T Nation

Incorporating Density Training and Westside

Powerlifting
#1

Let me know what you guys think…I was thinking about incorporating a Density Training day for back such as starting w/50x2 pull-ups.

I currently follow a Westside split with ME upper on Monday’s, ME Lower-Tuesday’s, some type of light work on Wednesday’s, and Dynamic upper and lower body on Thurs. and Friday.

My division 1 wrestling season is over, so I have an extremely high workload, and was considering using Density training on Tues. and Thurs, and eliminating back work on my Max Effort and Dynamic days.

Overtraining isn’t likely, as I feel fresh during each of my workouts and soreness hasn’t been a problem. Not sure if that means I need to add more assistance work or increase sets on my ME days, but any advice in that area would help also. Oh yeah, im currently taking 4 units of Somatropin for the last 4 weeks, so that may also effect what I should do. Thanks in advance.

#2

What school do you wrestle for (if you feel comfortable revealing that info)?

#3

Any feedback? More specifics? Let me know.

#4

Hi,
I wrestle heavyweight for one of the better D3 programs. About a week ago I posted asking for advice regarding off season training for wrestling. The advice I got was that I should take about a month off from hardcore training and focus on rehab/prehab type work in order to give your body time to recover. If your season is anything like yours, I’m sure that you are fairly beaten up and generally worn down after a 5-6 month long season.
As a wrestler I found this advice particularly hard to stomache, but after stepping back and analyzing how I feel physically, I have concluded that it is the best approach. When you train hard all year round, you do have to step back and let your body heal every so often.

As far as training is concerned, have you ever considered trying a tier system? I haven’t actually started mine yet, however all the research I’ve done seems to indicate a Tier progam is more specific than the basic Westside Template. If you have any questions, I’ll do my best to answer them, or at least direct you towards those who can.

#5

Thanks, I appreciate the response ICwrestler. I am taking 2-3 weeks off of wrestling, but am going to continue to lift b/c Vegas Nationals is just around the corner, and I don’t wanna lose any strength.

Anyway, I did my first density training workout yesterday (25x4 towel pull-ups in 25 mins), and feel fine today. I just put the pull-up work after my ME 4 board press w/band instead of my normal 5x10 rows or pull-ups.

I am thinking that in the future it’s probably a better idea to put the density training in a separate day by itself and just skip back exercises during my normal upper body days. It seems that putting this workout the day after my dynamic squat and ME squat would fit best. Or, I was also debating on throwing my density training day as a second workout on my upper body days.

e.g. Monday morning: Density training
Monday late afternoon: ME upper
Thursday morning: Density training
Thursday late afternoon: Dynamic upper

Any help appreciated.

#6

2 questions,

Why are you so set on doing density work as your primary means of back training? Are you trying to get bigger, increase your max # of pullups, or simply trying to get stronger? It’d be easier to give advice if I knew your goals.

Most of the authors on T-Nation recomend training a given muscle group more than once a week. As you have it set up now, your only hitting your back only once, albeit very hard. Have you thought about using a method such as grease the groove, where you do a few sets of pull ups everyday? Also, in regards to training back, pullups are very important, but they don’t serve to counterbalance all the pushing work you get in a westside routine. In order to do that you need to focus on doing more rows, supine chinups, and possibly seated sled drags. The guys at westside know what they are doing, and they set up the program the way they do for a reason.

I remember reading in a westside article, that they use timed sets with set weights as part of their accessory work, and as feeder workouts to help them recover from their primary upperbody workouts. You might consider using a density style workout where you do antagonistic supersets as your accessory work on your DE bench day

#7

too the top