Planning to start a new training cycle next week. Took some days off over a mini-vacation and some easier workout sessions lately. Left knee is a bit buggy at the moment so will need to assess how it feels moving forward over next couple weeks. Usually my body will correct itself if I give it the time.
Will be doing Conjugate Training for the first time. I have some familiarity working with bands, chains, box squatting, and use of specialty bars from past training/experimenting. Most of my training up to this point has been focused on regular straight bar squat, bench press, and conventional deadlift in a linear or Western Periodization block style with periods of 5/3/1 sprinkled in for good measure here and there over the years. I have been reading and listening to everything I can find on this type of training from all the usual sources for a couple of years now and feel I am finally ready to begin putting some of these ideas to use.
Training macrocycle will be 16 weeks long with four, 4 week microcycle blocks. These 4 week blocks will be comprised of 3 week waves for Dynamic Effort (DE) plus 1 week of repetition method (6x6, 8x8, or 10x10) replacing the typical DE days in that 4th week.
Two of the four weeks (weeks 1 & 3) will have Max Effort days working towards 1RM on a main lift with 3 lifts >90% for that day. One of these weeks (week 2) will be a 5RM instead of a 1RM ME day that will focus on Good Morning variation for lower and Weighted Dips for upper. Then the 4th week of each block will be doing a heavy set of the main lift (Squat / Bench) with 3 backoff sets focusing on slow eccentrics and pauses.
I will be using opposite stance (sumo) for deadlifts during the 16 weeks as I am working under the assumption that if I hate it then maybe it’s what I should be working on to address weaknesses. Pretty sure my hip flexors are gonna hate me, but maybe my lower back won’t.
As far as addressing weaknesses; all 16 weeks assistance exercises (GPP/RE) will focus on abs/obliques, hamstrings, triceps, and conditioning. I am a fan of doing circuits/supersets for assistance and using a concept 2 rower for distance, time, or sprints.
For variation (law of accommodation), I will rotate ME lifts every week, but repeat a slight variation of them , to better track progress or lack there of, in each microcycle block. I will rotate lower/upper assistance exercises every 4-week microcycle.
If I am feeling good on off-days I may incorporate extra workouts similar to a Wenning Warmup where light bands are used 4x25 and then finish up with LISS conditioning workout on the rower.
Overall goals for the 16 week macrocycle would be to lose 10lb of body weight and gain 10lbs on each powerlift S/B/D.