Starting WSSB

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
#1

Hey guys, well I’m small and weak, and I’m about to start WSSB.

As for experience, I actually do have some lifting experience (I’m 17) I’ve done some lifting on/off for a few years, been taught how to properly do the lifts and everything, just never took it seriously enough to train proper and eat big to gain some good size and strength.

Past month and a half I’ve been just working with compound lifts, improving my form, increasing strength a little bit along the way, enough to feel comfortable lifting again.

Unfortunatly I pulled a muscle in my back a few weeks ago (not sure how), and Doc said to give it about 4 weeks to recover. So with stretching, rest, heat I’ve been rehabbing it.

In about a week and a half it should be ready to go, and I plan to start WSSB to get out of my small, weak habits.

My question pertains to my ME days, and warming up properly. My maxes (calculated, i usually dont drop < 3 reps), are about 155 on the bench, 180 DL, and 175 for Squats. I plan on flat bench as my ME Upper to start, and rotating my squat and DL as my ME Lower day.

With said maxes, can anyone recommend a proper warmup sets/reps/weight for each working up to a 3 Rep max set, without fatiguing the muscle too much beforehand?

Thanks alot, and don’t worry about poking fun at my weakness, its ok.

#2

[quote]MMYeah wrote:
Hey guys, well I’m small and weak, and I’m about to start WSSB.

As for experience, I actually do have some lifting experience (I’m 17) I’ve done some lifting on/off for a few years, been taught how to properly do the lifts and everything, just never took it seriously enough to train proper and eat big to gain some good size and strength.

Past month and a half I’ve been just working with compound lifts, improving my form, increasing strength a little bit along the way, enough to feel comfortable lifting again.

Unfortunatly I pulled a muscle in my back a few weeks ago (not sure how), and Doc said to give it about 4 weeks to recover. So with stretching, rest, heat I’ve been rehabbing it.

In about a week and a half it should be ready to go, and I plan to start WSSB to get out of my small, weak habits.

My question pertains to my ME days, and warming up properly. My maxes (calculated, i usually dont drop < 3 reps), are about 155 on the bench, 180 DL, and 175 for Squats. I plan on flat bench as my ME Upper to start, and rotating my squat and DL as my ME Lower day.

With said maxes, can anyone recommend a proper warmup sets/reps/weight for each working up to a 3 Rep max set, without fatiguing the muscle too much beforehand?

Thanks alot, and don’t worry about poking fun at my weakness, its ok.[/quote]

What I usually do is start with half of my 1RM and add 10 percent of that for each set. Adjust it as the weight gets closer to your max.

Given your numbers, I’d say your pretty small, so building some mass should be a priority for you as well. If you are a beginner, the strength gains will come, but make sure to get enough volume for growth. Maybe start with 10 reps and work your way down, even to a 5 rep max.

But honestly, I think you may just need to do an overall good stregth and mass program to get a little stronger before implementing Westside. Maybe a 5x5 routine or something by Chad Waterbury. Anything will get you stronger at this point. And EAT!

-MAtt

#3

Keep it simple. Do a ME bench day, ME squat/Dlft. day and then an accessory day.

To answer your question about warm up. You want to do the least number of reps possible to get to your max while also preparing your body for the heavier weight. Unfortunately no one can just give you those reps. You will need to experiment on your own. It would be a good idea to chnage up the rep scheme frequently anyway. Below is just an example of what you can do-
The bar-10 reps
65lbs x 5
95lbs x 3
115lbs x 2
135lbs x 1
155lbs x 1

If you’ve been researching Westside then you know that you don’t train the three big lifts through a full range of motion very often. What you need to do is determine your weaknesses and train them. Pick an ME exercise and train it for two weeks and then switch it up.
On your accessory day you could do more volume work to develop mass.
Meat

#4

Hey guys, thanks for the help so far, and yeah I agree Matgic, I gotta eat.

I’m pretty small yeah (6’0, 168) so I know that for sure.

I’m not sure how familiar with Westside for Skinny Bastards you guys are, (probably plenty) but Defranco has modified traditional Westside for this program.

In it, he has increased the volume aspect alot, for one using 3-5 RM on ME days, instead of working up to singles.

Also, instead of DE days, for upper and lower, he has added “Repetition Days” for mainly hypertrophy purposes. I feel the volume in this program is sufficient for mass gains as long as my eating is in place.

As soon as I go on I’ll be adding tons of calories to my diet.

Any other comments welcome.

#5

[quote]maraudermeat wrote:
Keep it simple. Do a ME bench day, ME squat/Dlft. day and then an accessory day.

To answer your question about warm up. You want to do the least number of reps possible to get to your max while also preparing your body for the heavier weight. Unfortunately no one can just give you those reps. You will need to experiment on your own. It would be a good idea to chnage up the rep scheme frequently anyway. Below is just an example of what you can do-
The bar-10 reps
65lbs x 5
95lbs x 3
115lbs x 2
135lbs x 1
155lbs x 1

If you’ve been researching Westside then you know that you don’t train the three big lifts through a full range of motion very often. What you need to do is determine your weaknesses and train them. Pick an ME exercise and train it for two weeks and then switch it up.
On your accessory day you could do more volume work to develop mass.
Meat
[/quote]

Yeah I’ve been doing my research on Westside methodology…

I should have been a bit more descriptive I guess…

I plan on starting ( say for the first 2 weeks) with straight up Bench, Deads, Squats on my ME Upper and Lower days… Then after that, I’ll mostly be doing variations on those to improve their respective parts. So on Upper I may switch to rack lockouts, board presses, floor presses at some point, and on lower may use Deficit Deads, Racks pulls and the like at some point, as well as Box Squats.

I also may switch to a heavy row for Upper at some point (BB Rows maybe) to keep my ME attempts fresh.

As for your recommend progression, I’m working to a 3RM not a 1RM, so i was thinking maybe…

The bar-10 reps
65lbs x 8
95lbs x 5 x 2
115lbs x 3
2min
135lbs x 3
2min
140lbs x 3

That would give me 7 sets, with only the last 2 being ME attempts really. I believe my 3RM is somewhere about 135-140 so that is subject to change.

I’m also figuring 60sec est on the warmup sets.

How’s that look?

#6

MMYeah,
Mauradermeat gave you a good EXAMPLE of how to do a warm up for WSSB. Don’t be afraid to do a 1-rep max on DeFranco’s workout. If you have read all the stuff he has said on it, he doesn’t have a problem with that, although he prefers 2-3 rep maxs.

Stick to the program, push yourself, don’t hurt yourself and record your results every day.

You will be surprised at how affective his program is.

#7

[quote]Arioch wrote:
MMYeah,
Mauradermeat gave you a good EXAMPLE of how to do a warm up for WSSB. Don’t be afraid to do a 1-rep max on DeFranco’s workout. If you have read all the stuff he has said on it, he doesn’t have a problem with that, although he prefers 2-3 rep maxs.

Stick to the program, push yourself, don’t hurt yourself and record your results every day.

You will be surprised at how affective his program is.[/quote]

Thanks, and I do understand that 1-RM can be in order sometimes, and I plan to use them once in awhile just to test myself, but primarily, I want to use a 3RM on my ME days, stick to the WS4SB routine…
Just wondering how my sample warmup looks.

#8

You may want to consider a few more warmup sets in the 3-5 range. MAybe do a 105 x3-4 instead of 2 at 95. Maybe even a 125 before jumping to 135.

#9

[quote]Arioch wrote:
You may want to consider a few more warmup sets in the 3-5 range. MAybe do a 105 x3-4 instead of 2 at 95. Maybe even a 125 before jumping to 135.[/quote]

The bar-10 reps
65lbs x 8
95lbs x 5
105lbs x 5
120 lbs x 3
2min
135lbs x 3
2min
140lbs x 3

I like the look of that, I think I’ll give it a try on my first workout. Still got about 9 days of back rehab left, I’m extremely reluctant to cut it short, I don’t want this to come back and nag me.

Thanks for your help.