Nate Harvey is well versed when it comes to developing athletes. As the previous Head Strength Coach of Olympic Sports at the University of Buffalo, Nate oversaw the development of the schools first ever Olympic Sport national champion, four-team conference champions, eight of the schools twelve All Americans, 18 Olympic Trial qualifiers, and over 50 conference champions.
Bar none, Nate Harvey stresses that the Conjugate Method was a critical piece of the program's whole — contributing to his athlete’s success across a 10-year span.
Just look at the scoreboard. We had a great amount of success while utilizing the Conjugate Method. I will never say an athlete accomplished what they did because of the way we trained in the weight room but I will say I do not believe they would have done what they did with another system in place. Not only do I believe this, but a large number of our athletes believe this as well.
The Conjugate Method is unlike any other form of training periodization because it grants the athlete the capability to train multiple special strengths within a week’s time with the intention of raising multiple performance traits all year round. Therefore, opposed to spending four weeks on hypertrophy, strength or power, athletes can continually train and raise these classifications all year. Explosive strength is a huge component of the system that people overlook. The amount of explosive strength and speed strength work done by the system is unmatched compared to other methods. The best part about this is that the athletes feel better from training this way. The stigma associated with the Conjugate Method is that it can and should only be programmed for powerlifters. Nate says this just is not the case:
What most people don't know is that the Conjugate Method was originally designed to train Olympic Athletes. Many of the things Louie Simmons and Westside Barbell implemented into the system were taken from track and field and other Olympic Weightlifting methods. I think it's funny how people associate the Conjugate Method with powerlifting (Squat, Bench and Deadlift) but these actual movements are performed VERY rarely over a calendar year if the system is run correctly. Whereas you look at most other strength and conditioning programs that have their athletes squatting and benching weekly but these programs are way more sport specific than the Conjugate Method? That seems pretty backward to me.
In the weight room, ConjugateU lays out the fundamental and necessary principles to implement the Conjugate Method, regardless of the athlete’s age, sport or strength level. This is a must-have book for strength coaches of all levels.
References:
1. Harvey, Nate. “ConjugateU by Nate Harvey (e-Book).” Elitefts, Elitefts,www.elitefts.com/catalog/product/view/id/32610/s/conjugate-u-by-nate-harvey/.
2. Snyder, Barrett. “Nate Harvey: ConjugateU.” 16 Jan. 2018.