Calm down. I am not calling you out about your knowledge of westside or anything like that. There is no need to get fired up over this. I swear the three topics that always lead to heated arguements are politics, religion, and athletic training.
I misinterpreted what your definition of high repetition was. I had assumed you meant very high repetitions(as you mentioned their repetitions for 2-5 minute sets, sleds, ect.) versus the 10-15 repetition sets that you meant. And for that I am sorry. Perhaps, in time, you will find it in your heart to forgive me for my errors?
But anyways, this is was what I was trying to get at in my last post. The repetition method has alot of advantages. It is great for adding muscle and pretty good for adding strength. Both of which is important to a lifter(or really any athlete.) Force production is submaximal due to fatigue as you stated. This is what I was getting at. Great in conjunction with strength and dynamic work. Not so great for force production by itself.
Completely understandable. One of my good friends tried to quit not too long ago. He was irritated constantly by just about everything for about 2 or 3 weeks. Good luck with that.
WOW…thanks for the very thorough explanation,i like that sample plan. Sorry for my ignorance but What are Dumbell Bench Blasts? Also on my density/endurance day would it’d be total body? Like i would do my Barbell Squats,then Jump Squats, then move on to say Bench Press, and Pull Ups, and then plyometric pushups for explosive work? Tell me if i have this correct.
Sample Power Endurance Day
Barbell Squatx1setx55%xmental or physical failure
Jump SquatsxAMAP in 60seconds
DB Bench BlastsxAMAP in 45seconds…i know i only do 1set of squats but what about the other two leg exercises would 1set be enough to start off with till i got used to this stuff?
Bench Pressx1setx55%xMental or Physical Failure
Plyo PushupsxAMAP in 60seconds
Pull UpsxAMAP in 60seconds
2/20/2007 GPP/2 Minute Drills
Jacobs Ladderx30sec
JJx30sec
HK DB Pressx30sec
Med Ball Slamsx30sec
Repeated 5times non-stop for a total of 10minutes straight
Neck Harness Extension2x12,Band Neck Flexion2x50
Standing Wheel Rolloutsx5x5
Russian Twistsx3x6
Leg Raisesx2x10
*Dumbell bench blasts.
You put one foot on a bench which is about a foot high. Utilizing the step up lift technique, you step up so explosively that it becomes a jump. “bench blasts”. The bench is low enough to enable the movement to be explosive. You land with same foot on bench that you jumped with, and your other foot touches ground a tad later and immediately explode back up, driving from the leg that has foot on bench.
*Yes, on density/endurance day,(or u may prefer to call it power endurance) you work the whole body. The bench press/pull up stuff would be later in the workout.
*The one set of squats is on the density/power/endurance day, but remember that on “strength” days (where you may do a more classical set up, of lower rep/ heavier weights) you would do more than one set of squats.
You wrote;
“…i know i only do 1set of squats but what about the other two leg exercises would 1set be enough to start off with till i got used to this stuff?..”…Westsidewrestler.
I don’t know what your current leval of fitness is, but judging by your workouts, I think you are ready for this training. I don’t know if you are asking me if you should start of with just the squats plus upper on endurance day-untill you get ready to add afew more exercises, or if you are asking me if those 3 exercises are enough to condition the lowerbody on that day. Well, do those squats, and depending on how you feel within say, 3 minutes or maybe more afterwards, you can decide weather or not your lower body still needs xtra conditioning work in that gym session. You will be the best judge here, but remember, wrestling is partly about digging deep when you feel like you are running out of steam?
Side note; don’t do xtra leg stuff if it is going to get you injured, only do xtra leg stuff than what is mentioned if you can recover from it.
Remember, you need high protein content to help avoid injury.
The work at the begining of leg work, and the sets at begining of upperbody work in same session are the most important bits, anything that follows early set/s is if you can handle it.
Have you ever read any of Matt Furey’s books? He has some great stuff for conditioning and combat athletes in particular. My only problem with Matt is he doesn’t recommend weights. The rest of his stuff is pretty good though. I do the squats and pushups and the numbers he puts up are challenging.
I gotcha on the bench blasts now, thanks for the explanation. I’m gonna include my power endurance day on wednesday, now i am debating about whether to do 2 total body workouts on monday and friday or just do upper maximal on monday and lower dynamic on friday and then the following week reverse it upper dynamic on monday and lower maximal on friday. The reason being is becasue i don’t know if i could recover well from 3Total Body lifting days, on top of 2-3 High Speed Conditioning days. So my split would look like this.
Week1
Day1-Maximal Strength(Upper)
Day2-Conditioning
Day3-Power Endurance Day
Day4-Conditioning
Day5-Dynamic Strength(Lower)
Day6-OFF or light conditioning
Day7-OFF
Week2
Day1-Dynamic Strength(Upper)
Day2-Conditioning
Day3-Power Endurance Day
Day4-Conditioning
Day5-Maximal Strength(Lower)
Day6-OFF or Light Cardio
Day7-OFF
I have never read any of his books. I’m a big fan of Ross Enamaits work. I got both his books and use his conditioning workouts and the results have been great.
The above seems fine to me, but I originally thought you was talking about total body sessions anyway. That is why I suggested the power endurance/density days could “also” be total body.
Here was your original idea below;
Day1-Maximal Strength
Day2-High Speed Conditioning
Day3-Strength/Muscular Endurance utilizing Barbell circuits and/or 3setsx15-20reps
Day4-High Speed Conditioning
Day5-Explosive Strength utilizing complex training,plyometrics, or submaximal weights
Day6-Light Aerobic Conditioning or OFF, although if I really need it I could add another High Speed Conditioning day
Day7-OFF
When you typed the above, where would the lower body work have been, and where would the upperbody work have been?
If you are used to splitting upper from lower work, I’d see no reason to change that. However, when people do split training, they usually have 4 weights sessions a weak, 2 for upperbody, and 2 for lower.
That you had 3 strength sessions typed, is why I mistakenly thought you wanted to do the classis 3 x total body sessions a weak.
If you are trying to split 2 x upper and 2 x lower in to 3 sessions, the training program will become un-symmetrical, and will be cuase for more adjustments amongst other things.
Please tell me, what was your original idea for where you WANTED to split/or not/ your strength sessions, upper and lower body?
Give me an example training template along the lines of your original idea - just write where you wanted upper body work to be, what day/s lower work would be in the weak.
I Want the power endurance day to be a total body workout. I guess my thinking is i can’t decide whether total body or upper/lower would be better. I’m terrible with constructing total body workouts, where as upper/lower i can use the westside template. My original template was with the intent of doing total body 3days a week, however i got to thinking that it maybe tough for my legs to recover from 3lifting sessions on top of my conditioning training. With the one day upper/lower sessions with the total body power endurance day i thought it maybe easier for me to recover from? I’d much rather utilize a total body training plan i’m just worried about recovery, but i guess the only way to find out is to try it out, i can always switch to an upper/lower if i find i can’t recover.
That would be my sample template, i’m set with my conditioning days and my power endurance day, i’m just not sure if my above lifting program for maximal and explosive strength is even sub-optimal? Like i said i’m not the best around at constructing total body lifting programs but that was what i came up with. I don’t think it’d be wise for me to do dynamic box squats on top of the other two squatting sessions, my knees prolly couldn’t take 3 squatting sessions on top of conditioning. Like i said i can always switch to upper/lower on monday and friday if i can’t recover well.
Here’s what i had in mind with an upper/lower split.
Example Template
Day1-Upper(Maximal Strength)
Bench Press Heavy Triple
Chin Ups 4-5setsx3-5reps
Face Pulls 2-3setsx15-20reps
Day2-Conditioning
Day3-Power Endurance(Total Body)
Day4-Conditioning
Day5-Lower(Dynamic)
Box Jumps 6-8setsx3reps
Unilateral Movement 3setsx8-15reps
Posterior Chain 2-3setsx6-10reps
Then week 2, Day1-upper would be dynamic and Day5-Lower maximal.
The power endurance day will always be a total body lifting day, regardless of whether day1 and day5 are total or upper/lower.
Like i said i’d rather utilize a total body approach i just don’t know if my legs would recover from 3lifting sessions(on top of conditioning), where as upper/lower split my legs would only be hit twice. Any suggestions?
So in closing Days 2,3,and4, are already determined…day2=Conditioning,day3=power endurance(total Body),day4=conditioning. Now i’m just deciding on whether Day1 and Day5 will be total body or Day1=Upper,Day5=Lower.
They are good example templates, that clearly illustrate your points.
If you do the upper/lower split template, there will be up to 3 consecutive days with no conditioning or leg work. (Days 5-upper, days 6 & 7 rest.)
So if you go 3 days a weak without lowerbody stimulus or conditioning, that wouldn’t nesesarily be a good use of the 7 day weak. I wouldn’t go more than 2 days without some leg stimulus considering what you are trying to achieve as a wrestler.
So how about after the upper body on day 5 you do maybe 10mins of skipping (if you get the time)? I’d say that would be a very good program, with hardly any change to your above upper/lower split template.
Your “total body” strength sessions template is also good. To me, it seems just fine.
You are exactly right on that one. I think you’ve been thinking wayyyy too much on your lifting program. When it doubt, keep it simple (may not be the correct quote, but along those lines!) Keep workin hard.
2/28/2007 Dynamic Upper Body
-Speed Bench Press w/straight weight, 175lbsx8x3reps,210lbsx2x5reps
-Med Ball Chest Passes 3x6reps
-Chin Ups 4x5,5,5,3reps
-Lat Pulldown w/thick Double D handle 3x30seconds
Ground Based Abdominal Circuit:Sprinter Sit Upsx12reps,Crunchesw/pausex15reps, Side Crunchesx12repsx3circuits,rested 1minute between circuits
Notes:For those who have followed by journal, in a recent post i mentioned how i was struggling with finding the “perfect” program, and that i kept switching workouts. Well obviously that is not the best way to train for maximal results and quite frankly i got sick of switching workouts all the time. So what i did was i went back and looked over all my training logs(that i keep myself) from the past year and a half to see when i was most successful and what program/template i used. Well the conclusion i came to was that the traditional 4day Westside template was easily where i obtained the most success, it was quite disheartening to to see how far my strength has dropped, granted a year ago i was 250-255lbs and now i weigh 190lbs but still it was very disappointing. To put it into perspective one of the workouts that i came across while going over my old logs was when i hit a 675lb Reverse Band Box Squat for 3reps. From now on i’m training with nothing but the westside template. WESTSIDE till i die…lol!!
Thanks for the kind words. I’d prolly be stapled to the floor if i even tried a 525lb reverse band box squat now…lol. I was training for a powerlifting comp,that i never did anyways(AAU RAW Nationals) when i hit that. Sometimes i truly regret losing 65lbs, as i never realized the impact it’d have on my strength levels. But as they say you gotta give to get, and my conditioning levels are 100x’s better now, then they were then.
3/1/2007 ME Lower + Conditioning circuit
-Box Squat(1 inch below parallel) 405lbsx5reps
Conditioning Work:No Rest between exercises
A)BW Squatsx20reps
B)Reverse Lungesx10reps each leg
C)Dumbbell Swingsx10reps
D)Jacobs Ladderx30seconds
E)Burpeesx5reps
Repeated 3times, rested 60seconds
Bodyweight=190lbs
Notes:Very, very pleased with todays workout. I’m really excited about the box squat, the first three went up pretty good, reps 4&5 however were wars…nonetheless i got all 5reps. The conditioning circuit, while it didn’t look like much on paper to me, whopped my ass big time, expecially after the box squats. I thought for a minute my pre-workout shake was coming up…lol. Well i won’t be able to train tommorrow, as my dad and i are leaving early in the morning to head out to Columbus,OH(Westside Barbell territory), too hopefully meet and get autographs of my favorite UFC fighters. I hate missing training days but tomorrow will certainly be worth it.
