Westsider's Training Log

[Westsider]

15/11/09
DE Bench Press
9x3 Bench Press
OHP heavy set of 6 40kg. My OHP strength has declined which absolutely sucked. I guess its because when you do HSPU's you only go through half the range of motion of the OHP.
JM Press 62.5kg 7 reps. Should've left it at 6 but what the hey.
Weighted Pullups 3x3 15kg

[Westsider]

17/11/09
ME Squat/Deadlift day
Good Mornings off of pins 3RM 100kg. Tried 105kg only but only got one. These were higher up than before because I wanted a ME exercise that would benefit my squat more. I seem to pull with my hamstrings on this movement. Since I'm doing good mornings as a ME exercise I don't think I have to be too concerned with making sure that the movement is all back.
GHR 3x4 once again the bench was broken and I had to do these on a decline.
Seated good mornings all the way down. 3x10 20kg. Just started this exercise so I wanted to keep the weight light.
Straight legged hanging leg raises 3x3 I'm getting sharp pains in my quads at the top of this movement. I don't know why.

Just had a massive binge. I am now starting Dave Palumbo's keto diet. When you start the diet you can't have any direct sources of carbs for two weeks. This will be a big test of my willpower. It will also help me out financially. I want a body like Ivan Stoitsov. Hopefully when I have lost 5kg of fat I will have something that resembles it although it is likely that I won't have as much size as him since he was 77kg in the picture that I saw. I will be doing cardio 3 times per week on the days that I'm not weight training. 30 minutes moderate intensity cardio. I will increase it as my test on the big 3 gets closer.

[muddy]

Plugging away solidly as per usual I see! Do you periodically do a powerlifting total, or how do you assess your progress and what is working over months, rather than over a week?

[Westsider]

I plan to do a test in the big 3 one week after I have finished my last heavy pull in mouse's garage. This will be the first time I have ever maxed out in the big 3. Its exciting but at the same time nerve racking. I want to be able to say I have done these lifts on singles for sure without making estimates based on reps. I asses my progress basically by seeing if the total volume of each of my workouts goes up every week. I used to test it on whether or not I gained weight but I think seeing if you are lifting more is a much better way of looking at it. I am in heaven right now as I am continuing to lift more weight despite cutting down. I think this will continue so long as my body has enough fat to use as energy.

17/11/09
30 minutes moderate intensity cardio on the treadmill (heart rate below 120bpm).
My traps are really starting to show now. My shirt seems to always slant to one side whenever I turn my head. It feels weird when you get off of a treadmill. Like you are walking faster than you really are. Perhaps its because I haven't stepped on this thing since I was in secondary school lol.

[Westsider]

18/11/09
ME Bench Day
Incline BP 6RM 80kg
Rope Pushdowns 3x10-12 17.5kg
Weighted Chinups 3x3-4 15kg
Ab work

[Westsider]

20/11/09
DE squat/deadlift
Box Squat 10x2 80kg
Deadlift 6x1 105kg
Wide Stance Hack Squats 3x10 120kg
Seated Good Mornings 3x10 57.5kg
Ab Work

[Westsider]

21/11/09
DE Bench Press
Bench Press 9x3 50kg
OHP heavy set of 5 42.5kg
JM Press heavy set of 5 60kg
Weighted Pullups 3x4 15kg

[Westsider]

22/11/09
ME Squat Day
130kg box squat. Flew up like a dynamic effort day squat. Tried 155kg twice but failed. I think I would have managed this weight if I had better technique. When I stood up with the weight it felt lighter than it did several weeks ago. I think my technique on the lowerring and lifting portions were off. I don't think I forced my knees out when I was lowerring it and when the time came to lift it I always ended up keeling forward. I think that was because I kept on forgetting to push back against the bar with my back first. My hips came up before my back so my alignment was screwed. The next two weeks I will do heavy sets of 5 on squat without a box one week and heavy sets of 5 on the deadlift on the next. This will hopefully get my technique sorted for my test.
Dumbbell Stiff Legged Deadlifts 3x10 10kg Just fed up of doing GHR's on a broken bench. Forcing my to do declines before I'm strong enough to do them.
Low Back Machine 3x10 60kg. These reps were slower. I tried to do the seated good mornings but my left front delt felt like it was going to rip off after a few reps.
Ab Work.

[pagangoddess]

Nice squats Alex!

Will you be doing the heavy sets of 5 on ME days?

It's good that you are self aware. It makes trouble shooting form issues easier. Do you have someone that can watch you or did you learn it from reading & watching videos?

[Westsider]

Thanks PG. Yeah I will be doing heavy sets of five on ME days instead of the variations. I think this way I can prime myself for heavy weight and get my technique sorted without burning myself out.

I've mostly learned squat technique from watching videos and reading articles. You can only learn so much from reading though. Only through doing sets with heavy weight will your body become accustomed to good technique. Since I have done so much reading I can tell where my technique is off by looking at where I failed in the lift and how my body was positioned at that part of the lift.

I really hope I can get this sorted though.

[Ghost]

130kg box squat?! That's some ridiculous amount of weight you're doing
I don't know how the program you're doing works, so I was wondering just how many reps/sets were you doing? What does DE, ME and JM mean?

[Westsider]

25/11/09
ME bench day
Wide grip BP 5RM 85kg. The bar was getting really slippery. Decided to leave it at that.
Panora Pressdowns 3x10 20kg
Weighted Chin-ups 3x5 15kg Time to move up to 20kg woop woop.
Close Stance Hack Squats 3x10 140kg
Band Pull Aparts 3x10
Side Rack Pulls 3x10 20kg

Ghost its best that you read Louie's articles on www.westside-barbell.com. He will give you all the answers to your questions. You can also find a tonne of info elitefts.com.

I've been looking at old school strongman training method and I was thrilled by one of Paul Andersons strength feats. It was a back lift with over 6000 pounds!!!!! Does anyone know any information on this lift. It looks like a great ME exercise that I could use in my next training cycle.

[Westsider]

27/11/09
DE Squat/Deadlift Day
12x2 75 kg Squat Decided to go without the box because I want to get used to squatting without expecting to sit onto something. I'm also really trying to make sure that I pushh back against the bar with my back first before I engage my hips and my hamstrings. This was my mistake when I tried my 155kg box squat. I engaged my hips first, my hips went up before my back, I keeled forward and I was fucked.
8x1 Deadlift 85kg This was so easy it was retarded. In the immortal words of Ronnie Coleman "aint nuttin but a peanut".
Wide Stance Hack Squat 3x10 130kg.
Seated Good Mornings 3x10 60kg
Roman Chair situps with plate behind my head 3x8 5kg
Barbell Curls 3x12 20kg Felt nice doing some bicep curls. Brought back memories of me watching pumping iron and reading articles by arnie on how to get some huge guns.

Decided not to bother dieting down since the next weight class is 82.5 kg. I wanna take advantage of this by being as heavy as I can without spilling over into the other weight class.

[Westsider]

29/11/09
DE Bench Day
9x3 50kg. Technique gets slightly better with every set.
OHP worked up to a heavy set of 7 40kg. Didn't feel like 45kg so I decided just to do some more reps.
JM Press heavy set of 5 67.5kg
Weighted Pullups 3x5 15kg
Pulldown Abs 3x10 15kg Really hard to stay in the right position with these.

Looking forward to doing a heavy set of 5 on the deadlift tomorrow.

[Westsider]

30/11/09
ME Deadlift Day
Deadlift 5RM 150kg. The last rep was incredibly hard. Looked like the deadlift from Chuck Vogelpohl in his XXX dvd. I did a lot of working sets though since I had no idea how much weight I was gonna lift today. It went something like this.
50kg x10
90kg x5
110kg x5
130kg x5
140kg x5
150kg x5
Inverse Curls 3x10 Felt a lot of tension on my hamstrings here. More so than when I did GHRs. My GHRs have gone down though since they haven't fixed the bench yet and I just refused to do them on a decline.
Low Back Machine 3x11 65kg
Seated Alternating Dumbbell Curls 3x10 8kg
Dumbbell Side Bends 3x11 20kg

Overall a nice workout.