Bigger, Stronger, Faster: Meet Mr. Joe DeFranco

[Rev]

In my opinion this guy has some EXCELLENT knowledge that applies directly to beginners all the way up to the top athletes. He has some of the most rock solid, no bullshit training methods I have personally come into contact with and as a personal testimony they all work very well when applied to myself. To all new and old to the forum I would like to set aside a specific thread dedicated to Joe DeFranco. Those of you who may not be familiar with Joe's work, if you have any goals in mind which involve becoming stronger, bigger, or faster, please check out some of his work in the links provided and I garuntee you will find useful information.

Westside For Skinny Bastards
(get stronger and bigger)
http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle....ticle=311west2

Strongman Training For Athletes
(get big and strong strongman style)
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do...itan?id=496300

Dirty Tricks For Higher Verticle Jumps
(want to increase your verticle)
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do...itan?id=459426

Training Economy
(gym time + exercise + body = this article)
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do...itan?id=459295

10 Training Myths Exposed
(the truth behind training myths)
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do...itan?id=513676

An Interview With Joe DeFranco
(hear what Joe has to say)
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do...itan?id=459403

Joe's Website
http://www.defrancostraining.com/index.htm

[Kevin T.]

i have actually read some of joe's articles because of the athlete in me. i have to say-great info. you can't argue with the results his athletes have achieved. i actually just realized that he's just 30 minutes from my house here in NJ. (that was completely random.)

[Jake]

Good post Rev. My current training template roughly follows his Westside for Skinny Bastard workout, and I love it.

[Chris Correia]

Hey, I just checked out all of his articles at his web site yesterday. Coincidence!

Seems like good stuff. Thanks for the good word, Rev.

[GqArtguy]

That strongman article sucked majorly.

[RipStone]

Westside for SB seems like a program I might be interested in doing. Few questions...

1. Any general feeling about WSB?

2. Defranco mentions you can add a 4th day of training. What kind of workout would be good to do on this day?

I will prolly put together a routine tommorow for you guys to critique and I bet I will have more questions too Thanks

BTW, nice to see that you not leavin the fourm rev. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Rev]

Originally posted by RipStone:
Westside for SB seems like a program I might be interested in doing. Few questions...

1. Any general feeling about WSB?

2. Defranco mentions you can add a 4th day of training. What kind of workout would be good to do on this day?

I will prolly put together a routine tommorow for you guys to critique and I bet I will have more questions too Thanks

BTW, nice to see that you not leavin the fourm rev. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I'm currently doing a variation of his westside for skinny bastard routine and it's probably the best routine I've ever been on in my life. I'm seeing mass and strength gains that are awesome. This week alone I hit my bench press all time best and my deadlift all time best. My arms have grown .2 inches, chest .5 inches, neck .2 inches. That's a big deal for me in a matter of about 3 weeks (when I finally started eating enough to grow at all, had to find my right level of intake which is naturally higher than any calculator) and I've gained zero body fat weight so far, (2lbs muscle gain). There's my little testimony. So obviously I feel good about the program, and it's fun as hell.

The fourth day would be an added lower body day, so like you have a max effort upper and repetition effort lower, then a max effort lower and a repetition effort lower. He takes out one lower day for his athletes who are so involved with their sports practices that it would have a negative effect if they did two lower body days a week.

And thanks for the kind words, those are hard to come by these days.

[Rev]

edit: max effort upper, repetition effort UPPER, and max effort lower, repetition effort lower.

Example:
monday - max effort lower
tuesday - max effort upper
thursday - repetition effort lower
saturday - repetition effort upper

[GqArtguy]

Originally posted by RipStone:
Westside for SB seems like a program I might be interested in doing. Few questions...

1. Any general feeling about WSB?

2. Defranco mentions you can add a 4th day of training. What kind of workout would be good to do on this day?

I will prolly put together a routine tommorow for you guys to critique and I bet I will have more questions too Thanks

BTW, nice to see that you not leavin the fourm rev. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Since youre doing high volume stuff on the first day, you could do lower rep strength-end work or throw in some speed work. This program has some high ass reps though and Id cut it back on a whole but thats just me.

[nanook]

Originally posted by GqArtGuy:

That strongman article sucked majorly.

Why?

[Simon.]

I have a question about the 10 myths article if you may...
It says there (myth #8) that pulling your stomach in while squatting or deadlifting is actually WRONG, whereas every single thing I've read about deadlifting or squatting with good form advises to do just that...
When I think about it, what this dude tells is the correct way actually makes a lot more sense to me, and feels more comfortable as well.
Anyway regardless of that, I was reading the westside for skinny bastards program and I didn't understand some of the things it said there. First of all what does "Work up to a max set of x reps." mean?
"Perform x-y sets of z-c reps." does that mean "start the first set with a weight you can do for at least z reps, and stick with the same weight for the other sets. when you get to c reps on your first set increase weight" (that's what x-c reps means by exrx.net), or is it something else?
Another thing is that in most exercises rest time between sets isn't mentioned at all.

[Canadian_Bacon]

Simon, I suggest you read the 8 key by Dave Tate and "the bible" by Dave Tate to understand the basis behind westside. The routine will make more sense to you then.

To do any westside type template properly you really need to understand what you are doing so the articles are worth a read.

http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle....icle=267eight2
http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle....4-044-training

[RipStone]

Originally posted by Rev:

quote:

---

Originally posted by RipStone:
Westside for SB seems like a program I might be interested in doing. Few questions...

1. Any general feeling about WSB?

2. Defranco mentions you can add a 4th day of training. What kind of workout would be good to do on this day?

I will prolly put together a routine tommorow for you guys to critique and I bet I will have more questions too Thanks

BTW, nice to see that you not leavin the fourm rev. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I'm currently doing a variation of his westside for skinny bastard routine and it's probably the best routine I've ever been on in my life. I'm seeing mass and strength gains that are awesome. This week alone I hit my bench press all time best and my deadlift all time best. My arms have grown .2 inches, chest .5 inches, neck .2 inches. That's a big deal for me in a matter of about 3 weeks (when I finally started eating enough to grow at all, had to find my right level of intake which is naturally higher than any calculator) and I've gained zero body fat weight so far, (2lbs muscle gain). There's my little testimony. So obviously I feel good about the program, and it's fun as hell.

The fourth day would be an added lower body day, so like you have a max effort upper and repetition effort lower, then a max effort lower and a repetition effort lower. He takes out one lower day for his athletes who are so involved with their sports practices that it would have a negative effect if they did two lower body days a week.

And thanks for the kind words, those are hard to come by these days. [/quote]Those are some great gains in 3 weeks...damn. Care to post your routine? thanks again

[Rev]

Originally posted by RipStone:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Rev:

quote:

---

Originally posted by RipStone:
Westside for SB seems like a program I might be interested in doing. Few questions...

1. Any general feeling about WSB?

2. Defranco mentions you can add a 4th day of training. What kind of workout would be good to do on this day?

I will prolly put together a routine tommorow for you guys to critique and I bet I will have more questions too Thanks

BTW, nice to see that you not leavin the fourm rev. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I'm currently doing a variation of his westside for skinny bastard routine and it's probably the best routine I've ever been on in my life. I'm seeing mass and strength gains that are awesome. This week alone I hit my bench press all time best and my deadlift all time best. My arms have grown .2 inches, chest .5 inches, neck .2 inches. That's a big deal for me in a matter of about 3 weeks (when I finally started eating enough to grow at all, had to find my right level of intake which is naturally higher than any calculator) and I've gained zero body fat weight so far, (2lbs muscle gain). There's my little testimony. So obviously I feel good about the program, and it's fun as hell.

The fourth day would be an added lower body day, so like you have a max effort upper and repetition effort lower, then a max effort lower and a repetition effort lower. He takes out one lower day for his athletes who are so involved with their sports practices that it would have a negative effect if they did two lower body days a week.

And thanks for the kind words, those are hard to come by these days. [/quote]Those are some great gains in 3 weeks...damn. Care to post your routine? thanks again [/quote]I have a training log with all my info in it in the Training Log Forum section, feel free to check it out man. I think part of the reason my muscle gains were so fast is because I have been training for strength and gaining strength for a period of months and have been holding back any muscle growth on purpose to gain relative strength. So when I started to add excess calories I really saw good results and am still seeing them. But I contribute most of the success to the program because it is awesome. You don't have to follow things exactly how they are either, I use it was more or less a map or a compass to direct me in designing my program and then I work off my own personal body needs and form the end product.

[Rev]

Just for seperate threads sake, here is my current routine Rip.

Monday ME Lower
Deadlift work up to 3 rep max
Full Squat 6 x 5-8
Natural Glute/Ham Raise 3 x 5-8
Ab Pull-Down 2 x 6-10
Hyper Extension 2 x 6-10

Tuesday ME Upper
Bench Press work up to 3 rep max
Bent-Over Row 5 x 5-8
Incline DB Press 3 x 8-12
Incline DB Curl 3 x 5-8
Overhead Triceps Extension 3 x 5-8
External Rotation 2 x 10-15

Thursday DE Lower
Speed Full Squat 6 x 5-8
Stiff-Legged Deadlift 6 x 5-8
DB Lunge 3 x 5-8
Leg Raise 2 x 6-10
Hyper Extension 2 x 6-10

Saturday DE Upper
DB Bench Press 5 x 5-8
Cable Row 5 x 5-8
Pull-Up 5 x 5-8
Laying Triceps Extension 3 x 8-12
BB Curl 3 x 8-12
External Rotation 2 x 10-15


Volume Per Muscle Group by Repetitions
Quadricep 75-125
Posterior Chain 95-140
Back 75-120
Chest 75-95
Abdominal 30-40
External Rotator 40-60
Biceps 45-55
Triceps 45-55

[Rev]

The speed full squat should be five sets of three, that was a typo. I'll be replacing the speed full squat with high pulls soon anyway. You will have to experiment and see which best benefits you currently, speed work or extra repetition work. For me it's a little of both. Lower body speed work helps, upper body I need more repetition work. Joe talks about this a bit in his ws for skinny bastards article.

[Rev]

Fourth post in a row, but I need to mention that the second upper body workout shouldn't say DE, there is no dynamic effort movement involved, just so you real particular guys don't try to blast me on that detail. The lower body DE movement is 65% of my one rep max also, carry on.