Guide to In-Season Training
This morning I started writing in-season training programs for baseball players as their spring season begins to approach. It made me think about how many athletes and sport coaches seem to be confused about the importance of training during the season and what should change from an off-season program to an in-season program. I remember when I was in high school and in college we would bust our butts lifting in the gym and conditioning constantly during the fall and winter just to stop training when the season began. I noticed that I would start most seasons feeling great, being at an optimal body weight, feeling strong and playing really well, but by mid March I usually lost around 10lbs and was feeling extremely fatigued the majority of each week. This seems to be common for a lot of athletes, and in my opinion it can be avoided with a proper in-season weight training program.
I get it, demands for a student athlete are high. Between classes, homework, practice, travel, games, and trying to get at least eight hours of sleep it can be hard to find the time in the day to train. This is where learning the skill of time management becomes important for athletes. If you struggle with managing your time then spend an hour every sunday to plan out your schedule for the week. If you have aspirations of playing at a collegiate or professional level, then you are going to have to put in the extra work and make sacrifices that the majority of people aren’t willing to do. Remember if you want to achieve something extraordinary it requires you to make a detailed plan then take extreme amounts of action to achieve your goal. Without a plan, you are planning to fail.
The Importance of Training In-Season:
It’s common for many athletes to stop training in the competition season and solely focus their training on sport specific skill work. This is a flawed model. When an athlete stops resistance training the athlete will lose muscle size, strength and power which will dramatically hinder their performance on the field. A lot of athletes start the season off strong because they are going in at peak physical condition. If resistance training stops being a priority during the season a detraining effect will soon begin to occur and by mid-season the athlete will stop performing at the best of their abilities. This happens because they are losing strength, when you lose strength you lose the ability to produce force at a fast rate, which leads to speed decreases, rotational power decreases, which will have a dramatic effect on the athletes ability to perform on the field.
A lot of coaches and athletes are nervous about training when their season begins because they worry about being sore for practices and games, which is understandable, but the goal of training in season is to make sure that you are performing at your best, not about beating up your body. This is the biggest difference between off-season and in season training. The off-season is about building up to an optimal body weight, getting as strong and as powerful as possible in movements that will transfer over to your sport. In-season training is about making sure your central nervous system is primed up and ready to produce a high amount of force in a short amount of time, while making sure your body is recovered from the increased workload and feels fresh for practices and games throughout the season.
There are three big changes in my program for in-season training; these changes are to make sure the athlete doesn’t get sore from training, but is still getting stronger and is able to perform at a high level throughout the entire competition period.
Adding movements that require minimal eccentric work
Switching max effort movements into maximal isometrics or working up to a heavy set of 3-5 in a partial range of motion main movement
Incorporating recovery based training methods, through high rep band work and mobility methods
Eccentrics are the downward portion of a lift. Doing slow eccentric work can be a good technique to use in the off season to help add muscle mass, but will cause a lot of soreness in the tissue that you are targeting on that certain movement. During the season we want to eliminate the majority of the eccentric work that we do so athletes won’t be sore from training. My favorite training tool to use for this is sleds. Sleds are a great tool to add to training programs all year, but especially during the season. This is because everything you do in sled training is concentric work, there are not any eccentrics while doing a sled variation. There are also endless variations of movements that you can do with a sled. You can walk forward to develop glutes, hamstrings and calves. Walking backwards is great for knee health and quad training. Pushing a sled is great for developing speed and training the quads. Pulling it in a row variation is a great way to train the upper back. Oblique twists will help with rotational power. There are many other sled variations that you can do as well, sleds are only limited by your imagination.
At Arete Strength and Performance we run a conjugate based training program. (Check out my article on the conjugate system for more details on the conjugate method.) We modify the system during the season to fit the athletes needs by substituting max effort work with maximal isometrics, or by working up to a heavy set of 3-5 on a partial range of motion movement if the athlete is feeling good. A maximal isometric is holding a static position against an immovable object, like a wall or heavy rack. I like having my athletes do this in a pressing movement, deadlift position, rotational movement or split squat position. I will have the athlete do the exercise trying to produce as much force as possible against the immovable object for 3-5 seconds. Typically after the time ends I will have them pair the isometric with a plyometric or med ball movement. This is a great way to get your CNS ready to produce high amounts of force in a short amount of time. Maximal isometrics help build strength without adding any unnecessary stress to your joints. It also promotes recovery by increasing blood flow to help promote tissue repair. If the athlete is feeling great on his max effort training day and doesn’t have a game in the next day or two then we will work up to a heavy set of 3-5 reps on a partial range of motion lift. I usually have my athletes do this in a concentric dominant movement as well to prevent muscle soreness.
Variations of partial range of motion movements include:
High Pin Split Squats
Pin Squats
Pin Presses
Block pulls
Rack pulls
I enjoy rotating in a wide variety of bars including, safety squat bars, trap bars and football bars during the season for main movements as another way to reduce stress placed on the athletes body.
The methods above are ways to help maintain and improve hypertrophy, maximal strength and rate of force development without adding unwanted stress during the season. We also have to program in active recovery methods of training as well. My two favorite ways to do this are high rep band work and mobility movements that target areas that the athlete is tight or sore in. High rep band work promotes blood flow to the working muscles, which helps flush out metabolic waste. Because this is a low impact form of training athletes can do this when they are feeling a little beat up from practices and games.
The majority of our mobility work will be individualized based on the athlete's needs. The majority of baseball players need to focus on hip and shoulder mobility. If you don’t know what to do for mobility work, search on youtube for a yoga video. It will help you loosen up and help speed up the recovery process.
The main point that I want you to take away from this article is that you NEED to train during the season if you want to be an elite athlete. The worst thing you can do is neglect resistance training during the season. If you have an in-season training plan you will feel better on game day, reduce your risk of injury and perform at a higher level throughout the entire season. If you have any questions about in-season training feel free to reach out to me at jbennett@aretestrengthandperformance.com.
You’ve Been Doing Speed Training Completely Wrong
Improving your speed will be able to help you out in almost any sport that you play, and in baseball speed is one of the five tools that recruiters and coaches look at when evaluating a player. Every athlete wants to improve their speed, but few understand how to train in a way that will truly make them faster on the field or court. Speed training is one of the most misunderstood types of training. The worst saying that I often hear from sports coaches is “you can’t teach speed.” Maybe you can’t “teach” it, but you can certainly develop it with a good training program. The problem is there are a bunch of speed gurus that over emphasize the importance of sprint mechanics and sport coaches that overcondition their athletes causing a high amount of fatigue that is incredibly hard for them to recover from. I see “speed training” all over social media where coaches have their athletes continuously run for a long period of time with little to no rest then doing pointless ladder and cone drills. Kids and parents are fooled into thinking that they are getting better because they leave their training session drenched in sweat and out of breath, which makes them feel like they are improving. I see a ton of athletes on social media platforms that work incredibly hard doing drills and workouts that we have been told get us faster. They train as hard as they can over a period of time with little to know results which makes athletes think that speed mainly comes from good genetics. This is simply not true.
The truth is that you can get a lot faster with minimal equipment, and without an excessive amount of running. But what should we be doing to improve our speed if traditional speed training that we see being used all over social media doesn’t work? In this article I will go over scientific methods that are guaranteed to improve your sprinting performance when applied properly, and the two phases of a sprint that the majority of athletes need to focus on training.
To understand how to get faster we first need to understand what makes an athlete fast or slow. Our skeletal muscles are made up of muscle fibers, and the muscle fibers that your muscles are predominantly made out of will have a part in determining how fast or slow you are. (Yes, your genetics do matter, but you can still improve your speed with bad genetics.) Everyone's muscular system has two types of muscle fibers, slow-twitch type 1 and fast-twitch type II. Both types play a role in certain athletic events, but the one that you need to train for sprinting is the type II fast twitch fibers.
If you are out of breath or feel fatigued while running then you are training your type 1, slow twitch muscle fibers which will actually make you a slower sprinter, but will improve your muscular endurance. This contradicts almost everything I was taught about improving my speed when I was an athlete. I always thought that if I was running, drenched in sweat, breathing hard, and left completely exhausted then I would turn into a faster athlete, when in fact, the complete opposite is true. Speed development happens in the absence of fatigue.
When you sprint you want to take very long periods of rest before your next sprint. A good general rule to follow is to rest for 1 minute for every 10 yards that you sprint. This may seem crazy, but it is important because if your body is fatigued at all from the previous work then you will not be moving at your maximum velocity, therefore you will not be improving your sprinting speed, but your overall endurance instead.
Endurance training is overused for most team sports, especially baseball. Think about it. When was the last time you were completely out of breath on the baseball field? Probably not often, with the exception of hitting a triple or inside the park homerun. Yet, coaches still have their athletes run poles or triangles for conditioning. The only thing this does is overtrain their athletes, makes them less explosive and increases their risk for injury. This could turn into a whole different topic, but the main point I want you to understand is that you should take long periods of rest in between your sprints if you want to train to get faster.
The Four Phases of a Sprint
Next we need to understand the four phases of a sprint, and which phases we use most in our sport. The four phases of a sprint are the start, acceleration, top speed and deceleration. The first part of the sprint is the start, this is the first three steps of a sprint. Then you have the acceleration phase of the sprint. In this phase you are trying to accelerate to achieving top speed as fast as possible. The next phase is top speed, this is the part where you are moving as fast as you possibly can. Lastly, there is the deceleration phase, this is where you can no longer hold your top speed and begin to slow down. In my opinion having a good start and being able to accelerate as fast as possible is more important than having an elite level top speed. In the majority of sports sprints are going to be short with many changes in direction. It will be rare (unless you are a sprinter) that you will have to run at your top speed for a long period of time, so training your start and acceleration should usually be your number one priority. The start of a sprint and having the ability to accelerate fast is incredibly important, it will make or break you in most sports. In baseball if you have a slow start then you will more than likely be thrown out when you try to steal a bag. In football if you can’t accelerate at an elite level it will be incredibly hard for a WR to create separation from DB and if you have a slow start or bad acceleration in basketball good luck making it past JV.
First let's talk about the start. Improving your start is all about being able to produce a high amount of force in a short amount of time. This is also known as rate of force development (RFD). How fast you are able to put an optimal amount of force into the ground will determine how fast your start is. The best way to improve your rate of force development is by getting incredibly strong for your body weight and utilizing the dynamic effort method. The dynamic effort method is a training method where you will perform high sets and low reps with submaximal weight and try to move the bar as fast as possible.
At my gym when we are trying to improve an athlete’s start of a sprint, we will typically do 12 sets of 2 reps at 50-60% of the athlete's max on that certain lift with 25% band tension added for accommodating resistance. (For more info on the dynamic effort method check out my blog on the conjugate method.) There are many different dynamic effort movement variations that you can utilize to help improve your start of a sprint.
Here are some of my favorites:
Trap Bar Deadlift
Box Squats
Reverse Lunges
Bulgarian Split Squats
If you are currently slow in your start of a sprint add some of these movements into your dynamic effort training day. Also keep in mind if you are weak for your body weight your number one priority needs to be increasing your maximal strength. It won’t help you to increase how fast you are able to put force into the ground if you aren’t able to put a high amount of force into the ground at all.
The next phase is acceleration. The definition of acceleration is the rate at which velocity changes with time in terms of speed and direction, so your acceleration during a sprint is the rate that you gain speed while moving forward until you hit your top speed. The goal of athletes should be to reach their top speed in the shortest amount of time possible. Athletes can improve their acceleration by adding sprint work, resistance sprinting and plyometric training into their program.
Doing sled sprints or banded sprints with a partner is a great way to improve your ability to accelerate. It will help you increase your force per stride and stride frequency which will give you a higher capacity to accelerate at a fast rate. Make sure that you’re not using a sled so heavy that it distorts your sprint mechanics.
Plyometric training is a great way to improve your stride frequency which plays a big role in the acceleration phase of a sprint. Some of my favorite plyometric movements are:
Broad Jumps with or without a band
Single Leg Broad Jumps with or without a band
Kneeling jumps
Hurdle jumps
Single leg hurdle jumps
Box jumps
Depth Jumps
As I said earlier when you are doing sprint training it is incredibly important that you take long periods of rest. The same rule applies when you add resistance to your sprints and when doing plyometric work. If you are fatigued or out of breath while doing these exercises you will not be improving your speed capability.
I hope this article has helped you have a better grasp on improving your or your teams’ speed. Remember, at the end of the day mechanics are important but it is more important to be strong and explosive. When in doubt, remember strength is never a weakness so get incredibly strong for your body weight, lift submaximal weights as fast as possible, sprint, jump and you will see improvements in your speed.
If you have any other questions on how to improve your speed or training in general send me an email to jbennett@aretestrengthandperformance.com.
3 Things to Add to Your Diet During the Season
As we prepare for the 2023 baseball season to start, we need to start focusing on recovery protocols just as much as getting bigger, faster, stronger, and improving our skills on the field. Being in season brings many new obstacles that athletes have not had to deal with in a long time. Late practices, games, and homework can cause many student athletes to fall out of their normal day to day routine and sacrifice sleep which over time will lead to poorer health and will inhibit their ability to recover from the increased workload. Although every athlete should focus on getting an optimal amount of sleep, sometimes it's just not possible to during the season. To combat a heavy workload and insufficient sleep there are some simple recovery protocols that athletes can utilize to help them recover physically, mentally and emotionally.
In this article I want to talk about three things that you can add to your diet daily to help reduce inflammation, but first we must understand what inflammation is, what causes it and why chronic inflammation is harmful for our recovery. Inflammation is the body’s response to stress being placed upon it. This can be caused through practice, training, infection, disease, and a lot of different types of mental or emotional stress. After an intense training session, game or practice our muscle fibers will break down and have micro tears. Our body responds to this by activating our immune system to come in and clean out harmful waste products so our muscle fibers will be built back stronger than they were before. Inflammation is not necessarily a bad thing and is needed for the body to recover. The problem is when we have chronic inflammation. An increased amount of inflammation in the body is something that all athletes have to deal with when they are in-season due to an increased workload, and psychological stress. One way we can combat inflammation and optimize our recovery throughout the season is by adding these three things into your diet.
Turmeric:
The first thing that you should add to your diet to combat chronic inflammation is turmeric. Turmeric is a golden orange spice that has been used in traditional medicine in India and China for thousands of years. Turmeric has an active compound in it called curcumin that has both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Curcumin can help reduce the repetitive damage, inflammation and pain that athletes experience from hard training and games. Studies that took place in 2007 and 2020 showed that there was an enhanced rate of muscle recovery in mice that had turmeric in their diet. Other studies have shown that adding turmeric to your diet for 8-12 weeks reduced arthritis symptoms just as much as taking an ibuprofen daily. Studies also show that when you mix turmeric with black pepper or fat your body will absorb the curcumin better.
One of the hard things about adding turmeric to your diet is figuring out what foods to put it in. I personally add it and black pepper to the rice that I eat every day. I will also add it in my coffee occasionally as well. I have also heard of people putting turmeric and pepper into milk or tea. If you can’t find ways to get turmeric into your daily diet then there are also supplement pills that you can buy as well.
Tart Cherry Juice
The next thing that you need to add to your daily diet in season is tart cherry juice. Tart cherries are loaded with vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin B6, calcium, iron, potassium and folic acid. All of these vitamins and nutrients are great for boosting your immune system and reducing oxidative stress. Tart cherry juice has anti inflammatory and antioxidant properties which helps aid athletes in the recovery process. This helps with the reduction of muscle soreness after intense workouts, games or practices. Studies also show that tart cherries also help with improving your quality of sleep because it helps your body release melatonin. This is another reason why it is important to add tart cherries to your diet in season. You will probably be getting less sleep than normal most days, due to your increased workload so it becomes vital that we focus on optimizing the sleep that we do get.
I personally have begun drinking one cup of tart cherry juice every night before I go to bed. This has drastically improved my sleep quality and has helped with reducing muscle soreness. If you don’t want to drink juice directly you can also buy tart cherry extract and add it to a shake or smoothie.
Fish Oil - omega 3
There are many health benefits associated with taking a fish oil supplement. When athletes ask me about what supplements they should be taking, the first one I always tell them to start with is fish oil. Adding fish oil to your diet through oily fish such as salmon or mackerel, or from a supplement can improve your heart and brain health. It can also help with athletic performance and recovery. Fish oils help with lowering inflammation, reducing joint pain, and has been shown to improve aerobic capacity. Fish Oil or omega 3 fatty acid is a polyunsaturated fat, also known as a “healthy fat”. Omega 3 fatty acids are something that our bodies are not able to naturally produce, but we also can not live without them. The average American consumes a ratio of 20:1 or 30:1 omega 6 to omega 3, which is very unhealthy. An ideal ratio should be 1:1, but it is very difficult to add enough omega 3s into our diet without supplementation. Ideally you should be taking 1,000-2,000g of EPA or DHA per day.
It’s important to remember that when you begin adding natural remedies that help optimize your recovery that it will take time to begin noticing the effects. You can’t take turmeric, tart cherry juice or fish oil once and expect to feel different. You must add one, two or all three of these foods into your diet daily to begin noticing a difference. This is a much healthier way of dealing with soreness or inflammation than taking an NSAID anti inflammatory medicine.
Feel free to email me at justin@aretetexas.net if you have any questions about how to improve your recovery during the season.
Conjugate Training for Athletes 101 The Method Behind the Madness
Conjugate Training 101,
The Method Behind the Madness
At Arete Strength and Performance we use a conjugate based training system for the athletes that we train. Soviet Russia was the first people to begin using conjugate programming in their training of olympic lifters and then it was made popular in the United States by Louie Simmons at Westside Barbell in Columbus, Ohio.
Conjugate is a type of periodization for training like block or linear training, and in my opinion it is the best way to train athletes of all ages or skill levels when it is properly programmed. Before we begin conjugate training with a new athlete we always do preliminary work first. General physical preparedness (GPP) training is very important, but often overlooked because many athletes and their parents think that they need “sport specific” training. As the great Louie Simmons said “a pyramid is only as tall as its base.” People tend to want to skip straight to the sport specific or more advanced levels of training, but there is no point in doing that if the athlete doesn't have a high base level of training. The preliminary work we do is different for every athlete. Some athletes come to us and have been training in the gym for many years and they are able to begin a conjugate based system after just one three week wave of GPP work. Other athletes have never had a strength and conditioning program before, and depending on their age it could be three years before we move to a conjugate training system. This is why I started the beginner strength and conditioning class for ages 11 and under. This gives them a head start to train for three years and develop a big base of GPP so they will have a higher level of potential later on in their athletic career. This is called the rule of three. I will write an article later on this topic explaining the importance of youth training and why every youth athlete should begin a strength and conditioning program when they are young. If we begin training an athlete that doesn’t have much of a background in weight training but is a junior or senior in high school then we try to progress him into the conjugate system as fast and as safely as possible. Our main focus is to make sure all the athletes that train here are injury free, but if they have high athletic aspirations then an upperclassman needs to move into specialized physical training (SPP) faster than an untrained Jr. High athlete would need to. This is why it is important to have your son or daughter begin working with a qualified strength and conditioning coach at an early age.
When a new athlete joins our program and is physically prepared enough we begin to move into a more advanced conjugate periodization system. This system can be used to improve any weakness the athlete may have without neglecting another aspect of his training. The goal is similar for athletes that play a variety of sports. Improve maximal force is certain positions (FM), improve the rate of force development (RFD) and optimize the athletes body composition. From what I’ve researched and have seen in my own gym this system is the best and fastest way to make an athlete bigger, faster and stronger
A traditional conjugate training week has four main training days with smaller recovery workouts in between.
Max Lower (FM)
Max Upper (FM)
Dynamic Lower (RFD)
Dynamic Upper (RFD)
Max Effort Lower
The max effort lower day, could also be called a heavy lower day. On this training day we will start with a warmup, targeting the hips, hamstrings, quadriceps and lower back. These are the main muscles that we will be using on this day, so they need to be good and prepared before we move into the main movement for the day. After the warmup is complete we move into the main lift for the day. We usually alternate weekly between a sumo deadlift variation and a sumo squat variation, but will also mix in some good morning type movements and lunge variations as well.
If the athlete has a high base of GPP then he will work up to a 1RM, 3RM or a 5RM on the variation of the lift that we are doing that week. The max effort method is the best and fastest way to increase your absolute strength and the maximum amount of force that your body will be able to produce in that position because the body only responds to the demands that are placed upon it. When an athlete maxes on a lift he is improving his inter and intramuscular coordination. This is a key component for any athlete. In every sport it is beneficial to be able to generate a large amount of force from your lower half. Depending on the sport you play there may eventually be some diminishing returns once you get to a certain strength level, but it is important to remember that strength is never a weakness. No coach has ever said that he doesn’t like that athlete because he is “too strong”.
Yes, the athletes we train here will max out weekly once they are capable of handling that type of load. (Although there will be alterations depending on the time of the year, how their body is feeling and how consistent they have been with their training.) In my opinion when done correctly it is just as safe to train this way as it is to a high rep low set program. When an athlete has a lot of reps on a certain lift in their program, for example 4 sets of 10, if they are pushing themselves properly then usually by the 8-10 rep range and on the 3rd-4th set at the 5 rep range form drastically begins to break down. This can and will eventually lead to injury. When our athletes max, we typically end the max training session when form begins to break down. At that point the coach training the athlete is able to see where his weaknesses are and what muscle groups need to be targeted for accessory work.
After the main movement of the training session we will move into plyometric work. I like having the athletes do this because we go from training one end of the force velocity curve to the complete opposite end. The max effort work is training maximal force and absolute strength, the plyometric work trains for explosive power. Both are needed to be an elite athlete. For plyometric work we usually stick with one exercise for three weeks. Every week we will bump up the weight, volume or the band tension being used. For example, if the athlete is doing a three week wave of box jumps, then week one he may start out just doing body weight, the next week he might be holding 10 lb dumbbells or a medicine ball and then the third week it would be a heavier dumbbell or medicine ball. After the three week wave ends we switch up the type of plyometric work that the athlete is doing.
For example:
Wave 1 Week 1 - Box jumps on a 24” box
Wave 1 Week 2 - Box jumps on a 24” box holding 10lb dumbbells
Wave 1 Week 3 - Box Jumps on a 24” box holding 15lb dumbbells
Wave 2 Week 1 - Kneeling Jumps
Wave 2 Week 2 - Kneeling Jumps with a 10lb medicine ball
Wave 2 Week 3 - Keeling Jumps with a 15lb medicine ball
Training like this helps the athlete achieve the desired training effect while avoiding the law of accommodation and without overworking the athlete's body.
After plyometric work is completed we move into the accessory lifts. These are programmed specific to the athletes needs and weaker muscle groups. Most of the time we are attacking the posterior chain. Hamstrings, calves, glutes, hips and lower back. It is important to switch up the accessory lifts occasionally as well so the athlete avoids the law of accommodation. The law of accommodation is a biological law that states that if someone keeps doing the same exercises over and over then progress will stop and eventually move backwards. This becomes tricky because you want to switch up their workouts, but you don't want to add too much variation especially to a non advanced athlete.
Max Effort Upper
Max effort upper day is the upper body version of the max lower day. The goal is to work on producing as much force as possible through a 1-3 rep max on the main upper body lift for the day. We begin this training session by warming up the shoulders, triceps and lats. This is usually done through high rep band work. Most of the athletes I train are baseball players, so I like having my athletes do a lot of high rep band work on the upper body to help thicken up the ligaments and tendons that they use in a throwing motion. This helps bullet proof their joints and will help prevent injury. The typical exercises we use for this are band pull aparts, different variations of tricep extensions, straight arm lat pulldowns, and face pulls for about 2-3 sets of 30-60 reps. Be sure to switch your exercises every 3 weeks to avoid the law of accommodation.
After band work is completed we move into some type of pull or row variation. This is usually just with body weight or a light sled. Before we move into our main movement of the day we want to make sure the lats are completely warm. We use a wide variety of movements for this part of the training session including pull ups, chinups, inverted rows, sled face pulls, sled rows, reverse hyper face pulls, birddog rows and reverse hyper rows. Again switching the movement every three weeks to avoid accommodating.
After the athletes are warmed up we move into the main movement for the day. Usually it will be a bench press variation, but sometimes we also do a shoulder press or pull up. We will switch up the max effort lift every week. There are many different variations that you can do on the bench for max effort work.
Bench Press
Close Grip Bench Press
Floor Press
Floor Press with Chains
Pin Press
Pin Press with Chains or bands
Bench Press with a pause on chest
Board Press
Reverse Band Bench Press
Bench Press with bands
Bench Press 3 RM
Bench Press 5 RM
Incline Bench
Decline Bench
The variations you use on max effort work is only limited to your imagination. If this is your first time using the conjugate system use 4-6 different max effort exercises and retest them after the 4-6 weeks. As you become more advanced you can add new variations into your program.
After you hit your max or heavy main movement for the day we move into accessory work. Accessory work will depend on where your weaknesses are. For most beginner to intermediate athletes their triceps, and lats need to be trained the most. We focus on adding mass into the athletes posterior chain. These are the “sport specific” muscles that they use to be a more powerful athlete. We will also do a lot of rotational core work and explosive work with a medicine ball as well.
Dynamic Effort Lower
The dynamic effort lower day could also be called a speed lower day. This training session should happen 72 hours or later after a max effort or heavy lower training day because our bodies needs time to recover in between max effort and dynamic effort training days. The focus of this training session is to move submaximal weights as fast as possible. This is how you improve your speed strength. Some athletes are faster than they are strong and some athletes are stronger than they are fast. Implementing a max effort and dynamic effort lift will help ensure that the athlete has a sufficient amount of speed strength and absolute strength. This is the beauty of the conjugate method, the athletes are improving upon all types of strength at the same time. An athlete will improve their weaknesses without neglecting the aspects that are currently their strengths.
The goal of a dynamic effort lift is to increase the rate that an athlete develops force (RFD) and improve speed strength. To do this the athlete will have to focus on completing each rep as fast as possible while maintaining proper mechanics. The amount of weight that the athlete is training with can’t be too heavy or too light. If the bar is too light then the athlete will not be applying enough force to train speed strength even though the bar is moving fast. If the bar is too heavy then the bar will not be moving at a fast enough rate to increase the athlete's RFD. Also, the athlete will not be able to recover in the short amount of rest time given to him and will burn out before the training session is over. It will also inhibit his ability to recover between training sessions which could lead to an overuse injury.
This training day will be a lot higher in volume than your max effort day. The main lifts on this day will be high sets and low reps with a submaximal weight, which. The reason we train with high sets and low reps is because we want to move every single rep at the highest velocity the athlete is capable of. Ideally the athlete will move the bar around 0.8-1 meter per second. If you were to do a squat training session of four sets of ten reps the bar speed would dramatically slow down after the first few reps. Keeping the sets high and the reps low will translate over sports that require a short burst of explosive movements with short rest time in between.
A baseball pitcher is a great example of dynamic effort training transferring over to a sport. Traditionally pitchers (especially starting pitchers) have been told to run long distances to improve their endurance on the mound. The problem with running long distances is that you are training slow twitch muscle fibers and not fast twitch muscle fibers. Training slow creates slow athletes. Pitchers don’t need endurance, they need EXPLOSIVE endurance. Every throw a pitcher makes on the mound is an explosive movement with a short rest time in between pitches. Properly applying the dynamic effort method in a pitchers training program will help him go longer in games without a dramatic drop in velocity because the pitcher has been working on staying explosive for a high amount of sets with a short rest time in between. Dynamic effort training will apply over to any sport that requires speed strength or short bursts of explosive movements.
A dynamic effort lower training session will follow a similar format to a max effort lower training session. We start with a warm up to increase blood flow and improve range of motion in the areas that we will be targeting, usually the hips, hamstrings, quadriceps and lower back. The first part of the warmup is usually done with body weight and bands and after that is completed we will move into light sled work. There are many different sled variations that we use on our athletes. I will go deeper into all the benefits of training with a sled in a later blog post.
After the warm up is complete we will move into the main lifts for the day. The lifts that my athletes primarily use on dynamic lower training sessions is a sumo squat, sumo deadlift or a lunge variation. We will typically do two of the three variations during one training session for a three week wave. After that wave is over we will switch up the main lifts for slightly different exercises to avoid the law of accommodation. Generally the first week of a wave we will start with 50% of the athlete’s max on that lift with approximately 25% band tension. The bar weight is increased by 5% each week for a three week wave and on the third week we will drop the reps so that the volume is equal to the first week of the three week wave. If you do not have access to bands then you can increase the bar weight from 50% to 70% and increase that weight by 5% each week.
Example of a 3 week wave dynamic effort squat session of an athlete with a 400lb 16” box squat max.
Wave 1- 16” box squat 400 lb max
Week % of max Bar weight Sets Reps Volume
Week 1 50% 200 12 2 4800
Week 2 55% 220 12 2 5280
Week 3 60% 240 10 2 4800
After a three week wave is completed we will switch up the exercise variation. It may be a different bar, different size box, or a different amount of sets and reps.
Wave 2 - 14” box squat 350 lb max
Week % of max Bar weight Sets Reps Volume
Week 1 50% 175 12 2 4200
Week 2 55% 195 12 2 4680
Week 3 60% 210 10 2 4200
The change made in the second wave was a 2” shorter box and we kept the bar, the reps and sets the same. Doing twelve sets of two or nine sets of three is a great way to build speed strength and develop explosive power. If the athlete is lacking mass or is new to strength and performance training we will also do waves of five sets of five on a dynamic training day. The bar speed may begin to slow down on the fourth or fifth rep but this typically works better for a hypertrophy block or for more novice level athletes. Rest time varies depending on what your rep and set range is. For twelve sets of two I have my athletes rest 20-30 seconds, for nine sets of three I have them rest for 40 seconds and for five sets of five, I’ll have them rest for a minute between each set.
After the main movements are completed we move the athletes into plyometric training. This is similar to max lower training days. There are plenty of variations that you can do with your plyometric training. We usually try to keep this sport and position specific. For my baseball players we do different variations of a transverse jump if they are trying to build velocity in their throw or swing, and different broad jump and vertical jump variations if they need to improve their speed. Many other sports will require vertical and lateral plyometric work.
After plyometric work is completed we move into the athletes accessory work for the day. The accessory work needs to be specific to that athlete's needs and weaknesses. Just like the max effort day we usually attack the posterior chain. We always make sure to do a lot of reverse hypers on a max effort and a dynamic effort day. Reverse hypers are one of the best exercises you can do to build up your lower back and decompress your spine. With all the squating, deadlifting and lunging that my athletes do in my conjugate based program it is important to make sure their lower back is strong and healthy. A good general rule to follow is to make sure your reverse hyper volume is 4x your squat volume for that week. After the accessory work we will usually work on some hip mobility before the training day is over.
Dynamic Effort Upper
The last training session of the week is a dynamic upper day. This is the upper body version on the dynamic lower day to work on speed strength and rate of force development in the upper body. We do dynamic upper training at least 72 hours after a max effort upper training session to make sure the athlete is fully recovered in between sessions. The main lift on a dynamic upper day has traditionally been a bench press variation, but recently I have been experimenting with landmine presses, bent over rows, shoulder presses and chinups. Most of the time I will have my athletes bench, but because I primarily train baseball players we tend to not bench as much during the season to alleviate some of the stress on their shoulders.
Just like a dynamic lower day the goal is to move sub maximal weights as fast as possible. We begin this training session the same way as the other training sessions, warming up the areas that are about to be targeted. High rep band work for the shoulder, triceps and back is always my go to for training baseball players. This helps thicken up the ligaments and tendons so they are able to handle a higher workload throughout the year. We switch up the band work variations every three week wave to avoid accommodation and to keep the athletes mentally engaged in the warmup.
After the band warm up we move into light sled work and med ball throws. We want to get their central nervous system primed to be explosive. Then we start the main movement for the day. Since a dynamic upper training session is usually a bench press variation we will use that as an example. For bench press we typically do nine sets of three reps or five sets of five if the athlete is doing a hypertrophy block. I usually have the load lighter than a dynamic lower training session, starting with 40% of their max the first week with about 25% accommodating resistance (bands or chains) and increasing the weight on the bar by 5% weekly for three weeks.
Example:
Wave 1- Bench Press max 200lbs
Week % of max Bar weight Sets Reps Volume
Week 1 40% 80 9 3 2160
Week 2 45% 90 9 3 2430
Week 3 50% 100 7 3 2100
After a three week wave is completed we will switch up the exercise variation. It may be a different bar, or different bench press variation.
Wave 2 - Floor Press Max 225lbs
Week % of max Bar weight Sets Reps Volume
Week 1 40% 90 9 3 2430
Week 2 45% 100 9 3 2700
Week 3 50% 115 7 3 2415
There are many different types of variations that athletes can do for a dynamic upper training session. Just like everything else in a conjugate program the main lifts are rotated in and out to avoid accommodation.
Remember accommodating resistance is very important for dynamic training. Bands and chains help teach the athletes how to accelerate through a lift and will help them develop speed strength.
After the main lift is completed we move the athlete into accessory work. Like all other accessory work that we do it is going to be programmed according to that specific athlete's weaknesses, but we typically focus on the lats, rear delts, and triceps.
Concluding Remarks
Hopefully after reading this you have a basic understanding of the conjugate system. I plan on going into each training day in more detail in future blog posts. You may have to modify the program based on the equipment that you have access to, the time of the year, or the amount of time you have to train weekly. Most of the athletes I train aren't able to make it into the gym four days a week, due to practice, games, school and other activities. If they are able to come three times per week we modify it by doing a max lower, max upper and a full body dynamic day. If they are only able to come twice per week we modify it by alternating a max lower and max upper week and a dynamic lower and dynamic upper week. To achieve the fastest results, training four or three days per week is the most beneficial, but athletes do still see many benefits when they train twice per week.
From what I have researched and noticed from my athletes is that the conjugate system is the best and fastest way to help an athlete reach their full potential in their sport when it is implemented properly. If you are new to training or training novice athletes be sure and follow the “rule of three” which is three years of preliminary training that an athlete needs to go through before using the conjugate system. If you begin implementing the conjugate system make sure you are utilizing proper recovery modalities. Conjugate training can be hard on your body and if you aren't focused on recovering from your training properly then you can wear down physically, mentally and emotionally.
If you have any questions feel free to email me at justin@aretetexas.net.