I’m kinda liking this program but since I’ve been training for quite awhile I’m real sure I can take 2 leg workouts a week. There’s a max effort upper body day and a repetition upper body day. Soo if I added a second leg workout (one on wednesday and the other saturday) what would the repetition workout look like? I’m sorry if this is a lame question but I’m real tired and would just appreciate some help from one of you boys or girls.
You are certianly experienced enough to do a second leg day. I think DeFranco’s reasoning was that skinny guys would want to put more effort into bulking the upper body, which recovers faster.
If you go to Joe Defranco’s site there is an “ask Joe” column where he lays out a template for a second lower body day. He gives a schedule that shows how to fit all of the lifting days and any conditioning/agility/sport practice into a week.
Good luck with the program. It’s one of my favorites.
A. Unilateral Movement - Perform 3 sets of 15 reps each leg
*Choose from the following list of exercises: (Don’t do the same exercise that you performed on your first lower body day.)
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.)
Note: I like to keep the ME days earlier in the week and the DE or rep work at the end. And YES, you can put the lower body day on Monday if you’re going to do 2 lower body days.
Mon: Upper ME
Wed: Lower ME
Fri: Upper Rep
Sat: Lower Rep
And remember that just because you may be doing 4 main workouts a week, this doesn’t make it a regular Westside template. The difference lies in the repetition days instead of the DE days, as well as the unilateral work on lower body days.