Westside etc. - please read

[Jason Glaw]

Originally Posted by Michael Dowling

a little, but when it says dynamic upper body etc... that is really meaningless to someone ignorant of westside in general. basically people want to be spoon fed these programs so they know they're doing them right.

Chris does this in his Conjugate Crossfit article, but I think a way of expanding on it would be to have a menu of sorts to provide a template. As a quick example, say we decide that Monday is ME lower body. The entry would look something like this:

Choose one exercise for your ME lift:

ME Lower Body Options:
Free squat
Box Squat (+/- bands)
DL/Sumo DL (+/- bands)
Good Morning

Now choose 2-4 of the following exercises for assistance work based on your [perceived] weaknesses (note - rep schemes would have to be included):

Hamstrings:
GHR
banded hamstring curls
etc

Glutes:
Lunges
Glute Bridges
etc

Now choose 1-2 of the following exercises for core work:
strict T2B
ab wheel rollouts
etc

Once the menu and rep schemes are in place, the ME days are really easy. The only slightly tougher part is the weight percentage (and possibly band tension) scheme for DE days, but that could be defined as well (note to Chris: I only say it's tougher because it seems to be defined differently by different people who do Westside).

If there was a large enough list of easy to do assistance exercises, I think something like this could be maybe 2-3 pages long and be a pretty effective Cliff's notes on a Westside Template.

[Jason Abney]

Chris, would you mind explaining why you now are leaning towards a full Westside program with a couple metcons a week? I'm really interested, since I have been doing the original Conjugate CrossFit program. Thanks.

[David Meverden]

Chris, when recommending a program sometimes I think you dismiss too quickly the kind of experience that trainers here have that you don't have much of: the experience of being a beginner coach working with semi-athletes. But, anyway, no really new ground to tread here.

In another thought, what I think Westside needs is a new book that more concretely and concisely lays out their methodology. The Book of Methods is--lets be honest here--kind of a mess. It's alternately contradictory, repetitive, and disorganized, largely owing to the fact that it wasn't written as one book, but rather as articles.

Hey Chris, you up for writing a couple hundred page comprehensive Westside barbell training guide?

[Ross Dijulio]

Originally Posted by David Meverden

Chris, when recommending a program sometimes I think you dismiss too quickly the kind of experience that trainers here have that you don't have much of: the experience of being a beginner coach working with semi-athletes. But, anyway, no really new ground to tread here.

In another thought, what I think Westside needs is a new book that more concretely and concisely lays out their methodology. The Book of Methods is--lets be honest here--kind of a mess. It's alternately contradictory, repetitive, and disorganized, largely owing to the fact that it wasn't written as one book, but rather as articles.

Hey Chris, you up for writing a couple hundred page comprehensive Westside barbell training guide?

The Book of methods is very hard to read. Lou is a genius when it comes to strength training, but writing.....eh not so much. Just trying to follow him in his interviews is hard enough.

[Mauricio Leal]

This may be antithetical to the Conjugate Method, but how about an actual calendar month (or 2?) with reasonable choices already made with respect to lifts, assistance, DE and band tension percentages, etc. Maybe leave some blank spaces for actual weights/numbers used. Ideally fits on one, maybe two printable pages. I might take a stab at this in excel when I have more time this week. I may even go so far as to program WODs, or perhaps provide a fairly broad stable of WODs to choose from, although that's not your specialty I know. Even if it's not individualized, it would at least take out the guess work for the Cavemen at large, get more people taking the dive, and those that know better can always modify the program for themselves/others.

[Chris Mason]

I've have worked with beginners etc. for over 20 years. Just FYI.

[Robert Fabsik]

Originally Posted by Michael Dowling

a little, but when it says dynamic upper body etc... that is really meaningless to someone ignorant of westside in general. basically people want to be spoon fed these programs so they know they're doing them right.

Well without writing a manual I tried to provide a basic template you can just plug some numbers in and follow it. Yeah, I guess you might benefit from doing some reading on the dynamic method, the max effort method and the repetition method. But, I was trying to just offer the skeleton to those ready to make the step to Westside but who don't know where to start.

[Paulo Santos]

Originally Posted by Mauricio Leal

This may be antithetical to the Conjugate Method, but how about an actual calendar month (or 2?) with reasonable choices already made with respect to lifts, assistance, DE and band tension percentages, etc. Maybe leave some blank spaces for actual weights/numbers used. Ideally fits on one, maybe two printable pages. I might take a stab at this in excel when I have more time this week. I may even go so far as to program WODs, or perhaps provide a fairly broad stable of WODs to choose from, although that's not your specialty I know. Even if it's not individualized, it would at least take out the guess work for the Cavemen at large, get more people taking the dive, and those that know better can always modify the program for themselves/others.

I can put something together on google docs. I can just take the template from my blog and put a schedule together. Not that hard to do.

[Chris Mason]

Someone (a CF affiliate) posted this on FB today:

WFS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvFN3...layer_embedded

[Tim Nakashima]

Originally Posted by David Meverden

The Book of Methods is--lets be honest here--kind of a mess. It's alternately contradictory, repetitive, and disorganized, largely owing to the fact that it wasn't written as one book, but rather as articles.

I had to read through that book about 3 times taking notes and flipping back and forth before I developed some sort of grasp on what he was talking about.

Check out his latest articles. They are much easier to understand.