Anyway, I change routines all the time. I don't feel like I'm elite enough to use westside yet. Maybe when I hit 1000 total or something.
I think you have a point about this. I think the main reason for training with 50-60% of 1RM was to eliminate joint and spinal injuries from using heavy weights. I only total about 900 right now and I have changed my routine so that I do speed day mainly as a warmup and then I do some form of benching or squating for 5 sets of 5. One what would be a max effort day, I work up to 5 sets of 2 in a related exercise.
Another thing I do different is that I wait 3 to 4 days between speed and max effort and 4 to 5 days between max effort and speed day. I think the speed workout is really important for building explosive power but I believe I really need heavy reps to build mass and strength.
Just a little background:
I started lifting at 12 and lifted on and off until I was 17. For about 4 months when I was 17, I lifted 5 days a week. My bench went from 225 to 255, my deadlift went from 295 to 385 and my squat went from 245 to 405 at a bodyweight of 165. These were all raw. The reason I mention this is that I believe the heavy squats I did were the reason for the 160 lb. increase. I also mention this for another reason.
Fast forward 19 years:
Married with children, fairly successful career and nearly 20 years of enjoying life's more sedentary pursuits (drinking, fishing and just plain old sitting around), I realized I was a weak fat f@*k. I tried jogging which hosed up my knees and a hip. Apparently my 36 year old body wasn't the same as when I was a teenager. So I thought, why not lift again. I had lifted less than a dozen times in all those years. Why? Because I got so burnt out from lifting that I never had the drive to start again. Plus my life was/is fairly busy which doesn't help.
Well, it is now 1 year later. I missed most of the Summer and washed away most of my gains from working 80-100 hours a week. I've been lifting regularly (3-4 times a week) since the end of November. I've been sick twice so I missed a couple of workouts lately but I plan on sticking with this for the long haul. My longwinded point for the youngsters is that you shouldn't have powerlifting as the one and only thing in your life. You could burn out like me and not even want to see another weight again for a long time. Then you're f*$ked because you have to start from scratch again without the added benefit of massive naturally occuring quantities of GH and Test in your body.
I realize this has nothing to do with the original post but I got off on a tangent. Of course you don't have to read it.