Category: Uncategorized

  • Picking Your Secondary Variations

    If you’re lifting for strength, your main movers are easy to identify. You’ll never find a person who has a good squat, deadlift, bench and overhead press, yet isn’t strong. While some powerlifting programs will keep you doing nothing but the comp lifts, I’ve always been an advocate of using variations within your programming. Before…

  • Time Management in the Gym

    No I didn’t stop this blog, or go on another vacation, I’ve just gotten really busy with life and work. It happens and when it does, I need to prioritize. While I’ve intended to make a blog post the past few weeks, I had to manage my time in and out of the gym, which…

  • Shoulder Issues Update

    We talked about this a while back and I’ll be honest, we’ll eventually talk about it again. For those that didn’t read my first post I have a long history of shoulder issues that predate me ever stepping foot in a gym. I’ve came a long way just to get “functional” but am now in…

  • Rep Schemes: Using the Reverse Pyramid

    This weekend I decided I wanted to go hard and heavy on my max effort lower day and decided to use a “Reverse Pyramid” rep scheme to get volume in after I maxed out. Later in the day I was talking to a friend who asked my why I chose this vs a full pyramid,…

  • If They Powerlifted: NFL All Pro DT Dexter Lawrence

    Anyone that has spent a lot of time in the gym eventually will find themself watching a sporting event and think “I wonder what Player X squats”. I’ve done it before, I’ve gotten into debates with my friends over it. Its all projecting, but its fun to talk about. In comes my “If They Powerlifted”…

  • Training Recap, 5-2-23

    Last weeked I had a pretty good week in the gym, hitting a squat variation PR on my ME day and felt altogether good during the training week. Since then, not so much… No sweat at all, training isn’t linear and I’ve wound up doing some variations I’m not really used to or have experience…

  • Conjugate, How I Westside on the East Coast: DE Upper

    I saved this one for last for one really good reason: I find DE Upper Day extraordinarily boring… Boring or not, there is still a valid reason to do a DE (Dynamic Effort) Upper day and it makes a large impact for some people, myself included. In previous posts I talked about the value of…

  • Training Update, Working Through Shoulder Issues

    Figure this would be worth a quick post so here I am… One thing that’s worth knowing about me is I’ve always had shoulder issues as long as I can remember. Going back to being 10 years when I separated my left shoulder, then a couple years later when I separated the right one, then…

  • Training Recap/Progress Update

    Going back two weeks I missed two sessions due to vacation and came back somewhat rested to start a new block. The block started a week ago Saturday with ME Lower day so currently I’m on the second week of it, so no comments on some of the little tweaks I’ve made just yet. What…

  • Conjugate: How I Westside on the East Coast, DE Lower

    Starting with the same disclaimer from my previous posts in this series. I do not compete as a powerlifter, I have competed as a strongman in the past and MAY do a powerlifting competition in the future. Still, I use my version of Westside template as I enjoy it and I think it is easy…