Since the passing of legendary strength coach, Louie Simmons, I’ve been receiving many questions on the conjugate system. Serious lifters want to know exactly how I program it for raw strength & general performance. In this special article, I’ll explain all the important modifications that lead to superior results. For those who are new here, training with these methods has allowed me to bench press 405lbs at 185lbs, strict press 242lbs, weighted dip 230lbs, weighted pullup 180lbs, do 6 one arm pullups, and deadlift 600lbs. So all accomplishments aside, maximized programming works which you’ll soon understand.
Exercise Selection
First, let’s talk about exercise selection which is hands down the #1 factor in determining conjugate training effectiveness. In many programs that are Westside-inspired, it’s common to see a lot of partial reps and excessive usage of accommodating resistance. I’m talking about ultra-wide high box squats, 4-5 board presses, strong reverse band bench, squatting with 200lbs of chains, benching with 150lbs of bands, combining bands WITH chains.. and sometimes wearing elastic devices like briefs, titan ram, wraps, etc for additional spring. As a result.. we end up with a combination of exercises that are highly specific to wearing squat suits and bench shirts. Not only for perfectly matching their strength curves, but even down to hypertrophy like de-emphasizing pecs and quads. This my friends, is exactly why some lifters claim “conjugate doesn’t work for raw lifters”. They’re criticizing ONE template of it which was optimized for equipped powerlifting. I don’t blame them, but their conclusion is 100%, provably false, and disingenuous because exercise selection can vary with ANY periodization style. Especially when viewing different sports. So every movement I just listed can technically be emphasized with linear or undulating periodization, even though it’s not what you see. But.. if enough lifters DID do this, the new sentiment would eventually be “linear/undulating periodization doesn’t work for raw lifters”. Do you get why these black & white statements are incorrect? Nuance is everything, and so an HONEST strength coach will claim the following: “Conjugate, or any form of periodization works for raw lifters when exercise selection is specific to raw lifting”. It’s that simple, so how about we all stop being biased and explore some exercise modifications for the conjugate enjoyer?
Bands & Chains
Ranges of Motion
Starting with, adding bands & chains to barbells. If you plan to do this.. it’s absolutely essential that you don’t use insane tensions. Through years of experimentation, I’ve found you only need a MAXIMUM of 3 variations for either and 9/10 times, the LEAST aggressive options are #1. So for bands that includes micro minibands, minibands, and monster minibands. For chains, that’s a pair of 30lbs, 60lbs, then 90lbs by mixing both (just so you know this version is rarely used unless you’re in a peaked state). By limiting accommodating resistance, the OVERALL strength curves will still be very heavy in the bottom, but now there’s more of a straining effect in the mid position which is noticeable but NOT drastic as seen in people who literally equalize the bar weight to band or chain weight which I DON’T recommend. In truth, the straight weight number should only be between 10-20% less than your regular raw weight. So each tension increase would represent around a 5% jump which should keep your PRs in a relatively similar zone. Now with these numbers, it’s also very realistic to estimate raw 1 rep maxes. For example, if you bench 295 with 30 chain, there’s a very good chance you can do 315 without them. If you squat 365 with 60 chain, 4 plates raw is literally a wrap. You deadlift 5.5 plates with any double bands and you’ll always get 6 without them. Which shouldn’t be surprising in the slightest. As long as you don’t overdo things and start doing memeified lifts that HIDE raw strength, you’ll be perfect.
Secondly, let’s discuss range of motion manipulation, beginning with partial lifts. I do use & recommend them, but ONLY through MINOR reductions. That means you won’t see an above parallel squat, high rack pull for deadlift carryover, or quarter rep press to build “lockout strength”. My approach is this, whatever your full range of motion is, cut it back ever so slightly as a variation. So for board presses, use a MAXIMUM of a half board to 1 board. The only people who should ever need a 2 board are long-armed benchers, but for everyone else you want the weight to be slightly above the chest like in a Spoto Press. This way you’ll lose no more than 25lbs off your press, but give your shoulders a slight break, while making the triceps work harder. Just to say, 3 weeks before raw benching 405, I had done 405 off a half board so the numbers should be close. For squats, most of this is automatically taken care through mixing in different stances. Like wide flat-footed low bar and medium heel elevated high bar, plus I believe it’s best to always use your maximum ROM so don’t force a partial rep. But if you do want to break things up for say.. box squats, the average below parallel height will be 12 inches. So a partial in this case would be adding 1 inch more by sitting on a mat. Regarding deadlifts, that’s a 1-3 inch block pull or lowest pin height for rack pulls. Again, taller guys can creep that up a bit.
Mini Partials
Now you may wondering, what’s the point of using mini partials to begin with? The main answer, is to complement individual leverages. See, because of varying limb lengths, we are all going to recover differently from the big 3. For example, someone with a 6”5 wingspan will usually have their arms way past their body on a bench press, which is basically a massive deficit. So if they try to go too intense with the volume or frequency on ONLY that style, overuse in the pecs can kick in faster.. or they’ll just have a hard time pushing the intensity and volume. However, that same individual would probably have the opposite situation on deadlifts, where they can actually use a higher percentage with more reps and not feel as trashed, because their pulling mechanics are ideal. Now on the flipside, a short-armed lifter will have the opposite situation. There’s less ROM on presses besides the floor press, but more hip flexion on deadlifts. Overall, the muscle biasing effect will be different in both kinds of lifters. “Manlets” need more triceps and spinal erectors, and “Lanklets” need more pecs and posterior chain in general. So how is this accomplished besides just hammering away the “competition lifts”? Simple, we mix in PARTIALS and DEFICITS depending on muscular weaknesses, and individualized recovery. So this will leads to the second application of ROM manipulation, including self-limiting variations. These are typically extended range of motion exercises that have great stimulus to fatigue ratios. This includes ATG squats of any kind, Larsen Press, Deficit Weighted Pushups, Hi Bar Good Mornings, etc. They’re motions that provide worse leverages while taking the muscles through a great length. Which is generally superior for hypertrophy & bottom strength development thus also being specific to raw lifting. Anyway, we do this stuff if we want to get more out of less weight.. and build more muscle for the main lift we’re trying to improve upon. They also yield 1:1 carryover, or will eventually raise your potential in a significant way. So to sum things up, your training might include 50% normal range of motion, 35% extended range of motion, and 15% partial range of motion. Of course, these values can be reversed depending on what you need. All this to say, since conjugate training features higher exercise selection & we all respond differently to compound movements, training with different joint angles that aren’t too extreme is best.
Dynamic Effort Method
Thirdly, let’s talk about the Dynamic Effort Method. The whole purpose is to build rate of force development & explosiveness which is great for most field athletes and fighters. Velocity is high, and it’s typically high sets/low reps with low percentages, thereby focusing on speed-strength. Definitely a cool method and is associated with Conjugate since we’re maintaining multiple performance elements throughout the yearly training cycle. However, it’s surprisingly not necessary. Why? Because speed training has nothing to do with maximal strength. What will determine your 1RM is hypertrophy in specific muscles & training the competition movements or variations of them with higher percentages. Which.. is how pretty much every modern powerlifter trains like. So just off that, we can scrap DE work because we KNOW it’s not necessary, and this is what I’ve done with tremendous success. Therefore, feel free to skip the speed work. Just have a normal volume day or if you really want, add another type of progression for the first exercise. Like step loading, any 3 weeks wave, or reverse pyramid training. But right after that, you’ll want to go into what was originally scheduled. You’ll still complement the max effort days, and recovery should be awesome if not better. Not to mention having shorter workouts and being less of a headache, particularly for guys who dislike setting things up or using accommodating resistance in general since that’s the best way to run DE. Remember, conjugate training is whatever YOU make it out to be. Training multiple elements doesn’t have to include LITERALLY everything. It can be as simple as mixing in high & low percentages with exercises from different worlds like calisthenics, aka the Alpha Destiny Way. That said, if you insist on incorporating explosive-type training.. you can always throw in exercises like snatch grip high pulls, power cleans, box jumps, sprints, kettlebell swings, muscleups, plyo pushups, plyo pullups, etc. Or, you can use the Matt Wenning approach of LOW percentage speed work which is superior for raw lifting. So a 3 week wave consists of 30%, 35%, and 40% with the band/chain tension still being between 25-33%. Anyhow, you don’t actually NEED to do this which is all I’m trying to say. Speed work does work, but is probably more applicable to other sports.
Box Squats
Fourthly, since I touched upon developing explosiveness, let’s talk about box squats. They’re legendary at building dead-stop strength since you break up the eccentric-concentric chain and they will carry over to your raw squat when done correctly. However, they’re surprisingly not necessary even for Conjugate. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t do box squats, but it’s more a question of, why would you when there are SO MANY more specific free squat variations to choose from? Like we’re still rotating exercises and using specialty barbells with accommodating resistance, just that there’s no box. I honestly don’t see this being an issue if your goal is to specifically raise the free squat. Let’s put this in perspective. You can do SSB squats, reverse SSB squats, paused squats, high-bar heel elevated squats, low bar wide stance squats, front squats, squats with 3 different band or chain tensions on any bar, deep pin squats, belt squats with a short & long belt.. even banding it.. cambered bar squats, and the list goes on. You EASILY have over 15 SUPER EFFECTIVE variations for becoming an elite squatter. So you might as well favor those instead, and occasionally throw in a box squat if you want to milk a specific variation for longer. Plus they’re a good deadlift accessory and easier on recovery. So I do enjoy them but let’s keep it real, the majority of your squats should be done without the box. ESPECIALLY volume work which is much better for working the lengthened position.. which is what we see with most accessories. Whether it’s a leg press, split squat, hack squat, etc, it’s either touch and go or paused. So why would things be different with a bar on your back? News flash, it’s not and coincidentally the best raw powerlifters are primarily doing free squats. Therefore, instead of ONLY doing box squats, either ONLY do free squats or favor them 75% of the time. Done deal!
Bench Press Specificity
Fifthly, let’s talk about bench press form & specificity. Ideally, you don’t want to press in a 100% vertical line, because we’re not wearing a bench shirt. The body’s naturally pressing tendency/humeroscapular rhythm is j-type pressing pattern. So instead of forcing the elbows to be maximally tucked and pressing AWAY from you, position them around 45 degrees and allow for some elbow flare past the midpoint. It’s a corkscrew effect, mostly vertical but there is some backward motion.. and that’s how every elite raw bencher does it. So besides form cues, a good way of reinforcing this pattern is by doing a lot of Larsen Presses. You’ll automatically start doing this, as it’s the most efficient option for self-limiting variations. Next, I’m in full agreement that a touch and go bench will still build a pause bench because the stretch reflex remains for a good 1-2 seconds. However, I still think the pause bench should be the default style. Because.. there IS a skill & coordination component that won’t be maximized without specific practice and it can take years to hone that in. Also, let’s keep it real, most lifters are getting lots of momentum and bounce off their touch and go work, so cutting that out is only beneficial. All you really need is a 0.5-1 second brief pause, or you can extend it as a 2-3 second variation. This way, our pecs will never be a limiting factor. And we’re practicing how we play, which is important as you never know how you’re going to be judged in a bench competition. Makes sense? For hypertrophy and specificity, I don’t have a problem with you pausing 100% of the time, including with accommodating resistance.
Volume Allocation
Next, we have to address volume allocation. What’s most prescribed is 20% main exercises, and 80% special exercises which is essentially the volume work. I understand this logic and it’s technically not wrong since we’re always working on weaknesses and strength is strength. But, I do believe slightly higher specificity is advantageous. Which I learned from Chad Wesley Smith. See, that 20% refers to Max Effort and Dynamic Effort. Meaning, you’ll rarely see traditional hypertrophy work being mixed in those variations. That’s a problem, and is leaving gains on the table. So if you maxed out on a safety squat bar, hitting % percentage back downs right after is A BRILLIANT way to train. By following the RPE chart by Mike Tuchscherer, you can select a percentage based on where you are in the mesocycle. If it’s your first time doing a back-down for this exercise, as in you maxed out on it recently or literally right before, then you might select an RPE 7. Whereas if it’s a repeat exercise, you can gradually increase the RPE to 7.5-9, and eventually rotate that variation based on when it becomes difficult to progress on, or failure is being reached. Then, the next exercise we select would be based off a POOL of max effort PRs, so we have lots of data to work with and it would be a shame not to take advantage of that. This is what you see in my training. A lot of rep work in the 65-70% range, many times in the competition movement itself which is also great for hypertrophy. Like if your legs aren’t growing, hit 3×10 @70% on heel elevated SSB squats and you’ll be very impressed. So that’s what critics meant when they said “Westside isn’t high volume”. It’s false when viewing the total workload, but true when analyzing higher specificity volume. That’s the distinction, and I’ve paid attention to this which has made the system even better.
General Physical Preparedness
Finally, let’s end off on the topic of rest intervals & GPP. Over the years many Conjugate promoters have recommended becoming insanely fit through conditioning sessions, which supposedly allow for shorter rest intervals to be used in normal workouts. Thus quickly getting in and out of the gym, while being true to the concept of training multiple modalities. It sounds nice, and I’ll be honest, I love the idea of being a fit badass that doesn’t live in the gym. But unfortunately, the conclusion for strength development is inaccurate. See, it doesn’t matter how good your work capacity is. If you’re resting too little between sets, the high threshold motor units won’t have a chance to fully recover, which gives you LESS stimulus and LOWER QUALITY sets. And this is what modern research is consistently showing to the point where even I had to change my stance on this. Basically, the old advice of resting 1-2 minutes between sets is subpar even for isolation movements. In truth, 3-5 minute rest intervals provide far better gains. So unless you’re doing supersets and giant sets, your workouts probably won’t last 45 minutes. They might be an hour and a half, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Especially since being conditioned will allow you to do more work anyway. Now on the topic of GPP, it’s all relative to your sport and most Powerlifters tend to emphasize sled drags & farmer walks. Including in reverse, which Knees Over Toes Guy has made popular. But for me, I prefer high rep calisthenics circuit workouts. They’re incredibly humbling and get you fit like no other and if you guys don’t believe me.. please check out Iron Wolf and attempt any of his normal workouts. It really is cardiovascular punishment, and is so brutal on endurance & mindset that when you go back to lifting weights (particularly leg days), nothing will compare. And that’s one of my secrets to developing psychotic work capacity. GPP at least twice a week, through bodyweight training. Mostly burpees, lunges, squats, dips, pullups, etc. Just pumping to the max! In the summer I love doing daily jogs, but honestly, you can condition through multiple means. The moral of the story is to get fit because health & not being gassed out matters. But also recognize that this is SEPARATE from your strength training.
With that said, I’m completely done covering my main conjugate training recommendations. I hope you enjoyed this extensive overview.. and now I want to hear your feedback. What changes would you make to this system? Let’s hear it, and I’ll talk to you next time.
By the way, here’s the article in video form:
