Westside powerlifting program

Cliff w. March 19, at pm. March 27, at pm. May 21, at pm. May 30, at pm. On a dynamic day, do you base your percentage on the true 1RM? Thanks a lot! June 6, at am. What is meant by - working up to a 3 rep max, what does this look like? How many sets are required to get to this last sets, etc?? June 7, at am. Mike, Same way you would work up to a 1rm, only you do triples the whole way. June 8, at am. Joshua Boultinghouse.

June 17, at pm. Great article, very informative. My question is what is the recommended height for the regular box squat on dynamic effort days? June 18, at pm. Zach Santangelo. August 22, at pm. I really like your idea on skill days. Geraldo Rivera. September 5, at pm. If you're just a recreational lifter do you think it's okay to max out every session and rotate a few variations of the main movement every week? Linear Progression is the Key to Providing Longevity.

June 16, at am. July 31, at am. What do you recommend in terms of progression, specifically for speed work? Do we keep using the same percentage of the same 1rm, or do we add pounds per cycle? Or something else. Thank you! September 6, at am. Interesting Item Dave. But from what I see is a pretty intense job, and I really liked that you compared Powerlifting; with a marathon. That is, I look forward to having enviable marks in RAW very fast. November 15, at pm. I just wanted to say this was very well put together.

Great work Dave! December 6, at pm. I just translated this into an easier to read for me spreadsheet so I can more easily log everything. I also included a few accessory lifts that I need to do to get past some limitations, such as 1-leg squats I hate them, but the only way to get better is practice.

I will also be incorporated bands in order to get more variation out of the options provided. I will be starting this template on 16 Dec The final three weeks are spent deloading and peaking. It is important to note that max effort day work is often substituted for rep work, sled pulling, and other less intensive means during the circamax phase. In the last week, meet week, after the circamax workout, only short, simple workouts to enhance blood flow are performed.

These workouts would include things such as reverse-hypers, glute ham raises, and abs. For those unfamiliar, traditional western periodization usually involves spending weeks working up to a set of 10, then another weeks working up to a set of 8, then another weeks working up to a set of 5, and so and so forth down to singles for a meet peak.

In other words, hypertrophy and strength are developed sequentially along the intensity continuum. This is essentially block periodization. He also chaffed against the idea that all of these qualities should be developed at separate times. So, in Westside, you have full days dedicated to certain qualities. You have dynamic effort day which is dedicated to speed and max effort day which is dedicated to strength.

On both days, high reps are used on assistance movements to further hypertrophy. Western periodization, ironically, was developed as a response to the ineffectiveness of concurrent periodization for advanced athletes! In terms of periodization, Louie had actually gone back a step, added some new twists, and completely renamed something that already existed.

Westside, in terms of periodization, is periodized most appropriately for the early intermediate trainee. Because the program features a weekly mesocycle just like, say, the Texas Method.

Now, exercise selection is varied greatly on Westside, but this is not the same thing as programmatic variation in intensity and volume. Westside has a reputation as being a program that only works for lifters on drugs. In my opinion, the structure of the program is the root of this criticism. Why do advanced athletes need periods of emphasis on one quality or another? Because they only have so much recovery ability and as you become more advanced, you need more and more work to improve a quality.

If you tried to improve all qualities simultaneously, the amount of work it would require would outstrip your ability to recover. So, in essence, certain qualities are improved separately or sequentially while others are maintained in order to prevent overtraining. What is the best way to drastically boost your overall recovery capabilities? Performance enhancing drugs! Rather than relying on more complex periodization models to make progress, rather than even manipulating volume from week to week, you can take drugs and simply recover from more overall work.

This allows one to use concurrent periodization for MUCH longer than the average trainee will be able to. With drugs, the genetically gifted can use an early intermediate style of programimg right up to the very highest levels of powerlifting — it happens all the time! In my opinion, this is not sustainable for the natural athlete as they progress into later stages of training advancement.

Performance enhancing drugs increase overall recovery capacity. Again, Westside does not feature significant variation in volume or intensity from week to week. You max out on the max effort day every single week.

You hold the volume constant on dynamic effort day by reducing your sets as the intensity goes up. However, Westside DOES feature significant variation in terms of volume and intensity from session to session.

As you can see, the dynamic effort day is up to four times as much volume as the max effort day. That said, dynamic effort day also uses far less intensity. In a lot of ways, this contrast is very similar to the Texas Method.

And, in fact, in Practical Programming , Mark Rippetoe offers suggestions for how to transition the Texas Method into a Westside template as one becomes more advanced.

This is nonsensical and non-specific. Most raw lifters just completely ignore this aspect of Westside. Louie claims that the stretch reflex does not dissipate for 2 seconds and maintains even longer in trained athletes. Westside Barbell is a state of mind. Best Sellers of View All.

View Certificates. Related Products. Let customers speak for us from reviews. Great bag. Tom Bryson. Andrew Kuno. Mitchell Moore. Shirt fits well and comfortable! The floor press is like a bench press except you are laying down on the ground. This exercise is great for overloading the top half of the bench press because the range of motion is shorter than a regular bench press.

There are many other max effort bench press exercises that you could use. The important thing is to change the exercise each week to avoid training plateaus. The bands add a tremendous amount of tension in the top position of this exercise. If you have never performed a rack deadlift with quadrupled monster-mini bands then you have to give this exercise a shot!

The Westside crew also uses several different specialty bars for squats and good mornings. Some of their favorites are the safety squat bar and the giant cambered bar. Here is where you can buy them:. So how often should you perform a squat, deadlift or good morning on the max effort lower body day? Louie Simmons has changed his mind on this a lot over the years. He felt that the good morning was the best exercise to develop the maximal strength needed in the hamstrings, glutes, and lower back.

There was just one problem: the Westside Barbell athletes were weak on the deadlift. They had huge squats and bench presses but their deadlifts lagged behind. He told his athletes to start maxing out on the deadlift once every 2 weeks.

This was in addition to the speed deadlifts they performed every week. Keep in mind Louie Simmons is always experimenting. The only people who really know what Louie is doing are training at Westside Barbell in Columbus, Ohio right now!

The dynamic effort method is one of the most important parts of the Westside Barbell training program. Louie Simmons started using it in his program because he could not recover from 2 max effort workouts per week. When he alternated back and forth between max effort and dynamic effort workouts he was able to make progress again. The dynamic effort method is all about lifting lighter weights as explosively as possible. Here is what speed sets on the bench press should look like:.

The powerlifter is lifting the weight as fast as he can on every single rep. This is what you want! The truth is the dynamic effort method has several advantages for the serious powerlifter:. The Dynamic Effort Method Advantages. One of the big advantages of the dynamic effort method is it improves your rate of force development.

This is another way of saying it makes you more explosive. This is important because the strongest lifters are almost always the most explosive lifters. The more explosive you are the easier it is to blast through your sticking points on the squat, bench press or deadlift. For the dynamic effort bench press you are going to perform sets of 3 reps with 60 seconds rest between sets. Louie Simmons believes 3 reps per set is best because it mimics the amount of time it takes to perform the bench press in competition.

These training percentages could be even lower if you use bands or chains on the bar. The most important thing is that you explode the weight up on every rep. Here is what your dynamic effort bench press sets should look like:.

The Westside Barbell training program uses a 3-week wave for the dynamic effort bench press workouts. Bench Press With Straight Weight. Louie Simmons really likes to use chains and bands on his dynamic effort bench press workouts. Sometimes he uses both chains and bands on the bar at the same time! These tools teach you to explode the weight up to lockout and make your workouts that much more effective. Louie Simmons says that Friday is the most important training day on the Westside Barbell training program.

This is the day you train the dynamic effort squat and deadlift. If you are using bands and chains then you would stay closer to the bottom of this range. These percentages are not set in stone. However, they should serve as a very useful starting point. In the fourth week you would lower the weights back down and start a new 3-week wave. The speed deadlifts are always performed right after the speed squats. There are two main ways that you can perform speed deadlifts: from the floor or in the rack.

The speed deadlifts from the floor are performed for sets of singles. Here is a perfect demonstration of the speed deadlift:. You can either use straight weight or bands on these singles. Louie has a strong preference for doing speed deadlifts with bands but either method will work. Dynamic Effort Deadlift With Bands:.

This is what Westside Barbell did for speed deadlifts for the 80s, 90s, and even the early s. These bands were quadrupled so that they offered dramatically more tension in the top position vs the bottom position. The rack pulls themselves are normally pulled from inches off the ground. Rather than doing single reps Louie had his athletes doing sets of 3 reps.

This is an absolutely ungodly amount of volume but the Westside crew seems to be thriving on it. Once gain the percentage denotes the total tension from weights and bands at the top of the lift. If you are new to the Westside Barbell training program then I recommend you stick to performing your speed deadlifts from the floor for singles. However, if you are more of an advanced lifter then you may want to experiment with the speed rack pulls for triples. The rack pulls are far more demanding on your recovery system but well worth the effort if you can handle them.