mostly to the powerlifters (jason and unstable+whoever else)
what's your routine like? since my meet ive been doing speedwork for both squat and deadlifts on the same day. the first time it was agonizing, today it wasnt so bad. im going to do my squat diff next time. like today i kept changing to heavier bands. i think im going to neglect bands on squat as far as speed day goes. i did deadlifts first but did 3 sumo no bands, like 2 sets. then 2 sets light band wrapped around each foot and the bar haha ,no place to put it, then 2 sets average then 2 sets heavy, all sumo. i pull conventional.

only thing was i sweated a LOT and i dont really sweat that much ever. im going to start doing more volume on a heavy squat day. work up to a heavy single then drop down to like 85% or so and do 5 more singles.

i think im going to start working rep work into my bench. 2 weeks rep work, 3 weeks speed work. or maybe 1 week rep work 3 weeks speed, and ill do rep work on my deload week. that sounds enticing.

i also REALLY wish i had a GHR or pendulum.

oh shit jason has a journal
well fuck
well...discuss routines in here! >:/

i think im going to start doing heavy squat and bench at this guy's house about 30 minutes away since a few other lifters go there. he doesnt have a set squat day but id like to lift with other people just for input and shit. thatll save me speed work at ballys which shouldnt be too difficult. i dont think speed/rep work is worth driving 30 min for.

It's taken me a long time to realize that Westside is much like Bruce Lee's "Jeet Kun Do"

Definitely a good thing to train with other people every so often. I found out though from going over to Bill's that while it is great I just couldn't do it all the time. I train in a zone and don't like to stop. I take really short rest periods between sets and training with someone else just disrupts that flow and concentration for me. I do love getting over and training with a bunch of really strong mofo's and have learned from that but I get over there about once a month.

As for training routines. I started out with the 9 week basic program written out by Date Tate. It's linked on the very first page of my journal. I followed it pretty much as close as I could.

Then I put together some boards and bought the Begginner training manual from EliteFTS and followed that really closely. That was another 10-11 weeks if I remember right. After going through it once I exactly as described I kind of went through it again but started to make some adjustments for my needs. Started to adjust the DE and ME day splits and moved days around just about every cycle and still do.

From that period on up to just recently I followed that template but started to switch out my ME exercises ever one to two weeks and didn't do the three week rotations anymore. I also started to do some more RE work instead of a DE day for bench.

Then the last cycle before this one I'm doing now I started doing DE work working up with at least 6 sets with some good speed. Then hit some RE for hitting off the chest either no boards or a 1 board. Then for ME day hit 2-3 boards and Floor presses. That really helped my bench a lot I think.

This cycle has been riddled with health issues, walking pneumonia, and with a torn hamstring tendon from slipping on some ice. So I've switched up to a very intense scheme based on what Chuck V. did a lot of.

Bench is still the same as what is described above but to bring up my SQ/DL as fast as posssible and risking overtraining I'm hitting RE assistance work one day and then like you saw in my journal and all out war with heavy ME working both Box squats and Rack pulls lowering both each week until I can get a full range in with out my hamstring curling up into a ball after it rips completely off the bone.

i just had my meet so i figure now is a great time to change what ive been doing to bring my squat and deadlift up. obviously bench has gone up quickly with the shirt work and learning it, but raw bench is up too. so im not looking to change that too much, but my squat and deadlift def need adjustments so i was just kinda looking for ideas one breathing new life

Tyler-
I'm not sure where your strengths and weaknesses lie in the squat and deadlift.
...and I can't remember from your videos whether you pulled conventional or sumo.

In any case, I can give you some excellent advice for building tremendous starting strength in the deadlift...locking it out is another story.

-Tons of stiff legged deadlifts for reps
-Stand on boxes
-Zercher squats off of pins
-Hyper extensions and weighted hypers
-Abs. Decline situps etc.

This along with some spaced out deads off of pins had me deadlifting 455 @ 193 lbs. when I was 16.

For squats, Jason has made great gains on his squat and I'd really look to him for advice, especially since he is a raw lifter I give him even more credit.

For your bench, definitely look at Metal Militia...pickup the MM seminar if you can. Shirted triples once a week or so, lots of boards.

deadlift, ive done all those but i always stop. ill def. keep those in rotation. im really starting to get serious about this as time goes on. it's weird, ive always been serious but i guess im more into it. anyways, my squat went up before, but went down when i dieted, so ill look at my journal to see what i was doing.

these guys i train with really want me to hit 200 kilos so ill start buying them lunch. they said if i hit 200 kilos and break state record they dont expect to ever pay for another meal haha. if what they're doing doesnt work ill start telling them i want to do triples and boards. thing is we pretty much do those just not every week. he likes rotating exercises then coming back to them next cycle and break the previous cycle's record.

Definitly bulk up. The more your eat the stronger you get.

I truly believe 10000000000000000% that nothing is more anabolic then LOTS of food.

BTW, what's helped my DL the most are doing them with a deficit. Using 25lbs plates instead of 45lbs plates. F*cking Zercher squats. I HATE those forsaken things but damn it they work good. Heavy Side bends, like doing them with a heavy DB and doing a DB dl to a side bend. Pull throughs helped me quite a bit as well.

I think all that along with doing tons of box squatting has helped my squat the most. Hitting Low box squats have been great for the hole but to really get my CNS fired up and ready to handle bigger weights the high box squat has been the best.

i def eat a lot, itd be hard to eat more. only way to take in more calories is to eat cake instead of pizza, haha.

i tried front squats today. they felt like a chore. i tried holding my breath from the time of unracking to the squat and i got a bad headache and i saw my face lose color haha. i wont do that again. i dont think ill be doing those anytime soon. could be cuz i was tired but i just wasnt into it and went home early