ws for skinny guys

I’m not a skinny guy but am going to try the program to add a little more mass and strength. Can I hear some opinions about rest between sets on the program and also tempo? Thanks.

shit…if i knew i was going to get this kind of a response I would have entitled this post with something that has something to do a fuckin’clothing trend or some buuuulllllshyt!

Rest between sets: 30-60 sec (up to 120 sec, for us seriously old farts), between “dynamic” (speed) or “bodybuilding” (higher-rep) sets; reasonably complete rest, between max-effort sets.
Tempo for strength and power work is hard to do but easy to say: the eccentric is as fast as you can really control the bar, and the concentric is as fast as you can push or pull the motherhumper! In a max-effort (very-damn-heavy) lift, it may go up very slowly, but you’re TRYING to make it go as fast as possible. Tempo for hypertrophy: I’ll defer to the better bodybuilding coaches. (I’m just a dumb-'n-ugly powerlifter.)
Strength & courage,
“Coach Joe”

are you doing joe defrancos program or our you training using the westside powerlifting program…while there the same there also very very opposite…in my opinion if you dont train at westside your not training westside…bm

bm, would you agree though that DeFrancos program, while not westside, is a better option for novice lifters?

I was going to try defrancos program just to see how it works for me. I expect that the hypertrophy gains will be higher, but I would expect greater strength with the true westside program.

blam…hugh…i am much much more into gpp…in fact i have had novice lifters do nothing more than basic gpp movements and conditioning for up to 6 weeks before i evevn let them in my weight room…to me the articles by dave tate the education of a powerlifter were the most important articles on this entire site becuase they showed the importance of having a base and most every other article on this site lists programs that are preety much cookie cut with there %'s and really dont take the personal athlete into perspective…I CANT AWNSER YOUR QUESTION BECUASE I DONT KNWO YOU…i dont know your work capacity, lifestyle, cns ability, your motor patterns, your past injuries, your strength to endurance capacaity, are you dominant to have speed strength or strength speed, and most important i dont know what are your goals…SO HOW THE HELL CAN I WRITE A PROGRAM AND PUT IT ON THE NET AND TELL YOU IT WILL WORK FOR YOU???..EXAMPLE-we recenlty had a ex-division 1 shot putter/football player come to our gym to join our team…this guy is huge…has much more muscle than me and my training partner…and were both 275-300 lbs and he is only 250…me and my training partner have built up preety good work capacities training with each other for the past 2 years…this guy wouldnt really listen and thought he could keep up with us instead of building a base for our sport of powerlifting…guess where he is now WAITING TO HAVE LOW BACK SURGERY…WHAT DID HE NEED OT DO??? WELL I CAN TELL YOU IT WASNT WHAT WE WERE DOING…he was a ex college athlete 1 year removed form divison 1 competition who could raw squat 580 and bench 400…but guess what he needded at least a month of sled dragging, glute ham raise, rev hypers, pull throughs, band goodmonrings, ab work, and tons of gpp to build up the capacity to train with us big fat slop jacks who squat near 800 and bench 500…so you will never get me to say a program written for everbody will work for any one…you cant flex bone…bm

ya I get what you are saying, good post and thanks for reminding me about the whole individuality thing. I sometimes forget we arent a bunch of robots :stuck_out_tongue:

Great post BM.

WONDERFUL thread!!!

what does it mean “Work up to a max set of 3-5 reps.” ?

say my max 3-5 reps is around 150lbs. does that mean do 3-5 of 100, 110, 125, 135, 150?

how would that work if everytime i start at a different weight, or increment different amounts? what if i started at 135, id only go up a few increments.

its probably something simple. but im bad at understanding things.

vvsonikvv,
I’ve never seen this carved in granite, but I’ll usually do 3-5 warmup sets before the first max-effort set of the workout. Because I’m old and often stiff, I may open with as little as 30% of my max single, for 8 reps. I then take approximately equal jumps of about 15%, for sets of 6, 4, & 2-3 reps. If I’m going for a 1-RM single, I’ll add one more warmup, a single at 88-90%. Typically, that first exercise is a multi-joint movement that involves all of the muscles I’m trying to abuse in the workout. For each subsequent movement, I’ll do at least one warmup set. (If there’s something going wrong with a tendon, I’d rather find out about it before I do the movement at max force.)
Is all that really necessary? Idunno, but some of the strongest guys in history start their squat and deadlift warmups with 60kg.
Strength & courage,
“Coach Joe”