Keo, I am just brainstorming about westside not that I am planning on using it anytime soon but was wondering if a raw lifter could use the systems principals. For instance, you are suppose to work up to a max each week for up to 3 weeks on an exercises variation. I am wondering if it would be possible to maybe just change the rep ranges on the main lifts themselves rather than rotate exercises? How would you program for this if you wanted to keep overhead pressing in there and bench at the same time using these principals? Also for the deadlift how would you program it to where you can pull every week without overtaxing yourself? Also on speed work are bands and boxes absolutely necessary or would just using straight weight suffice?
I feel like I should be paying you for all the help you offer so if you want to give out paypal account I would at least give you a tip or something. If not well ok
I do think it's possible, because I ran a version of it earlier in my career with some success.
You could change the rep ranges as another way of avoiding accommodation, but it would be very hard to go in and work up to a new rep max for three consecutive weeks using the same exercise. Exercise rotation is sort of a must, but you could choose different rep schemes for each week.
Let's say you want to run a three-week wave with a regular bench press. You could work up to a max triple one week, then a max double, then a max single. Only beginners are going to be able to run the same variant with the same max-single approach for three consecutive weeks.
The exercises don't need to be that far apart. Variants on the bench press could include: a bench press, a paused bench press, a bench press with a two-second pause, a bench press with a three-second pause, a wide-grip bench press, a close-grip bench press, a wide-grip bench press with a two-second pause, a wide-grip bench press with a three-second pause, and so on. It's not like you have to jump between completely different exercises.
If I wanted to OHP and bench at the same time, I would do just that, but I would make one a ME movement for a cycle and one a RE movement. So, maybe my overhead pressing and OHP variants become my RE movements, and I do them for higher-rep range work.
You wouldn't have to use bands, but they would certainly help for DE training. Sometimes, I do my DE pulling without bands, but it's usually better (though not necessary) to use some sort of accommodating resistance. As far as a box goes, any sort of forced isometric phase could be a substitute, so a pause squat would be an option.
And I've been pulling up to a max for years; this is how I run many of my cycles. I just follow a basic Westside template: I usually work up to at least three singles at 90% or above and attempt a PR. But I rotate exercises constantly. This wave, I'm doing deficits with monster-mini bands, and I start at 4", then 2.5", then 1.5". Each week, I work up to a new PR single. Another cycle (like the last one, for example) I might do these for max triples, or max doubles. Deficits help me, so I return to them a lot.
Ultimately, I don't feel taxed at all from training this way. If anything, it's deadlift volume, not intensity, that wears me out, and this way I get in some quality work without having to do a lot of volume.
And no, lol, I don't want payment. If I don't want to answer someone's questions, I'll just ignore them.
