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Modifying Westside for Skinny Bastards with Underground Training, Part I

When I came across Joe Ds WS4SB article I was psyched big time. It was super simple to follow for myself or my clients and it was also super effective.

How did I know it was super effective? I saw all the photos at Joes web site and nothing speaks better than results when it comes to proving your training works!

But, I knew that I wanted to tweak his program a bit and keep strongman training and odd object training in the program on a regular basis unless weather did not permit so (winter time).

If you look at the first WS4SB article, youll see 3 main workouts, 2 of which are upper body and one is lower body. One of the upper body days is heavy, the 2nd one is a repetition day. The leg work is performed once a weak because many of the athletes using WS4SB were playing their specific sport and doing a lot of running. Joe found a 2nd leg day for these guys was not necessary.

What I switched here was to make this third day a FULL BODY workout using the repetition method or make this day an entire strongman day.

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2 I followed the template of beginning a workout with a max effort (ME) or submax effort (SE) movement followed by supplemental movements with moderate reps.

Our supplemental movements came from a variety of tools:

sandbags kettlebells kegs bodyweight stones

Above, supplemental work with one arm overhead stone presses for moderate reps with short rest periods.

Most of Joes movements were in the form of barbell, dumbbell and bodyweight movements. I liked the use of the odd objects because it forced athletes to wrestle with their training tool just to get it going.

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3 We also performed more of our movements back to back, even the main lift. This might be contradictory to using a core lift, but I wanted to keep the pace fast and furious. Athletes all require strength and power endurance and this was a great way to incorporate this method.

I found too many kids to be mentally weak and I wanted them to have to fight to get their set going.

Looking at an upper body workout, heres what we might perform after a warm up:

1A) thick bar floor press work up to 2 x 2 5 reps 1B) bent over row variations (BB, DB or KBs) all sets in the 6 12 range 1C) abs any movement x 12 20 reps

Above, thick BB rows, a staple in our back movements and one of the best out there. Too many people avoid this exercise which is a BIG mistake.

2A) incline DB bench 3 x 5 12 reps

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4 2B) pull up variations 3 x max reps 3A) mixed push up variations 2 x max reps 3B) farmer walk variations (Kbs, DBs, farmer handles, SB, Stone, Keg) 2 x approx. 150 ft.

We might finish with a circuit of arms and core work as well. If the athlete has a lower level of physical prep, then they might only perform movements 1 A C with 1 minute rest between each movement and then finish with a variation of farmer walks.

Above, lying DB extensions is a regular part of the finisher circuit for our Football athletes, which we also use with KBs for variety.

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5 The workout pace is accommodated towards the individual and what they can handle. We do not want our athletes being out of breath and unable to move any weight. Our focus is strength and work capacity so if they are too out of breath we are defeating the purpose of our main goal, which is the development of strength.

The finisher on this day is a farmer walk variation with any of the tools listed above, here is a key for each abbreviation:

DB = dumbbell BB = barbell SB = sandbag

The farmer walk variation is a very powerful way to improve overall strength, add muscle and improve work capacity. We switch the tool used very often. Carrying stones, kegs, sandbags and other tools keep the body guessing and the response is great every tool challenges the athlete in a different manner.

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Above, Kettlebell rack walks excellent for full body and core strength.

Although farmer walks are considered a full body lift with heavy emphasis on the lower body, we found that performing these farmer walk variations improved our athletes strength tremendously. In addition, if we worked farmer walks on a leg day, the legs were often too fried to move heavy weight so we focus on sled and prowler work on leg days.

Some variations we use for the upper body pushing movement might end up being any of the following:

kettlebell overhead presses of all types sandbag overhead presses BB overhead presses (both thick bar and regular bar) Handstand push ups

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7 Dumbbell overhead presses Stone overhead presses

We might even turn this first core movement into a full body exercise, and yes, I know, this is an upper body day, but I have not found any downfall to making the first movement full body in nature by adding a clean before the pressing movements, for example: clean & press with BB, DB, KB, stone, SB - this works great for a variety of reasons. Our wrestlers love the full body lifts since it has such a great carry over to their overall work capacity as well as improving their stand up game

For Football players, adding a clean improves their work capacity, a BIG limiting factor with many of these athletes, so there is nothing wrong with working on their weak areas!

The reps stay very close to what Joe D emphasizes. The first movement is hit heavy and hard in the 3 5 range on the last set or two. For lesser prepared athletes the reps do NOT go below 5 reps. For advanced athletes we may allow them to hit a single or double, but its quite rare and 3 5 reps works great for strength and muscle development.

The supplemental lifts are hit in the 5 12 range, but the calisthenics are hit for max reps, so push ups might be hit for over 50 reps and pull ups might be hit for over 20 reps with wrestlers.

I have found this workout to be great for taking care of multiple goals:

- adding muscle - improving strength - improving power / speed - improving work capacity - improving mental / physical toughness

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8 Here is another variation of an upper body day using an overhead movement as our main lift:

1A) 1 arm dumbbell clean & press 5 x 5 1B) mixed grip weighted pull ups 5 x 3 6 reps

2A) weighted push up (weight vest or chains added) 3 x max reps (reps in the 10 30 range) 2B) 1 arm DB rows 3 x 6 15 reps

3A) BB cheat curls 2 x 5 10 reps 3B) lying extension (barbell, kettlebell or dumbbell) 2 x 6 12 reps

4A) get up sit ups 3 x 5 each 4B) sledge hammer work 3 x 20

The weighted push ups, if performed with chains, will often have a drop set, which is where we remove 1 chain when the athlete reaches failure and then he continues to perform the reps until he is at bodyweight only and reaches absolute failure. This is great for the mental challenge and adds muscle as well. Its an OLD bodybuilding method that Arnold often encouraged and Joe D uses this with his athletes as well.

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Above, chain push ups at DeFrancos Gym (http://DeFrancosTraining.com)

We will also use this with the last set of weighted pull ups. Our weighted pull ups are performed with one of the following methods:

squeeze med ball between legs chains around neck weight belt w/kettlebell attached

Once failure is hit with the weight, we drop the weight and immediately burn out with bodyweight only!

My training was effective before meeting Joe, but, when I began speaking with Joe about training and really learning and understanding his methods our results skyrocketed. We simplified our methods and stopped changing workouts so often. We also began utilizing more bodybuilding set rep patterns because the proof was showing that adding muscle was making a BIG impact on performance. Most kids simply had little to no muscle and we had to get them JACKED!

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Check out Joe DeFrancos web site and You Tube Channel @ http://defrancostraining.com/

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