Westside/Maxstim Hybrid

600lb rack pulls!
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That's awesome Tot. I must try some rack pulls when my forearm has healed up a bit. I have a feeling it'll be good to get used to handling heavier loads than I can dead with.

I reckon the rack pulls are going to hurt your deads later in the same session so I'm really impressed that you got 455 off the ground even if you don't think you quite locked out.

A couple of rubber mats might help reduce the shock on the bar when you drop it back down. Might prevent further breakages and will definitely save the floor. Like you care about that!
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Yeah, I've been thinking about some mats. They are damned expensive though.

Some guy was selling his son's gym online because his son left it in their house and never used it. Included was a smith machine which I didn't want, but also like 500 lbs in weights, some bars, dumbbell handles and some mats.
I don't think anyone won the auction. Maybe he'll relist it soon.
 
I'm going to get a single 6' x 4' rubber stable mat and chop it in half. Over here they are about £20 but I expect you could get one for less than $40 over there. They are about 15mm thick so they are really tough.

A length of industrial rubber conveyor belt is another option but probably more difficult to get hold of unless you know someone who services them.
 
I was about to ask if the 600 lb. rackpull was a PR, but further reading on your post answered my question. Big congrats. What was your previous PR?
 
Thanks. Previous PR was 555 lbs.

I think I'm going to try lowering my safety catches one hole, and pull some rack pulls in the 500s from there. When I get back up to 600, lower it another hole, etc etc until I am deadlifting that much.

Or I might not do that, and just stick to what I've been doing, since my strength keeps going up anyway.
 
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I think I'm going to try lowering my safety catches one hole, and pull some rack pulls in the 500s from there. When I get back up to 600, lower it another hole, etc etc until I am deadlifting that much.</div>

That's an interesting thought, but like you said...

If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
 
I read about an old time lifter who took a weight he couldn't deadlift but which he could lift while standing in a hole deep enough to require only a small movement to raise the load. Each week he shovelled some earth into the hole and then lifted the same load again. He went through this process until he eventually filled the hole and was able to properly deadlift the weight.

Can't remember how many weeks he took to fill the hole or how heavy the weight was that he eventually deadlifted but I think it was quite respectable. Sort of an inverted Totentanz technique except I think Tot's method would be better as it would utilise load progression too. I think it would definitely be worth a try if you were trying to break through a sticking point but no point in doing it if progress is already good.
 
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(Lol @ Jul. 11 2007,20:48)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I read about an old time lifter who took a weight he couldn't deadlift but which he could lift while standing in a hole deep enough to require only a small movement to raise the load. Each week he shovelled some earth into the hole and then lifted the same load again. He went through this process until he eventually filled the hole and was able to properly deadlift the weight.

Can't remember how many weeks he took to fill the hole or how heavy the weight was that he eventually deadlifted but I think it was quite respectable. Sort of an inverted Totentanz technique except I think Tot's method would be better as it would utilise load progression too. I think it would definitely be worth a try if you were trying to break through a sticking point but no point in doing it if progress is already good.</div>
Yeah that does sound similar to what I want to do. I think my method would work better though, since it does include progression as you pointed out.

And yes, I think I'll just do it at the end of my current routine... or on days when I am bored and want to lift more.
 
Great work, tot!

For what it's worth, one of the biggest doods I know used a max stim / westside combo for the better part of a year last year, and made tremendous progress with it in both strength and size.

Quadancer &amp; I have been trying to get him to post his w/o log here for awhile, but he just sticks to the musclenow boards...for now
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I know for a fact he used progressive ROM work as well to add nearly 100 lbs to his deadlift. He didn't dig a hole, though
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(Slapshotz @ Jul. 12 2007,06:17)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I know for a fact he used progressive ROM work as well to add nearly 100 lbs to his deadlift.  He didn't dig a hole, though
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His gym would probably frown on that.
 
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Each week he shovelled some earth into the hole and then lifted the same load again. He went through this process until he eventually filled the hole and was able to properly deadlift the weight.</div>

Sounds like something Colby would do, CAVEMAN.  
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<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Sounds like something Colby would do, CAVEMAN.
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My latest cycle is earning me a reputation. I would definitely dig a hole if it wasn't for the rain.

I guess I am not a true caveman!!!
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I haven't been updating... oops.

I've really cracked down on diet the past weeks. I used to be really OCD about diet, counting calories always and always making sure to hit my calorie goals. It worked well. But... these days, I just have too much on my mind at all times, so it is hard for me to be as disciplined with diet for long periods of time.
As a result, I have determined that I'll likely be more successful if I cycle my diet OCDness. I can get away with this because when left to my own devices, I eat at maintenance or even slightly below, so there is no worry of getting hugely fat if I don't count. This will allow me to focus on being perfect at the diet, since I will know that I only have to do it for a short period of time. I will be sure to align these periods of watching my diet with the periods when I should be hitting higher poundages and PRs, so... hopefully it will work out well.


I haven't maxed on DLs or Rack Pulls in a while, because apparently my immune system suffers when I do it too much. So... sticking to the program and doing nothing extra for now.

I would highly recommend this program to most intermediate lifters. It has been great so far. The only thing that bugs me is that all the noticeable mass gain has been in my traps (like usual) and my hamstrings. I can't seem to get my traps to stop growing so everything else can catch up. Seriously, it is starting to look absurd. Might have to drop pulls for a couple cycles if it gets worse.
My hamstrings are taking on a noticeable fullness compared to usual. I've always had good hams compared to my quads, but they are getting really thick lately. Maybe because I started squatting and doing good mornings again, I would assume. I doubt it's doing flies or shrugs, heheh.
 
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE"> Maybe because I started squatting and doing good mornings again, I would assume.</div>

I hear you Tot. It's the occupational hazard of working out your legs.
 
Well, I'm real bad about updating my log.

My wife has a job now, which is first shift. That means I have to get up at 5:30 am every morning to get the kids ready for school and daycare, then take two of them to school and the other two to daycare. Then I'm off to work.
I don't have time to eat at all in the morning or at work, so I decided I may as well go on a cut. That was around August 11th, so it's been a month since I started cutting. Since I don't have any time to eat all day, I get home around 6-7pm and pack in all my calories between then and bed, which is usually around 9-10pm.

A lot of guys are doing Intermittent Fasting with good results. Since I don't eat all day until I get home, I'm going to go ahead and call my diet Intermittent Fasting, though I doubt I'm following all the rules, etc that the guys do. I haven't even bothered to read much about it, I'm just calling my diet IF for convenience sake.
What I do is fast all day long, then when I get home, I get a protein shake immediately. If it is a lifting day, I go lift, then get another protein shake afterwards. Otherwise, it is a binge all night long. A controlled binge, of course. I get about 250 grams of protein, 100 grams of carbs and 50 grams of fat a day. That ends up being about 1800-1900 calories. I can't really fit much else in unless I eat crappy stuff.

I had to cut out a lot of the volume from my westside/maxstim hybrid. I'm using the same lifts, but that's about it. I've gone down to 3 days a week training, two days upper and one day lower. Maybe I could handle more than that, but I don't feel like spending the time. I have a lot of other stuff to do besides lifting.

Upper 1

Weighted Dips 1x5xBW+80 lbs / 2x5xBW+100
Bentover Rows 1x5x195 lbs / 2x5x215 lbs
Shrugs 1x5x315 lbs / 2x5x385 lbs
DB Flies 3x8x40
Pulldowns 3x8x205

Lower

Squats 1x3x265 lbs / 2x3x305 lbs
Good Mornings 1x3x165 lbs / 2x3x205
Calf Raises 3x10x455
Leg Ext 3x10x195

Upper 2

Bench 1x5x165 lbs / 2x5x205 lbs
Deadlift 1x3x385 lbs / 2x3x425 lbs
Rack Pulls 1x3x455 lbs / 2x3x505 lbs
Military Press 3x8x145 lbs
Face Pulls 3x8x275 lbs

I'm sticking with the same loads each week, though every other week I first do 3x3, then build up to a 1 RM with deads, squats, rack pulls, good mornings and shrugs, then use the new 1 RM to figure out what load to use the following week.

My strength is maintaining in the big stuff, so I'm pretty happy. Strangely, Good Mornings are doing real well but Squats are feeling a little shaky this last week. I don't know why. I feel real strong in dips, bench and flies, I think that combo is working very well to maintain there.

No cardio so far, but I think I may start doing some this week in the mornings. I do have about a half hour in the morning that I could do a little something. I might start doing my Kung Fu drills, since I have no cardio equipment and I can't go for a bike ride while the kids sleep. That could work.

Results have been awesome, and no, I'm not using any drugs. I have been on an ephedrine/caffeine stack though. I take 25 mgs of E and 200 mgs of caffeine three times a day. So... maybe that has contributed. Or maybe this pseudo-IF thing is magic.
I've lost a lot of weight. I was at 215 lbs and I'm at 195 lbs now, which means I've lost like 20 lbs in a month. I guess some of that could have been muscle, but I feel real strong, so maybe not. My abdominal skin fold was 20 mm when I began and is 12 mm now. My arms are 15.5 inches and have stayed that size the whole time. I am getting some real good quad separation, though it's hard to see through all my leg hair. The wife suggested I shave them so we can see the progress better, but I don't know... maybe when I'm done cutting, so I can see how they look. I've haven't been lean enough to see quad separation since I was a little 150 lb guy, and back then, I didn't really have enough muscle to show anything anyway.

I'm going to attempt to keep this updated, at least when I go for the new maxes every other week.
 
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