What to do next...

[Iain]

Thanks for the continued input.

When reading about Westside I noted with interest the talk of dynamic effort with squat and bench. This seems like a good thing to me - any thoughts?

R-bench? Regular bench?
Also, when doing sets with three reps do you do anything to increase time under tension - like a very slow eccentric contraction, or do you bang out three reps as per normal?

I like the idea of waving over four weeks. When you use percentages are you exact or is it an estimate based on much experience and a good feel for your own capabilities?

[Kyle C]

DE is good, I do alot of olympic lifting and speed work so i dont devote a whole DE day for both bench and squat.

Time Under Tension=worthless.

its not the TUT, research is proving that hypertrophy is more or so linked to fatigue. Hence my bodybuilding programs. High amounts of fatigue can be produced by short rest periods and heavy weight/low reps (1-3).

Lets say my 80% is 261.4, i'll do 260. If its 266 then i'll do 265, if its 269.. i'll do 270. Im within 5 pounds either way.

Kc

[Iain]

I hadn't heard of time under tension until recently. Where I read it they were talking about 30 secs upwards and I thought - I rarely see people do sets that take more than 20 or seconds. One of my sets of five is probably less than 15 seconds.

What I was asking about the percentages was whether you work it out exactly and then round it to nearest available weight. I guess from your last reply that you do.

Again apologies for all the questions: with deadlifts do you approach each set of three as a set of singles i.e straighten up for a few seconds between reps? I've recently moved over to do very heavy (prob 90% or so) deadlifts in sets of three approaching them that way. Make sense? Breakdown of form worries me is all.

I was kind of wondering with relation to DE whether people do:
Wk 1 - DE bench
Wk 2 - ME bench and so on?

I had also thought that for a few weeks I could do bench and squats twice a week, once a DE effort and once an ME effort. Probably no sense to this though.

[Kyle C]

Doing it twice a wk does make sense. DE is dynamic effort, its a sound principle and a good one. I just dont apply it like WS does.

In WS they have it set like this:

Mon: ME Squat
Tue: DE Bench
Wed: Off
Thur: DE Squat/DL
Fri: ME bench

Kc

[Iain]

So I could structure a workout around the following:

Mon
Squat - wave
Box squat
Stiff-leg deadlifts
DE bench
and?

Weds
Deadlift - wave
Rack Pulls below knee - not sure what these are
Snatch Grip pull shrugs - again not sure
Hammer Curls

Friday
Bench - wave
- next most useful bench exercise?
DE Squat
Push press
Bent-over rows

Where I have read about DE they recommend 9 sets of 3 reps. Do I need to do this many sets - cut it to five and get benefits?

I'm trying to keep up here. Thanks for the help - again.

[Kyle C]

Originally Posted by Iain

So I could structure a workout around the following:

Mon
Squat - wave
Box squat
Stiff-leg deadlifts
DE bench
and?

Weds
Deadlift - wave
Rack Pulls below knee - not sure what these are
Snatch Grip pull shrugs - again not sure
Hammer Curls

Friday
Bench - wave
- next most useful bench exercise?
DE Squat
Push press
Bent-over rows

Where I have read about DE they recommend 9 sets of 3 reps. Do I need to do this many sets - cut it to five and get benefits?

I'm trying to keep up here. Thanks for the help - again.

8x3 or 9x2, they are speed reps.. each rep is done VERY quickly but under control. Your looking to develop speed.

if your gunna go with a DE/ME split then it needs to be 4 days a wk, not 3. It makes it to cramed for 3 days.

Kc

[Iain]

Right, I'll have a think and get back to you.

Problem with four days a week is that I can't really fit it in. Could I arrange something on a four day system but go three days a week? I've done things like that before and it seemed to work (as in I didn't forget what I was up to.)

[Kyle C]

I train on a 3 day a wk system and its workin great for me. Read back to my earlier stuff.

Kc

[Iain]

Right so DE sets need to be completed very fast - 4 seconds roughly?

A lot of this is moot right now - I have broken a finger pretty badly and can't grip anything without serious pain. Gives me some time to think about all this. I was supposed to be doing bench today before next weeks active recovery week.

I'll keep thinking about all this, I'd like to find a way to incorporate DE, but cleans may be part of that type of effort and including them seems like a good thing too.

Thanks for the help so far Kyle, I'll get in touch via this thread soon.

[Kyle C]

ouch, sorry about the finger. By the time you heal I should have my article out in Mind N Muscle, i added another 2 pages to it yesterday to hit 13 pages.

Kc