Hi fellas,


Well, the four week program has come to an end. It was an interesting experience to train in such a prescribed and controlled way. This is really the first time I'd traine based on percentages, and it was very interesting to note how difficult things "felt."


I basically ran the program as written. I ended up following the DL stuff to the letter, and included the Dips as well. I ended up changing a few things though:

a) I never did the GM's, opting for back extensions instead. Sheiko GM's are not Westide GM's, but more of a light accessory exercise. The various back extensions were fine and they seem to do more for my back health than GM's.

b) I always did a press instead of a behind the neck press. I've never liked behind the neck presses, so screw 'em. I always cleaned the weight before pressing.

c) I always chose DB presses on a slight incline instead of flat presses or flies. I kept time and rested 60 seconds the first two weeks, and 90 seconds the last two weeks. I hit failure a few times, and just did more sets until I got my 50 reps.

Other than those things above, I followed the plan as written. It felt like a lot of work in the big three. I was benching almost every training day, and I felt like I was squatting a lot too. The repeats made squat days feel like the whole workout was just squats. The DL days didn't feel like this, because the program called for the regular deadlift and three variations. That broke up the monotony and was very much appreciated.


I've got a few things to mention about my experience with the program, so I'll just lay them out in no particular order.

1) The weights never felt all that heavy at all, especially on the Bench Press. Obviously, 85% for 2 reps is not that tough, but I expected to be more fatigued near the end of the cycle and for the weights to feel somewhat heavier. I never felt like it was going to be diffuclut to complete a set. This is interesting to me, as it means I've always trained closer to failure than the soviet OLY / PL coach recommends.

2) I always lifted explosively, which made the sets more difficult than they were on paper. I normally rested 90-120 seconds between heavier sets.

3) Despite the weight never feeling that heavy, there was a lot of tonnage per session. Most sessions took me about 90 minutes, a couple stretched to almost 2 hours, and each session was dominated by squats and bench presses, or deadlifts and bench presses. The sessions did tire me out, but it was a different tired than what results from higher intensities.

4) The first week and a half left me pretty sore, but after that DOMS was no longer an issue. The last two weeks didn't result in any soreness whatsoever.

5) There's lots of practice at weights that are only moderately heavy. This give you a lot of time to practice the lifts and work on your technique. I feel that my bench and deadlift technique have tightened up somewhat after completing this.

6) You get some funny looks and odd questions from the musclerag BBers in the gym. Especially if they notice that you've got back to the bench or squat rack for a second round, or that you've benched two days in a row.


I'm going to deload and then try to peak. I'll take this week easy, maybe do some light lifting and some easy cardio a couple of days, then I'll try to peak over a two weeks timeframe. I haven't written anything out yet, but when I do I'll post it and see what you guys think. I've got some ideas of what to do, but I've never planned a peak so it'd be good to have some input from other people with more experience than me here.

One last note; my weight increased to 201 lbs in the first two weeks, then it stabalized. I'd like to get back down to 198 lbs before I max out in a few weeks.

One last last note; I've pretty much stopped with the Cissus. I've got a handfull of capsuls left, but since I hadn't really noticed any effects from it I just stopped thinking about it. Maybe it does great things for healing bones, but it didn't seem to help me out with my issues. The physio visits I've had do seem to have helped to a decent degree, so that's a positive.

OK, thanks for reading,
Jeff