WSB SEMINAR REVIEW
STEVE MICHELIN

  I am exhausted.. I got back a few hours ago.. Worth the money and traveling headaches.. First off.. I learned more in 2 days than I did in 3 years of training. Dave Tate went above and beyond the call... These seminars usually end at 3.30. It went to 7pm.. He even took some guys out in the rain and snow to drag the sled. BOB YOUNG'S.. What can I say.. He stayed to help out at the seminar and went out of his way for me as well.. Had lunch with him and he took me back to the airport with his training partner Matt.. This guy totals 2100+.. Unreal. Bob is one great guy and you can learn allot from him..
     About the gym.. It's small.. Real small.. But everything you need to get strong.. It was all there.. The monolift, bands, chains, boxes, boards, cambered good morning bars.. Unreal.. Powerlifting heaven..
    This is what I learned.....BOX SQUAT: I FINALLY GOT MY RIGHT BOX HEIGHTS.. 12 Inch box for speed day. 10 inch for my low box and 14 inch for my high.. Bob got this right for me. I was keeping my elbows up when I held the bar.. I have to keep it tucked down.. and take my grip out.. My technique flaw was not sitting back far enough. When I finally did I felt my hamstrings stretch. Now I know why the box squat helps your deadlift. You don't drop and rock off the box. Just sit far back.. It takes practice. I used to squat in my wrestling shoes.. Not anymore. you need chuck taylor's. When you lift off the box and pull your knees out, if you are wearing the wrestling shoes your feet will role to the sides.. you need a complete flat sole.
     Good Mornings: I kept looking down. I have to look straight with head up. Push abs out against belt is a must..
     Dead lift: You have to pull the bar into you.. Your almost pulling backwards.. With light weight you are almost falling on your ass.
     Tried out the glute/ham raise.. First time ever on it. I got a set of 8 but they are hard and have to pull some money together and get the machine from Dave. Went on the reverse hyper machine.. never used this either.. There was 400+ pounds on it.. when I walked up to the machine.. We took it down to about 210lbs and got only 6 reps.. Very hard but do you feel it in all the right areas.
     Bench Press: I figure I didn't need much help on this.. I was wrong. My technique sucked.. First off, I sat to far away from the bar as I am used to handoffs.. Dave said "if you cant unrack 500 yourself you have no business benching it.. They showed me to lower the bar with your lats.. I finally know what they meant.. My elbows where always flared out. Dave showed me his 2 pec tears that was from keeping the elbows out benching 500.. he is now almost at 600 with elbows in.. They showed me TO Lower the bar lower on my chest. Towards my upper abs.. Once I get this style down well, I think I will not only bench 500 one day soon but a hell of alot more.. I think form this technique I shaved an inch or 2 off my stroke. You have to learn to turn the bench press into a decline press.
     I learned the JM press.. Finally got this right.. It is a very easy movement BUT, You have to actually see it to get it right. No video, picture or article can really explain it.. If you are doing all kinds of big weights with it.. Your doing it wrong.
    Used the mini bands. These are tough. You have tension throught the whole movement.. They attach a 4x4 piece of wood to the bottom of the power rack to get the right tension.. About 115 pounds at the top.
     On triceps work.. Heavy bar extensions, close grip bench, jm's or carpet press for 3-5 reps on dynamic day and db extensions on max effort day..
I was told a little secret (not really a secret) but 3 guys from Westside if I want a big bench, do all max effort work with index finger on smooth.. for everything.. Do your 3 grips on speed day.. Your max effort stuff might be less but your bench at a meet will go up allot..
I was invited to come watch the speed workout on Sunday morning. When I walked in.. All the guys we read about were there for the first shift.. Todd Brock, Kenny Patterson (I am about an inch taller than him. he is down to about 230.. and solid muscle and no fat that I saw). Chuck V, and the rest.. They were starting there speed benches.. They train fast... Very fast.. I saw Kenny doing jm's with all kinds of weight. I think I saw 500 on it.
Louie yelled out to me. "Your not gonna learn anything by just watching. Grab a bench and get to work" Workout:
Speed Bench (straight weight)
245x4x3
275x4x3
JM PRESS (THE RIGHT WAY)
275X5
295X4(PR)
INCLINE TATE PRESS
30LBSX2X12
50LBSX3X12
SUPPORT ROWS
4X10
SEATED DB CLEANS
2X15

 

     Bob young and that crew came in after the first crew finished.. George Halbert was there as well. Very intense lifters.. These guys are not genetic mutations.. They just training harder, want it more and have no doubt in their minds that they are the strongest. That is the main theme that I got out of the whole weekend. 
     I cant stress the point of going to the seminar.. It is worth every penny and you will learn alot.. These guys are doing so much for the sport and after seeing all this in person I realize I have a long way to go.. I tried hard not to just stare in Awe....
     Dr. mel Siff was there that day watching all the lifters and from what I saw he was pretty impressed with all the guys. What I finally figured out was the program is laid out the way it is for a specific purpose. Some lifters complain that it doesn't work for them. For the life of me I can't figure out why.. You have to be smart enough to know how to pick up on your weak points and make them stronger. You cant hybrid this program because eventually it will be so far from a true westside program that you will train yourself into a total over trained state. The speed days, max effort, gpp, etc.. are there to hit each aspect of strength. My opinion is a lot of drug free lifters over train on this program (me included) because they end up doing more exercises, sets..etc.. than the lifters at Westside do. Dave Tate said if you want to get strong, you have to increase your volume but only do it if you can get it all done in under 1 hour.
  GPP workouts are not supposed to tax you to much. They are for active restoration and to prepare you for the following days workouts.. medicine ball throws seem to be gaining in popularity as with a lot of different upper body sled dragging.
   Dave said, when they work into the gym on max effort day, they have no clue what main exercise they are going to do. Usually the one that bitches and moans the most about an exercise he doesn't want to do, usually that's the exercise they will do.
  Dave doesn't believe in keeping training logs. He says most people don't do it right anyway. Writing down your sets and reps and weight is not a good indicator of what you have done. He rather see the total volume being logged as if he sees this he can generally fix the problem in your training if you hit a wall.
Powerlifters don't realize how lucky they are having Louie, Dave, Bob and the rest to help us out.. I felt so tiny there...Dave said I better hit 500 in June.. Looks like I have no choice. he than said there are 45 guys that benched over 500 and a 500 bench doesn't impress them much. Although they said it was good for my weight.. When I one day get to 600 I will go back there and see what they say than.. Probably "come back when you get 700" Set no limitations........
Steve

WESTSIDE FOR LIFE!!!!
GO TO THE SEMINAR !!!!!!!!!!!!