Chupa, how long do you rest for you hills and ext sessions?
And what type of weight split do you do?
Can I implement the Westside for Skinny Bastards program into this type of program?
Hey man
I’m only new to this so I’m probably not the best person to be getting advice from but I will try and answer your questions.
Currently my weight split looks like this:
Saturday – Front squats, Reverse leg press, Ham curl
Monday – Reverse lunge, Pull throughs
Wed – Bulgarian split squat, reverse leg press, Romanian dead
All exercises are currently at around 3x10, but will progress as follows:
Week 4: 3x10
Week 5: 3x10
Week 6: 4x8
Week 7: 4x8
Week 8 4x8
Week 9: 4x6
Week 10: 4x6
My upper body strength is currently a long way ahead of my lower body strength, so I am not really focusing on it at the moment. If my goal was to increase upper body strength I would include a bench and row variation on Sat/Wed and an overhead press and pullup variation on Monday.
I believe that Westside programs always tend to include max effort work, so I am not sure that this type of training would be suitable during GPP. The WSFSB program might be suitable during SPP when max strength is a major focus, but I’m not completely sure. One thing to consider though is that WSFSB is designed for football players, and they probably aren’t doing a very high volume of running, so it might be too hard to recover from if you are following a Charlie Francis style sprint program.
With regards to recovery on hill days I have been keeping them to around 30 seconds for each ten meters. As I progress through GPP the recovery time will increase and by week 10 the runs will be off full recovery. If you have some spare money you should get the GPP DVD. It comes with a pdf file containing a sample template which includes the rest periods for each hill workout.
With extensive tempo the rest period is 30 seconds between reps and 60 seconds between sets.
Here is what I have planned for my max strength phase in SPP:
Sat – Back Squat, Reverse leg press (2x5-8), Pull through (2x5-8)
Wed – Back Squat , Romanian deadlift (3x5-8)
Squat progression:
Week 1 – 3x6
Week 2 – 4x5
Week 3 – 5x4
Week 4 – 3x4 (easy)
Week 5 – 4x3
Week 6 – 5x3
Week 7 – 6x2
Week 8 – 3x3 (easy)
Weeks 8-12 – strength maintenance
I will also do some upper body stuff, but I haven’t worked out what I will do yet.
Just curious why you chose the exercises you did:
Why not something like this, while keeping most of ur exercises
Sat: bsq/rev leg press/ham curls
Mon: rev lunge/pull throughs
Wed: front squat/rev leg press/rdl
If i had to put together ur gpp program:
Sat: bsq/rdl
Mon: deadlifts/hypers
Wed: bsq/rdl
The reason I didn’t choose back squats is because I lose the arch in my lower back when I go below parallel. I am doing full front squats to try and improve my flexibility, and am practicing my form on back squats with just the bar. I will add them into my routine later on in GPP.
The one leg stuff is in there because I had a serious knee injury around four years ago and my right quad is still noticeably smaller than the left. Hopefully the one leg stuff will help me even out the imbalance a bit.
I really like the second option you listed, but don’t think it is suitable for me until I can sort my form out. I might follow that plan during my secong GPP phase.
If i was you i would bsq but only go down as far as ur flexability allow, you should read CF comments of front squatting.
Tamfb, could you please critique my max strength phase as well.
Is the routine that I listed a couple of posts back compatible with a L-S program?
give me some time, im playing spades right now.
Are you winning?
I don’t start SPP for around 6-7 weeks, so there’s no need to rush on the strength phase question.
Also I will take your advice in the squats issue. I can get pretty close to parallel, so that will do for now.
456-410, im winning
what does he say about front squats, and where can we find it??
Sprinting is back dominant and when you perform front squats you have to perform more total lifts to keep things balance.
For example: back squats
mon:
back squats
rdl
thur:
back squat
rdl
For example: front squats:
mon:
power cleans
front squats
rdl
rev hypers
thur:
power cleans
front squats
rdl
rev hypers
As you can see the front squat workouts has more lifts which can cause a problem in spp when intensity is high.
Changes:
Sat: back squats/rdl
Wed: back squats/rdl
Example:
squat
sat:
3x3x85
3x2x90
3x1x95
3x2x80
3x3x87
3x2x92
3x1x97
sat:
3x3x75
3x2x80
3x1x85
2x2x80
2x2x72
2x2x77
2x1x82
week 8-12maint:
2x3x75
2x3x80
2x3x85
2x3x85
2x3x85
I think he also mentioned it in a thread about an article on Asafa Powells training.
The article said something along the lines of Asafa doesn’t do back squats because they are too dangerous, so he does front squats instead. It then went on to say that he does three times as much posterior chain dominant strength work as quad dominant work.
Charlie said something like that would not be necessary if he did back squats instead of front.
Thanks for that Tamfb.
The cycle you posted looks good.
edit - What set rep scheme would you recommend I follow for RDL?
I havent started the program yet as my finals are going on, but as soon as my final exams are over, my school year is over.
Im gonna get my job and get that gym membership as well as continue training and sprinting on the track as I was born to do.
As of right now, I used the school gym since I had access to it. Now that the school year is over and summer is here, I have to find an alt.
I’ve squatted 250, deadlifted 225, and benched my weight 165.
When I squatted, I had the barbell behind my neck and set it on my traps, so what is that considered? A back squat? Or a normal squat?
That’s a back squat.
Generally when someone says squat, it’s assumed that they are talking about a back squat unless they specifically say front squat or overhead squat etc.
Hmm, sounds about right.
Week 4
Saturday
Posted earlier
Monday
Intensive tempo (posted earlier)
Weights - Reverse lunges (50kgx10,8,8), Pull through (14 plates x 8,8,8), Seated row (27x12, 30.5x10,10)
Wednesday
Hills - 5x10m, 5x20m, 5x30m
Broad Jump - 6x2
Weights - Bulgarian squat (45lb dumbbels x 8,8,8), Romanian deads (60kgx10, 70x10, 80x10), Reverse leg press (120x12,12,12)
Friday
Extensive tempo - 1500m @ 65%
Week 5
Saturday
My right achilles was feeling slightly sore today:mad:, so I decided not to tempt fate by doing the Hill session I had planned. Instead I just did some easy tempo work. 1000m @ 70%
I started taking creatine 5 days ago, but today I read a post saying not to use in if you are having tendon problems. I was planning on using it for the remaining 6 weeks of GPP, but have now decided not to use it.
The tendon is feeling fine now, so hopefully this won’t turn into a long term issue.
Weights - I took tamfb’s advice and dropped front squats for back squats
Squat - (60kgx10,10,10), Reverse leg press - (160lb x 12, 10), Ham curls - (50x10,8,8)
I’m pretty annoyed about having to miss todays hill sprints. Overall I feel pretty good though
Can’t wait bro!
I’m starting my training Monday!! Yes!!
Now I dont have to sit and read yours while you’re training your ass off.
It hurts to just sit here and study for exams.
YES SCHOOL IS OVER!!!