Conjugate U (eBook)

Conjugate U: The Proven and Practical Guide for Using the Conjugate Method with Athletes (eBook)

by Nate Harvey

190 pages

This book is a testament to the validity, effectiveness, and success of using the Conjugate Method with athletes of multiple disciplines.  

Nate Harvey, MS, CSCS, and Executive Equipment Specialist for elitefts began his quest for strength in a similar fashion to most of us — training with early weight equipment in the basement in our pre-teen and teenage years. Making his way to playing college football, Nate experimented with almost every program known to man — searching for THE ONE program that took his development to the top.  Becoming obsessed with the great Mike Alstott led him to the discovery of Louie Simmons, our own founder, Dave Tate...and naturally, the Conjugate Method.  

From Nate:

"Over the course of 18 years, I have witnessed the system outperform virtually all types of periodization and schemes. It’s very hard to objectively evaluate a strength and conditioning system, I get that. One of the indicators that spoke very loudly to me was when we started getting athletes achieving things athletically that, by all previous indicators, shouldn’t be doing.

The last school I used this system at was in its infancy of competing at the Division I level, not even 15 years. Subtract the ten years of my time there and you have 5 years as a Division I program when we started to implement the system. When you are as young as we were, you are not getting top tier athletes. After about a year of the system is in place, we were starting to see some surprising performances and some eyebrows were starting to rise, this was another moment of validation and reassurance that we were on to something big. Fast forward 10 years later, and we had the following results from a very young lower level DI school using the Conjugate Method:

• First and only Football Conference champions 
• First Division I National Champion (Men’s Shot Put)
• 3 Basketball Conference Championships in one calendar year (2 for the Men, 1 for the Women). Prior to this time, neither team had won a conference title. Women also had the lowest injury rate in the athletic department the year they won. This was when we were able to run the system in its truest form without outside meddling. 
• Men’s shot putters have won 7 of the last 8 indoor track and field Conference Titles and 8 of the last 8 outdoor track and field titles
• Men’s Swimming and Diving won their first ever Conference Title
• 8 of the schools 12 total All-Americans
• 18 Olympic Trials Qualifiers (shot put, swimming diving), two of those qualified for the final round in their sport 
• Over 50 individual Conference Champions (Track and field, swimming, wrestling, and diving)
• 16 individual National Qualifiers
• Over 75 Regional Qualifiers 
• Substantially decreased injury rates

Despite all of these accomplishments we had athletes leave the system either by their own accord or were forced to by their coach, NOT ONE TIME did their performance improve after leaving the system. Injuries typically increased after leaving the system as well. On the flip, side nearly every time an athlete came and trained Conjugate after leaving another training system, their performance improved and their injuries decreased. Sports that trained in the Conjugate system included:

• Men’s and Women’s Track and Field — Women’s Soccer
• Men’s and Women’s Basketball — Women’s Crew
• Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving — Women’s Volleyball
• Men’s and Women’s Cross Country — Women’s Tennis
• Baseball
• Softball
• Wrestling

In addition to all these indicators, was the overwhelming feedback from our athletes. The ones who trained with it then had to go put their asses on the line told us, this method was a major factor in their success."

In Conjugate U, you'll learn:

• What the Conjugate Method is
• Why and how to use it for athletes
• Squat, Bench, and Deadlift variations and their application in Conjugate Method and their carryover to the playing field
• Dynamic and Max Effort templates
• Jumps, throws, accessory movements, tissue work, mobility, peaking and deloading

Table of Contents

1. Acknowledgments
2. Purpose
3. About the Author
4. Conjugate Defined
5. Why Conjugate for Athletes
6. The 3 Methods
7. Dynamic Effort -— Speed Days — Dynamic Lanes
8. Repeated Effort — Accessory Lanes
9. Max Effort — Heavy Days — Max Effort Lane
10. Training Lanes — Setting up Programs
11. The Big Three
12. The Box Squat
13. Bench and its variations
14. Pulls — Deadlift and Variations
15. Daily Workouts
16. Max Effort Upper Day Template
17. Dynamic Effort Lower Day Template
18. Dynamic Effort Upper Day Template
19. Max Effort Lower Day Template
20. Off-Season Weekly Templates
21. In-Season Weekly Templates
22. Tissue Prep Lanes — Upper and Lower Body Options
23. Warm Up Lanes — Upper and Lower Body Options
24. Jumps Lane — Explosive Strength Options for Lower Body Days
25. Jumps Lane — Plyometric Options for Lower Body Days
26. Throws Lane — Explosive Strength Options for Upper Body Days
27. Throws Lane — Plyometric Options for Upper Body Days
28. Dynamic Effort Lane — Options for Lower Body Days
29. Dynamic Effort Lane — Options for Upper Body Days
30. Max Effort Lane — Options for Lower Body Days
31. Max Effort Lane — Options for Upper Body Days
32. Accessory Lane — Options for Lower Body Days — Second Barbell Movement
33. Accessory Lane — Options for Lower Body Days — Isolation Movements
34. Accessory Lane — Options for Upper Body Days — Second Pressing Movements
35. Accessory Lane — Options for Upper Body Days — Isolation Movements
36. Ab and Torso Training — Options for Upper and Lower Body Days
37. Mobility/Reset Lanes — Options for Upper and Lower
38. Accommodating Resistance — Bands and Chains
39. Accommodating Resistance — Setting Up Bands
40. Accommodating Resistance — Implementing and Setting Up Chains
41. Accommodating Resistance — Use on Accessory Work
42. The Art of Peaking
43. Using Bands to Peak for Competition
44. Deloading
45. Sport Programming Examples
46. Throwers 3 Week Summer Block
47. Men’s Basketball — 6 Weeks Out From Conference Championships
48. Women’s Basketball — 3-Week Training Post Season
49. Week Training Block for Fall Baseball — Position and Pitchers