Today is my dynamic effort lower body training day. My name is Tommy and I have been training at SLO Strong since October when my wife and I moved up here from Newbury Park. When I first joined, I began to notice that a group of powerlifters here were using the Conjugate Method. I had heard of the Conjugate Method in the past but had never tried it out. I’m the kind of person who likes to try new things and experiment to figure out what works best for me, so I gave it a shot. Four months later, I now realize that switching to Conjugate was the best training decision I’ve ever made. I have been making consistent gains almost as if I am a new lifter again. If you’re interested to learn more about this method, I recommend looking up Westside Barbell and their infamous founder Louie Simmons.
Okay, enough about my history and why I do Conjugate training. Today for my dynamic effort (DE) lower body training, I hit a 12x2 on banded box squats. I used 315 pounds of straight weight plus 200 pounds of band tension at lock out. Right now I am in my second week of a three week wave on lower body dynamic effort training. Typically in the first week, I start with about 50% of my 1RM plus about 30% band tension. In consecutive weeks, I will up the weight on the bar by about 5% depending on feel. The most important thing is to maintain speed and explosiveness coming off the box, so as long as I am able to do that I will increase the weight. The weight today was very manageable and I will likely increase the weight about 5% next week.
After squats I moved to deadlifts. I am also in my second week of a three week wave on deadlifts. Right now, I am training the full motion of the deadlift so I am pulling from the floor for a 6x2. What i am doing is pretty much the same as my squat wave, starting at about 50% of my 1RM plus about 25% band tension, so a little less than on squats. So today it looks like this: 405 pounds straight weight plus 200 pounds of band tension at lock out. Some would argue that it isn’t a good idea to train the full deadlift often but it works for me. I am careful to keep my volume fairly low to protect my back and not over do it. Today this weight felt pretty easy, strength is going up. I didn’t get to hit any accessories today, but I typically do 2 accessory movements on lower body days.
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