Football requires an athlete to be strong, fast, and well-conditioned. Success on the field is not just a matter of sports skill; it is also a matter of physical strength and capability. After four quarters of football, the more physically dominant team is often victorious. 

The Conjugate Method allows a coach or athlete to improve all sport-relevant strengths simultaneously. This is a tremendous advantage to both coaches and athletes, considering the time spent in the gym is often limited due to practice and game schedules. Using the Conjugate Method, teams can make the most of their time in the gym and achieve training outcomes that show up where it matters most – on the field. 

Through the use of maximal, dynamic, and repeated effort methods, we can improve an athlete's absolute strength, explosive power, strength endurance, conditioning, and physical composition. Essentially, the Conjugate Method allows us to develop an athlete to the most significant degree efficiently. 

Below, we will review our basic Conjugate Football offseason training template, designed to allow athletes to maximize their barbell training time while ensuring optimal week-to-week recovery. 

The Schedule

Each week during the offseason, athletes will execute four training days. These days will include a max effort upper and lower day, a combined dynamic effort day, and a general conditioning day. This training schedule allows us to address the basic aspects of sports performance while still leaving three recovery days away from the gym.

When training athletes, we want to find the right training frequency to ensure optimal recovery. The most critical aspect of successful athlete barbell training is preventing excess fatigue from affecting sports performance. This four-day training schedule allows athletes to physically improve and recover at an acceptable rate without interfering with sports practice or competition. 

Here is the basic Conjugate Football offseason training schedule:

Monday:

Max Effort Lower

Wednesday:

Max Effort Upper

Friday:

Combined Dynamic Effort

Saturday or Sunday:

General Conditioning

When scheduling barbell training times, it is vital to ensure the planned time works with any scheduled practice sessions a team may have. For instance, if there are planned football drills for the morning session, it would be best to train in the afternoon or evening. We want to ensure athletes rest adequately before each barbell training session.

Doing so not only keeps the training session productive but also helps ensure athletes have enough energy to complete all exercises properly. We do not want athletes rolling into the gym tired from a training session that just ended ten minutes ago. If this happens, athletes begin going through the motions, and the training is either ineffective due to improper training weights or dangerous due to excess fatigue affecting exercise execution. 

Ideally, athletes walk into the gym well-rested and ready to execute all exercises to the best of their ability. 

Training Day Breakdown

While each training day focuses on a different goal, all our workouts follow a similar programming scheme. First, we will kick off each training day with a main exercise. It doesn't matter which training day we are executing; the first exercise will be an upper or lower body multi-joint movement. 

Once the main movement of the day has been completed, we will move on to the primary accessory exercise. This exercise will also be multi-joint. It is used to build further strength and competency in common barbell movements such as the squat, bench press, and deadlift. 

For instance, on an upper body day, we might follow up a max effort bench press with a close-grip bench press as a primary accessory exercise programmed in repeated effort fashion. These movements are often programmed for 3-5 sets of 3-5, 5-8, or 8-10 repetitions. 

After completing the primary accessory exercise, we move on to secondary accessory exercises. These movements can be either multi- or single-joint exercises and will feature slightly higher rep counts per set than our primary accessory movement. With the primary accessory, we want to escalate training intensity a bit, while with the secondary movements, we are primarily concerned with accruing volume and achieving optimal levels of hypertrophy. 

The conditioning day will be slightly different. There will be no "main" exercises, just a selection of basic conditioning-related exercises intended to improve overall physical fitness. Lou has repeatedly stated that you must be in shape to train correctly. The goal of the conditioning day is simple – keep athletes fit so that recovery is optimal and training remains productive. 

Here is a template outlining the basic approach to programming a training day:

Max Effort Lower

Main Exercise:

Sumo Deadlift – work up to a top set single, leave a set in the tank. 

Primary Accessory Exercise:

SSB Squat – 4 x 5-8 reps

Secondary Accessory Exercise:

Walking Dumbbell Lunge – 4 x 10-12

Reverse Hyper – 4 x 12-15

Weighted GHD Sit-Up – 5 x 12-15

Coaching the Methods

While a well-planned training schedule and training day are a good start, an athlete's success with training all comes down to how well they are coached in the gym. The training plan gets you started, but the execution and effort applied to training decide where you end up. It is on the coaching staff to ensure execution and effort remain in check. 

Max effort training calls on athletes to train at high levels of intensity. Considering many athletes may be new to max effort training, defining what constitutes effective max effort training is critical. Unfortunately, many believe max effort training is all about laying it all on the line to lift the heaviest weight possible to achieve an all-time PR.

However, this is not how we recommend approaching max effort training, especially with athletes. It is important to note that absolute strength can be adequately improved when athletes reach a training intensity of 90% or above for 1-3 total repetitions. Knowing this, we often recommend athletes leave a set in the tank when executing max effort training. 

Leaving a set in the tank lowers the risk of failure and the overall risk of injury. As mentioned, many athletes will likely be unfamiliar with max effort training, so we avoid taking them into the deep waters of training intensity. The goal is to achieve optimal training stimulus and get on with the training day without incurring too much fatigue or risking potential injury. 

The dynamic effort method requires athletes to lift submaximal training weights at maximal velocity. Ideally, athletes should be capable of maintaining an average of .8ms during their dynamic effort main exercises. To ensure athletes can achieve this velocity, coaches must monitor each athlete's training weights.

While slow dynamic effort work will turn into repeated effort work and yield results, it will not afford an athlete the benefits in rate of force development that properly executed dynamic effort work will. It can often be difficult for athletes to grasp the idea of lifting a lighter weight faster, since many athletes think that more weight means more gains. Coaches must stress the importance of barbell velocity when training dynamic effort. 

Additionally, we want to ensure athletes remain technically strict during dynamic effort training. We do not want to become so obsessed with barbell velocity that technique goes out the window. Suppose an athlete cannot maintain proper technique and velocity at the prescribed training weight. In that case, we lower the training weight until we find the appropriate intensity level that allows for both technique and velocity to be optimal. 

Repeated effort work is relatively simple in execution, but must be monitored to prevent athletes from dialing the work in. Coaches must ensure athletes use the proper training weights for all accessory exercises. We recommend choosing the heaviest training weight an athlete can use while completing all prescribed sets and reps with strict technique. 

Completing the work is not enough; the training weight selections must be heavy enough to drive further adaptations. 

The success of an athlete in the gym depends not only on their own discipline and effort but also on the standard set by the coaching staff. Is the gym a place to hang out or a place to get work done to the highest standard? 

Efficient and Productive

Offseason training is the most important training of the year. This is where meaningful gains in absolute strength, explosive power, strength endurance, conditioning, and physical composition are made. Considering this, coaches and athletes must utilize a strength training methodology that efficiently addresses and improves all sport-related special strengths and traits. 

No other method compares to the Conjugate Method in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. As long as training is appropriately organized and executed, athletes can expect to make meaningful gains in the offseason that are noticeable on the field once the season begins. 

Athletes only have so much time per year to prioritize barbell training. This is why coaches and athletes must follow an organized and efficient offseason training plan that prioritizes all sport-relevant strengths and traits. Ideally, athletes make great gains in the offseason, maintain them throughout the season, and enter the next offseason stronger and faster than they were in the previous offseason. 

If managed correctly, athletes will improve each offseason, allowing for true athletic potential to be realized. I often wonder how many athletes have been held back or injured by poorly planned or executed training plans. If a coach follows the programming strategies discussed above to a T, athletes will improve year to year and become better athletes as their career progresses.

To reach true athletic potential, you must choose the most optimal strength training method. If your goal is effective and productive offseason training, look no further than the Conjugate Method. 

Sources:

Simmons, L. (2007). Westside Barbell Book of Methods. Westside Barbell.

Verkhoshansky, Y., & Siff, M. C. (2009). Supertraining. Verkhoshansky.

Zatsiorsky, V. M., & Kraemer, W. J. (2006). Science and Practice of Strength Training. Human Kinetics