Thread: Westside 3 Day
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Old 07-08-2008, 07:25 PM
Darkhorse Darkhorse is offline
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ME days are basically doing a total of two sets greater than 90% of your max FOR THAT DAY. In other words, there won't be 1-3 RM's, but rather more work orientated. That goes for singles or triples. Personally, I much prefer my lighter set first (which is still heavy, but the lightest of the three), then my heaviest set second. For example, I just did 2 board presses the other day and ended up with 315, 365, 330 for singles (paused for a one count).. Definately not my max, but since I'm cutting it's more than I thought I'd get lol.

DE days I'd like to see anyone new to speed days err on the side of lighter weights lol. So if your bench press is 275 x 1, I'd start with 50% of that which would only be 135 lbs for 9 x 3 (45 seconds between sets). If you can easily do three reps in the time you can say, "one mississippi", then add a little more weight for next time. For beginners, I wouldn't really recommend the wave loading that I do only because you're learning and oftentimes it becomes too easy to sacrifice speed for weight which totally defeats the purpose. That said, if it's too easy, then by all means lol.

The key aspect to keep in mind is that you want a bigger bench, squat, and deadlift. By concentrating on that by doing variations, it yields a very high carryover to all your other "cosmetic" lifts. What I tend to do for supplemental work for my bench days is doing my DB presses with a neutral grip because of how much more it recruits more triceps into the lift. Sometimes I like doing that for seated DB presses as well. Additionally for my triceps, I like doing my first supplemental after my max effort bench a heavy triceps press vs. something more chest orientated since triceps are that important. Things like JM's, straight bar skullcrushers, rack lockouts, ect. Do that for a couple of months, then next thing you know when you gravitate towards an RE Bench day for a break, you'll be benching a lot more weight which bodes well for muscle mass.

Lower body is quite different. Using heavy squat variations followed by either a high rep deadlift variation (dimels, rack, SLDL) or better yet some gluteham raises (a lot of the time) to hammer your hammies will absolutely increase your conventional deadlift without even touching it. Again, I prefer a squat variation alternated with a deadlift variation.

And again, I must point out that beginners can and SHOULD work the actual lifts themselves whenever possible. Variations are more paramount for advanced lifters. So in your case, you could certainly do a max effort deadlift (conventional) for 2-3 weeks without a problem. Beginners and intermediates can definately get away with keeping the same lifts for a few weeks before rotating hands down. Shit, even now that I'm in deficit mode, I'm using a two week rotation hitting a 3 x 3, then a 3 x 1 before rotating.
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