Post 5: Week 1 Conjugate Style Program

           Today was the end of week 1 for a program I wrote over the Christmas break. The goal here was to create a westside barbell style conjugate program and this was week 1 of my first stab at it. I realize the volume is pretty low but I dialed up the intensity as best I could to make up for it, and made sure the rest periods were on the clock, allowing for about a minute between sets on dynamic days, and assistance exercises. During my max effort 1RM attempts, I gave myself about 4 minutes between reps once I got up to doubles and singles.

          That being said, I may add a 5th day strictly for purposes of upping the volume for the week. If that doesn't seem to work, I might just add an extra exercise for rep method movements (tricep, delt, upper back, hamstrings, low back, core.) Generally, I felt pretty satisfied with my workouts each day, about 45-60 minutes per workout, but if I'm not feeling totally wrecked tomorrow I might add the extra volume I just mentioned. I started on Day 2, but only because I hadn't maxed out on a squat in over 6 months. You'll also notice that for the core exercises there is no 1RM value for deadlifts, and I plan on knocking those out early next week. I originally wrote this program for only 4 days/week for 4 weeks, but as we noticed when I brought it into the office last week, I could probably use it from anywhere between 8 and 16 weeks if i used each workout for 2 weeks or cycled back to the first week 4 times.

          Anyways, there it is for now. I will follow up this weekend or next week when I make a decision on whether or not to add the extra volume.

-Alex