Firehawk's Powerlifting Journal

[Firehawk]

Yeah you'd probably like this type of routine because you get to change it up every week a little bit and you still make progress. I am very interestd to see what it does for me. I'll be training my back some way every day that i train.

[rangers97]

well let's see...I now train 4 days a week. I have 4 back exercises that I want to include in the routine(excluding shrugs)....lat pulldowns, v-handle lat pulldowns, barbell rows, and t-bar rows.

Now would it be a stretch to do one back exercise each training day for like 3 or so sets? That would involve some serious re-working of the program, but I wonder if I would be better off this way. Considering we are not bodybuilding, I can see this way would enable you to get the most out of each exercise since your back will be fresh each day, as opposed to doing 12 sets of back in a row on one day (which is ideal for the bodybuilders of course).

You know what's great about a powerlifting routine? Aside from the main 3 exercises, you can basically arrange everything else whenever you want it. You can do chest work and back work on the same day, then do more chest work and back work 2 days later. You can mix deadlifts with shoulder work, and leg work with back work. Aside from setting up the big 3 properly, you can do the assistance work wherever it fits in, within reason...

[Firehawk]

Im going to start doing one heavy back exercise for 3-4 sets every day that i train. Myb ack day is basically gonan just get spread out over 4 training days, and im going to have 2 leg days and 2 bench days. One leg day will be speed squats or speed deadlifts, or a variation, like speed rack pulls or speed box squats on different heights or with differnet bars. The other leg day is going to be a heavy lift like max effort squat or deadlift, or rack pull, or whatever. But on the max effort day im going to always keep changing the exercise i do and max out each week. Supposedly it works. It's more complicated than that but that's the summary of it.

[rangers97]

yeah, I can see how that can be more complicated. I basically like what I am doing now, you know, it;s always good to tweak it here and there to make it better, but I'm just gonna stick with the basic framework until it doesn;t work anymore. But I kind of like the idea of spreading out the back work. I might try to do that, but keep everything else relatively the same

[Firehawk]

Here's an idea of what i'mt hinking of doing. Alot of thought went nito this, some people would argue too much thought lol. But whatever. I tried to figure out the periodization methods from westside and attempted to create a 12 week schedule. Here's the first 3 weeks...any advice would be welcome.

Week 1

Speed Squat/Dead Day
High Box Squat w/Barbell (1 inch above parallel) 8 x 3 50% 1RM
Speed Pulls w/Light Band Tension 70% 1RM + 50-100lbs bands at the top 6-8 pulls
Reverse Hypers 3 x 6
Upper Back Exercise 3-4 x 6-8
Weakpoint Strengthening Exercise (GHR, Pull Thrus, etc)
Sled Drag

Speed Bench Day
BB Bench Press w/Bands 45% of 1RM of Floor Press 12 singles
DB Shoulder Presses 3 x 6-8
2 Tricep Exercises 2-3 x 10-15
Upper Back Exercise 3 x 6-8
Moderate/Heavy Delt Work

Max Effort Leg Day
BB Squat work up to 1RM
Reverse Hypers 3 x 6-8
Train weaknesses
Back Work
Ab Work

Max Effort Bench Day
BB Bench Press work up to 1RM
DB Presses 3-4 x 6-10
2 heavy tricep exercises 3 x 6-8
High Rep Delt Work


Week 2

Speed Squat/Dead Day
High Box Squat w/Barbell (1 inch above parallel) 8 x 3 55% 1RM
Speed Pulls w/Chains 70% 1RM 6-8 pulls
Reverse Hypers 3 x 6
Upper Back Exercise 3-4 x 6-8
Weakpoint Strengthening Exercise (GHR, Pull Thrus, etc)
Sled Drag

Speed Bench Day
BB Bench Press w/Bands 50% of 1RM of Floor Press 12 singles
DB Shoulder Presses 3 x 6-8
2 Tricep Exercises 2-3 x 10-15
Upper Back Exercise 3 x 6-8
Moderate/Heavy Delt Work

Max Effort Leg Day
BB Deadlift (hokie bar) work up to 1RM
Reverse Hypers 3 x 6-8
Train weaknesses
Back Work
Ab Work

Max Effort Bench Day
BB Floor Press work up to 1RM
DB Presses 3-4 x 6-10
2 heavy tricep exercises 3 x 6-8
High Rep Delt Work



Week 3

Speed Squat/Dead Day
High Box Squat w/Barbell (1 inch above parallel) 8 x 3 60% 1RM
Speed Pulls w/Band + Chains 70% 1RM 6-8 pulls
Reverse Hypers 3 x 6
Upper Back Exercise 3-4 x 6-8
Weakpoint Strengthening Exercise (GHR, Pull Thrus, etc)
Sled Drag

Speed Bench Day
BB Bench Press w/Bands 55% of 1RM of Floor Press 12 singles
DB Shoulder Presses 3 x 6-8
2 Tricep Exercises 2-3 x 10-15
Upper Back Exercise 3 x 6-8
Moderate/Heavy Delt Work

Max Effort Leg Day
Safety Squat work up to 1RM
Reverse Hypers 3 x 6-8
Train weaknesses
Back Work
Ab Work

Max Effort Bench Day
BB Bench Press off 2-Board work up to 1RM
DB Presses 3-4 x 6-10
2 heavy tricep exercises 3 x 6-8
High Rep Delt Work

[threenorns]

okay, if you don't get gains from that, considering your recuperative ability, then someone's smoking crack.

[Firehawk]

Now that's a powerlifting routine ain't it? lol

[Firehawk]

First day of westside routine...

DE Leg Day

Speed Squats on 1 inch above parallel high box

145 8 x 3 1 min apart

Think i finally figured out a comfortable squat form. Someone said something today that just triggered, they were watching me box squat, and boom, light went on. No wonder box squats are so valuable. Now im excited to squat again.

Speed Deadlifts on Jump-Stretch Platform w/regular barbell

135 + 2 double mini's 260lb tension est at top - 4 singles
185 + 2 double minis 6 singles
1 min apart.

The weight felt like 500 at the top. I know what 500 feels like, and it felt like 500 to me. Crazy difference in pulling, if you don't pull fast, you get caught and can't lock out. Next time ill prolly go with 225 on the bar.

Reverse Hypers

280 x 8
280 x 8
280 x 8

For some reason, i started feeling light headed and a little "weird" so i sat down for about 10 minutes, still felt that way, so i just stopped. I planned to do Pull Thrus and pull the sled today. But i felt like it was better to just stop. Maybe i needed some sugar in me. Also i slept for 3 hours last night so maybe that's also why lol.

[gcs118]

How much ROM did the jump stretch platform add to the DL?

[Firehawk]

It adds quite a bit, the platform adds about 1 inch and then with my shoes on, another 3/4 inch. Probably close to 2 inches. It feels like it too.

[.V.]

Originally Posted by Firehawk

Think i finally figured out a comfortable squat form. Someone said something today that just triggered, they were watching me box squat, and boom, light went on. No wonder box squats are so valuable. Now im excited to squat again.

A comforatable squat form - and you aren't going to enlighten us?

This is something I'd totally love to know.

[Firehawk]

Originally Posted by a_welch503

A comforatable squat form - and you aren't going to enlighten us?

This is something I'd totally love to know.

Well basically before i was pushing my ass far back as much as i could, when instead i should push it back but only enough so that the bar drops straight down, not keep pushing it further and further back. It was making me do all kinds of weird things.

Today it felt like i was squatting proper.

[Firehawk]

Speed Bench

Pinkies on rings: 135, 135, 135, 135
Ring fingers on rings: 145, 155, 165, 175
Index on rings: 175, 175, 185, 185
all 1 minute apart, all singles, fast as i could.

DB Shoulder Press

50s x 6
60s x 3
70s x 8
70s x 8
70s x 8
Delt strength is coming back.

Rested 1 minute, then:
Lateral Raises

20s x 20
20s x 20
1 min rest time

DB Front Raises
40s x 10
40s x 10
1 min rest between sets.

T-Bar Rows

90 x 10
155 x 6
155 x 6
155 x 6
1-1 1/2 mins between sets

Decline Ab Crunches
2 x 10

Today wanted to pull the sled but ti was raining (my excuse). Wanted to get home to watch the rose bowl really . Tried to speed up the sets today for a cardio effect. Will pull it on saturday probably, after heavy deadlifts, will be my first heavy dead session since before the surgery. Not sure what i can get now, probably 465ish i'm guessing, hopefully more. We'll see.

[rangers97]

i know this is a nitpicky question, but do you think it's totally necessary to do front raises, given all the bombardment the front delts already take from all the pressing? Is there a specific reason you do it?

I find my front delts are larger than the side and rear to begin with, and I don't want to do anything to make the difference even worse, so I just usually do sides and rear, and let the pressing take care of the fronts

[Firehawk]

It's what i am told to do from the masters, so i do it .

The 40s were more like a faster bodybuilding type of exercise today for sets of 10. I could probably do 40s for 20 now on a consistent basis if i was fresher.