Athletes Articles

The fear of max effort is rooted in the old training belief that “maxing out” should only be done once every so often to test strength gained over the course of a training block; otherwise, injury is guaranteed. This belief treats max effort training as a testing method, not a training method. 

Wed Jun 12, 2024

Absolute strength is the King of all special strengths. As absolute strength improves, the capacity for all other special strengths improves. This means an athlete has the potential to improve explosive strength, jump higher, and run faster. Max effort training is essentially the hammer that breaks the glass ceilings that limit athletic performance. 

Tue Apr 30, 2024

At Westside Barbell, we have long understood the benefit of building our athletes' work capacity. By using repeated effort and various conditioning methods, we have consistently developed athletes capable of performing sport-related tasks at a high level over an extended period of time. 

Tue Apr 23, 2024

At Westside, we have long understood the importance of improving conditioning to allow athletes to escalate training. For many years, Lou stressed the importance of GPP and conditioning work, which has become as much a part of the Conjugate Method as the max, dynamic, and repeated effort methods. Not only will a high level of conditioning allow an athlete to escalate training continuously, but it will also allow an athlete to recover properly each training week.

Wed Mar 20, 2024

In his rookie season, when athletes often focus just on their games, Justin Inacio, a...

Fri Mar 15, 2024

Westside Barbell has successfully trained strength and conventional sports athletes using the Conjugate Method for many years. The use of the Conjugate Method has led to success in raw and geared powerlifting, strongman, CrossFit, football, basketball, baseball, hockey, lacrosse, rugby, track and field, mixed martial arts, boxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, wrestling, and judo. Today, the methods continue to be used to train athletes at Westside Barbell successfully.

Tue Feb 27, 2024

Empowering professional athletes to reach their peak performance. Are you an athlete wanting to get...

Thu Feb 22, 2024

Trust the Process, Not the Result In sports, success is more than just winning trophies....

Tue Feb 20, 2024

At Westside, we understand the importance of plyometric training when focusing on athletic development. By combining high-force exercises such as squats with high-velocity exercises such as jumps and sprints, the athletes we work with rapidly improve their power output, athleticism, and durability. However, it is essential to properly prepare athletes for the demands of intermediate and advanced-level plyometric exercises.

Sun Jan 28, 2024

The new year and another 52 weeks of training are upon us. As an athlete, each year of training is important. Athletes only have so many years to train and compete in their sport, so each training year must be as productive as possible. Ideally, each training year should result in an elevated level of performance both in the gym and on the playing field. 

Tue Jan 02, 2024

The conversion to a three-day training schedule can benefit athletes with a demanding practice and competition schedule and limited recovery time. Additionally, this training schedule can be used by individuals focused on powerlifting who may be dealing with a busy work schedule that limits training time. 

Mon Oct 30, 2023

Social media has become a useful and powerful tool for strength coaches and educators to reach and teach the masses, and this is for sure. However, at times, certain aspects of the training process become overanalyzed or overemphasized for the sake of content. There is no doubt warm-ups fall into this category. 

Sun Mar 05, 2023

Phase training is impractical for a couple of reasons, mainly detraining. Phase training will always lead to detraining as the athlete transitions from phase to phase. This means that you will lose a percentage of the gains you attained in the previous phase due to a lack of focus on that particular strength in the current phase. Essentially, you trade proficiency in one strength for another.

Wed Nov 09, 2022

As an athlete, one of the most important attributes you can develop is your absolute strength. Today, many coaches dispute the need for max effort training. These coaches will say that max effort training places an athlete at an increased risk of injury, or that their sport does not require an athlete to be “that strong”.

Wed Oct 19, 2022

At Westside, we have a few different ways we go about training the triceps. To maximize your results, you must train the triceps in a few different ways to improve strength, size, and muscular endurance. Effective tricep training includes more than a few sets on the cable press-down machine after your main exercise. 

Fri Oct 14, 2022

One important attribute in all sports, especially grappling sports, is absolute strength. Absolute strength represents the maximal amount of force an athlete can produce. Gains in absolute strength for a grappler lead to stronger takedowns, better sprawls, improved control, and the ability to use strength to force submissions when technique fails.

Tue Oct 11, 2022

When most think of conditioning work, their mind goes to exercises like long-distance jogging or hill sprints. While these exercises are excellent options to choose when building aerobic capacity, they aren’t exactly relative to the sport. If you want to maximize the conditioning for a specific sport, you must find ways to tax and fatigue the athlete relative to their sport.

Tue Oct 04, 2022

In almost any sport, your hands are the first point of contact for the device used to play the sport. Whether you’re a weightlifter gripping a barbell, a golfer gripping a club, a basketball player securing a rebound, or a wide receiver catching a pass, having strong hands and forearms can be a great benefit.

Sat Oct 01, 2022

At Westside, much demand is placed on the shoulders every week. For an athlete to remain trainable, they must put in the work necessary to build the muscles that support the shoulder. Training the larger muscle groups of the shoulder isn't tough to do. We can accomplish that with any regular barbell or dumbbell.

The question then becomes, how can we best improve the strength and durability of the four smaller muscles that make up the rotator cuff? The answer is simple, the Earthquake Bar, commonly known as the bamboo bar. 

Fri Sep 23, 2022