Westside Barbell

Q. With the Westside System, I notice that you change exercises every week. Why is this?

A. If you do the same thing over and over, you eventually become stagnant due to the law of accommodation. Many beginners get away with doing the same exercises week in week out at first, but as they advance, they quickly find that their gains begin to decrease and eventually cease. This is typically when they jump ship to another program and the cycle begins again. But there really is no reason to start out on a plan that we already know will fail, when we have a system that has been proven to work time and time again, regardless of age or years under the bar.

By switching every week, we’re able to avoid plateaus simply by changing the angles, range of movement, rest times, or bars, or by adding bands and/or chains, because it allows you to train muscle groups that are neglected in the traditional movements yet increase those traditional lifts when strengthened.

Let’s take a look at the bench press and see how a four-week training cycle may break down for Max Effort day.

Week 1: Incline Bench Press
Week 2: Floor Press
Week 3: Regular Bench Press
Week 4: 2-Board Bench Press

If you had a set of bands, you could use them regularly, doubled, or reversed, and would go from four to 16 weeks’ worth of exercises. Hopefully you can see how easy it is to continually change the movement.

PHOTO: MARTIN PILLMAJER