As I said in Part 1, conjugate is one of, if not, the most effective training systems when it is executed properly. Moving a light weight fast isn’t enough to make the dynamic effort method work. Moving a light weight fast with intention is.

In my opinion, conjugate is one of, if not, the best training systems — when employed properly. If it isn’t working, don’t disregard the system; instead, check your application.

I recently turned 78, and that certainly hasn’t stopped me from training. After the responses from last month’s article, I decided to delve a bit deeper into my little old man conjugate training program. Enjoy!

As with anything in training, the answer always is “it depends.” With the max effort method, I can do one of these things for two hours just on advanced principles that deal with the max effort method, or I can do one very that’s simple. I choose simple.

A few weeks ago I blogged about how I was mistakenly looking for a one-size-fits-all approach to dealing with my injuries, and my circumstances are different. But with the help of four friends (and my wife), we came up with a BAMF program. Here it is.

Someone once told me when it came to programming, their objective was to be able to get as much bang for your buck as possible. That stuck with me, so I ensure my programs are of good quality and don’t last more than 45 minutes.

People have asked me to write about how I train. I haven’t done it because I figured you guys thought it’d be boring… until now. Here’s a look at my training and the process behind it.

These off-season lane options are meant to keep them in the ballpark of being in game shape without beating the crap out of them. They don’t have to be ready all the time; just ready to get ready. If you think they are not sport-specific enough or intense enough, that’s why.

If you understand the conjugate method, can devote 4 to 5 hours of training per week, not competing in sports but is trying to look and feel better, boy, have I got the perfect program for you!

elitefts has a strong focus on the freedom of education — so strong that we’re willing to invest in all of the content we provide for you. For 20 years, the strength of this value has enabled us to earn your trust, and therefore, produce more content.

During Richland High School’s last football season, I combined the conjugate method and the tier system for programming game day lifts. Seeing the results thus far, I intend to continue the program with a few adjustments — but not before sharing it.

The thing to keep in mind as you read the remainder of this program is that I’m describing a method of training — not a set-in-stone program. It’s up to you to apply the method to your particular context: your body, your goals, and your life situation.

I’ve said this more than once, and I’ll say it again: if you want to better serve your box clients, you need to program for the general population. Here are a couple of things you can ditch doing and what you should be doing instead.

I’m not suggesting that you destroy yourself. What I am saying is that a lot of new trainers are coming out of school with information about corrective exercises but zero practical experience of knowing how to push people in the gym.

Ask yourself: “Is my training program based on me being strongest at every session?” If your answer is an honest yes, you might need to reconsider your program. Here’s how you can improve it.

A few years ago, I attempted to bring 4 strength sports together into a training plan for rugby. This time, I want to delve deeper into the framework that makes up the programming of these sports and how we can program them into a usable athletic development plan.

If your client cannot pull a sled or carry two heavy kettlebells without having to rest excessively between sets, you need to implement GPP to build your clients’ foundations. But you need to implement it the right way.

Training is like traveling; you have to map out the route you want to take in the timeframe you have. For training, planning your mesocycle is a good place to start that journey — you have to understand the basic principle of progressive overload and take your maximum ability to recover into consideration.

Consider how your clients are responding to stress and the demands of your program and what we need to consider to devise a better plan. That’s how we’ll improve this sport.

Plan, execute, evaluate, readjust, and repeat. Those are the steps I take when developing a program for a client — and coincidentally, the same ones I cover in this article.

Unless you just have some crazy genetics or happen to be the perfect person for a strength program, the majority of these programs are not a valid long-term plan. But don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater…

According to the Pareto Principle, 80% of results come from 20% of your time. Ocham’s Razor states the simplest solution tends to be the best one. Simplicity is the missing ingredient in most training programs. Hence why I return to the famous paradigm of the pull-push-squat.

With all the knowledge we have available to us, you would think that we have gotten past the idea that distance running will get an athlete in shape for any sport. So how should we program for athletes? Sport-specific? Sort of. In order to approach something that is actually sport-specific, we must take into account the actual demands of the sport.

I’d been using the same blueprint that goes to 500 to get me to 585, and that’s where I went wrong. I had to analyze everything in order to customize a new plan to break that 600-pound barrier. This is how I did that.

I believe the most important role of a strength and conditioning coach is to create programs that minimize the risk of injury. Armed with knowledge from a study on rugby injuries, I wrote a program that focuses on strengthening injury-prone areas. Here’s what I came up with.

I’ve seen an influx of boxes close over this last year—more than prior years. This tells me that we need to change to survive. My suggestion? Pull away from the hardcore box audience and focus more on programming for the general population.

It’s important to note that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all training protocol, and these are just some general suggestions based on a few successes and countless failures over my career that I consider when writing a program.

If speed is what we’re going after, then why do the weights on both our heavy and light days continue to climb, and bar speed continues to fall? As we get deeper into the competitive season and continue to put more tonnage on the athletes, we are burning the candle at both ends.

Steve “Kono” Konopka and I cover our daily pre-practice warm-ups, bulletproof shoulder circuits, what we call the “f@#k the bottom, you belong at the top” conditioning circuit, and answer a couple of questions in the third part of our #BAMF Wrestler series.

I’m not going to waste your time today, so I’ll get right to the point. Here is my list of reasons why you should avoid linear programming for group box classes at your facility like the plague. Your clients will thank you — maybe not directly, but at least by continuing to show up for class.

Reading Al Miller’s “The System” made me think about my most successful program. I’ve dubbed this hodgepodge of six years in strength and conditioning “Performance Drive Response,” which is a culmination of a bunch of different systems I’ve used, seen, and been in or part of.

Where part of the problem lies is in the assumption that a single should always or usually be heavy or maxed. The single, the heavy single, and the 1RM should really be seen as three different terms entirely.

As Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu grows more popular, so does misinformation about training for the martial art. This article will provide both empirical and anecdotal information about strength and conditioning for this particular combat sport.

The people have spoken, and I have answered. After receiving plenty of emails and comments about my last article, I decided to create and share a complete program based on The Simplicity Programming Project.

While many coaches preach “do extra” before and after in order to perform arguably the most valuable aspect of group programming, your clients do not need to show up early for class or stay late to accomplish this.

Once you learn how to activate muscles effectively, you’ll always see some progress in your training. Start here with the basics of axiomatic conditions.

Once you go through these seven steps, you should have a nice simple program that will allow you to reach your goals while staying true to your priorities and meshing with your daily work demands.

By simplicity, I am referring to a minimalist approach to the programming of weight training by getting a maximum effect for the fewest number of exercises by utilizing a full body program performed three days a week. I want to challenge you all to give this a try for a period of no less than six weeks.

Higher rep work can be beneficial, but it needs to be properly managed. We are still going to use 1-rep maxes for our primary means of developing intra/intermuscular coordination, but there are a few strategies we can use to ensure we incur extra volume when needed.

Steve “Kono” Konopka and I go more in-depth about our wrestling programs, particularly topics covering: in-season training goals, off-season exercises to avoid, signs for a recovery session, favorite exercises, and a sample in-season schedule.

Essentially, force (strength), velocity and speed-strength (power) are the three main characteristics that are present in ballistic movements, and you can train all of them in the weight room.

Since most units don’t really allow for rest days other than the weekend, I’m looking for the biggest-bang-for-my-buck exercises that I could be able to fit into a morning training session. Also, I’m working based on the assumption that Fridays are company/battery runs.

For the record, I’m not writing this article to bash box programming; I’m writing this to present an alternative way of doing things while STILL utilizing the best aspects of box programming. Our strength training model is what we’ve used with nearly 20,000 athletes (in a group setting) worldwide with great success.

You may have several points in your life where you’ll see the contrast of differing lifestyles on training and programming. While the principles of your training philosophy may remain the same no matter what job you have, how those principles are applied differs based on the situation.

Approach programming as you would approach written materials relevant to our field. One doesn’t simply open Supertraining, and begin perusing its contents. Supertraining requires a foundation of knowledge prior to endeavoring to cognize its contents.

Follow these basic tenets of efficient programming to avoid lower back pain, shoulder discomfort, knee stress, and burnout that can potentially take us or our clients out of the game.

How the hell do I design an effective and appropriate program for all of these different types of people who are training in the same session?

Focusing on this concept of carry-over helps powerlifters train in a more intentional and strategic way, ultimately bolstering overall performance come meet day.

Through this series, we’ll venture from power lift to power lift (beginning with the squat) and finalize the project with a program tune-up. Dr. John Rusin’s overall goal is to get stronger with the help of Dave Tate.

I had those days, especially early on in my career, that I didn’t understand why the athletes weren’t as enthusiastic as I was at 6 AM. I mean, what the hell is better than getting up early and training your ass off?

Muscle growth doesn’t happen overnight. So, instead of thinking you have to hit every fiber from every angle right now, realize that hitting them all over the course of several months will be far superior for your results, keep you progressing indefinitely, and help you to avoid injury.

I am excited to share highlights of early discussions that Steve Konopka and I have had as we work to turn our shared vision into a reality, helping athletes along in their journeys to become BAMF wrestlers.

From what I’ve seen, most lifters benefit from performing some form of squat twice per week. The key is finding a way to program that second squat that builds your strengths and addresses your weaknesses while still working within your ability to recover.

This eight-week sample program is a snapshot of a few cycles written for a former competitive weightlifter (local/state level). Michael wanted to get back into shape, lose weight, and include some weightlifting movements.

Dr. Hatfield categorized these Laws himself, and together they serve as a framework to measure an effective training program. If you want to know how your training program stacks up, I encourage you to assess it against the Laws.

In this instructional video, Dave discusses the benefits of dynamic effort and max effort training and breaks down the specifics of his programming during his work with Dr. Rusin.

Perhaps you’ve seen the video of an athlete moving through the agility ladder with his feet hardly visible because they are moving so fast. This remains the common mainstream perception of agility training. Does this, however, actually make athletes more agile on the field?

The program I am currently running features the CARE program in a new format that I feel better allows the player to get a workout in without going too deep in the RPE continuum, especially if he or she is coming from a unit or a team session.

You can vastly improve the effectiveness of your in-season programming by understanding submaximal maintenance training and programming flexibility, the use of concentric-only exercises, and high-rep work for recovery.