If you are a person who craves change in your training, or who gets bored easily, this method is for you. If you don’t like changes, well, there are ways of incorporating the Conjugate Method in your training without changing it that much. But first things first: What is the Conjugate Method?

THE CONJUGATE METHOD

The Conjugate Method is nothing more than Undulatory Periodization, and it has been popularized mostly by Westside Barbell (more specifically by Louie Simmons, the great mind behind Westside, and also one of the GOATS of Powerlifting). Undulatory Periodization consists of changing exercises or rep ranges through a mesocycle/microcycle of your training (Meso and Microcycles are concepts of periodization where a microcycle is considered the training week or training day, and the mesocycle is a certain period of weeks where you will train with a specific objective. Ex.: 8 weeks Strength Mesocycle).

But then you ask me “why would someone train like that?”. I am a huge advocate of keeping a training routine and sticking with it for longer periods of time. You can read about the reasons why here and here. It is extremely important to understand that you will not change everything every training session using the Conjugate Method.

Mostly you will change 1 Basic/Competition exercise (in case you are a competitive powerlifter) and/or its rep range, and then proceed to do your regular accessory exercises as usual according to your program.

You can rotate between exercises only, or you can also rotate exercises and rep ranges as I mentioned previously. Whatever you choose to do, the most important aspect of this training is to keep your main exercise as SIMILAR AS POSSIBLE to the “COMPETITION/BASIC LIFT”, done always with a free weight variation of it. Ex.: it’s pointless to rotate between a Bench Press and a Machine Press as your main exercise. Instead, rotate a Bench Press with a Floor Press, or a Bench Press against bands.

Another characteristic of the Conjugate Method is the use of “Accommodating Resistance” (especially in Westside Barbell) in the form of chains and elastic bands. The Accommodating Resistance method makes changes in the Strength Curve of an exercise.

This Strength Curve, in easy words, shows where an exercise is harder and where it is lighter. Let’s take the Squat as an example: The squat, because of its leverages (I will not explain here otherwise the article will get too long) is hardest at the bottom and lightest at the top, as you can see in this picture here:

By adding bands or chains to the bar (if the bands are attached to the bottom of the rack), the top part of the squat will be hardest, simply because the bands/chains will be adding weight to the bar as you ascend. There is a difference between them though.

The bands will not only add weight to the bar, but they also accelerate you downwards, greatly increasing the amount of eccentric stress and muscle damage, consequently increasing fatigue and how long it takes you to recover from that training session (if you want to read more about eccentric training, read here).

Actually Louie Simmons recommends not using bands for more than 3 weeks straight because it might be too much for your Central Nervous System, and I agree with it.

LET’S GET BACK TO CONJUGATE: HOW TO DO IT

There are several ways of going Conjugate. The first choice would be to very exercises while keeping the same RM (Rep Max) during the training mesocycle. Let’s take a look at this example:

VARYING EXERCISES WHILE KEEPING SAME RM:

WEEK 1: BENCH PRESS 3RM

WEEK 2: CLOSE GRIP BENCH PRESS 3RM

WEEK 3: FLOOR PRESS 3RM

Repeat these variations until you finish 9 weeks (in case you choose to do the training mesocycle for 9 weeks). So, logically on week 4 you would go back to Bench Press 3RM. Another important aspect to note is that just varying the exercises won’t do much for you.

So ideally on week 4 you want to achieve a higher 3RM than on week 1. On week 5 (Close Grip Bench Press) you want to achieve a higher 3RM than on week 2 and so on.

Considering you are training for strength, keep your RM’s low (not more than 5 reps). Another thing I would DEFINITELY NOT do is to max out every week (1RM). That would be too much risk for too little return, you would feel fatigued all the time and basically reach a plateau very quick in your training.

VARYING RM WITH EACH EXERCISE:

WEEK 1: GOOD MORNING 12RM

WEEK 2: WIDE BOX SQUAT 8RM

WEEK 3: DEADLIFT 5RM

WEEK 4: GOOD MORNING 12RM

WEEK 5: WIDE BOX SQUAT 8RM

WEEK 6: DEADLIFT 5RM

WEEK 7: GOOD MORNING 12RM

WEEK 8: WIDE BOX SQUAT 8RM

WEEK 9: DEADLIFT 5RM

This method is a better way to induce hypertrophy because it is best with higher repetitions. When you use repetitions lower than 5RM, overtraining tends to occur quickly. If you wish to use this method with lower repetitions, implement a de-load after every 2 or 3 weeks of training. If you don’t, by the fourth week you likely will see a decrease in performance.

VARYING RM PER WEEK

This is actually my personal favourite variation. You get to always practice your main lift (or your favourite lift) every week, which means you will perfect form faster, and it allows for a higher level of flexibility in your training because you are always changing the RM for that specific training.

The idea behind it is to get a higher 1RM every training. How to do that? You simply use a 1RM calculator like Brzycki Formula and from there you can calculate before the training how much weight you need to lift for that given RM in order to achieve a higher 1RM on that week. Let’s check how a week by week example would look like, and then I will explain how to go with achieving a higher RM every week:

WEEK 1: DEADLIFT 3RM

WEEK 2: DEADLIFT 5RM

WEEK 3: DEADLIFT 1RM

WEEK4: DEADLIFT 3RM

WEEK 5: DEADLIFT 5RM

WEEK 6: DEADLIFT 1RM

WEEK 7: DEADLIFT 3RM

WEEK 8: DEADLIFT 5RM

That is just an example of a simple plan varying RM per week. So let’s suppose you do a deadlift with 140kg for 3 reps on week 1. That would (according to Brzycki formula) equal a 148.23kg 1RM. In the 2nd week you are supposed to get a higher 1RM than on the first, but you need to do that doing 5 reps. Again using the Brzycki formula, you will need to lift 132.5kg for 5 reps in order to get a minimally higher 1RM than on the previous week (132.5kg x 5 = 148.50kg for 1RM).

The idea behind the Conjugate Method is to provoke continuous improvement in strength and hypertrophy without the need for deload periods very often. I recommend you do them though. Usually the guys who use this method the most (Westside) are enhanced athletes, who will have a much higher capacity for recovery than a natural lifter. You and I should definitely be wise when it comes to our training periodization.

This was just an introduction to the Conjugate Method, of course there is MUCH more to it than I could ever hope to write in here. Those kinds of periodizations can also be done repeating the muscle group twice or even 3x per week, depending on your goal, fitness level, and how specialized you are in a specific lift. In time, usually higher level athletes will train only the Bench Press and Squats twice per week, being a heavy day and one speed day. Mostly deadlifts are done once per week simply because they are too demanding on your CNS.

If you are searching for new ways to keep improving on your training, there is a suggestion for you. I’ve been training like this for the last year, and I will tell you: if you want to be patient enough to learn how to do it, research and apply it, IT WORKS. I have seen crazy results in my strength levels, and I’m sure you can do it too!

Bryan R. Farani

Instagram: @thesquatfix