Here’s my experience with extra workouts during my time at Westside Barbell.
How many guys did them?
As far as I know, not very many. Louie liked them, but to be honest, I never saw anyone do them. Nor did I see anyone NOT do them, so I don’t really know other than what I was told. For the most part, people trained four days a week.
I tried extra workouts before training there, and all they did was tire me out. I could see them being a benefit when your main workouts are cut short or you have limited time to train. But then it’s not really an extra workout; it’s just making up for lost training time.
Who benefits from extra workouts?
I guess some people could benefit from them. However, in my experience, the vast majority of people probably need to focus more on recovery, eating, and that sort of thing.
I think many people believe they can “hack” their strength gains or find a way around training, experience, and good decisions. Then they get a green light to do more training. Instead of doing it appropriately, they go balls out—and then they can’t figure out why their normal training is in the shitter all the time.
They get weaker, have to take time off or step back, and then try to find another way to make up for lost time and “hack” their strength gains again. And the cycle continues.
What counts as an extra workout?
Understand that “extra workouts” have nothing to do with concurrent training. These are sessions Louie did in addition to the main training days. The idea is to work on weak points or improve your general physical preparedness (GPP).
If your weak point is mobility, a yoga session is an extra workout. If it’s conditioning, a weight vest walk is an extra workout.
What has worked best for me?
In 30+ years of training, if you want to improve your GPP and recover better, NOTHING works like active recovery from the Forever book.
It’s not sexy or anything “new wave,” but everything else I’ve done pales in comparison.
