Maple Syrup Strength (littlesleeper)

Wendler was on a podcast recently where he said that conjugate is a lot simpler than it looks. Paraphrasing:

“It’s easy. You max out one day and you go fast on another day. It just makes sense.”

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Lol That is definitely the gist!

Traphouse Barbell Conjugate W4D4 - so even though this is my fourth week, coach has me on “week 2” in the Conjugate calendar (55%)
DE Lower

SSB Box Squats - 12" plyo + 2" mat, green bands (55% of max box squat - 500lbs)
55 x 5
145 x 5
235 x 3
275 x 5
275 x 5
275 x 5
275 x 5
275 x 5

These were tough. Still decent speed, no grindy reps, but keeping it at 30-45s resting periods had me trembling.

Deadlift - from floor, blue bands (55%)
135 x 5
225 x 3
315 x 3
365 x 4
365 x 4
365 x 4
365 x 4
365 x 4
365 x 4

Holy shit. I was toast. First 3 work sets were done conventional, then I kicked out to sumo for the final 3. I’m getting shaky again thinking about it. It doesn’t seem bad to write it down, but damn those bands! These were heavy at the lockout.

GIANT SET
GHR
11
11
11

Reverse Hyper - 160lbs, strap attachment
15
15
15

Calf Raises - holding 35lb plate
15 toes in, 15 toes out, 20 toes straight
15 toes in, 20 toes out, 15 toes straight
20 toes in, 15 toes out, 15 toes straight

SUPERSET
Neck Harness - 35lb plate
25
25
25

Bumper Plate Catches - a quick drop catch with fingers, using a 25lb bumper plate
20
20
20

Finisher:
135lb trap bar x 100 (50, 25, 25)

A good workout, but boy-o-boy did the squats and deadlifts ever kick my ass. I’m not sure if my energy was a little low today or what, but that was difficult. Going to try and get a good sleep tonight before max upper tomorrow morning!

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It’s times like these that training to look pretty (instead of pursuing strength) doesn’t seem so bad.

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Hard work pays off. You’re a machine bud, them workouts are insane. One strong guy.

The coach is certainly evil.

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Oh man, you will need to have a VERY clear idea of how that translates to your free squat.

Haha, aint that the truth!

Thanks man!

…and I wholeheartedly agree haha

Yeah, my coach just said to me today that he would like me to handle/program my own peak. He said he guarantees he can/will make me stronger, but when it comes to the specificity of raw lifting and how to really bring it together for a meet he doesn’t have the experience. Quite honest of him, instead of trying to fake it. He has spent years making people stronger and better athletes, but not as specifically as competing in a powerlifting competition.

I stumbled into this article: “Westside for Raw Lifters: Periodization 101 - Peaking and Tapering” on themusclebear dot com. It looked like a solid plan to me, but I’m always up for opinions and suggestions!

Week 1

Squat Peak

Work up to squat opener. Then work up to a weight around your planned 2nd attempt.

Reverse Bands on. 1-2 sets of triples. First set of triples using weight around your planned 2nd, second set of triples with your planned 3rd.

Bench Day

80% x 2

85% x 2

90% x 1

95% x 1

Red Slingshot on

100% x 2

105% x 2

110% x 1

Usual accessories

DE Work

DE work for week 1 can be standard work of 8-10 sets, using intensity ranging from 50% to 60%. Nothing too heavy.

Week 2

Deadlift Peak

Work up to opener for a single

“Wagon Wheels” or block pulls: 1-2 sets of overload for 1-3 reps, no misses

Bench Day

5 sets of 3. You can progressively work up to a max triple, depending on how the sets feel as you go up.

Slingshot On

2 sets of 3 with 105-110%

DE Work

DE Work for week 2 can be done exactly as the week prior.

Week 3 – Hell Week

Squat Day

Total of 10 reps with either opener or 90% of current max. Perform in as few sets as possible. No misses.

Bench Day

Work up opener using a pause (or full commands for meet practice). You can work up to your planned 2nd attempt if you are sure you won’t miss. NO MISSES!

Deadlift Day

Total of 10 reps with either opener or 90% of current max. Perform in as few sets as possible. No misses.

Week 4 – Beginning of Taper

Squat & Deadlift Day – PERFORM THIS SESSION 2X DURING THE WEEK.

Squat: 6 sets of 3 @ 70% (If you use knee wraps, base the percentage off your raw max and squat without wraps on.)

Deadlift: 6 sets of 3 @ 70%

Bench Day (Last bench session of training)

Work up to 80% for a single using meet commands / pause.

Week 5 – End of Taper (Used on week of the meet)

Squat & Deadlift Day – Perform once during the week (no later than Wednesday)

Squat: 5 sets of 2 @ 50% (If you use knee wraps, base the percentage off your raw max and squat without wraps on.)

Deadlift: 5 sets of 2 @ 50%

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That looks like a perfect way to come to the meet beat up and fatigued.

Where do you find out your attempts? It says to take openers, seconds and thirds but doesn’t say how you determine what they are.

The volume is very high with high intensity, and there is a ton of overload work.

I’m not sure what they’re trying to do with that five weeks, but it sure as hell isn’t getting anyone ready to perform well in a meet.

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I don’t know how to peak for a meet but I’m pretty sure this would be worse than a regular pull for me. I think we’re similar in that we fail off the floor and I think we’ve discussed that these actually feel harder than a regular pull.

How does this compare to your previous peaking approach? Those both seemed to work so why not do that again?

I think I read something around here recently (due to the increased use of conjugate) that Westside doesn’t really peak and taper. I kind of get the feeling that they just keep hammering themselves.

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They live in a higher ready state. Always ready is sort of the motto…

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That makes sense for someone like me, but someone who wants to peak on a specific day kind of needs a different approach.

There’s a big difference between:

  • I want to hit some PRs
    or
  • I want to hit some PRs on June 3, 2019
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I don’t know they hit world records and are some of the consistently strongest lifters in the game.

Thanks for the input guys, I’ll definitely have to take another stab at it haha.

Maybe I will just go back to the peak Bots had me do for my last couple peaks, since they seemed to work alright.


Traphouse Barbell Conjugate W5D1
ME UPPER
Bow Bar Bench Press - 3 x chains
45 x 5
135 x 5
185 x 3
225 x 3
275 x 2
295 x 1 ← grindy at the top

Likely around 80lbs of chains at the top. I am going to find our extra scale and bring it in to the gym to start verifying some of the weight/resistance of these bands/chains.

Regular Bar SlingShot Bench - black SingShot (90% 1RM)
135 x 5
225 x 5
315 x 2
315 x 2
315 x 2 ← misgrooved rep 2 and nearly missed it
315 x 2
315 x 2
315 x 2

All these felt like 50% to me (fast, easy) except the one rep that I completely misgrooved.

GIANT SET
Close Grip Lat Pulldowns
15
15
15

Curl Lat Raise Thing - 15lb dbs
10
10
10

Plate Front Raise to Overhead - 45lbs
10
10
10

SUPERSET
Banded Standing Abs - green band
50
50
50

One Arm BB Curls - empty bar
10
10
10

Finisher:
250 Banded Triceps Ext with 3" pipe (50 x 5)

I like getting in these Saturday morning workouts!

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The idea is if you handle heavy singles every week you won’t need to adjust to heavy singles at meet time.

There is still a “peak” to hit big lifts on meet day. It goes along with the Waves that the conjugate uses. Easy, Medium, Heavy, weeks then wave back down to easy, progress to medium, then heavy. Your body gets accustomed to the 3 week cycle. So you plan it like

Regular Conjugate stuff for months

Easy Week (like messing around with 50% to get ready)
Medium Week ( like 70% weights, to get more ready)
Super Hard Week ( westside uses squat max with super heavy band tension)

Easy Week to recover
Medium Week (Westside does max floor press 10 days out)
Super Hard Week ( this is the meet)

One 3 week cycle, starting light and ending in a super demanding workout. Then a 2nd three week cycle starting with a light week to recover, ramping up to the Meet.

I wanted to mess with this stuff last year. But I’m skinny so I didn’t think I’d need 3 weeks to taper or what ever. I went;

Test deadlift

10 weeks Regular Conjugate ME stuff

3 weeks away no ME lift
2 weeks week Super Demanding ME move
1 away Week no ME
Judgement Day: 50 pounds on Deadlift

Two 2 Week cycles instead of two 3 Week cycles.

Hopefully that’s understandable.

Here’s a chat between Matt Wenning, Chad Wesley Smith and Max Aita. Wenning is a conjugate guy who competed geared then Raw. Chad and Max are pretty skeptical/critical of the whole conjugate approach. It’s been awhile since I listened so I can’t tell you exactly what’s in there and where, but I know there is a bunch of relevant stuff in there.

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Oh man, we were typing at the same time.

I didn’t mean to try to talk you out of the Botslayer peaking plan, or to dis Botslayer in any way.

I have absolutely no clue to what I’m talking about.

Marks recent approach with testing a competition stance/grip fatigued max that wasn’t a true max (taking to much out of him) some weeks out looks so simple and right.
Then one could do

Something like this … I would say do only the ME and DE stuff and no supplemental and assistance.

But there are dudes like Bot or Mark that could point you in the right direction.

I watched this the other day. And afterward I realize that conjugate is a sell out burn the ships take your training into your own hands style (probably too advanced for my noob self but I’m hard headed).

Leading up to the meet is where the circamax phase comes into play. With conjugate you stay peaked and use circa max to test the lifts.

Not at all! I enjoy learning and am very interested in the various approaches to the sport. The way I peaked for the last meets is always still an option, but I’m always willing to try new things out.

I appreciate the informative post, I will need to sit down and give it a good read over to grasp the concept exactly, but it looks very similar to what I have read.

I’m also getting my hands on the entire Conjugate Library from my coach, who took some sort of training that was offered? So I’m hoping that I will have some good info to comb through in terms of peaking.

But like you and Hog mentioned, by training conjugate, you stay primed to hit those max effort lifts each week (and in 3 week cycles). It is just a matter of making the small modifications to ensure that the meet falls on what would typically be that super hard/heavy week.

Still LOTS to learn, but it is interesting stuff!

Hell of a session, keep it going hard!!!

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If you can find a peak for raw lifters Wenning set up that would be good.

The conjugate system was designed for geared lifters. It works well for raw, but needs some tweaks and that needs to be done by someone who really knows the system. Greg isn’t a fan of it for raw lifters although he uses elements that work.

Peaking for raw is a lot simpler than it is made out to be.

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