The training of any athlete must meet all strength and performance demands related to their sport. The Conjugate Method offers a strength training framework that enables coaches to tailor training plans to achieve specific outcomes directly relevant to the athlete's sport. No matter the sport, weight room time is often limited, so the method a coach uses must be as efficient and effective as possible. 

Our training style utilizes three methods: maximal, dynamic, and repeated effort. These methods introduce different types of training stimulus to improve absolute and explosive strength, along with muscular hypertrophy and work capacity. It is the use of these three training methods that makes Conjugate a Swiss army knife when it comes to strength and conditioning. 

However, the quality and outcomes of Conjugate-based training will always depend on the knowledge of the coach or athlete designing and applying the training plan. The goal of the Basic Conjugate Training Advice series is to provide insight and advice on a wide range of subjects related to Conjugate Method training. 

Below, we will discuss a few ways to improve the overall quality and outcomes of your Conjugate Method-based training plan. 

Rotating Accessory Exercises

The use of accessory exercises is a critical aspect of Conjugate Method training. This training is valuable due to the multitude of benefits it can provide. When performing accessory exercises, we can improve strength, increase muscle mass, and enhance work capacity depending on the set and rep schemes applied. 

Similar to our main exercise selections, our accessory exercise selection involves the use of exercise variations. Exercise variation enables us to increase training specificity and optimize the training to meet the individual's needs and weaknesses. When selected and programmed correctly, this training can significantly increase its efficiency.  

To ensure our accessory work remains productive, we want to ensure we are rotating exercises appropriately. At Westside, we typically rotate our accessory work one of two ways: each week or once every three weeks.

The rotation of accessory work will depend on the athlete we are working with. If we are dealing with an athlete who is new to training, we will opt to rotate exercises once every three weeks. This allows the athlete to become acclimated to these movements while still avoiding accommodation. 

Intermediate to advanced-level athletes can often benefit from more frequent rotation of accessory exercises. At Westside, we typically rotate our accessory exercise selections every week. This enables us to increase the specificity of the training further and deliver stimuli capable of eliciting positive training adaptations in more experienced athletes. 

It is important to note that while we rotate exercises frequently, we typically work from the same exercise selection pool without adding in a bunch of exotic variations just for the sake of adding more variation. What mainly changes is the timing of exercise selections and the manner in which they are programmed. 

Assessing Athletic Potential

When working with an athlete, a coach must accurately assess the individual's capabilities and limitations. Too often, coaches misapply their own personal experiences and limitations to other athletes, and ultimately limit the progress their athletes make. While we do not discount the importance of personal experience in developing training knowledge and sensibilities, coaches must avoid being close-minded. 

These coaches typically fall into one of two categories: genetically gifted athletes who expect others to respond to and advance in training at a similar rate to their personal improvement, or coaches who struggle with developing their own personal strength and conditioning abilities and believe all athletes face similar struggles. 

Coaches must maintain an open mind when it comes to strength training and assess each athlete on an individual basis. The best coaches and training plans meet the athlete where they are currently and provide them with a blueprint to make rapid progress through a highly optimized training program tailored to the individual needs of the athlete. 

If you want to develop an athlete as efficiently as possible, the training must be built around their training needs. Not the opinions of coaches who believe their experience with barbell training will be everyone else's experience. 

As an athlete, you must be wise to the game and become capable of identifying these types. Failure to do so can limit your progress. It will also drain your wallet of cash sent to an individual who is essentially slow rolling your training due to a lack of knowledge or outright close-mindedness to the broad spectrum of strength and conditioning approaches. 

If you are unable to assess an athlete properly, the effectiveness of their training plan will ultimately be limited, and progress will eventually stall.

Training Density for Powerlifters 

One aspect of training that is often overlooked is density. Training density refers to the amount of work an athlete achieves in a specific amount of time. At Westside, our training strategy emphasizes training density to enhance the work capacity and conditioning of our athletes. 

When increasing density, it is essential to acknowledge some basic parameters. First, the density targets must be achievable and not result in an extreme reduction in training weights. This means that we want to avoid moving so quickly through the workout that our energy levels are affected to the point where our training weights are significantly lighter than usual.

In this situation, it would still be possible to improve work capacity and conditioning. However, absolute and explosive strength development would ultimately be negatively affected. 

This leads to the next training density guideline we want to adhere to, which is to pick and choose where we increase the density within a training day. For instance, a max effort day would be less dense during the main exercise, considering rest periods between sets are critical to achieve optimal ATP replenishment. 

However, we can focus on training density during any other aspect of our Conjugate-based training plan. With dynamic effort, we can decrease rest times between sets. With accessory exercise work, we can opt to decrease rest times between sets or perform supersets. 

Some will argue that supersets are not an efficient means of achieving optimal hypertrophy. However, any hypertrophy potential lost is made up for by the gains made in work capacity and conditioning. If you are focused on strength, conditioning, and sports performance, supersets are a great option. 

Powerlifters should never neglect their overall work capacity and conditioning levels. Not only do these aspects of fitness influence athletic performance, but they also impact other key aspects of sports performance, such as recovery rate, durability, and resilience. The better conditioned the lifter, the easier it is to make it through a competition lifting to their full potential. 

Increasing training density is an easy means for the average powerlifter to improve their conditioning and add pounds to their total. 

For more information on Conjugate Method strength and conditioning, check out the WSBB Blog.