RipStone's 5x5-GFH journal

[Guinness5.0]

... a decent workout with many wierd looks by fellow gym-goers

The true sign of a good day at a commercial gym.

Re: box height. To help out of the hole, I tend to think you'd wanna be at least as low as the bottom of your squat, if not a little lower (if possible). You still squat pretty wide, right?

 

[RipStone]

The true sign of a good day at a commercial gym.

Re: box height. To help out of the hole, I tend to think you'd wanna be at least as low as the bottom of your squat, if not a little lower (if possible). You still squat pretty wide, right?

Haha, indeed!

Thanks for the advice. I'll try it out next week.

Yea, I am still using a PLing stance. Why?

 

[RipStone]

Westside, Friday, Week 1, DE Upper-body

DE-lift; Speed Decline Bench Press

-115x3x8

(30-45 seconds rest inbetween sets, nice and fast off my chest)

chins
-BW x10 (few reps left in reserve)
-BW x9 (1 rep short of failure)
-BW x7+ 3 (1 rep short of failure with the intial 7 reps, rested 20 seconds and did the last 3 reps. I dunno why I couldnt do 3 sets of 10 good reps....I should be able to do this considering the first set was a piece of cake. Plus, I rested 2:00-2:30 mins between sets in order to get all the reps in...or so I planned....hmmm?)

Standing OH BB press

-85x10x3 (really happy with these)

bent over rear delt raises

-15sx10x3

parallel bar dips ( I was planning on doing pushdowns, but I just dont like isolataion work....feels like I am wasting my time, so I did these upright to work the triceps a little more. I usually do them leaning foward more)

-BW x 12
-BWx 10
-BW x 6( WTF! My chest and triceps got a huge pump...damn! I shouldn't have done 12 reps for the first set. I should have just done 3 sets of 10 reps.... damn ego)

sitting DB curls

-20sx 10x3 (went real conservative w/ the weight selection here. I almost feel like these are a waste of time)

additonal comments I am not too sure about all this RE work. I really prefer moving heavy weight using more sets and less reps (ala SF 5x5). But, this should be good for me....I hope.

 

[Guinness5.0]

.

Yea, I am still using a PLing stance. Why?

Jsut wondering. Box squats are best for a PL stance, or at least better for PL style than Oly style.

BTW - why are you decline benching? My hunch is you really don't get much benefit by using DE stuff outside of the plane of intended use - DE work is basically best used to improve neural efficiency, so you'd want to replicate the movement you're trying to improve upon. Notice that WSB DE stuff is pretty much always box squats, speed deads, and benches w/ varying grip. You almost never see deviation from those movements (at least I haven't - could be wrong).

 

[RipStone]

Jsut wondering. Box squats are best for a PL stance, or at least better for PL style than Oly style.

BTW - why are you decline benching? My hunch is you really don't get much benefit by using DE stuff outside of the plane of intended use - DE work is basically best used to improve neural efficiency, so you'd want to replicate the movement you're trying to improve upon. Notice that WSB DE stuff is pretty much always box squats, speed deads, and benches w/ varying grip. You almost never see deviation from those movements (at least I haven't - could be wrong).

Thanks for pointing that out man. Intitially, I chose decline bench for DE lift cus I havent changed the angle for any BB bench press exercise is such a long time....that was my reasonsing at least. But, what you are saying completley blows that out the windown, so next week I will do flat bench press for my DE lift. Thanks again man.

BTW, ever since I started WS my journal gets no love. I know the title says 5x5, but I figured I would keep the same journal since everyone already knows me from it.

 

[enigma4dub]

BTW, ever since I started WS my journal gets no love. I know the title says 5x5, but I figured I would keep the same journal since everyone already knows me from it.[/QUOTE]

I know for me personally i've never ran ws routine. so when i read your journal i have nothing to relate it to because it is so different from the 5x5. I plan on running a ws routine probably after korte so i am reading your progress and will probably have questions soon enough
Also, is there another resource besides whats in the sticky for ws. something more in depth than just what to do each workout? thanks

 

[Guinness5.0]

Also, is there another resource besides whats in the sticky for ws. something more in depth than just what to do each workout? thanks

Check out elitefts.com

Hey RIp, I'm fairly sure what I told you is accurate, but not 100% - it's just what I've extrapolated from always seeing the same DE movements in just about every WSB program I come across. So maybe MC2 or Chambewy or Majutsu (or any of our WSB-literate bros) could confirm/dispute those thoughts.

 

[anotherbutters]

BTW, ever since I started WS my journal gets no love. I know the title says 5x5, but I figured I would keep the same journal since everyone already knows me from it.

I know for me personally i've never ran ws routine. so when i read your journal i have nothing to relate it to because it is so different from the 5x5.

That's what I was thinking. When some of the others started Korte and HST, I made the time to read up on them so that I could follow their journals. But from what I've read about Westside, it's all about working on your weaknesses, not following a specific set of exercises. It just takes more effort to follow your journal, that's all. But I'm still here and I'm sure lots of others are.

It's good you're trying something new. It gives me the chance to learn about it too

 

[RipStone]

enigma- hopefully I can show ya a thing or two, hehe elitefts is an awsome site. if you are new to WS principles, read the article "8 keys" by Dave Tate. but be warned, its lenghty....well worth the time of course.

g50-I'll look into it, but what you are saying makes perfect sense and I remember reading that somewhere anyway.

AB- thats cool man. i'll be running 5x5 again pretty soon anyway. hopefully my weaknesses are fixed by then, so i can add some more LBs to my RMs. then i can develop more weaknesses to work on....o fun!

 

[RipStone]

Westside, Week 1, Saturday, ME-Lower Body

sumo-deadlifts: (Some of you might recall that I orginally planned to do below-knee height rack pulls for my ME-lift. But upon further thinking, I decided DLs were the way to go cus rack pulls are much more of an upper body exercise and really dont have the best carry-over for DLs. As they say, you wanna get strong at [enter lift name here] do that lift.

-105x10 (SLDLs/warmup)
-135x5
-165x5
-195x3
-225x3
-245x3 (this set flew up and I got a really big adrenaline rush as a result)
-275x3(first rep was a little slow, but the rest were good)
-300x3-------> PR!! (I was checking my form for all these sets via a window on the left of me and my form held up pretty damn well with this set. Also, I was really inspired after watching a World Strongest Man re-run yesterday. These dudes were DLing a fucking conversion van!)

DB step-ups: (the step was knee-height)

-30sx10x3 (went real conservative with the load selection. These got my heart going)

Glute-ham raises: (performed on a lat pulldown seat)

-BWx10x3 (I did touch and go with these. That is, I touched the floor a little on the way down and then went back up pulling with my posteior chain. I am gonna have to switch exercises next week cus I dunno how I would add weight to these)

abs: 6 sets of various exercises (who really cares).

additional comments: really intense workout today. I am so happy I pulled 300! Also, I bought some Chuck Taylor's and DLed in them today....huge differnce.