Archives for general (page 15)

Ordered my Captains of Crush grippers directly from the US manufacturer Ironmind on 21 June. Today they suddenly broke into my flat via the mail box.

As you might know, I live in Finland. Therefore it was natural to first check the Finnish powerlifting web store Voimaharjoittelu.net, where they sell for 29 euros/33 dollars a piece. As they were out of the number ones, I also looked at the Swedish lifting mag B&K Sports Magazine webshop. They had all of them in stock, but at a price of 398 SEK/43 euro/49 dollars! What a rip-off! Not surprisingly, I settled for the 19.95 dollars/17 euro ones directly from Ironmind.

The States are still cheap for us Europeans; complete with air mail shipping a trainer and number one gripper cost me a total of 56.90 dollars/50 euro, which is 18 dollars/16 euro cheaper than Voimaharjoittelu.net. I do admire the latter site though, for keeping the prices very decent and not shamelessly ripping everyone off like B&K webshop seems to. If they had the number one in stock I would not have hesitated to support them as they sell some darn good equipment.

Plan to start on the grippers tomorrow. Hopefully they will help me hold on to those pulldowns and deadlifts!

More reading material

The final installment of Tate’s The eight keys is out. A great summary with stuff on GPP and recovery. In light of the example routines given it seems like, contrary to my earlier impression, that Tate does not recommend doing speed deadlifts every DE Squat/Dead workout.

Had the opportunity to sit down and watch the bench video. After watching every lift several times in slow motion, I must say that it looks better than I expected. Far from perfect, but the major elements seem to be there: arch, fairly tucked elbows (need to look closer at these though) and bar path (goes slightly towards the eyes, but quite straight up and down). No sign of the left elbow flaring in the bench either (unless the close-grips are counted… more on that later).

Watching the tape I got the bright idea of timing all lifts using a stopwatch (well, my Nokia mobile phone). For every lift I timed the whole bench (straight arms via chest to straight arms) and the press phase (chest to straight arms) three times and then calculated the average. The descent was calculated by the simple formula whole bench - press = descent. I didn’t pause the bar on the chest, so this should give a fairly accurate picture.

This experiment seems to confirm that 50 kg/111 pounds is indeed the proper weight for my speed benches. Recall that three reps should be performed within 3-3.5 seconds, which should be about the time needed to complete a true single. The press phase for each rep took 0.35s, 0.44s and 0.57s with the descent taking 0.47s, 0.59s and 0.56s. Calculating everything together gives 2.98s. Naturally there is a slight delay between reps which adds to the time, but then again I lower the bar somewhat faster on speed day. Give or take, this is pretty darn close. The 60% rule seems to hold very nicely in my case: 60% of the 85 kg/188 pounds is 51 kg/113 pounds.

The video also gives me some reason to again reconsider my sticking point and I conclude that it is indeed just slightly above the starting position for the floor press. Looking at the singles, 80 kg/177 pounds was the first set where straining started to become visible (this is also confirmed by the drastic jump in the press time, see table below). With 80 kg/177 pounds the speed decreased significantly when the arms were just above parallel with the floor, with the max 85 kg/188 pounds this is were the press came to a full stop before I powered it to lockout. After I gain more explosiveness off the bottom I expect the sticking point to migrate upwards. Floor presses and board presses seem the ticket.

Below is a break down of all first reps/singles for the workout:

weight	press	descent	rep total
40 kg/88 pounds	0.37 s	0.40 s	0.77 s
50 kg/111 pounds	0.35 s	0.47 s	0.82 s
60 kg/133 pounds	0.62 s	0.57 s	1.19 s
65 kg/144 pounds	0.76 s	0.43 s	1.19 s
70 kg/155 pounds	0.89 s	0.59 s	1.48 s
80 kg/177 pounds	1.86 s	0.59 s	2.45 s
85 kg/188 pounds	3.27 s	0.67 s	3.94 s
87.5 kg/193 pounds	-	0.62 s	-

Back to the elbow flaring issue. The last rep on the second set of close-grip benches is an extreme example: the bar goes up nicely to roughly the place were the normal bench gets stuck, then starts to glide in over the mid-chest without going much higher at which point the left elbow starts going out, the bar goes a little higher then glides further towards the head and then to full lockout with almost maximum left elbow flare. Will have to figure out how to correct this; it seems to occur whenever I get very close to failure with pressing/extension movements where the elbows are tucked in.

The third installment in the eight keys series by Tate is out. A really good look at the speed component of the Westside system that also contains some solid information on exercise rotation and overcoming weak points.

From what I gather, Tate recommends doing speed deadlifts for 5-8 sets x 1 rep @ 50% of max as a standard movement after speed box squats on DE Squat/Deadlift day. This is in contrast with the occasional 4-6 sets x 1 rep @ 60-75% load Selkäinaho mentions in his Westside manual. I rechecked the manual to make sure that he indeed refers to speed deads (pp 40). Speed is naturally the decisive factor for how heavy one should go, and as Tate points out the percentages should only be taken as starting points, so this difference in terms is no biggie. Still, I should probably consider lightening the load to get more speed and making the speed deads a standard part of my DE Squat/Dead day. That should also help keep my hams fresh for the ME Squat/Dead day. After I establish a baseline deadlift max at the beginning of the next cycle the percentages should become more meaningful.

My week of rest ends on Friday.

A few days of box deadlifting, stair squatting and door benching convinced me that it would be futile to attempt a hard ME Squat/Deadlift session today. Besides, all the boxes that now surround me in our new flat need some attention. Don’t even know where I put my training shoes.

Some 28 hours after yesterday’s workout I am indeed very sore in the posterior chain, notably the erectors and hamstrings, but also the traps and back. Although it is hard to say how much of that is due to the stiff-legged deadlifts, one thing is certain: a lot of good mornings soreness is to be expected ahead. Hardly news. Upper abs also sore from the cable crunches. Strange feeling; I worked the squat muscles but no quads. ME Bench day tomorrow, might go for a max to establish a baseline.

As I already hinted at in my walk-through of the Westside protocol on Friday, light days do not really exist as such in Westside style training. DE (Dynamic Effort) days are not light days geared towards enhancing recovery or practicing technique; they are explosiveness training, where the bar loaded with 50-60% of max is exploded as if holding max weights. Of course, this might give some benefits of technique training, but that is not the main point.

In addition to the main exercises (usually box squats on Squat DE and benches at varying grip widths on Bench DE) the Westside protocol also includes assistance work on DE days, in addition to the assistance work done on Max Effort days. In practice this seems to mean a big increase in training frequency for lifters, such as myself, who are used to training every muscle area once every seven to ten days. When this is combined with the observation that it is next to impossible to be in world powerlifting elite drug-free, it is easy to draw the conclusion that the Westside protocol is another example of a drug-assisted training protocol which is hardly suitable for natural lifters. I claimed earlier that I never fell for the common mistake of following steroid enhanced pro routines from Flex; the question is, am I now doing that mistake as a novice powerlifter instead? Caught in by the Westside hype?

Perhaps. At this point I believe a line has to be drawn between specific instances of the Westside protocol and the Westside protocol itself. Of course I don’t think I could handle the same program someone like Dave Tate does, even with the weights adjusted to my feather division. But I do believe that the idea of ME and DE days, the box squat and other ideas advocated by Louie Simmons are not some crazy concoction that only work in combination with Winstrol or liniments usually used for horses. As long as the total workload is adjusted to reflect the lack of anabolics and the personal attributes of the lifter, the general principles should work fine. I might be wrong, this blog will tell.

Quite frankly, I don’t see the Westside protocol as being a very high volume protocol. In its minimum form, it calls for a total of two exercises a week worked up to a max single (i.e. one for the squat & deadlift muscles, one for the bench muscles) as well as 8 submaximal sets of 2-3 reps on the bench and box squat with 50-60% of max. Although there are guidelines for assistance exercises, the amount of reps and sets done is everywhere said to be highly dependant on the weak areas and capacity of the individual lifter. Furthermore, the assistance exercises are not taken to failure, which lessens the muscle trauma somewhat. As Tate puts it:

[..] all sets should be stopped with the breakdown of technique and there should always be a rep or two left in you. Remember this principle is applied to all supplemental and accessory movements. These movements are designed to be exactly what they are: supplemental and accessory. The main goals of these movements are to complement the overall training program, not take away. By training to failure on every set you’d be taking away from the general purpose of the movements, which is to increase work capacity.

Personally, I’m not all that worried about not being able to handle working the same muscle areas twice a week given that the speed lifts on DE days are not likely to induce major muscle trauma as long as the weights are kept in the 50-60% zone. What I’m a little concerned about is doing accessory work for the same muscle groups twice a week. But even then, I don’t think it is all crazy and high-volume as long as the set range is kept between 2 and 4 for all exercises and the exercise selection is rotated. As an example, would it seem totally overkill to do 3 sets of lat pulldowns on Wednesday and 3 sets of dumbell rows on Sunday? Compared to a single 12 set back workout once a week?

That being said, I’m not sure that I can handle it being one of these guys that can have sore legs even a week after a heavy leg workout. I might or I might not. My point is simply this: if I don’t then I will simply adjust the volume down and/or increase the amount of rest days in between (like split the whole system up on ten days instead of seven). Someone on anabolics would probably do the opposite: add chains, sled workouts and occasionally do max lifts even on DE days. Plus add at least 250 kg/550 pounds extra to the bar… for the warm-up.

I will have to see what happens, but I think I should go easy on the assistance work in the beginning. Perhaps avoid it altogether on DE days, especially if I feel sore. One possibility would also be to split it up so that different muscle groups are hit on the ME and DE days (say, work for lats on Wednesday, biceps on Sunday) to avoid too much overlap. Or the body parts could be rotated (train lats with supplementary exercises only every other week). Although some might see such changes as being a step away from the one and only Westside protocol, I guess I will just go the extra step of calling it a modified Westside routine like so many before me.

Further readings:

Westside Barbell Club: Debunking the myths by Dave Tate. In this context Tate’s take on drug-free Westside as one of adjusting workload is especially interesting, although being a very general statement.

Body Type and Training Strategy by Charles Staley. Staley argues, among other things, that “Simmons has found a methodology that works for the majority rather than the minority” in terms of body structure.

Westside Training- Bony Style. An example of a modified 10-day Westside routine.

The Basics of the Louis Simmons Workouts. A discussion list excerpt from 1997, which touches on issues such as the evolving of the system and adapting the system for RAW lifters.

Training history

I’m 27 years old, 184 cm/6 feet tall and weigh in at a morning weight of 92 kg/203 pounds, not all of which is muscle (my beer belly seems too soft to be part of my abs). I started training in 1990 by selectively training just a few body parts (forearms, shoulders and arms) at home with a barbell. Somewhat later I got myself a Weider Cobra bench (a pretty good bench in the puny home bench department) and a better assortment of weights, which made it possible to train the whole body in style. I followed the excellent Health for Life training manuals, which advocate fast intensive workouts with a lot of supersets. During those early years I mainly viewed lifting as a supplement to my martial arts training, my main interest in life back then. I also did a lot of running, especially liking hard interval training (i.e., sprinting alternated with running). Although stretching several times a week, it was only in 1994 that I finally managed to go past the final stubborn inches and drop into full front and side splits without a warm-up (for that I thank Thomas Kurz’s approach to PNF stretching - if you want to get flexible fast this is where to go, although this one by Pavel Tsatsouline is also good covering a lot of the same material although in less detail).

Receiving my black belt in Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu after my 18th birthday in 1993 became a turning point. My interest started dwindling and two years later I was completely out of the dojo, now focusing all my energy on the gym instead. I also dropped the running, since I felt it was too detrimental for leg strength. By this time I had been training for a couple of years at a proper gym with my training partner Måns, although my home gym still saw the occasional workout. As is typical of hard training teenagers who follow sound training protocols (we never fell for the “Let’s follow this article in Flex” trap) we made good gains. When our local gym changed owners and suddenly turned into a machine gym, I started frequenting the gyms at the University of Helsinki, where I was studying anthropology and sinology.

As is to be expected, the ideals of anthropology (getting to know another culture through extensive fieldwork) and sinology (the study of China) do not mix particularly well with my training. My first stay in China during the summer of 1998 signaled the start of a long training break. The rigors of intensive Chinese classes combined with an extremely crowded and hot campus gym (around 35′C/95′F inside) made me want to concentrate on Taiji at 6 am instead. When I got back from China I gradually started training at the really nice and hardcore Gold’s Gym in Helsinki with my training partner, but a year later I was again on my way to Tibet in order to deepen my knowledge of the region. During the two years I was there I completely dropped training, since it would have been next to impossible in those conditions. Living in a high-altitude area on the grasslands with yak herders as your neighbors is not very conducive to training. Quite frankly, I didn’t see how push-ups and bodyweight squats would do much to keep my strength up. And there were no showers around either.

After returning from China in the autumn of 2001 I resumed training at Gold’s in September. After not touching a weight for two years, and eating whatever was available (mainly tsampa and yak meat during my second year), my results were initially not that encouraging. I only managed 6 reps with 40 kg/88 pounds on the incline bench and 8 reps with 70 kg/155 pounds in the seated cable row to give a couple of examples. But after grinding out set after set I was a lot stronger a year later (easily repping with 100 kg/220 pounds on seated cable rows to give a comparison). Then one injury at the end of 2002 was followed by another in the beginning of 2003, which kept me out of commission until March.

My baseline weights

My training history is one of bodybuilding training aimed at increasing the amount of weight lifted or reps done with the same weight, and it is in these terms that I have mainly gauged my progress. I have always welcomed the extra muscle mass that has come as a result, but that has never been my sole purpose for lifting. This realization is one of my major arguments for turning to powerlifting. After all, trying to get stronger on the type of training geared towards maximal muscle hypertrophy is like trying to lose weight by eating two carrots less a day. Sure it works, but slowly. In saying this I’m not criticizing bodybuilding in any way, I’m just saying that it is not optimal for strength gains. About a year down the line I hope to be able to put some figures behind that statement by comparing my strength gains as a bodybuilder to those as a powerlifter. Still, I wonder how many people are just like that wanting to get a big squat or a big bench by doing sets of 6-12 reps topped with flyes and cable work.

The difference in training methodology and the fact that I haven’t done any of the big three powerlifts (bench, squat and deadlift) continuously makes it somewhat hard to say what my current strength level is if I were to perform the lifts in powerlifting fashion. I’ve been a rock-bottom narrow squatter at least since 1995; I have been into deadlifts only occasionally, although stiff-legged deadlifts have been a constant favorite; and I didn’t really do much flat benching before a few months ago preferring incline dumbell presses instead. As far as max lifts go I haven’t been doing much of those either, although I have never been afraid of doing low reps in order to increase my weights.

That being said, I did do a powerlifting bout of training in the summer of 1996 between mid-May and the start of August following a typical three-day routine. During that time I stayed at our family’s summer cottage training at my own forest gym. The routine looked like this:

• Monday:
  Full squats 5x5, 1x8
  Incline Bench 3x5, 3x4
  Flyes 2x20
  Close-grip bench 2x20
• Wednesday:
  Deadlifts 3x5, 3x3
  Push-presses 5x5
  One-leg standing freeweight leg curls 2x20
  Side delt flyes 2x20
  Rear delt flyes 2x20
• Friday:
  Full squats (light, not to failure) 5x5
  75 degree Reverse-grip barbell rows 5x5
  Ballistic shrugs 5x5
  Pull-ups 4xmax
  One-handed preacher curls

As a result of this training I managed to get 2 rock-bottom reps on the full squat with 100 kg/220 pounds, and a single with 150 kg/332 pounds in the deadlift. One workout I tried deadlift partials from knee-height and got 5 reps with 160 kg/354 pounds. After having returned to a more typical routine I later did partials with 180 kg/398 pounds for five reps at the end of the year. On the incline bench I didn’t manage more than 5 reps with 70 kg/155 pounds (I think my best is a few reps with 77.5 kg/171 pounds). The narrow deadlift should be pretty representative, but the squat was a double and way below parallel. After this powerlifting routine I went over to a cyclical ketogenic diet on which I ended up staying well over a year, with only a few carb weeks spaced in between. At first I did it just to shed some weight (I dropped 15 kg/33 pounds, naturally also lost some muscle in the process), then I decided to continue at higher calories because I felt really great on it (if you read Swedish I have an article about the diet here). Quite probably, I was at my strongest ever before starting my diet.

As a comparison and gauge to where I am now, I offer my most recent training. After a six-week stint on the ketogenic diet, I started a basic powerlifting scheme in October using a two-way split. I slightly tore a muscle at the scapula in mid-November, probably something caused by deadlifts the day before. As a result I took one month off, but then I almost immediately injured something on my left side by very stupidly going too deep in the leg press (ironically, the reason I did this was because I had a very light weight on the machine, 130kg/287 pounds I think, and thought I would go really slow and strict to compensate? good thought, but going too deep is just plain stupid!). My last two sessions looked like this before the injuries (all with constant weight, attempting 5x5 on all exercises, except rope crunches and calf raises, which were for 2/3x10):

I started doing deadlifts in conjunction with this program and had not progressed much beyond working on getting my groove back. I started doing flat benches in mid-August, and had found a nice groove by this time (pressing without an arch and towards the head though rather than powerlifting style). I did incline dumbell presses for the pecs before this, getting up to 6x30 kg/66.3 pounds.

Getting back to lifting in mid-April I started a similar training schedule, essentially working up to the same weights as in the examples from November above (67.5 kg/149 pounds in front squats though). Also added stiff-legged deadlifts, in my last session on 7 May I did 10x90 kg/199 pounds (my best ever is 3x130kg/287 pounds touching the bar to the toes).

Diet

In light of my training weights, it should come as no big surprise that I am a 100% natural trainer who has never contemplated the use of anabolic steroids, and will never do so (this might have some implications for how closely I follow the Westside protocol, but more on that later). At the moment I don’t count my calories, but eat very healthy (no sugar or sweeteners, very little high-GI carbs and adequate amounts of protein in the form of eggs, meat and the obligatory tuna). I also take multiminerals, and post-workout I grab a shake with about 40-50g of protein and about 100g of carbs. I make most of the food I eat myself, eating very few pre-packaged meals. I don’t drink alcohol, except for perhaps a beer a month, and no coffee either. I take no medications whatsoever. At some point after getting into serious Westside style training I might have to consider looking into my diet more closely (familiar territory for me), but for now I think I have my needs covered.

Baselines are made to be broken

There you have it. Consider my weights puny if you want, but at least I have a lot of room for progress. In about a months time I will know what my starting weights for the powerlifts are. As recommended by Sakari Selkäinaho in his excellent Westside training manual (unfortunately only available in Finnish) I will take it easy for 4-6 weeks while working on proper form. After that I plan to make a chart available here at tsampa.org, which will make it easy to monitor my progress at a glance. I could probably write a few nice scripts to make it possible to view the data in different ways. We’ll see.

What is Westside?

Westside is the name of a small private powerlifting club located in Columbus, Ohio in the US. Given that this roughly 70 square meter club had by 2001 produced at least 20 lifters with a total score of at least 2000 pounds (907.5 kg), with at least nine of them capable of at least 600-pound (272.5 kg) benches, people have started to take notice. The leading figure is Louie Simmons, who named his club after the Westside barbell club originally located in Culver City, California (where one of the main exercises of the modern Westside protocol, box squats, was practiced long before Simmons came up with the idea himself). Simmons’s Westside protocol owes much to East Bloc strength research, which it has combined with novel ideas and equipment (such as the reverse hyperextension machine patented in 1993) to form a very unique approach to powerlifting. It is this protocol that I will follow in making my transition to powerlifting from a more bodybuilding oriented training-style.

Think squat muscles, not squats

I had the impression that powerlifting training consisted of training the three competition lifts (squat, deadlift, and bench) without much variation in lifting form, with assistance exercises thrown in to strengthen weak points. Why on earth would I think that? Well, as many of you no doubt know, strength is very movement specific. Change the width of your bench press or the hip angle in the squat just a little and your strength will decrease significantly. It seems then that a powerlifter can not afford playing around with his main lifts: nail the perfect form and then try to replicate it in every lift whether in training or competition. The deduction is clear: powerlifting training must be pretty boring!

If this is indeed so, then Westside must be a powerlifting funny farm. Instead of thinking in terms of the three big lifts, they focus their training on working the squat, deadlift and bench muscle groups. Don’t think squat day, think squat muscle day. Here bodybuilders need to shake the association: squat muscle day does not mean pumping the quads and hams, it means getting optimum leverage with as much muscle involvement as possible to get as much iron as possible on the bar. By focusing on key muscle groups instead of key lifts in training, Westside dictates that variation should not only occur in the assistance exercises, but also in the three big. In fact, they go as far as claiming that training the main lifts using the same form as in competition is not the best way to get good results.

Consider this: nearly all squatting at Westside is done off boxes, with the competition form saved for meets. Why? Because box squats overload the target muscles more efficiently than the competition form ever could, and because box squats make sure you get into the habit of breaking parallel on every lift. When that has sunk in, consider this: some 60 to 70% of all max effort squat training is done through different variations of the good morning, because good mornings are more efficient at strengthening the posterior chain (calves, hamstrings, glutes, lower back, upper back, abs, and obliques) than squats. And that’s also why you don’t need to do much deadlifting to get a really big deadlift.

Periodization Westside-style

Another impression of mine: powerlifters like training cycles as much as roidheads like injection cycles. Powerlifters like to split their training into different phases often based on some esoteric percentage calculations named after some East Bloc researcher for extra potency. At Westside, they call their periodization conjugated periodization …and they go through a full cycle every single week! So much for “easier months”: training at Westside follows the same format year round, with only minor modifications just before a meet.

The Westside training week consists of two main parts: Max Effort days (ME) and Dynamic Effort days (DE). On ME days the muscles are overloaded with weights in the range of 90-100% of the max (I don’t think I will ever quite think of good mornings in the same way again). On DE days the lifter works on speed and power generation (explosiveness), generally with 50-60% of the single rep max for sets of two reps with short rest periods (about 45 to 60 seconds). A two-way split is used: Since the muscles used in the squat and deadlift heavily overlap, they are trained on the same day, with the bench getting its own day. The basic scheme thus calls for four training days a week:

• Monday: Max effort Squat/Deadlift
• Wednesday: Max effort Bench
• Friday: Dynamic effort Squat/Deadlift
• Sunday: Dynamic effort Bench

One of the main ideas behind periodization in general is to avoid the dreaded overtraining: the body can’t handle loads above 90% for more than three to five weeks at a time before bad things will start to happen. The Westside solution is to cycle the ME lifts every to every third week. Of course, this is not done just to avoid overtraining, as variation is also the key to continual progress and is an essential part of injury prevention (not a good idea to keep grinding those joint from the same angle day after day).

In addition to main movements, the assistance exercises are also cycled. What exercises are picked and what the volume and resistance is depend on what weak points the lifter needs to work on. Exercises could be anything from Seated Cable Rows to Bicep curls.

Intensity boosters

Many methods used in bodybuilding to overload a muscle for better growth response are never used in powerlifting. Forced reps (where a partner eases the load to help you crank out more reps) deteriorate form and explosiveness, drop sets are simply not effective for building strength. Westsiders are more into overloading specific parts of a movement, which is accomplished mainly by the use of chains and rubber bands fastened to the bar. For example, attaching rubber bands from the base of the rack to the bar means that the movement gets progressively heavier the higher up the lifter gets, thus negating the better leverage at the top of the lift. Much the same effect is achieved with chains: heavy chains are fastened to the bar, which makes the load heavier the more chain leaves the ground. Another option is the use of weight releasers, which add weight to only the negative (eccentric) part of the lift on which more weight can be handled than in the positive (concentric) phase.

The use of chains and rubber bands is not restricted only to ME days, but can also be used on DE days. Three types of rubber bands are used at Westside: the strongest ones add up to 100 kg (220 pounds) at the top of the lift depending on how the bands are attached and how tall the lifter is (i.e. how long the range of motion is).

Intensity boosters won’t be an issue for me at this stage of the training, but I expect to have a lot to say about them later when I’m experienced enough to try them.

The workouts

Monday: Max effort Squat/Deadlift

1. ME exercise working the muscles used in the squat and deadlift: generally some type of good morning, could also be box squats with different bars or some kind of deadlifts.

2. Supplemental exercises for the trunk (such as abs, obliques or lower back)

Wednesday: Max effort Bench

1. ME exercise working the muscles used in the bench: benches with different grip widths, partials, board presses, floor presses, benches with rubber bands or chains…

2. Supplemental exercises as needed for the lats, triceps, and shoulders

Friday: Dynamic effort Squat/Deadlift

1. Box squats off low, parallel or high boxes as needed: always 8 sets of 2 reps.

2. Supplementary exercises as needed for the trunk

Sunday: Dynamic effort Bench

1. Bench press, often with different grip widths: usually 8 sets of 3 reps each.

2. Supplementary exercises as needed for the lats, triceps and shoulders

Closing the nutshell

The above should be a decent bare-bones introduction to the system. More meat will be added as I progress through the system and attain a deeper understanding of how things work. After all, that is the point of this blog.

Recommended reads:

Westside Barbell: Homepage of the club, where bios, equipment and articles can be found.

Westside Barbell style: Good introduction to the Westside protocol by Westsider Dave Tate (for those of you who missed the link on Wednesday).

Powerlifting Westside Style: Another introductory article to Westside training by Adam Mackinnon.

Getting Schooled Westside Style: A first-hand account of a squat day at Westside. Highly recommended.

I will cut to the chase and leave specifics for later: on Friday I will start to make the transition to powerlifting Westside-style. This blog is here to chronicle my progress. Although I hope someone out there will find this an interesting read, I am doing this as much for myself. I’m new to blogging, but I have this stubborn idea that this is an effective way of self-reflection, more so than simply scribbling in the training diary. Training under public review should also give an extra boost.

I am a complete novice in the powerlifting arena, but not when it comes to bodybuilding style lifting. A quick glance down at the line of folders holding my training diaries tells me that I first touched a barbell on 27 December 1990 at an age of 15; forearms at home with a newly-bought barbell, with a vision to improve my forearm strength and stability for the martial arts I was doing then. I have been training since, with the exception of part of 1998 and 1999-2001, i.e. when I was living in China. A couple of slight injuries this last year have made sure that I haven’t yet attained the strength I had back in 1998.

That’s all I have time for today; more specifics on exactly what I will be up to and what my baseline is next time.