my buddy made this routine for me and i was wondering what you guys think.
at 140lbs my current maxs are 205 on bench, approximately 225 on squat, and 285 on dead.
squat on monday, wed, friday and sat.
deadlift on mondays heavy, and again on wed light.
bench on tues and do light upper body work on thurs.
abs 2-3 times a week
week 1
monday-
full squat 4 sets of 9 with 160
deadlift up to 215 for 2 reps then 170 for 8 sets of 3 with 45 sec between them
bend overs- 3 sets of 5-6
tues-
comp bench press- 2 sets of 135 for 10
incline- 3x10
close grip 3x10
wed-
full squat- 5 sets of 7 with 170
sumo dl 8 sets of 3 with 170
heavy back work using 1 exercise- t bar rows, bent rows, sldl, heavy chins
thurs-
soft benching- incline or flat dumb bells 2-3 sets of 8-12
over head press- 2x10 with 110
side and rear delt raise 2-3 sets of 8-15
fri-
full sq 7 sets of 5 180
pull til knees- 3x5 with 185 (conv)
sat-
full squat 10 sets of 3 with 190
snatch 15 single with anything
sun-off
one note is that i cant come close to over head presses 110 for 10. i can do 95 about 4 or 5 times so im good for 75 or maybe 80. last night i did 2 sets of 4 with the 95 and then did 70 for my 2 sets of 10.
Do you let yourself revover? If I lift heavy, I won’t lift at all the nexy day, just cardio. Look at my blog brother. It looks good, for a little guy you sound really strong.
Honestly, you are doing too much squatting. If you want to squat that often, then you should mix it up with variations like full squat, sumo squat, box squat, dynamic box squat, front squat, and overhead squat. You’ll burn yourself out otherwise and your progress will slow much more quickly doing the same lift 4 days/week in that manner.
Also, I really don’t like percentage or fixed weight programs. They don’t take into account that people with different fiber ratios and physical build will have vastly different results at 80%1RM… They work for competive powerlifters and oly lifters because to be competitive you really need to fit into a certain mold, so everybody is generally the same.
Don’t mean to shoot down the routine. Doing anything regularly will work most of the time.
[QUOTE=Chief Fox;702622]What kind of conditioning do you do?[/QUOTE]
umm … sometimes i go up some stairs or something. yeah …
nah i get some sled in but thats honestly about it. unless you count rolling. i know that i need address this.
[QUOTE=Ford Prefect;702645]Honestly, you are doing too much squatting. If you want to squat that often, then you should mix it up with variations like full squat, sumo squat, box squat, dynamic box squat, front squat, and overhead squat. You’ll burn yourself out otherwise and your progress will slow much more quickly doing the same lift 4 days/week in that manner.
Also, I really don’t like percentage or fixed weight programs. They don’t take into account that people with different fiber ratios and physical build will have vastly different results at 80%1RM… They work for competive powerlifters and oly lifters because to be competitive you really need to fit into a certain mold, so everybody is generally the same.
Don’t mean to shoot down the routine. Doing anything regularly will work most of the time.[/QUOTE]
i hear you with the squating and when i make it to the gym to train my buddy does have me mix it up with the box/front/overhead squats. also this is just week one … i’m assuming this changes in week two. the fact that my buddy is a competitive powerlifter might also have something to do with the routine
[QUOTE=Ford Prefect;702647]Also, this doesn’t take into your goals (what are they?) and your fitness levels.[/QUOTE]
i want to get strong and get a respectable squat. also bigger legs. marcus wants to up my work capacity as its not all that great to put it nicely.
… also i dont mean to go to far into “defending what im doing mode.”
i came hear seaking advice and criticisimis and they are welcome. i’m giving my boy 8 to 12 weeks of strict obedience but any info collected now will be usefull then when i want to start a new cycle.
[QUOTE=GunnedDownAtrocity;702790]what would you recommend? would biking be good?[/QUOTE]
Sure, but you have to make it really intense. Maybe find a decent hill. Something that will take you 2 or 3 minutes to get up. Once at the top maybe do like 20 pushups and 20 body weight squats. Then coast back down the hill. Do this like 4 times. Your workout will only be like 15 minutes or so but very intense.
Once you get proficient at this you could add another exercise to the top like situps or you could add another interval.
Stuff like this is great measure of fitness. When your time decreases, you know you’re getting better.
Most of the best power lifters on the entire planet only squat 2x/week at most. These are guys who regularly squat 900-1000+ lbs. They never do things like squatting for sets of 7 or 9 unless it is a warm-up set, and even then it is rare. If you really just want a bigger squat/legs, then you’d do good to mimick them as opposed to doing what a friend says. It’s rather doubtful that your friend can lift anywhere near as much as the Westside Barbell guys or that his method is anywhere near as exhaustively researched. You can see more about their methods at:
In the articles section, look for the Periodization Bible. Either that or do what Iron says and decrease volume. A powerlifter that has somebody doing full squats 4x/week and only goes under 5 reps one of those days doesn’t really have a handle on things, imo.
Conditioning is a good idea too. You just to be honest with yourself about what is important to you. Is health and making the most out of the genes that you got worth anything? If so, you should be doing to some long sustained-duration cardio for 30 minutes/session at least 2x/week. If getting a bigger gas tank for fighting is important than mixing in LSD and interval training would be an option. If the only that is important is strength, then just add in the sled work.
thanks for the links man. i got them bookmarked and if i dont get much reading time over the weekend ill read them at work for sure. i like the tnation articles … they always add a little humor in them to make for easy reading.
i hear you on the volume too … i think that it might be partly because my squats sucked. in fact tonight was the first night that every thing clicked and i got my upper body into it and i felt myself spreading the floor through the entire movement. ill ask him what his reasoning behind all the volume is. this could change with weak two as well.
It’s rather doubtful that your friend can lift anywhere near as much as the Westside Barbell guys or that his method is anywhere near as exhaustively researched.
whats funny is that marcus actually trains at westside when he can get up there. when i compliment him on being strong he laughs and brings up those guys. being that powerlifting is such a small community you may have even heard of my buddy … his last name is mucheck.
Well what he’s telling you to do runs counter what to just about everything Westside would. Also bare in mind that Westside is an invitation only gym. I think there are very few people if any, that can just drop by to train when they feel like it. Never heard of Marcus before.
i respect your opinion highly ford and i dont mean to get defensive of my buddy, but i guess its only natural. i hear what youre saying about the volume and i welcome the criticisms, but that aside i dont see marcus lying about where he’s trained. in his own words hes a dime a dozen and i talk him up more than he does, but he’s had the opportunity to meet a lot of people.
again i hear you on the volume thing and i’ll bring it up to him … but training meathodologies aside i dont know him to be a liar. he might not be the most humble person i’ve known, but he’s very realistic about his place in the powerlifting world and i’ve never known him to talk **** he couldnt back up.
You have to look at the big picture in training. In all likelihood, this is a mere snapshot of what you will be doing. There is a time and place for high volume training such as this.
GDA, I am guessing that your coach is putting you on the “Smolov” routine.
Again, we have to look at the big picture here. Lower volume after 3 weeks, and you will see at a major overshoot in performance. I’ve heard positive feedback from plenty of people on this routine.
Having an experienced coach also makes a huge difference. He SHOULD be able to watch you train and make adjustments as necessary. So this is different from trying to apply a routine on your own.
On the other hand, you are going to have trouble training martial arts with any real intensity while doing this. Hopefully your goals are in synch with one another.
