Improve Your Strength: [PART 3] Putting Together a Conjugate Program

If you have not read PART 1 and PART 2 of this article you should go read through them first to get the full picture of what Maximum Effort and Dynamic Effort strength training is.

In part one and two of this article I explained the two primary components of the Conjugate Method Training protocol: Maximum Effort Sessions and Dynamic Effort Sessions, how they are designed and how they work together.

In this article I will lay out how I would lay out a conjugate training program for myself or any client who wants to improve their strength. When I have used the conjugate method in the past I have toyed around with different approaches and the below outline is what I found to be the most consistent in improving performance.
  1. Monday - Maximum Effort Lower Body
  2. Tuesday - Dynamic Effort Upper Body
  3. Wednesday - Off Day 
  4. Thursday - Dynamic Effort Lower Body
  5. Friday - Maximum Effort Upper Body 
  6. Saturday - Active Rest (Work on weak accessory exercises)
  7. Sunday - Off Day
Some people like to flip the order of Max Effort and Dynamic Effort days to perform a max effort upper body day first but I like to get the most challenging workout of the week out of the way first which will allow me to end the week stronger in my upper body lifts. 

Use the templates below to create your Maximum Effort and Dynamic Effort training sessions and plug them into the outline above to create your week of workouts. From there, challenge yourself to beat the numbers you achieve each week and your strength and size will follow as you consistently challenge yourself.

MAXIMUM EFFORT SESSION
  1. Bodyweight Jumping Movement or Throw or Slam Exercise - 5x3 (1-2min rest b/t sets)
  2. Barbell Exercise - x10/8/6/4/2/1/1... 1 rep max
  3. Dumbbell Exercise - 4x8
  4. Dumbbell Exercise - 3x15
  5. Core Exercise - 3x20+ or 3x1-2min hold (if applicable)
DYNAMIC EFFORT SESSION
  1. Barbell Exercise - 8x2 (50% of 1 rep max)
  2. Dumbbell Exercise - 3x15
  3. Dumbbell Exercise - 3x12
  4. Bodyweight Jumping Movement or Throw or Slam Exercise - 3x20+
  5. Core Exercise - 3x20+

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