The Conjublock Structure

Recently in training, many athletes and coaches take cues from many other types of training; strange mixtures of conjugate, block, linear, DUP and bodybuilding training that create something that is larger than the sum of its parts. I like to call this training methodology "Conjublock Training".

Conjublock periodization is generally a type of training like any other. It modulates training variables to get a result that is wanted by the coach or athlete. Generally the exercise selection is varied every 1 to 6 weeks and is modulated by volume and intensity until it becomes time for a deload.

In typical conjugate style training made popular by Westside Barbell and Louie Simmons, there is Max Effort Upper and Lower, followed by Dynamic Effort Upper and Lower. This comes to 4 main training days a week, two working on maximal strength and two working on speed-strength. The max effort days usually change every week and consist of a maximum single for the day, hopefully breaking a personal record on the specific movement. The main key here is changing the exercise weekly to provide a different stimulus every week, therefore avoiding the law of accomodation while training your ability to 1RM. The speed days are meant to increase your force production over time, increasing how explosive and how strong you are. This training is based on Newton's Second Law of Motion, Force = Mass x Acceleration. Training both the Mass (resistance) and the Acceleration (speed of motor recrution), the Force(strength) must go up! After the main work is done each day, there is a long list of assistance exercises to further help get through your mini-max, or sticking point.

A few of the main problems with the pure Conjugate system is that there is little to no movement specificity, little competiton volume, and it is hard to develop a plan to succeed in the long term. There is no ability to have a phase of training that is not totally concentrated on becoming stronger. Block training is all about this.

Block training is basically planned progression for 3 to 6 weeks at a time. There is a specific goal set out by the block, generally GPP, hypertrophy, strength, or peaking blocks. The idea is to build the muscle, get the muscle strong, then get good at the competition movements with your new big, strong muscles. Usually, a block style program will use little variation throughout the entire cycle, using the competition movement during every block of training. This provides the practice a lifter potentially needs, being hyper movement specific. A different approach than conjugate training, but it works as well. Many sports programs around the world use a block style programming for their athletes and to good effect. Both styles of programming have their merit and both have their downfalls. So how to we fix this?

Generally speaking, we use both. With the advent of RPE style training, we can ditch percentages and are not bound to specific strengths of specific movements. This means that the work done for sets of 5 on a straight bar is similar to the work done on a safety squat bar, while not being the exact same pressure on the body. This is perfect for long term training approaches and developing weak areas of the body while you still keep movement specificity or intensity specificity high depending on what is needed at the time.

The variation and extra assistance work of the conjugate system are useful for building weak points and adding extra intensity into your program, while movement specificity and using training blocks to build certain aspects of your lifting are used to create a plan and develop over time as an athlete. Both are important to developing a working system that will give the athlete the best chance possible to perform at their best, both in the weeks ahead and the years down the road.