Gabex's WS4SB Log

For those of you just reading this:

I just had my log moved from Bodybuilding to Strength Sports. People there seem to not like logs, plus I feel like I belong more over here. I continue to get stronger and stronger, but fail to gain much size, despite eating a somewhat clean ~3500cals/day.

In order to hit my strength goals for the winter, I ended up bulking a little more… not as clean. Ended up with pretty much strength and fat gains.

I am trying to lean out a little, while gaining strength. If size comes with it, I’ll take it.


I just finished EDT and I am going to try out WS4SB on a M-W-F.

I’ve listed what the program calls for, and what I did today.

Monday (Upper ME)

Weighted Dips
[Up to 3-5rep max]
BWx10
45x5
65x5
70x3
75x3

Incline DB Press
[3-4 sets of 6-10]
60x10
65x6x3

Chest Supported Row (HS Machine)
[4 sets of 10-15]
270x10x2
180x15x2

Standing Face Pulls
[2-3 sets of 12-15]
36x15
43.5x15
48x15

Weighted Ab Exercise (HS Machine)
[3-4 sets of 8-15]
150x8x3

Weighted dips: I had to use the narrow bars instead of the wider ones I’m used to. I didn’t like it as much. Is that enough work? Or should I have done more sets to get up to the 75x3? I could not have pushed out another rep on that set, no do I think I would have gotten 80x3 after that set.

Incline DB: Haven’t done these in a while. I had to guess a weight and see where I went.

Chest Supported Row: This is a plate-loaded, seated/standing, chest supported row machine by HS. I chose to do it standing. I over did it starting with 270x10. I Next time I am going to work down from 15 reps.

Face pulls: First time doing these. Didn’t know where to start. I was really focusing to get the form/movement right.

Weighted Crunches: Another HS machine. I didn’t want to wait on a decline bench. The machine tops out at 155. I think I’ll stick to it until I can do 155x15x4

Wednesday (Lower ME)

Front Squat
[Up to a 5rep max]
135x5
155x5
165x5
170x5
175x3

DB Single leg Split Squat
[3-4 sets of 8-15]
30x8
40x6
45x4
45x4

Pull Throughs
[3-4 sets of 6-10]
168x12
180x12
192x12
204x12

Grip work

Front Squat: So I finished my warm up and I decided to let 2 guys work in. They were doing backsquat. So after some quarter reps at 135, they jump to 225 (moved up to 315, 365). All 1/4 squats. I watched one go and his heels kept coming up. I told him he should try to put his heels on 5lb plates to prevent his heels coming up and it’ll probably help him with flexibility to squat at least parallel. Of course he didn’t try it, but agreed with me on his flaw and acknowledged that I squat ATG pretty flawlessly.

Split Squat: I don’t know if these are supposed to be weighted or not. Its an ME day, so I assumed it was supposed to be weighted, and therefore the reps were supposed to be a total per leg. PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I’M WRONG HERE. I wasn’t sure where to start. Weight is per each dumbbell being held. I got a cramp in my calf on the first set. Weight wasn’t too heavy to failure, but I was definately huffing and sweating bullets.

Pull through: I’m pretty good at these, I guess. I take the same stance as my squat. I didn’t think I would be good at these because I was already feeling the squats hardcore. I started at 168 and it was extremely easy, so I went to 12 reps. The stacks are 12lb increments and I kept going to see what I could do and ended with 204x12. Next time I will try 204x10x4 I believe.

Grip work: never have I ever had my arms go numb like they did today. It was great.

And heres a thread bump. Please look at my log and provide any comments or criticisms. I’m new to the WS training style.

I’m doing WS4SB too. How did you find the face pulls? I’m still having issues with leaning back. I’m pretty good with 50 lbs, but when I bump it up to 60lbs I felt like I was leaning back too much to finish a rep…I’m guess that’s wrong. Although, I think 60 wouldn’t be tough for you since all your other lifts are bigger than mine.

Otherwise, looks good. My gym is shit and I can’t do have the lifts in WS4SB, but I compromise and try to do my best with what I have. I’ll be following along. Maybe I should post mine, but I’m a little embarrassed by my numbers. However, I am getting stronger.

As far as the face pulls go, I wasn’t leaning back much. As I was doing them light, I was trying to make sure I wasn’t getting pulled forward. I’m still trying to get used to the movement.

I posted my last log on here and I’m posting this one more of a way to stay accountable to what I’m doing. Besides the two times I’ve done EDT, I’ve pretty much done my own routine with my own choice of exercises/sets/reps/etc. I did a legs/push/pull for 9 months. To be honest, I saw some gains, but not enough. I’ve also done various TBT’s that I’ve designed myself including squats, deads, cleans, push press, weighted dips and chins, rows. I saw more gains doing routines of this type, but I still didn’t find it optimal.

How long have you been doing it? What are your stats? I encourage you to post a log… whether as a thread or in your profile. It’d be interesting to watch as well.

Still sore… everywhere.

Friday (Upper RE)

BW Dips
[3x failure]
20
15
10

Tricep Pushdown
[3-4 sets of 5-10]
Rope: 96x8x2
Straight bar: 120x6x2

Chins:
[4 sets of 8-12]
8
8
6
Lat Pulldown: 135x12

1 arm DB Press
[3 sets of 10-15]
40x10x2
35x12

Preacher Curls
[3 sets of 8-10]
72.5x8x3

Ab circuit

BW Dips: definitely expected more.

Triceps: I felt like I sucked here.

Chins: wide grip, strict form, no kipping. expected more once again. especially after finishing EDT. since I only got 6 on my last set, I did my 4th set on lat pull down.

1 arm DB Press: I was doing right arm, then left. I feel this really hard in my lower back of the opposite side I am pressing. On set 2 and 3, left arm, I had to push press the last 2 reps.

Curls: not much to say here

Ab circuit: I was exhausted and I was approaching an hour into my workout. I actually just did some sets of planks.

OK. So I sucked today. Should I choose a different exercise selection? Perhaps go lighter next time and focus on the high end of the rep ranges?

Well chinups at least it looks like you should switch for an exercise you can get more reps with. I think it’s good to stick to the lower end of the rep range anyway when you’re just starting out. Try to set it up so you can add a rep or two or three to all the exercises on RE day next week though.

Nice that you’re using the 1 arm db press; I like that lift and I think you’ve inspired me to rotate it in. I’m doing WS4SB3 too, my log is on the Powerful Women forum.

[quote]gabex wrote:
As far as the face pulls go, I wasn’t leaning back much. As I was doing them light, I was trying to make sure I wasn’t getting pulled forward. I’m still trying to get used to the movement.

I posted my last log on here and I’m posting this one more of a way to stay accountable to what I’m doing. Besides the two times I’ve done EDT, I’ve pretty much done my own routine with my own choice of exercises/sets/reps/etc. I did a legs/push/pull for 9 months. To be honest, I saw some gains, but not enough. I’ve also done various TBT’s that I’ve designed myself including squats, deads, cleans, push press, weighted dips and chins, rows. I saw more gains doing routines of this type, but I still didn’t find it optimal.

How long have you been doing it? What are your stats? I encourage you to post a log… whether as a thread or in your profile. It’d be interesting to watch as well.[/quote]

I’ve been doing WS4SB for about one month. Previous to that, I never really followed a program. I’d go into the gym haphazardly and wasn’t really sure what I was doing. Anyway, I’ve learned a lot on here and now I’m following the program and eating right.

When I use to weightlift I never ate that much more than I use to. I guess that’s why I never made any serious gains. Maybe that’s why didn’t make gains in those 9 months. That’s the major thing I’ve learned…I need to eat.

I’m 140 lbs and take in about 3000 calories a day. I should post a log…I’ve been sloppy keeping track of my workouts. A lot of times I just remember what I lifted last time and do it like that. Not good.

Okay…starting Monday I’ll do the log. :open_mouth:

[quote]Saan wrote:
Well chinups at least it looks like you should switch for an exercise you can get more reps with. I think it’s good to stick to the lower end of the rep range anyway when you’re just starting out. Try to set it up so you can add a rep or two or three to all the exercises on RE day next week though.

Nice that you’re using the 1 arm db press; I like that lift and I think you’ve inspired me to rotate it in. I’m doing WS4SB3 too, my log is on the Powerful Women forum. [/quote]

The thing that really pisses me off is that I just finished EDT and my chins were THAT weak. Before this, I got 38 chins in 15 mins with an additional 12.5lbs on the dip belt.

Wow, that’s quite the drop in strength. I presume you did the 38 chins just a week or two ago? Maybe you were just having an off day. Might as well try them again next RE day, probably your strength will come back.

Hopefully this doesn’t screw up training for tomorrow, but…

Sunday

Clean
135x5
140x5
150x3
155x3
185x1x3

Snatch
95x5
105x5
115x3
125x3

OH Squat
95x5x3

Ok, so I don’t like to make excuses. But the week before I started this routine I started to get sick and missed my last EDT workout (on Fri). I spent the weekend on the Z-pak and Tussinex [anti biotic and cough syrup]. I felt good enough to go work out Monday… I also felt kinda like a bitch after the workout on Monday (but not as bad as I felt on the Friday workout).

Anyways, I don’t know if it was just readjusting to the new workout, or recovering from being sick, but today I was a different man.

Weighted Dips
[Up to 3-5rep max]
BWx5
45x5
65x5
70x3
80x3
90x3

Incline DB Press
[3-4 sets of 6-10]
60x10
65x8
65x8
65x6

Chest Supported Row (HS Machine)
[4 sets of 10-15]
180x15
230x12
270x10
230x12

Standing Face Pulls
[2-3 sets of 12-15]
48x15
60x15
72x10

Weighted Ab Exercise (HS Machine)
[3-4 sets of 8-15]
150x10x3

Dips: decided bwx10 wasn’t necessary for a ME day. I MAY have been able to push for more than 90x3 but I think it would’ve killed me on incline.

Incline: struggled to get my setup on the last set. I think this took away from me being able to push through to 8 reps.

Rows: 180 was light and I was pulling it fast. 230 still felt good. 270 did not. I felt like my ROM was slightly shortened so I dropped the weight for the 4th set.

Face pulls: I practiced leaning back and pulling to my forehead. felt good.

Abs: nothing much to say about this one…

Wednesday (Lower ME)

Front Squat
[Up to a 5rep max]
135x5
155x5
165x5
170x5
180x2.5

BB Single leg Split Squat
[3-4 sets of 8-15]
95x7
110x6
115x6
120x6

Pull Throughs
[3-4 sets of 6-10]
204x10x2
209x10x2

Grip work

Squat: forgot what I did last time, just remembered where I ended. I was close to get ting the 3rd rep on 180 but I got stuck a few inches above parallel coming back up.

Split squat: I was convinced to do BB this time. Where I did 110x6 I meant to do 105 but I wasn’t paying attention to the fact that someone had put a 10 in the spot for 5lb plates on the power rack. I was wondering why it felt so weird.

Also, I am doing this with my front foot pretty close to the bench (as oppose to far out) and I notice that technically I am not getting parallel on these. I am having some stability issues with getting setup (unracking weight, getting one foot up on bench, and getting the other foot in proper place). Any suggestions? And should I space my front foot further out?

Pull thru: I am doing these with a fairly narrow stance and I kind of feel the weight on the front of my foot, as opposed to my heels. Should I go wider and push out like on deads? Perhaps take a semi-sumo stance?

Getting into position for the split squats is awkward; the only thing I can say is that it does get easier after you’ve done it a few times. Your foot should be further out, yes, so that your knee stays behind your toes and your shin is about perpendicular to the floor.

I’ve only ever seen pull-throughs done with a wider stance. I use a stance just about as wide as my sumo deadlift and do push through my heels.

Today is RE Upper. I’ve decided to change the order in which I do my exercises.

I will do Dips, Chins, 1 Arm DB Press, then do the isolation work. I don’t want the isolation exercises to take away from my compound lifts. Also, on Wed, I took it easy on the grip work compared to the time before. I just did plate pinches. I heard forearms take the longest to recover and I think that might have hurt my chins. I am definitely hoping to see improvements today… plus I got 12 hours of sleep last night some how.

Also, next week, I think I am going to drop split squat for lunge. And then the week after that I am going to change my ME exercsies.

Friday (ME Upper)

Dips
20, 20, 18

Chins
8, 8, 8, 8

1-arm DB Press:
35x12
40x10
45x8

Tricep Pushdown
120x12
120x10
108x10

Preacher Curls
72.5x10
77.5x8
77.5x8

Dips: set #2-3 i slowly pushed out the last few

Chins: last set I struggled to get the 8th rep

DB Press: this time I held a dumbbell in the opposite hand of the side I was pressing to anchor me down and avoid the lower back/side pain. set #1 was real fast, no rest between sides. set #2 was fast, and only a long enough rest to set the weights down, take a deep breath, and pick them back up. set #3 was harder and i did about a 30sec rest in between.

Pushdowns/Curls: nothing really to say

Also, I did not do the ab circuit today due to the fact that the gym was crowded and I wouldn’t be able to do an effective circuit, plus I was hungry

When do you plan to rotate your non-max effort lifts? I was thinking after 8 weeks. This is about my 6th week into the program.

Sorry I didn’t post my log, but I was planning to use an Excel spreadsheet so I could track stats, etc.

I’m really not planning on it.

Monday (Upper ME)

Weighted Dips
BWx5
45x5
90x3
115x1
90x3

Incline DB Press
60x10
65x8
65x8 *failed lockout on last rep
60x8

Chest Supported Row (HS Machine)
180x15
230x12
230x10
230x10

Standing Face Pulls
60x15
65x12
72x12

Weighted Ab Exercise (HS Machine)
150x10x3

Dips: I failed to lockout 115x2, I was pushing for 3 (ha!). Decided to do another set at 90 to make up for it.

Incline: lack of progession most likely due to the dips

Row: kept it at 230 and made sure my form was consistent (compared to trying 270 last time)

Face Pulls: not much to say

Abs: I was working with someone and forgot to make the height adjustment on one of my sets, so I actually did an extra set there in the middle, but only 4-5 reps before I realized and I made the appropriate change.

I just read Exercise Misconceptions #2 and I might be hyper extending my shoulder when I go light on my rows. What I thought was me limiting my ROM looks more closely resembling the picture of the “correct” finish.

Article link: http://www.T-Nation.com/article/most_recent/common_exercise_misconceptions_part_2

Anyone?