Dave Tates Iron Evolution Articles

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Dave Tate's Iron Evolution

Phase 1 - Progressive Overload

by Dave Tate – 1/20/2011 Next Page | Pages 1 2 3
George Santayana is famous for writing, "Those who fail to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors are destined to repeat them." Okay, so ol' George wasn't referring to weight lifters. Still it applies, oh does it apply, and few people are in better position to see the philosopher's warning come true than Dave Tate. Luckily, you, the reader, can thwart this dire prophecy by reading about Dave's early mistakes in the iron game.
–TC

Hopefully you were able to get through the introductory article in this series without falling asleep on your keyboard. This installment, Phase 1, will describe the training that I did between 1982 and 1987.
As you might recall, this phase began with my dad signing me up at a neighborhood barbell club. I consider this to be the first "real" training I did after spending one stupid year jerking around with some weights in the garage.
The training was basic linear periodization, and although you'll see it was flawed as hell, I did make really good gains off of it. This phase laid the foundation for the lifter I'd eventually become.

Some Back Story

For a young kid just starting out, I sure was anal.
Back then I recorded everything – and I mean everything. My workout log book not only had my sets, reps, and poundages, but also how I felt that day, my last meal before training, even my Biorhythm. (I'm not sure what the point of that was except to let me know that I should look forward to having a shitty day.)
I took this approach because I wanted to understand everything about getting strong so I could eventually tweak it and make it better. What's interesting is that despite all my record keeping, things changed very little – except for my poundages.
Basic linear periodization is essentially limited block training (which has been around for years), but with less exotic names. So instead of nasty Eastern European sounding phases like "accumulation" and "intensification" we have the user-friendlier hypertrophy and strength.
Interestingly, those old school Eastern European names are making a comeback as of late, but no matter how many different ways you try to dress up this pig, it's still a limited form of block training.

Basic Linear Periodization – By the Numbers.


Phase: Hypertrophy (high volume - low intensity)

Duration (in weeks): 4-6
Intensity: 50-70% range
Reps: 8-20
Sets: 3-5
Rest: 2-4 minutes
Goals: conditioning, build muscle mass
Phase: Strength Phase

Duration (in weeks): 4-6
Intensity: 75-86% range
Reps: 4-6
Sets: 3-5
Rest: 2-4 minutes
Goals: strength
Phase: Power

Duration (in weeks): 3-4
Intensity: 86-93%
Reps: 3-5 reps
Sets: 3-5
Rest: 3-5 minutes
Goals: Power
Phase: Peak

Duration (in weeks): 2-4
Intensity: 93% plus
Reps: 1-3
Sets: 2-3
Rest: 4-7 minutes
Goals: PR's, meets
Phase: Transition (Active Rest)

Break after training
Duration (in weeks): approximately 4

Setting Up This System

Set up is simple; which is also the system's greatest drawback.
You'd basically find a meet and count backwards in time. The volume starts high and the intensity (as expressed as percentage of one-rep max) was low. Every phase, and every week, you upped the intensity and dropped the volume.
The trick to avoiding problems is to be as accurate as possible when choosing your 1RM. If you guess that your 1RM in the squat is 540 but it's really more like 500, you'll be okay for the first couple phases, but God help you when it comes time for triples.
For accessory movement, there aren't percentages listed, something that has messed up many overzealous novice lifters. I received good advice early on that saved me a lot of trouble, namely to train the accessories easy until they needed to be hard.
In other words, in the first phase I'd do stiff-leg deadlifts for 3 sets of 8 with a weight that I could've likely hit 3 sets of 20. Leaving reps on the table here early on is key to avoid overtraining down the road.
By the end of the hypertrophy phase I was usually as heavy [bodyweight] as I was going to be, and my weight would then start to drop with each successive phase. I attributed this to the fact that all the hypertrophy work was gradually phased out, and eventually even the accessories were eliminated. If you're a young guy who likes his guns and upper pecs, this sucks.
Intensity wise, you never come close to failure until around week seven as the goal through each phase is to never miss a lift. If it's week nine and you start missing lifts, you definitely are concerned. "Is my training program completely retarded?" becomes a reoccurring anxiety.
After the meet, the idea was not to train at all for a good four weeks to recover before starting up again with the hypertrophy phase.

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Benefits of the System

There are numerous benefits to training in this fashion:
• Ease of setup.
As noted earlier, setting up a plan like this is a breeze, even for beginners. Once a proper 1RM is established, each week the intensity is raised and volume is lowered. Weights are rounded up to the nearest 5 or 10 pounds (no, no PlateMates)!
Gear is not introduced until well into the program, usually raw until the sets of 5. Then we add suits and go straps down; at 3's we go straps up.
I always preferred to go without gear for as long as possible; until I felt the percentages start to creep up on me.
• Gives time to get used to the heavy weight.
The biggest mistake rookies make is going too heavy too soon. The long buildup to heavy weights helps keep the young guys reigned in.
• The specific goal per phase is good for beginners.
The different blocks allow beginners to avoid distractions and key in on one strength quality at a time.
Beginners often have what's know as training ADHD, where they want to blast up their bench while adding an inch to their arms and improve their body composition. This style teaches them to have their eyes on just one prize at a time.
For example, during the hypertrophy phase the goal is gaining size. The weight on the bar is not important. During the strength phase on the other hand, poundage is key while hypertrophy is no longer a concern.
• It's good for training in groups.
Because the goals are clearly defined, you can have athletes of differing strength levels train together and still make progress. It's very convenient for the overworked/underpaid college strength coach.
• These cycles are as old as time.
Every powerlifter has done some program like this. If it didn't at least sort of work, no one would have passed it on to the next generation; unless the next generation was a bunch of retards who didn't deserve to be strong.
Here's a sample basic linear periodization program:


Week Squat Day
Monday Bench Day
Wednesday & Saturday Deadlift Day
Thursday 1 Squat 55% for 3 sets 15
Good Morning 2 sets 15
Weighted Sit Ups 2 sets 20 Day 1 Heavy Day
Bench 50% 3 sets 12
Close Grip Bench 3 sets 10
Incline Bench 3 sets 10
One Arm DB Press 3 sets 10
Pushdowns 4 sets 15

Day 2 Light Day
Dumbbell Presses 3 sets 10
Side Raises 3 sets 10
Front Raises 3 sets 10
Barbell Extensions 3 sets 10 Deadlift 50% 3 sets 12
Stiff Legs 3 sets 8
Barbell Rows 3 sets 10
Shrugs 3 sets 12
Abs 5 sets 20 2 Squat 60% 2 sets 12
Good Morning 2 sets 15
Weighted Sit Ups 2 sets 20 Day 1 Heavy Day
Bench 60% 3 sets 10
Close Grip Bench 3 sets 10
Incline Bench 3 sets 10
One Arm DB Press 3 sets 10
Pushdowns 4 sets 15

Day 2 Light Day
Dumbbell Presses 3 sets 10
Side Raises 3 sets 10
Front Raises 3 sets 10
Barbell Extensions 3 sets 10 Deadlift 55% 3 sets 10
Stiff Legs 3 sets 8
Barbell Rows 3 sets 10
Shrugs 3 sets 12
Abs 5 sets 20 3 Squat 65% 3 sets 10
Good Morning 2 sets 15
Weighted Sit Ups 2 sets 20 Day 1 Heavy Day
Bench 65% for 3 sets 8
Close Grip Bench 3 sets 10
Incline Bench 3 sets 10
One Arm DB Press 3 sets 10
Pushdowns 4 sets 15

Day 2 Light Day
Dumbbell Presses 3 sets 10
Side Raises 3 sets 10
Front Raises 3 sets 10
Barbell Extensions 3 sets 10 Deadlift 65% 2 sets 8
Stiff Legs 2 sets 8
Barbell Rows 3 sets 10
Shrugs 3 sets 10
Abs 5 sets 20 4 Squat 70% 3 sets 8
Good Morning 2 sets 15
Weighted Sit Ups 2 sets 20 Day 1 Heavy Day
Bench 70% 3 sets 6
Close Grip Bench 3 sets 6
Incline Bench 3 sets 6
One Arm DB Press 3 sets 8-10
Pushdowns 3 sets 10-12

Day 2 Light Day
Dumbbell Presses 3 sets 8
Side Raises 3 sets 8
Front Raises 3 sets 8
Barbell Extensions 3 sets 8 Deadlift 70% 3 sets 5
Stiff Legs 2 sets 5
Barbell Rows 3 sets 6
Shrugs 3 sets 6
Abs 3 sets 20 5 Squat 74% 4 sets 6
Good Morning 2 sets 15
Weighted Sit Ups 2 sets 20 Day 1 Heavy Day
Bench 75% 3 sets 5
Close Grip Bench 3 sets 6
Incline Bench 3 sets 6
One Arm DB Press 3 sets 8-10
Pushdowns 3 sets 10-12

Day 2 Light Day
Dumbbell Presses 3 sets 8
Side Raises 3 sets 8
Front Raises 3 sets 8
Barbell Extensions 3 sets 8 Deadlift 74% 3 sets 5
Stiff Legs 2 sets 5
Barbell Rows 3 sets 5
Shrugs 3 sets 5
Abs 3 sets 12 6 Squat 78% 3 sets 5
Good Morning 2 sets 15
Weighted Sit Ups 2 sets 20 Day 1 Heavy Day
Bench 80% 3 sets 5
Close Grip Bench 3 sets 6
Incline Bench 3 sets 6
One Arm DB Press 3 sets 8-10
Pushdowns 3 sets 10-12

Day 2 Light Day
Dumbbell Presses 3 sets 8
Side Raises 3 sets 8
Front Raises 3 sets 8
Barbell Extensions 3 sets 8 Deadlift 78% 3 sets 5
Stiff Legs 2 sets 5
Barbell Rows 3 sets 5
Shrugs 3 sets 5
Abs 3 sets 10 7 Squat 82% 2 sets 5
Good Morning 2 sets 15
Weighted Sit Ups 2 sets 20 Day 1 Heavy Day
Bench 85% for 3 sets 5
Close Grip Bench 3 sets 6
Incline Bench 3 sets 6
One Arm DB Press 3 sets 8-10
Pushdowns 3 sets 10-12

Day 2 Light Day
Dumbbell Presses 3 sets 8
Side Raises 3 sets 8
Front Raises 3 sets 8
Barbell Extensions 3 sets 8 Deadlift 84% 2 sets 5
Stiff Legs 2 sets 5
Barbell Rows 2 sets 5
Shrugs 3 sets 5
Abs 3 sets 10 8 Squat 87% 3 sets 3
Good Morning 2 sets 15
Weighted Sit Ups 2 sets 20 Day 1 Heavy Day
Bench 88% for 3 sets 3
Close Grip Bench 2 sets 3
Incline Bench 2 sets 6
One Arm DB Press 2 sets 6
Pushdowns 2 sets 8

Day 2 Light Day
Dumbbell Presses 2 sets 6-8
Side Raises 3 sets 10
Front Raises 3 sets 10
Barbell Extensions 3 sets 10 Deadlift 86% 2 sets 3
Stiff Legs 2 sets 3
Barbell Rows 2 sets 3
Shrugs 2 sets 3
Abs 2 sets 8 9 Squat 90% 2 sets 3
Good Morning 2 sets 15
Weighted Sit Ups 2 sets 20 Day 1 Heavy Day
Bench 92% 2 sets 3
Close Grip Bench 2 sets 3
Incline Bench 2 sets 6
One Arm DB Press 2 sets 6
Pushdowns 2 sets 8

Day 2 Light Day
Dumbbell Presses 2 sets 6-8
Side Raises 3 sets 10
Front Raises 3 sets 10
Barbell Extensions 3 sets 10 Deadlift 90% 2 sets 3
Stiff Legs 2 sets 3
Barbell Rows 2 sets 3
Shrugs 2 sets 3
Abs 3 sets 10 10 Squat 93% for 3
Good Morning 2 sets 15
Weighted Sit Ups 2 sets 20 Day 1 Heavy Day
Bench 94% for 2 sets 1
Close Grip Bench 2 sets 3
Incline Bench 2 sets 6

Day 2 Light Day
Side Raises 3 sets 10
Front Raises 3 sets 10
Barbell Extensions 3 sets 10 Deadlift 93% 2 sets 1
Stiff Legs 2 sets 1 11 Squat 95% for 3
Good Morning 2 sets 15
Weighted Sit Ups 2 sets 20 Day 1 Heavy Day
Bench 96% for 2 sets 1
Close Grip Bench 2 sets 3 Deadlift 96% 2 sets 1 12 Squat 97%-100% for 1
Good Morning 2 sets 15
Weighted Sit Ups 2 sets 20 Day 1 Heavy Day
Bench 98%-100% for 2 sets 1 Deadlift 98%-100% 2 sets 1

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Pitfalls

There are many pitfalls to training in this fashion. Since this is familiar territory for many of you, I'll try to keep this brief:
• Percentage based training is always skewed. Always.
Let's get one thing straight: a competition max is not the same as a training max. Fact is, a good competition max is often 10% higher than a training max. This is extremely important because if you base all your numbers off an inflated percentage, you'll be in for a world of hurt.
Sure, at first you'll be fine, when that 70% is really an 80%, but wait until that 80% you're supposed to do 3 sets of 5 with is really 88% and tell me how those sets feel.
The end result is that guys start taking sets off because it's too difficult. Three sets becomes two or even one "HIT" set, which only leads to more problems down the road.
• Peaking can be tough
This system is geared towards peaking for one meet per cycle. Most guys would usually shoot for three main meets per year, with the odd bench or deadlift-only meet thrown in along the way just to stay sharp.
Thing is, what if you were like me and you compete a lot? If you schedule two meets one week after the other it can be done; basically, you set the first meet of the series at 98%, essentially turning that meet into another training session, and peak as normal for the second meet.
But what if your meets are staggered four weeks apart? What do you do then?
• The breaks are long.
Some people just lose too much with the long active rest period. It never affected me that much, and I'd even schedule this active recovery period for when football training camp started up. Once the actual playing season started and practices became much less taxing, I'd start powerlifting training again.
Again, I was a young lifter and nowhere near my training or strength limits. An experienced lifter closer to the top of their game can't afford taking such a long period of non-lifting without risking losing much of the previous cycle's gains.
• Abilities aren't maintained from cycle to cycle.
In my experience, much of the size built during Phase 1 would be a distant memory by the Peak Phase, and obviously, much of the single-rep performance attained in the Peak Phase would be gone by the time Hypertrophy started up again.
• The accessory work isn't well planned out.
Looking back, I can tell we didn't have a clue what we were doing when it came to planning accessory work. Everyone just followed what everyone else was doing.
Look at the deadlift day, for instance: I think the accessory exercises were picked out of sheer laziness more than anything else.
You just finished doing deadlifts, "Hey, let's do stiff legs next. They help the deadlift, right, and we only have to strip some weight off the bar. Then we'll do bent over rows; shit, we don't even have to move!"
The fact that the accessories never changed throughout the cycle was another big problem.
• Very little attention paid to technique.
The biggest thing I learned after moving to Westside was the importance of technique, hands down. The fact that basic linear periodization programs put so little emphasis on it is a big negative in my opinion.
For example, take any multiple-rep set of deadlifts. It's really only the first rep of a deadlift set that actually "works."
If you watch closely, the second rep is always better and faster than the first rep, 100% of the time. It has to do with the stretch reflex, and the fact that during the second rep the hips are set higher and closer to the bar.
If they do multiple reps with a traditional deadlifting bar, which bends, the weights closest to the end of the bar will touch the floor before the bar has even settled. If you look closely, many times the weights closest to the lifters are still 3-4 inches off the floor when the weights on the far end touch. It's like doing a bench press and touching your chest on the first rep and having someone slip in a one-board for the rest of the set.
If you're going to do deadlifting for reps, you need to use a stiff bar. If you're looking for a real challenge try using a squat or fat bar.
Anyway, that's not an indictment of linear periodization per se, but an example of the type of technique that is never mentioned in typical periodization circles. I can think of dozens of examples just like this.

Why I Moved Away From This System

I had a number of reasons why I moved away from this style of training, not the least of which being I had started college and was training at a gym that had zero powerlifters. So getting good training partners, even a good spot was a tall order, so I found myself looking to try something new.
Furthermore, I was young, in college, and wanted to be jacked. You'll see how well that worked out in the next installment.

How Would I Change This System?

A better question would be, How HAVE I changed it?
Despite the previously mentioned pitfalls, I've used this basic periodization model with some lifters, especially intermediates (gym rats with decent lifting experience, not raw newbies). I first take a good close look at the lifter before deciding on this route.
How's the lifter's technique? How strong are they? How well do they recover? What's their lifting schedule like? What about their work/school schedule?
All of these factors play a deciding role in whether this is the right road for them to go or not. Often, there are better – and faster – ways to reach their desired goal.
But if someone is hell bent on doing it, these are the modifications to make:
• Use compensatory acceleration on all warm-up sets.
Since there is no dynamic work whatsoever, perform all warm-up sets (between 40% and their first work set) as explosive as possible. Actually, do all sets over 40% as explosively as you can.
I would go so far as to add in 2-3 additional explosive warm-up sets to get in even more dynamic work. Just take small jumps as you work up.
For example, let's say the program calls for 3 sets of 10 with 255. A traditional warm-up might be 135, 185, and 225.
In this case, I'd go with dynamic sets of 5 for 135, 165, 185, 205, 225, and then start work sets.
• Select accessories based on weak points and cycle them.
Accessory work should still be meaningful and address the lifter's needs. I suggest sticking with the same accessories for three weeks before switching them up for something similar (i.e., stiff leg deadlift for Romanian deadlift). It's a good idea to try to hit a PR week three-rep maximum (not a 1RM). You should always be working on pushing your accessory work higher, either with heavier weight or more reps.
• Keep the volume more consistent.
The program starts with way too high a workload and comes down to an insufficient volume to maintain the abilities previously derived from the earlier phases. A more consistent, manageable volume throughout would help avoid this. Don't misunderstand – the volume needs to change and is a large part of programming, but the drop from week one to the end of the cycle is not the most efficient way to go about developing strength.
• Switch from a 12-week program to a 24-week program.
In between every week of the 12 week program should be a week of strictly dynamic work. This is a BIG change and something that will be covered in a future article BUT is one of the most critical changes I've seen to making this work.
So if week one calls for 315 for 5 in the squat, week two would be a dynamic workout, such as 8 sets of 3 with 40%.
• Use special movements at the front of the cycle.
I suggest only using "real" squats in the very last phase of the cycle. Until then, use variations like band squats, box squats, reverse band squats, etc.
This slightly changes up the squat recruitment pattern, but also the different squat variations have different rep maxes, so by changing the lift you cycle the workload.
For example, let's say you can do 405 for 5 reps on back squats; you might be able to do 315 for 5 on the box. You're giving the same effort with each exercise, but exposing the body to vastly different workloads (315 x 5 = 1575 lbs, 405 x 5 = 2025 lbs). This is another huge – and very overlooked – lesson I learned from Louie Simmons.
You can combine weekly squat variations in your program with inserting dynamic work every other week:
Week 1) ME: Reverse Band Squat
Week 2) DE: Free Squat for Speed
Week 3) ME: Band Squat
Week 4) DE: Speed Squat off Box
Week 5) ME: Squat with Chains
Note: ME stands for "Maximum Effort," which means building to a 1RM or 3RM, while DE, which stands for "Dynamic Effort," implies speed work, i.e. 8 sets of 3 at 55%1RM with 60s rest between sets.
You get the idea.
• For squats, percentages should be based off a perceived max, not an actual squat max.
You never need to work up to a true 1RM. A perceived maximum is sufficient, and working up to a 1RM just isn't necessary and is often more trouble than it's worth (see: working off a training max versus a competition maximum).
• What you eat matters.
Guys starting out now have it easy. Today you have websites with real information, online stores to get the best gear, and supplements that actually work. When I look back at how I ate back then it depresses me. I feel like Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront: I coulda been a contender.

Here's how I typically ate back then:

Breakfast: Cereal and Ass-Flavored Protein Drink
This was back when all the shakes were not really shakes, just a nasty powder of mystery proteins that ended up floating on the top of the drink and looked like cottage cheese.
Lunch: I bought lunch so I always bought two of them; typical school cafeteria kind of stuff.
Snack: Coffee, Copenhagen, and corn nuts. I always had either early release from school (work related) or I cut class (long story for another day).
I would walk down to the local convenience store and buy corn nuts and Copenhagen and then spend the rest of the time sitting at McDonalds drinking coffee. After that I would head back for the last 1-2 periods of the day. How's that for wasted youth?
Training Meal: This was always Mountain Dew and water.
Dinner: Whatever my Mom made. She made great meals and we always ate as a family (table cloth, good dishes, etc.). Typically it was some kind of meat with vegetables and rice, potatoes, or yams. Thank God for this meal – it was about the only nutrition I consumed all day.
After dinner: I'd eat whatever was in the house. Fortunately, we never had much junk food around that I could get into.
Before bed: Another nasty ass shake.
Supplementation: I can recall using those Weider Packs for a long time. I remember this because I worked part time to pay for them; had I put that money into a 401(k) I'd be better off financially and likely just as strong.
While I might joke about how it was a waste of money, the take away is that I used what I thought was the best at the time. In one way or another, supplements have been a part of my training since way back when – even when I was eating like a hog to get over 300 pounds. (You guys will love my supplement protocol when we get to that phase.)
You can get strong eating garbage, but you'll get there faster – and look and feel a hell of a lot better in the process – if you get in the habit of eating well. As for supplements, I have guys like Ted Toalston doing great on MAG-10 and Anaconda. They have no idea how good they have it. Maybe I should find some of that old school ass-flavored crap that would never mix and have them take that for a couple phases.

Conclusion

After taking a second look at this article, it does look like I'm dumping all over linear periodization when that really isn't my intention. Again, I made great gains off of this system and if it weren't effective, coaches would've abandoned it long before I ever showed up on the scene.
It's a good system – follow it with passion and determination and you'll do well. Make the modifications I suggested and it can be improved considerably.
I don't feel it's the best way to train, but it's not the worst either. Trust me on that one.
Until next month.

Dave Tate's Iron Evolution

Phase 2 - Bodybuilding

by Dave Tate – 2/28/2011 Next Page | Pages 1 2
In the last installment in this series, I outlined the progressive overload approach that I followed during my first successful training phase. This installment will cover the next phase, namely my forgotten foray into competitive bodybuilding.
Bodybuilders get a rough ride from everyone else in the iron game. Powerlifters scoff at their meager strength levels (at least compared to them), while the functional training types snicker at the woeful athleticism some off-season bodybuilders display when asked to sprint up a flight of stairs or move a sofa.
And nothing draws more criticism from the rest of the iron world than the bizarre narcissism exhibited by some of bodybuilding's real bad apples. Ever notice that the businesses with the most mirrors are hair salons, bridal dress shops, and hardcore bodybuilding gyms? There's a reason for that.
But before you get carried away with the bodybuilder bashing, consider another thing. The most muscular motherfuckers on the planet are bodybuilders.
An elite-level powerlifter might squat 800-plus and bench 600, but how many would have the quad and biceps size to even make a dent at a pro bodybuilding show?
No type of training will build muscle like bodybuilding training. Bodybuilders are obsessed with their craft, and if a modified powerlifting program was the ticket to winning a show, then the powerlifting dungeons would be overrun by shaved dudes in string tank tops.
It seems like almost every coach, lifter, or trainer thinks they have so much to teach, but very few try to see if there's anything they can learn in return. If you want to build muscle – and at some point, you all should – you should shut your face and listen to the bodybuilders. They just might have something you can learn from them.

First, Some Background Story


After (barely) graduating from high school and heading off to college, I was forced to leave my powerlifting gym – along with my mentors – behind. When I say these guys were "mentors" I'm not using that word lightly. These guys basically saved my life.
You see, all through grade school I battled many labels. I was labeled "dyslexic" and "learning disabled" and was forced to take special classes and have tutors. Unfortunately, I accepted these labels, hid behind them, and eventually embraced them by labeling myself as "stupid."
The labels destroyed any sense of self esteem I had. They made it "okay" for me to be the dumb kid that was always picked last in gym class; the loser who got his ass kicked after school. The labels meant that I didn't need to fit in anywhere nor have any hope for the future.
Thanks to the labels, I'd resigned myself to thinking that I was put on this earth for no other reason than to get in the way, and that's what I thought when I joined a private barbell club. I figured that I might as well be at a place where I could get stronger and be left alone.
But those guys at the barbell club saw right through it. Maybe they saw a bit of themselves in me, I don't know, but they proceeded to beat the labels right off me.
They taught me that I had worth, that if I set goals and focused I could accomplish anything I set my mind to. They taught me dedication, hard work, consistency, discipline, and an inner drive that I never knew I had. They showed me how those four chalk-dusted walls could be a sanctuary of strength, both mental and physical. It could be a home. It could be my home.
We all have defining moments in our lives that shape who we are and who we'll become and this was a huge one for me. Those guys are the reason I do what I do today, maybe even the reason I'm still breathing. They changed my life. They saved my life. And for that, I'm grateful.
But now my time at the barbell club was done. I was strong, but also young and on my own, and I decided I wanted to be one thing, jacked.
I did my first bodybuilding show between high school and college. I entered the teenaged division and prepared for it all on my own...except for a pre-contest manual I'd bought from Rich Gaspari.
I followed the manual to the letter and when I stood onstage I was the biggest guy up there by 50 pounds. The problem was, although I was in shape and had abs, I was nowhere near shredded, and had my ass handed to me by a 145-pounder who was cut to ribbons.
To add insult to injury, as I stood up there feeling like the fat kid in gym class, the announcer kept repeating that the guys who beat me were representing Hard Body's Gym.
Repeatedly, Hard Body's Gym, Hard Body's Gym. I knew that somehow, I had to get there....

Hard Body Mecca

Getting to Hard Body's proved to be more difficult than I'd anticipated. My parents really wanted me to go to college and I was applying everywhere, but after graduating high school with a stellar GPA of 1.59, I wasn't exactly being inundated with acceptance letters. Let's just say that Yale wasn't calling; hell, nobody was calling.
I did finally get into a small business school called the University of Tiffin, which pleased my parents but didn't help me one bit. You see, Tiffin wasn't anywhere near Hard Body's. The closest gym to the school was a YMCA and it was about two miles away, and because I didn't have a car I had to walk. I thought I was screwed.
So I set a new plan. I began focusing on getting my grades up and started with a bunch of remedial courses that I never took in high school like biology and algebra. I had to take these before I could take any college level courses, so I could transfer to a better school like Bowling Green – so I could be closer to Hard Body's.
Just one semester later, I'd achieved what I'd set my mind too. I was able to transfer. Hard Body's here I come!
Bowling Green is apparently a much nicer school than Tiffin. I say "apparently" because I flunked out after just one semester.
You see, now that I was at Hard Body's, it was difficult to do things like go to class or God forbid, study, especially when the double split routine I was following had me training three hours a day.
Plus, factor in the time it takes to cook meals and drive back and forth to the gym twice every day. (I'd saved up enough money to get a car, not so I could get to school quicker, but so I could drive to Hard Body's.) Well, something had to give. And considering how hard I worked to get there, it sure wasn't going to be Hard Body's.

Wake The F Up

As you can see, while the guys at the barbell club taught me to have self-esteem, I still had my head firmly lodged up my own ass. Fortunately, throughout my life I've had people call me on that when it really mattered.
Shortly after being kicked out of college, I ran into an old coach that I used to train with from time to time. While explaining to him all the knowledge I was acquiring training twice a day at Hard Body's, he asked me how college was going, to which I answered that school wasn't working out and that I didn't think it was "for me."
In a polite but aggressive way, he let me know that I wasn't stupid but just plain fucking lazy, and that I'd always have to work twice as hard as everyone else to get the same work done.
He told me my will, discipline, and ability to never quit in the gym was all that I needed and I just had to wake the F up. I'm sure in one way or another I'd heard those things before, but on that day, from that person, I listened.

Education of a Bodybuilder

Part of the reason I was training twice a day was so I could meet up with one of the owners of Hard Body's named Rick. Rick was a Mr. Ohio competitor and a hell of a bodybuilder, and I knew that I needed to pick his brain if I was going to reach my goals.
What many young guys raised on digital social networks don't understand is, back in the day you didn't just talk to guys like this. You had to pay your dues by showing up and training at the same time as them to show them that you're serious and then maybe, just maybe, you could eventually ask to work in or maybe even train with them.
I never knew what time Rick was training so I hit the gym twice a day until I could build rapport with him, and eventually I did. The good news for me was that Rick recognized me from my first show. The bad news was that he thought I looked like shit and needed a ton of work.
In short order, my powerlifting physique was:

• Too thick in the waist. All ab work was now out.
• Too narrow in the delts. They needed more width.
• Too narrow in the lats. I needed my lats to "flare."
• Lacking upper pec development.
• Lacking quad development.
• Lacking triceps shape.
• Diet needed to completely change. (More on that later.)

Rick said the first thing for me to do was to stop working my body as a unit and start seeing it as separate parts.
To illustrate, Rick had me bounce my pec, the calling card of every young guy who's ever done a bench press. I did so with ease, to which Rick said, "Now do the same thing with your triceps."
Make your triceps bounce? I could flex my triceps, but I couldn't exactly do a triceps dance like I could with my pecs. Sure enough, Rick could do that, along with his delts, traps, lats, and quads. Regardless, I didn't see the point of any of it.
"You need to be able to learn to control every muscle if you're going to make it grow the way you want it to," said Rick.
So for the next few months, along with lying in bed trying to make my freaking rear delts bounce, I began training Rick's way, which entailed cutting the weights I used by up to 50% and focusing on feeling the muscle contract.
Whenever I pissed and moaned about seeing my poundages plummet, Rick would remind me that the muscle doesn't know if it's pushing or pulling 400 pounds or 40 pounds; all it knew was if it was getting trained or not.
At first I had a real hard time with this, but after a while it was cool to see how I could absolutely destroy my chest with 70-pound dumbbells when before I was blasting away with the 150s. And I started to grow, big time.
Suddenly, I had biceps, triceps, hamstrings, and calves. My chest started to get shape and I could finally feel my lats working during chin-ups, pulldowns, and rows.
We followed the following split:

• Day 1) Chest and Delts
• Day 2) Legs
• Day 3) Arms
• Day 4) Back
• Day 5) Repeat

Days off were taken as needed. Sometimes this was once every 8 days, sometimes once every 3 weeks. As I was just following Rick around, my days off were taken as Rick needed them.
The training was broken into two phases. After a four-day rotation using the first phase, we'd go through with the second.
Phase 1: Heavy

Volume: 20 sets for big bodyparts, 10 sets for small
Reps: 6-8
Exercises: Basic compounds
Techniques: Clusters, partials, pyramiding up to a heavy weight
Rest: Longer rest intervals
Notes: Nothing to failure
Duration: 45 minutes
Phase 2: Light

Volume: 20 sets for big bodyparts, 10 sets for small
Reps: 10-15
Exercises: Isolation
Techniques: Pre-exhaustion, supersets, drop sets, constant tension. Weak parts like upper pecs, quad sweep, delt width, and back width were given extra attention.
Rest: Short rest intervals
Notes: Past failure
Duration: 90 minutes

As contests drew closer, Phase 1 would be gradually eliminated until training was strictly Phase 2. This was done to burn more calories, thereby reducing the reliance on cardio while helping prevent the injuries that can result from heavy training in a depleted state.


PAGE 2



Diet

According to Rick, my diet needed to change completely if I was to be a bodybuilder.
This is the diet I followed throughout my time at Hard Body's:
Meal 1:

4-6 ounce bowl of oatmeal
8 slices of rye or whole-wheat toast
1 apple or grapefruit
8 ounces of juice or protein drink
OR
3 whole-wheat pancakes with honey (with toast, fruit, and drink)
OR
4-6 ounce bowl of grain cereal with skim milk (with toast, fruit, and drink)
Meal 2:

Lean meat protein
Baked potato or pasta or brown rice
Salad with low fat dressing
Fruit
Meal 3:

Lean meat protein
Baked potato
Salad with low-fat dressing
Meal 4: Repeat Meal 2


Meal 5: Repeat Meal 3


Meal 6: Same as Meals 2 & 4 (perhaps add a protein drink)

Eating this way was redundant, to say the least. (Even today I can't eat a plain baked potato, and even eating a chicken breast can be difficult for me on a bad day.) Off-season, I could eat more than this, but it was only allowed after I ate everything off this menu first.
Pre-contest, the diet would change very little. Rick was of the mind that there were certain foods that "worked" and that to lose fat you should only change how much of them you were eating.
Not surprisingly, with carbs so sky-high my biggest problem at show time was getting into condition. Even with a very long prep – diets were always a minimum of 16 weeks – I could never achieve the kind of conditioning that I could later in life with things like carb cycling.

My Exit

It was the competitive side of bodybuilding that eventually did me in. As much as I liked the guys at Hard Body's and loved the training, I just didn't get the reward at the end of the long prep that I got from powerlifting competitions.
First of all, the entire last week is a freaking nightmare, and anyone who says different is either a liar or has never done it.
Second, and this really hit home for me while competing in a warm-up show before the Mr. Ohio show, on contest day, you're standing on stage posing and you realize: I'm on a stage, in my underwear, painted up and oiled, posing for an audience of 90% guys, most of which are dressed in boat-neck sweatshirts with tank tops underneath. It just wasn't me.
After that show, I went back to my apartment and essentially ate myself into a coma. My training partner Vinnie came by the next day and found me passed out in a litter of pizza boxes, Oreo wrappers, and McDonald's containers and said, "Shit Dave, I guess you really are done with competing,"
I was. I loved the training, loved the process, but the reward just wasn't there.

What I Learned and Liked

The older I get and the more my own training has evolved, the more I find value in the time I spent bodybuilding. The biggest things I've taken from this phase are:

• The value of hard, high volume training. Powerlifting is hard. A max-effort deadlift or squat can make you feel like your lungs are popping out your ass. But there's something about a hard, high volume bodybuilding workout that's another animal entirely. You just get gassed; a full body, total exhaustion, can't-do-another-rep-if-you-paid-me kind of gassed. And those pumps? I don't want to quote Arnold, but who doesn't love a good pump?
• The value of isolating a muscle. Clearly, for a powerlifter to be successful he or she has to learn how to train movements, not muscles. But if some of those individual muscles are out of balance, it's like the weak link in the chain. Bodybuilding taught me how to target and bring up weak points, which a powerlifter can apply when selecting supplemental exercises.
• The 24-7 factor. Let's face it, powerlifting is demanding as hell, but it's nowhere near as all encompassing as bodybuilding is. If you're preparing for a powerlifting meet, you can still eat pretty much whatever you want and even have a social life. A bodybuilding contest prep? Forget about it.
  
  The thing is, I like that 24-7 challenge. I've always seen things that are monotonous and tedious as paying your dues, something which has benefitted me later in life as a businessman. I see it as doing the things the average guy can't do, or at least isn't willing to do. There's a lot to be said for doing those kind of things.
• The scheduling demands. I was training a ton back then, especially during double-splits or contest preps. This required that at the beginning of the week, I had to schedule my training sessions like they were must-attend appointments, and pencil in everything else around that. This is something I continue to do to this day – I schedule my workouts into my week as if they are meetings so I don't miss any. My only regret is not scheduling some of my college classes the same way.

Looking Back at Bodybuilding

In my training life I've always kind of fallen into extremes. I could never just be "strong," I had to be "ridiculously strong" and destroy my body in the process.
Same with bodybuilding. I couldn't just get big and muscular and hit the bars with my 20-inch guns, I had to train three hours a day, eat the same shit for years on end, and compete in bodybuilding shows.
But that's just the way I am. The average person just wants to be pretty big and fairly strong. And for these normal people, a certain amount of pure bodybuilding training could be just the thing.
You will never, ever achieve the pec, arm, and quad development of a bodybuilder if you don't train like one, at least for a while. I don't care how big or strong a powerlifter you are, you need at least some isolation work to reach your hypertrophy potential, especially in stubborn bodyparts.
Stubborn bodyparts need volume, usually from isolation work, to grow. Some of you may debate this but I have 30 years of observations to back up my theory. Don't bother trying to convince me that because your stubborn arms finally grew when you started doing chin-ups that all you need are chin-ups. Your biceps started to grow because you were/are a fucking beginner. I'm not referring to going from 14 to 15 inch biceps – try 19 to 21 inches.
So if your goal is to be an average guy with above average levels of strength and muscle mass, you should cycle bodybuilding into your own training. Even if your primary goal is to be strong, a three-month block every year won't hurt.
Perhaps true "dyed in the wool" powerlifters might not benefit from such a different style of training, but that doesn't mean even they can't apply some bodybuilding principles to their assistance work. Most powerlifers I know put very little thought into their accessory work, and if they do it's just what movement to do, not how to cycle it.

Bodybuilding the Right Way

Would I do this all again, and if I could, what would I do differently?

• Training. The biggest change I'd make would pertain to recovery. I wouldn't try to cram so much training into 8 days, and the double splits in particular would be out the window. Pre-contest I'd just use more steady state cardio to lose fat rather than cramming in double the gym workouts.
  
  I'd still try to follow the "each bodypart twice a week" thing. This was huge in the 80's, and fell out of favor in the 90's with everyone jumping on the "one body part a day, once a week" bandwagon. I'm not sure why – maybe bodybuilders are just lazy? Regardless, the frequency definitely worked for me, and if I were to pick the next big thing in bodybuilding training it would be an every bodypart twice-a-week spilt.
• Diet. What wouldn't I change? The diet I was given was terrible; too high in carbs, too low in protein and fat, not enough variety and very little actual nutrition.
  
  The first thing I'd do is hook up with Shelby Starnes and set up a carb-cycling plan. Not necessarily a low carb plan – I do well with carbs – but something where the macros are adjusted throughout the week allowing me to ingest more fat and in turn, burn more bodyfat. This is kind of funny to write because it's something I'm currently doing today.
  
  The next thing would be to add a peri-workout nutrition system like the Anaconda Protocol. I keep a lot more muscle when I take in the right nutrients before and after training. We never had that back then, and it shows.
• Given it more years. If I could somehow repeat this period in my life, I would've liked to have given it more time. Knowing what I know now, I think that in a few years I could have produced a quality physique.
  
  Granted, the competitions were still a let down, but I think if I could've taken that 20-year-old guy and applied what I know today about training, nutrition and supplementation, I might've been able to create something respectable.

I still play around with all those things today, but now it's with a body that's been beaten up and with things torn off. My physique can still make progress, but there are real limitations that I can't overcome.
It's not something that I piss and moan about, but here's the thing: I might be known as Dave Tate the powerlifter, but to this day I still question whether my genetics were best suited for powerlifting or for bodybuilding?
I made the decision to be a powerlifter and I have no regrets, but I do think about that sometimes. I also wonder what might've happened if I could apply what I know now about strength training and restoration to my powerlifting career from day one. This is something I wonder about much more. But that's for later in the series.

Conclusion

Looking back at my brief foray into bodybuilding, I realize that I made many mistakes – go figure – but I also took steps towards becoming the powerlifter, businessman, father, and yes, bodybuilder that I am today.
Because when I showed up at Hard Body's, I was like a NASCAR stock car; everything built to work together as a unit to achieve optimum performance. My bodybuilding mentors took that car apart, cleaned and tested every last piece, and then reassembled it so every piece individually operated at peak performance.
It wasn't until I left that body behind that I realized what a gift it was.

Phase 3 - Return to Powerlifting

by Dave Tate – 4/04/2011 Next Page | Pages 1 2
In the last installment in this series, I outlined my brief foray into competitive bodybuilding. In this article, I'll describe my return to powerlifting – and how it nearly drove me into an early retirement.
I'd left bodybuilding disenchanted with the whole competitive scene. To me, it was the ultimate let down. You bust your ass for 16 weeks, have no social life, and follow a diet that would drive a normal person insane, and for what? A 60-second dance in your underwear in front of a room full of mouth-breathing dudes? No thanks.
But I loved the training. It was fun, there was variety, and I got great results. I grew like a weed during my time at Hard Body's, in all the areas I'd targeted. I now had quads, back width, decent pecs, and a big set of guns. And the scale backed up what I was seeing. I was 265 pounds, a full 20 pounds heavier than when I started bodybuilding. Mission accomplished.
One reason I was so keen to return to powerlifting was that I was also getting really strong. I was killing my bodybuilding workouts and leaving my training partners in the dust, benching 405 for 10 and 315 for 32; squatting 700 for 8 and 405 for sets of 20. I could deadlift 600 for 12, no sweat.
I remember pulling out the old rep conversion charts and getting excited. If I could bench 405 for 10, then with the gear I'd be able to max at 540 or 550, no problem. I could do some serious damage. (Boy, was I right.)
I found a meet about three months away and using the conversion charts, set up a 12-week progressive overload program.
It was a disaster. I started missing everything almost from day one and every rep was a grinder. The workout would call for two sets of five and I'd barely gut out the first set, and then give everything I had to eke out 3-4 reps on the second set. Then I'd get pissed about missing the set, rest longer, get super jacked up and push out another set of 3-4 reps.
I could've adjusted to spare myself down the road but instead I stayed the course, telling myself that according to the conversion chart, I should be stronger. I was also bigger so I had to be stronger; all I had to do was ball up! Big mistake.
I went into the meet weighing 275 and totaled 200 pounds less than my previous total weighing 242. My bench opened at 425 and I got stapled with 455.
I was way bigger but weaker.

I couldn't believe what had happened. It must've just been nerves I thought, so I de-loaded and repeated the whole process. Same result.
Frustrated and confused, I started just doing meets, expecting that eventually I'd get a different result. What's the definition of insanity again? Someone should've just had me committed, 'cause it would've saved me much wear and tear.
Then I started getting hurt. Not injured; being injured began early in the first cycle and never went away. I was now getting hurt. This is worse because when you're injured you can work through the issue, but when hurt you have to find ways to work around it. Soon my back was a disaster and my shoulders were shot and I couldn't pull for shit. Something had to change.
Since I was in university, I pulled every journal I could find related to strength and biomechanics: NSCA journals, the Soviet Sports Review, and about a hundred others. I was responsible for clear-cutting an entire rainforest with all the photocopying I did. I was like a sponge.
I came across names and expressions that I'd never heard before like Spassov and dynamic effort, and I began playing with plyometrics, even joining a boxing gym so I could do plyo push-ups to work on exploding off my chest.
I started doing every – and I mean every – new program that I happened upon, no matter how crazy they were. Case in point, the Bulgarian program below.

Sample Bulgarian program


Week 1
70% x 3
80% x 3
90% x 1
80% x 3 sets 3
70% x 10
Week 2
70% x 3
80% x 3
90% x 2
100% x 1 for 3 sets
90% x 2 for 3 sets
80% x 5 for 3 sets
Week 3
70% x 3
80% x 3
90% x 2
100% x 1 for 3 sets
90% x 2 for 3 sets
95% x 1
100% x 1 for 2 sets
85% x 3 for 2 sets
90% x 1
95% x 1
100% x 1 for 2 sets
Week 4
70% x 2
80% x 1
85% x 1
80% x 2
70% x 2 for 3 sets
I'd repeat those four weeks three times, for a total of 12 weeks.
Holy shit, those were long workouts. Needless to say, there was very little assistance work in there.
And intense? Look at week three, you work up to a 1RM, then do doubles at 90% – and that's a real 90%, not an estimated 90%. Then, you'd work up to a 1RM two more times in a single workout!
So I'm gearing up and wrapping up, I'm snorting ammonia caps and going bat shit crazy trying to crush these three-hour workouts. My hips we're killing me, my back was a mess. As for my total? It barely moved.
Frustrated and burned out, I switched (again) to a nonlinear system, thinking that it would be a smoother ride. It was a longer build up, with drops in intensity in the middle phases. It would be easier on the body, right?

Sample Nonlinear


Week 1: 55% x 15 for 3 sets
Week 2: 58% x 10 for 3 sets
Week 3: 60% x 10 for 3 sets
Week 4: 62% x 7 for 3 sets
Week 5: 65% x 7 for 3 sets
Week 6: 50% x 10 for 2 sets
Week 7: 70% x 5 for 2 sets
Week 8: 73% x 5 for 3 sets
Week 9: 75% x 5 for 2 sets
Week 10: 78% x 5 for 1 set
Week 11: 80% x 5 for 2 sets

Week 12: 50% x 10 for 2 sets
Week 13: 83% x 5 for 1 set
Week 14: 85% x 3 for 2 sets
Week 15: 88% x 3 for 2 sets
Week 16: 90% x 3 for 1 set
Week 17: 92% x 2 for 1 set
Week 18: 95% x 2 for 1 set
Week 19: 98% x 1 for 1 or 2 sets
Week 20: pre meet
Week 21: meet
It destroyed me. Pec strains became a constant battle. My knees started acting up and my once sore hips were now shot.
Week 12 would always be when the wheels fell off. We'd be up at 80%, and then drop back to 50% to give the body a "break." But that one week of light training was enough to get my body "used" to light loads, so the return to real poundages would pulverize me.
I sustained most of my injuries during this phase and many of the injuries weren't even muscular but in the joints and tendons. My back, in particular, was a mess. The programs I kept coming up with were destroying me and I wasn't getting stronger.

Go With The Flow Gear Ho

I was out of control. With each new program I'd hop onto I'd just get more disappointed and more injured.
I eventually hooked up with a new group of hardcore powerlifters. These guys told me that I was overcomplicating things and while I was test-driving all these fancy programs, their approach was to work up to a heavy weight, and if you felt good, go for a single – every workout!
For example, we'd work up to a fairly "easy" set of five, and if that felt good, work up to a triple. If you killed the triple, well, then it was on – we'd work right up to a heavy single. And if you hit the single? Make it a triple.
Every workout.
Adding to the craziness factor, these guys believed in using full gear every time you got under the bar. This was completely foreign to me, as I always saved my gear for the last few weeks. Not these guys. With them, every workout should be like your last workout.
I loved it. As crazy as it was, in hindsight it was my first taste of "Maximum effort" training and it taught me to adjust things if I felt like a bull one day or a lamb the next. Despite the ridiculous programming (or lack thereof), I actually got pretty strong, bringing my squat to 800 for 5, bench pressing 540 for 5, and 700 for 2 in the deadlift.
Too bad it didn't transfer to the meet. I struggled – and I mean struggled – to hit a 780-pound single in the squat and realized that I left my best training back in the weight room. The "balls to the wall" finally caught up to me and again I wasn't much further ahead.

PAGE 2

1993

Here's the scene: my body is a complete mess, but I decide out of desperation to do yet another meet. The week before the meet, I'd tweaked my pec in training but decide to compete anyway. It's not like I haven't done the same thing many times before.
I open with 455 and it feels hard. Really hard, like the hardest 1RM of my life. I keep going and for my second attempt call for 500 on the bar. I know all I have to do is pull back into myself, ball up, and do whatever it takes to get the weight up.
I get the bar about 3/4 of the way up and my pec blows right out from the humerus. There's no bruising, no blood, but the whole pec has rolled up like a window blind under my nipple.
I've torn muscles and tweaked pecs before but this is different. It doesn't hurt, there's no discoloration, but I can barely move my arm and there's a huge gap where my pec used to be.
Sitting in the corner, I realize what my lousy training and countless injuries had been trying to tell me all along. That despite all that I read, I don't know shit. I question if I've taken my body as far as it would go. I'm stronger mentally than physically and regardless of what I've done, my lifts are barely moving. I question if I've come as far as my genetics will allow. Is this the end and if so, what next?
A guy I've seen at the meets comes over. He looks at my arm in a sling supporting my busted up pec, then looks me dead in the eyes and says, "If you don't start changing what you do you're going to be out of this sport in a year."
It's Louie Simmons.

One Door Closes...

The first thing I told Louie was that I thought I was already done with powerlifting. I truly was at rock bottom and ready to move onto the next chapter of my life, whatever the hell that was. I told him how I'd tried everything to move forward and failed. I told him the extensive list of injuries I'd accumulated.
Louie would have none of it. "You have no idea what your potential is," he said. "Come to Westside and let me show you."
I was skeptical. And when I'd said I thought I was done, I meant it. But my wife wanted to move to Columbus and I certainly didn't have any other options, so I headed to Westside.
There was also something in Louie's words that never left me. Unlike so many others in my life who'd provided guidance or suggestions, I could tell Louie was serious and meant every word. Very few people in my life have ever really believed in me and there I was standing face to face with someone who did.
That's the phase I'll talk about next time.

Lessons

They say that when life kicks you in the balls is when you learn the most important lessons. For all the beating I took those years, at least I learned a lot:

• The value of a perceived max.

In the Bulgarian system for example, you're always going balls to the wall, working off an actual max. That just destroys you, especially if you have other commitments outside of training.
A better way is to establish a perceived rep max. Work up to a decent weight and then have a conversation with your partner (or yourself) about how strong you really are, today.
Do you think you can hit 315? No? Maybe just 300? Then bam, work off 90% of that 300. It spares the joints and sets up long-term success as opposed to frustration and failure.
Use real-time perceived maxes, not what some equation tells you to lift.

• The value of the maximum effort method.

The best gains I made out of all the programs was when I trained with the two guys that just worked up and used "how I feel versus how the weights feel" as the guide to the number of reps to be done.
This influence carried over to how I used the max effort method in later years.

• Bodybuilding training and powerlifting need to be mutually exclusive.

That is, at least to excel at either of them. A big mistake I made was that I never really left bodybuilding training behind. Despite being a "powerlifter," I was benching like a bodybuilder: elbows flared, no leg drive, and wondering why I couldn't bench for shit and blew a pec in the process.
Strength is a high-level skill. Like any skill, to get good at it, you have to practice. That means performing the same lifts, the same way, repeatedly until you develop some degree of mastery.
Ask any high-skill athlete and he'll agree, that kind of repetition is a grind. It's beyond boring and it burns many people out, but those who stick it out are rewarded at the end.
If you're a competitive powerlifter you know what I mean. The training essentially is doing the same things day in and day out, week in and week out, for years. How many times have you been cued, "head up," or "back, back, back?" Thousands. Those who become successful learn to love and embrace the boredom.
Bodybuilding is way less boring. There's variety; hell, variety is encouraged, and once I got a taste of that I didn't want to let it go.
So when I should've been squatting, deadlifting, and benching I was throwing in meaningless stuff that had no business being in my program, like leg presses and hack squats. But I enjoyed them and they were fun – at least until I started to get overtrained and injured.

• Bigger muscles do not necessarily mean stronger muscles.

When I returned to powerlifting I was way bigger – and could do walking lunges with 315 on my back – but couldn't squat 700!
Powerlifting is all about coordination, getting the entire system to fire as a unit. Bodybuilding, once you reach a certain level of development, requires the exact opposite. You can either accept this and change your approach, or just bulldog your way through it and destroy your body in the process.

• Conversion charts are bullshit.

Not only is every lifter different, but also bodybuilding produces a much different type of strength than powerlifting. Bodybuilding conditions you to perform 8 rep sets but does jack shit for your limit strength or your explosiveness. You have to give yourself time to relearn that type of training before jumping into what you "should" be lifting. I never did, and I paid for it.

• Jumping from program to program is a mistake.

The more I read and the more I "learned," the more I changed programs. As a result, rather than "fine tuning" or "tweaking" my progress, I made no progress. In hindsight, I would've been better off just picking a decent program and sticking with it until mastering it.
I see people making this mistake all the time, especially the young guys coming up in the information era, where every lifter and his mother have their log posted online.
These guys leap from program to program like frogs leaping from lily pad to lily pad. They're following a solid program until some other frog croaks about a new Conjugate Eastern Bloc hybrid that they're making great gains off of, so they ditch what they're doing and leap to the next lily pad.
Jumping from lily pad to lily pad is okay until you miss. When you do, you better know how to swim.
I tell guys that the smart frog ignores all the other frogs and just swims underneath the lily pads to the other side. Pick a good program and follow it to the letter until you master it. So when you're on the other side of the pond happily eating bugs, the rest of the frogs will still be jumping from lily pad to lily pad.
Sure, some of the pad jumpers will make it over to eat bugs beside you, but most will just keep missing, and all you'll hear is the "ribbit ribbit ribbit" of a pond full of frogs blaming everything but themselves for still being stuck on the pads.
This guy had better gear, that guy had better drugs, that federation had messed up rules, ribbit, ribbit, ribbit.
During my first phase of training I used the same program for basically five years and it was tremendously successful. When I finally got to Westside, I did that program for 12 years – and learned it from a guy who was using it for 20 years before I got there. That's an important lesson, and it leads into my final point.

• Strength training is a massive learning circle.

There's a massive learning curve to strength training, but it's more like a "learning circle."
At the bottom, when you're new, you know nothing. You're this giant idiot and you just do what bigger guys tell you to do, and as long as those guys aren't retarded you'll make gains and progress up the circle.
This wide middle part of the circle is where a lot of guys are. They're kind of strong and they've got some scars, but the main thing they have is an education. They've read everything. They have degrees. They have a stack of journals on their desk and a dozen forums they help moderate. They can talk the pros and cons of every periodization modality and jaw about the old Soviet coach they met at a conference. They think they're masters.
What they don't realize is that they're not all that. They're not masters – in fact, they're still idiots, cause they haven't done anything or lifted anything. But good luck telling them that. After all, they've got degrees and certifications and a lot of Facebook friends.
They need to be humbled before they can move on. They need to have their asses handed to them, their pride beaten like an unwanted dog. They need to wake up one day and look in the mirror and realize that this craft they've devoted their life to has gotten the best of them. They have to realize that they really don't know shit.
It's when they're at rock bottom and ready to quit; that's when they're ready to move up. That bottom is really the beginning. That's when the real understanding begins to take shape – when you realize you know nothing is when you begin to learn and move forward.
When I headed to Westside, it wasn't like I "graduated" to that system. I didn't hit some amazing total and Louie Simmons swept in and gave me a diploma. I was a broken down mess with a torn pec and wrecked back and was done with the whole frickin' sport. But that's what I needed. My body had to be broken before my mind could move on.
Jazz legend Charlie Parker said, "Master the instrument, master the music. Then, forget all that shit and play."
You've read the books. Now learn the trade. It took me years of training and journal reading to realize that I didn't know a damn thing.
I said in the first part of this series that we're all a bunch of retards. Now you can begin to see this is what cuts through all the bullshit.
Until next month.

Westside Barbell, the Mental Aspect

by Dave Tate – 6/06/2011 Next Page | Pages 1 2


In the last installment in this series, I described my return to powerlifting – and how it nearly drove me into an early retirement. This article will begin the phase I'm most famous for – the 12 years I spent training at Westside Barbell in Columbus, Ohio.
Note: Over the years many things have changed that will go far beyond the scope of this article series. The gym moved three times and it also got smarter, more advanced, more innovative, stronger, and better. Much better.
Though the key principles remain unchanged, I know things at Westside continue to evolve and improve. I'll only present what I was there to see, learn, and be a part of.
I can't tell you what's going on at Westside today. There are only a handful of people who can, and those people train at Westside Barbell. Anyone else is bullshitting you.

The "Other" Big Three

I've learned more from my time at Westside than any other period in my training life. There's no way one installment could do it justice. I also doubt anyone wants to read an article of Dostoyevsky-type length, although Crime and Punishment would be an appropriate subtitle.
To that end, the Westside period is going to be divided into three parts, after the three areas that must be accounted for in your training to avoid getting stuck: the physical aspect (what most are familiar with, including but not limited to the Repetition Method, the Dynamic Method, and Max Effort Method), the technical aspect (exercise technique, arguably the most important), and the rarely talked about mental aspect.

What is the Mental Aspect?

I often meet young lifters at seminars who are fascinated by Westside Barbell. They've read the articles, watched the videos, and have structured their training to best match the principles Louie presents in his Westside DVD's and certification course. "I'd give anything to train at Westside," they gush.
I do my best to encourage them but I know most wouldn't make it.
If Westside Barbell is anything like what I experienced, 90% of these lifters wouldn't last a week. They might be able to withstand the physical pounding, but the mental stress would chew them up and spit them out.
Here's a test I use.
Young lifter: "I'd love to train at Westside."
Me: "If it we're a perfect world and you could move to Columbus and train at Westside for three months, do you think you could put 50 pounds on your bench?"
Young lifter: "Absolutely!"
Me: "Then why don't you bench that now?"
That's the mental part. That's how I know they wouldn't make it. All the info is out there, between the 'Net and certification courses and videos. But they focus on what they don't have, which is the ability to train within those four walls. That's how I know they don't want it.
That's how I know Westside Barbell would crush them.

Humble Beginnings


One of the last times I spoke with Louie before packing up and moving to Columbus was right after I tore my pec. "You're going to be out of the sport within a year if you don't change your ways," he said, and it stuck with me. I was going nowhere anyway. What did I have to lose?
Yet it should be noted that I wasn't a Louie Simmons disciple when I arrived at Westside Barbell.
I'd studied Exercise Physiology in college and read countless journals. I was strong, experienced, and not easily fooled. Louie talked about speed and dynamic lifting and none of it jived with what I'd learned.
My earlier impression was that Louie talked a good game but was basically full of shit. I always thought there was some secret method or routine that Louie kept under wraps and all this speed shit was just to distract the competition. I wanted to find out what that "thing" was.
When I showed up, Westside was in the process of changing from a commercial-type gym to a private powerlifting club. Louie had sold all the machines to Matt Dimel and took just the powerlifting essentials to a rat hole in West Columbus.
To say this place was a dump is an understatement. There were holes in the floor and the ceiling leaked. As I recall there was even some dude living in the basement.
I was just a few days post-surgery and still in a sling. I was stuck training on the machines at Matt's place and doing physical therapy, so all I could do at Westside was spot. That sucked. My weight tumbled from 270 to about 240 before I was finally cleared to lift at Westside.
The gym moved again a year or so later to a much better place about twice the size; better organized, and with no holes in the floor.
This would be my home for the next decade.

The Louie Simmons Skeptic

Louie's guys trained in the morning or in the afternoon, but being a Louie Simmons skeptic I opted to train with a small crew at around 1 P.M. I followed my progressive overload program, did a meet, and put maybe five pounds on my total. Progress, sure, but five pounds? I wasn't impressed.
I told Louie as much and he started busting my chops again about not following his methods. He'd been after me to train his way with the morning crew since I'd arrived but it didn't fit with my new job. And I certainly didn't see his system as something I should turn my life upside down for.
Louie was persistent until finally, I snapped. I told him that I didn't think his methods would work for me, and just to prove it I'd quit my job and start training his way – and when I didn't do shit at my next meet it would be his fault.
Well, that's how I figured it.
I started training with the morning crew. I followed everything he said. I did a meet and put over 200 pounds on my total.
That's when I realized that the last 15 years of my training and education were bullshit. All the classes I took, the seminars I attended, the coaches I spoke to, and my time in the gym made me educated, but it didn't make me the expert I thought I was. What it did do was put me in a position to really learn my trade. My education was about to begin.

Mecca Of Powerlifting


Guys online have almost mythologized Westside. People call it the "Mecca of powerlifting" and "the place every powerlifter should aspire to be."
I agree. It is the Mecca of Powerlifting, and what I consider to be one of, if not THE strongest, gyms in the world – but the place wasn't Muscle Beach. It was brutal, both physically and mentally. This is part of what made it work for me.
Guys training at Jerk Off Fitness might not understand this, but when you train at a place like Westside Barbell there's enormous pressure. The stress of the weights is one thing; the stress of having the strongest guys in the world expect you to keep up or surpass them is overwhelming. If it's not overwhelming, you're definitely not a good fit for Westside – you expect far too little of yourself.
Becoming exceptional at anything requires commitment, discipline, and sacrifice. At Westside, that gets you in the front door – maybe. To survive at Westside, you need to match the level of dedication and sacrifice of the rest of the crew. This alone was a huge challenge. While we did have some "normal" people in the gym, we also had several who bordered on insane. You had to bring yourself up to another level or you'd get run over or run out.
Responsibility

When Louie told me after I tore my pec that I could be better, it wasn't a vote of confidence he was giving me, but responsibility. Responsibility to be better, and if I was going to make it at Westside, I better get better.
Louie made me expect more from myself than anyone else. He made me believe that I should be the strongest squatter in the gym, and when I wasn't the frustration drove me deep into a part of myself that only elite athletes can relate to.
I was told that my potential didn't mean shit unless I realized it, and making that happen was 100% my responsibility. The word potential may sound positive, but to a coach like Louie, potential meant, "What's holding you back from being great?"
According to Louie, it was also my responsibility to make everyone on the team better than me. With most powerlifting clubs, there's usually one King Pooba. It's everyone else's job to make sure Pooba has a good lift. They carry his bag, wrap his knees, and load his weight – it's seen as paying your dues.
Not at Westside. Our job was to make every other lifter capable of beating you, even if it meant helping the new guy who'd eventually erase your name off the board. It didn't matter if you didn't like the guy– it was your job to make him stronger than you. Then after he beat you, it was his job to make you better than him.
When one group would squat, no one else would do a thing. Say you have 12 guys in the morning crew. Two or three guys would be squatting, three others would spot, and the remaining eight would coach, yelling cues like "head up" and "knees out." Then we'd all spilt up and do our accessories.
If you were lifting, all you had to do was lift. You didn't have to change the box, Monolift height, look at the clock – nothing. Your job was to squat and give all you have doing it. There was no bullshit chatting – it was all about building a better squat.
This created an environment where every time you hit a sticking point, you'd have a dozen guys trying to come up with solutions. Having other strong guys looking for ways to make you strong is obviously better than just tinkering on your own. It's also an ungodly amount of pressure, cause now you're accountable to those guys to be better. And you better get better.
For me, the issue was always abs strength. So after the main lift, I'd have guys barking at me to go do abs with them, and when one of those guys is someone with ridiculous work capacity like Chuck Vogelpohl, you got smashed. Or you got better.
That's why when one of us broke a world record it wasn't just the guy under the bar that felt pride. We all did – because we all worked for it.
Tension

There's obviously a huge downside to this kind of pressure. If you let any stress get to you it could rip you to shreds. Louie warned us to not let powerlifting be our entire life, but for many of us it was.
At times the tension was ridiculous. You're crammed into a small room full of huge guys, all on edge, a second away from exploding. I've seen fist fights during speed bench day, plates thrown around, and countless uncomfortable heated arguments.
But the training never stopped. Ever. Guys would be at each other's throats on Friday but be back on Monday. Cause that's when we squatted.
Every gym has drama. We were conditioned not to give a fuck. I trained along side some people I'd never associate with outside of the gym, but within those walls they were the ones pushing you to get better and you the same. I still have no idea what some of the guys I trained with did for a living. Hell, some I only know by the nicknames we'd given one another. In the gym we were all the same.
When someone wasn't holding their own, we let them know. I'm not talking about the lazy slackers you see in commercial gyms sitting on the leg extension reading the paper. I'm talking about guys who didn't bring their balls to the gym that day. The ones who weren't willing to push past what they were truly capable of.


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Discipline


You weren't allowed to be a pussy. That's where the real mental brutality was.
Louie was the master of finding ways to motivate you. Often he'd tell another lifter that I was going to do shit at an upcoming meet, knowing that lifter would tell me.
I'd get pissed off, but what was I going to do? I could get angry but the only way to shut him up would be to get stronger. Looking back there were numerous times when my forearms would cramp up driving home because I was trying to rip the steering wheel off.
Louie would find ways to fuck with you, get under your skin, or use other lifters to mess with your head. The result? There was a meet where our top bencher forgot his shirt. That would've knocked most lifters completely off their game, but he just borrowed another shirt and benched. No big deal.
Miss my opener? Big deal. Put on 40 pounds. I'll get it.
There was nothing that could happen at a meet that could compare with what we dealt with at the gym. Guy blew out his knee? Unwrap him and roll him out. It's my turn to squat.
Guys grew to need this mental trauma. They thrived on it. I remember one guy doing Max Effort bench work. He'd worked up to his max and missed, but no one said anything. This enraged him, so much so that he got up and started ranting.
"I just missed my lift and none of you guys said a thing!" he yelled. "You guys don't even fucking care!?!"
I knew what to say.
"No one said anything because your bench is shit. Because your triceps are shit. And until you get some triceps and some balls, your bench will always be shit, so we quit caring and we quit talking about it."
He was about to explode. "I train triceps all the time," he screamed, to which the whole gym started laughing.
To the outsider looking in it would've looked like a scene from an insane asylum – or a prison yard. We were just giving him what he needed.
Brutality

Although I acquired most of my injuries before I arrived at Westside, there was no room there for being hurt. We created an environment of 100% balls out, all the time. No deloads, no easy days, no quit. If it hurts, wrap it. If it's heavy, fuck you, pull harder.
I can't blame Louie for this. I couldn't count the number of times he told me to back it down, only to see me add another 40 pounds and blow my nut sack off.
We never gave each other a free pass, especially on Max Effort lower body day. We never knew what movement we'd be doing, but always knew the goal – to strain.
We'd start at 8:30 A.M. If you were late and Louie still allowed you to lift, you jumped in at whatever the weight was. If 405 was too heavy to open with, fuck you. Next time, don't be late.
For that reason we'd always get there early, arriving at about 8 to eat McDonalds and drink coffee. During that time, we'd ask one another what lift we wanted to train that day. No one would agree on anything, until finally someone would roll in limping and say something like, "I don't care what the hell we do, as long as it's not low box squats. That would kill me today."
There. It was decided. Today we'll do low box squats.
We were lifters first. We trained Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday morning. Always. No exceptions. If you had a meet on Saturday, you lifted Monday, just maybe a bit lighter. Christmas, Easter or Thanksgiving didn't matter. If it was one of those days, you trained. And you strained.
The board

The ultimate goal of everyone at Westside was to get on the board. It meant more to us than a world record. It pushed you to do better, to join the Elite. But as it was written in chalk, it could easily erased. There was a reason for that. YOU could be erased. Getting up there only meant that now the crosshairs were on you.
Today, the numbers on the board are ridiculous. 2700-pound totals. 1200-pound squats. Those who visit see it as "an amazing record board," but to the guys training it's their reason for lifting. No lifter at Westside was better or more important than another, so every lifter believed they could get up on the board – and knew they'd help another lifter get up there.
Louie had many carrots like the board. Every Sunday morning we'd meet for breakfast at TJ's before heading out to a small garage gym to bench. The catch was, you had to either have totaled Elite or benched 500 pounds to get the invite, and the lifts had to have been performed at Westside. My pre-Westside 500-pound bench was irrelevant, so I wasn't allowed to join them.
Again, I was pissed. I deserved to be there and Louie knew it. All it did was motivate me to train harder so I could bench 500 again and eat and lift with the Sunday guys. Before long, I got to where both I – and Louie – knew I should be.
Louie's mental strength

The fact that Louie was right in there, lifting and straining with us, was hugely motivating. When I first arrived at Westside, Louie was retired. That is, until Kenny Patterson said something during an argument like, "What do you know old man? You'll never have 800 pounds on your back again."
That was it. Suddenly, a then 50-something Louie Simmons was right in the middle lifting with us. That was motivating enough, but when that old guy starts beating you, the respect level climbs another notch. Louie Simmons possesses a level of mental strength that is unmatched.

What I'd Change - Mentally

As stated, Westside Barbell is constantly evolving and improving. Since my time they've adapted and changed for the better to keep churning out the strongest lifters in the world, but I can only comment on what I'd change during my time there.
I'd train smarter

I tore up my body primarily in my pre-Westside days, but I still would've backed off a bit more while training there. There was no room for being a pussy, ever, but that mentality eventually catches up to you.
I think the current permutation of Westside has moved in this direction. Again, it's purely speculation on my end, but I just don't see the frequency and severity of injuries that I did during my years there.
I'd keep Zippy out of the gym

"Zippy" was the name given to my competitive lifting alter ego. I'd do a set of 455-pound squats that would feel heavy. I'd flip a switch and "Zippy" would come out – I'd kill 455 and demand more plates be put on.
All Zippy wanted to do was strain. My back would rupture, my knees blow out before Zippy would accept missing a lift.
Zippy was a fantastic tool but I should've saved him for the meets. Louie frequently reminded us of the huge difference between a "competitive state" and "training state" but I rarely listened. Training in an environment like Westside, every lift had the pressure of a meet. I let myself become a hyper-aroused competitive lifter far too often, when I should've just been a calm, focused (sane) lifter. And I missed many lifts because of it.

Final Thoughts on Louie

Even though I'm long removed from Westside, every day I'm reminded of Louie's brilliance. He didn't invent speed training or the conjugate system – nor has be ever claimed to have invented them – but he made sense of it all and put together a cohesive system that delivered results.
The creator, not the recruiter. Westside Barbell has a reputation for "recruiting already good lifters." This completely diminishes Louie's abilities as a coach and pisses me off. It's not entirely true.
Louie was taking ordinary local high school kids and developing them into Elite lifters, guys like Chuck Vogelpohl and Kenny Patterson. Westside was the first gym Chuck ever walked into. He remembers benching 135 pounds for the first time there. Westside Barbell had produced forty or fifty Elite lifters before anyone from outside Columbus moved to train there. I was the first, perhaps the second lifter to do so.
Today, Louie has the luxury of having great lifters from around the country, even the world, as they move to Columbus to train under his tutelage. He's paid his dues, and earned the right to take the truly great ones and make them extraordinary.
But if anything, that only further validates how great Louie is. Anyone whose worked with lifters knows it's much harder to take an Elite lifter and make them pro than it is to take a beginner and make them Elite. Still, despite opening the doors to the world's best, many of Westside's current top lifters are guys born and raised in Columbus.
The mad scientist. New ideas were constantly being test driven. Some stayed, some were abandoned. In my time at Westside, I witnessed the introduction of the monolift, boards, chains, bands, floor presses, kettlebells, cambered bars, the lightened method, circa max method, extra workouts, suspended movements, fat bars, sleds, ankle weights, speed pulls, and something other than AC/DC being played on the stereo.
I remember watching Louie drop a few hundred bucks on stretching bands at a basketball seminar. Driving back to the gym, I asked Louie if this meant he wanted us all to stretch more.
"No," he said. "We're going to attach them to the platform and wrap the other end around the bar for squats."
Greeeeat, I thought. And so it began...
The human calculator. Louie is like the powerlifting Rain Man, and could rattle off the exact numbers you needed to move a weight. Trying to squat 900 pounds? On your Dynamic days you need 455-pounds and the double blue bands.
He also knew your meet PR's and all your max effort records. We didn't need to keep a log because Louie knew your numbers.
The master of figuring out (and telling you) why you're stalling. He could tell in a second what assistance lifts you needed to squat, pull, or bench as well as the other guys.
The ageless motherfucker. He's also just totaled Elite again – at 62 years old! That certainly says something. The guy has totaled Elite in five decades!
The expert motivator. Although his mind-fuck approach pissed me off more than I care to remember (I know I pissed him off almost as much, so I'm calling it even), I can see now that I never would've accomplished what I did with a more "tender" approach.
Louie might've told me twice in 12 years that I was doing a good job. But he never once told me I sucked or that I was a failure.
The incredible coach. Take 300-pound pitbulls full of anger and adrenaline, each with something to prove, and cram them into a 600-square foot prison cell. Now create not only an orderly environment, but also one where every lifter believes that they're no better or worse than any other lifter.
These were guys who, to a man, could've walked into any commercial gym and assumed the title of "Strongest guy in the gym," but Louie had them all believing they were just spokes in a bigger wheel. Think that's easy? Hell, it's even tough to manage the egos on a girls' soccer team.

The Answer

You might be wondering if you're cut out for Westside. Maybe you're strong, really strong, and think you might have what it takes to survive there.
But what about your mental strength?
Getting back to young lifters who tell me they aspire to train there, here's another test I use.
"Why do you want to train at Westside?"
There's only one correct answer:
"I want to break world records."
Westside knows what it can do for you. What they'll want to know is, what you can do for Westside?

Be Better


I've always dealt with shit. Overcoming adversity is nothing new for me. Louie reinforced that if I step up and do the work, I can accomplish things. I can realize the potential I have.
Louie gave me the mental strength to push my body past my self-imposed limitations. He knew it from day one and just had to inspire, show and lead me to it. I may not become the best lifter in the world – but I'd certainly become the best I could be.
More importantly, become better than anything I thought I could ever be.
These are lessons in mental strength that have trickled down from training into my business, my family, and how I approach every day above ground. It's made my life so much better, and I have Louie Simmons to thank for it. He taught me that it's possible to be better than your best.
Until next time.

PS – The next two parts of this series will deal with the technical and physical aspects of my time training at Westside Barbell.
These areas have been covered extensively in my previous writings, such as the 8 Keys series found here.
To avoid too much redundancy, please post in the Live Spill any areas in particular you'd like to see covered or expanded upon.

Westside Barbell, Technique

by Dave Tate – 7/25/2011 Next Page | Pages 1 2


In the last installment in this series, I described the mental aspect of training at Westside Barbell in Columbus, Ohio.
I'm grateful for the mental toughness I acquired training under Louie Simmons for 12 years as it defined me as a lifter, a businessman, a father, and as a man.
In this article, I'll discuss an aspect of Westside training that's even more important, and further establishes Louie Simmons as the greatest powerlifting mind of all time: the technical aspect, or technique.
Note: I can only discuss what was going on at Westside when I was there. I can't tell you what's going on at Westside today; there are only a handful of people who can, and those people train at Westside Barbell. Anyone else is bullshitting you.
If you spend enough time on powerlifting message boards you'll eventually come across posts saying that technique isn't that important.
"Powerlifting isn't rocket science," they say. "They're simple lifts, and if you can't learn near perfect technique in just a few months of lifting then you're probably not cut out for the sport. You're probably just not meant to be strong."
I couldn't disagree more. Technique is a huge factor in powerlifting success. I maintain overcoming a sticking point is 10% mental, 20% physical, and 70% technical. The problem is, everyone wants "physical" answers to what are really "technical" issues.
Sure, some guys are naturally gifted, and can rack up impressive numbers with just brute effort and minimal coaching. But their performance usually plateaus quickly, and it's often a bitch for them to ever break through. They're also usually the ones who disappear after their fist bout with adversity (injury, criticism, or bomb outs).
For example, I've come across hundreds of guys who've benched 400 pounds in high school but were still fighting to break 455 ten years later, despite trying every program available. What finally gets them busting through their plateaus? Technique.
I was already a pretty successful powerlifter before I showed up at Westside, but was also a complete mess of injuries and basically ready to retire. Louie's technical wizardry saved my powerlifting career, allowing me to set new PR's for another 12 years. Not bad for a guy who was told by dudes in labcoats the he'd never even lift heavy again!
Since powerlifting is defined by the squat, the bench press, and the deadlift, this article will focus on those lifts. I'll describe how I performed each lift pre-Westside, what changes Louie made, and how I teach the lift today. The goal is to help make you a smarter, better lifter than I ever was. If you have the humility to learn, you just might get there.

The Squat


My best squat pre-Westside was good; 765 pounds at 242. I'd missed 800 by a hair (depth) on more than a few occasions.
From a technique perspective, my pre-Westside squat couldn't be more different from today. Back then I squatted with a medium-width modified Olympic lifter stance.
I didn't care for the look of most Olympic weight lifting shoes so I squatted in Timberland boots because they looked cooler and still gave me a solid base and a bit of an arch, making it easier to break parallel and get depth with bigger weights. As a result of my stance and choice of footwear I was very quad dominant.
Gear wise, I used very little. I was very much a raw lifter. All I had was a single ply suit that I only wore in competitions. This isn't to say I wouldn't have worn more gear had I known about it – I wore what I knew was available at the time. Double ply gear wasn't even advertised at the time.
I can still remember the first day I squatted for Louie. As soon as I walked onto the gym floor he told me that my quads were way too big and that I walked like a duck, meaning my toes flared out from having a weak ass and hamstrings.
Despite the initial barrage of insults (a duck?), Louie said he wanted to see me squat anyway. I put the empty bar on my back and did a few reps, to which Louie said, "You have no fucking clue how to squat."
Did I mention I'd squatted 765 in competition? Louie knew that, but it didn't change his opinion.
Louie slid a medium box behind me and had me put the bar on my back again, this time loaded with 135.
"Grab it tight," he said. "The squat begins the second you grab the bar."
"Now get big air and get your upper back tight. Tight!" he yelled.
Then he turned his attention to my feet. "Get your feet wider," he barked. "Wider."
"Wider!"
Louie must've said it 30 times. By the end it felt like I was doing the splits.
My groin started to scream so I tried to turn my toes out. Louie spotted that right away. "Keep your fucking feet straight," he yelled. I found out later that turning the toes out allowed my dominant quads to take over. Louie wanted my feet facing front.
"Now sit back," he said. "Back, back, back!"
I felt like my groin was going to rip in half. I slowly sat back for what felt like an eternity, drifting into dead space, waiting to feel this stupid box that was nowhere to be found.
"Back!" Louie yelled.
I finally felt the top of the box and crashed down, stuck to the box until the guys helped me back up. A 765-pound squatter getting stapled by 135. I wasn't happy.
But I also knew I was onto something. Looking at the knee angle of the box squat, I realized that this was a much healthier position for the knee. I'm not saying that regular squats are bad for the knees, but mine always hurt and took forever to warm up. And shit happens once you have max poundages on your back, and knees aren't that forgiving.
I also saw how to get to regulation depth with this style – the bar only had to travel about half the distance versus my medium stance squats. From an efficiency end, it just made sense to squat this way.
Next, Louie addressed my breathing. He said I was a chest breather, and to prove it had me stand in front of a mirror and take a deep breath to see if my shoulders came up. This isn't the case with belly breathers, who inflate their core instead.
Louie said that the core was everything, as it acted like a transmission in the transfer of power from the floor to the bar. When your core is expanded, you have a bigger base, and a larger base is usually a stronger one. Louie said that if I could expand my belly with air by four inches it would increase my base of support by four inches as well.
Until then I'd been flexing my abs but didn't think much about it. I just pulled the belt super tight and that was about it. Now I was being told to set the belt one notch looser and then make it tight by expanding and flexing.
Louie's own core strength and control was ridiculous. I've seen him hold a broomstick with his obliques and then flick it across the gym floor simply by flexing his core. He went to great lengths to develop this in all his lifters, even having us hit each other in the core with a metal pole to get used to contracting hard, much the same as a fighter getting used to a punch.
Another way Louie taught me to engage my core was by having me lie on the floor with a heavy hexagon dumbbell propped onto my abs. He'd get me to suck it in my gut and then expand out, as if trying to touch the ceiling with the dumbbell, for multiple reps.
In my first meet after applying all this new technique, I barely hit a 740 squat. I was a little disappointed, though Louie put it best when he said that my strong points were incredibly strong, but my weak points were like that of a three-year-old child's. Bottom line was, it was going to take some time. "Sometimes you have to take a few steps backward in order to move forward," he said.
He was right, and I soon squatted 935 pounds.

Teaching the squat


Today I teach the squat one way: wide and on the box.
That's straight from Louie and it's how I teach everyone, and I mean everyone. Why? Because it's the best. I've seen it work thousands of times, and every time a lifter learns this method, whether they're a rookie or advanced, their squat improves dramatically, often by hundreds of pounds. If something works every single time it has to be the best, right?

• The squat starts between the chalk box and the bar. From that moment on you require 100% focus. If someone approaches you during that brief time you have every legal right to punch them in the neck.
• Chalk up.
• Get the bar even in the rack – adjust the bar as necessary
• Grab the bar with the one hand (right or left, it doesn't matter) in the position you'll squat in. Now it doesn't move. Squeeze down. I don't mean just grab the bar. I'm talking about squeezing the shit out of it.
• Grab the bar with the other hand and squeeze.
• Step forward half under bar, duck under, with the bar on the back in a tight and uncomfortable position.
• Pull the blades together. Now it should downright hurt.
• Grab big air in the stomach and push down on your belt.
• Arch back and lift the bar out of rack, and step back into a wide stance.
• Position your toes slightly out, but not flared. Keep your base of support rigid.
• Spread the floor apart with your feet (push against the side of your shoe) as hard as possible. This is why flat soled shoes like Chuck Taylors are ideal.
• Keep the lower back arched, abs flexed, upper back tight.
• Knees flared out hard.

That's the starting power position. Now the descent.

• Start with the hips going back, not the knees.
• Focus on driving the hips back and the knees will eventually bend. Trust me.
• Chest high, head up, and push your belly out hard against the belt.
• Keep going back. Picture me yelling in your ear if it helps. Back, back, back, back, back...
• Hit the box (PAUSE for a second) and then drive the head and traps into the bar.
• Chest comes up first, then the hips. The hips must always follow the chest or the chest will fall and the lift will turn into a good morning.
• Stand up.

The key is for this to become automatic. Louie had me do 1000 reps a week with a broomstick onto a couch or chair until it was second nature. A light weight allows you to think your way through the execution and follow a mental checklist of steps, but a lot changes when there's weight on the bar. Shit happens under heavy weight, and it's rarely good shit. Ingraining good habits until they're as automatic as breathing is crucial.
Although the description above is solid, it's nothing compared to real life instruction. So we took care of that for you. Just watch the following video. You kids starting out today have no idea how good you have it.

Bench Press


I arrived at Westside with a history of pec problems. I estimate that I'd strained or "tweaked" my pec upwards of 50 times in my young career; it had reached a point where it wasn't if I was going to strain my pec during a cycle, but when. Despite this, I'd reached a respectable 540-pound raw bench at the time of my last pre-Westside meet, when I tore the left pec right off the humerus.
Back then I never considered the bench a complex lift. You unrack it, hold it, lower it to your nipples, pause, then press it out. Simple.
I benched "elbows out," and over time brought my grip in narrower and narrower to help take some strain off my messed up pecs.
That was the first thing Louie had me change.

• Louie had me bench wider. He explained that the pressure on the pec was determined by the degree of shoulder rotation, and that with a wide grip there was actually less shoulder rotation than my more "pec friendly" close grip.
• Switch to thumb-less grip. Since my pecs were a mess, Louie wanted to switch the stress off my pecs and onto my triceps. That's why today I always laugh when people ask how I came to have such big triceps. Easy, I say. Just tear both pecs.
• "Pull the bar apart" at the top of the movement. This again activated the triceps.
• Tuck the elbows, tuck the elbows, and tuck the elbows. This spared my pec and shoulder and greatly enhanced triceps recruitment.
• Get my legs out in front of me. I had a habit of letting my ass come off the bench by a half-inch or so. By putting my legs out in front of me my knees were dropped lower than the bench, making it difficult for my hips to flex off the bench. This seemed to take some of the stress off my pecs. I'm not entirely sure why but I felt a big difference.

My first meet after switching to Westside I hit 520 pounds, 25 pounds off my old PR but with a torn pec and a brand new technique. A year later I hit 610.
Keep in mind this progress was accomplished with the same basic style of bench shirt. Years later I had a near miss (hit the rack on the way up) with 700, although that was with a super-gangster jacked shirt. In other words, my progress is a testament to Louie's coaching, not improved gear.


PAGE 2

Teaching the Bench Press


The first thing you have to wrap your head around is when you decide to bench, it's time to bench. No more texting, blabbing with your buddies, or checking out the gym receptionist's behind. It's on. No more fucking around.
Like the squat, rule number one for proper bench press technique is tightness.

• Pull yourself under the bar, shoulder blades off the bench.
• Press back against bench and pull your body up.
• Get your feet tucked under the bench. If they're wide, you won't be able to arch.
• Grab the bar with a wide grip.
• Pull the bar apart.
• Tuck the elbows.
• Keep the bar under the wrist at all times, whether thumb-less or a full grip. Keeping the wrist in line with the elbows is the most important point of all.
• Lower the bar down to the lats, not the pecs. Even if you're trying to hit the pecs like a bodybuilder, doing a high bar bench press is stupid. Use dumbbells to isolate the pecs if that's your goal.
• Push the bar straight up or slightly towards the rack. At the end of the day, even if you press straight vertical there's going to be a slight pattern towards the rack anyway.
• Lock out smooth and solid. Don't hyper-lock like a douchebag but get in the habit of finishing your reps.

For those with pec strain issues, how you warm up is critical.
Pre-Westside, I'd just find a bench with 135 and start loading. At Westside we took a much slower approach. We'd do five sets with just an empty bar, then five sets with 95 pounds, then five with 135, then 185, etc.
If I was having pec issues, by 135 pounds the pain would start to subside to a manageable level, and by 185 it would basically be gone. (Of course, we'd still scale back the heavy singles.) If warming-up this way wasn't effective, we'd simply repeat the process with a different exercise.
Dynamic days were also huge for technique reinforcement. Pre-Westside I had no idea what dynamic training even was; we'd just go balls out every bench session and strain. Louie's system had the Maximum Effort days for straining, but it was usually a variation of the bench press like the close grip incline or the floor press, never the actual bench press. The dynamic days on the other hand always used the bench press and were all about speed and reinforcing technique.
This is a lot to take in, so check out this video I did with T NATION a couple years ago. This is required viewing.

The Deadlift

Let me begin by saying that I hate the deadlift.
I don't know why, it just was never fun for me, even when I was young and healthy and putting up decent numbers. As I got increasingly beat up over the years I found deadlifting killed my pecs more than anything so my dislike grew to outright hate.
As for today, well, I never do it. I'd rather do three or four exercises that make up for the deadlift. That's right, I'd rather do quadruple the volume than do a single deadlift. How's that for hate?
The squat was my baby. It was a struggle at times, but I just loved the feeling of the heavy bar on my back. When you first walk out of the rack, all your senses seem to light up and your focus intensifies like a laser. The world closes in until it's just you and the weight. The pressure on your shoulders is incredible, like at any second you're simply going to crumple and get squashed, but then everything just clicks. Your legs and hips load like a spring and you blast the weight back up.
I loved the bench too, mainly because I was good at it – I benched 500 in high school – but the injuries I acquired from not really knowing how to bench eventually wore me out. By my last year at Westside I'd finally learned how to effectively train around them, but by then the damage was done. Cumulative injuries had gotten the best of me.
But I disliked deadlifting since day one and that never changed. Guys say all the time that it's the "king of exercises." I disagree. Some lifters are just built to deadlift and can pull a house simply due to favorable leverages.
Pre-Westside I pulled sumo or conventional, which as I got heavier changed to exclusively conventional. I tried a number of ways to get my deadlift stronger and nothing really worked. Every ten pounds was a motherfucker, and it only made me hate deadlifting that much more.
When I went to Westside, one of the first things Louie said was that they didn't deadlift, except in competitions. "Sweet," I thought, "I'm home!" Little did I know what I was about to embark on was much harder.
Louie explained that they used the Dynamic squat days plus glute ham raises, pull throughs, good mornings, and pin pulls to build the deadlift, plus plenty of heavy abs.
I liked what I was hearing but was also skeptical. To me it sounded like a bunch of bullshit exercises cooked up by fat guys who also hated deadlifting as much as I did.
Again, I was wrong, and within just a few months I pulled a competition PR of 720 pounds. A few years later I pulled 740 and 775 to lockout only to lose my grip before the down signal. I point this out because it's funny for me to think back on. My deadlift always sucked and I hated it. Then one day it came together and I almost pulled a decent number but lost it at the last possible moment.
After the meet I expressed my frustration to Louie, complaining that I'd never had a grip issue in my life and why out of all the times to have one did it have to be now?
Without skipping a beat, Louie said my deadlift wasn't strong enough to have a grip issue until I tried that number.
Towards the end of my time at Westside we started doing speed deadlifts on Dynamic day to reinforce technique, usually 5-8 singles at 50%. I also know they do even more deadlifting today at Westside, but Louie's overall system remains the same – to build a competition max deadlift, find a way to build the lift – not train it.

Teaching the Deadlift

Before Westside I kept it real simple. I bent down and grabbed the bar and picked it up. All I did was keep my shins against the bar and make sure I scraped them as I pulled up "through" my head. That was about it.
When I teach deadlifting today, I find it most effective to take a lifter's natural pull and modify it as little as possible.

• A deadlift is like a teeter totter, and the goal is to get the weight moving backward, not upward, by getting your body moving backward, which will pull the barbell with it. The end product should look like a door hinge.
• If you're a conventional deadlifter, then you should line the bar up with the top of your quads.
• As for sumo, a perfect sumo deadlift should look like a leg press. The upper body shouldn't move very much. Position the shins against the bar, push the knees out, and drop the nutsack down against the bar. Get tight and keep the back arched, stomach tight. Flex the abs and pull up.

The key to sumo is to remember that the closer you keep your center of gravity to the bar the stronger you'll be. It's funny, people bitch about sumo saying that it's "cheating," but at the end of day, very few pull over 900 pounds sumo, and many more pull over 900 conventional. So if it's cheating, where's the advantage?
You probably need a video? Greedy bastards. Here you go. This is easier to do in video anyhow.

Do Things Different?


Rounding up this technical installment, you're probably wondering what I might do differently if I had the chance to repeat this phase?
The answer is absolutely nothing. Louie Simmons knows powerlifting technique better than anyone else on the planet, and his tips literally resurrected my career. And his squat, the box squat, is the best squat, period.
This brings me back to the beginning, to the guys who chirp that technique isn't that big a deal. They don't get it.
Technique is the catalyst behind all strength training, and when it's dialed in can determine exactly where your training emphasis should be.
If you go for physical therapy you always get an assessment. In powerlifting, technique is your assessment. You squat and your knees come in, and you know what you have to work on. Same thing if you bench and your elbows move or your chest falls when you squat. Every rep is essentially an assessment.
The beauty of training at Westside under Louie was that we'd seen everything a thousand times before, there was nothing new. So that bench with the elbows moving would get diagnosed instantly. "Dude, you need face pulls and band pull aparts." Six weeks later their elbows would be rock solid.
That's the stuff you don't learn at meets. Meets are the reward, the fun part of all this. Learning happens in the gym, busting your ass in front of quality lifters and an expert coach.
So I'd change nothing. Louie was, and is, that good. Because for the most part, guys who rip their pecs off the bone and undergo multiple shoulder surgeries don't end up coming back and benching a 90-pound PR. It doesn't happen. And if I'd stayed with my old pre-Westside technique, it never would've happened.
So that's the technical aspect, and why I consider it to be the most important component of powerlifting. Next up is the physical aspect of training at Westside.
Have any questions about technique? First, watch the videos, you lazy bastards. Your question is probably answered there. If not, hop on the LiveSpill. I'd be more than willing to take a look at your technique if you have videos you'd like to post up. I may not have the time to check them all out but will do as many as I can.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Until next time.

Westside Barbell, Physical

by Dave Tate – 10/03/2011 Next Page | Pages 1 2 3


In the last installment in this series, I described the technical aspect of training the Westside way. As I stated, I believe that technique is 70% of the powerlifting game, so if you skipped over it to get to this section, I suggest you review it.
Note: I can only discuss what was going on at Westside when I was there. I can't tell you what's going on at Westside today. There are only a handful of people who can, and those people train at Westside Barbell. Anyone else is bullshitting you.
So here it is, the vaunted Westside template – Maximum Effort Method, Dynamic Effort, and the Repetition Method. I've covered this material before, but nowhere has it been covered better than in the 8 Keys article published here.
You'll notice that the 8 Keys article is very technical. Today, the trend in strength is to make things simpler, and that's a good thing.
However, once you reach an intermediate level of expertise in strength, simple quits working. Progress slows to a snail's pace. Gains that once came quickly are suddenly painfully hard to come by. This is where adversity, usually in the form of injuries, starts to set in.
Here's a sobering statistic: 90% of powerlifters who take up the sport don't last more than five years.
They have passion and make great progress out the gate, but once simple stops delivering and the going gets tough, they bail. Only a very small percentage of lifters have the desire to do the necessary work to progress. The 8 Keys targeted that small percentage.
The body requires change to continue adapting. The simple approach quits working because it's too fixed, too predictable. What most lifters do the first time they stall is start program jumping like frogs on lily-pads.
However, program bouncing never works for long because there's no magic training program. After a few frustrating years of trial and error, these guys eventually burn out or get injured, and quit.
The essence of Westside is that it's more than just a program. It's a philosophy based on science and decades of experience.
Programs are fixed and don't take into account that each lifter has different needs. Westside is designed to let you detect what the lifter's needs may be and make changes on the fly.
For example, if someone is using Westside and they complain that their bench isn't going up, I can go through a checklist:

• Is their technique good? Check.
• Are their supplemental exercises well selected? Check.
• Speed work? Check.

Suppose I get to the bottom of the list and see that their Max Effort work isn't up to par. I immediately know where to start targeting.
Program jumpers never get to that level of mastery. Something goes wrong and they dump the whole frickin' program.
We all know strength comes in spurts. When it does, it's not because you magically put on some new muscle or experienced a hormonal explosion. It's because you rectified a weak point. This is the beauty of Westside – it's a system designed to identify and rectify weak points in the quickest way possible.

Periodization Reloaded

Basic Western periodization is set up so that you're working on specific strength qualities at different times.
For example, a typical periodization might look like this. I did this for years before moving to Westside:
1) Conditioning: 4-6 weeks
2) Max strength: 4-6 weeks
3) Peak strength: 4 weeks
4) Hypertrophy: 8 weeks
With Westside, you work on a number of strength qualities simultaneously. And despite what you've read or experienced about the dangers of trying to accomplish too many goals at once, Westside works.

The System


Louie Simmons has been able to take absolute shit lifters and using Westside, transform them into world champions. I've seen it done many times over.
To be fair, his success has just as much to do with his abilities as a coach as it does his system, but there's no denying the Westside template is the most successful strength building system in existence.
The key is taking the time to understand Westside. The plug and play "just gimme the magic program" types rarely have the same success, unless they're robots being coached by a savant like Louie.
With Westside, in any given week you target strength, conditioning, hypertrophy, and speed – all while targeting your weak points, yet not at the expense of the big lifts.
It took me years of self-study – NSCA journals, Russian and Eastern bloc literature, Spassov, Zatsiorsky, and hundreds others – to get to a level that I could comfortably explain Westside to others.
To this day I marvel at how Louie was able to piece it all together into a cohesive system that not only had structure, yet was flexible enough to allow the lifter to change things as necessary. I've said it before but it bears repeating – Louie Simmons is a genius.

The Maximum Effort Method


At the heart of Westside is the Maximum Effort Method (ME). ME is lifting in the 90%+ of 1RM for 1-3 reps, which science tells us is the superior way to develop strength while teaching intra and inter-muscular coordination. I like to say ME teaches you to strain.
ME is also a form of "chaos training." The variations of the competitive lifts used teach your body how to recover from worst-case scenarios.
For example, performing a ME good morning is a lot like falling forward in a heavy squat. If you train your posterior chain to handle heavy weights in that position, it might save a squat gone bad in a meet.
Before you start stacking on the plates, technique and core strength must be developed and maintained before taking a run at ME training.
It also never fails to surprise new lifters how much ab and low back work we did at Westside. I would estimate that 50-60% of Monday and Friday's workout were abs and low back.
Lifters often think they can skip or cut back on the core work once they get strong. Big mistake. In my opinion, it's more important to train abs and low back in the Westside program than in a typical progressive overload program.
In a Western periodization program, you typically squat twice a week, which helps develop a strong core. Since squats are rotated in and out in Westside, additional core training is required.
And it's a priority. If we competed on Sunday, we may not squat or deadlift heavy the following Monday. But we would definitely train abs and low back.

ME Memories

I've many Max Effort memories, most of which revolve around me getting the shit knocked out of me because I was always so bad at ME work.
One of the better memories was when we were performing suspended good mornings with a cambered bar. The bar is suspended by chains, and is set so if you dropped your arms to the floor, your hands would be at the same level as where the deadlift bar would be off the floor.
It's an absolutely life-sucking exercise and I was miserable at doing them. I think my PR was something shitty like 455. The other guys I lifted with would warm up with that weight. One day I actually did hit 495, and here's how:
There were six or seven of us doing them that day and I was sitting next to Rob Fusner. I had gotten up to 405 and it felt like crap. I was not having a good day.
After 405 pounds, I sat down and Rob said, "Man, that looked like shit." I didn't argue because I knew it was true. I just wanted to leave.
"So what's next Dave? 455?" asked Rob.
I gave him the best "go fuck yourself" look I could muster.
"Dude, 455 is my PR," I said. "You expect me to hit my PR on a day where I feel like shit?"
"So, you're not even going to try?" asked Rob. "What are you, a pussy?"
I could feel him getting into my head, but I was having nothing to do with it.
"Maybe I'll try 425," I said cautiously.
Rob gave me a real condescending look and said, "Dave, you've got 400 pounds on a bar and you're going to put a couple of fucking dimes on there?"
He got me.
"You're right," I said. I called for 455.
After four unsuccessful tries getting it started, it finally moved, and after what seemed like an hour later, I finally locked it out. When it was over I was seeing stars and my ribs were killing me.
I stumbled down beside Rob and he said, "Dude, that was really stupid."
I could barely speak, but mumbled my agreement.
"I think you got another 20 more pounds in you," said Rob.
Motherfucker.
I was beyond done for the day, but by saying that, he started a little war inside my head. On my right shoulder was the angel, saying I was already a mess and 20 more pounds would probably kill me – but on my left was the devil, saying I should just go for it. In my case, the devil usually won out.
The next thing I knew they had 475 pounds loaded for me on the bar. I figured since it's already loaded, I really didn't have much choice in the matter.
After what must have been an hour of me straining to even get the weight moving, I somehow managed to get it up to lockout before collapsing into the chains.
I was a mess. My back was screaming, and there was blood coming out of my nose. The whole gym looked out of focus as I stumbled down next to Rob on the bench.
"Dude," Rob said, "that was really, really, fucking stupid. I think you got 20 more."
That's max effort work. You have a close to PR set, a PR set, a stupid set, and a really fucking stupid set.

Max Effort Notes

Beginners should rarely rotate ME lifts, if ever. They need to master the lifts first. Intermediate guys should rotate lifts every 2-3 weeks, and advanced guys should rotate every week.
We used over 200 different lifts, as the goal of ME is to build strength in the lifts that best carry over to the main lifts. This can greatly vary between lifters, so you have to stick with them long enough to spot the correlations.
For example, my two-board press was an awesome indicator of my bench press progress. Every time my two-board went up, I knew my bench was going up. Conversely, my suspended good morning told me jack shit about my squat or pull. All it did was teach me how to strain.
The point is, it took me years to figure that out, but today beginners will try something for a week or two and decide that it's shit and does nothing for them. As a result, they never figure out what works for them.
Weight jumps must be slow. With ME training, I suggest you double your warm-up sets. This not only increases muscle-building volume, but by approaching the heavy weight slowly you can call an audible if necessary.
If it's one of those days and you just know that a PR isn't in the cards, make the change and go for a 3, 4, or 5 rep PR.
Smart lifters know when to push it and when to fight another day. Considering instances like my suspended good morning fiasco happened more times than I can count, I wasn't always a smart lifter. And I paid for it dearly.


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The Dynamic Effort Method


Before I explain the much-confused Dynamic Effort (DE), I need to make a point about strong lifters versus fast lifters.
Strong lifters move 800 pounds as fast as they move 315 pounds. They're like human cranes. Explosive lifters, on the other hand, push the bar up like a rocket, but they don't have the same limit-strength potential.
Most lifters are usually predominantly one or the other. Very rarely is a lifter both strong and fast, especially without spending considerable time training both qualities directly.
If you're not training both qualities, you're either not training your strength to its full potential or you're avoiding training your weakness.
Most guys who shit on DE training are already very explosive to begin with, so all training DE does is maintain that quality. That's not a bad a thing either, as explosiveness decreases with age.
However, a super-strong/non-explosive guy will reap huge benefits from including a little DE work. Often it can add hundreds of pounds to an otherwise "stuck" PR.
I was very explosive, but not very strong. I sucked at ME work, but I rocked at DE, and loved doing it.
I particularly loved the DE squat day. Those were my best days training at Westside. Back then, that day called for 12 sets of 2 with 60 seconds rest, and I'd often use my inherent explosiveness to try to crush whomever I was training with.
On one occasion it was Chuck Vogelpohl. We were using 405, and I was big and fat and strong and Chuck – who is normally not human – was just coming off of back surgery and not at his best.
While in another gym this would be a time to take it easy on a friend, I saw this as my opportunity to finally kick Chuck's ass and pay him back for all the ass beatings he'd given me.
I started pushing the pace. I'd hit my set as soon as the bar was on my back, cutting the rest to under 45 seconds. Chuck kept up.
10 sets turned to 12, and then 15. We kept going.
Louie saw what was going on and said something like, "Guys, is this really necessary?" but we ignored him. This was all about saying fuck you, Chuck.
After 30 sets I was ready to die. I could tell Chuck was fading. With his past few sets the bar speed got slower so I figured he was getting worn out.
I did another set and felt the puke building up in my gut.
Chuck stumbled under the bar, unracked it and sat down on the box. Then he looked back at me and said, "Alright motherfucker, here you go."
With that, he rocketed off the box so fast, 405 left his shoulders by about two inches.
I knew the game was over. Chuck won. And to rub it in, he did five more sets like that last one.

Dynamic Effort Notes

I consider DE to be the most important element of Westside training. I would skip ME work before DE any day of the week, and not just because I happened to be an explosive individual. I like DE because training this way makes you a better lifter. It teaches you to drive into and through a weight with everything you have.
Let's face it, a max lift can be ugly. Really ugly. Technique often flies out the window when you're hopped up on ammonia with a grand on your back.
DE on the other hand, is all about reinforcing technique. Doing many, many sets of two or three reps is the most effective way to teach a skill, whether it's a squat, a snatch, or throwing a shot put. What you're really doing by performing 8 sets of 2 or 3 is mentally rehearsing perfect form.
Look at it this way. Let's say you were to do 3 heavy sets of 10. If the percent is high enough, your form will break down after 2-3 reps – so a mere 30% of the set was working on the technical skill of the lift. So in this 3-set session there might 9 reps total that help develop technical mastery.
Now if you were to do 10 sets of 3, 100% of the reps would be working on technical mastery. Which do you think reinforces technique better?
In short, skip DE at your own peril!

• A beginner should use 70% of their 1RM, whereas a more experienced (raw) lifter should go with 50 or 60%. The reason is that most beginners simply don't know how strong they really are, so percentages become almost worthless. Use them more as a starting point.
• Intermediates should wave their DE percentages. I would start at 60% of raw squat for one week, and bookend that with weeks at 55% and 65%.
• The weight should pop. Watch the video below to make sure you know what I'm talking about. DE is fast, explosive work. The typical gym rat has probably never trained this way, at least not with weights.

• Bands and chains are great additions, and in some cases necessary, although this is an article in itself.
• Finally, don't discount the power of DE work. I took a natural raw lifter from a 275-pound squat to 505 in just three months by working on tapping his explosiveness and reinforcing proper technique. For most of you, there's a sea of untapped potential waiting.

The Repetition Method

Research tells us that training a muscle with multiple repetitions to failure is an effective hypertrophy protocol. A modified repetition method should stop just short of failure – usually one rep in the hole – although in my case this line was blurred on many occasions.
This method was used on supplemental lifts only. Let's review what these moves are intended to accomplish.
Supplemental exercises are exercises that build the ME lifts. Remember, you can either train a lift or build a lift. Bench pressing to increase the bench is training the lift. Performing ME two-board presses to increase the bench is building the lift.
Therefore, supplemental work is performing rolling triceps extensions to build your two-board press, cause you know when that lift goes up, your bench press goes up.
See the correlation? Find what max effort movements build the main lift and then select special exercises that will make these movements better.
This is worth repeating: If all you had to do was bench press to get a big bench, then everyone who benched would have a big bench. You have to find movements that correlate and carry over to the bench that can be tested frequently to know if you're making progress. Once these are discovered, your supplemental work needs to be designed to make those movements stronger.

Repetition Method Notes

• I suggest experimenting and trying new lifts, but always try to stick with the same ones for at least 3-4 weeks to look for correlations and to minimize guess work.
• Avoid going to failure, and keep the reps on the high side. Remember why you're doing the lifts to begin with (building the ME lift).
• Include accessory work as well, such as rotator cuff work, reverse hypers, and high-rep pressdowns for elbow health. I used to always skip this stuff and I paid for it.

The Rest: GPP, Work Capacity, and Conditioning

To get the most out of this kind of training you have to be in shape. The fat powerlifter isn't on the verge of extinction, but every fat guy will tell you they feel better when they're in shape.
I used to do a variety of sled drags on my days off for recovery. I'd drag forwards, backwards, and do ankle-drags. I'd throw in some prone hyperextensions and be done in half an hour.
This was something I'd skip when life got busy, but I always performed and felt better when I made the time to do it. I suggest you do the same.

What Would I Change About My Training at Westside?

The nature of Louie's system is that it's constantly evolving, constantly adapting. That's why when I look back at the things I'd change, most of them already have changed!
I'd have put more thought into choosing the supplemental lifts. Each week we usually did the same thing, namely exercises we enjoyed doing. In hindsight, I think putting a little more thought into what we did would've been beneficial.
Staying on the topic of supplemental lifts, I would've played with the loading parameters more. Instead of just doing straight sets and reps, I would've experimented with things like clusters, supersets, pre-exhaustion, and sets to failure. We did do some of this but nothing to its full potential.
I would've listened to Louie and backed off more. Zippy might have been my best friend on ME day, but he eventually caught up with me and wrecked my career.
I caused the most damage by training through all the injuries. It wasn't uncommon for me to tear a muscle and never miss a workout. I'd find a way to dull the pain, wrap it up, tape it, etc. This would've been understandable 3-4 weeks out [from a meet] but not 4 months out.
But to me, 20 weeks out was the same as 4. Big mistake.
I would've done more shoulder rehab and pre-hab work, and a lot more stretching. I wouldn't do 30 minutes of bullshit dynamic warm-up that you see these Yodas doing nowadays, but I would've done a few specific drills to get me ready to lift safely. I'll be covering this in detail in the next installment. Could rattle a few cages. Stay tuned.
I would've used less wraps and gear. You shouldn't look like an extra from the cast of The Road Warrior in the gym.
I'm NOT saying I would've competed raw, although most of our training was done raw – the only time we wore our full gear was at meets.
What I'm talking about is wrapping my groin with knee wraps because of a groin pull, duct taping my ribs because of a torn intercostal, etc. Not smart.
Six weeks post meet, I wouldn't have done a thing with a straight barbell in my hand or on my back. That means I would've done things like yoke bar squats, belt squats, and lots of dumbbell work at a lower intensity. You can't make progress in the gym if you're lying? on a physiotherapist's table. Lesson learned.
I would've eaten better. Actually no, I wouldn't have.
Much has been made about all the crap I used to eat, and I'm not denying a thing. I did eat that way and it really was that bad. I had and still have a junk food addiction.
But it was also determined that 308 pounds was the best weight for me to be competitive. I had to eat a lot to get and stay there. Chicken, yams, and broccoli would've been smarter, but I needed 7000 calories a day to make that weight. There's no way I'd get to 280, much less 310, eating that way.
Possibly, I would've used Flameout™ for the blood lipid benefits, and likely GPC Fast-Acting Shot on explosive training days. After that it's a short list. I doubt I'd even have taken a multivitamin cause even PopTarts are vitamin-fortified.
I'd have been more consistent with my conditioning. Sled dragging is simply unbeatable at improving work capacity. My meets always sucked whenever I'd decided that I didn't need or didn't have time to do it.
Ideally, I would've performed at least two conditioning sessions a week and performed two additional ab/low back work on days off. In hindsight, what I did in the gym simply wasn't enough.


PAGE 3



Putting it All Together: A Sample 9 Week Westside Workout


For those of you who are dying to jump into this system, I've put together a sample 9-week program.
Please, before you start snorting ammonia and tossing chalk and slapping your buddy, please review the previous two sections (mental and technical) carefully. If you don't respect Westside, it'll crush you. Actually, it will probably crush you regardless, but at least this way you know what you were getting yourself into.
Week 1


Day 1 (max effort squat day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Good Mornings* B Glute-Ham Raises** 3 10 C Reverse Hypers*** 3 8 D Pulldown Abs 5 10-15 E Straight Leg Raises 5 15 * Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer perform three reps.
** Stress the eccentric, try to get a four count on the way down.
*** Using the small strap.
Day 2 (max effort bench day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Board Press* B Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions 6 10** C Pushdowns 3 10 D One-Arm Press 3 15 * Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer perform three reps.
** With 30 seconds rest.
Day 3 (dynamic effort squat day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Box Squats* 10 2 B Reverse Hypers** 3 8 C One-Leg Squats 4 10*** D Paused Dumbbell Rows 4 6**** E Barbell Shrugs 3 15 * With 50% of 1RM, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets.
** Using a slow eccentric.
*** Each leg.
**** Pause each rep on the floor.

Day 4 (dynamic effort bench day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Bench Press* 10 3 B Lying Barbell Triceps Extensions** 2 6 C Dumbbell Side Raises 3 10 D Bent Over Dumbbell Side Raises 3 10 * With 60% of 1RM, use three different grips, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets.
** Work up to 2 heavy sets of 6 reps.
Week 2


Day 1 (max effort squat day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Good Mornings* B Glute-Ham Raises** 3 8 C Reverse Hypers 3 8 D Pulldown Abs 5 10-15 E Straight Leg Raises 3 20 * Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer perform three reps. Your last set should exceed the weight you did last week.
** Stress the eccentric, try to get a four count on the way down.
Day 2 (max effort bench day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Board Press* B Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions 6 10** C Pushdowns 3 10 D One-Arm Press 3 15 * Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer perform three reps. At this point drop the reps to one and continue working up to a one-rep max.
** With 30 seconds rest.
Day 3 (dynamic effort squat day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Box Squats* 10 2 B Reverse Hypers 3 8 C One-Leg Squats 4 10** D Paused Dumbbell Rows 4 6*** E Barbell Shrugs 3 15 * With 54% of 1RM, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets.
** Each leg.
*** Pause each rep on the floor.
Day 4 (dynamic effort bench day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Bench Press* 10 3 B Lying Barbell Triceps Extensions** 2 6 C Dumbbell Side Raises 3 10 D Bent Over Dumbbell Side Raises 3 10 * With 60% of 1RM, use three different grips, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets.
** Work up to 2 heavy sets of 6 reps.
Week 3


Day 1 (max effort squat day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Good Mornings* B Glute-Ham Raises 3 8 C Reverse Hypers 3 8 D Pulldown Abs 5 10-15 E Straight Leg Raises 3 20 * Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer perform three reps. At this point drop the reps to one and continue working up to a one-rep max.
Day 2 (max effort bench day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Board Press* B Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions 6 10** C Pushdowns 3 10 D One-Arm Press 3 15 * Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer perform three reps. At this point drop the reps to one and continue working up to a one-rep max.
** With 30 seconds rest.
Day 3 (dynamic effort squat day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Box Squats* 10 2 B Reverse Hypers 3 8 C One-Leg Squats 4 10** D Paused Dumbbell Rows 4 6*** E Barbell Shrugs 3 15 * With 56% of 1RM, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets.
** Each leg.
*** Pause each rep on the floor.
Day 4 (dynamic effort bench day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Bench Press* 10 3 B Dumbbell Side Raises 3 10 C Bent Over Dumbbell Side Raises 3 10 * With 60% of 1RM, use three different grips, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets.
Week 4



Day 1 (max effort squat day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Low Box Squat* B Glute-Ham Raises 5 5 C Partial Deadlifts 3 20 D Reverse Hypers 3 8 E Pulldown Abs 5 10-15 * Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer perform three reps. At this point drop the reps to one and continue working up to a one-rep max.
Day 2 (max effort bench day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Floor Press* B JM Press** 2 5 C Incline Dumbbell Press 2 10 D Seated Dumbbell Cleans 4 8 E Straight Leg Raises 5 15 * Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer perform three reps. At this point drop the reps to one and continue working up to a one-rep max.
** Work up to 2 sets of 5 reps.
Day 3 (dynamic effort squat day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Box Squats* 10 2 B Reverse Hypers 5 8 C Chest Supported Rows 4 8 D Glute Ham Raises 3 6 E Pulldown Abs 5 10 * With 60% of 1RM, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets. Note: After your sets of box squats, work up to a heavy double. This isn't a maximum attempt so don't miss the lifts.
Day 4 (dynamic effort bench day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Bench Press* 10 3 B Close Grip Bench Press** 2 5 C One Arm Dumbbell Extensions 3 10 D Front Plate Raises 3 10 * With 60% of 1RM, use three different grips, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets.
** Work up to 2 sets of 5 reps.
Week 5


Day 1 (max effort squat day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Low Box Squat* B Glute-Ham Raises 5 5 C Partial Deadlifts 3 20 D Reverse Hypers** 3 8 E Pulldown Abs 5 10-15 * Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer perform three reps. At this point drop the reps to one and continue working up to a one-rep max.
** Using the small strap.
Day 2 (max effort bench day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Floor Press* B JM Press** 2 3 C Incline Dumbbell Press 2 10 D Seated Dumbbell Cleans 4 8 E Straight Leg Raises 5 15 * Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer perform three reps. At this point drop the reps to one and continue working up to a one-rep max.
** Work up to 2 sets of 3 reps.
Day 3 (dynamic effort squat day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Box Squats* 10 2 B Speed Deadlifts** 8 2 C Reverse Hypers 5 8 D Chest Supported Rows 4 8 E Glute Ham Raises 3 6 F Pulldown Abs 5 10 * With 50% of 1RM, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets.
** With 50%.
Day 4 (dynamic effort bench day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Bench Press* 10 3 B Close Grip Bench Press** 2 3 C Front Plate Raises 3 10 * With 60% of 1RM, use three different grips, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets. Note: After your sets, work up to a heavy single. This isn't a maximum attempt so don't miss the lift.
** Work up to 2 sets of 3 reps.
Week 6


Day 1 (max effort squat day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Low Box Squat* B Glute-Ham Raises 5 5 C Partial Deadlifts 3 20 D Reverse Hypers** 3 8 E Pulldown Abs 5 10-15 * Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer perform three reps. At this point drop the reps to one and continue working up to a one-rep max.
** Using the small strap.
Day 2 (max effort bench day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Floor Press* B Incline Dumbbell Press 2 10 C Seated Dumbbell Cleans 4 8 D Straight Leg Raises 5 15 * Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer perform three reps. At this point drop the reps to one and continue working up to a one-rep max.
Day 3 (dynamic effort squat day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Box Squats* 10 2 B Speed Deadlifts** 8 2 C Reverse Hypers 5 8 D Chest Supported Rows 4 8 * With 52% of 1RM, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets.
** With 55%.
Day 4 (dynamic effort bench day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Bench Press* 10 3 B Close Grip Bench Press** 2 3 C One Arm Dumbbell Extensions 3 10 D Front Plate Raises 3 10 * With 60% of 1RM, use three different grips, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets.
** Work up to 2 sets of 3 reps.
Week 7


Day 1 (max effort squat day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Good Morning Squats* B Glute-Ham Raises 5 5 C Reverse Hypers** 3 8 D Pulldown Abs 5 10-15 * Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer perform three reps. At this point drop the reps to one and continue working up to a one-rep max.
** Using the small strap.
Day 2 (max effort bench day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Flat Dumbbell Press 3 20* B Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press 5 10 C Face Pulls 5 15 * Average rest period = 5 minutes.
Day 3 (dynamic effort squat day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Box Squats* 10 2 B Reverse Hypers 4 8 C Pulldowns 3 8 D Glute Ham Raises 4 15 * With 54% of 1RM, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets. Note: After your sets, work up to a heavy double. Again, this isn't a maximum lift so don't miss the attempts.
Day 4 (dynamic effort bench day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Bench Press* 10 3 B Dumbbell Triceps Extensions 4 6 C Front/Side/Rear Delt Combo Raise 2 60** D Pulldown Abs 5 10 * With 60% of 1RM, use three different grips, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets. Note: After your sets, work up to a heavy double. Again, this isn't a maximum lift so don't miss the attempts.
** 20 each raise.
Week 8


Day 1 (max effort squat day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Good Morning Squats* B Glute-Ham Raises 5 5 C Reverse Hypers** 3 8 D Pulldown Abs 5 10-15 * Warm up doing sets of three reps until you feel you can no longer perform three reps. At this point drop the reps to one and continue working up to a one-rep max.
** Using the small strap.
Day 2 (max effort bench day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Flat Dumbbell Press 3 20* B Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press 5 10 C Face Pulls 5 15 * Average rest period = 5 minutes.
Day 3 (dynamic effort squat day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Box Squats* 10 2 B Speed Pulls** 8 1 C Reverse Hypers 4 8 D Pulldowns 3 8 E Glute Ham Raises 4 15 * With 62% of 1RM, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets.
** With 60%.
Day 4 (dynamic effort bench day)

Exercise Sets Reps A Bench Press* 10 3 B Dumbbell Triceps Extensions 4 6 C Reverse Grip Pushdowns 3 15 D Front/Side/Rear Delt Combo Raise 2 60** E Pulldown Abs 5 10 * With 60% of 1RM, use three different grips, 45 to 60 seconds rest between sets.
** 20 each raise.
Week 9


Max day near end of week

Box Squat: work up to a 1-rep max
Bench Press: work up to a 1-rep max
Deadlift: work up to a 1-rep max
Note: These maxes will be used as the 1RM for the next eight-week cycle.

The Westside Wrap-up


This article is already a bloated mess and I'm afraid it barely scratches the surface of my training at Westside.
If there's anything you'd like me to revisit, please post your questions/requests in the LiveSpill and I'll expand on it further after this series has wrapped up.
In the next installment, I'll discuss my retirement from competitive powerlifting and the long road back to health.
The nutritional side of that phase has been covered extensively, but what hasn't been covered is the hell I went through in the gym just getting my "functionality" back.
This will be more exciting than it sounds, and dare I say controversial. Pretty much everything I was told that would work for joint health, mobility, and nutrition didn't work.
There was a lot of stumbling around until things began to get better and become more dialed in.
Editors' Note: As we tried to pull Dave's thoughts into (hopefully) one cohesive article, we relied heavily on a fantastic eBook Dave wrote called "The Vault".
"The Vault" is filled with great info and anecdotes, not to mention everything you need to set up and troubleshoot your own program.
If you're already a serious powerlifter or just interested in getting stronger, "The Vault" will answer questions you haven't even thought of yet.
Best of all, it's free.
To get your copy, just head to www.elitefts.com and sign up for the Strength Club. Dave will send you a link to download your free copy.

Retirement and a New Journey

by Dave Tate – 12/12/2011 Next Page | Pages 1 2


In the last installment in this series, I wrapped up the time I spent training at Westside Barbell under strength coach/genius Louie Simmons. Although all good things must end, I'm very proud of what I accomplished there both as a lifter and as part of the Westside team.
I speak so highly of Louie that people often ask why I ever left Westside. They assume it's because I developed something "better" or that I wanted to put my own "stamp" on Louie's training.
Other stories include us having a massive argument and Louie kicking me out of his gym, even a supposed fistfight. I'm waiting for the version where we're duking it out in a windy elevator shaft and he cuts my hand off before telling me that he's my father.
The truth is, I left because I was done.

2003

It was 2003, and I'd been powerlifting for 20 straight years. I was beat to hell. Although most of my injuries occurred before I set foot in Westside, the writing was already on the wall – and regularly putting 800 pounds on my back certainly wasn't helping things.
I'm going to switch gears for a moment to call some of you young guys out. I hear constantly from powerlifters claiming their bodies are "trashed" or their backs are "fucked" – and when I ask for more details, it's often stuff that any lifter at Westside trains with every day.
Some of you guys need a serious reality check. Here's what I was like in 2003.

• Groin: I injured my groin on both sides. It sucked, but I just wrapped it up and dealt with it.
• Abdominals: I tore my lower abdominal muscles while squatting. It was perhaps the most painful injury I'd ever had. I also strained both intercostals, twice.
• Spine: The following discs are herniated: L4, L5, C4, C5.
• Calves: Both torn. Huge indents in each. Looks freaky though.
• Knees: Strained the right ACL at least three times, probably more.
• Hamstrings: The right's a mess. Tore it so bad it almost needed surgery.
• Quads: Pulled the right quad in the early 90's. It was so bad it turned my entire leg black.
• Pecs: I've torn both sides at least 20 times, and each tear caused the entire pec to turn black and blue. I also tore the left pec at the tendon and needed surgery to fix it, and tore the right pec in half but opted to skip the surgery.
• Shoulders: In the right shoulder I had a torn supraspinatus, bone spurs, and now, arthritis. I had this shoulder cleaned up with the AC shaved down to allow more movement but to no avail. A total replacement is the only option left and this was another big reason for my retirement.

Working around or through the other injuries was a pain in the ass, but at least it was doable. Total replacement of my shoulder was certainly an option, but their longevity is based on usage and time. Considering I was at Westside, I knew I'd likely need a new one within 2-3 years – if it lasted that long.
Granted, there were guys who were way more beat up than me who were still lifting and going for it, but by '03 I'd crossed "the line."

The Want It Line

To be a successful powerlifter, you have to be fearless and want it more than anything else. You can never be scared to lift a weight. One of three things will happen: you get the lift, you miss the lift, or you get hurt. I'd accepted that years ago and it served me well, but obviously broke me down.
Suddenly other priorities, namely work and family, were becoming more important. And I was beat to shit and needed a new shoulder. It was draining the want out of me.
When I started asking the surgeons, "Do we really need to do this now?" instead of, "How long will this take to get back?" I knew for sure I was done.

Not "That" Guy

I also left Westside because I wasn't ready to start coaching others. Not because I don't love coaching – I do – and some questioned why I didn't stick around and assume a mentoring role.
It was too soon for me. I was still a lifter, not a coach. Even today, I'm still a lifter first – sure, I'll help others, but it has to be on my terms. If they ask for a program, then they better do what I write or I'm done with them. If they ask for advice and then question it, I won't offer advice again.
(To this day I'm amazed how after being in this sport for close to 30 years that someone with one year of "internet research" will ask a question only to refute whatever answer I give. If they knew better then why the fuck did they ask? To waste my time?)
I was also starting a new business. Training with the morning crew meant I wasn't showing up to work until 1 PM – meaning that I was a part-time employee at my own business. My apologies to the 4 Hour Workweek crowd, but anyone who's ever started up their own company knows that it takes a hell of a lot more time than that.
Still, the biggest reason was I didn't want to be "that guy." Hanging around and offering wisdom and encouragement and maybe jumping in for the odd workout might've been fun, but it would've also reminded the young guys of what they could become. I would've been a liability, not an asset.
Remember, Westside Barbell isn't a "gym," but a team of lifters striving to be the best of the best. When you're no longer capable or don't have the will to be that anymore, it's time to leave to make room for the next generation to kick the shit out of your lifts and records.
It was my time and I have no regrets. My decision is reaffirmed every time I see another Westside lifter break a world record.

Training The Jersey Shore Way


So now I'm training at my own gym at EliteFTS. It's well equipped of course, and I'm doing what I can, but everything still hurts. My shoulders are like a bad joke, and now even my feet hurt. I have no idea why.
It was around that time that I'd arranged a meeting with some popular strength coaches and facility owners to discuss their equipment needs. The arrangement was to meet in New Jersey, on the Jersey Shore, and on the guest list was Joe DeFranco, Alwyn Cosgrove, Jason Ferruggia, and Jim Wendler.
I'm not even sure where to begin with this one. I've been to many beaches and beach houses so I assumed this place would be no different. Man, was I wrong.
The first night we walked down the street to some club and the place was packed full of Under Armor wearing guys with gold chains, big arms, and ILS (imaginary lat syndrome). And I'm not talking about just a few guys – it was almost everyone.
After spending 40 minutes making our way to the back porch of the club, I told the guys that we needed to get the fuck out of there – but there was no way I was going to fight that crowd again for another 40 minutes to get to the front door.
We spotted a back way out and made our way over, until some ILS Guido bouncer sporting the biggest gold chain I'd ever seen stopped us. It looked like something you'd attach to a barbell and do pulls with.
He said we weren't allowed to walk down the seven steps out to the beach that would take us back to the street. Being a former bouncer, I tried to play this off polite and cool and was even making progress until one of the guys said he was going to back kick the fucker in the head.
At this point I figured we'd end up in a fight and get tossed in jail, or at the very least I'd wind up pulling something or screwing up my shoulder even worse.
We decided to walk back to the front door, only this time it didn't take as long as we wound up getting an escort by Gold Chain Guido the Bouncer. I still have no idea why he didn't escort us out the short, seven-step back way. It would've taken a fraction of the time.
After we got out, I suddenly realized that Wendler was nowhere to be found. I know Jim well, too well, and there was no way in hell he was still in there. If he was and we weren't with him, there was likely going to be a way bigger problem than just me pulling something. I called him on the cellphone to see where he was.
"Dude," he said, "I looked in the front door, turned around, got some ice cream and went back to the house. I'm lying on the couch. What are you guys doing?" Ten minutes later we were there with him.

The Braveheart Assessment


After the next day's meeting, we left the condo to grab dinner. Walking down the steps to the restaurant, everybody zips by me while I do my usual stair routine: Left foot to step. Right foot meets left. Left foot to next step. Right foot meets left. I don't alternate steps like a normal human because my body doesn't work that way anymore.
Cosgrove sees me in action and can't believe it. "Dave, what the hell is the matter with you?" he yells in that freak-show Braveheart accent of his.
Once Cosgrove realized that this wasn't an act, he quit laughing. He then says he's going to put me through a movement assessment as soon as we get back to the condo.
The first thing I was to do was put my arms over my head and squat down into a full squat. Sure thing Alwyn, except I can't even raise my arms over my head.
Fail. Next test.
He then told me to lie on the floor and reach my arms back. Well, when you're 290 pounds you don't just "lie" on the floor – you have a couch or chair nearby, and you ease yourself down into a half-kneel, then a full kneel, then maybe you roll to the ground.
Fail. Next test.
It was supposed to be a 12-test assessment and Cosgrove tried to run another test or two but stopped halfway. He'd seen all he needed to determine that I had the worst mobility of anyone he'd ever seen.


PAGE 2

Back to the Living


After that humiliating experience, I knew that if I was to ever lead a normal life again, much less train normally, I would have to suck it up and take the steps to get my mobility back.
First, I consulted the writings of the mobility experts like Cosgrove, Cressey, and Robertson. I made a few calls, watched some DVDs, and asked for some sample mobility routines.
In the end, I put together this monster. Each exercise I did for 1 or 2 sets of 10-15 reps.

• T-spine mobility
• Ankle mobility
• Bird dogs
• Camel – cats
• Leg swings to the side
• Leg swings to the front/rear
• Static lunges
• Lateral squats
• Wall slides
• Scap push-ups
• YTWLs

There were about 10 other drills that I've since blocked from my memory.
The whole thing took me about 25 minutes to complete and I did it before my usual powerlifting workout of heavy benches, safety bar squats, etc. I did this for close to six months, fairly religiously.
It frickin' sucked.
First, it was boring as hell. If you enjoy doing YTWLs with a four-pound dumbbell, then you've probably never felt what benching 500 pounds is like.
Second, it drained all of my mental energy for the real workout. After 20 minutes of flopping around like a retard from band camp, I lost all my jam for getting under the heavy bar and tearing shit up.
Finally, as much as it "warmed up my stabilizers," I found it gassed my smaller muscles more than anything. Doing benches after a bunch of YTWLs are supposed to make benches less painful, except for me. The pain was far worse. Great.
So I scrapped it. In my usual blast and dust fashion, I scrapped everything. I took a month off completely.

The New Plan

The time away from lifting did me more good than any mobility work. Not only because I needed the break – I did – but the fact was, mobility training wasn't working. I was getting progressively weaker. I was down below 70% of what I once was.
Worse still, I was haunted by my old PRs. I was starting to hear, "What's the point?" creep into my head, which is a scary thought for a guy who just retired from anything.
I started to reflect on my training and when things last felt really good, back before it all started to go off the rails.
I decided to go back to bodybuilding training – but with a twist.

The New Rules of Bodybuilding


Here's the deal. Powerlifting is about finding the shortest range of motion possible.
Look at the bench press. If your setup and arch is sound, it's a very short (albeit very safe) range of motion.
Bodybuilding, in the purest sense, is the opposite. The most effective movements generally take the muscles through the longest range of motion.
I realized that I hadn't done any full range of motion work for years, and if I were to regain my "functional mobility" this would be where to start.
I first established some rules:

• I would not use any movement that I'd performed in the last 10 years. I wanted no frame of reference, no reminder of what I was once capable of.
• I'd perform every repetition slow and controlled, both eccentric and concentric.
• All exercises must take the muscle through the fullest range of motion.

As for my 20-minute dynamic warm-up? It was out the window. My warm-up was now a few arm or leg swings and onto the first exercise, except with a ton of warm up sets.
I structured a four-day a week workout that was painfully basic:
Monday: Chest, shoulders
Tuesday: Legs, abs
Thursday: Back
Saturday: Arms
The exercise choices were as follows:
Chest: Machine presses, machine flyes
Shoulders: Cable lateral raises (keep in mind I can't raise my arms above my head), reverse pec deck
Back: Lat pulldowns, dumbbell rows, chest-supported rows
Triceps: Rope extensions on incline bench, machine extensions
Biceps: Cable curls, full range dumbbell curls, lying cable curls
Abs: Ab mat, Swiss ball crunches
Hamstrings: Romanian deadlifts, glute ham raises
Quads: This was a toughie. Since I couldn't squat and it was tough to find moves where I got a real stretch, I just doubled the amount of hamstring work I did.
I selected movements based on what would work the specific muscle through the greatest rang of motion. In the case of my shoulders, I wanted to basically turn them off when I was training chest. Hence, the one-dimensional movements; it allowed total focus on the target muscle.
I did two or three of the above per muscle group. Each exercise was performed for 2-3 sets of 10-15 reps.
Weights were subordinate to my larger goal, which was to nail the rep speed and range of motion and not pull anything in the process. So it had to be light, yet still heavy enough to allow me to stretch and flex very hard. Each of these positions was held for a 1-2 count.
Since weight wasn't a priority, most of the weights I used were very low. I remember getting my ass kicked by 40-pound dumbbell rows and 90-pound lat pulldowns.
So how did it work?
Within one month, I felt like a million bucks. Virtually everything quit hurting, and my body took on a completely different look. I looked more "jacked." My vascularity had improved, and my muscles were much rounder and fuller. Most importantly, except for the shoulder that still needed replacement, all the other issues were gone!
I was hooked.

What Did I Learn?

I followed this setup for about a year, changing exercises every three weeks but always to moves that were completely new to me. That was crucial. It kept my ego out of the equation and kept me focused on the task at hand.
As a bonus, over the course of that year I was able to say something I'd never been able to say since my first day of training: I never once suffered an injury.
If that fails to impress you, keep in mind the kind of lifter I was (am). Refer to the above list of injuries. Now consider this: I never missed a meet due to injury. Ever.
If I blew something out I'd miss a workout, maybe two. I'd never miss a whole week and I'd never, ever miss a meet.
That was just how I was back then. If I popped a disc on Monday, I might hobble around and take it easy for a day or two – but I found a way to squat Friday. It might mean wearing two weight belts and wrapping a band around my head, but I squatted.
I developed a reputation for getting guys into meets, despite what their doctors said. No matter what the injury was, I knew what they needed to do because I've been through almost everything.
In hindsight, I was reckless, stupid, and likely did more harm than good, but my track record stands. If you were hurt but still wanted to lift, go talk to Dave.
I could write stories about how to perform with pec tears, hamstring pulls, back issues, knee pain, and many other injuries, but there will always be someone who will take what I say as an endorsement and in two months the sheriff shows up at my door with a court order. Some things are better left in the gym and the warm-up room.
I always rushed recovery. I pushed the envelope so many different ways it's a wonder I could even pull off that fucked up walk Cosgrove was ribbing me about.
That isn't to boast or sound cool – it's really sad. If I had done the opposite and extended my rests by even two weeks here, two weeks there, I could still be powerlifting competitively today.

What Would I Change?


This is one of those rare occasions where I wouldn't change a thing. This form of true "functional training" completely saved me.
I would've perhaps kept some of the mobility drills, as I do see value in them. I would just do maybe five minutes worth, not 25 minutes like I had been doing.
As a big, tight, fucked up ball of muscle, rolling around on the Swiss ball was a waste of time. I needed something more aggressive to force my range of motion. A heavy chest supported row that forced my lats through a full range of motion did more than all the goofy drills combined.
But the biggest change I'd make, even going back to my powerlifting days, would be to throw in a couple sets per body part of these slow tempo, full range of motion exercises.
The power lifts shorten the functional range of motion, and if steps aren't taken to reverse this, problems like I had occur.
The key is to choose lifts where you don't know how strong you are, so you don't rush it. The more banged up or tight you are, the more lifts you should throw in.
Also, don't use lifts where you develop compensatory acceleration. Remember, this is the opposite of powerlifting – you want to isolate the target muscle as much as possible.
For my chest, bench presses would never work as my triceps immediately take over. For me to isolate and stretch my pecs, the machine press was ideal. The fact that there's no stabilizer activity was a benefit – I wanted to focus on just my pecs firing. This is an instance of machines being the right tool in the toolbox.
Static stretching helps, and there are plenty of fat but flexible powerlifters, but there's something about loaded full ROM exercises that's much more effective.
Perhaps it's because it's not just a passive movement (a stretch) but also an active one (exercising under resistance through a full range of motion). I can only comment on what I experienced – a year of this saved both my lifting and my mobility.
Here's an analogy. An athlete is like a racecar. Every part of the car has to be in working order to run properly. If you run it hard for years and don't do the necessary maintenance, it's eventually going to either break down or perform sub-optimally.
Adopting this training style was like taking a racecar apart and cleaning each piece one at a time, making sure they worked independently. Only when I was satisfied with each part's individual performance would it go back on the car.

The Recipe

So here's the recipe if you're a tight bastard and fairly screwed up:
Warm up with a few basic mobility drills.
Arm circles, swings, pull-aparts, etc.
Spend less than 5 minutes on it – you don't want to pre-fatigue anything.
If you're just kind of tight:
Progressively warm up for your first key lift.
Take 6, 7, even 10 sets to get to your work weight.
Charge up your nervous system and pump as much blood into the muscle as possible.
Bust your ass as normal.
Then, after your regular training:
Do 1-2 extreme range exercises per screwed up bodypart.

• Start at 2-3 sets of 10-15 reps.
• Do the movement slow. Slow up, and slow down.
• Go for full, excessive stretches and peak contractions. If you do this faithfully, the weight will be light. If you find yourself piling on the plates, recheck your form. Don't load these moves. You'll screw it up.
• Expect some weird soreness, even some discomfort. High reps and slow tempos through ranges you're not used to training isn't fun.

After your workout: Do some specific mobility drills (external rotators, trap raises, etc.). The idea is to hit these little muscles after your big work is done, not before. Why fuck up the most important part of your workout by pre-fatiguing those muscles?
If you're a real mess:
Warm up with a few basic mobility drills.
Arm circles, swings, pull-aparts, etc.
Spend less than 5 minutes on it – you don't want to pre-fatigue anything.
Skip the initial regular lift. You're too far-gone. Just bite the bullet and do more extreme full range work. You won't regret it. The heavy weights will still be there in a month or two.
Do 2-3 extreme range exercises per screwed up bodypart.

• Start at 2-3 sets of 10-15.
• Do the movement slow. Slow up, and slow down.
• Go for full, excessive stretches and peak contractions. All the above shit.

After your workout: Do some specific mobility drills.

Wrap Up

This might sound as boring as hell – and at times it was – but it also completely rejuvenated both my love of lifting and my life. If you're finding just getting your body to move like it once did a chore, you need to take a serious look at your training and see how some intelligent mobility work could benefit you.
It brought me back from the brink. Why can't it help you?
In the next installment, I'll talk about what my fat 290-pound ass went through working with a friendly SOB named John Berardi.
Questions or comments? Post them in the LiveSpill.

Iron Evolution: Phase 8

by Dave Tate – 3/05/2012 Next Page | Pages 1 2


Coaching Cured My Fat Ass
In the last installment in this series, I described the long, painful process of getting my body moving properly after 20 years of powerlifting abuse.
This article will discuss an even more important undertaking: going from a fat mess with horrendous eating habits and blood work to match, to leaner, muscular, and much healthier.
This installment is also about coaching. Throughout the series I've noted the times when mentors have had a tremendous effect on my development as an athlete and as a man.
Whether it was the guys at the old barbell club who took me under their wing when I was 16 to my bodybuilding mentors at Hard Bodies, to the greatest powerlifting coach of all, Louie Simmons, I've been blessed to have some brilliant minds steering me throughout my journey.
I've listened to them (maybe not at first), learned from them, and through their guidance accomplished some impressive things. And to pay it back, I've tried to help others whenever I could, both on my own and through my company, elitefts.com.

2006

In 2006, I was fat and bloated and couldn't move for shit. But I was also a powerlifter – albeit a broken down one – and it wasn't like people weren't taking what I had to say seriously just because I didn't have a six-pack. The thought of dieting to "see my abs" was about as appealing as dumping benches and floor presses for cable moves so I can "sculpt my chest."
My reality check came after my annual physical with my friend and physician, Dr. Eric Serrano. My bloodwork was, in his words, terrifying. Total cholesterol, HDL/LDL ratio, and triglycerides were all shot to hell.
That in itself didn't phase me – I'd dealt with so many injuries throughout my career, and had doctors tell me it was a miracle I could still walk upright, that seeing some abnormal numbers on a printout was nothing – until Serrano asked if I wanted to see my kids graduate high school.
For that to happen, getting this shit in order was no longer an option. It would have to become a priority.
Part of being a good coach is knowing your limits. As a strength coach, I'm confident I can help just about anyone get stronger under the bar or in their sport.
The whole body composition thing, on the other hand, isn't my strong suit. Fact is, it bores the hell out of me. And when something bores me, I generally suck at it and quit – unless it's a priority, whereupon I'll hire a coach to help me.

Dr. John Berardi


I'd heard of John Berardi through our mutual association with T Nation and had seen him speak at a few seminars. I knew he was smart and a good communicator, and unlike a lot of the bodybuilding coaches, I knew had a very strong academic background.
Don't get me wrong, in the trenches experience trumps the theoretical every day of the week, but I also have a background in nutritional biochemistry and exercise physiology. I wanted someone with that type of background to assist with a peculiar problem I'd been experiencing.
Following my dressing down from Dr. Serrano, I started making a sincere effort to "eat clean," which to me meant egg whites, chicken, rice, the odd vegetable, and zero junk food. In other words, '80s bodybuilding 101.
But every time I'd eat a "clean" meal, I'd wind up puking my guts out an hour later. It didn't matter if I switched up the proteins or tried different "clean" carbs – I'd eat, and an hour later it was in the toilet.
The weird thing was, if I switched back to my junk or fast food staples, no problems. Try to force down even one clean-ish meal and I was back praying at the porcelain throne.
When I reached out to my lifter friends about my issue they just about pissed themselves laughing, but Berardi took my problem seriously. He knew that the most important thing was teaching me what healthy eating really was.
So he started from the ground up. It began with me getting a wack load of blood work done, including a glucose tolerance test. Berardi then sent me lists of different foods to experiment with along with food prep tips that I actually used.
To get past my hang-up that all healthy food tasted bad, he had me trying out different recipes that were fast, easy, and tasty. I'd never followed a recipe in my life, and now I was making "Dr. John's Chili" and this peanut butter Metabolic Drive shake that was better than something you'd find at Dairy Queen.
This was huge for me. I was used to seeing food as either "tasty" or "diet/clean," meaning food that I – and the rest of the family – loves or hates. And as anyone who's done this knows, when one person in the family diets, the whole household kind of diets.
While my wife and kids were free to eat what they wanted, it's much easier when everyone eats from a similar menu. My kids liked some of this new clean food more than the junk food, and I was able to keep it down.
You can read more about it here, but I worked with Berardi for the better part of a year and all told lost about 50 pounds. My blood work also got a lot better and it completely changed how I look at food. JB restored my health.
Considering how far I'd come and the changes I made, I felt pretty good about myself and chalked it up as a goal accomplished. That, as I'd learn, was a big mistake.
Since I was "done," I stopped communicating regularly with Berardi. I figured I'd just take a break before switching to "maintenance," despite not even knowing what that was!
I realize now that after the goal has been reached is when you need your coach the most – to transition you from "diet mode" to a "lifestyle" mode that you can maintain for life.
My maintenance turned out to be just shuffling back into my old habits of junk food and haphazard eating, and before I knew it I was up 30 pounds. Once again, I needed help.

Justin Harris


In 2007 I brought bodybuilder Justin Harris into the elitefts family as a sponsored athlete. He was also a coach, and I was fascinated by his approach to dieting down bodybuilders, and I constantly picked his brain for advice.
Justin saw the progress I'd made with Berardi and was disappointed that I let things slide after reaching what I thought was my goal. "You missed out on the best part of the whole process, the rebound."
"Rebound?" I asked. "You mean where I slap on twenty pounds of fat in a week? Don't worry, I experienced that."
"No," he said. "Where you gain ten pounds of muscle in a month."
Ten pounds of muscle? Now I was curious.
Justin explained that once the body gets really lean it wants to replenish itself and is highly sensitized to nutrients. It's a magic "window" where if you give the body what it needs – tons of calories and twice a day workouts – it packs on muscle and glycogen at an incredible rate, with negligible fat gain.
I wanted in.
There was a catch. I needed to get a lot leaner.
With JB I went from a fat mess to a lean-ish 8% or so, but then I quit. Justin said I needed at least another month or two of hard dieting to get to the zone where he felt the best rebound for me could occur.
I told Justin that I'd be willing to do whatever it took to get to where I was about three weeks out from a show. I knew that in bodybuilding, like in powerlifting, nothing you do in the last three weeks is ever good for your health or your sanity. Justin said that by three weeks out I should be at the rebound-ready place.
You can read more about Justin's approach here, but the first thing he said was that I'd have to change what I was doing.
Since I was a bigger guy, Justin said that I shouldn't diet like a smaller bodybuilder. He had a number of theories to support this but needed guinea pigs to test them out on.
Most of the guys that Justin worked with were competitive bodybuilders and he couldn't afford to play mad scientist with clients that had upcoming shows. Since I just wanted to get lean enough to rebound, I signed on for whatever he had in store for me.
The first thing Justin did was cycle my carbs. His setup had low days at around 100 grams, moderate days at 200-300 grams, high days at 500 grams, the occasional zero day, as well as some super high days, where I ate 1200 grams of carbs a day from stuff like Fruity Pebbles.
I sent Justin my pics every week and he adjusted the number of days according to my condition. The leaner I got, the more high days I could have. There were adjustments every week.
Training was also different. With Berardi, it was assumed that I knew how to lift weights so John just worked on my diet while adding in cardio as things progressed.
With Justin, training had to match the diet. That meant off days were low or zero carb days, while lifting days were moderate or high days. Super high days were usually set on lower body lifting days. As for cardio, we started at zero and peaked at 45 minutes a day, four days week.
It was a major pain in the ass. Each day required a different set of meals and every week would have different days, so you couldn't even get into some sort of pattern where Monday is low day, Saturday is high day, whatever. Everything depended on how I looked.
The low-carb days were easiest as there were less meals to prep, whereas the high-carb days required that I pack a stupid cooler to take with me wherever I went. As things progressed I found myself simply not going anywhere that was more than two hours away from my fridge. This started to wear on my family and my sanity, but holy sheep shit did it work.
I actually put on muscle while dieting and got into my all time best condition – 235 and ripped and full. I loved how it looked and got some great pics out of the deal.
But I was also ready for the rebound. I'd been counting down the days until I could eat like a pig and train heavy again. I was so stoked, I booked a 10-day vacation to coincide with ending the diet.
Another big mistake. Although I trained as much as I could and tried to eat as cleanly as possible, it was still a vacation. I cheated often – more than often. I cheated all day long.
I put on 50 pounds in 10 days. When I came back to work my staff didn't recognize me. Wendler, in particular, almost shit himself when I walked in. I went from 235 to 285, and the water bloat was unbelievable. It hurt to walk, much less train, and my face looked like it was going to explode. I missed how I felt dieting at 235!
I did get a nice rebound out of the deal but I looked and felt like a total pig. The bloat slowly came off and according to the calipers I did add about 10 pounds of lean mass – but calipers can be tricky when you're a bloated pig.
Considering how I looked and my strength, I'd say it was more like 3-4 pounds of muscle and a bloat load of water and fat.
Don't get me wrong, the concept is still sound – I was just a crappy student.
I decided to wait for the bloat to come off before I contacted Justin again, but found myself getting busy, and cheating more. Hey, I was busy and had a family and a company to run. Besides, I already had the after pictures; who cares if I put on a few pounds?
Big mistake, again.

2009 On My Own

2009 was a rough year. It was the recession and my business needed the bulk of my attention, as did my family. As such, my training was increasingly put on autopilot, which for me meant basic strength training, although I was still limited in what exercises I could do.
I found myself falling into a routine where I'd pick a basic strength movement that didn't hurt me too much, like a floor press or yoke bar squat and train it like I was approaching a powerlifting meet. It was a fun change after doing so much bodybuilding work, and getting to strain again was like visiting an old friend.
I also fall back into old habits. And the more I trained like a powerlifter the more I ate like crap. My weight crept up, and the old injuries started to appear again.
By the end of 2009 I remerged a fat, beat up, former powerlifter.


PAGE 2



2010 Shelby Starnes


Justin Harris went back to school, was running his business, working full time, raising a family, and working with top bodybuilders. I really didn't want to add to his workload. Berardi was busy with his company, Precision Nutrition, so I needed to find a new coach. Shelby Starnes had a log up at elitefts and a lot of guys I worked with were using him for diet help.
I doubted how well I'd fair. I didn't want to be stuck with some Nazi who'd cardio the crap out of me while making me eat chicken and rice three times a day, especially not after being with Berardi and realizing that type of thing wasn't necessary.
Shelby turned out to be anything but. He was like a balance between Berardi's lifestyle approach and Justin's hardcore bodybuilding mindset. We set up a carb cycling type of framework, and I could pick foods from a pre-approved list of choices as long as the quantities fit the parameters.
It was easy, relatively speaking, and within a few months I was under 8% bodyfat. What was interesting was that usually at 8% my body starts to revolt; this time I sailed cleared through. I think this was partly due to being at this level already with Justin – my body had "learned" how to get there.
Shelby used a basic carb cycling setup: high, medium, and low days. There were no super high or super low days like Justin had, nor were there cheat meals, at least not for a long time.
Shelby said cheat meals were counterproductive until you were very lean, unless you had to have a mental break. He also determined super-high carb days worked better for me than cheat meals.
Shelby would watch my training log and when my numbers started to plummet, he'd schedule in a high-carb day, usually on a lower body day. Shelby also wanted pictures and bodyfat measurements weekly but used how my training was going to make adjustments.
While the geek in me liked Justin's super technical approach and the results were spectacular, Shelby was already looking into the future. He could see where I'd screwed up before and wisely started working me into maintenance mode even while we were still in the depths of dieting.
He'd let me eat foods that he knew I'd be eating in the off-season including some pre-approved fast food, provided the macros added up.
This wasn't a concession he'd normally make with a competitive bodybuilder, but it didn't make sense to get me eating a certain way if there wasn't a hope in hell I'd eat like that after the diet was done. He wisely developed my plan based around my noncompetitive needs.
So while 8-ounces of chicken and brown rice might be ideal, in a few months a triple chicken sub on flatbread from Subway would be reality. Shelby programmed that in now so I'd be better set come the offseason.
It should be noted that right when I started working with Justin, Tim Patterson from Biotest contacted me regarding some new workout nutrition products he was developing. Even though neither product had a name or even flavoring, he offered to set me up with his special "protocol" so I could experience it for myself.
The stuff tasted like ass (did I mention it was unflavored?), but considering the guy was sending it to me, I decided I'd find a way to choke it down.
I was blown away. I felt the difference after just one week. I was so impressed I had both Justin and Shelby build the protocol into the diets they made for me.
The two powders are now called Anaconda™ Anabolic Load and MAG-10® Anabolic Pulse. Here's the exact protocol Tim put together for me.
Anaconda™ Anabolic Load – 2 scoops
MAG-10® Anabolic Pulse – 2 Scoops
Surge® Workout Fuel – 1-3 scoops (based on carb allowance)
Flameout™ – 6 caps a day
Curcumin – 6 caps a day
Surge® Workout Fuel was the most variable; I'd have more or less depending on whether it was a high, medium, or low carb day.
I also had two Metabolic Drive® Low Carb shakes a day and used Rhodiola whenever I started to feel run down.
Training wise, Shelby still matched the heavier training days with higher carb days, but we kept a balance between bodybuilding pumping and strength work. Although I'll never be a powerlifter again, I need some straining to make me feel alive, especially as the calories drop.
I got in great shape with Shelby – most of the pics you see on T Nation are from working with him – and I stayed leaner, longer. This was partly due to his more sustainable approach that kept my dieting foods as close as possible to off-season foods. You can read more about it all here.
The other reason is that I finally figured out what every fitness asshole has been preaching for 100 years – that this shit is a lifestyle. I still haven't fully grasped that concept, but I'm working on it.

What Would I Do Different?

Right now every strong fat guy is wondering what I'd do different so they don't make the same mistakes I made. Which coach was the best? Who gave me the best results?
I'd stick with just one coach.

Don't get me wrong, each coach was awesome. They all did exactly what I asked them to do, and any failures I had in keeping the weight off was my own.
This begs the question, if each guy was so good, then why didn't I stick with just one?
Part of it was availability – some guys were busy when I wanted to kick start the process again. The big thing was my goals were different each time I tried this.
When I worked with Berardi, I was a ticking time bomb who needed to get healthy and learn how to eat food that wasn't from a drive thru window.
With Justin, I wanted the underground knowledge, the stuff that only the pros know. There's a reason the biggest, most conditioned guys in the world are where they are and it's not all drugs and genetics.
Everybody on stage at the pro level has good genetics, trains hard, and has access to the same "supplements." The only variable left to push is diet.
After Justin got too busy I needed a coach. I wanted someone who could "marry" both the health and bodybuilding effects into a cohesive approach that was effective yet easy to understand and most importantly, sustainable. Shelby was my choice here, and it worked out very well.
Yet one thing that sticks with me is this: suppose I was able to stick with just Berardi for five or six years, or Justin, or Shelby? What if I had just one coach through multiple diets and off-seasons?
That coach would have years of data on me and would know which foods worked, which didn't, which macros left me exhausted, and which left me with the energy to train and strain. That coach would be able to make the best recommendations for me, backed by years of previous experiences.
I realize now that – provided he or she is competent – the best coach is the coach you stick with. Jumping from coach to coach is no different from program hopping in strength training. It's the same old "frogs on a lily pad" syndrome.
How are you supposed to learn what works if you don't stick with an approach long enough to build up a frame of reference?
I'd sign up to extend past the diet into the off-season.


Looking back, I always made the mistake of ditching my coaches the day my diet was done. In hindsight, especially considering some of my destructive habits, I should've kept it up for at least six months past the original end date.
The off-season is the hardest part. You're no longer "dieting" so suddenly there's less structure, less pressure, more flexibility, and more freedom to "wing it." Some flourish on this type of freedom and make excellent choices, others – especially the type who do best with structure or have food issues in the past – fall apart in the presence of any type of flexibility.
This is when a good coach can set you up with the type of habits that keep you lean for life. After all, anyone can be in shape when they carry a cooler with them and never have a piece of cake at their kid's birthday party. While that sounds hardcore, it's easy. It's simple binary thinking – yes or no, black or white.
However, when you work in things like being sociable and practicing a little moderation is where many fall off the wagon. It's when I needed a coach more than ever.
Don't overestimate what they can do.

A good coach can help you eat better and see food as a tool instead of an indulgence, but they won't cook for you, or shop for you, or wash your dirty Tupperware. You still need to do the work and most importantly, follow the plan. The best diet in the world is useless if not followed, just as how a strength training program is worthless if you skip more workouts than you hit.
I think there's a tendency, especially amongst the coach-hoppers, to give the coaches too much blame when things don't go as planned. Before you blame your lack of success on your diet or the person writing it, honestly assess how well you followed it. I submit that if your compliancy is less than 90%, then you have no business blaming anyone but yourself.
We all need coaching.

Some might say that a diet coach is just for physique athletes or pro bodybuilders, but I submit we all need coaches in areas of our lives where we aren't proficient.
I know enough about strength that I won't hire a kid in an NSCA polo shirt to write my training programs, but when I don't have a set diet I fall apart. I know this, so I have a coach doing my diet. It's an area where I'm weak, so why not pay someone good to get my back? It only makes sense.

Wrap-Up

My injuries will never go away so my days of training like an elite strength athlete are behind me. Sometimes I look at myself and laugh at how I'm becoming what I used to make fun of back in the day: a guy who looks jacked but isn't strong for shit!
Bodybuilding and dieting is hardly my passion. I'll never get giddy about a new diet protocol or talk endlessly about how awesome my pump was after I carbed up on sweet potatoes.
But if looking jacked is all I can do now, I'll run at it to the best of my abilities – and when those abilities fall short, I'll have a coach help me.
It was the best decision I ever made.