The Westside Barbell Template For Athletic Development

This is a free-of-charge publication from Westside Barbell to assist coaches and trainers in creating faster, stronger and less injury prone athletes, by training the correct way and utilizing the time spent in the weight room in the safest, most efficient and most effective ways.

We encourage you to continually expand your knowledge base by learning from books, DVD’s and other media sources written ONLY by well-recognized, credible experts. The Westside Barbell program is based on tested and proven training methods. It is not a fly-by-night ‘add 6” to your vertical jump in 2 weeks’ scam.

Also be wary of ABC Trainer Certificates that have flooded the market. Only a few, such as the Westside Barbell Special Strength Certificate, which is NSCA CEU approved are worthy of spending money from your budget. Be very wary of anything that sounds too good to be true, it’s not.

Westside Barbell has a very strong passion for helping athletes of all ages reach their genetic potential. Hence, the Westside Barbell System for Sports. We hope that you, your staff and your athletes find the information contained helpful and easy to follow.

The Westside Barbell System for Sports program guideline is completely based on Westside Barbell training methods and protocols. It is written for all sport programs, male and female. In this guideline you will find detailed scientific explanation of the methods used, recommendations for in-season and off-season programming, weekly planning and more.

When most people look at Westside Barbell training protocols, they automatically think of powerlifting. But the truth is that the Westside program is used in track and field, football, soccer, basketball, wrestling, volleyball and additional sport programs at all levels, across the globe. From the NFL to the Hong Kong Rugby Club.

Louie Simmons is especially proud to have a picture of Johnny Parker from the New England Patriots and Kent Johnston from the Green Bay Packers, Strength & Conditioning Coaches, on the field of the Louisiana Superdome at Super Bowl XXXI. Both clubs spent a week at Westside Barbell and followed up with additional consultation to implement Westside Barbell programs into their training.

Five major rugby teams from Europe and Australia have made the long flight to visit Westside and have since achieved phenomenal results. Countless sport programs, along with Pro Boxers, MMA fighters and wrestlers/grapplers have used the Westside system to produce speed, explosive strength and reduce injuries.

The Westside Barbell lifting program of training will allow the coaching staff to record athletic speed and strength levels every week, in-season and out of season. It will also give the coaching staff valuable real-time feedback on which anatomical weaknesses require development and/or types of strength that needs to be focused on while training individual athletes.

The Westside system is simple yet extremely effective. Its core system requires athletes to train a minimum of four days per week, but can be modified to accommodate those programs limited to three or two days per week. In this segment, the Westside Barbell programming will be explained using the traditional four day per week system. Later we will explain how to adapt this into three or two day per week programs for those with time and weight room accessibility constraints.

• Training Day 1 – Max Effort Method, Lower Body
• Training Day 2 – Max Effort Method, Upper Body
• Training Day 3 – Dynamic Effort Method, Lower Body
• Training Day 4 – Dynamic Effort Method, Upper Body

Note: 72 hours of rest is needed between Max Effort and Dynamic Effort days for Lower Body or Upper Body for optimum recovery. 12-24 hours between small workouts such as restoration, G.P.P., and agility work (all explained later) is suggested for optimum recovery.

Maximum Effort Training

To become more explosive, one must constantly become stronger

This is the greatest method of strength training for improving both intermuscular and intramuscular coordination, as your body only adapts to the load placed on it. Begin to use this method after a warm-up to single attempts until setting a new personal record.

Stop for the day after this is achieved. Seven days later switch to a special barbell exercise and max out once more. This is low volume, high intensity training followed by three or four special exercises.

The Westside Barbell program requires your athletes to perform a 1 rep maximal lift on a special squat, rack deadlift, clean/snatch variation or elevated deadlift standing on a 2” or 4” box.

What does “max out” mean? Simply work up to a max single repetition.

On Maximum Effort Day, Good Mornings can also be done in any style; arched back, bent over, wide stance, close stance or seated. NOTE: Never go below 3 repetitions for any variation of the Good Morning exercise. Use appropriate weight for three or more reps only.

It is very important to switch your max effort exercise each week as doing so prevents accommodation, and it will also provide new training stimulus to keep your athletes from getting bored or stale. It is recommended to find and stick with six to eight max effort movements and rotate between the chosen movements accordingly.

Choose exercises that the vast majority of your athletes are weak at, not able to use heavier weights and set goals to improve upon each exercise throughout the year. Convey to your athletes that there is more benefit in strengthening their weak areas than improving their strong areas.

Every eight weeks we recommend testing Regular Squats, Bench Presses and Deadlifts to view progress and to update correct percentages for Dynamic Effort Day. Following the maximum effort main exercise will be the special accessory work.

Dynamic Effort Training

The Dynamic Method is sometimes referred to as speed work. There are some who think it is not necessary to work on speed, however this is just one part of the total strength equation.

One day a couple lifters and I were having a discussion about the training philosophies of Dr. Y. V. Verkhoshansky. I explained to them that Dr. Verkoshansky is an expert on power metrics, or the entire collection of jumping, rebounding and shock training. While some refer to me as a weight lifting expert, you cannot compare our methods at all. That’s when I knew not to loan a single book to anyone; it leads to confusion.

Let’s look at the purpose of the Dynamic Method, or training with submaximal weights with maximal speed. This system builds a fast rate of force development. With bands and chains added, it teaches one to accelerate and reduce bar deceleration. With the lighter weights, one can control and perfect form.

For more explosive strength, one can do ballistic bench pressing. This method consists of lowering the barbell as fast as possible and catching and reversing the bar just before it touches the chest. Do not allow the bar to touch the chest. Press the bar to lockout as powerfully as possible.

The Dynamic Method was also used to replace a Maximal Effort method for those who could not handle a second high- intensity or 95% 1RM and above workout twice in the same week. If you do extremely heavy workouts twice a week, you can suffer from law of accommodation. This simply means, if you handle the same weight loads and the same training percentages, your performance will go backwards.

Dynamic Effort lifts involve moving a submaximal weight with maximal speed. This method is not used for maximal strength because it is impossible to obtain Fmm (Maximal Force) with fast movements while using intermediate resistance. Its purpose is to improve a faster rate of force development and explosive strength.

For speed-strength, add 25% band tension at the top for accommodating resistance; this helps to eliminate bar deceleration. After a three-week wave, add band tension or loading weight by adding chain to the bar.

One should change bars regularly if possible or change the width of the stance or grip. One could even change bar placement from a front position to a high bar squats, such as overhead squats if they can be performed with good technique.

The bands will force you down faster than just the weight alone, causing an increase in kinetic energy. This is the key to reversal strength.

Repeated Effort Training

After the Dynamic Method or Maximal Effort Method workout, an athlete must follow up with three or four small exercises. Size, strength endurance and restoration can all be achieved through implementing the repetition method. It is a simple, yet highly effective way to raise work capacity and volume to increase a lift total.

If explosive strength work is needed, then more jumping, bounding and depth jumps should be added to an athlete’s routine. Special accessory work should be the largest volume of training, accounting for 75% to 80% of the total training volume.

On both days, Maximal Effort and Dynamic Effort, special exercises must be done for the lower back, hamstrings, glutes, hips, upper back and of course the abdominals. At Westside Barbell, we perform a heavy amount of rowing exercises using bars, dumbbells or plates for upright rows and shrugs for the upper back.

Reverse Hypers, Back Raises (45-degree Hyper) and/or light Good Mornings for high reps will follow the upper back exercises. Inverse Curls or Glute/Ham Raises for high reps, Prone Leg Curls with bands or ankle weights would be next for hamstring development.

You must recover between workouts. One training day is high volume and moderate intensity with very quick muscle contraction and considering that the Maximal Effort day can be stressful on the Central Nervous System (CNS), the GPP (General Physical Preparedness) must be high.

Westside Barbell Program: Weekly Plan Overview

Note: Each training session should last no longer than 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Why Progressive Gradual Periodization is outdated and inefficient ?

Unlike the Westside Barbell program, this system of training increases intensity while decreasing the volume of work. The first phase of this system stimulates muscle hypertrophy and is followed by the power phase where strength is increased by lifting intermediate weights while using maximum acceleration.

Unfortunately, 14 to 21 days into this phase, the muscle mass gained during the first phase begins to atrophy. Following the power phase is the maximal strength phase; whereby the weights being lifted become increasingly heavier as a contest nears. Therefore, abandoning the power phase for 14 to 21 days can stunt or lessen strength development.

Thus, the progressive gradual overload system has set a lifter up for failure! Completing all the phases of this system causes an athlete to lose the volume of training needed to lift a new all-time max.

Meet day is when special strength qualities are really needed; however due to this faulty training system an individual has less muscle, less bar speed and a lack of training volume necessary to produce a new personal best lift.

The progressive gradual overload system and other incorrect training methods have proven to be inferior to forms of wave periodization, such as the Westside Barbell Conjugate System.

The progressive gradual periodization system will have an eerily similar negative effect on athletes, causing muscular atrophy and loss of speed and acceleration and must be avoided completely in-season and out-of-season.

Jumping

Jumping is a very crucial part of speed development, but resistance must be used to be most effective for athletes that have a reached a high GPP. Jumps should be performed with ankle weights, weighted vests, kettlebells or any combination of the three.

Jumping twice per week will work best for most athletes. Record starting box jump height personal bests with various amounts of resistance and encourage athletes to establish a new personal record each workout.

In addition to jumps from a standing position, have an athlete sit on a low 12” high box, similar to the one used for box squatting. Have the athlete rock back swinging the arms to the rear while lifting the feet off the ground.

Follow this with a swing of the arms forward while slamming the feet to the floor to initiate the jump to the box. The same technique works for a long jump. To mix it up and provide additional resistance, have the athlete stand on a piece of thick foam and jump. This simulates jumping out of sand.

A Basic Jump Program

Begin with a group of jumping exercises that initially came from Dance and was later incorporated into Weight Lifting and Track & Field:

•   From a kneeling squat position, rock forward and backward then jump to the feet

•   From a kneeling squat position, power clean a bar from the floor while jumping to the feet

•   From a kneeling squat position, power snatch a bar from the floor while jumping to the feet

•   From a kneeling squat position, power clean or power snatch a bar from the floor while jumping to the feet and landing in a split squat stance

Note: Add weights as athletes progress in strength while maintaining proper form and technique. Record weights and keep records on each type of jump.

As athletes become stronger, initiate box jumping with weights. Use Kettlebells, Weight Vests, Ankle Weights and combinations of any or all of these items. Rotate these items each workout to avoid accommodation.

You may allow 40 jumps per workout for the very strong and advanced athletes 17 years of age or older. Weaker and younger athletes should be limited to 15 to 20 or fewer jumps per session.

To round out the preparatory phase, power walk with sleds. This will build strong jumping and running muscles as well as thicker ligaments and tendons where many season or career ending injuries occur. Westside Barbell DVD’s cover all of this info on volume and intensity. The coach and the athlete must learn to train smarter, not harder.

When the stage of progression is reached on the Jump Program, an athlete is ready for plyometric training. All ‘shock’ methods can be taxing, plyometrics are no different.

Before performing any forms of Depth Jumps, let’s look at several types of bounding with ground contact under two- tenths of a second:

•   Single-leg take-offs on stairs

•   Leg-to-leg jumps; single, triple, 5’s and 10’s

•   Double-leg jumps over 5-10 or 15 low hurdles

•   Double leg jumps over high hurdles of 40-42”

•   Slow bounds with submaximal effort in a controlled style

•   Frog jumps

•   3 jumps off left foot then 3 jumps off right foot

•   20/40/60 meter leg-to-leg bounds with light resistance of 10, 20 or 30 lbs. using a Bulgarian Bag

•   Standing long jumps (keep records)

•   Standing long jumps with kettlebells (released before landing)

The jumps listed above should be done after a 30 minute rest following the barbell workouts on Dynamic and Max Effort days.

Westside Barbell heavily utilizes soft surfaces such as thick foam pads for squats and jumps. This causes the muscles to do more of the work and not limit it to the ligaments and tendons. In two out of three workouts we will step down off the box onto other boxes. On the third workout, and highest box, we do a depth jump down onto a soft gym mat. We do not do an immediate jump upon landing. Rather we will just ‘stick it’ with legs slightly bent, landing on the balls of the feet.

The goal is to jump as high as possible and, therefore, squat as much as possible. We squat and jump in the same way, off a box. Before jumping or squatting, we sit on a box at parallel, relax and then jump or squat upwards. This requires a much greater effort and will produce much better results in regards to explosive legs.

The forces that produce movement are external, internal and reactive strengths. This was established by Bernstein (Verkhoshansky, 1986). When lowering onto a box, a greater amount of kinetic energy is expressed because mass as well as speed contribute to kinetic energy.

Landing on the biggest part of the lower body will yield an increase in kinetic energy. In addition, by lifting the feet and slamming them onto the floor to initiate the jump, an overspeed eccentric phase occurs. This combination very effectively increases jumping power. Several NFL linemen I have trained have set PR’s in their long jump in one or two of these jumping sessions.

Very Important Note to Always Remember: Jumping can be very taxing; you MUST first build a base, which is the next topic, Sled Work.

Sled Work

Power Walking with the sled is the Tai Chi of speed and strength training. To build a fast and strong sprinter or jumper, we must first have an athlete use long strides with the feet close to the ground and using the heels to pull the body and sled forward.

This will powerfully build the hips, glutes, hamstrings and calves. Sixty yards works best for sprinting and for football players’ 40 times. Complete 8 trips of 60 yards with heavy weight on the first day. Reduce the weight by 33% and increase the number of trips to 10 to 15 on second day after a day in between sled workouts. Reduce the weight to one or two 45 pound plates for a couple warm-up trips on the third day. The first day builds absolute strength, the second day builds strength for dynamic endurance and the third day is for a warm-up or restoration, not needing a rest day prior to this.

Around 1994 I wondered why the Finns were dominating the world at deadlifting. Knowing they were very athletic, there had to be another reason as well. My good friend Eskil Thomasson from Sweden was visiting us at Westside Barbell.

He was going back to Sweden for a visit before moving to Westside for ten years. When he went to Finland, he asked why they were all great deadlifters. To his surprise, they had no idea.

Some were lumberjacks and would pull the logs out by hand and chain to the road for the tractor to pick them up. They used several ways to pull the logs. One way was to pull them backwards; some would walk forward; others would pull over the shoulder. All in all, the key was heavy manual labor, but it added up to a lot of log pulling.

On hearing this, I started pulling a tire at first and then sleds, very heavily at times, around 450 pounds for 100 feet for three or four trips. It worked extremely well and it was the birth of sled pulling now used by countless athletic programs.

Using 225 pounds for six trips of 60 yards works great for powerlifters, sprinters and football players. It can be done three times per week, weather permitting. Westside Barbell programming includes sled work in hot and cold elements, providing the surface we are pulling on is exposed enough to provide resistance.

Sled power walking will build all of the muscles in the lower body used for sprinting and jumping while increasing an athlete’s conditioning level at the same time. Don’t forget, you can work your upper body as well by using a second strap. Any movement can be performed;

•   Curls

•   Upright Rows

•   Triceps Extensions

•   Pec Work

•   Delt Work

•   Rotational Work

•   Pull-throughs

•   Good mornings (using a light weight on the sled) with a neck harness walking backwards slowly. Bend over and methodically stand erect, then walk backwards with tension at all times. This will stimulate the entire back region and strength the neck simultaneously.

Sled work will build phenomenal muscular development for speed exactly where it counts for all athletes.

Accommodation

We must all learn and know what accommodation is. Accommodation causes performances to stagnate or decrease. This happens in the weight room and on the playing surface. Zatsiorsky stated that the response of a biological object to a given constant stimulus decreases over time.

Another proven method of changing the amount of work being done is to change the length of rest time between sets. This is reflected by the intensity zone being used. Speed Strength rest intervals can vary from 30 to 90 seconds between sets. For circa-max weights, the rest can be 60 seconds to 2 minutes and 30 seconds. The max depends on an athletes’ GPP.

Every time you change something and master its performance an athlete will become a BETTER athlete.

Off-season Training

Technically, there is never an off-season for a coach or an athlete. However in the period of time an athlete is not in competition it is of the utmost importance to focus on Absolute Strength, Dynamic Strength and Reactive/Explosive Strengths.

In-season Training

The in-season focus has to be on Dynamic Effort and Accessory work. It is very important to eliminate Maximal Effort as this is too heavy of a tax on the Central Nervous System for athletes involved in weekly contests. Only program a Maximal Effort workout during long periods of time between contests during the season.

Limited Training Schedule, Availability and Resources

If your schedule only allows your athletes to train 3 days in a week, you will have to merge both Dynamic Effort days together and select the exercises that will carry over best for your athletes. As a coach, you most likely don’t have the luxury of providing an individual program for each athlete. You also have to deal with high volumes of athletes.

A good rule of thumb for overall development is to use the following:

•   Belt squats of all variations

•   Sled work of all variations

•   Dumbbell Presses

•   Reverse Hypers

•   Inverse Curls

•   Hip & Quad Development

•   Jumping

These simple yet highly effective exercises along with Max Effort and Dynamic Effort movements are universal speed and strength developers and can be easily adjusted for athletes of all strength and fitness levels.

Conclusion

Westside Barbell exists to help those in all levels of the athletic industry become better coaches and better athletes. We offer a very large, selective library of the most informative and productive books and DVD’s from elite, world-renown ‘experts’ on the development of athletes.

We offer free-of-charge training articles at our website, www.westside- barbell.com , free podcasts and most recently, we have developed the Westside Barbell Special Strength Certificate for the most serious coaches and coaching staffs focused on advancing their careers and becoming elite-level speed and strength coaches.

Please contact us if you would like additional information, or on how together, we can create the fastest, strongest and healthiest athletes on the planet.

Weight Load Variations

Regular Power Bar

Cambered Squat Bar

Safety Squat Bar

Buffalo (Bow) Bar

Zercher Harness

Belt Squat Machine

Dumbbells

Weight Load Variations

Regular Power Bar

Style Variations

High Box Squat Parallel Box Squat Low Box Squat Conventional Stance Sumo Stance Light Bands Medium Bands Strong Bands 120 lbs. of Chain 160 lbs. of Chain 200 lbs. of Chain