Louie Simmons: A Second Opinion

We have all seen or heard of Louie Simmons ( if you haven't, please come out from under your rock ;-p ) and a number of people have referenced Deepsquatter’s FAQ on his training methods. I won't attempt to explain the system at this point, if you don't know his methodology I would direct you to the Louie FAQ elsewhere on this page. What I am going to do here is give you a slightly different take on Louie's training methods that have been working for me quite well. A quick reminder that this set-up was designed with my brother's (training partner) and my weak points in mind. That is one of the really great things about Louie's system is that it is highly customizable.
     A few distinct points that make my version different than some other versions. I only train three days a week instead of the recommended four. I do this for a couple of reasons. (1) My wife (the Sgt. Major) likes it when I spend some time at home...go figure. (2) I feel the extra rest is imperative to my growth. After working full-time and helping to raise a 16 mos. old daughter (talk about energy!?) I _need_ some down time. For those of you with multiple children...you have my respect. Add in the Caveman training on the weekends, I do get four days but, not in the conventional method. Lifting in the gym three days forces me to “float” my fourth day of the mini-cycle. What I mean by this is that if the days are 1,2,3,4 respectively then I would lift in a progression like so....

Mon.: 1 Wed: 2 Fri.: 3
Mon.: 4 Wed: 1 Fir: 2
Mon.: 3 Wed: 4 Fir: 1

...and so on. I think you get the picture. This is nice in that each day of each week is not the same bodypart/motion from week to week. I used to work a Mon.: SQ Wed: BP Fir: DL and the grind of it got to be monotonous. Mentally it helps to keep things fresh. Some weeks we get a hard dose of SQ/DL work and other weeks we get a hard dose of BP. Gives a little intensity shift from week to week. The other major difference to Louie's proposed plan is we train with no equipment. Louie has his guys utilize suit bottoms for squats and deadlifts. We try to stay away from even the belt during the training. Now at some points we forego this but, for the most part we try to strengthen without any assistance. This type of training really focuses on working your back. Louie quotes in one of his tapes “a strong man is strong in his back.” Amen (being a Deadlift freak I am a little biased so don't give my opinion too much weight ;-p).
Real quick note before I get into the actual workout. I utilized Jason's program as my first set-up to get familiar with the way the whole philosophy felt. During that time I did a lot of research on the Louie system and got all his tapes (except the 3 hour BP...soon). Doing the already developed program showed me where I was strong and where I was weak. I got a good idea of what I needed to be doing to attack where _my_ weak points were and how I needed to alter the program to suit my needs. Just food for thought to anyone who is entertaining ideas of switching to this type of training. Without further adieu here is the workout and I will throw some comments in afterwards.