DE Upper Body/Energy Systems Development

Upper body warm-up*

Ballistic Bench Press:
1x10 empty bar (warm-up, non ballistic)
1x3 95lbs
6x3 105lbs
6x3 115lbs**

Push/Pull Superset:
3x8 dips
3x8 pull-ups (only four on last set) ***

Deltoid Triad Tripleset (2x20lbs):
3x8 rear delt dlies
3x8 lateral raises
3x8 front raises

Elbow flexion:
3x8 45lbs Strict curls****

Weighted abs:
3x8 25lbs Olympic abs
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While fully in line with the Westside mode of training, I didn't follow a specific template for this day. Rather, I decided to try to hit my weak points, and being short on time, I did a superset and triple set to accomplish the goal. I split the ballistic bench into two groups of 6 sets by 3 reps at different weights following an idea by Dave Tate and also began to realise how weak I am at the bottom of the bench. Because of this weakness and the need to reincorporate vertical pulling, I decided to perform a push/pull superset afterward with low dips and pull-ups. It was also here that I realised how weak my PUs have become. I thought the rowing was helping... It seems I was wrong and there's minimal transfer.

Oh, I put a star on the warm-up... that's because I'm toying around with a quasi-new warm-up approach that follows in line with the system developed by Gray Cook and Athlete's Performance Systems. I figure that it can't hurt, and theoretically, it seems pretty sound. The strength portion is still very much a WSB template.

The addition of the Strict curls is because the federation I will most likely be competing in has a strict curl event. While being extremely weak in the curl, if I'm going to have to compete in it, I may as well start training it somewhat, right?

As far as the abs go, I wanted to try out a new exercise called "Olympic abs." It uses the decline crunch bench and a curl bar. You hold the bar just inside of the rings and basically "snatch" the bar overhead as you perform a sit-up. While I only saw the exercise on video, I immediately noticed two things about it: 1) While it is a "weighted" exercise, the concentric portion of the sit-up isn't necessarily all that weighted. 2) The real benefit to the ab exercise is to fatigue the ab muscles through the concentric while simultaneously forcing the transversus/oblique abs to go into isometric contraction to stabilise the moving weight going overhead. Finally, at the top of the sit-up, the abs must maintain that stabilisation before laying back down into rest. This means that despite being a concentric exercise, it still serves the abs in precisely the function that develops strong abs in the first place: by training the abs as a stabiliser. I see a lot of transfer to the deadlift and squats, as a result. I will have to remind myself that it's not a good idea to do this after a deltoid triad tripleset. I could've gone heavier, but my delts wouldn't have allowed it.

NOW... Onto ESD:
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Approximately one hour after finishing my strength workout, I got the tire out from the back and proceeded to do an ESD work-out down my street. The orginal objective was to flip it the 200m to the end, and back. I only made it halfway and back. The first 100m, I did sets of 15 flips, as fast as I could. This is one HELL of a cardio exercise. To be quite fair, I was dying. So I did sets of 10 flips on the way back, still as fast as I could. This may not be the strength exercise that a 500lb tractor tire would be, but as far as interval training goes... This is a keeper.

Note: My ES is terrible. Asthma acted up again. Nearly puked. Need to do this more often.

Taking another page from Athletes' Performance System, I'll be taking extra care with my post-workout recovery, as well, including some general soft tissue work right now.