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Back to 4 days per week

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by Scott Bird | March 29, 2005
Filed in routines | 4 comments

Following just over a month of a 3-day-per-week approach, I’ve decided to switch back to the previous 4 day Westside routine. Whereas the 3 day setup felt like 2 days plus a spare, the 4 day approach feels like a solid 4 days of work. Much better.

Sun: ME SQ/DL	Mon: ME Bench	Wed: DE SQ/DL	Fri: DE Bench
squat zercher squat deadlift	bench press db bench press floor press	squat zercher squat deadlift	bench press db bench press floor press
Hamstrings romanian deadlift ghr	Upper back bent row chin-up shrug hise shrug	Abs various crunches, raises and twists	Triceps Tate curl tricep extension
Lower back + Glutes good morning Dimmel deadlift	Triceps Tate curl tricep extension	Calves calf raises	Shoulder rehab/prehab standing L-Flye
Lats chin-up dumbell row t-bar row		Quads lunge Hack squat	Delts Bradford press Neider press shoulder press various raises

Notes:

These workouts are preceded by dynamic stretching, and followed by isometric stretching. These stretching exercises consist of upper body stretches on Bench days, and lower body stretches on Squat/Deadlift days.
Most of the exercises listed above have a number of variations. Each variation will be used for no more than 3 consecutive weeks.
The single repetition maximum (1RM) for each of the key lifts (Squat, Deadlift and Bench Press) is tested every 6 weeks or so. For other weeks only a max double or triple will be tested.
Workouts should last no longer than 60 mins (excluding warmup and stretching).

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Comments

Wanted to point out something you might be interested in, “When and Whom to Stretch”:

http://www.physsportsmed.com/cover.htm

It’s the cover story for “The Physician and Sportsmedicine” online in March, so if the link changes, you can probably just google it.

I noticed that you mentioned doing dynamic stretching before your workout, and the article is an overview of the evidence on stretching. It looks like the immediate effects of stretching is a decrease in force and power (although the effect of regular stretching is the opposite — an increase in force and power).

The difference doesn’t seem to be huge… but might be worth a try.

Posted by: bdckr | April 3, 2005 2:48 AM

Just read my comment, realized I wasn’t very clear.

Seems like stretching before might hinder your workout, while the stretching that you’re doing after should be alright.

Posted by: bdckr | April 3, 2005 2:51 AM

Interesting article. The types of stretching that may hinder workout performance are essentially varieties of static stretching. Dynamic stretching as part of a warmup for weight training is actually recommended by authorities such as Thomas Kurz. For an excellent discussion on this (and the several other types of stretching) have a look at his book ‘Stretching Scientifically’.

Posted by: Scott | April 3, 2005 9:36 PM

Thanks, Scott. I’ll need to find that book.

I just went back to the article, though (new link:

http://www.physsportsmed.com/issues/2005/0305/shrier.htm#references
)

and the specific reference for that comment about hindering performance is here:

http://www.cjsportmed.com/pt/re/cjsm/pdfhandler.00042752-200409000-00004.pdf

If you look at Table 3, which summarizes some of the studies that they looked at, one of them studied dynamic stretching and showed a decrease in jump height. Unfortunately, the specific study is listed as “submitted”, and I can’t find the actual study details on-line.

I’m not sure if this is significant (given that it’s only one study) or even applicable to weight training, but definitely food for thought.

Posted by: bdckr | April 4, 2005 5:41 PM

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