@Alpha, wow thanks for such a detailed write-up! Apologies it took so long for me to reply, I’ve been out of the country. I’ve always been so interested to see how conjugate stuff can be applied outside of powerlifting (and frankly I don’t really understand the structure of the supplemental/assistance work of it enough to apply it beyond pl) and this has really helped in my understanding. As always I’ll be continuing to follow along. Congrats on all the ass-kicking.
Killer work on the Front Squat, man! I’m really liking the look of the conjugate template you’ve been doing lately, not sure how well it would work with my current situation however. Doing even more fighting training than before, with one, two, or sometimes even three sessions a day when I have time. Doing dedicated speed/conditioning sessions 1-2 mornings a week with some of my compatriots. On Mondays for example, I’m doing upwards of 4 hours of training: Speed/Conditioning for 1 hour in the early morning, then BJJ and Muay Thai for 1.5 hours each in the evening.
Would it be worth trying to do in a 2x a week format? For example: Day 1 ME Lower/DE Upper and Day 2 ME Upper/DE Lower. Alternating each week between squat/dead and OHP/bench being ME. Or do you think the time I spend during the week doing things that could be considered explosive/reactive/plyometric in nature would eliminate the need for dedicated DE training for my purposes?
Also not sure if I should be working up to a 1RM, or if a 3RM or 5RM might be better due to CNS demands. Thanks for all the continued help and support man, and glad to hear you are busy!
Congrats on the front squat PR, that was really fast for a 10 pound PR. Following up with the pull-ups and conditioning was also pretty impressive!
I’ve had two squat days and a press day with my only shoes. The press feels pretty good but the squat is amazing. I feel like I’ve wasted two years without them haha. Hopefully they help in the long run.
Even more than before, when I watch your videos, they leave me speechless, slack-jawed, and shaking my head. It’s like my mind is having trouble accepting that what you’re doing, and how you’re able to do it, is even possible.
Best of luck with everything you’ve got going on.
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Thanks for the input and I will definitely take you up on that offer. It’s funny you mention that my quads are probably the primary muscles being worked because I almost NEVER feel anything going on in my posterior chain. I squat with a high bar position so I don’t know if that would make a huge difference but I can tell you that the following days after a squat dominant workout my quads are the only thing that feel as if I stressed them.
Really digging the new video! Is that a Maryland accent? Sounds kinda like East-Coast rappers. It feels much more authentic.
Really cool to finally see the conditioning in action. Far faster than I imagined.
Keep up the work!
nice job on the front squat PR
@dicksharpe Well, Dave Tate and many other more advanced lifters know way, way more about the conjugate method than i do. But i never go into the gym without a plan. Personally, i have to have an intention for the day and numbers I plan on hitting. I will say that the anxiety probably does wear me out to some extent and the mental energy put into worrying about performing well does play a role. But if you think about it, would you go into a powerlifting meet or a Strongman competition without numbers you had been focused on hitting? I can’t say which is better, but I would have to bow to the knowledge of Date tate and the others you mentioned before i would be arrogant enough to believe that my way was better. Currently, i plan on running 3 waves where I will continue to go in and beat my PRs on the different variations, then i will go in and try to beat my 1Rms. Because of this, I will have about 5 weeks between attempts. So once I beat an old PR, I have that time to try and strengthen those weak points before I go in and attempt to beat them. I don’t really think too much about them until about a week out. Hopefully it works out. I hope that Sheds some light on my thinking on this.
@TX_iron You are more than welcome man. Admittedly, I really do not know much about conjugate yet either. But what I have learned and applied seems to be working out really well. I plan on riding this out as long as i am able to.
@BJack Thanks man and that is awesome news about how much training you are getting in. It definitely will be your healthiest addiction ever! I think doing a 2x a week format may be rough though. The dynamic work really does seem to do a lot for the ME stuff. Maybe you could try to run something like:
Day 1:
Maximum Effort Upper Variations in the Horizontal plane
Maximum Effort Upper Variations in the Vertical Plane
Then drop your top sets down to 80% and get 3 sets of 5 for Volume. Then just hammer some tricep stuff, rowing and ab stuff for Assistance
Day 2:
Maximum Effort Lower - Squat Variation
Maximum Effort Lower - Dead Variation
Drop to 80% of your top sets and hot the 3x5 for Volume and then Lots of hamstring, Ab and quad stuff for Assistance
I think it will really depend on how energy the fighting stuff is taking away from you. As you get more advanced, you will find that you will be using less energy because you movements will become more efficient and you will be able to relax more. i say give it a run for a few weeks and see how you feel. The worst possible scenario is that it is too much and you ave to back off on the weight, but since that is not your main focus right now, you don’t really lose anything.
Sorry your tourney got canceled man, now you just have more time to get ready for the next one!
@Roran Thanks brother1 It felt pretty good! And yea, i kind of feel similar with the Oly shoes. They are definitely a staple of mine now! i feel a little bit naked without them. i am really glad they are working out for you brother!
@LoRez Thanks brother! I’d be interested to know what make you feel that way. Is i the conditioning stuff or the weighted stuff?
@gvaldes You got it brother! I think for a lot of people, doing front squats and high bar is a little much just because they both put the focus on such similar muscle groups. I think if you wee to drop the bar down a little bit on your back squats you would get much more of a response from your posterior chain and it would help your overall power on both lifts. Definitely get some vid from different angles and I will help you out any way i can!
@Panopticum Hahahah i suppose it IS a Maryland accent. I think you may be the first person in history to ever relate it to east coast rapper though! And i am glad that you are enjoying the conditioning, i think it will help bigger guys realize that they need to step up their game.
@kckfl349 Thanks brother, i am really hoping to hit 550 on the front squat before the end of the log, we will see how that goes.
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"If you don’t know your purpose, discover it, now.
The core of your life is your purpose. Everything in your life, from your diet to your career, must be aligned with your purpose if you are to act with coherence and integrity in the world. If you know your purpose, your deepest desire, then the secret of success is to discipline your life so that you support your deepest purpose and minimize distractions and detours." --David Deida
TUESDAY, 19JANUARY2016 - Work For Today
Wave 1/Week 3/Day 2
CONDITIONING - 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Reps Of
Burpee Pull-Ups
Dumbbell ManMakers @ 40lbs
Double Unders x3 (10 = 30 Reps, 9 = 27 Reps, etc)
STRONGMAN - Yoke Walks
270x 50 Feet
360x 50 Feet
450x 50 Feet
540x 50 Feet
630x 50 Feet
720x 50 Feet
810x 50 Feet
960x 25 Feet (PR, but man Was it ugly)
NOTES:
- Conditioning was done in the morning and those are two of my least favorite exercises. I really, really hate them both.
- Yoke went ok. i was hoping to get 960 for 50 feet but it was a no go. LOTS of stress on my lower back on the pick. Walked about 25 feet and lost it forward. I re-picked it, took 2 steps and put it right back down.
Congrats on the 520lb front squat pr man.A lot of impressive lifts on this log
Making good work out of those yoke sets man. 960lbs! Is it weird that I’m jonesing for some heavy ass yoke? Like 120%?
@stronkfak Thanks brother, i really appreciate you saying that!
@strongmanvinny21 Thanks man. 960 felt like death…I definitely wasn’t ready for it the day after a front squat PR, but sometimes you just gotta do dumb things… And I can totally get what you are saying about jonesing for that feeling. It makes no sense whatsoever, but for some reason the itch returns from time to time. How much are you thinking about going for?
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“Your fear is the sharpest definition of your self. You should know it. You should feel it virtually constantly. Fear needs to become your friend, so that you are no longer uncomfortable with it.” --David Deida
WEDNESDAY, 20JANUARY2016 - Work For Today
Wave 1/Week 3/Day 3
STRENGTH - Maximum Effort Upper
Floor Presses Superseded with Toes to Bar
135x3
225x2
315x1
405x1
455x1
500xNope…Because I am an idiot
490x1 (PR)
500xNope…Because, shocker…I am still an idiot
10 Toes to bar between each attempt
VOLUME @80%
390lb Floor Press x 7 and a near death experience
10 Toes to Bar
390lb Floor Press x 6
10 Toes to bar
ASSISTANCE
Neutral Grip Dumbbell Bench Press: 90’s x 25reps
10 Ring Dips
10 Single Arm Axle Dumbbell Rows
Neutral Grip Dumbbell Bench Press: 90’s x 20reps
8 Ring Dips
10 Single Arm Axle Dumbbell Rows
Neutral Grip Dumbbell Bench Press: 90’s x 15reps
8 Ring Dips
10 Single Arm Axle Dumbbell Rows
Then 3 Drop Sets of Banded Tricep Push-Downs
NOTES:
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I am happy with hitting the 490lb Floor Press PR but am dumbfounded with he 500. The first time I went for it, i think I took too big of a jump and it was too much of a shock to my system. So then i dropped to 490 and it moved pretty well. I had no doubt in my mind that I had the 500 for a grind. But then I lowered it down, got it a few inches up and that was it. My spotter got a nice 500lb deadlift rep in though.
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i think i may have been a little fried from the earlier attempt, but I know for a fact that i have the 500 in me right now, I just need to be smart about my approach to it.
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once I backed off to 80% for my volume work, I started repping them out. Got to 5 and still felt good, so i thought I would leg it out a little bit. after my 7th rep, I knew the 8th was iffy but i went for it anyway. I wasn’t using a spotter. the rep went up…then came back down, then i did the crazy drop the barbell down toward my stomach ditch and it made for a funny aspect for my next video…I should have it out in a day or two, but I am sure you guys will enjoy it…
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Another cool thing is that I made the Official North American Strongman Newsletter that is sent out to every NAS Member. They highlighted my newspaper article about Maryland’s Strongest Man. I didn’t even know about it until one of my friends told me. Pretty cool honor.
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I had to think about this awhile.
It’s probably more the weighted stuff than the conditioning, but it’s both, and more. It’s how you’ve been able to improve consistently week after week, month after month, the entire time I’ve been following your logs. It’s how you’ve been doing this so long that everything we see in videos is reflective of the years upon years of training. It’s your commentary in the logs and in the video that shows that you’re no more or less human than the rest of us, that you do have self-doubt, that you do get frustrated, that you do have all these various vices that everyone else has, but you’re able to control them and do what needs to be done.
So really it’s a sense of awe at your mastery over your body, your mastery over your mind, and your overall discipline and consistency. Any one of those is impressive on its own, but to see them all come together is what really makes me feel that way.
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I dunno, anything my body can handle when it’s ready. The most I’ve had on my back was 800 but I was a lil boy back then (2 years ago). Don’t know about 960 LOL, but maybe 850…just gotta get my baby legs stronger.
@LoRez Man, that was one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me. Seriously. To know that you were able to realize all of that through my videos and this log makes so much of the struggle worth it. really don’t know what else to say other than thank you brother. Man, that was amazing!
@strongmanvinny21 Man, I’m not going to lie…anything over 750 feels like a truck. But luckily, once it gets to that point, things don’t necessarily feel worse. It all just feels “heavy” and your body won’t respond the way you want it to. It is bizarre…You will have it on your back and feel ready to go in your mind, but your body doesn’t want to listen. It is like your legs won’t work out of self preservation. Get as much air into your belly as you possibly can, brace hard and embrace the suck. I think you definitely have 850 in you. i look forward to hearing about it brother!
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“The more improbable the situation and the greater the demands, the more sweetly the blood flows later in the release of all that tension. The possibility of danger serves merely to sharpen your awareness and control. And perhaps this is the rationale of all risky sports: You deliberately raise the ante of effort and concentration in order, as it were, to clear your mind of trivialities. It’s a small scale model for living, but with a difference: Unlike your routine life, where mistakes can usually be recouped and patched up… your actions, for however brief a second, are deadly serious.” --A. Alverez
FRIDAY, 22JANUARY2016 - Work For Today
Wave 1/Week 3/Day 5
SPEED - Dynamic Effort Lower
At the Top of Every Minute for 10 Minutes
3 Banded Squats @ 250 + 300lbs of bands (550 at the top)
3 Tuck Jumps
At the Top of Every :30 Seconds for 10 Rounds
2 Banded Deadlifts @ 365lbs + 270lbs of Band Tension (635 at the Top)
STRONGMAN - Keg Carries
210lbs for 250 Feet
210lbs for 250 Feet
210lbs for 250 Feet
NOTES:
- Good Dynamic Effort Day. Everything was moving well.
- Keg Carries were not much fun, but they will definitely make me better.
Hey Alpha, as you know, I’ve been reading through some of your old training logs and they’re definitely a gold mine of sorts. From what I’ve read, you’re 35 this year(?) and you’ve been training since your mid teens. Can you go through what your training has been like since you’ve first started and briefly summarize your experiences and etc? I’m mainly interested in your training before you started logging on T-Nation, back when you were still in your late teens/early twenties. Cheers.
@Benanything There is a cool write-up on that somewhere in Alpha IV, however the search engine doesn’t quite do the trick.
@Alpha damn man. Sometimes internet ruined me, and the impirial system just as much. Carrying a keg weighing over 90 kilogram for almost 80 meters is insane! Sometimes I get the feeling you’re actually quite strong;)
I looked around Alpha IV for a good 15 minutes to no avail. Dang.
@Benanything Yea man, like Pano said. There is an in-depth write-up of my lifting history in either Alpha’s Work IV or Maybe Alpha’s Work 3. But a short cliff-notes version would be…
-In high school, i was lucky enough to have a really great coach who ran our weight room. He was a great guy who made us squat, bench and power clean. Once we got done our main lifts, he let us work on pretty much whatever we wanted. He had a HUGE impact on my (and many other great athlete’s early lifting careers) and even gave the eulogy at Mike Jenkins’ funeral. The guy really cared about all of us but worked us really hard. He used to run contests to see who was the strongest student pound for pound in the school and had cool shirts that said “315 bench” or “405 squat” that you could try to earn. He even had a “wall of fame” where the top lifters in the school could earn a little piece of paper on that wall stating what you had accomplished. So much of my mindset and things I use in my gym today come from that coach and my Karate teacher. Both played a huge role in my athletic and mental development. in these years i did a lot of linear programing with things like 3 sets of 8, 4 sets of 6 and 5 sets of 5. But to be honest, i was more interested in improving my bird chest than how much i could squat.
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When i went to college, lifting definitely took a back seat to MMA. i owned and operated a school where I taught nights and went to class full-time during the day. I still lifted occasionally, but most of my physical training came in the form of Muy Thai and BJJ.
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After i got out of college, i sold the school to pay off my school debt and it wasn’t until then that i would say I really started taking lifting seriously. i Deadlifted for the first real time in my life, started caring about my squats and stopped caring about how big I could get and began trying to really build my strength. I was still doing linear stuff like 4x6, 5x5 and 3x10. and was still doing body part splits.
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Sometime around 2003 I’d say, i ditched the body part split stuff, and started focusing only on compound movements and total body training. Began using giant sets with antagonistic muscle groups and added more conditioning stuff. This is when my body actually really started changing. Now that i didn’t care about gaining mass, I actually started to and my strength was decent. Around this time I also read an article by Chad Waterbury called the “summer project” or something like that… where i was introduced to 10 sets of 3. That was another HUGE change for me. 10 sets of 3 made more of a difference in my performance and physique than any other programming change I have ever encountered.
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I was training in commercial gyms and was usually one of the strongest guys around. My deadlift was around 475 and my squat was 455. I was feeling pretty good about myself until i actually started looking around on the internet and saw what other guys were doing. It was at that time that i realized that I really wasn’t very strong at all and I was just a big fish in a small pond. But once i saw what was “possible” and what other guys my size were doing, my numbers immediately began to go up. i has set some preconceived ideas of what was “strong” or "possible"and Once my perspective changed, so did my lifts.
That is the main reason why i started posting my log on T-Nation in the first place. So that less experienced guys could have someone to look to for things they could actually achieve themselves and ask questions to a guy that won’t treat them like idiots.
I have had a few guys over the years do the same thing for me, so it is only right I pass it on. I hope that answers your question a little bit man. If you have more specific questions, just ask them.
@Panopticum Hahaha thanks man. I think those are mainly just rumors though…
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Just uploaded my latest training video. It has the 490lb Floor Press a 960lb Yoke walk and a near miss of a few broken ribs.
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I do the same thing sometimes man. I’ll just get so attached to a number that when I unrack the weight I’m like “welp, here goes nothin…” CLUNK
I do find though that having that tenacity, whether naive or not, is a good thing. It’s gotten me injured, but it’s also made me learn from reckless times, by giving me clarity in regard to knowing when to throw down and shoot for the gold based on structure and a template, loose or detailed.
Also, I already said this, but the commentary is great.
Thanks for the write up Alpha! Really appreciate it.