Thoughts on Westside's principles, the conjugated method and training approaches
I have seen a great misconception with regards to westside's principles and their usage on this website and it has caused a fair amount of anger and drama. For my part in this I apologize to the community as a whole.
The basic principle to Westside is Do whatever makes you stronger, the openness and encouragement to experiment and switch exercises inherent in true westside style programming allows you to find the best movements for your lifting and use them effectively in a system that allows you to control intensity and volume in a way that they build on eachother (conjugation...) the same as an other training system.
Notice I say training system and not routine, Westside's principles are designed to be a comprehensive approach to training, conditioning, GPP, and development of a lifter as a whole. If you choose not to use the full system, that is fine, but know that you are dropping things that are designed to work together to complement and build up you as a whole lifter.
This is approximately how Wild Iron sets up our weeks, for more detail visit [url]www.wildirongym.com[/url] and look into buying our DVD which explains in depth, with examples of exercises, how to set them up and how to utilize them properly.
DE Bench
speed bench 8 or 9 x3 using pendulum wave from 50% (if you're shirted), 60% if you're raw.
1st accessory-usually another heavyish barbell movement focusing on a main weakpoint, often this is a floor press, board work, etc.
supplemental/assistance work
-lats
-triceps
-shoulders
ME Lower
Main Movement:
Squat or variant, deadlift or variant, good morning or variant, 3-5 reps over 90% whether that's a 3 rep set and two singles, or a double and two singles, or 3-5 singles depends on the lift, and whether you have an established PR and whether you feel up to breaking it that day. Very important: once you miss (especially raw, less important if it was a gear error) YOU ARE DONE with your main movement.
1st accessory: usually another barbell movement, often the opposite of what you did for your main movement, (i.e. if you squatted you'll do a deadlift variant), much lighter, not to a max or even close to thinking about a max.
Assistance/supplemental
-Hamstrings
-Glutes
-Lower back
-Abs
note: often assistance work for lower body days is overlapping, a GHR will work glutes and hamstrings, but you should likely hit 3-4 assistance exercises not including ab work.
ME Bench
Main movement: Bench press variant, again 3-5 reps over 90% with the usual goal of setting a new PR in that variant, but ensure that the 3-5 reps are done over 90%, no more, no less. if you fail after only 2 reps at or above 90% you may do a single drop set of a triple at like 80-90% BUT DO NOT FAIL again.
1st Accessory-much like DE bench day, a heavyish barbell movement, I usually do shoulders here b/c I have a weakness during lockout in the shoulders, doesn't mean you should, it means you should find your biggest weakness and hammer it. When my shoulders cease to be a weakpoint, I'll do something else here.
assistance and supplemental exercises will target the same areas as DE bench
-lats
-triceps
-shoulders
DE Squat
-Speed squats. every week. off a box most of the time if you are geared, if you are raw you should alternate. I recommend that contrast be used (chains or bands) if you are free squatting for speed you should use chains as bands will lock you into a groove that may not be optimal w/o a box.
8-12 doubles @ 50-60%, and yes it should be pendulum waved.
1st accessory is usually a deadlift unless you pulled on your ME lower day, don't pull heavy twice a week.
assistance and supplemental is the same as ME lower
-glutes
-hamstrings
-lower back
-abs
GPP and conditioning and so-called "extra work" can be done after your exercises are complete and are often encouraged for novices due to their lack of work capacity.
extra work should be done at home on off days. I'll do some scap retractions or pressdowns on wednesday nights with a mini band.
I hope this clears up some of the mystery surrounding the conjugated method. I'll try and add to this as I think about it more, and if you have questions, feel free to ask, though what I wrote above was not just a plug, the DVD that Marcus produced explains things very well and sometimes people learn better from seeing a video than from reading a wall of text.