Back to the Rock Pile: Don’t Mess with the Formula
By Dalen Randa
For www.EliteFTS.com
In a sense, back to the rock pile is the basics – the fundamental parts of a training program that make it work. I had been a periodization style single ply lifter for about ten years. I thought this was the basics for me, and I stuck to the fundamentals of this for all that time. I made small gains over the years until I was a medium level lifter with best lifts of a 551 lb squat, a 501 lb bench, and a 589 lb deadlift.
I was resistant to change because this was all I knew. I kept reading about Westside Barbell and the conjugate method of training. However, I also kept hearing from other lifters that those training methods were meant for lifters supplementing with anabolics. They told me that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with recovery and that I would fail at it. I knew that there was a gym 30 miles away from where I lived where they trained using those styles, but I just knew that it wasn’t for me. But then circumstances changed.
My gym, Iron Island, closed down after being open for over 50 years. I moved to another gym with a few guys but then they had to transfer out on military orders. I had to make a decision so I decided to check out Diablo Barbell. I went there and was hooked right away. It has a great atmosphere and hardcore people who wanted the same things that I did – powerlifting at it’s finest. But my body wasn’t quite ready for what was in store. From the very beginning, I was told that I needed to widen my squat stance, my bench technique could stand much tweaking, my lats and triceps were weak, and I had weak glutes, hamstrings, and core. So I made another decision – to try my best and check my ego at the door every day I came to train and to commit myself to the system to see if the conjugate method would work for a drug-free lifter. It has and it does. Here are some of the things that I learned.
Every workout is broken down into its simplest form, whether it’s a max effort day or a dynamic effort day. The main exercise is first, followed by a primary accessory move and two supplementary accessory moves. Westside it’sBarbell’s Louie Simmons, who has been a trainer and subject matter expert for more years than I care to count, devised this program. He has had a great deal of success with this method for both himself and his lifters. His articles detail his experimentations. I’m far too green in dealing with this to question the methods behind his madness. Give me another few years of training in this method and maybe I’ll have learned enough to warrant radical experimentation. In the meantime, I stick to the template. However, I do examine some aspects of the inherent variations allowed to try and improve my training, especially in addressing deficiencies and breaking through plateaus.
The first issue is max effort. There are some things that can cause stalling in the lifts here. I need to continuously and honestly assess a few areas.
- Am I lifting with appropriate volume, meaning am I doing enough repetitions at or near my max – This normally means at least three attempts at or above 90 percent.
- Am I producing enough strain? Do I work through grinders? When I miss an attempt, do I strain for a few seconds before the spotters take the weight? This is one of the key elements to max effort work. Although everyone likes to make a new personal best, the quality of the lift is more important. Some days I’m not at my best. So the quality of the workout and the strain and effort I put into the attempts is more important than beating a previous best. The strain is what taxes your central nervous system and stimulates growth.
- Am I avoiding exercises that I’m weak at? If you hate the exercise, you probably need to concentrate on it. I personally hate floor pressing. I know I need to work at this more often and I will. We all have weak areas in strength. By focusing on a strength deficiency, you can create better balance and bring up your overall strength in the process. Unless you have a legitimate excuse such as an injury, stop avoiding the exercises that you’re not good at or that you dislike doing.
- Where are the weaknesses in my technique? Am I addressing these? Do I need help in addressing these? Nothing beats the feedback of a good coach and/or good training partners. When I fist tried box squatting, I thought I had read enough to understand the principles behind it. I worked at it for a while and then gave up on it because I wasn’t getting any results. I wasn’t getting any results because I did not truly know how to do the box squat correctly.
I’m nowhere near the level of mastering this move, but in the last year, I know this is the primary move responsible for my gains in the squat. I needed to train with good coaches and good training partners who could first show me how to do the movement correctly and then continue to correct me for each of my form issues. And my form issues have been many. I know that it’s important to be strong in powerlifting but that only takes most people so far. There are many people who compete who are freakishly strong and their technique is far from perfect. But for most of us, the strength is secondary. In the end, strength compliments technique.
- Am I turning dynamic effort day into max effort day? Am I losing out on the advantages of training my explosiveness by turning my accessory into a max effort? Research shows that the maximum effort training trains the muscular system, and the dynamic effort training trains the neuromuscular system. When you turn the accessory work into max effort work, you are counteracting the benefits of training the two systems separately. This may result in losing the benefits of training for explosiveness. Westside recommends 72 hours between the two types of training for upper and lower body. Follow the template and get the maximum benefit from dynamic training.
Primary and secondary accessory moves are moves where you can really address issues and bring up your lifts. This is where the volume is done.
- Are you applying yourself to accessory moves or are you just going through the motions? You don’t have to go to failure and shouldn’t every week, but you need to work hard. If the exercise is a three week wave exercise, then every week should be an increase in weight or repetitions. By the third week, you should be damn close to failure. Volume is the key to getting stronger, and you focus on it here. Finish that five by five set.
- Where are your weaknesses? If you have weak hamstrings, glutes, lats, or whatever, work them hard here. Everyone can benefit from intense triceps training, and it’s addressed here. Identify your weaknesses and work them hard! Find what exercise really blasts that weakness and work it. Then go back to the one that didn’t seem to work so well and work it harder or involve something different in it like a form of accommodation (bands, chains, etc.). Maybe that will be the extra something that pushes you to a new personal best. I have addressed my initial weaknesses and continue to reassess for the weakest link.
- Core strength anyone? Does anyone really believe that their core strength is adequate? That it can’t possible be improved? If you do believe that, why are you reading this article? I work abs or a core related exercise every workout. When I first started training conjugate style, I could barely unrack a 600 lb squat, and it felt heavy. I shook like a doublewide trailer in a tornado. My 804 lb squat felt no heavier to unrack than the lighter weights I had handled in warm up. I have worked hard to bring up my core strength and will continue to do so.
Have you ever seen perfect technique in one of the primary lifts (squat, bench, or deadlift)? What do you think that person did to get there?
- Accept feedback! Even if you videotape yourself lifting, you may not pick up on the nuances of technical mistakes that you’re making. Actively seek feedback. Ask others to critique your form! In a good gym atmosphere, everyone is a coach. This type of atmosphere is what makes the gym good and the lifters better. And check your ego at the door.
- don’t get stuck with the big dog mentality. There are always people better. Strive to be a better technical lifter. If you’re the best lifter in the gym that you workout in, then maybe you need to find a gym with people who are better than you or recruit someone stronger to come workout with you. it’s a blow to the ego for some folks when they aren’t the top lifter where they workout. I don’t thrive in such a place. I need to always have the competition and the challenge of working out with and chasing the lifts of others who are stronger than me. I learn from their technique, and my competitive nature makes me work harder to try and keep up with them.
- Strength compliments technique. The better you are in your technique, the more efficiently you can use your strength. Very few lifters can rely mostly on brute strength and have anything resembling success or longevity. I’ve had fewer injuries since switching over to this style of lifting.
I was out of shape. My conditioning, or general physical preparedness (GPP), was not what I thought it was or where it needed to be. I started doing sled work and other GPP on a consistent basis. My body responded to this very well. The first several weeks really stunk, and I was exhausted, but I adapted to the increased conditioning. My training productivity increased, and I didn’t overtrain. I had to listen to my body at times and learn when to take a recovery or repetition day, but I’m in much better shape than I was this time last year. My body composition changed dramatically. Although I came in at 238 lbs, I was much fatter than I needed to be. A year later, I’m now at 245 lbs, but I lost seven inches off my waist. I haven’t had my body fat checked with a reliable method, but I can look and see in the mirror that I’m not the same fat boy I was a year ago. Diet has had something to do with this, but the way I train has had the greatest impact.
Yes, double ply gear is more restrictive. it’s different from single ply in many ways. it’s also the same in many ways, especially with today’s materials. I had to adapt to the double ply squat suit. It didn’t feel as tight as the single ply I was used to. And I had to really trust the changes I had made in my technique. The better your technique, the more you will benefit from gear. I had never used a double ply open back bench shirt, but I’m not sure that I ever want to use a closed back shirt again. I had to deal with trusting my technique and trusting the gear for both the squat and bench, but I’m more willing to experiment with different gear now.
So what can you do to improve? Stick to the basics. Be willing to believe that the system can work for you. There are variations within the basics that can address weaknesses, but the lifter has to be honest about these and not let ego get in the way. If someone identifies a weakness in your technique or a strength deficiency, then you have to be willing to face that they likely are correct and fix the problem regardless of who they are. I had to be willing to accept that the conjugate system could work for me and it has. I fully believe that the template is solid and well proven. It is my future.
Dalen Randa is an APF elite lifter in the 242 lb Masters I class. He works as a security manager, corrections officer, and forensic firearms/toolmarks examiner. Dalen holds three college degrees, the highest a masters of forensic sciences. He trains at Diablo Barbell in Concord, California, and his best contest lifts to date are an 804 lb squat, a 606 lb bench, a 633 lb deadlift, and a 2023 lb total.
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