Hi all,
So I was planning on writing this on Sunday or Monday but now it is Tuesday and I am finally getting to it. Last week I talked about reevaluating and refocusing my goals in the direction that I want to move in. I also mentioned that I was going to start following Mike O'Hearn's Power Bodybuilding program to get my strength up so I can have a personal powerlifting meet to see if I have made gains. My goal was to increase my overall total to 1300 lbs from my current best at 1115lbs. Here is what happened this last week.
On Monday, which is my natural rest day I started reading up on powerlifting and different strength programs to help me improve my strength and technique. I found information on Westside Barbell and their program called The Conjugate Method combined with The Dynamic Method. As I read up on the programs and the story behind Westside Barbell, I found myself interested in their program and the techniques they use. So I wrote a program based off the information on their site and other sites talking about them.
This week was a fun week and I enjoyed following the Westside Barbell Method of training. I have been sore in new ways and in different muscles. I tried new types of exercises that challenged me mentally and physically. Below is what I have been doing.
Tuesday - Dynamic Effort Bench Press
Wednesday - Bench Extra Work
Thursday - Dynamic Effort Squat/Deadlift
Friday - Squat/Deadlift Extra Work
Saturday - Max Effort Bench Press
Sunday - Max Effort Squat/Deadlift
Dynamic Effort is speed work. This is where you perform exercises to increase the explosive strength. This strength helps with the start from the bottom of the press, squat, and deadlift. This work includes working between 50-60% of your 1RM doing explosive reps sometimes with bands and chains to add variable resistance to help reduce bar deceleration throughout the rep.
Max Effort is maximal strength work. This day of the week you push to a 3RM or a 1RM and try to hit new personal records (PRs). This helps build muscular strength and is done with a variety of exercises to ensure your muscles don't adapt and that you CNS (central nervous system) doesn't get burnt out.
Both the Dynamic and Max Effort days consist of 1 main exercise to focus on explosive or maximal strength respectively. These days are followed up with assistance work which consists of bodybuilding type exercises focusing on the major muscle groups used for each main movement. So on bench day the first assistance work is for triceps followed by upper back and shoulders. On squat and deadlift day the assistance work would be glutes, hamstrings, lower back. All these should be 8-10 reps but the rep range can vary to keep the muscle confusion principle working.
Extra work is essentially a recovery workout by working the same muscles used the day before with lighter weights and higher reps. These workouts should be less than 30 minutes and can be as early at 6 to 12 hours after the previous day. I, for the sake of time, wait until the next day. I always end this exercise with a conditioning cycle of tabata style work. This is also the day that I hit abs hard because they are one of the most important muscle groups.
This is what I did this last week and this week has started off just a good. The cycle for this program is on Dynamic day week 1 is 50%, week 2 is 55%, and week 3 is 60%. Then you drop back down to 50%. I am going to throw in week for as a repetition week where I do the main lifts for 6-10 reps which will help with the groove of the movement. This is to help improve my technique, which is knowledge from listening to Mark Bell's Powercast and Brandon Lilly's YouTube page.
Any questions feel free hit me up on twitter @travismiller1
God Bless
Travis
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