Westside training log -- the main run

[majutsu]

This is my newest training log.

My other training thread was my serious beginning at all of this. It's interesting to see some kinks get ironed out, but now I'm going to focus more on certain mesocycle goals. In addition to an improved understanding of this kind of training, the other thread was so long it was taking forever to load. Lastly, I've been reading Science and Practice of Strength Training by Zatsiorsky, so now that I have some new ideas and knowledge, I wanted a newer, streamlined thread.

I did some release and catch benching on Saturday, but it was a bust. With the low loads necessitated by the safety factor and the coordination requirements, I felt like it was a waste of time. However, I did really enjoy floor presses as an accessory. I enjoyed them so much, I'm going to chain suspend the floor press and do them as a max effort. Plus I need more chains because I want to accomadate my resistance as much as possible on dynamic day.

The other big change is understanding CFm(the competition max) versus TFm (the training max). Basically 90% CFm is a good training max, and I am going to shoot for 3 or 4 sets of doubles. Then I want to progress to 91% 92% etc. I also want to progress with the dynamic work. I am focusing on strength of my box squat and shirted bench in this mesocycle. I will use box squats and good mornings mostly on max day and bench and floor presses on max day. 3 boards with bands and rack lockouts will function as accessories a lot. Stiff-legged deads and sit ups will be the accessories for the power corset. That's the map for this few weeks.

 

[majutsu]

6/12 Sun
ME-L
Parallel Box
135x1
225x1
315x1

355 (90%)x2x3

SLDL
135x8x3

Situps
15x6x3

 

[pgsam]

looks like youre having fun, cant wait to see how it goes. where did you get Science and Practice of Strength Training? did you order it? anyways, good luck

 

[majutsu]

Got it online, try amazon.

From now on, I'm not going to list warm ups, as you guys know how to warm up. I'm also not going to name the days. You can see upper or lower body, and you can tell what I'm doing (maximal or submaximal) by weight percentages. This ought to streamline things so it's clearer to see what I'm doing and where I'm going.

I've realized some things about this kind of training. Really, maximal is not really for mass or great raw strength per se. It's actually the best neurologically training to teach the muscles to fire simultaneously at heavy weights, like your event. So you want reps, to reinforce that. 90% for 4 sets of doubles builds a better foundation of strength and a better neurological groove.

And "dynamic day", is really submaximal day. Where moving the weight with maximal velocity at submaximal weight has been shown to increase the maximal force Fmm. So there's carry over.

So dynamic day is for strength (why the frequent use of accomadating devices like bands and chains). And max effort day is to train the neurological groove!?! I had it backwards.

Without further ado. . .

6/14 Tues
Loose shirt bench
295(90%)x1
x2
x-
(aspire to 90%x2x3 next time)

Chain suspended floor presses
185x4x3
(aspire to x5x3 next time)

Wanted to do rack lockouts but was a long workout so far. (aspire to improve GPP -- may add parachute sprints )

 

[majutsu]

6/16 Thu

Parallel box
215(55%)X2X5

SLDL
185x4,185x5x2

Sit-ups
15x7x3

 

[majutsu]

I have begun to understand some things I was doing wrong. Max effort work does not build much muscle. Because of the low amount of mechanical work, only so much protein synthesis is encouraged. Max effort is for neurological training, to teach the muscles to fire together. This is why so many substitute movements of the same time can be used.

Dynamic work is to increase the rate of force development. Like in a car, it would be decreasing the 0 to 60mph time. This enables you to get closer to your isometric (pushing against a wall) strength, your max force, early in the movement. The idea is that the bar has more momentum at the weak points of the movement. It doesn't build muscle either. I think the term explosiveness training would be more descriptive.

"Accessory" work, which sounds optional to me, is actually very important. It is the only thing that will build muscle and increase your strength (except for some neurological enhancements for the other work). It is the only training the contributes to the muscle (not nerve) aspects of strength. Training to failure builds muscle and strength, whereas submaximal effort builds muscle but not strength so much. This difference is because of the motor unit corridor concept.

So "westside" is really synchronous firing training, early explosiveness training, and strength building. I was overemphasizing the first two neurological modalities, and not the building of muscle. So after some early efficiency gains, I hit a plateau, because of muscle-strength limitations.

6/18
Bench
165(55%)x2x5

2-board
185x7x3

Rack lockouts
185x6x3

Pull-ups
BWx3x3

 

[majutsu]

6/19 Sun

Close stance GMs
295x1

Single leg squats
BWx6x3

Bulgarian Step-ups
95x12x3

SLDL
185x6x3

Sit-ups
15x8x3

 

[majutsu]

6/21 Tue

2 board
225x1
275x-

medium grip raw bench
185x5x3

Rack lockouts 6"
185x7x3

Pull-ups
BWx4x3

 

[majutsu]

6/23 Thu

Parallel Box
215 with 1 pair chain X2X4

Single-leg squats
BWx7x3

Bulgarian step-ups
105x12x3

SLDL
185x7x3

Sit-ups
17.5x6x3

 

[majutsu]

I feel my workouts lately have been a little more successful. Some of this has to do with beginning to understand the purpose of the three main training modalities in Westside.

If you look at a movement like the bench or squat, there is a certain strength curve represent the force exerted at each point along the movement's path. If you put the movement path on the x-axis of a graph, and the force along the y-axis, you get a graph like that below:

Movement force graph

If you do repetition to failure training, you get muscle mass, which over time increases your strength throughout the whole curve. In all the graphs that follow, the dark line is a new strength curve representing the effect of the one type of training under discussion.

Repetition to failure enhancement

If you do max effort work, you don't really have enough volume to grow much muscle. But you teach the very fast and strong fibers to fire synchronously in the movement of your sport (namely the powerlifts). Any movement like the sport movement, especially as it is of the same duration, will do for this max training. Anything about 90% of the competition max will do, the so-called training max. You are teaching the brain and nerves to fire the muscle you have better, peaking the force.

Max effort enhancement

The dynamic work is essentially to improve the rate of force. In a strength curve, the movement (at maximum) is very slow. So the best effort is essentially where the peak is. If the peak is 400lbs, your max is 400lbs. But if you could somehow develop a little more force earlier in the movement, the bar will have a little momentum at that old "sticking point". So the same individul might hit 420lbs or more due to an improvement in early force development.

That is the idea of dynamic work, to shift the strength curve to the left and attain peak force earlier in the movement:

Dynamic effort enhancement

Putting all this together helped me out. Most significantly, dynamic and max effort work essentially involve improvement in the brain and nerves, not the muscle itself. So by overemphasizing these two, and minimizing repetition to failure work, my muscle mass was de-training. So while my maxes went up at first due to neurological improvements, the numbers eventually started to fall as the muscle mass to support them was no longer there. While such emphasis on max effort or dynamic work could certainly be a good 4-6 week mesocycle, it could not be the basis for successful training. So now I started a great mesocycle based on repetition to failure. I will follow this with a max effort based cycle to consolidate the muscle gain into tangible improvements in my lifts.

This is how I'm trying to think of this stuff now. It's a constant learning process.

 

[majutsu]

6/25 Sat
Bench
165 with chains x2x4

Medium grip raw
185x6x3

Rack lockouts
195x5x3

Pull-ups
BWx5x3

 

[majutsu]

6/26 Sun

Rack pulls
365x1

Zercher's
95x5x3

Single-legged squats
(BW+10)x5x3

Bulgarian step-ups
115x10x3

SLDL
195x5x3

Sit-ups
20x5x3

Not only is the load increasing in this mesocycle, but the number of exercises is also slowly growing

 

[majutsu]

6/28 Tue

3-board
275x1

medium grip raws
195x5x3

military press
95x5x3

Rack lockouts
195x6x3

Pull-ups
BWx6x2
BWx4

Very smooth. Very much enjoying this. The time on the max effort was about the same as my max bench, a perfect neurological fit. These are also training maxes, not true maxes. About 90%.

The hypertrophy work shows that increasing volume. Another exercise has crept in! Military's are awesome. That's all I have to say.

 

[the koala]

i really thought about doinge like 2-3 sets of heavy 2-3 reps as a max effort exercise

since my numbers a low an my experience little i thought that 'higher' reps would be beneficial

however i don't know how i should cycle it, either just going by feel and working up to 2-3 sets of a heavy double/triple as a ME exercise for three weeks and putting on 5lbs each week

or maybe 'old school' periodization as an ME for 3 weeks with continous weight increase and rep decrease


another thing i consider is doing it like you have written it in your log - doing a ME exercise and working up to a 1RM and the first assistance exercise on ME day will be some high intensity stuff with 3-5 reps for 2-3 sets


basically i'm thinking of planning my training like wendler wrote in one of his articles - ME day = high intensity low volume day, DE day = low intensity high volume

i have written some 9 weeks plan some weeks ago, i will take a second look on it and post it here afterwards

 

[curgeo]

If you guys want some insight how we went about coverting from bodybuilding to powerlifting, please check out my journal on AF. It has a full year of journals (except for the last month) and is interesting due to the revelations that are noted I believe. It might help to know that we all started in powerlifting one way and had a lot of the same questions when we started. It is a continous evolution of learning. Here is my log. http://anabolicfitness.infopop.net/2/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=702093973&f=6013051876&m=313104442

Check out JoePalookas training journal as well. The guy is 198 and will have a 600+ bench at the wolverine open this year. Lbs for lbs he is the strongest guy I have ever met. Joe log http://anabolicfitness.infopop.net/2/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=702093973&f=6013051876&m=363103642


You can also check out our team at http://midwestmuscle.org/

If I can help you in any way maj let me know. We are all learning and if you have any input in which you might think will help please don't hesitate to offer some constructive criticism.

 

[majutsu]

great journal curgeo! Thanks a lot.

7/1 Fri

Parallel box
215 with 2 chains x2x4

Zercher's
95x6x3

single leg squat
10x6x3

Bulgarian step-ups
115x12x3

SLDL
195x6x3

sit-ups
20x6x3

 

[majutsu]

7/2 Sat
Bench
165 with 2 chains x2;x3;x3;x2

medium grip raws
195x6x3

military press
95x6x3

rack lockouts
195x7x3

pull-ups
bwx6x3 (!)