New Article

hey guys just wanted to let you know that there is a new article up this week. Its an interview with Zach Reed and there is some pretty interesting stuff in there.



Nate Helterbrand

Actually, I'm old news. However, the new article brings to light the "Westside Method." My first experience with it was when I visited a friend that was a GA for Virginia Tech and they were implementing some of it into their program. My question for Coach Floyd is- what's the best place to start for anyone that wants to learn about the Westside Method? There is the website of course, but I see they have books and videos. What is recommended?

The best source to start is www.elitefts.com. Read everything Louie Simmons has ever written and then move on to Dave Tate. Joe Defranco has some good stuff. I will write more on this later.

I highly recommend Joe D's Westside for Skinny Bstrds 1, 2 and 3.

The Westside Method is actually an all encompassing term that really means concurrent periodization. What this means is that all abilities(ME,RE,DE) are trained in the same week. In the classical "westside" split, there is a ME Upper and Lower Body day and a DE upper and lower body day. RE work is done after the main work on both days. This method of periodization was adopted because of the inability of linear periodization to retain abilities from one phase to another. I noticed this with my own training. During the high rep weeks of linear periodization I lost a ton of strength. I always felt like it was a waste of time. Other lifters may lose the mass they gain during the volume phase. That didn't happen to me but strength was always my focus. Joe Kenn's teir method is the best adaption I have seen of concurrent periodization. Here is his model.

Monday-Total Body-ME
LB-DE
UB-RE
Wednesday-LB-ME
UB-DE
TB-RE
Friday-UB-ME
TB-DE
LB-RE

There is more work involved but that is his basic 3x3 split. No abilities are lost because they are trained at least once per week. This method also allows a great deal of exercise variety and makes it easy to balance the workload from back to front.

The biggest question that comes up is "do I max on bench, clean (or deadlift) and squat each week?" From what I've seen, one would max on a bench-type lift like board press or close-grip and squat might be box squat, squats w/ chains or front squat. Could you guys elaborate on the choosing of the appropriate max effert exercise. Also, would one expect to increase each week on a particular lift?

I usually rotate my lifts every two weeks, some do it every three. We will usually do a 5Rm and 3RM for a lift, or I may prescribe a % and do say 4 X whatever according to prilipins table or pyramid the %'s. I choose exercises according to what season it is, (in-season, off-season, pre-season) and whatever weaknesses I see that the majority of my kids have. We may do board presses to help with our lock out for example. I will almost always not allow kids in season to do a 5RM or 3RM on lower body lifts, especially DL's. I will prescribe the weight for them. After we go through our rotation of lifts we will come back to a specific exercise and do a 5 and 3 rep max again. They look back in their journals and see what they did earlier in the semester
and obviously try to set a new pr. Along with pre testing and post testing 1 RM's, pro shuttle, vertical and forties, my kids will usually get 12 to 15 opportunuties to see improvement over the course of the semester. They will do the same on upper rep days. We will rotate BP, DB press, and push-ups and starting on the fourth week of school, they get an opportunity to see improvements. We are currently using the four day Joe DeFranco WSFSB split. Hope this makes sense.

Clay is correct. I have had success changing the exercises more frequently and keeping them the same but changing the reps. For a general rule of thumb, keep the exercise longer for more inexperienced lifters and rotate sooner for older guys.