Westside Program

[IronFist]

Ford or El Pietro (or anyone else), do you have the details of this program? Can you post them, or where can I find them? I need a new bulking program.

Thanks.

IronFist

[SevenStar]

http://www.deepsquatter.com/strength/archives/dtate5.htm

Dedication follows their program, maybe he can help out.

[Ford Prefect]

Editted for my privacy... :)

Do you have any specific questions?

[IronFist]

Specific questions... uh...

Ok, I don't even know what Westside's training is like. I've heard that they're all really strong, etc., and I've heard their training programs are awesome. But, when people always mention Westside training programs, what are they talking about? Is there one that people use? Are there more than one? Ones with different goals?

So, here's a specific question: If there's only one, or one main one that people tend to make reference to, what is it?

Thanks,

IronFist

PS. Who is Tate?

[Ford Prefect]

Tate is Dave Tate. He is the main trainer at Westside next to Louie Simmons. He can squat 900 and bench 500, but his numbers are puny compared to some of the guys. Some of their guys bench 730+ and squat 1,000+. (Westside Barbell itself is a premier/invite-only powerlifting club) Basically these are the main points of Westside Training...

Most people train for max power in their lifts the entirely wrong way. Hamstrings and glutes are far more important for squatting than quads are. If the quads were really that important, then you could squat the same as what you leg press. Because of this, direct quad work is not done. The lower body workouts focus on your posterior chain.

The same is true for developing a truly powerful chest. In most cases, your chest is able to handle more weight than your triceps, so triceps take priority in upperbody training. However, strength isn't the only important factor in lifting maximal. Explosiveness and speed are essential as well. Because of this, two days are devoted to building the speed to blast out of the hole on a heavy lift.

The training schedule breaks down like this:

Monday: Max Effort Lower Body

Max Effort Exercise - work up to best set of 5 - 1
Goodmornings variation (done 70% of workouts)
Box Squat (done 20% of workouts)
Deadlift (done 10% of workouts)

supplemental exercise - 6-8 sets of 8-12
Cable Pull Through

Accessory Exercise
Abs - Hanging Leg Raises and/or Pull-down Abs (4x8-12)
Other - Glute/ham Raise or Reverse Hypers (3-4 x 8-12)

Wednesday: Max Effort Upperbody

Max Effort Exercise - work to best set of 5 - 1
Board Press or
Floor Press or
Close-grip incline Press or
JM Press
etc

supplemental exercise - high volume
Skull Crushers or
Dumbell Extensions

Acessory Exercise
Seated Cable Row (done because same plane as bench for stability) 6-8x8-12
Face Pulls 3x8-12
Rotator Cuff Work

Dynamic Lower Body

Dynamic Effort
Box Squat (done explosively) 8x2 -30 sec rest

supplemental
Romanian DL 4x15-20
or Pull-through 6-8 x 8

accessory
Abs
Glute/ham - Rev Hypers

Dynamic Upperbody

dynamic effort
Bench Press 8x3 (done exlosively) -30 sec rest

supplemental
Pin Press 7 x 5-1
or skull crushers 8x8

accessory
Seated Cable Rows 6-8x8-12
Face Pulls 3x8-12
Rotator Cuff
Shoulders

Unlike most conventional approaches, Westside training follows a conjugated periodization plan. This allows one to train for speed, max strength, and hypertrophy all at the same time. They developed this plan from Russian manuals on olympic weightlifting training. This is just a basic intro plan as far as their training is concerned. They use chains and bands in more advanced training. Articles can be found at http://www.elitefitnesssystems.com and club records can be found at http://www.westsidebarbell.com

Feel free to ask any questions. I'm cutting this post short because I'm tired of typing. :)

[Dedication]

Ah, Westside is a very large program and i have heard/and experienced good results.

However, i only follow the benching part of the program ( i work my legs with sprints). Basically 65% of your max rep on bench 3 reps explosively as you can, for about 8 sets. Do these with about 45 seconds rest between sets. Combine that with many pushups and you have one strong upper body.