i pulled this thread of mine out of the archives (from about a year and a half ago). no body answered it then, but it looks like some more people are messing around with whole body workouts so i thought i would re-post and add some to this discussion.
i wrote the following in april of 03:
hey guys,
tell me what you think.
my workout consists of alot of leg work via deads, squats and sprints. back and bi strength come from tons of chins/pullups. shoulder,chest and triceps are taken care of with bench and 1-arm presses. last but not least i do alot of core strengthening with the deads,squats,1arms and other core specific exercises( overhead squats,heavy sidebends,medicine ball work,bruce-lee’s/dragon flags,1-arm overhead squats,1arm deads,and any other fun things i can find).
i basically have 2 full body workouts that i alternate between.
workout a: snatches, squats, bench and widegrip chins.
workout b: snatches, deads, 1-arm press and narrow grip chins.
all lifts essentially follow the same pattern which is:
*warm up!
(warm up is what i refered to as “jump sets”, that is, jumping up the weight in sets of 3-5 then going for a heavy max. someone told me “thats how the westside template works” and thats how i got into training westside. but thats another story…)
*heavy isometric to failure
after a bit of experimenting i found that holding for 1/2 the time i would fail at was better. ie, if i could lock out and hold 495 for 15sec on bench then i would only hold for about 5 or 6 seconds. this seemed to be a great potentiator for my max effort lift which followed.
*90% max 1-3reps
*80% max 1-3reps
*70-75% max 5 reps
continue with 70-75% for sets of 5 until form breaks.
*i super set volume sets in bench and 1 arms with chins/pullups.
i DO NOT go heavy on volume with the snatches/cleans. i usually just do 3-4sets of three. going light and then working up to a decent weight, just focusing on form and explosion.
i include active recovery days after every heavy lift day and also use speed training for as many lifts as practical.
i track and periodize volume, wt, effort% ,work/time, etc. i shoot to up at least one of these each workout, but not all of them; no linear progression here.
there are alot of little things to tweak and track but i enjoy doing it.
here is another look at the same routine
day 1: strenght/volume a.
day 2: active recovery
day 3: speed and core
day 4: active recovery
day 5: strength/volume b.
day 6: active recovery
i insert active recovery days if im not feeling up to par( i use the snatches i do at the beginning of my working days to gauge my general sense of strength/fatigue) or eliminate them if im ready to go sooner.
ive always had alot of luck with a whole body, dont-train-again-til-everything-is-fresh type workout and this is my favorite so far. i get to work out everyday and keep my focus on basic and practical lifts. no independant tricep or bicep work for me. if i want to hit my tris i narrow my grip on bench, if i feel my bis are getting enough work i supinate my hands on chins etc. i also like to be able to hit my strength/high effort/intensity sets when i am fresh and ready to go, hence the pyramiding down in weight.
another note: on active recovery days i try to duplicate the lifts im doing on my heavy days so i usually am circuiting through really light dead,squats,1arms,pulldowns etc. this way im working those lifts everyday.
there are alot of variables to watch out for as far as overtraining is concerned but as long as you track it carefully and think creatively its doable.
i also like to use active rest days and speed days to work new lifts into my routine.
also, my speed days are done NO WHERE close to failure. just speed speed speed. low weight, low volume, just speed. you have to be carefull here cause the ballistic work is deceptive in its apparrent “light” weight. i know i might see better results if i upped it a bit here but its working great as is , right now.
ive been doing this for 3 weeks now and have been going up in everything each week. i just started massive eating last week and its making a huge difference too! on my way back to 210!
as far as things look, this program is going to be a keeper. i should be able to stay on it (with constant tweaking of course) for quite a while.
what do you think?
thanks,
ryan
well, thats the old post. ive tweaked it a bit since then and am looking at tweaking it some more now. i did this whole body workout before i started training west-side. i like them both A LOT. it was really cool to come across these principles during trial and error. it was really cool to “discover” others using them in their training templates as well.
havent been training seriously in a few months and im just getting back into the swing of things. ill be doing whole body workouts for a while. ill post my workouts starting in a week or so. im excited!
train hard.
ryan b.