Critique My New Workout

So I’m changing up my strength training regime before I head to Thailand to A)Maybe do some powerlifting or strongman competitions and B)My results have started to slow down and I want to break the 500 and 600 barrier with my bench and pull’s and at least 315 with cleans before I head to Thailand to train.

So if you got a idea on something that may work better to develop strength tell me.

A-
Flatbench w/ chains /ss/ Bentoverrow w/ chains, 3 x 5, 55% excluding chain weight, reps are to be performed as quickly as possible with good form
Racked Flat Bench /ss/ Dumbbell rows, 9 x 5, different pin heights on bench from low, mid, high
Inclinebench /ss/ Seated V-bar rows 5 x 5
Dips /ss/ Pullups, Weight added for the first 4 sets after which 5 reps on each will be preformed, 30 seconds to complete one side of the movement, 60 seconds total per rep.

B-
Clean from Thigh /ss/ Clean from Shin, 5 x 5, 1;2 tempo
Deadlift from floor 5x5, 1;2 tempo
Deadlift from Knee 5x5 1;2 tempo
Front Squats 5 x 5, 1;2 tempo, ass to ankles

C-
Off

D-
Off

E-
Widegrip Flat Bench /ss/ Widegrip Bentover Row, 5 x 5
Narrow Flat Bench /ss/ Narrow Benotver Row, 5 x 5
Decline Dumbbell Flyes /ss/ Incline Dumbbell Flyes, 5 x 5
Chinups /ss/ Pullups, 5 x 5 weighted

F-
Clean from Floor /ss/ Push Press 5 x 5
1/2 Rack Squats /ss/ Dumbbell Overhead Press 5 x 5
Olympic Squats 5 x 5
Rack Military Presses from center of head 5 x 5
~1-2 Tricep and Bicep exercises if time permits and I’m up to it.

G-
Off

Keep in mind I’m still doing Muay thai, MMA, and BJJ so 2 a days doing weights are not a option as most nights I’m rolling or sparring.

You’re discussing using a “tempo” and powerlifting in the same topic? Are you kidding me? This is insulting to anyone who powerlifts. I think you need to go back to basics and see what others are doing for strength routines because what you’re talking about isn’t anything more than body building with an attempt at using powerlifting movements.

…I never said I wanted to “powerlift” I said enter a competition and as far as tempo and knowing something, I’m merely speaking of including pauses at the bottom of say a deadlift to make it truly a deadlift and mimic competition environment, or putting a pause at the bottom of a Olympic squat to truly negate any urge to bounce or use the energy gathered thru the decent of the exercise.

And seeing as how my lifts are all a 100 off my goals, and my PR’s are already better than alot of so called powerlifters on here I think I’m fine in my methodology. Good laugh though, next time you think of something dumb and nonconstructive to say please by all means post it so I get a laugh

PS- Apparently you missed the part in my post about rolling on a mat and doing muay thai, oh and the fact that my program is not a powerlifting program.

ws4sb3

[quote]DF85 wrote:
ws4sb3[/quote]

aka West Side For Skinny Bastards 3

X2

[quote]LjSimpson08 wrote:

And seeing as how my lifts are all a 100 off my goals, and my PR’s are already better than alot of so called powerlifters on here I think I’m fine in my methodology. [/quote]

Why then did you start this topic?

[quote]daraz wrote:
LjSimpson08 wrote:

And seeing as how my lifts are all a 100 off my goals, and my PR’s are already better than alot of so called powerlifters on here I think I’m fine in my methodology.

Why then did you start this topic?
[/quote]

If someone has any idea’s on exercises or movements that’ll have a greater effect on the muscular system. Not to have someone lecture me on PL and Tempo when he doesn’t have a clue as to the original point of the post which was a workout designed to functional and maximum strength, not just a PL program.

[quote]DF85 wrote:
ws4sb3[/quote]

Completely forgot about the Skinny version. Thanks for the reminder, I’ll go sift thru it now.

The only thing I’d make a major change to is the rep/set pattern on some of the explosive movements and power lifts. Instead of 3x5 explosively, I’d use the same weight (55%) but do 6-8 sets of 3-4 reps. On deadlifts, flat bench and regular squats, I’d use 85-95% of your 1rm and do 6-7 sets of 1-3 reps, and always stay a rep short of failure.

This way, you’ll use heavier weights but the lesser reps will allow you to perform each rep with really good form. This will translate better for MMA, too. You can develop more power this way (including the explosive reps/sets) without increasing your weight much through hypertrophy.

You can even perform this rep/set pattern with less rest between each workout because the volume won’t be high enough to wear yourself out.

Part of gaining functional, maximal strength is increasing your motor learning capabilities. Olympic lifters practice their lift everyday, but they keep the weight and the sets really high and the reps low (below lifting to failure) so that they can practice their form everyday.

By getting better and more efficient at executing a complex/compound movement explosively and/or maximally (either 50-60%1rm or 85-95%1rm) your fast twitch muscles get better at firing off at optimum levels and your body will naturally become better at executing sport-specific movements quickly and explosively. This goes for any sport that requires explosive movements (football, rugby, MMA, etc.)

If I were you, I’d do something like this:
maximal press (85-95%1RM 6X1-3)
maximal pull
explosive rear chain/legs movement (deads, cleans, squats) with 50-60% 1rm 6-8 sets x 3-4 reps
some sort of ballistic movement (various medicine ball throws or slams and/or jumping squats or broadjumps)

do this 4-6 days a week and just do a different push, pull and rear chain/leg exercise on each day, i.e. bench then incline bench the next day, then explosive pushups with chains for pressing.

For pulling: weighted pullups then chinups then bent over rows. For rear chain/legs: squats, then front squats then deads, then cleans then romanian deadlifts.

Do 2 maximal lifts and 1 explosive lifts per day and switch up the moves that you do maximally versus explosively throughout the week so that you’re doing legs, pushes and pulls both maximally and explosively throughout the week. Keep each exercise under 25 total reps per day (8x2 maximally and 6x4 explosively) and try to stay away from doing a lot of maximal deadlifts, like maybe once a week at most.

Keep in mind that you won’t create a hypertrophy effect this way, but the muscle that you do have will become much better at putting out max force more effectively.

Thanks man, I was actually just reading about ballistics and asking myself if its worth it. Now that you’ve put it down though it reinforces it. I’ll throw something together and repost.

Keep in mind one thing about ballistics though. It should not constitute a major portion of your workout and should only be a supplementary part. You can do a lot of ballistic moves during your workout, but only for a couple of weeks.

Ballistics, as well as plyometrics (basically slowing yourself or something else down, like jumping off a box with a light load on your back or catching a heavy medicine ball), can be pretty hard on your tendons and ligaments when done intensely for a long period on top of lifting heavily. To gain more functional power, you are better off doing primarily explosive movements and maximal lifts and ballistics secondarily.

Ballistics will help increase strength, but they are more effective at building speed. Power is simply your ability to move something heavy quickly. Ballistics works the speed aspect, maximal lifts work the strength aspect, and explosive movements work a combination of the two, but with more emphasis on strength rather than speed due to the heavier load than ballistics.

Ballistics should be done with your body weight up to about 25-30% of your 1rm.

Another method you could try is something I read on here recently. I can’t remember who wrote it, but I’ve been doing this for a few weeks now and I like the way this workout combines lifting for bigger size with functional strength.

Basically, you perform a compound movements such as deadlifts, then immediately follow it with a similar ballistic movement. For instance, I’ll do 7 reps on deadlifts, then go straight into 7 broadjumps. Or bench press, followed by explosive pushups. Or weighted pullups followed by medicine ball slams.

Or squats then jumping squats with just my body weight. The idea is similar to swinging a weighted baseball bat before an at bat. Following a heavy set with a similar explosive movement teaches the body to effectively perform an explosive movement while fatigued, thereby improving your fast twitch fibers’ force output. I think that’s the general idea.

I do a pull day, then a push day, then a leg day, then rest a day and start over. For each day, I do a few light warmup sets of a major movement (pull-pullups or sometimes deadlifts, push-bench, legs-squat) then I do 6-8 sets of 6-8 reps of the major movement, with each set followed by a similar ballistic movement. Then I do 6x2 for another major movement lifting maximally, then a different movement explosively. Here’s what it looks like.

Pull day: (I usually do deadlifts in place of pullups every other pull day with medicine ball overhead throws)
7x7 weighted pullups/medicine ball slams
6x2 bentover rows
8x3 chinups
2x120 seconds front plank

Push day: ( I blew out my shoulder pitching a few years ago so I avoid overhead pressing)
7x7 flat bench/explosive pushups
6x2 incline bench
8x3 close grip press
2x25 hanging leg raises

Leg day:
7x7 squats/jumping squats
6x2 front squats (sometimes I do romanian deadlifts here and do 8x2 with a weight I can comfortably do twice)
8x3 overhead squats (I lift at my house in my power rack, so I’m a little limited as to what I can do explosively. Something else might be better here. I might switch to single leg step ups with regular tempo and run about ten 40meter sprints afterward instead)
2x20 squats with a 25lb weight held at arm’s length in front of me

Ok thanks man, thats a good start. I’ll build off something like that, as far as ballistics I was going to use a 3 week progression with 2 weeks off, and superset it to load a muscle group before lifting.