here is what i came up with for my workout which i put together after reading Joe Kenn’s book, Going with the Elite 3x5 tier.
Session T
Power Clean 3 rep max above 90%
Box squat with Chain 8x2 50-60%
Incline DB bench sets? reps?
push press/jerk sets? reps?
Lunges sets reps? sets?
Session L
Back Squat 3 reps max above 90%
Bench press with chain 8x3 50-60% different grips
Clean pulls from floor sets reps?
Step ups- sets reps
pull-ups sets reps?
Session U
Bench Press 3 rep max above 90%
Hang Snatch- 8x2/3 60%
Single leg squats reps sets
Bench row sets reps
DB snatch sets reps
Post-workout
Posterior chain (GHR, Reverse hypers,Goodmornings)
Shoulder work.
Neck. May rotate the post workout stuff.
Abs- done as warmup
If someone can help me with the set and reps schemes that im missing id appreciate it, how does the workout look. Any changes that i should make. thanks for the feedback.
i think your rep and set scheme is dependent on your specific goals.
if you look at the training logs of coach x and coach h over at elitefts, they don’t pr every week. for example, on your upper body day, the first week of bench you would work up to about 90-95% of your 3rm. the 2nd week would be a pr week for that excercise where you would work up to 101% or higher. then the following week you would switch exercises.
Did you see his post in the KSU thread? That should clarify some. Tier 3 could be 3 or 4 sets of between 6-12 reps. Tiers 4 and 5 are 2 or 3 sets of 8-12.
Also check the elitefts Q&A. Search Joe Kenn and you should find it. The right post will say something about ME triple extension and DE triple extension. If you’re going to do real ME and DE work, the tiers are organized a little differently and you’ll need to switch the ME every 2-3 weeks.
i will check out the ksu thread…but delldell, search some the elitefts archives since they go though some of this. also, go through coach x’s and coach h’s training logs to get a better idea of the system.
I don’t have the book, but I have a good idea of what the system’s like. The main concern with it is periodizing it. It’s an okay system to organize lifts, but managing volume and intensity can be a problem.
"Joe Kenn at Arizona State University does a fantastic job and utilizes a three day split. He currently breaks it up as:
Friday - a)DE upper, b)ME triple extension, c)combo volume
The reps for tiers 2 and 3 are determined by the template and cycle you choose. If training in the traditional - this means all reps match the cycle for the foundation exercises for example - if your foundation exercise is the squat and you are doing 10’s all other lower body exercises are done for 10’s If you are using the elite template and the conjugated approach this will be based on the rotation and the strength trait you are trying to develop. Effort work would be 1-3-5’s - Speed work would be multiple sets of 1-2-3’s based on a percentrage 45-60% and Volume work usually would fall between 8-12"
“if you look at the training logs of coach x and coach h over at elitefts, they don’t pr every week. for example, on your upper body day, the first week of bench you would work up to about 90-95% of your 3rm. the 2nd week would be a pr week for that excercise where you would work up to 101% or higher. then the following week you would switch exercises.”
Coach H (Kenn hmmm) works in a 2 week cycle for ME work. He shoots for near 3rm on week 1 and a 1rm pr on week 2. Just like CC said. check out coach H’s log at elitefts.com.
Total body lifts with the Rep method are trained in the 3-6 rep range (tier 3-5)
Other tier 3-5 lifts are done 8-15 reps, usually 8-12.
1 Leg tier 3-5 lifts are done for 5-8 reps/leg
Tier 3 seems to be 3-4 sets (I’d shoot for 4)
tiers 4-5 are 2-3 sets. (I’d use 2)
As a side note I like the 3x3 tier with lats and Post Chain hit hard after plus the typical cool down.
In reading the book and looking at the logs at elite it seems that the post chain is hit with one movement for 3 sets of 10-15 reps
I like your exercise selection etc… I hope this answers some of your questions
Another thing,
In my experience, I really like cycling 2-3 high rep (15-20) sets to failure in place of the ME movement to deload the nervous system. This is suggested by many westsiders, but I don’t know of many, besides serious WSB’ers really heed the advice. It will help alot.
occasionally to mix it up westside will do lactic acid training (3 week block) for the upper body mainly, i think they use to do ball presses for 3 sets of 20 but i thought i read they were moving away from that.
from the training logs, it looks like they like to use 2 week blocks and then rotate the main exercise. one week is an acclimation week to the exercise and the following week is a pr week, then switch to a new exercise. i’m sure 3 week blocks would work fine as well.
templates are foundational and elite.
the tiers are effort(max strength), speed(explosive strength), endurance, mobility. in most cases, the main lift for each day should either be an effort or speed exercise. It seems like Kenn likes to follow the TLU rotation within each session. So for Session T the rotation of exercises would be T(effort), L(speed), U(edurance), T(edurance/mobility), L(endurance/mobility). For a Session L, the rotation would follow as L, U, T, L, U. Session U would look like this, U, T, L, U, T.
obviously, the protocal above is for 3x5 elite. if you were in-season, 3x3 would be used and each day would only focus on 3 exercises - effort, speed, endurance/mobility.
I know I’ve read about unloading ME lower movements with belt squats somewmere. I usually unload with high rep 1 leg squats (back foot on bench) or something similar. I’d do 2 two week ME rotations and then follow with an unloading week. You could go longer, but this keeps me menatlly fresh. Otherwise I dread the ME work and my 'cuff acts up with the bar on my back all the time…
A three week block of ME work will work well too. Id go 3rm, 1rm, 1rm or 5rm, 3rm, 1rm. In the end, as long as you are breaking records most westsiders will tell you to keep the movement.
The cycles are speed, strength and volume primarily.
This gets kinda too my question about CAD training with a tier. My CAD idea was to perhaps have a more speed oriented cycle (Plyo’s or ballistic, DE and ME work rather than DE, REP and ME). It was just an idea I had for athletes who are weak in speed strength and reactive ability.
Does the program look good to devolp the VMO, think i mentioned that i had ACL 2x on my left knee and the VMO is still lacking, should i do any specfic exercises say post-workout or did i set things up in order to properly rehab/devolop the VMO.
From what I’ve read VMO is developed with full squats. These could be used as a tier 3 exercise on session U. You could do them 1 1/2 style emphasizing the bottom range. I’d then do 1 leg squats as a tier 5 on session T.