Fellow T-Men, I am in the process of designing my training regime for my sport. I have read many articles, inlcuding from the T-Mag archives on periodisation. There seems to be two trains of thought regarding periodisation, the Western Style and the Westside (conjugate) style. Has anybody had experience with either or both of these styles and if so, which style (Western or Westside) yieled the greatest results.
Thanks again for the help !
what sport do you play?
My game is the Firefighter Combat Challenge. Others previously have suggested the type of training like wind sprints, maximum load methods, plyometrics etc. but I am trying to put all of the various workout techniques and concepts into a complete training package. Periodisation seems to be the best method, but I am not sure as to whether the western or conjugate style would yield the best results from my training.
Rob, straight-westside training is great for sports requiring pure explosive strength but I’m not sure how much of a role it plays in your field. You may want to look into combat training protocols as they require both explosiveness and strength endurance. Check out Charles Staley’s site, Myodynamics.com, for more info. He has one routine, somthing like “Mixed Qualities training for sports” or something like that starts with speed reps of a lower or upper body exercise of your choice, followed by two near-max sets of the same lift, followed by several assistance exercises done in circuit fashion,which arguably qualifies the routine as “conjugated” as it trains various neural and metabolic pathways in one workout.
Actuallly if you want to be basic you got your Western Training and Eastern Bloc training. Eastern Bloc training is not limited to Westside but more of Absolute strength, Explosive strength, and endurance. The Sciece and Practice of Strength Training, explains the Eastern methodology very well.
The only experience I’ve had with the Westside style is for powerlifting and it works like a dream, much better than linear periodization. I’ve found the biggest problem using Western (linear) periodization for sports is when you do 4 weeks of 8-12 reps for hypertrophy, then do 4 weeks of 6-8 for strength then do 4 weeks of 3-5 for power, by the time you’re on the 12th week, you’ve lost all the strength you had in the higher rep ranges which is important for some sports. Then, by week four, you’ve lost whatever you’ve gained in the last mesocycle. Much better is to do different things different days of the week, in my mind.