I've detailed my tentative plan for the next 6 weeks below. Here's the gist of it.

• 6 week cycles
• 2 max effort days, 2 dynamic effort days each week
• On max effort lower day, I'll do the opposite movement for volume (BBB). If a deadlift movement, I'll squat, vice versa.
• On max effort upper day, my main assistance will flip-flop between volume bench (BBB) and dumbbell work.
• On dynamic effort day, I will break my main assistance into two 3-week cycles. I'll pick an assistance exercise out from the yellow box.
• Every day I will do light assistance work for high reps (lunges, pull throughs, curls, etc).





Testing my deadlift max later this afternoon. LETS GO

Max Deadlift - 2015-01-16
Deadlift - 1x430, 1x450 (PR), 1x473 (PR +33lb)
Power Cleans


As ****ty as I felt two days ago after bench, I felt great today. I set some new PRs in squat and DL, but my bench fell behind. Something to think about...



Back may be a little rounded here.

your head position on the squat is super aids.

neck should be packed more, right? I'm so terrible at that. I used to crane my neck during deadlifts too, but was able to fix it within 1 session. For whatever reason I just really suck at doing the same for squats. can't knock the habit.

it directly impacts power out of the hole. I prefer the floor or straight ahead. Looking up is just a disaster.

Nice PRs

ALL raw lifters are going to find it worse out of the hole, that's just the way it is. I would be wary of going too far into the specialty accessories to "fix" this - squat more and it will improve.

What percentages of 1RM are you using for dynamic work?

been doing 50%, 55%, 60% (by week) for squat and dl. Been doing 60,65,70 for bench. However I'm gonna drop bench to 50,55,60 this cycle.

Upper Body DE - 2015-01-17
Speed Bench - 15x3x125 (~50%)
JM Press - 3x10x95
OHP - 3x10x81
Curls


Going lighter on speed bench felt better. Went a little light on assistance since I was planning on doing some rock climbing later. Unfortunately those plans fell through.

I dont think "speed work" benefits raw lifters much at all. I think youre better off putting in another 70-85% session.

agree. pretty sure even Louie Simmons started off programming his speed work in the 65-75/80 range, but as they started lifting in gear and adding accommodating resistance (bandz/chainz), he found they needed to dial back the weight since the extra resistance adds quite a bit.

Lower Body ME - 2015-01-20
Squat - 5x330, 5x318, 5x308, 5x296 (all sets @9)
Deadlift - 3x3x352
Box Jumps (+60lb), Pull Throughs, Pullups

Went with a lot more volume than normal today. My training partner wants to try some rep scheme he learned from Tuchscherer, and I decided to follow suit. The theme going forward is going to be less variation, more volume.

I felt incredibly beat up after this workout. Haven't squatted heavy for anything more than a single in awhile.

Re: speed work.

I read this article this morning http://jtsstrength.com/articles/2013...k-doesnt-work/. I think I'm on board with you guys.

I'm probably going to keep the same rep scheme for my dynamic effort days, but I'll go in waves of 75%, 80%, 85%. I had been doing 50-60% for squat/DL and 60-70% for bench.

I'm sure what I was doing helped, but it may not be optimal. Also my form was always sloppy when I was trying to go as fast as possible. Extra resistance should help that.

I'd do a cycle at 70-75-80 and see how that goes.

Upper Body ME - 2015-01-21
Bench - 5x205, 5x210, 4x215, 5x205, 5x195
Incline DB - 12x55, 10x60, 8x55
Dips, Curls, Pendlay Rows


Bench felt AMAZING today. I was finally initiating some leg drive by focusing on pushing myself back instead of just focusing on pushing down. I think if my form was this solid last week, I definitely would have hit 250 for a new 1RM. I did miss one rep at 215, which sucked.

I'm sore as hell today.

Lower Body DE - 2015-01-23
Squat - 12x2x220 (52%)
Deadlift - 10x1x330 (70%)
Dead Squat - 10x1x296 (70%)
Pullups


Went a little too light on my squats this week. I'll fix that next week. Dead squats felt incredible. I'm going to try to do 70-75-80 over the next three weeks for the dead squats. Just an awesome assistance movement imo.

Elbow started flaring up during squats. It originally started hurting me on Monday when I brought in a lot of squat volume for the first time in awhile. My elbows are just really terrible at handling squat volume.



Lower Body DE - 2015-01-24
Bench - 9x3x175 (70%)
OHP - 5x110, 5x110, 8x110

Elbow was absolutely screaming in pain during/after bench. I tried doing some curls for rehab after OHP but couldn't even curl 20lbs without being in pain. I just decided to call it a day.

I've been here before with the elbow pain. Just gotta rest it up and try to lay off the squats.

Lower Body ME - 2015-01-26
Deadlift - 5x374, 5x357, 5x340, 5x330
Squat - 5x296, 5x296, 9x296 (70%)
Pendlay Rows, Hamstring Curls, Leg Extensions, Abs


I'm really enjoying this added volume. Felt real strong today.

I think I've made some progress on my elbow issues. I believe the problem originates from my hands being too close together during squats. I have decent flexibility, and my wrists end up inside my elbows, which puts a ton of tension on my elbows. Today I experimented with a wider grip (wrists outside the elbows). It was more difficult to keep my back tight, but my elbows felt a lot better. I'll figure out the back tightness eventually.

Upper Body ME - 2015-01-28
CG Bench - 3x215, 3x210, 3x210, 3x210, 4x210
Bench - 3x10x175 (~70%)
Dips, Skullcrushers, Curls, Cable Rows


Lots of volume today. Prob could have went a little heavier on close grip to start, so I just did more volume without dropping the weights much.

Lower Body DE - 2015-01-30
Squat - 12x2x308 (73%) - 10min
Deadlift - 10x1x330 (74%) - 8min
Dead Squat - 10x1x296 (75%) - 10min
Pullups

Perhaps the greatest workout of my life. The squats were killer. Was sweating like a pig.

typo above. deads were 352

not a huge westside fan but a kickass lower DE day is confirmed some of the most fun to be had whilst lifting.

yeah, it was super fun. I'm running a bastardized version of Westside as this point anyway. Way less variation, more volume, heavier weights on dynamic day, etc.

Lower Body DE - 2015-01-24
Bench - 9x3x185 (75%)
OHP - 5x115, 5x115, 10x115
Pendlay Rows, Curls, Tricep Pulldowns


Elbows started flaring up during bench again. It was nowhere near as bad as last week, and I didn't experience any discomfort when squatting yesterday. I think the ligaments are healing. Hopefully I'll be at 100% next week.

Lower Body ME - 2015-02-02
Pause Squat (3s) - 3x318, 3x313, 3x308, 3x301
Deadlift - 3x3x374 (80%)
Pullups


Wasn't feeling too great today - tired from lots of drinking over the weekend (ya Pats!). I took it fairly easy on assistance, just got in some back work with the pullups.

All this deadlifting is getting a little tiring. It's possible I'm overtraining. I'm gonna stick with it though and see how my body feels because I think I'll get used to it. I'm feeling strong for sure.

Upper Body ME - 2015-02-04
Spoto Press - 3x225, 3x220, 3x3x215
DB Military - 12x60
Tricep Extensions, Curls, Cable Rows


Bench is feeling good. I'm really starting to figure out leg drive. My back was pretty damn sore today (only the right side). I blame the pullups.

Lower Body DE - 2015-02-06
Squat - 12x2x330 (79%) - 9.5min
Deadlift - 10x1x374 (79%) - 6.5min
Dead Squat - 9x1x330 (79%) - 16min
Pullups

Wow, what a day. I missed my 10th rep on dead squat (made 3 attempts), but just couldn't get it. I was so fried by the time I got to the dead squats.

On the other hand, the squats and deadlifts were incredible. I felt like a ****ing animal.

My quads right now have been rendered useless.

Upper Body DE - 2015-02-07
Bench - 9x3x198 (81%)
OHP - 2x5x120, 1x9x120
Dips, Curls


Elbows still got a little sore during this. Did some rock climbing afterwards and the elbow pain was pretty bad.