How to incorporate some assistance work in the 4 days split?

[tomhan66]

Mark,

I am considering to put in some assistance work for the benchpress and press. I am following the upset on p 182 in ppst 2nd edition. I am considering some wheighted dips, close grip bench or JM presses in order to to give me some more triceps power. Would you have any advice as to when to do them so that this work do not conflict with recovery and the DE work.

thanks,

[David Lee]

Mark,

I am considering to put in some assistance work for the benchpress and press. I am following the upset on p 182 in ppst 2nd edition. I am considering some wheighted dips, close grip bench or JM presses in order to to give me some more triceps power. Would you have any advice as to when to do them so that this work do not conflict with recovery and the DE work.

thanks,

I do dips on Thursday. Doesn't seem to affect Friday at all.

[tomhan66]

Well, the reasons for asking the question is as follows: 1. more assistance work could blast the template so that it would be necessary with light days for recovery and that is not part of the upset. 2. Putting the assistance work into the template after the pressing could be to taxing for the following DE work? 3. More natural for me would be to do them after the pullups/chins. However, would that take out some of the effect of the DE work.

If anyone has some experience on this subject, advice would be appreciated.

[Les Hahn]

The Woojus Geeshman template includes some assistance work, and you could swap things out or add an extra exercise or two as well. For my upper body days I am currently doing this:

M- Bench 8x1
Push Press (DE) 10x3
BB Rows 8x3
Pulldowns 3x10

Th- Olympic Press 8x1
Closegrip Bench (DE) 10x3
1 Arm DB Rows 5x5
BB Curls 3x10

So some of my dynamic effort stuff is the support lift, like closegrip bench. I also do dynamic effort box squats and max effort normal squats. That is one way you can add in a variety of lifts and still keep it short. I might add some tricep pushdowns onto my Thursday as well. The bar slows a little during the middle of the press, so I need more tricep stuff to keep my bench moving up. I try to base my assistance stuff on my weaknesses, and I always like to do a pulling move (like a row) with any kind of bench press.

[tomhan66]

thanks for inputs. I would however appreciate further comments if anyone has any experiences along the 3 questions I am raising.

[David Lee]

thanks for inputs. I would however appreciate further comments if anyone has any experiences along the 3 questions I am raising.

It might help if you state what the 3 questions are.

This "Would you have any advice as to when to do them so that this work do not conflict with recovery and the DE work." has been addressed

I'm assuming English isn't your primary language, but you will get better advice if you are more specific. What you have posted is kind of jumbled together.

[tomhan66]

The 3 questions are given in my update on the thread today,#3. I hope that I am specific enough so that these elements are meaningful.

[David Lee]

The 3 questions are given in my update on the thread today,#3. I hope that I am specific enough so that these elements are meaningful.

Nothing in that post is in the form of a question, including the sentence that ends in a question mark.

[Les Hahn]

I thought I sort of answered all of those questions in a round-a-bout way.

1. Too much assistance work can "blast" the template, so pick stuff that makes sense and works on your weak spots. I believe the template in the book has 1 assistance exercise per day, but you could do 1-3 I think. Just make sure they are not max effort, and do something like 3x10 for the fluff stuff. You can also make some of the Dynamic lifts variants of the main lifts, this gives you some assistance work for free. Bench/DE Closegrip Bench, Squat/DE Box Squats, DL/ Powercleans or DE DL's.

2. The assistance stuff won't be too taxing after your ME/DE work. It is assistance stuff, it shouldn't be done "balls to the walls". Your main lifts are the most important, so do them first.

3. The order the book has it is Volume/Dynamic Effort/Assistance. For my press day I do: Olympic Press (8x1), Closegrip Bench (DE, 10x3), DB Rows (Assistance, 3x5+), Pulldowns (Assistance, 3x10). If I had to add one more thing, it would be Tricep Pushdowns (3x10). I take like 1-2 mins between sets on the assistance stuff, so it goes real fast. Again, you shouldn't be doing the assistance stuff to failure.

I hope this helps.

[tomhan66]

Thanks, I appreciate the input. I think mondays and thursdays will be as in the book and rounded off with dips and close grip bench respectively on these days. My experience indicates that bp and press alone do not give enough stimulation for triceps.