Questions for all those WSFSB’ers
How do you progressed on your Repetition days? I know you are suppose to do 3 sets of max with 60 secs rest. So how do you gauge your progress and when do you increase your poundage on the exercise or do you change exercise if so how often do you changed them?
Thanks in advance
I just do as many reps as possible for the given exercise…I try to stop one short of failure on all three sets though. I change the movement every three weeks; but I plan to alternate between dips and bench press.
I’m not sure of this is 100% correct but here’s what I did: I set the rep-weight at an amount that I knew I could rep out (15+) and used a watch to ensure that I was going exactly on the rest interval. Over the course of 3 weeks the number of reps I could do cumulatively increased. For example, my initial sets / reps looked like (17/15/12)for a total of 44 reps.
After a rest week I came back and went over 60 total reps for the 3 sets; for me that was a sign that I was ready to increase the weight. How much? Well I went back and calculated what percent the previously used rep-weight was of my max BP at the time and I used that percentage to calculate my new rep-weight. Same cycle again until I switched up exercises after 12 weeks on the program to work on some weak areas. Choose a weight that will allow you to get at least 30 (i.e. 3x10) total reps.
Hope that this helps and good luck with the program!
if one were to add an extra leg day to the WS4SB program, would it be DE or repetition? Which one would have a better effect on your 1rm?
[quote]BWBurner wrote:
if one were to add an extra leg day to the WS4SB program, would it be DE or repetition? Which one would have a better effect on your 1rm?[/quote]
I’m no expert, but I believe it depends on your qualification. If you are a lower-level lifter (if your squat is below 350), you’d probably get more benefit from higher reps. It’s very individual though.
When you hit your max, is it realllll slow? If so, then speed work might help you. If you are a “hit or miss” type lifter that doesn’t grind out reps at all, then higher-rep work would help you.
[quote]jtrinsey wrote:
I’m no expert, but I believe it depends on your qualification. If you are a lower-level lifter (if your squat is below 350), you’d probably get more benefit from higher reps. It’s very individual though.
When you hit your max, is it realllll slow? If so, then speed work might help you. If you are a “hit or miss” type lifter that doesn’t grind out reps at all, then higher-rep work would help you.[/quote]
I’ve never did a WS approach or a WS4SB approach, ive always done classic style accumulation and max strength lfting since I am a track guy. I figured the offseason would be the time for me to work on my strength levels (230-BP, 280-Full BSq 190-PC)and to gain some quality lbs to my skinny frame.
but on the 1rm test question, its more or less a mix of both, im usually a hit or miss guy mostly, but sometimes when going for a 1rm i go pretty slow at times.
How do you calculate the percent of your previously used rep-weight was of my max BP at the time?
[quote]l-dub1 wrote:
I’m not sure of this is 100% correct but here’s what I did: I set the rep-weight at an amount that I knew I could rep out (15+) and used a watch to ensure that I was going exactly on the rest interval. Over the course of 3 weeks the number of reps I could do cumulatively increased. For example, my initial sets / reps looked like (17/15/12)for a total of 44 reps.
After a rest week I came back and went over 60 total reps for the 3 sets; for me that was a sign that I was ready to increase the weight. How much? Well I went back and calculated what percent the previously used rep-weight was of my max BP at the time and I used that percentage to calculate my new rep-weight. Same cycle again until I switched up exercises after 12 weeks on the program to work on some weak areas. Choose a weight that will allow you to get at least 30 (i.e. 3x10) total reps.
Hope that this helps and good luck with the program![/quote]
I guess that was a tad confusing… sorry! For ease of calculation let’s say that your max is 200 for standard bench starting out. So let’s say you chose a rep-weight of 70% of your max, so that’s 140lbs. As you progress on WSSB your max effort and max reps should increase. After 3-4 weeks you take a back off week and re-test your max BP; let’s say you’re up to 235 max now. Again use 70% of your new max (235*.70) to get 165lbs for your new rep-weight.
I found out that my progression wasn’t linear: sometimes my max really went up while my reps stayed lower or vice versa. So if your max goes up but you’re not repping out 70% of that new max, then reduce the weight and keep the reps over 10 on each set.
There are other methods as well, this is just one example that worked pretty well for me. Hope that this helps.
-dub