The Conjugate Method

Heres a quick break down on the Westside Barbell Method. I wouldnt recommend this for absolute beginners, but if your interested in powerlifting I believe this is a great program. The only downfall to the program is the individual, its up to you to modify the program to work for you. For more info on the program, EliteFTS.com has some good Ebooks or Westside Barbell.com has tons of articles..

When lifters repeatedly use the same simple method of training to raise their strength level, they will eventually stall. Like the scholar who must utilize many sources of information to achieve a higher level of knowledge, the lifter must incor-porate new and more difficult exercises to raise their standards. Many have the theory that to squat, bench, or deadlift more, you simply have to do the three lifts. If it were that simple no one would need special exercises, machines, or systems of training. But we know this is not true.

Because lifters have different body types, they may excel at one lift but struggle with another. The great Lamar Gant was the only lifter I have known who held the world record deadlift and bench at the same time. There are men who hold three world records in the deadlift, yet can’t make the top 10 bench list. Their muscles in the upper body are, I’m sure, as strong as anyone’s, but they are limited by body structure, e.g., short torso, long arms. Many of us are affected by this. But is there an answer?

In the early 1970s, the Dynamo Club in the former Soviet Union had 70 highly skilled Olympic lifters. They were introduced to a system of 20-45 special exercises that were grouped into 2-4 exercises per work-out and were rotated as often as necessary to make continuous progress They soon found out that as the squat, good morning, back raise, glute/ham raise, or special pulls got stronger, so did their Olympic lifts. When asked about the system, only one lifter was satisfied with the number of special lifts; the rest wanted more to choose from. And so the conjugate system was originated.

When you have a body type that lacks say, the muscles that squat and yet you squat on a regular ba-sis, then a coupling of special exercises for the glutes, hamstrings, hips, and lower back are needed to fortify those areas. These special exercises will en-able you to raise your squat once more.

Think about it if you read only one book, no matter how many times you read it, you will only learn so much. If you only squat, you will get only so strong because no new stimulus is introduced. This may not happen in the early stages of training, but as you become more advanced, you will need a more strenuous method of training. This training will indeed help your motor potential and help you to perfect your technical skill.

Before I present some examples of conjugate training, think about this. How much could you bench press the first time you tried? 200? 300 perhaps? Now how did you achieve that level of strength without ever having benched be-fore? You did it through simplified training such as pushups and pull-ups. Those of you who could bench 300 the first time will never double that amount without doing specialized work to raise your strength, right?

Here are some ex-amples of the conju-gate method. Glen Chabot bench presses only twice a month. Both times he uses a close-grip style He can do 405 for reps in the low teens. His best single close grip is 635 without a shirt. In be-tween each workout, he rotates heavy dumbbell work on a flat or incline bench or very heavy bodybuilding exercises for lats, delts, pecs, and triceps.

This linking of special exercises has given Glen a 705 bench press at 275. Glen does not arch when he benches and has fairly long arms. He realized that he needed a special program to fortify his pressing muscles. This is a simple but very effective training program.

A more complex system is Kenny Patterson’s. He will do floor press, chain press, board press, incline press, and over-head press, just to name a few, rotating to a different- exercise each max effort day. On the dynamic day, Kenny uses three different grips on the bench press and uses 60% of his no-shirt max for 8 sets of 3 reps. He adds a lot of triceps extensions with dumbbells or the barbell, rows (one-arm, two-arm, chest-supported), pull downs, delt raises, and forearm work. This is a more complex system than Glen’s, but it suits Kenny’s needs. Kenny is a legitimate 700 bencher, having done it several times across the country.

Mike Ruggiera and myself just made 900 squats. It was a 50pound increase for him and a 40-pound increase for me, yet we did not do a single regular squat in between meets. We do box squats on speed days with a large amount of bands and weight. We also use the Re-verse hyper machine and do glute/ham raises, pull-throughs, and abs. I pull a weighted sled before my squat workouts.

On max effort day, we do good mornings (five varities), belt squats, speed deadlifts (60% for 6-8 singles), and Safety Power Squat Bar squats to different box heights. Mike also pulled his first 800 deadlift, without having done any conventional squats and no big deadlifts. After squatting he does deadlifts for singles with 60% for speed, and three days later he maxes out on special work: this is the conjugate method.

To push up a squat, heavy good mornings or squatting with different bars is done on max effort day. The different bars make squatting very awkward and extremely hard to do, much harder than a regular squat. (The same is true of box squats; they are harder than competition squats.) On max effort day we may do a type of squat on week 1, a good morning on week 2. and a front squat on week 3, each exercise contributing to the next week’s exercise, which in turn will build a bigger squat by strengthen-ing the weaker muscle group and perfecting form.

The training is linked together, enabling you to raise your total. For instance, to build the glute and hamstring area, push up your reverse hyper®5356,359 and 6,491,607b2 extensions as hard as possible until your progress slows. Move on to pull-throughs for a week or two, until progress in these slows as well. Then go to glute/ham raises, and again push as fast and hard as possible. Then pull a sled walking forward to build the glutes/hamstrings. It is possible to continuously gain strength in any body part by switching special exercises. As the effectiveness of the exercise decreases, switch to another one. By training in this manner, it is possible to raise all types of strength throughout the year.

On max effort day the entire volume consists of unidirectional loading. One training workout con-tributes to the next. Keep in mind that if you train a lift at 90% or more for more than 3 weeks, your central nervous system is negatively and your progress will go backward. But by switching exercises each week (for the high-level lifter), you can use 100% and more each week. The sequence of exercises you use does not matter, as long as the load is maximal. The time it takes to do a maximal effort, for example in a low box squat with a Manta Ray, takes at least as long as max deadlift or squat. This is called “time under tension”.

The conjugate method also improves SPP (special physical preparedness e.g., speed deadlifts, plyometrics) and GPP (general physical preparedness; e.g., sled drag-ging). This is the most effective method to gain strength continu-ously throughout the year, with no ridiculous off-season. No one can afford to take time off. By maintain-ing the speed work for the three lifts and increasing general wonk (e.g., upper and lower body sled work, lats, abs, and triceps) you won’t go back-ward. There are many methods of training, but by incorporating the conjugate method, you can’t miss.

Click to expand...

Here is the standard Template:

Working With the Standard Template
By Jim Wendler

The Standard Template

There is a great story from Dave about how the Standard Template originated. I've heard it 435 different times and it never gets old. But that's because Dave signs my checks and I have to nod and laugh whenever he says anything. All kidding aside, the Standard Template was really first introduced in Dave's article, The Periodization Bible, Part I and is gone over extensively in The Periodization Bible, Part II. This was a two part series that made things easier for me and really broke things down. Remember, that I was in your shoes not too long ago, so I understand your frustration with some of this stuff. This is probably the most used template that people follow. Here is the general breakdown of the Standard Template. For many of you this is review, so bear with me.

Sunday – Dynamic Effort Bench

Dynamic Bench Press
Triceps
Shoulders
Lats/Upper Back


Monday – Max Effort Squat/DL

Max Effort Exercise
Hamstrings
Low Back
Abs


Wednesday – Max Effort Bench Press

Max Effort Exercise
Triceps
Shoulders
Lats/Upper Back


Friday – Dynamic Squat/DL

Dynamic Squat
Hamstrings
Low Back
Abs


Review of the Standard Template

2 days devoted to the bench press
2 days devoted to the squat/deadlift
2 days devoted to dynamic training
2 days devoted to max effort training
4 days devoted to repetition training
Now let's review some of the training parameters within this template. For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to leave out chains and bands. Everything is going to be done with straight weight so there will be no confusion about percentages. Plus, I am going to leave out stance, grip changes, rest periods, etc. In reality, most of this stuff is inconsequential once you grasp the big picture.

Bench Press Parameters for the Standard Template (dynamic, max effort and repetition)

Dynamic bench press – 8 sets of 3 repetitions; all sets done are done with 55% of raw 1RM. Rest periods are approximately 60 seconds, but have never really seen the purpose of this, personally. The whole goal of speed day is to move the bar quickly on the concentric. If you need to take an extra minute to accomplish the goal of the day, then by all means, do so. Also, don't get too hung up on changing your grips. The only reason why I changed my grip on this day was to keep track of the number of sets I was doing. Again, remember why you are doing what you are doing.

Max effort bench press – this includes a variety of exercises, but the most por are the floor press, 2 board press, 3 board press, incline press and close grip bench press. On max effort bench press day, you pick one of these exercises and work to a 1RM. Most will switch to a different exercise every 1-2 weeks and simply try to break their record. On this day, based on your 1RM for THAT day, you will try to do 3 lifts at or above 90%. You can take as much rest as you want, but I would probably say around 3-5 minutes between your heaviest sets.

Triceps – one day is devoted to high intensity/low volume triceps work, the other is devoted to low intensity/high volume triceps. For example, high intensity triceps training would consist of 4 or 5 board presses or rack lockouts. The low intensity training will be geared to triceps extensions and pushdowns. On what day to put each of these is entirely up to you. In my experience, I've always had good results putting the high intensity day on dynamic bench day.

Shoulders – this is similar to the triceps in that there is a high intensity and low intensity day. The high intensity day is technically not high intensity, but high stress. In this category, I would put dumbbell bench press, dumbbell incline presses, military presses (with dumbbells or a straight bar) and dumbbell floor presses. In the low stress category, front raises, side raises and rear raises are good choices. Again, you can choose which day to put them on, but I liked putting the high stress shoulder training on dynamic bench day.

Lats/Upper back – Both days are devoted to lats and upper back and both are done with low intensity, high volume. The way that I worked this is that on Sunday, I would do lat work (usually a row or a pull-up) and no upper back work. On Wednesday, I would do another lat workout (but with a different exercise) and my low stress shoulder work would consist of a rear raise, face pull or a seated dumbbell power clean. So essentially, on the low stress shoulder day, I would kill two birds with one stone: an upper back exercise with a low stress shoulder movement. I did this because I never did front raises or side raises and felt that I got enough stimulation from my other work. It's not gospel, but it's something to think about.

Squat and Deadlift Parameters for the Standard Template

Dynamic Squat – All sets done on a parallel box. A three week wave is used using the following sets and reps.

Week 1 – 10x2 @ 50%
Week 2 – 10x2 @ 55%
Week 3 – 10x2 @ 60%
Upon completion of the 3rd week, you simply start the wave over again. All %'s are based on your best squat. Let's disregard equipment at this point and say it's based on your best 1RM of your box squat wearing whatever you usually wear on this day. Again, refer to my commentary on dynamic bench training regarding rest periods. This is not conditioning, this is speed work. Save your conditioning for another time.

Max Effort Squat and Deadlift – Similar to the max effort bench press, one exercise is used per week and worked up to a 1RM. Because most people have eliminated good mornings as a max effort exercise, I will choose the following for your exercises. I understand that many do not have these bars that I list, but this is the list, nonetheless:

Safety squat bar squat
Cambered bar squat
Manta Ray squat
(All squats are done on a low (1-2" below parallel), parallel or high (1-2" above parallel) box. As you can tell, there is a great many variations with these three exercises.
Rack deadlifts (or pin pulls)
Deadlifts while standing on elevated platform
Reverse band deadlifts
Again, you want to hit around 3 lifts at or above 90% of your 1RM for that day. Most people switch exercises every week or every 2 weeks. Try to break your PR from your previous effort. To make things easier, simply switch between a squat movement and a deadlift movement. Rest 3-5 minutes between your heaviest sets.

Hamstrings – now here is where things get tricky. Unlike the shoulders/triceps routine of high intensity/low intensity, many people are weak at such exercises as the glute ham raise that they simply need to do the exercise and not worry so much about sets/reps. If you don't fall into this category, you can do bodyweight glute ham raises on one day, and on the other day, you can add a band or a plate for resistance.

Low Back – Again, we cannot really isolate the lower back without hitting the glutes and hamstrings. But you can pick from exercises such as back raises, 45 degree back raises, Reverse Hyperextensions, pull-throughs and good mornings. Depending on how you do some of these exercises (i.e. with a great amount of intensity) you can use ONE of these for your hamstring and low back exercise. For example, good mornings can be done for both. If you were to pick reverse hyperextensions or pull-throughs, then you can get away with doing an extra hamstring exercise. Some people can train their lower back twice a week, others cannot. A good way to do this is to pick one "easy" exercise (R.H., pull-throughs, un-weighted back raises or band good mornings) on one day and pick a heavier exercise on the second lower body training day.

Abdominals – These are usually trained heavy twice a week in the standard template. Some good exercises to choose from weighted sit ups, Roman Chair sit-ups, stability ball, hanging leg raises, side bends. This is not very complicated but you just need to do them; that's usually the hardest part.

So let's go over the pro's and con's of the standard template:

Pro's of the Standard Template:

Variation: Because you are doing a variety of exercises on max effort day, it helps keep things fresh and keeps you motivated. Plus most people have never done board presses, floor presses or box squats before trying the standard template, so there are a lot of new exercises being utilized.

Record Breaking – You are doing two max effort days a week, so you have the ability to break a lot of personal records. This can keep motivation high and give you tangible results NOW. This is one of the best things about this template.

Easy: I never thought I would say this but if you actually think about it, the standard template is pretty easy to follow IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT. You have one slow and heavy day and one fast and light day for the squat and bench press. After each of those days, you train the muscles that involve those lifts. You try to be fast on one day, try to lift heavy on the other day and get huge afterward.

Combo of Max Effort, Dynamic Effort and Repetition Training: If done correctly, this combo is incredible. You can get fast, big and strong. These are three qualities that most people really want.

Flexibility with Supplemental/Accessory lifts – If you are doing the correct loading on max effort and dynamic day, then you can really play around with the volume with your training on these lifts. Let me explain: With the dynamic training, you are almost always operating within 50-60% and no matter what max effort exercise you choose, you are still operating around 90-100%. Now your volume can be raised and lowered by your assistance lifts. This can give you a lot of room to play around with and allow you to pick and choose exercises and volume based on how you feel that day.

Con's of the Standard Template:

Variation: Now stay with me on this one. Training for a big squat, bench and deadlift is not easy. But if you don't have good form on these three lifts, then things can start to go down hill. You can counter me and say, "Your form is trained on dynamic day." And to you I respond, "Fool! It's easy to lift correctly with light weight." While a safety squat bar can help increase your squat and deadlift, it won't teach you correct form. This is because the variation of the bar will throw your form off. Then you throw this nugget at me, "Well, I will work up on dynamic day to 90%" and to you I respond, "Are you now doing two max effort workouts a week?" Remember that if you are going to throw in a new wrinkle, then you are going to have to smooth something else out. You can't just add without taking away. (And this will be discussed in a future article).

Record Breaking: Now I've got two of the same things for pro and con. While record breaking is a good thing, it can also lead to a mentality of "testing" versus "training". Too many people try to break a record and will not fall within the 3-5 lifts at or above 90% of their max. All of their focus is devoted to breaking a PR rather than training to get stronger.

Too Heavy on Dynamic – I would say that the vast majority of questions about the squat revolve around dynamic squat day. Now if you take a step back and look, the PURPOSE of dynamic day (and again, I fall victim to trying to make things too simple) is to basically move the weight from point A to point B as fast as possible. Now for the bench, that is to move the bar from your chest to lockout; in the squat (or box squat) that is to move from off the box to standing. So now that we've established that, the problem that I've seen is that most people, when you add up the band tension and bar weight (and factor in that they are basing the percentages on a full-meet squat with equipment and they are doing an un suited box squat (different lifts!)): they are actually not even close to doing a dynamic workout. This is not so much a con of the program, but a con of the interpretation of the program. This wouldn't be a horrible thing if the max effort work and supplemental work was cut back, but 99% of the time, it's not. This was really driven home a couple of weeks ago in a conversation with Mark McLaughlin. To quote Mark, "The reason I think people some times bash DE work is because they do not execute it properly."

For the Standard Template to work properly here is a list of things that must be done:


All dynamic work must be as DYNAMIC. Focus on speed, not weight. If you are slow, then you are missing the purpose of this day. If the bar % is not exactly 55% or whatever, don't worry. Because you are doing a standard max effort day, I would rather have you focus on erring on the side of too light. Remember that bench shirts can skew percentages quite a bit, so if you are going to use %'s as guidelines, use your raw bench press as a guide.

Max effort work must fall within 3-5 lifts at or above 90% of that day. If you go below this, you are not getting the benefit of max effort training. If you go above this, then you are going to compromise other areas of your training.

Because you need form work on the main lifts, it would be advisable to work up on dynamic effort day. When you do this, the max effort workout must be tailored as such. For example, if you were going to work up on Sunday and hit 3 lifts at or above 90% on the bench press, the max effort workout on Wednesday would consist of accessory and supplemental work only. But you need to do the appropriate amount of max training on DE day. So instead of doing 8x3 on dynamic day, you can cut that to 5 sets and start working up. There is no set guideline for the amount of sets, but 5 seems about right. Now if you are going to work up on dynamic squat day, cut out the Monday max effort work PRIOR to that session. So that would be on Monday before the Friday squatting session. The Monday after the Friday session (I'm starting to get confused now) you can still do max effort work, but you may want to cut some of the assistance work. You don't have to, but it may help.

So when do you do all of this? For the bench training, it's a bit easier. This is because you don't have to pre-plan it. If you are feeling unusually strong on Sunday, then let it out and see what happens. A good estimate would be to try to do this every 3rd workout. For squatting, it may require a little more work and would stick to the every 3rd workout guideline. But (you knew it was coming) if you do feel a bug up your ass to go heavy on dynamic squat day, even if it wasn't planned, then the Monday workout after should be nothing but assistance and supplemental work. Just make sure that your heavy is "heavy". If you are going to do it, then commit and do it.

In regards to picking supplemental and accessory work – to make things simple:

Choose one high intensity/low volume triceps (lockout) movement per week.


Choose one low intensity/high volume triceps movement per week; remember this – if you are doing a lot of dumbbell work (which is essentially a close grip movement) you may not need a lot of volume on this exercise.


Choose one high stress shoulder movement per week.


Choose one low stress shoulder movement per week. Remember my example in the beginning of the article – I used this movement as an upper back exercise on my max effort bench press day.


Choose two lat movements a week; preferably one horizontal row and one vertical pull.


Choose one high stress low back/hamstring movement per week: good mornings, Romanian deadlifts, weighted back raises, weighted 45 degree back raises, glute ham raises with added resistance (band or weight plate).


Choose one low stress low back/hamstring movement per week: band good mornings, Reverse Hyperextensions, body weight back raises and 45 degree back raises.

Choose two abdominal exercises per week.


This is not in the template, but I would also choose some kind of quad movement per week. You can do it on either day, but I would probably pick dynamic effort squat day. Or you can do it the scientific way; flip a coin.