cool man. yea, i think that my legs are a weakness, but i cant really committ to a saturday workout, so thats why im not doing the Defrancos extra leg day. thanks for the interest, and i will definitely keep posting my workouts every M/W/F.
BTW- as far as not committing to a Saturday workout, that isnt to say im not in the gym saturday, in fact, i usually am in there M/W/F and Sat or Sun. the sat/sun sessions usually consist of some fat burning on the treadmill though. this past saturday i actually did like 8 sets for biceps after the treadmill as the WS4SB program isnt doing too much for bi’s hypertrophy. thanks all
Well just in case you change you mind here is the workout from Defranco’s site.
NOTE: Choose exercises from the list that you DIDN?T perform on your 1st lower body day.
A. Unilateral Movement - Perform 3 sets of 15 reps each leg
*Choose from the following list of exercises:
Single leg squats, back leg elevated
Barbell step-ups with knee lift
Barbell reverse lunges
Barbell reverse lunges, front foot elevated
Barbell reverse lunges, front foot elevated (with knee lift)
Low-pulley split squats, front foot elevated
Walking lunges
?Speed-skater? squats (1 and a half rep single leg squats)
Barbell step-ups
B. Posterior Chain / Hamstring movement ? Perform 3-4 sets of 10-15 reps for TWO of the following exercises:
Glute-ham raises
Reverse hyperextensions
Seated or standing good mornings
Pull-throughs
Leg curls
Romanian deadlifts
Stability ball hamstring lifts
C. Weak Point Training ? Perform 1 exercise for 3-5 sets of a lagging body part
(Common areas include ? upper back, external rotators, abs, grip training, etc.)
huge76-
thanks for posting that, sure beats the hell out of searching around to find where i originally came across it. i think im going to do something like that on my Sat and/or Sunday workouts. like i said, i get in there and hit the treadmill, but theres no reason i cant hammer some weights for 20-30 minutes after. in fact, it would probably work pretty well doing those leg sets in between my biceps sets. thanks man, and thanks all
A. Box Squats
1 bar x 8 reps —>8
2 135 x 8 reps —>8
3 185 x 5 reps —>3
4 225 x 5 reps —>3
5 275 x 3 reps —>3
6 315 x attempt! bottomed out!
----->did not attempt 315, instead
6 285 x 3 reps
7 295 x 3 reps
B. Barbell step-ups
1 45 x 15 reps → 65 x 15 reps
2 55 x 15 reps → 75 x 15 reps
3 65 x 15 reps → 85 x 15 reps
4 75 x 15 reps → 85 x 15 reps
C. Leg Curls–life fitness, seated
1 145 x 10 -->10
2 160 x 10 -->10
3 175 x 10 -->6
4 175 x 6 → they turned the lights out on me!
D. Pinch Grip
1-2 10lb plates/hand x 36 slow -->75se mississippi’s
2-2 10lb… x 52 sec —>47 sec
3-2 10lb… x 40 sec —>42 sec
so yea, probably could have gone 300 x 3 for another set on the box squats, but my back was getting a little tight, i dont use a belt, and i didnt want to push it, as just a month or so ago i was having some lower back problems.
increased on the step-ups and man do they get hard! leg curls, the fuckers turned the lights off on my brother and i, so rather than get a 4th set in the dark i took the hint and we grabbed our stuff and left.
as for the pinch grips, the reason that i was able to complete them and not the 4th set of leg curls was because i actually did the pinch grips in between my last few sets of box squats. anyway, thats the workout today…thanks all
alright i dont know what to do! i had my girlfriend help me take some measurements tonight because i thought i was looking a little smaller and sure enough, a couple things that i dont want smaller are smaller! im also 2lbs lighter! im now barely holding on to 200lbs! my chest is down 1/2 inch and my shoulders are down 3/4!
the WS4SB workouts arent very much fun for me but ive been pushing through them because ive been telling myself the light at the end of the tunnel will be that im bigger and stronger, but if im not having fun lifting like i was with the full body workouts, and im getting smaller…is this worth sticking through?
please someone respond! this year has been my first “bulk” and my goal was 220lbs by sometime february, and ive virtually come to a halt at 200-202, i was giving WS4SB a try because i liked how i got stronger with TBT but also was hoping something would get me going again. perhaps there is a better program that i should be doing, maybe GVT or something, or should i go back to the TBT that i loved?
It didn’t work well for me either.I wasn’t enjoying it, my lifts went down and I lost weight. Some people respond better to certain things. I’m the epitome of what coach T called an easy-hardgainer and doing things like 8x3,10x3, 5x5 and variations on the Waterbury method have really helped as far as strength and size go. Well that and eating everything that wasn’t tied down.It works really well for some, but if you’re not diggin’ it then you’re goin to the weightroom for no reason. Find something else and have fun. I promise progress will follow.
[quote]jtrinsey wrote:
If you are getting smaller on WS4SB… eat more. I don’t see how you could get smaller on this plan.[/quote]
I would second that you need to eat more. Of course, you never did say if you lost fat or not. It could just be that you lost some extra fat due to the workouts.
of course im not an expert, and i cant tell you that i didnt lose fat inside the muscles, but im visibly not as full-looking as i was before i started this program. i started noticing it at the beginning of the week, but thought maybe it was just me.
as far as eating goes, im eating more now than i was when i went from 174-202lbs. i am definitely getting enough protein. i eat 4-5 solid meals/day each of which probably have 35-40g protein and then i have two protein shakes, one in the morning and one somewhere else that i feel needs it. these were nitro tech, but today im having my first met-rx vanilla. with milk these would have both had 50+g per shake. i dont think i can go through another WS4SB workout. TBT is calling me
Gaining mass has much less to do with what program you are doing than it does with how much you eat. In fact, I would argue that in orer to gain mass, you would want to focus on a powerlifting type program because of the requisite muscle growth that occurs with strength (as evidenced by todays tip of the day “Remember, strength and mass are 66% correlated, so the stronger you are, the thicker the structural units that must lift the load.”) However, you still wont gain a thing if you arent taking in enough cals.
Well I guess different things work for different people. I love training “Westside,” although I hesitate to use that term because in reality I’m sure I’m not training anything like what they are doing. I guess it would be more accurate to say I train “DeFranco” style, adjusted for my sport. I have also found a little more success when I cut down the assistance work a little bit. For example, my ME upper body might be just as simple as this:
1.) Close-Grip Bench:
Max (or Circa-Max) Triple
2.) Weighted dips:
5 x 5 (easier than a Bill Star 5 x 5, I use what will be challenging, but not overly so on the last rep of the last set. The first two sets are pretty easy.
3.) Weighted Abs
3 x 20
And that might be it. I might add in some pulling but nothing too bad. I find that I respond a lot better to less volume than more. Also, I usually don’t go for a PR every time. I try to cycle in 4 week blocks like this:
Week 1- New PR
Week 2- 90% (assistance work the same)
Week 3- 95% (assistance work the same)
Week 4- 85% (Cut assistance work in half and lower weights slightly)
Just what I’ve found works for me. Everybody is different, do what works for you.
just so everyone knows, i ditched WS4SB today. i think it may be something that i try again in the future, but im going to try it perhaps in the summer time. going to the gym is really one of my favorite things to do, and i just wasnt into this program right now.
with school starting back up on monday and the pressure with that coming back i really cant afford to not have fun in the gym. i have to have something that i love. anyway, i went back to a full body workout today and i loved it. squats, flat bench press, weighted pull-ups, overhead presses, upright rows and even some DB preacher curls at the end.
i didnt write this down or even think it out that much, i just went into the gym and did what i wanted to do today. that 5x5 with 275lbs flat bench felt great too! ive been missing that for a few weeks. thanks all, and sorry to bail, but i seriously needed to.
[quote]dez6485 wrote:
just so everyone knows, i ditched WS4SB today. i think it may be something that i try again in the future, but im going to try it perhaps in the summer time. going to the gym is really one of my favorite things to do, and i just wasnt into this program right now.
with school starting back up on monday and the pressure with that coming back i really cant afford to not have fun in the gym. i have to have something that i love. anyway, i went back to a full body workout today and i loved it. squats, flat bench press, weighted pull-ups, overhead presses, upright rows and even some DB preacher curls at the end.
i didnt write this down or even think it out that much, i just went into the gym and did what i wanted to do today. that 5x5 with 275lbs flat bench felt great too! ive been missing that for a few weeks. thanks all, and sorry to bail, but i seriously needed to. [/quote]
Don’t be sorry you bailed you need to do what feels right to you. However, I think the getting smaller thing might have been do to nutritional constraints rather than not responding to the “westside” program. Either way I think it might have metally bogged you down and killed the workouts for you. I say go back to what you like and give it another crack in the summer like you planned.
You definitly gotta go with what works for you. I love WS4SB, but I also can see how other people wouldn’t like it too much. Since I’m in-season now I’m actually going full-body and I like that too. Just do what works for you.