Westside for Skinny Bastards (WS4SB) is Joe DeFranco’s hybrid, Westside-style program for skinny lifters and hard-gainers who want to add size and strength at the same time. It’s built around a primary heavy lift plus supplemental and accessory work, and DeFranco published it as two different templates: the original 3-day version (Part 1) and a later 4-day revision (Part 3). Pick the one that fits your schedule and how much you want to train.
The program borrows the Westside Barbell idea of rotating a max-effort lift and a repetition (higher-rep) lift, but it trims the conjugate method down into something a high schooler, athlete, or working professional can actually run. You train the upper body twice a week and hit the lower body hard, with the max-effort method building strength and the repetition method adding muscle. It’s a loose template, not a strict percentage-of-1RM plan, so you’ll rotate exercises every few weeks and do a little interpreting as you go.
WS4SB is geared toward ectomorphs and athletes who want general size and strength rather than a competition powerlifting total. If you’re brand new to lifting and want something simpler to start with, a straight linear program like Starting Strength or StrongLifts 5×5 is an easier on-ramp. Inspired by Westside, this program is not affiliated with Westside Barbell or Louie Simmons, and it is not a powerlifting program.
Table of Contents
Westside for Skinny Bastards Program Overview
Both versions share the same building blocks: a max-effort upper day, a lower body day, and a repetition upper day. The 4-day version (Part 3) adds a separate dynamic-effort lower day for jumps and speed work. Here’s how each training day is built.
Max-effort upper body day
- max effort lift
- supplemental lift
- horizontal row
- rear delt / upper back
- weighted abdominal exercise
Lower body day
- max effort lift
- unilateral movement
- hamstring / posterior chain movement
- grip training
Repetition upper body day
- repetition lift
- supplemental lift (tricep accessory movement)
- vertical pulling
- medial delt or trap exercise
- elbow flexion exercise
- abdominal circuit training
Almost any question you have about WS4SB is answered in DeFranco’s own posts. Part 1 covers the 3-day program with example set and rep ranges, Part 2 explains how to add running and conditioning, and Part 3 lays out the 4-day version. If you read one thing first, read Part 1.
Which Version Should You Run?
If you’re newer to the program or only have three training days a week, start with Part 1 (or the simplified 3-day option DeFranco includes in Part 3). If you want the dynamic-effort lower day for jumps and speed work and you can train four days a week, run Part 3. Each version has its own spreadsheet below.
WS4SB is a template and the exercises rotate every few weeks, so feel free to swap movements in the sheets. These are a guide and a starting point, not a fixed list.
WS4SB Part 1 (Original 3-Day)
Part 1 is the original WS4SB, run 3 days a week: a max-effort upper day, a max-effort lower day, and a repetition upper day. There’s no dynamic-effort or speed lower day in this version, so you hit the lower body once with heavy max-effort work. The upper-body supplemental lift is run for about 3 to 4 sets of 6 to 10 reps, which builds the size DeFranco wrote this program to add.
Source: Joe DeFranco, Westside for Skinny Bastards – Part 1
WS4SB Part 3 (4-Day)
Part 3 is DeFranco’s 4-day revision: ME upper on Monday, a dynamic-effort lower day (box jumps and speed work) on Tuesday, repetition upper on Thursday, and ME lower on Friday. Splitting the lower body into a max-effort day and a separate speed day is what sets Part 3 apart from the original. The ME-upper supplemental lift here is run differently too, for 2 sets of max reps in the 15 to 20 range.
Source: Joe DeFranco, Westside for Skinny Bastards – Part 3
