ended up with around 290g of protein today. Not too bad, I don't think. For some reason on the weekends lately I haven't been eating as much as I do during the week when I'm at work.

Sleep: 1 + 6.5 hours.

Fell asleep downstairs then woke up and had to come upstairs to go back to bed. Whatever.

MonStar said:

My legs were shaking like crazy after these 4 sets today! I really couldn't believe how out of shape my legs have gotten. I was honestly really dissapointed in how pathetic my legs are at this point.

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Your muscle memory will kick in, I bet you will be back to full strength in a month.

Are those hack squats free weight or machine? If that's freeweight, that's very respectable.

Holy Cow Brother MonStar, Incredible weight your movin in here!!!

ihateschoolmt: Thanks for stopping by, bro. I really hope that my muscle memory kicks in. Deadlifting today felt so damn awkward because I haven't done it in so long. I really hope that I get back into the swing of things fast!

Seanp: I'm not sure what you mean, bro. Hack squats are always done in a plate-loaded apparatus. So no its not a Nautilus machine, but yes its a plate-loaded machine. Here's a pic:



I do them facing away from the weights, if that makes sense.

Archangel: Thanks for the support, bro!

Not always, you can do BB hack squats : http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/Quadriceps/BBHackSquat.html

I've tried them, and can't say I'm a big fan of them, they're really hard on my knees.

Seanp: LOL, that brings back memories. I remember when I was a kid I bought Arnold's encyclopedia of bodybuilding and in there he had barbell hack squats. The exercise was pretty much unheard of in gyms and I tried it and it was nearly impossible. And even when I ended up doing it right, the ROM on the exercise was pathetic. I recommend plate-loaded hack squats hands down!

Well the place I go to now doesn't have a Hack Squat machine, but I'm switching in a couple weeks after taking a break, and they'll for sure have it.

i've tried to learn how to do the hack squat machine but i dont know how to do it? I cant properly position myself under it and i dont know how to loosen the safety bar. Nobody ever uses it so i cant learn from anyone.

Seanp: I think hack squats are a good exercise bro, let me know what you think of them when you finally get a chance to try them.

shiznit: It's really simple man I think if you just use a little trial and error you'll figure it out. There are usually handled that slide out to release the weight, or for mine you just stand up with the weight and it unhooks itself. Good luck, maybe ask someone that works there?

Rest

Cardio:

10 minutes of interval training on the treadmill; alternating 1-minute of walking at 3.4 MPH with 1-minute of running at 10.6 MPH.

Wow, my legs and lower back were extremely sore today---running was honestly painful. I did about 10 minutes of light stretching today after my cardio.

Diet/Supplements:

Preworkout: 1 scoop of whey protein + skim milk, 25mg ephedrine, 25mcg T3, 5mg M1T
Postworkout: 1 scoop of whey protein + skim milk
Meal 1: 2 scoops of weight-gainer + skim milk
Meal 2: pasta salad + tuna
Meal 3: whole-wheat peanut butter sandwich, 5mg M1T
Meal 4: tuna + crackers
Meal 5: 1% cottage cheese + yogurt
Meal 6: ham & cheese sandwich, chicken noodle soup

Ended up taking in around 300g of protein today, not too bad at all.

I completely forgot how much M1T kills your appetite! This is somewhat of a nice effect from this supplement. I'm on day 3 now of M1T, no noticeable side effects at all. Looking forward to a solid DE bench session tomorrow morning.

Sleep: 9 hours.

The Cap'n said it best. Put your DE days between your ME days. Gives you the best chance to rest up. Plus, if your DE Sq/DL day comes before your ME day, you'll have your speed work fresh in mind. Makes for some mental help when you're plowing through a PR.

And don't sweat bar speed. It'll take a couple sessions for your speed to get back up after the break you took.

SF: Hey man! I was hoping to see your name in here soon, thanks for stopping by bro I know how crazy your schedule has gotten lately. I took Captain's advice and interchanged my ME and DE days. I've never done that before I don't think so I hope this will yield better results than pairing up my ME and DE days together.

I've never been so sore in my life! My lower back and lower body is just in pain, lol. Great to be back on Westside! I have to start embracing the lower back soreness I get from this program. I'm going to work on my bar speed the next few DE sessions. I think maybe I went too heavy on my speed deadlifts?

Try this for your DE Bench...

Close-grip Speed Bench (grip as close as you can, keep the bar under control. lower controlled, fire up)
8 sets of 3 with 50% of your last 1RM

Incline DB Press (you'll remember these)
stick with one weight and rep to failure. rest briefly and rep to failure. repeat this until you hit 100 reps total

Cable Pushdowns (use the rope)
6 sets of 4 (start heavy and taper down the weight, you should be squeezing out the 4th rep big time)

Side Lateral/Front Raise Superset
3 sets of 12

And here's an ME Sq/DL set...

Deads (off the floor, any stance you want)
you know the drill.

Hypers
3 sets of 12 (your hams and back won't appreciate high/low at this point)

Pulldowns (wide grip)
8 sets of 3 (heavy of course )

Parallel-grip Rows
4 sets of 6

Hamstring Curls (on the lay down machine, one leg at a time)
5 sets of 5

Shrugs (if you have gas in the tank afterwards)
2 sets of 10

We'll work on the lower back more when it's adjusted to the weight. No use causing an injury a few days into this.

And last but certainly not least...

ME Bench Day would probly look good like so:

Bench
establish a 1rm we can work from

Decline (slightly narrower grip)
figure 75% of the 1rm you just hit and do 8 sets of 2 with roughly 30 seconds of rest between sets

Dips
3 sets of 8

Flies
4 sets of 6

Pushups
go until you can't anymore

SF: Thanks man! Appreciate you taking the time to post my next couple of workouts. As you know I'll definitely follow them to the letter. I'm curious what my bench and deadlift 1RM right now, I know they're not going to be anything impressive. Last time I deadlifted I pulled 495 and it felt like a million pounds. So I'm hoping for mid 500's or so, but we'll see.

Thanks again bro!

your looking real strong monstar keep up the good work...do you see much size being added while being on this type of routine? i have personally not tried westside training, but am open to anything. tell what you like about it if you could. thanks..

Lookin good man...solid weights there my friend!

Damn I haven't seen SF in ages holy shit.

Lookin solid Mike.

Welcome back Adam.

WATTS: Hey man, thanks for the support! I absolutely love Westside training, and yes, its a hypertrophy based program as well. All the assistance work that I do is basically geared towards hypertrophy. If you do a search I ran a few Westside journals in the past and made awesome gains in strength and size. Especially when I was running M1T while I was doing Westside.

DeadBolt: Thanks for the support, bro. Yeah I am absolutely thrilled to have SF back on IM posting here in my journal. He honestly possesses invaluable training knowledge, IMO. I have never made better gains in my life, than when I was taking his advice.

Jake: Thanks for stopping by, man.

Damn, that's some real good advice Mike! Congrats on having Adam back helping you, you did amazing with his tutelage! And your moving incredible weights, your westside journals have always been a HUGE inspiration to me.