who needs routines?

[JP]

well, me, apparently.

For few years I trained with arguably one of the best strength crew at the olympic sports gym near manchester. All I had was an overall loose plan, no routines were needed, the mood and the energy of the day steered me well enough.

But now training often solo things have seriously stalled. Cant blame the physical and busy job for ever for the big drop in strength

So now I have a routine again Maybe for the first time in 3+ years, maybe more! But training on my own really needs more structure and motivation from a set plan.

Its based on westside (because of the rants from the vegan strength germany vegan bastards crew!), but so loosely its nothing like it.

So its not westside

[baldy]

Can this plan be described in words or even a spreadsheet?

I need a well written down plan else I just get lazy, feel tired do a few curls and go home. If I have numbers written down I will die trying to get them.

[hoffmeister]

Its really nice to have a plan at the gym. I'm being programed at the moment and everything is in there, resting time between sets, rest days, number of reps etc. I don't have to think and I don't have to feel stupid for doing crazy stuff at the gym.

[JP]

well, because i am me, and incapable of following set weights etc, the westside approach might work for me.

simply put it is like this:

tuesday

snatch, heavy single
dynamic press, at the moment having it as log push press, 10x3x50% rising weekly
shoulder/tricep work
bentover rows

wednesday - max effort squat
to daily max single on squat like movement, front squat, back squat, safety bar squat and others
hamstring work, i started with 4 working sets of 5 reps on stiff legs, increasing weekly
abs

friday - max effort press
log push press, strict log, other overhead things when wrist allows etc to a daily max
high rep shoulder and tri work
pullups

sunday - dynamic effort squat (dont like that name though, since when would you ever train non explosively?)
10x2 on something lower body
box jumps
strongman events

thats the rough outline!

[thestoatyone]

Looks pretty Westsidey to me. Maybe there's scope to drop some of the disco stuff and build in event specific bits on another session in the week as you approach comp date?

[JP]

Aye I think so too.

Just need to see how I cope with the volume!

[baldy]

Seems totally random with snatch in the mix?
Also loads of tricep work, anyway will be cool to have you snatching.

You are apparently not a true athlete until you can snatch bodyweight.

[ninearms]

You are apparently not a true athlete until you can full snatch bodyweight.

Fixed that for you.

[JP]

for me to be able to do a full snatch it would take a lot of time and work with flexibility. Of course it would be better, and better also for bigger numbers, power snatch especially my stiff leg style will always be weaker.

I was thinking of just drilling to get lower with the power snatch, and that would be my ticket to a BIG SNATCH

nailing snatch for general power generation and fun

fuck it, i will do more snatch today after my max effort should do them off blocks and just practice receiving lower.

[baldy]

should do them off blocks and just practice receiving lower.

Many theories on this, I have been coached for a year now and still don't sit deep enough, so no expert.
Power snatching and trying to gradually sitting deeper doesn't seem to work. The guys I train with that use this theory just tend to sit a little deep with light weights and then get higher and more power as it gets heavier.

For you I guess its a mix of flexibility and your head not wanting you to dive under the bar. Would say powersnatch it as you do, but then once you have caught it force yourself to sit down as far as you can in the OH squat position. Maybe count to three at the bottom then come up, will really improve you flexibility if nothing else.
Should also get you used to going down each time, until you can do it without thinking. Then it's time to nail bodyweight snatch!

If you really want to learn to snatch, then you need to do bar work. Maybe you don't want to snatch that much though?

[JP]

bar work might be ok, do you mean just work with light weights, or bar work as in generally more work?

its not flexibility as such, it receive it higher as i go heavier because its a heavier weight and i have to put all effort into finishing the pull, and then not enough speed to get under.

lower weights it just flies up and i dont get a chance to go under

fucked both ways!

todays session was ok though, got at least a bit bendy legs, instead of the totally stiff leg receiving.

guys, if this was your routine, when would you do power cleans?

[thestoatyone]

Dynamic squat day, before the box jumps.

[baldy]

bar work might be ok, do you mean just work with light weights, or bar work as in generally more work?

Just with a 20kg bar to drill the motor pattern. Breaking the lift down from the top down, will see if I can find a video. Is what the 3x3 20kg at the start of each session I do is.

guys, if this was your routine, when would you do power cleans?

Never!
Actually I have no idea, the rules from my program say light front squats on heavy clean days. So using the other side of that logic maybe add them to your squat days?
What is the theory behind westside, isn't there some theory about slow heavy days and fast explosive days to allow increased work load?

[JP]

yeah i think there is, but i think its bullshit.

[Mellos]

I do my weightlifting on extra days (general physical preparedness). That could be up to 4 times a week or not at all, if I haven't got the time or feel really sore. I don't go heavy more than once per week per lift though.

You could also just do them on speed day. Dynamic effort day is supposed to be the day where you take care of technique (multiple sets at low reps... makes sense). So you could use the snatch as your second dynamic lift as I use the deadlift. 6 doubles at 70% weight (it's a pretty explosive lift anyway, so you can use higher percentages than prescribed for the squat) or so in 3-6 minutes. Also, remember to slightly alternate your speed lifts every 3 weeks (full snatch, power snatch, muscle snatch for example) to prevent accommodation.

When I last visited the westside barbell forum there was a strongman training with a WSB template.
Found it: http://www.westside-barbell.com/forum/s ... .php?t=241
Maybe that can give you some ideas on what to do.

About the event training:
You could do some of it on the so called general physical preparedness days (GPP). These days are done 2 or more times per week and supposed to take care of muscular weaknesses or whatever you think you are bad at. So it would be tricep work (bodybuilding) to help the bench, sled dragging for conditioning or just light squats and a little prowler pushing to speed up recovery. For you it could be the tire flip, keg floor to overhead and farmers or something like that. The disadvantage in doing so would be that you couldn't go real heavy but walking/running events, higher reps (that's 8+ for me ) and explosive stuff should be fine.