A Look at our Gym and Current Training Routine

            Our training methods can vary at times but generally follow a pretty set pattern of alternating between a “bodybuilding” phase for three months as a sort of off-season and a powerlifting/strongman phase the rest of the year broken into three cycles of three months each. Our strength/power phase is based around conjugate training as popularized by Westside Barbell. Hands down there is no gym in the world like Westside Barbell and the endless number of world record holders that gym has had speaks for itself. While our training is heavily influenced by the training methods developed by Louie Simmons we do not train “Westside Barbell”. The only people who train Westside are the members of that gym who train there. I (Jason) have never trained at that gym. I have trained with people who were current and former members there and learned a lot from them but I would never claim to train Westside Barbell.

            Instead I call what we do the Gall Method largely because it is based around the past seven years of Missy and I training and experimenting and seeing what has worked and what has not worked. It is also based around the abilities and limitations of our home gym- the Deadlifter’s Fortress Barbell Club.

            Thankfully through Missy and I’s hard work we have built up our gym to the point that our only real main limitation is space verses our equipment. We have a power rack, two flat benches, an FID bench, a pulldown/low row combo, leg press, cable crossover, leg extension/curl, 45 degree back raise, and dragging sled. We also have numerous barbells as well as a safety squat bar, strongman log, and farmers walk handles. We have boxes for box squats and block pulls as well as bands and chains for accommodating resistance. We have steel and bumper plates and dumbbells. We are constantly updating and improving our gym and look to be adding more strongman logs and specialty bars in the future.

            Our current training is 6 days a week with one day of rest. Everything is trained twice a week. Basically there are two push days (chest/shoulders/triceps), two pull days (back/biceps), and two leg/low back days. When the weather is nice and we can go outside the weekends will also have strongman events after our normal training- followed by a nice cookout with pounds of steak, pork, and potatoes.

Sunday- Dynamic Effort Squat/Deadlift then train legs with focus on Hamstrings and low back.

Monday- Back/Biceps with a focus on mid back lower lats

Tuesday- Repetition/Dynamic Bench Press day then train chest/shoulders/triceps with a focus on chest

Wednesday- Max Effort Squat/Deadlift variation then train legs with a focus on quads

Thursday- Back/Biceps with a focus on upper back

Friday- Beer and pizza day

Saturday- Max Effort Bench Press variation and then chest/shoulders/triceps with a focus on shoulders

A sample Sunday might look like-

10 sets of 2 reps Speed Box Squats with a Safety Squat Bar with chains

Block Pulls with the bar below the knee working up to a heavy single but not a max

Arch Back Good Mornings 4 x 5-8 reps

Leg Press 4 x 10 -15 reps

Leg Curls 4 x 10

45 Degree back raises 3 x 10

Monday might look like-

Close grip underhand pulldowns 5 x 8-15

Dumbbell Rows 4 x 5-10

Tbar Rows 4 x 5-10

Face Pulls 4 x 12 reps

Straight arm pulldowns 4 x 12

Dumbbell Curls 4 x 10

Cable curls 4 x 15

Tuesday might look like-

Bench Press working up to heavy 8 reps

Speed Bench Press 5 sets of 5 reps with chains

Incline Dumbbell Presses 4 sets of 10 reps

Cable side lateral raises 4 x 15 reps

Dumbell side laterals 4 x 10 reps

Dumbbell Extensions

Vbar pressdowns

Wednesday might be-

Olympic style squat working up to 3 singles over 90%

Romanian Deadlifts

Leg Presses

Leg Extensions

Leg Curls

Lunges

Thursday Might look like-

Wide Grip Pulldowns

Seated Rows

Bent Over Barbell Rows with a snatch grip

Bent over reverse flys

Shrugs

Barbell Curls

Incline Dumbbell Cable Curls

Friday Might look like-

Several bottles of Peroni Beer and several slices Romeo’s Pizza Supreme to get our bloat on for Saturday

A Saturday might look like-

Floor Press working up to three singles at over 90%

Seated shoulder press 4 sets working up to heavy set of 8-10

Log clean and press 3-4 sets of 5 reps

Cable Crossovers 4 sets of 10-20 reps

Supersetted with

Dumbbell lateral raises 4 sets of 8-15 reps

Front Raises with a plate 4 sets of 10 reps

Skullcrushers 4 x 10 reps

Triceps pressdowns with rope 4 x 15 reps

*note we train our rear delts on back day

Nothing earth shattering for those who are familiar with conjugate training- our main difference is the back and biceps are trained on their own days sort of like a glorified extra workout and on our dynamic bench day we do heavy reps before that. Since we mainly use bench press variations during max effort day the heavy bench press reps on speed day help hone in good technique as well as added hypertrophy for the chest.