Strength Training Articles

Athletes Articles

Articles Tagged with Athletes
What Does ‘Training to Be As Strong as Necessary’ Really Mean?

What Does ‘Training to Be As Strong as Necessary’ Really Mean?

Note: The following article reflects how we train professional athletes at our facility, rather than...

Wed Feb 19, 2025
Expert Advice on Optimizing Athlete Health with Dr. Shawn Bailey

Expert Advice on Optimizing Athlete Health with Dr. Shawn Bailey

In our latest episode of the Westside Barbell Podcast, we had the pleasure of speaking...

Wed Jul 03, 2024
Base Building: Max Effort Training Explained

Base Building: Max Effort Training Explained

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
Max Effort Advice for Athletes

Max Effort Advice for Athletes

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
Improving Work Capacity

Improving Work Capacity

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
Base Building: Conditioning

Base Building: Conditioning

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
Justin Inacio's 8-Week Bench Press Breakthrough

Justin Inacio's 8-Week Bench Press Breakthrough

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

Fri Mar 15, 2024
Applying the Conjugate Method

Applying the Conjugate Method

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
Westside Barbell's Elite Athlete Program: Join the Crew

Westside Barbell's Elite Athlete Program: Join the Crew

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

Thu Feb 22, 2024
Athletic Excellence: Embracing Daily Hard Work

Athletic Excellence: Embracing Daily Hard Work

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

Tue Feb 20, 2024
Introducing Plyometrics

Introducing Plyometrics

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
Training Advice for a Stronger 2024

Training Advice for a Stronger 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
Basic Three-Day Conjugate Training Schedule

Basic Three-Day Conjugate Training Schedule

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
Starting Conjugate: How to Warm-Up

Starting Conjugate: How to Warm-Up

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
It’s Not a Phase

It’s Not a Phase

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
Max Effort Deadlift Variations for Athletes

Max Effort Deadlift Variations for Athletes

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
Westside Barbell Triceps Training

Westside Barbell Triceps Training

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
Absolute Strength for Grapplers

Absolute Strength for Grapplers

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
Conditioning for Grapplers

Conditioning for Grapplers

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
Forearm and Grip Training

Forearm and Grip Training

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