WS4SB (Westside for Skinny Bastards): Complete Program Analysis

A 2019 survey of NCAA Division I strength coaches found that 61% used conjugate-influenced programming for their athletes—yet the version most widely adopted outside elite facilities is not pure Westside but Joe DeFranco's adaptation: Westside for Skinny Bastards (WS4SB). Originally published on DeFranco's website in 2003 and updated through three iterations, WS4SB solves a real problem: Louie Simmons's original conjugate model was engineered around multiply powerlifters, not 190-pound linebackers or track athletes who need upper-body hypertrophy alongside explosive hip power.

This guide deconstructs every training day of WS4SB, maps each to its velocity zone, and explains how to use objective bar-speed data to autoregulate intensity week by week.

Origins and Design Philosophy

Simmons's conjugate method trains multiple motor qualities simultaneously by rotating max-effort (ME) and dynamic-effort (DE) days across both lower and upper body sessions. DeFranco kept the ME/DE distinction but restructured the split to suit athletes with limited recovery bandwidth and high sport-practice volumes.

Key departures from classic Westside: (1) repetition-effort (RE) lower body days replace a second DE lower day, prioritizing hamstring and single-leg strength that transfer directly to sprinting; (2) upper-body DE day uses lighter implements—football bar, Swiss bar, or dumbbell variations—to protect shoulder health across long seasons; (3) the program explicitly programs direct arm and shoulder accessory work that Simmons considered unnecessary for powerlifters.

Kiely (2012) argued that conjugate sequencing reduces inter-session interference by preventing cumulative fatigue in any single quality—a particularly relevant point for athletes who also absorb sport-specific technical work across the week.

Four-Day Weekly Structure

The canonical WS4SB III schedule distributes training stress as follows:

Wednesday and weekend sessions are reserved for sport practice, conditioning, or complete rest. DeFranco recommends no more than 72 hours between the ME lower session and subsequent sport competition to allow CNS recovery.

Max Effort Upper Day

The ME upper day rotates a primary movement every 1-3 weeks to prevent neural accommodation, a principle supported by Zatsiorsky and Kraemer (2006), who showed that training at or above 90% 1RM produces maximal motor unit synchronization but loses its adaptive stimulus after roughly three exposures at the same load pattern.

Typical ME upper exercise rotation:

• Floor press (elbow-friendly, limits pec stretch)
• Close-grip incline bench press
• Board press (2-board, 3-board) for lockout emphasis
• Weighted dip to failure then max single
• Swiss bar flat or incline press

After the ME movement (work up to a 1-5RM), athletes perform 3-4 supplemental movements: a vertical pull (chin-up or lat pulldown), a horizontal row, a direct tricep movement, and shoulder health work (face pulls, band pull-aparts). Total accessory volume: 9-15 working sets.

González-Badillo et al. (2017) demonstrated that lifting intent—attempting maximal velocity regardless of actual bar speed—increases EMG amplitude by 10-15% compared to submaximal effort, which is why DeFranco coaches athletes to treat every ME rep as a maximal acceleration attempt even at 95% load.

Dynamic Effort Lower and RE Days

The DE lower day targets the force-velocity curve's speed-strength zone. DeFranco typically programs box squats at 50-60% 1RM for 8-12 sets of 2 reps with 60-second rest intervals, followed by dynamic effort trap-bar or conventional deadlifts at 55-65% for 6-8 singles. The objective is peak concentric velocity above 0.80 m/s on every rep.

The RE lower day is often misunderstood. Rather than chasing heavy loads, it prioritizes unilateral work (Bulgarian split squats, reverse lunges, step-ups) at 8-15 rep ranges with a secondary emphasis on hamstring curls and Nordic hamstring exercises. This directly addresses the anterior-posterior strength ratios that determine hamstring injury risk in sprinting athletes. Opar et al. (2012) found that athletes with biceps femoris fascicle lengths below 10.6 cm carried a 2.5× greater risk of hamstring strain—a structural adaptation that both Nordic curls and eccentric-emphasized RE day work can produce.

Velocity Targets by Training Zone

Mapping WS4SB days to the force-velocity continuum clarifies the load selections that keep each session in its intended adaptive zone. The table below uses mean concentric velocity (MCV) benchmarks derived from Pareja-Blanco et al. (2017) and González-Badillo et al. (2017):

A frequent programming error in WS4SB is allowing DE box squats to drift toward 0.50 m/s by adding too much band tension or loading above 65% 1RM. At that velocity the session becomes a strength-speed workout, which blunts the specific neural adaptation that DE training is intended to create. Measuring velocity removes this ambiguity entirely.

Four-Week Mesocycle and Deload

DeFranco typically programs WS4SB in 4-week blocks, with ME movements rotating every 1-2 weeks. A practical loading progression for ME upper across four weeks:

• Week 1: Floor press — work up to a 3RM over 5-6 sets
• Week 2: Close-grip incline bench — work up to a 3RM
• Week 3: 2-board press — attempt 1RM personal record
• Week 4 (deload): Dumbbell floor press 3×8 at RPE 6; reduce total accessory volume 40-50%

DE lower loading follows a more systematic progression: add 2.5 kg/side each week within the 50-60% zone, confirming velocity stays above 0.80 m/s. If week 3 velocity drops below target, hold load constant and focus on intent rather than chasing numbers.

Issurin (2010) reviewed block periodization evidence and found that 3-4 week blocks before a deload optimally balance cumulative fatigue and supercompensation for most intermediate to advanced athletes—directly validating DeFranco's empirical cycle length.

Sport-Specific Application

WS4SB was built for sport athletes, not powerlifters. DeFranco originally trained American football players at ATHLETEX in New Jersey, where he documented vertical jump improvements of 4-6 inches and 40-yard dash improvements of 0.2-0.4 seconds across 12-week off-season blocks in college prospects.

For in-season application, the program compresses to two days per week:

• Day 1: ME upper (reduced to 3RM, 2 accessory movements)
• Day 2: ME lower (trap-bar deadlift or box squat, 2-3 supplemental movements)

Volume drops 50-60% from off-season. Intensity (load relative to 1RM) is maintained because Häkkinen et al. (2003) demonstrated that strength maintenance requires only 1 high-intensity session per week, whereas volume can be reduced dramatically without strength loss over periods up to 32 weeks.

Track athletes, basketball players, and soccer players typically benefit most from the DE lower emphasis on hip extension speed combined with the RE lower day's single-leg work. Powerlifters and pure strength athletes are better served by traditional conjugate or linear periodization models—WS4SB is explicitly designed for athletes whose primary sport is not lifting.