Accessory movements, by definition, are nonessential. But I beg to differ. Learn to get more out of your accessory movements and watch your progress skyrocket.

As strength athletes, we care only about lifting the weight from Point A to Point B, but from a bodybuilding perspective, that is dead wrong, but how does that translate to powerlifting? The idea is to challenge the muscle — not just focus on completing reps and sets.

I still stand by my original Top 5 article series, but even I can admit it needed an update. So I expanded on the list I already had. The original articles were for assistance and accessory work. This series is for accessory work only. We’ll start things off this time with my 2019 accessory exercises for the squat.

For a powerlifter on a conjugate or Westside style program, you first need to make sure you know the role of each exercise you’re doing. This will give you direction on how close to failure to train.

When new athletes come into your program you don’t know their abilities, training history, or technical proficiency. This is a crucial part of your program: preparing your athletes for their sport.

Your yearly setup is complete. Now let’s look at individual days and how to program main, supplemental, and accessory exercises.

With your qualifying meet out of the way, you now have an opportunity to return to building mode before starting a peaking cycle for your next meet.

You should be doing core exercises as part of your warm-up and as part of your accessory work on certain training days. Are you doing the right ones?

Having trouble locking out the top of a heavy pull? This program will fix the problem in ten short weeks!