A question about dynamic effort

[majutsu]

I've always had a problem with Westside for one reason. I have a hard time with dynamic effort. Being explosive is easy. But trying to carry that over to my lift is hard. For example, my form on squats at 225 (my 60%) is vastly different than my form at 405 (my 90%). It's almost like a different exercise. Same with bench and dead. Its just very hard for me to get benefit out of my de days for this reason. Any thoughts?

 

[Quadsweeps Sister]

I've always had a problem with Westside for one reason. I have a hard time with dynamic effort. Being explosive is easy. But trying to carry that over to my lift is hard. For example, my form on squats at 225 (my 60%) is vastly different than my form at 405 (my 90%). It's almost like a different exercise. Same with bench and dead. Its just very hard for me to get benefit out of my de days for this reason. Any thoughts?

I would only ask first why your form is so different. Granted I understand that different stances/setups are used for different reasons, but I generally try to go through my setup process the same way, every time. If you don't do things the same way every time - you get to a meet and your 'head' gets all f'ckd up. DE flat bench should be the same setup you use for ME bench. Set yourself, arch back, shoulders together, bar grip - lift out of the rack, set shoulders and then down/up with explosive strength. Explosiveness and speed are very important. Find a way to get past this. Use your same ME setup with DE. If your at ~ 50-60% of your max, you should be able to focus on your speed. I hope others post up some thoughts cause this is important.
-----------
Mythicwrld

"We deceive ourselves when we fancy that only weakness needs support. Strength needs it far more."

[Quadsweep's Sister=] "What do you want to do this weekend?"
[Chambewy20=] "Eat, sleep, fuck and train, but not necessarily in that order."

 

[wnt2bBeast]

i have found DE days to be of the most benefit for me..
like Qsis said your form should not differ too much..the idea behind DE work is to apply max force to the bar..you should be applying the same force whether you have 225 or 405 on the bar..Also i assume youre using the box for DE squats? on this day i use my wide stance i never use close stance here..also make sure your waving your weights..on the second go around try to be faster than you were the first time

As far as bench work anytime i lay down and im using a BB for speed, boards, CG, shirt i set up in my arch every time (practice)..set up wrong and youre likely to miss the lift..

DE work should be tuff..it may not seem like its working but when you do finally go to take a weight youll see why you did all that speed work

 

[jcp2]

I am not sure you have stuck with it very long, the longer you keep doing it, your form will improve. I still have a hard time setting up on DE days, my shoulder blades come off the bench from time to time. See if you have any size to your back ( wnt2beast doesn't have this problem, as he has no muscle ) it takes practice to stay tight in your setup for three reps. As for the squatting, what are you doing differently?

 

[majutsu]

you see, jcp, like most people who've "done" a few cycles of westside, I didn't know what I was doing and I wasn't advanced enough as a lifter to tie it together. I figured westside meant strutting around the gym with ILS (imaginary lat syndrome) and using enough bands to guarantee looking like a complete jackass Checkout my westside cycle I'm putting it together now (with understanding I hope).

Now, I haven't maxed on box squats (just free squatting lately for months) and DE lower day comes first. So I am going to use louie's formula that box squat= free squat -100lbs. I do 405lbs free, so about 300lbs box squat (which sounds right to me). 60% is about 185lbs. I'm going to see bar speed there. Then, I'm going to use Dave Tate's recommendation of going 20lbs at a time up from there until bar speed slows. That's how I'm going to find my DE lower start weight for this wave. I'm also going to max out on box squat for a couple of weeks to refine the numbers and skills needed. But DE lower day will just take a while I guess. I think DE upper day is going to be easy for me now.

 

[jcp2]

When it comes to DE day, use a feel approach more than a numbers approach, i tried to use the numbers for a few sessions and abondened it completely. I also don't like to use one weight on my DE days, i kind of increase it a tad during the workout, as i get faster. After reading the guys logs at elitefts, i realized that Westside is kind of what you make of it, it really has not set in stone routine, except the DE ME principals. My last DE squat workout was this,
225x2x2
245x2x2
275x2x2
315x2x2 all done with green bands choked at bottom of rack, and in a pair of lose inzer powerpants. As you see, i go up in weight, but not so much as it slows me down considerably. I like this because it allows my hips to really warm up and get going.