Guerillas Westside journal~please critique

[guerilla]

3rd day of 9 week Westside program:

DYNAMIC SQUAT DAY


BOX SQUATS:.................135x2 for 10 sets all bar speed.

no reverse hyper machine in my gym
does anyone know a substitute???????

ABDOMINAL PULL DOWNS.............80x10reps for 3 sets

ONE LEG SQUATS................45barx10 on each leg for 4 sets

TRAP SHRUGS......................135x15 for 4 sets

ONE ARM ROW.................80lb DB x 8 reps for 3 sets

threw in DB curls...............35's x 8 for 2 sets



good workout my legs are shot. my lower back is aching a little?

something i noticed is there isnt much deadlifting in this program, could i add those in?

also my forearms were pumped for two hours after this workout?


any critique greatly apprecited?

[BPP]

yeah, my westside didnt do much DL either, made me sad :(


i didnt have RH, so I did direct hammy work eg: machines instead...also if u want DL, and need hammy, do SLDL!!! :)

[Ashford]

Instead of reverse hypers you can elect to do normal back hypers. That is what I do since I don't have access to the reverse hyper machine.

Looks pretty good, you need to try to keep your lat and arm work on your bench days and concentrate on exercises that assist your deadlift and squat on dead/squat days. Usually for my dead/squat day I do something like:

Main Exercise
Lower Back Exercise
Ham Exercise
Shrugs
Ab work

Low box squats along with the assistance will help your deadlift, especially if you are using powerlifting form on your squats which means you sit back and keep an arch and your lower leg perpendicular to the floor. Something I do is to throw in deads as a ME exercise right now I rotate GM, dead, and squat as my ME squat/dead exercises.

Looks good though, just keep reading and learning and don't be afraid to tweak. One thing I've found can help a lot is to not only rotate your ME stuff but also when you do that rotation rotate out one or two exercises.

[Fullback_45]

Goodluck bro. You'r going to progress fast I bet with westside. Alot of people do. Keep up the solid work!

[guerilla]

thanks guys. good info.

today i was supposed to do sprints, but i had a training at work, that was a very physical outdoors training that lasted 8 hours, unfortunately, i only got to eat three small meals today, so i hope that wont hurt me too much for tomorrows lifts :(


tomorrow will be dynamic bench day, will post.


today i did have some serious elbow pain. does anyone know what i should do for that? maybe some of those neoprene braces????

[guerilla]

alright guys, today was DYNAMIC BENCH DAY>


stretched, warmup

Flat bench: warmup with bar, warmup 2sets w/ 135
10 sets of 160 for 3 reps.

concentrated on good form and back arch. and explosive bar speed. came down fast went up fast.

Dumbell tricep extensions: 4 sets of 30 lb dumbells for 8 reps

concentrated on good form

Shoulder flys: 20 lb dumbells 4 sets for 10 reps.

good form.

Machine ab crunches: 3 sets 80 lbs. for 10 reps.


workout felt good. shoulders a little sore during workout. elbows hurt again during and after workout. (I love icy hot)

any comments or suggestions??????

[Fullback_45]

Looking real good bro. What did you do to your elbow? Sometimes my elbow kinda hurts during sets on bench, but it wears off before the next workout. Nice workout.

[John Promise]

I'm not going to critique yet...want to see the whole picture before suggesting changes, but numbers look really good.

And if you want to throw in more deadlifting on squat/deadlifting days, go ahead. There is a lot of flexibility with WS, so if you can mix up exercises however you want within the parameters of the split.

[guerilla]

thanks guys. my elbows just both started hurting after my ME bench day. I think my joints just arent used to maxing out yet.

im gonna take the next two days off and then it will be ME squat day :)

[Ashford]

If your joints start hurting regularly go get some flax oil and start taking it. Should help you out in that department. Looking good though!

[guerilla]

yeah ive been taking Flax and it must be helping b/c my elbow pain is subsiding......i also havent worked out in two days, which may be helping.

alright guys this is a good one for critique.

this morning was ME SQUAT day. (why are there no squats on squat day)??????

ill start off with telling you what the program calls for, then ill tell you what i did!

It calls for:
ME good mornings
glute ham raises
reverse hypers
pull down abs
straight leg raises

heres what i did and why

ME GOOD MORNINGS:
45x3
65x3
85x3
105x3
125x1
140x1
140x1
140x1
didnt want to go to heavy.this is only my second time ever doing GMs and i want good form

ME DEADLIFTS (just because i love them)and i didnt go real heavy on GMs.
barx3
135x3
155x3
175x3
195x3
205x3
225x1
235x1
250x1
felt like i could have gone alot heavier, but this is only my third time doing DLs and concentrated on good form.

STIFF LEG DB RAISES
20sx20
20sx20
20sx20
good form

AB PULLDOWNS
70x15
70x15
70x15
70x15


thats about it. just a few questions though. why are there no Squats on ME squat day? and could i substitute DLs for GMs on a regular basis (not too fond on GMs, but love DLs)????????????

[John Promise]

Yeah, do what you want. WS isn't set in stone and you're supposed to change it up frequently anyway. The exercise program is just a guide...gives you an idea to what you're supposed to do, but a lot of people don't have access to GHR or RH machines. One of the things you even see is to not set your program until you set foot into the gym...don't let your body expect what is coming.

Otherwise, your program looks good so far.

[guerilla]

Somebody please help me with this. tomorrow is ME bench day. I plan on doing reg. flat bench. and then next time i will do board BP. im gonna switch exercises like every two workouts. My ME max before was 267. How much should i go for tomorrow??????

or should i even do flat reg. BP..........should i switch to board presses now????????

[Fullback_45]

I think you might be a little to critical here. Generalley alot of the westside guys dont touch the flat bench often and use boards, floors, cg, cg boards, cg incline, incline etc etc. HOWEVER! Take some baords tomarrow, get your warmup going and all, then if your feeling good, 275 babie on the bench! Or you can just hit some tripples on boards. Mix it up bro!

[guerilla]

thanks fullbck will try next time.

today was ME bench day

sad sad day :(

ME flat bench

barx3
barx3
135x3
155x3
175x3
205x3
225x3
245x1
275x0

oh the failure
im so pissed at myself
once i tried 275 i couldnt get 267 like last time

i will do board presses next time.
do you think i tried to go up to quickly?

anyway then i did

BOARD PRESSES

225x3
225x3
225x2

DB SKULLCRUSHERS

35'sx8
35'sx6
35'sx4

DB shoulder fly's

15sx12
15'sx11
15'sx10

today felt like a crappy workout :(

[John Promise]

Numbers are still strong, but I'm thinking you did increase too much. You jumped 20 pounds until you hit 245, then you jumped 30...might have been too big a jump for your body.

BTW, what board are you using?

[guerilla]

yeah your probly right. next time i will do five pound increases.

I was just using a 2x4 from work. is this right or do i need something else????????????????????????