help with the Westside template

Monday

 

How experienced of a lifter are you? Why not try the 5x5? Also what are your goals?

 

Don't let Sherpa hear you say that.

 

lifting for about 8 months now. i used to play football so had a little gym experience but i began with Starting Strength as recommended by some people on t-nation (i know) then made the jump to Starr's 5x5.

my goals? just to get bigger and stronger. as long as i'm adding new plates to the bar every session i'm happy. i don't have a magic number i'm aiming for.

 

Definitely start with the 5x5 furst. After a few months, then jump into WSB. You'll make better gains since doing WSb prematurely won't give you much gains.

Just my 2 cents

 

WSB is a good program and if you have already done a Rip and Starr 5x5, you will be fine on this program.

Most of what you do as assistance work depends on how hard your ME work was. As a general rule, your assistance work will vary between 5-20 reps depending on the exercise. A lot of PL, like to do heavy and high reps with lat work, but stay within the 3-8 range on exercises, such as GMs, floor press, etc. Most shoulder pre-hab work is done with light and high reps. Honestly, you have to figure out what works for you and what rep scheme has the greatest carry over to your ME lifts. This will require some experimentation. What matters is that you get stronger on your assistance lifts. This means you need to keep track of what you lifted and how many reps. Make sure you are either upping the weight or reps with your assistance work.

As far as rep schemes, check out some of the templates at Elite Fitness system (Also read their logs for ideas of assistance work). Look under "raw templates" and squat, bench and deadlift. One basic idea is to cycle sets of 5s, 3s, singles and then de-load. During the next time, try to beat your best set of 5s, etc. Honestly - the only thing that matters is that you are lifting at 80%+ and increasing the weight or reps. You induce overload so your body is forced to adapt. You will have to experiment on what works best for you.


Make sure to go to EliteFTS - Powerlifting and Strength Training Products and Knowledge for Lifters, Athletes, Coaches, and Trainers and read the logs and Q&A and you will figure it out.

Best of luck.

 

Holy God!

 

Read the articles. Search the q&a for westide and they have westide for beginners (not ws4sb.)

 

who the hell is sherpa? or rollindownrodeo? have I missed something?

 

Who the hell are you, Mr. February of 08?

 

Do you have a link for this? I can't find that program.

 

Nevermind. I found it.

 

Oh burn... you sir are creative

 

Sherpa just made a thread about hating on 5x5 a couple days ago lol

 

Yes, I hate it is the first thing that spews out of everyone's mouth around here.

 

Jump on the bandwagan and love it!

but really tho... it is amazing... and you are not...

 

Sorry, that was lame. I used to post on here a lot, but got really busy with law school and what not, and am just now starting to post again. Nice to meet you new sir.

 

Ouch that hurts my feelings. Its not really amazing. Its just over simplified garbage that is fed to beginners as an excuse to learn form. But lest this turn into my other thread; I fear they will come at me with torches!

You know nothing of my amazingness. Mom said I'm special...

 

Well played Sherpa... good to see posters who aren't super serious 24/7...:icon_chee