Working out for gym????

[Andalite]

because I enjoy them and I am competing in powerlifting so I have to be good at them

Lots of guys who train for Powerlifting RARELY ever Squat or Deadlift or Bench Press directly. Infact, almost everyone who is at the elite level doesn't do the 3 lifts themselves as their staple. Very few guys like Mike Tuscherer and Konstantinovs do the actual lifts.

 

[ExtraMile]

Lots of guys who train for Powerlifting RARELY ever Squat or Deadlift or Bench Press directly. Infact, almost everyone who is at the elite level doesn't do the 3 lifts themselves as their staple. Very few guys like Mike Tuscherer and Konstantinovs do the actual lifts.

I know, the westside template actually says for exmaple, on benchpress max effort day that the best exercises to choose for the max effort sets/reps are CGBP, incline press, floor press, 2 board press and 3 board press.

But I am still a noob and making good gains from training them directly which is why i do it, as I said in my log I have added 30lbs to my deadlift this month, muscle memory may have aided a bit though but I doubt it did alot just from laying off the deads for 3 months lol

 

[Andalite]

I know, the westside template actually says for exmaple, on benchpress max effort day that the best exercises to choose for the max effort sets/reps are CGBP, incline press, floor press, 2 board press and 3 board press.

But I am still a noob and making good gains from training them directly which is why i do it, as I said in my log I have added 30lbs to my deadlift this month, muscle memory may have aided a bit though but I doubt it did alot just from laying off the deads for 3 months lol

Exactly! You are trying out things for yourself. Just because you haven't done something doesn't discount it's effectiveness at all. Hell, if that was the case you think The Diesel Crew (which is where I've gotten most of my core training ideas from - not that that should make an iota of a difference on their credibility) would be as strong as they are? You gotta experiment and try things out.

Also, the whole crunches and sit-ups thing have been debunked numerous times. Alan Aragon (if you haven't heard of this guy y'all are missing out on something for sure) has gone into this indepth and there are studies that show that all crunches, sit-ups, etc do is overwork the hip flexors. You think they're hitting your abs and sure they might be but they're not an effective exercise when compared to the ab roller or plank variations or russian twists or even that weird ab exercise I do hanging upside down....And actually, this reminds me, Mike Robertson posted this idea a few months ago and I did try it for a few sessions and it was good I think: unilateral leg raises; you raise only one leg at a time. It's hard and you can feel it in your core.