“It is well known that output force or torque that any muscle can produce changes with joint angle, with the greatest force usually being possible after the joint has passed through the midpoint of the movement. This means that any given load will tend to underload certain muscles over some part of the movement range.” -Mel Siff, Supertraining

There is an idea that the only people who can benefit from accommodating resistance, specifically the use of bands and chains attached to the barbell for the purpose of accommodating the strength curve of a lift, are equipped powerlifters. This idea is flawed. Massively.

I believe the reason this idea persists is because the person who popularized this special means, Louie Simmons, ran a gym that dominated equipped powerlifting. This completely overlooks the fact that many athletes and coaches from other sports visited his gym to learn about his methods and how to apply them to their sport. Soccer, football, track and field, MMA, jiu-jitsu, wrestling, and baseball are just a handful of the sports that benefited from Louie’s methods. The common denominator? None of these athletes compete in their specific sports while wearing squat suits, bench press shirts, and lifting belts.

The reason people think bands and chains benefit equipped lifting only is because bands and chains overload the lift at the top of the movement and underload the lift at the bottom of the movement. Since bench shirts and squat suits provide more assistance at the bottom of the lift and much less at the top, the bands and chains overload the range the powerlifting gear neglects. What proponents of this idea overlook is that bands and chains teach the lifter to continually accelerate through the entire range of motion of the lift. Specifically with bands, a tremendous amount of force can be developed due to the overspeed eccentric effect provided.

The fact is, bands and chains allow us to get the most out of the full range of the exercise by accommodating the strength curve of the lift. Let’s take the squat, for instance. When we are in the hole, transitioning from the eccentric to the concentric phase of the lift, this is where we are at our weakest position mechanically. Conversely, at the top of the lift, when our hips and knees are getting closer to extension, we are at our strongest position mechanically. This is why we can 1/4 squat a much greater weight than we can full squat.

Now, if we were to train for strength, the typical range for the bulk of the specific squat work would be in the 75-85% range. This is where we develop speed strength during dynamic effort training. The problem is, if we rely on straight barbell weight alone, the weights are too heavy at the bottom and too light at the top, making it less than optimal for increasing the rate of force production. If we only used band tension, the resistance would be far too light at the bottom and way too great at the top. This would cause us to come out of the hole quickly, then slow down like we hit a brick wall the minute the bands stretch enough to dramatically increase tension.

The optimal path is the combination of resistance methods—something Louie built a large part of his methodology around and that the late Mel Siff presented in the book Supertraining.

Combination of resistance methods implies combining two different forms of resistance. In this case, combining bar weight with either bands or chains to accommodate the strength curve.

The velocity of strength we are trying to develop will determine the percentage of each we use. If explosive strength, extremely fast velocity, is the goal, we will use 30-40% bar weight and 25% bands or chains. For speed strength, fast velocity, we will use 50-60% bar weight and 25% bands or chains. For strength speed, slow velocity, bar weight and accommodating resistance will be relatively equal, somewhere in the range of 40-50% of each.

By using bands or chains to accommodate the resistance, we reduce the total load in the bottom range of the lift, then gradually increase it as the range of the exercise becomes mechanically stronger. As the load gradually increases, the lifter must continue to accelerate, or try to “outrun the bands,” as Louie liked to say.

Does it work? Over my 30 years of training people, I have always seen athletes improve their speed and jumping ability due to this type of training. It is important to note that we were not running or trying to improve sprinting and jumping mechanics. We were just focused on getting stronger and more explosive. I’ve talked about many of my athletes in past writings, but a standout was Cory, an outside linebacker I worked with in preparation for the NFL pro day his university was hosting.

Cory came to me weighing 246 lbs, and had a 29.5” vertical jump, a 4.85-second 40-yard dash, and a 535-lb squat. After only 7 weeks of training, he increased his squat to 600 lbs and posted official scores of a 39.5” vertical jump and a 4.60-second 40-yard dash while weighing 247 lbs, a 1-lb mass gain. These results were exceptional, to say the least.

I’ve read a lot of misinformation and seen a lot of bad studies on bands and chains that claim and attempt to prove they don’t work. The studies typically had the bands and chains attached incorrectly, so the chains didn’t deload in the bottom of the lift and the bands were slack in the bottom of the lift. Louie did many experiments on highly qualified lifters at Westside with the help of a physics professor from Ohio State University. The results at that gym, and those who learned and applied his methods to their respective sports, are all the “studies” I need.

I hope you enjoyed this article, and until next time, stay strong and healthy!

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"Aging is an extraordinary process where you become the person you always should have been." -David Bowie

Just because we are getting older doesn’t mean we need to stop training heavy. It does mean that we need to be a little smarter when it comes to our max effort training.

Despite what many believe, max effort does not mean trying to smash a PR every training session. What it does mean is lifting weights at, or above, 90% of your 1-rep max with the goal of building absolute strength and maximizing neurological adaptation.

Shooting for three singles at 90% or better is our general target, but on days we’re feeling good and the weights are moving, go ahead and throw the 2.5-pound plates on and get that 5-pound PR.

I find it funny how single-rep sets are looked down on, particularly in the “longevity camp” of the fitness industry. You often hear “experts” recommend only doing sets of 5-10 and avoiding anything south of 5 like the plague.

Look, effort is effort. If you were to work up to a single rep in the squat at 90%, or something that felt like a 9 out of 10 effort, and you were to work up to a max set of 5 where the first 3 reps of the set are heavy, rep 4 is tough, and rep 5 takes everything you have to the point you have to crawl out of the squat rack after racking the bar, which set is more likely to end in a possible tweak or injury?

This is why my first rule when coaching people is to always leave something in the tank on heavy sets. If it is a set of 1, you should have been able to get a second and possibly a third rep. If it is a set of 5, you could have gotten a sixth or even a seventh with some serious effort.

I want our sets to feel heavy, but the technique stays clean and we still own every rep. If we put this concept into practice in our training, we should be able to lift relatively heavy weight indefinitely.

There may be times when your weekly max effort training session rolls around and the weights are feeling heavy. Maybe you haven’t been sleeping well, your nutrition is a little off, you went a little too hard with your younger training partners the night before at jiu-jitsu, whatever. Your recovery is off.

No big deal.

Skip the 3 reps at 90% and just work up to a moderately heavy set of 3-5 reps. Clean technique. Something around an 8-8.5 out of 10. Still heavy enough to feel the weight, but something outside the realm of max effort work.

This is how you begin to autoregulate your training and how we, the aging, recovering meatheads, make the max effort method work for us and not against us.

Lifting heavy weights will not destroy your joints. Done intelligently, it can be one of the best things for your joints. But trying to PR every single session will have your joints wondering what they did to piss you off.

Regular heavy training, with properly managed volume and intensity, is one of the greatest things we can do to enhance our longevity, particularly when accompanied by cardiovascular training, healthy nutrition, and appropriate rest and recovery practices.

So my fellow aging, recovering meatheads, do not avoid the heavy barbell waiting for you on the deadlift platform, and most importantly, do not go gentle into that good night.

For more on how to make the Conjugate Method work for you, check out my latest book, Conjugate for Old People (and Recovering Meatheads) by clicking here.

I hope you enjoyed this article, and until next time, stay strong and healthy!

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“The meet doesn’t start until the bar hits the floor.” -Don Blue

This week we are wrapping up the series on identifying and fixing weaknesses with the deadlift.

Depending on your preferred stance, sumo or conventional, you may have different weaknesses. For instance, the sumo deadlift is usually harder to get started, but generally, if you can get the lift up to the knees or just above, you can lock it out. Whereas the conventional deadlift typically has a very strong start, and many lifters have issues getting it above the knees and locking it out, as this relies heavily on the lower back.

Just like the squat and bench press, technique must be perfected first. This includes finding your optimal stance based on your physical constitution. Once technique is dialed in and strength is developed, we can begin identifying the weak points of the lift.

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“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” -Peter Drucker

“It’s called the future method because you’ll handle weights today that you will in the future.” -Louie Simmons

When we think about bands and accommodating resistance, we usually think about the bands being anchored to the base of the rack or the deadlift platform. When we lift the barbell, we are stretching the bands, so they get tighter and provide more resistance as we get through the sticking point and into the more mechanically advantageous part of the lift. However, another way to accommodate the resistance of the lift is to anchor the bands to the top of the rack and suspend the barbell in them.

The Future Method—a name attributed to Pavel Tsatsouline by Louie Simmons—does just that. Referred to as the reverse-band bench press, deadlift, or squat, the bands actually make the lift lighter in the bottom. As you raise the weight, the band tension decreases, as does the assistance they provide, so the top of the lift is overloaded with the actual bar weight.

While lifting against bands that are anchored to the base, we always have to use less bar weight than our max because band tension adds to the overall weight we are locking out. With the reverse-band method, the bands are providing assistance in the bottom, so we can actually lift a heavier weight than we are capable of lifting in whatever lift we are training. Hence, the Future Method.

To do this properly, you need to experiment with your own power rack and bands to find the right anchor height and band tension. The bands should be anchored in such a way that they are not pulling on the barbell at the top of the lift, or at the very least, providing little to no assistance.

I use a classic Westside-style power rack from Elite FTS. This rack is 7’ tall.

For the bench press, I single-choke a Monster Mini, Light, or Average band—depending on the strength of my lifter—to the top of the rack and suspend the barbell in the end of the band.

For the squat, I double a set of Micro Mini, Mini, or Monster Mini bands over the top crossbar of the rack and suspend the barbell in the ends of the bands.

For the deadlift, I hang Light, Average, or Strong bands over the spot pins, which are placed in the very top holes, about 5’6” high. These are not choked—I just hang the bands over the spot pins—and suspend the barbell in the ends of the bands.

Again, you will have to experiment and find the combination that works best for you, but if your setup is allowing you to lift a lot more than your max, it probably won’t be beneficial. I usually find that anytime we do an exercise that allows supramaximal loading, somewhere around 10–20% over our max is the sweet spot for carryover. You want it to be a weight that is heavier than you are capable of lifting, but something you should be able to lift in the near future.

This type of training serves a couple of purposes. Primarily, it can help condition your nervous system to handling heavier weight, thus making your normal training loads feel a bit lighter. In addition, if you are struggling at the lockout of any of your lifts, this is a great way to overload that specific phase of the lift.

If you are weak at the start of the lift, this type of training will not be beneficial. As with all methods, you need to assess your individual strengths and implement what will build your weak points.

I hope you enjoyed this article and, as always, stay strong and healthy!

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Continuing the series I began last week about identifying and fixing weaknesses, we’ll be looking at the bench press.

Many people don’t realize how technical a lift the bench actually is. It is a heck of a lot more than just lying down and throwing some weight up off the chest. Everything from the setup, taking the bar out of the rack, engaging the upper back on the descent, and locking the weight out strong has so many little details that can derail this lift at any point.

Setting up and staying tight is critical, and learning to lock yourself under the bar between your feet and upper back is essential if you want to lift big weights. This doesn’t mean you need a crazy huge arch, but it does mean you need to initiate leg drive and push your traps and upper back into the bench to ensure a stable setup.

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"I found out the hard way that the volume at a particular intensity range must be closely adhered to; not only the total number of lifts, but also the number of lifts per set should be calculated." -Louie Simmons

In order to get stronger, you must do more work. Period. But this must be calculated. You can’t take the typical Instagram influencer approach and train to failure daily while accumulating a ton of unnecessary volume. Anyone can work themselves into the ground. An intelligent coach and lifter knows how heavy they must go and how many sets and reps they must perform to create the necessary stress to induce adaptation.

Understanding the relationship between volume and intensity here is critical. The two are inversely related. As intensity goes up, volume must go down, and vice versa, in order to elicit a proper training response.

People often misunderstand intensity as it relates to strength training. To quote my old friend and powerlifting consigliere Jack Reape, “Intensity is not a backwards baseball hat and a grimace.” Intensity in training refers to how much weight you are lifting, expressed as a percentage of your 1-rep maximum. If you squat 400 lbs, 365 lbs would be a high-intensity effort, as this represents about 91% of your max.

Volume, on the other hand, is the total tonnage lifted when adding up all of the work sets and reps, as well as the total load used for each set. If you performed 5 sets of 5 reps with 225 lbs, your total volume for that exercise would be 5,625 lbs.

One of the best ways to manage volume and intensity is by using the Conjugate Method. The Conjugate Method, as promoted by Louie Simmons, devotes specific days to training high intensity and high volume.

The maximal effort day is the high-intensity day. The goal of the max effort day is to perform three singles at or above 90% of your max. Why singles? Because at 90%, you aren’t doing sets of 10. A very common recommendation was to do 1 rep at 90%, 1 rep at 95%, then a final rep at 5 lbs over your PR. For instance, if you were training a box squat and your PR was 500 lbs, you would warm up, then perform 1 rep at 450 lbs, 1 rep at 475 lbs, and go for a new PR of 505 lbs on the third single.

What if a new record doesn’t happen that day? No problem. Just hit three heavy singles at 90%.

The dynamic effort day is the high-volume day. Typically, 20-25 reps were the target for the dynamic effort lifts. Typical rep ranges were 10-12 sets of 2 reps in the box squat, 6-10 sets of 1 rep in the deadlift, and 8-9 sets of 3 reps in the bench press, with weights in the 75-85% range, or 50-60% straight weight plus 25% accommodating resistance.

The volume of these workouts was very high. Let’s consider the 500 lb squatter again. A 3-week dynamic effort wave in the box squat would be as follows:

Week 1: 12 sets x 2 reps with 250 lbs plus 125 lbs accommodating resistance (6,000 lbs)

Week 2: 12 sets x 2 reps with 275 lbs plus 125 lbs accommodating resistance (6,600 lbs)

Week 3: 10 sets x 2 reps with 300 lbs plus 125 lbs accommodating resistance (6,000 lbs)

Total volume was calculated with the barbell weight only, as there was some variance in chain weight and band tension. So, a 500 lb squatter would perform around 6,000 lbs of total volume in the box squat alone.

Properly implemented, a lifter would get around 100 lifts per month for the dynamic effort lifts and around 12 lifts per month in the maximal effort lifts. Louie determined the optimal number of lifts by studying old Soviet textbooks and came upon the work of A.S. Prilepin and the famous Prilepin’s Chart. Prilepin determined the optimal number of sets and reps at given percentages of the 1-rep max.

Volume was controlled through the assistance exercises as well. Louie always said the assistance work was extremely overlooked, but accounted for around 80% of the weekly training, whereas the main barbell lifts made up the other 20%. He loved smaller, single-joint exercises like triceps extensions, inverse leg curls, and reverse hypers because you could do a tremendous amount of work and still recover well.

How much work was done through accessories? Consider the reverse hyper alone. Fifty percent of your max squat was the starting weight for your reverse hyper work, and the goal was 4 sets of 25 reps on the two lower-body days. So, our 500 lb squatter is doing 25,000 lbs of reverse hypers twice a week. That isn’t even taking into account the glute, hamstring, and abdominal work being performed in the same workout.

This is why the Conjugate System works. It is based on your strength as an individual. It works if your max squat is 200 lbs, 400 lbs, or 1,000 lbs. The percentages are the same for everyone, but they are based on the individual’s maxes.

Too many people are shooting in the dark when it comes to getting stronger. They think they just need to go to the gym and work out hard. The word “optimal” is annoyingly overused nowadays, but to truly train optimally, you must understand the relationship between volume and intensity and implement a way to control each within your weekly training plan.

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Identifying weak points is crucial if you want to drive up your strength in a given lift. In this series, we’re going to look at common weak points in the squat, bench press, and deadlift, as well as the exercises that can strengthen them.

Your specific weak points are not static. As you strengthen your current weaknesses, others will emerge. That’s why constant assessment is required for continual progression.

This is why the conjugate method rules. Every week you’re getting feedback on both upper- and lower-body weaknesses by identifying where your max effort lifts are breaking down. This is why it’s important to have a handful of max effort exercises for the squat, deadlift, and bench press. Don’t select these lifts randomly. Rather, find the variations that actually build the primary lift.

For instance, I had an exceptional powerlifter whom I coached for many years. He had competition PRs of 320 pounds in the 123-pound equipped bench press, 315 pounds in the 114-pound equipped bench press, and 310 pounds in the 132-pound raw bench press.

Two key max effort lifts for his shirted bench press were the 2-board bench press and the reverse band bench press with light bands. Those two lifts correlated directly with his shirted bench, and if he hit a 10-pound PR in either lift during a training cycle, I knew with absolute certainty that his competition bench would increase by 10 pounds. Every time.

His close-grip bench press and floor press were correlated with his raw bench press. Additionally, I could determine the weak muscles in his bench press by identifying his mini-max, or sticking point, in any max effort variation we rotated into his training.

We’re going to kick off this article series by looking specifically at the common weak points in the squat and introducing exercises to help eliminate them.

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“Just when your body has all the answers, you have to change the questions.” -Louie Simmons

If you want to bench more, “you need to bench more” is great advice—until it stops working. At some point, intelligently planned assistance work must be included in your training plan. Some people have accomplished amazing results on a steady diet of squat, bench, and deadlift, but the vast majority need assistance work.

Let’s consider the bench press. Every bro on Instagram is infatuated with this lift to the point that you’re looked down upon if you don’t lie on your back and press a barbell away from you at least once a week. If you’re just starting out, once you get the technique dialed in, simply performing the lift once or twice a week and adding five pounds each workout works. For a while, anyway.

At some point, you have to identify what’s holding back your progress in the lift. To use our bench example, if the issue is bar path, the culprit is typically the lats and upper back. If the weakness is in the first few inches off the chest, it could be weak shoulders, underdeveloped pecs, or simply a lack of speed. If the issue is in the lockout, the weakness is usually the triceps. By identifying where your lift is breaking down, you can better organize your accessory work.

If lockout is the issue, after your main bench work, move on to triceps extensions. If it’s control and bar path, hit some heavy rows. If you’re weak off the chest, shoulder presses and dynamic effort bench work will get things moving. After you’ve prioritized the weak point, move on to the next weakest muscle group, and so on, saving the strongest part of the chain for the final exercises of the training session.

This process isn’t static. Always evaluate your lifts and adjust your accessory work accordingly. This is why I’m not a fan of programs that are set in stone. By autoregulating your training—provided you’re being honest with yourself—you can adjust things on a daily and weekly basis to ensure constant progression.

This is also why I’m a fan of the conjugate method. By training multiple physical qualities concurrently within a weekly training plan, we can aim to stay at 90% year-round instead of resorting to long, drawn-out training blocks where intensity gradually increases and volume decreases over a period of months. By utilizing conjugate principles, you’ll know how fast and how strong you are on a weekly basis, allowing you to regulate your training from session to session.

Louie Simmons often talked about how the main barbell lifts represented only about 20% of the training volume at Westside Barbell. Accessory work accounted for the other 80%. Think about that. If the strongest lifters on the planet built their success on special exercises and assistance work, we’d do well to follow suit.

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“Without labor nothing prospers.” -Sophocles

On November 23, 1984, Ed Coan won his first IPF World Championship title by posting a 1,929-pound total in the 181-pound weight class. Nearly eight years later, on September 12, 1992, Dorian Yates won his first Mr. Olympia bodybuilding title. While these two legends competed at the highest levels in different sports, they did have something in common. When it came to training, they attacked one top set with laser focus. Coan’s intent was strength, and Dorian’s was hypertrophy, but they both approached that top set, and their training in general, with a monastic focus.

Coan, who I’ve previously written about in my article The Straightforward Path to Superhuman Strength, was the classic power-bodybuilder. His sport was powerlifting, but he built the muscle to fill out his weight class and support the massive poundage he moved in the squat, bench press, and deadlift. He wasn’t training for presentation; he was training for performance, and his physique looked every bit as strong as he was.

Coan followed a linear progression in which he would work up to one top set. At the beginning of a training cycle, the top set might be 10 reps for a week or two, then 8 reps for a week or two, then 5 reps for a period of four weeks before moving on to a couple of weeks of 3 reps, then 2 reps, and finally heading into competition. Each week’s weight was carefully calculated prior to the start of the cycle, and as the weight increased, the reps decreased. That was it, a Herculean effort put into one top set without missing a rep. Yes, multiple sets were performed to ramp up, but the target was the one top set of the day.

Accessory work was done to support the competition lifts and build muscle mass. Even though the accessory work supported the main lift, the sets were performed in a similar manner: first a warm-up set, then one top set with the goal of forcing the muscles to adapt by getting bigger and stronger.

While Coan, training primarily out of Quads Gym in Chicago, was well down the path of powerlifting dominance, a young Dorian Yates was beginning an equally dominant career in bodybuilding nearly 4,000 miles away in the now-famous Birmingham dungeon, Temple Gym.

Yates’ training was actually pretty similar to Ed’s, although the goals were different. After a few warm-up sets, Yates looked to completely obliterate the muscle group he was training with one top set of a specific exercise taken to complete failure. He employed techniques like assisted reps, negatives, and forced reps, but it all led to one ultimate goal; to destroy the muscle, then allow it a full week to rest, recover, and grow. Yates was heavily influenced by the legendary, and controversial, Mike Mentzer.

Mentzer popularized a form of training that was the complete opposite of the high-volume advocates like Arnold Schwarzenegger. The high-volume crowd would often train each muscle group two to three times per week, and instead of blasting each muscle with one top all-out set, they would hack away at it with multiple sets. Mentzer was on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. Instead of high-frequency, high-volume training, he favored low frequency and low volume, usually hitting each muscle group once per week on a schedule that had him in the gym every fourth day. But don’t let this apparent lax schedule fool you; a properly performed Mentzer training session would have today’s average gym bro puking his guts out in the locker room afterward.

Yates didn’t completely adopt Mentzer’s training philosophy, but he was heavily influenced by it. Dorian trained four days per week for about 45 minutes each session. But every second of that session was work. He annihilated each muscle once per week with one target set. While Yates wasn’t a powerlifter, he was known to lift some damn heavy iron. When he stepped on the Olympia stage in 1992, he presented one of the most dense and rugged physiques the sport had ever seen, kicking off a string of six Mr. Olympia wins and what we now refer to as the mass monster era. He accomplished this by training far less than the champions who came before him.

What can we learn from these two legends? Simple. Simplify your training. Tune out the noise and cut out the crap. Focus on the movements and muscles that matter, and put so much effort into one or two sets that you don’t want to do any more. If your training has lacked direction and effort for a while, doubling down on the methods that produced arguably the greatest powerlifter and bodybuilder in history will reward you with new gains in strength and muscle.

If you need some ideas on how to structure a training plan, check out my article Classic Power Training for 3-, 4-, and 5-day options.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s article, and until next time, stay strong and healthy!

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“I asked Vince what made his deadlift go up? He said to me, ‘Everything makes my deadlift go up.’ I thought what kind of answer is that? But now I know Vince was talking about the conjugate system long before the Russians put a name on it.” -Louie Simmons

Mention the names Ed Coan, Colton Engelbrecht, Dan Grigsby, or Hafthor Björnsson to almost anyone in the strength world, and they’ll know exactly who you’re talking about. But ask the average lifter, or even a modern day competitive powerlifter; who Vince Anello was, and you’ll probably get a blank stare.

That’s a shame.

Because long before deadlift bars, calibrated plates, or Instagram highlight reels, Vince Anello accomplished something that most people still can’t wrap their heads around. At a bodyweight of just 198 pounds, he officially deadlifted 821 pounds in competition, becoming the first lifter under 200 pounds to break the 800-pound barrier. He later claimed an 880-pound pull in training, but even if we only count what happened on the platform, his accomplishments remain almost unbelievable.

Think about that for a minute.

Today, if a 200-pound lifter deadlifts 500 or 600 pounds, people take notice. Seven hundred pounds puts you in elite company. Eight hundred pounds? That’s territory reserved for the strongest humans on the planet.

Vince wasn’t a 300-pound super heavyweight chasing those numbers. He was a lean 198-pound lifter pulling more than four times his bodyweight over forty years ago.

That’s not just impressive. It’s historic.

Vince pulling a world record 810 lb deadlift at the 1977 World Championships in Perth Australia.

What makes Anello’s lift even more remarkable is the era in which he did it. There was no specialized deadlift bar with extra whip. No supportive suits. No straps. No social media convincing everyone that a 1,000-pound deadlift is somehow becoming “normal.”

There was just a regular power bar, years of brutally hard training, and an unwavering commitment to getting stronger.

Vince wasn’t just a deadlift specialist either, he was a powerlifter. There were no token squats or bench presses to set up a huge deadlift. In addition to the 821 lb deadlift, his best competition lifts were 725 lbs in the squat, 474 lbs in the bench press, and a 1,957 lb total.

I’ve always enjoyed reading about the old-school lifters because their approach was refreshingly simple. They weren’t constantly jumping from one program to another or worrying about whether the latest piece of equipment would add five pounds to their total. They picked a plan, trained hard, and stuck with it long enough to see results. Vince once said, “Every program works. The key is believing in it and sticking with it long enough to let it work.” I think that’s advice more lifters need today. We’re surrounded by more information than ever before, yet so many people never stay with anything long enough to find out whether it actually works.

Strength sports also have a surprisingly short memory. Every generation tends to believe its heroes invented everything, when in reality every great lifter is building on the accomplishments of those who came before them. Vince Anello helped redefine what was possible for lighter lifters. He proved that extraordinary strength wasn’t reserved for the biggest athletes in the room. His numbers forced people to rethink the limits of human performance.

History matters because it gives us perspective. I’m not suggesting we should all train exactly the way Vince trained. Sports science has evolved, equipment has improved, and we’ve learned plenty over the last four decades. But there is something timeless about studying lifters like Vince Anello. They remind us that consistency, effort, and belief in the process will always matter more than chasing the next shiny object.

The next time someone tells you deadlifting four times your bodyweight is impossible, mention Vince Anello.

He may be the greatest deadlifter you’ve never heard of.

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Last week we covered a lower body mini workout. This week, we’re taking the same concept and applying it to the upper body.

If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you know I’m a big believer that not every workout needs to leave you crushed. Some workouts exist simply to make your body more resilient so y…

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"The ability to display strength in the shortest possible time is power." -Yuri Verkhoshansky

When most people hear the term dynamic effort, they picture speed squats with bands and geared-up powerlifters. That's understandable. But I think we've been looking at dynamic effort too narrowly. The goal isn't simply to move a barbell fast. The goal is to develop the ability Verkhoshansky described decades ago; to express strength quickly. That's a quality every human being needs, whether they ever step on a powerlifting platform or not.

At its core, dynamic effort is simply the practice of producing force as quickly as possible. It’s not about moving light weights for the sake of moving light weights. It’s about teaching your nervous system to recruit muscle fibers rapidly and generate force with intent. Strength is important, but strength alone isn’t enough. You also need the ability to express that strength quickly. That’s what allows you to catch yourself when you trip, explode up a flight of stairs, move a heavy object without hesitation, or react during a game of pickleball or a round of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Those are real-world displays of power, and they matter a lot more than most people realize.

One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding dynamic effort is that it’s all about percentages. People want to know whether they should use 40, 50, or 60 percent of their one-rep max. While percentages can be useful guidelines, they aren’t what makes dynamic effort effective. The secret is intent. Every repetition should be performed with the goal of moving as explosively as possible while maintaining good technique. Whether that’s with a loaded barbell, a kettlebell, a medicine ball, or your own bodyweight is far less important than the speed and aggression you bring to the movement.

That’s why I don’t think dynamic effort should be limited to barbell work. In fact, many people over forty may benefit even more from explosive movements that don’t involve a barbell at all. Medicine ball throws are a perfect example because you can accelerate through the entire movement without having to decelerate before lockout. Box jumps, broad jumps, and simple vertical jumps remind your body how to be springy and athletic. Kettlebell swings build explosive hip extension while simultaneously improving conditioning and strengthening the posterior chain. Even explosive push-ups, where your only goal is to drive yourself off of the floor as fast as possible, accomplish the same objective. They’re all expressions of dynamic effort because they’re all teaching the body to move with speed and purpose.

As we get older, this kind of training becomes even more valuable. As I’ve written about many times previously, we don’t just lose strength with age, we lose power at an even faster rate. That’s one of the reasons so many people begin to move cautiously, react more slowly, and eventually lose confidence in what their bodies can do. Strength training helps preserve muscle, but explosive training helps preserve athleticism. Those aren’t the same thing, and both deserve a place in a well-rounded program.

This is one reason I continue to include dynamic effort work in my own training. Some days that means speed-strength work with a barbell and bands or chains. Other days it’s medicine ball throws before pressing, kettlebell swings between strength movements, or sets of various types of jumps before squatting and deadlifting. The specific exercise isn’t nearly as important as the quality of the effort. Every rep is performed with the intention of being fast, crisp, and explosive. The moment speed starts to slow down, the set is over. Dynamic effort isn’t conditioning, and it isn’t about grinding through fatigue. It’s about producing high-quality power over and over again.

If you’re not a competitive powerlifter, don’t dismiss dynamic effort as something that doesn’t apply to you. In many ways, it’s even more important for the rest of us. Staying strong is essential, but staying powerful is what helps you continue living like an athlete instead of simply getting older. You may never need to squat in a powerlifting meet, but you’ll absolutely benefit from a body that’s capable of producing force quickly when life demands it.

That’s the real benefit of dynamic effort. It’s not about becoming a better powerlifter, it’s about becoming a more capable human being regardless of your hobby or sport.

If this article resonated with you, you’ll find these ideas explored in much greater depth in my book, Conjugate for Old People (and Recovering Meatheads). It isn’t just a powerlifting book. It’s a blueprint for adapting the Conjugate Method to the realities of getting older without giving up the pursuit of strength, muscle, and athleticism. Inside, I cover everything from strategic max effort work and dynamic effort training to GPP, exercise rotation, recovery, and programming for lifters who want to stay strong for decades-not just their next meet.

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Most people think progress only happens during their three or four main training sessions each week. In reality, some of the biggest improvements in strength, resilience, and longevity come from what you d…

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"The goal is to keep the goal the goal." -Dan John

For aging lifters, the goal isn't to win the week. It's to keep getting stronger month after month and year after year.

For most of my lifting career, I organized my training the same way everyone else did. Monday through Sunday. Four workouts. Two upper body days. Two lower body days. Then hit the reset button and do it all again next week. It worked, because when you're younger you can get away with forcing your body to fit the calendar. As I've gotten older, and after coaching hundreds of lifters over forty and fifty, I've realized we have it backwards. Your body doesn't know it's Monday. It doesn't care when the work week starts or ends. It only knows stress, recovery, and adaptation.

One of the biggest mindset shifts for aging, recovering meatheads is learning to stop organizing training around an arbitrary seven day calendar and start organizing it around your ability to recover and come back stronger. Sometimes the smartest adjustment isn't changing the exercises or lowering the intensity. It's simply giving yourself more time between quality training sessions.

This concept really hit home while I was listening to Dave Tate interview legendary bench presser J.M. Blakley on his Table Talk podcast. J.M. explained that as his training age increased and the weights got heavier, he actually had to reduce the frequency of his bench training. He went from benching twice a week, to once a week, and eventually to one heavy bench session every ten days. That's it. Three primary bench workouts a month. Did it work? J.M. benched over 700 pounds back when a 600-pound bench was still considered extraordinary.

Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying the traditional four day upper/lower split suddenly quits working when you turn fifty. Far from it. I still think it’s one of the best ways to organize strength training, especially when it’s built around the Conjugate Method. Two lower body sessions. Two upper body sessions. Plenty of opportunities to develop maximal strength, speed, muscle mass, and work capacity. If you’re recovering well, keep running it.

The problem is that many of us aren’t just lifters anymore. We’re business owners, parents, grandparents, golfers, martial artists, hikers, and coaches. We have more responsibilities, more accumulated wear and tear, and fewer nights of perfect sleep than we did twenty years ago. The issue isn’t motivation. It’s that recovery has become the limiting factor.

That’s where thinking beyond the seven day week comes in. Instead of asking yourself how to squeeze four hard training sessions into every Monday through Sunday cycle, ask a better question. How often can I train hard enough to stimulate progress while still recovering well enough to do it again? Once you stop letting the calendar dictate your schedule, an entirely different way of organizing your training opens up.

Rather than forcing four sessions into every seven-day week, I simply spread the work over a ten-day training cycle. The result is a three-day split that keeps the Conjugate principles intact while giving recovery room to do its job. You don't stop training hard, and you don't water down the program. You simply create enough breathing room between sessions so you can show up fresh, attack the weights with intent, and continue making progress year after year. Over the course of four weeks, you'll complete three full training cycles instead of four. That's enough of a reduction in training frequency to improve recovery without sacrificing intensity or momentum. Slow and steady wins the Strengthspan race.

Remember, your body doesn't care if it takes seven days, nine days, or fourteen days to complete a training cycle. It only cares that the next hard session comes after you've recovered from the last one.

Here are a few popular four-day training splits restructured around this approach. The exercises and overall philosophy stay the same. The only thing that changes is the timeline. Instead of forcing the program into a seven-day week, you simply let recovery determine the pace.

Traditional Upper/Lower Split

Training Cycle 1

Monday: Lower Body
Wednesday: Upper Body
Friday: Lower Body

Training Cycle 2

Monday: Upper Body
Wednesday: Lower Body
Friday: Upper Body

The “Big 4” Power Split

Training Cycle 1

Monday: Squat
Wednesday: Bench Press
Friday: Deadlift

Training Cycle 2

Monday: Overhead Press
Wednesday: Squat
Friday: Bench Press

Training Cycle 3

Monday: Deadlift
Wednesday: Overhead Press
Friday: Squat

Training Cycle 4

Monday: Bench Press
Wednesday: Deadlift
Friday: Overhead Press

The Conjugate Method

Training Cycle 1

Monday: Max Effort Lower
Wednesday: Max Effort Upper
Friday: Dynamic Effort Lower

Training Cycle 2

Monday: Dynamic Effort Upper
Wednesday: Max Effort Lower
Friday: Max Effort Upper

Training Cycle 3

Monday: Dynamic Effort Lower
Wednesday: Dynamic Effort Upper
Friday: Max Effort Lower

Training Cycle 4

Monday: Max Effort Upper
Wednesday: Dynamic Effort Lower
Friday: Dynamic Effort Upper

One of the biggest advantages of getting older is that experience teaches you what actually works. Most recovering meatheads don’t need more exercises, more volume, or another miracle program. They need the discipline to recover as hard as they train. Stop letting an arbitrary seven-day calendar dictate your progress. Build your training around adaptation instead of obligation, and you’ll give yourself the best chance of staying strong, healthy, and capable for decades to come. That’s what Strengthspan is all about.

If you enjoyed this article and want to learn more about building strength for the long haul, check out my books, The Barbell Ronin and Conjugate for Old People, and consider joining the Strength & Health Coaching Club. Every week I share practical training strategies, workouts, and coaching insights designed to help aging lifters stay strong, resilient, and under the bar for life.

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"Old age, especially an honored old age, has great authority." -Marcus Tullius Cicero

Most people have heard that strength training helps prevent muscle loss as we age. That’s true, but it’s only part of the story. Muscle matters, but strength matters even more. If your goal is to stay independent, capable, and physically resilient for decades to come, chasing muscle alone isn’t enough.

One statistic completely changed the way I look at training for longevity. Dr. Andy Galpin has pointed out that we lose strength roughly two to three times faster than we lose muscle mass as we age. Even more alarming, we lose power two to three times faster than we lose strength. That rapid decline in power comes largely from the loss of our fast twitch muscle fibers, the very fibers responsible for producing force quickly. Those are the fibers that help you catch yourself when you trip, stand up from a chair with ease, climb stairs without struggling, and continue living an active life instead of simply surviving it.

This is exactly why I believe older lifters should stop thinking like bodybuilders and start thinking like athletes again.

No, I’m not suggesting that everyone over fifty needs to train like a competitive powerlifter or an Olympic sprinter. I am saying that your training should include progressive resistance and some form of speed or explosive work whenever your body allows it. That philosophy is one of the foundations of the Conjugate Method and one of the biggest reasons I’ve adapted it for older lifters. We don’t chase world records. We chase longevity. We train to preserve the qualities that disappear the fastest.

Strength is a skill that has to be practiced. Power is a quality that has to be trained. If all you ever do is light weights for high repetitions, don’t be surprised when your body becomes really good at moving light weights slowly.

That doesn’t mean you need box jumps or heavy medicine ball throws if your joints won’t tolerate them. Explosive intent is what matters. Move lighter weights as fast as you can with perfect technique. Perform kettlebell swings, explosive pushups on an incline, medicine ball throws, or simply accelerate the concentric portion of your lifts. The goal is to remind your nervous system that it still needs to produce force quickly.

The good news is you don’t need to live in the gym. Two or three well designed strength sessions each week can dramatically slow the physical decline associated with aging. The return on investment is enormous. Greater strength, better balance, improved coordination, increased bone density, healthier joints, more muscle, better sleep, and a body that’s prepared for real life instead of protected from it.

Keep your program centered around large compound movements. Squats, deadlifts, presses, rows, carries, and single leg work should form the backbone of your training. These exercises train multiple muscle groups at once while teaching the body to move as a coordinated system instead of a collection of isolated muscles.

I also like organizing training around fundamental movement patterns rather than individual muscles. Every week you should squat, hinge, push, pull, perform single leg work, and train the torso to resist movement in every direction. That approach builds a body that performs well outside the gym, which is ultimately the point.

As you get older, your goal isn’t simply to avoid getting weaker. Your goal is to keep earning the right to do the things you love. To hike with your spouse. Roll on the mats. Play with your grandkids. Travel without worrying about your back. Carry your own luggage. Live independently well into your seventies, eighties, and beyond.

That’s why I wrote Conjugate for Old People. The goal isn’t to help older lifters become elite powerlifters. It’s to help them stay dangerous. Strong enough to handle life. Powerful enough to move with confidence. Healthy enough to keep showing up.

Getting older is inevitable. Getting weaker is negotiable.

Until next time, stay strong and stay healthy.

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“If you run with the lame, you’ll develop a limp.” -Louie Simmons

I remember Louie Simmons being asked in an interview if he’d ever thought of being an NFL or college strength coach. His reply? “No absolutely not. That’s not a strength coach. It’s a conditioning coach and a maintenance worker. They just maintain their players and keep them from getting hurt. I’m into supreme beings doing supreme things.”

If you have ever heard Louie speak, that probably doesn’t surprise you. He wasn’t interested in being politically correct, and he certainly wasn’t afraid to call out an entire profession. His criticism was that many had stopped pursuing one thing above all else: making athletes brutally strong. In his mind, they had become so concerned with avoiding injury, monitoring fatigue, pleasing sport coaches, and managing workloads that they had forgotten the primary reason they existed in the first place.

Louie’s argument was simple. If your athletes never become significantly stronger from year to year, what exactly are you coaching? You’re maintaining what they already have instead of building something better. That distinction was important to him because he believed strength was the foundation upon which nearly every other physical quality could be improved. If strength wasn’t increasing, then the program was falling short of its most important objective.

Before every college and professional strength coach starts firing off angry emails, it’s important to acknowledge the reality of their profession. Their jobs are incredibly difficult. They answer to head coaches whose primary concern is winning games, not adding another hundred pounds to an athlete’s squat. They work around practices, meetings, travel schedules, injuries, rehabilitation protocols, and administrative responsibilities. They don’t have complete control over the training process, and many of their decisions are dictated by circumstances outside the weight room.

Louie, on the other hand, operated in an entirely different environment. His athletes came to Westside Barbell for one reason: to become stronger. There were no practices to work around, no offensive coordinators complaining about tired legs, and no athletic directors questioning heavy training. Every decision revolved around increasing strength. If more volume was needed, they did more volume. If another training session was necessary, they trained again. The entire system existed to produce the strongest lifter possible.

Even so, I think Louie was making a larger point that still deserves consideration today. Somewhere along the way, parts of the strength and conditioning profession became afraid of strength itself. Heavy lifting became viewed as dangerous. Max effort training became reckless. Training the neck and lower back was sacrilegious. Instead of teaching athletes how to train heavy intelligently, many coaches simply stopped asking them to. The emphasis shifted toward monitoring fatigue rather than building greater physical capacity.

The irony is that stronger athletes are often more resilient athletes. Strength and muscle increases the body’s ability to tolerate force, absorb impact, and withstand the demands of sport. An athlete who can comfortably squat 500 pounds is operating with a much larger reserve than someone whose limit is only 315. Everyday movements, collisions, jumps, and sprints represent a much smaller percentage of that athlete’s maximum capacity. In many cases, getting stronger creates durability.

That doesn’t mean every athlete should train like a competitive powerlifter. They should focus not on becoming as strong as possible, but as strong as necessary. Timing, sport demands, and recovery all matter. There is certainly such a thing as poor programming and excessive fatigue. But I also believe the pendulum has swung too far in the opposite direction. Today it’s common to see endless readiness scores, velocity tracking, wellness questionnaires, GPS monitoring, and workload management. Those tools certainly have value, but they should support training, not replace the pursuit of strength.

Whether you agree with Louie or not, his criticism forces us to ask an important question. If you stripped away all the technology, spreadsheets, and monitoring systems, would your athletes still become dramatically stronger year after year? Or are you simply maintaining the strength they already possess?

Louie thought he knew the answer, and while his delivery was often abrasive and outright humorous, it’s difficult to dismiss the question altogether. The profession may call them strength coaches, but if strength is no longer the primary objective, perhaps “maintenance worker” isn’t as outrageous a description as it sounds.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s article and until next time, stay strong and healthy!

If you’re interested in training that prioritizes building real-world strength and not just maintaining it; check out my books, including The Barbell Ronin and Conjugate for Old People (and Recovering Meatheads), and join the Strength & Health Coaching Club for exclusive articles, training programs, coaching videos, and a community of lifters committed to getting stronger for life.

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We’re wrapping up our three-part series on accommodating resistance with the deadlift.

Over the past two weeks we’ve covered the squat and bench press. Hopefully by now you can see that bands and chains aren’t just a Westside Barbell trademark or something reserved for geared powerlifters. They’re simply training tools that, wh…

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“Take only memories, leave only footprints.” -Chief Seattle

One of the biggest mistakes people make is treating travel as a reason to put their health and fitness on hold.

Whether you’re traveling for work, visiting family, or taking a much-needed vacation, your training doesn’t have to disappear for a week. In fact, maintaining some form of physical practice while you’re away can help you feel better, manage stress, maintain momentum, and make returning to your normal routine much easier.

That doesn’t mean you need to replicate your exact training program from home.

Trying to duplicate every workout, every exercise, and every piece of equipment while you’re on the road usually creates more stress than it’s worth. Travel is a time to be flexible. The goal isn’t perfection. The goal is to stay active.

This week alone I managed to train at three completely different locations. I got a workout in at Buckeye Gym in Tallmadge, Ohio. I trained at Main Street Gym in Geneva, Ohio. I knocked out a kettlebell workout in a friend’s yard. I also got in a couple of barefoot runs and spent a morning playing disc golf, one of my favorite activities, which is really just hiking with a purpose.

None of those workouts looked exactly like what I would have done back home. That wasn’t the point. The point was to move.

One of the things I enjoy most about training while traveling is exploring new gyms. Every facility has its own culture, atmosphere, equipment selection, and cast of characters. Some are hardcore old-school gyms filled with chalk, iron, and decades of history. Others are modern commercial facilities packed with machines and amenities. Either way, there is usually something to learn and appreciate.

Running is another great option because it can be done almost anywhere. A morning run is one of the best ways to explore a new area. You see neighborhoods, parks, trails, and local landmarks that most tourists never experience from inside a car. I would also leave the headphones behind and simply take in your surroundings.

Travel can also be the perfect time for a planned deload. If you’ve been pushing your training hard for several weeks, reducing volume and intensity while you’re away can be exactly what your body needs. I’ll often schedule heavier training the week before a trip, then use my time away to move, recover, and experiment with different equipment.

There are a few simple rules that apply whenever you visit a new gym. Respect the facility. Respect the equipment. Respect the members. Re-rack your weights, wipe down the equipment when you’re done, and leave the place better than you found it. Good gym etiquette is universal no matter where you train.

Most importantly, remember that consistency matters more than intensity.

Travel is not the time to chase personal records or test your limits. It’s a time to maintain your habits, stay active, and enjoy the process. A lighter workout, a long walk, a run through a new city, a kettlebell session in a backyard, or a round of disc golf all count.

The people who stay fit for decades understand this. They don’t need perfect conditions to train. They simply find a way to get it in wherever they happen to be.

That’s what a lifetime fitness practice looks like.

Stay strong, stay healthy, and keep moving.

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Just like the squat, accommodating resistance isn’t reserved for geared lifters or powerlifting specialists. Bands and chains can be valuable tools for any strength enthusiast or athlete when they’re used correctly.

The bench press is a great exam…

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