What is the Westside Conjugate style of training?

Located in Columbus Ohio, Westside Barbell is where the eastern strength training philosophy of ‘conjugate’ and powerlifting became one. Since it’s establishment it has captured well over 140 world records.

No gym in the world has produced near this amount in their respective arenas, granting Westside the moniker, “The Strongest Gym in the World”. The credit to this success lies in a training method called the Conjugate System.

The Conjugate System is simply defined as 'a constant rotation of exercises’. This rotation of exercises (most notably auxiliary lifts) allows those who train in this manner to avoid CNS and muscular accommodation.

By doing so, conjugate athletes not only avoid the hitting plateaus, but also greatly reduce overuse injuries. Inverse to most current (and past) training methods, the Conjugate System injects a heavy amount of smaller auxiliary lifts into the programming and does not subscribe to traditional linear periodization.

A typical week consists or 2 Max Effort and 2 Dynamic Effort days a week, one each for upper and lower development. For Dynamic (speed) Effort days, 3-week waves are applied with ascending weight and additional resistance (bands and chains) which builds speed against accommodating resistance with sub maximal weights.

Max (heavy) Effort days are targeted towards the CNS, where maximal weights are moved. Session volume holds at most 20% of its total weight volume in the main lift(squat, bench, deadlift, etc.), while at least 80% goes the way of assistance exercises(triceps, hamstrings, etc).