I have been doing the Westside routine for a little over 6 months. I started using Westside as a way for me to prepare to make my return to the platform after a 2 year hiatus due to multiple pec tears. In the past, I had done periodization routines to prepare for meets and I had always felt that I was overtrained way before I reached near the end of the cycle. So I gave this a shot. I was to compete on January 24 so I had plenty of time to find out if this was gonna make any difference for me.

I really enjoyed my Westside training routines. I though a lot of things were great and the benefits they gave me were more than enough to make me never want to miss a workout. Here are the things I like about the routine: a.) Changing my exercise up about 2-3 weeks, this was great because it kept me interested and I was always exited about getting in to the gym to do something different. b.) Box Squats, if you haven't done them then you will never realize how fun and different they are and these really helped me realize how weak I was in the hips, glutes, and low back c.) Rack Lockouts and Floor Presses, these were really interesting for me because I had not done these in years. It is especially interesting to see just how much my weakest link in the bench (the first 2-3 inches off chest) were greatly increased. I got in my meet and I realized I had trained this weakness so well that I was not having more trouble with the lockout d.) Short Rest Intervals, now I am not a big fan of these but after training this way for about a month I quickly saw the advantages. When my meet came around it was clearly obvious that I was well prepared for the quickness that it was run in, by training with 45-60 second rest intervals I was able to have no problem warming up, and making my lifts during the meet without hardly feeling worn out afterwards. I was able to go 9 for 9 in my first time back after 2 years off so you can say I either was well prepared or possibly chose my attempts to lightly down the stretch, either way it was enough for the win and I was excited afterwards.

There are however, some things that I found that I wasn't to crazy about with this routine: a.) The constant lower back training with reverse hypers, good mornings, and stiff leg deadlifts were well enough to drain me early on, but as time went on I quickly adjusted and my recoverability was unbelievable. I was able to have about a 2-3 day turn around in recover in comparison to a normal 5-6 day. How do I explain this? I have no idea at the moment. But I am in the midst of getting ready to start training for the Pan-Am Games in August and I will more than likely be using the Westside routine again for this meet b.) Joint soreness, man was my elbows and knees beginning to feel like crap, I am only 25 and have had numerous problems with my knees in the past but the constant use of box squats seemed to make them sore to no avail. I was even suspect of my form on these and had an experienced lifting friend of mine check them out, he said they were perfect. I combated most of this pain with Glucomasine Sulfate. It seems to have helped quite a bit.

In all, I really love this program because it keeps me fresh and constantly growing in both size and strength. I feel that after some more time on this routine I should start to see some amazing results. I guess only time will tell. Overall, all of my lifts, whether core exercises or assistance exercise, all increased and I began to do some weights in some rare exercises I had rarely if ever did that I thought was only a dream. Well until next time train hard and eat big. For further info on the Louie Simmons' Westside Barbell routines then check out Deepsquatter's Page