Westside Barbell: The Conjugate Method Podcast

Do What Others Won't Collection: https://www.westside-barbell.com/collections/do-what-others-wont-limited-winter-release

Become a Certified Conjugate Coach: https://www.westside-barbell.com/pages/conjugate-coach-certification

Tactical strength training for Marines, veterans, and first responders, from Jason “Gus” Gusic of Conjugate Tactical. Mac McFarland sits down with Gus for a Veterans Day conversation on how the Conjugate Method builds strength that carries over to the PFT, CFT, boot camp, and life after service.

Gus first came to Westside Barbell in 2009 and learned from Louie Simmons that there is “a way, not the way.” He explains how tactical strength training built on maximal barbell strength raises pull-up and push-up numbers, and why a 300 lb push press makes a 30 lb ammo can lift a 10 percent effort. He also covers what someone 12 weeks out from enlisting should train: hamstrings, glutes, low back, rucking, and general preparedness, not peak brutality.

For veterans, the conversation turns to training after the military. That means undoing the damage to knees, hips, low back, and shoulders, working with a physical therapist as a team of teams, and using the reverse hyper and posterior chain work to stay ahead of Father Time. If you haven’t trained in years, Gus lays out a first month built on sleds, rucking, and calisthenics before any return to max effort work.

Whether you’re preparing for boot camp, chasing a better PFT score, or getting back in the gym after service, this episode covers tactical strength training the Westside way. Thank you to every veteran for your service.

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00:00 Introduction: Jason Gusick on Veterans Day and Tactical Strength Training
00:43 First Lessons from Westside: What Would Have Changed Marine Training
03:06 The A Way Not V Way: Louie's Most Important Teaching
04:28 Using Conjugate to Raise PFT Scores
07:13 Combat Fitness Test: Max Effort and Dynamic Effort Carryover
12:41 Preparing for Enlistment: Training 12 Weeks Out
22:26 The Role of Barbells vs Bodyweight Training for Marines
29:05 Post-Service Training: What Happens After the PFT
33:26 Fixing the Cycle: Going Hard Then Taking Weeks Off
40:21 Managing Pain and Injury: When to See a Physical Therapist
49:57 Building a Team of Teams: Strength Coaches and Medical Professionals
51:55 What Conjugate Tactical Offers That Others Don't
55:17 First Month Back: Advice for Veterans Returning to Training
1:06:08 Closing Thoughts: Thank You for Your Service

Do What Others Won't Collection: https://www.westside-barbell.com/collections/do-what-others-wont-limited-winter-release

Become a Certified Conjugate Coach: https://www.westside-barbell.com/pages/conjugate-coach-certification

Hockey strength training for high school athletes looks different when you only get two 50-minute sessions a week. Coach George Kalioras breaks down how he applies the Conjugate Method to a high school hockey team with limited time and equipment. 

George owns Sharpen Athletics in West Bend, Wisconsin, and has completed all three levels of the Westside Barbell Conjugate Coach Pathway. He trains the West Bend high school hockey team on a Tuesday upper, Thursday lower split. The program is built around heavy efforts on Zercher squats, sumo and conventional deadlifts, and floor presses, plus jumps, single-leg work, and accessories for the hips, adductors, hamstrings, and trunk. 

George and Mac McFarland talk through why he uses repeated effort instead of dynamic effort with young athletes. They also cover how he watches practice and adjusts sessions to manage fatigue, why a cleaner rep matters more than a bigger number, and how to build a working relationship with the sport coach. If you coach youth hockey, these are practical ways to run in-season hockey strength training with the conjugate method. 

The second half covers George's 18 years in the Army Reserve. He breaks down the Army Fitness Test (AFT), explains how conjugate training prepared him for it, and describes what changed in his coaching after the Pathway.

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00:00 Introduction: Coach George Calioris on High School Hockey Training
02:07 Getting Into Coaching and Starting Sharpened Athletics
02:51 Training High School Hockey Players: Common Weaknesses
04:20 Two-Day Training Template for Hockey Athletes
08:11 Balancing Bilateral and Unilateral Work
08:54 Max Effort Training and Exercise Selection with Limited Equipment
10:39 Managing Fatigue and Communication with Athletes
15:52 Building Competition and Culture Within the Team
17:07 Plyometrics and Jump Training for Hockey Speed
26:38 Accessory Work for Hockey: Hips, Groin, and Anti-Rotation
27:37 Advice for Coaches Starting with High School Hockey Athletes
32:11 The Importance of Technical Standards Over Weight on the Bar
35:26 Training His Girlfriend: A Professional Hockey Player
42:43 Key Lessons from the Conjugate Coach Pathway
50:16 Military Background: Army Reserves and Physical Fitness
57:11 Army Combat Fitness Test: How Conjugate Prepares Soldiers
1:05:52 Final Advice: Respect the System and Keep Learning

Do What Others Won't Collection: https://www.westside-barbell.com/collections/do-what-others-wont-limited-winter-release

Become a Certified Conjugate Coach: https://www.westside-barbell.com/pages/conjugate-coach-certification

Remote coaching for athletes works only when the feedback loop does. Tom Barry and Mac McFarland break down how Westside Barbell uses video, weekly check-ins, and clear communication to coach athletes from a distance. 

Tom explains why in-person coaching will always have an edge and what it takes to make remote coaching close the gap. He films one front angle and one side angle per lift without breaking the flow of the session. He reviews footage with the sound off at half speed and fixes only one or two things at a time. He also explains why app data alone can mislead you, and how lifters who train alone can review their own tape and become their own coach. 

Remote coaching for athletes who compete nearly every weekend also takes autoregulation. Tom and Mac talk about knowing your athlete, pulling back volume when the athlete won't, and working with sport coaches and parents. They also cover why strength and conditioning is usually the piece that has to flex. 

The second half covers how Westside tests new equipment the way Louie Simmons did: let athletes experiment, ask what they felt, and keep what carries over. That includes the Rogue Air Rhino for concentric-only and rotational grappling work, sandbag get-ups, and how to decide when an exercise should be dropped. It's the same conjugate method principles of max effort, dynamic effort, and repeated effort, adapted to CrossFit, lacrosse, jiu-jitsu, and wrestling.

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00:00 Introduction: Remote Coaching and Recent Athlete Success
01:12 Conjugate Method Across Multiple Sports
02:31 Upcoming Competitions: Ali Kennedy and Adamir
03:21 The Air Rhino: A Game-Changing Training Tool
06:14 Remote Training: The Importance of Video and Communication
10:52 Video Analysis Techniques: Slow Motion and Feedback
15:51 The Weekly Feedback Loop and Auto-Regulation
22:15 Working with Sport Coaches and Managing Athlete Fatigue
27:52 Experimenting with New Equipment: The Louie Simmons Approach
36:04 Exercise Selection: When to Keep or Eliminate Movements
39:28 The Texas Star Sandbag and Sport-Specific Applications
42:33 Air Rhino Deep Dive: Rotational Work and Future Experiments
45:23 Closing Thoughts: Key Takeaways for Remote Coaching

Do What Others Won't Collection: https://www.westside-barbell.com/collections/do-what-others-wont-limited-winter-release

Become a Certified Conjugate Coach: https://www.westside-barbell.com/pages/conjugate-coach-certification

Here’s how the conjugate method for high school athletes works in a real school weight room, with 120+ kids a day and 30 to 60 minutes per class. Coach Dylan Heath, head strength coach at Wichita Collegiate in Kansas, joins Mac McFarland to break down his system.

Dylan explains how he runs max effort and dynamic effort days with athletes whose training ages range from all-state seniors to freshmen who’ve never lifted. He covers the regressions he builds in, how he uses velocity trackers and 90% cluster sets to teach kids to grind through a max effort lift, and why dynamic effort work has to hit 0.8 m/s.

He also shows how to apply the conjugate method for high school athletes with limited equipment. He rotates a straight bar, a safety squat bar and a trap bar, adds or removes the box, uses boards on bench, and runs accessories in three-week waves. His combo dynamic effort day uses 18 racks set up before class, and athletes finish squat, bench and deadlift in under 10 minutes.

The conversation also covers training multisport athletes through season transitions, lifting on game day, the athlete feedback loop, working with private sector trainers, and what Dylan learned completing all three levels of the Westside Barbell certification pathway.

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00:00 Introduction: Dylan Heath on Training High School Athletes
01:30 Challenges of High School Strength Coaching: Time and Logistics
03:12 Managing Training for Different Experience Levels
05:31 Building Culture Through a Feeder System
08:13 Auto-Regulation and the Athlete Feedback Loop
09:42 Completing the Conjugate Pathway: What Changed
13:13 Building Relationships and Earning Athlete Trust
14:40 Adapting Conjugate for High School: Max Effort with Speed Parameters
17:30 Using Velocity Trackers to Teach Effort and Technique
20:41 Exercise Variation with Limited Equipment
22:55 Training Density and Accessory Work in Short Sessions
29:19 Managing Multi-Sport Athletes and In-Season Training
32:00 Navigating Private Sector Training and Communication
35:51 Biggest Mistakes: Pushing Athletes Too Fast
38:14 Combo Dynamic Effort Day: Setup and Execution
43:15 Teaching Dynamic Effort: Education and Visual Learning
46:44 Advice for Coaches Implementing Conjugate Tomorrow
48:43 Final Advice: Be a Sponge and Stay Open-Minded

Do What Others Won't Collection: https://www.westside-barbell.com/collections/do-what-others-wont-limited-winter-release

Become a Certified Conjugate Coach: https://www.westside-barbell.com/pages/conjugate-coach-certification

Conjugate accessory work is where most of your strength gains are built. Burley Hawk breaks down how Westside Barbell selects, loads, and progresses accessories. 

Mac McFarland sits down with Burley to go deeper on his recent blog on accessories. Burley explains how conjugate accessory work splits into primary and secondary exercises, why the primary accessory should usually be a compound lift, and why that slot is where competition specificity lives. That includes free squats, front squats, and comp-stance deadlifts inside the conjugate method. 

You'll hear how to pick starting weights for a new accessory, when to rotate exercises weekly versus running a 3-week wave, how to adjust when reps drop off mid-session, and why accessory progress should show up on paper over 12 weeks. Burley covers the weaknesses he sees most often: hamstrings, trunk, and shoulders and upper back. He also explains how to do standing abs correctly and the rolling dumbbell tricep extension mistake that inflates working weights. 

The episode closes with GPP and sled work, how to scale it back when it cuts into recovery, and how to use conjugate accessory work to break a stalled bench press without creating new imbalances.

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00:00 Introduction: Understanding Accessory Work in Conjugate Training
00:35 The Biggest Accessory Mistake: Skipping the Basics
01:21 Primary Accessories: What They Are and How to Select Them
03:09 Free Squats and Front Squats: They Belong in Conjugate
04:29 Programming Primary Accessories: Rep Schemes and Intensity
05:55 Cycling Accessories: Weekly vs Three-Week Waves
10:55 Managing Max Effort Intensity to Preserve Accessory Work
13:03 Finding Your Starting Weights for New Accessories
15:08 Technical Standards: How Strict Should Accessory Form Be
16:41 Top Primary Accessory Choices for Squat, Bench, and Deadlift
18:11 Secondary Accessories: Targeting Specific Muscle Groups
20:08 The Three Most Common Weaknesses in Lifters
20:57 Training the Trunk: Why Most People Have Weak Abs
23:58 Standing Abs Technique: How to Execute Them Correctly
26:10 Rep Ranges for Ab Training: Heavy vs Light Days
26:51 Shoulder Training: The Overlooked Key to Bench Progress
28:11 How Many Accessories Should You Do
29:42 Organizing Accessories for Team Training Settings
32:28 The Rolling Dumbbell Mistake Everyone Makes
36:31 AMRAP Sets: Advanced Technique for Maximum Progress
37:48 Adjusting Mid-Workout: When to Add Weight or Back Off
44:11 GPP Work: Programming Sleds and Conditioning
46:22 When GPP Becomes Too Much: Reading Recovery Signals
52:01 Finding Your Upper Limits to Calibrate Effective Training
53:01 Key Takeaways: Making Accessories Work in Your Program

Do What Others Won't Collection: https://www.westside-barbell.com/collections/do-what-others-wont-limited-winter-release

Become a Certified Conjugate Coach: https://www.westside-barbell.com/pages/conjugate-coach-certification

Louie Simmons stories from two people who spent years beside him at Westside Barbell. Tom Barry and Burley Hawk talk about what Louie was like in the gym, at breakfast, and on the road. 

 Host Mac McFarland sits down with Tom, who came over from Ireland as an intern and stayed to work alongside Louie for years, and Burley, who trained on the morning powerlifting crew. They cover how Louie ran the gym as the most experienced training partner in the room, how lifters earned his respect, and why he held every member to the standard of being a great training partner, not just a great lifter.

 They also get into how Louie spotted weak points others missed, from forward-pulling bands that fixed Burley's squat posture to a pinch in the obliques that changed an athlete's ab work. You'll hear how Louie Simmons read and cross-referenced strength training books, why he tested every idea on the gym floor before writing about it, and how that work became the Conjugate Method coaches use today. 

 The episode closes with the side of Louie Simmons most people never saw: his generosity, his sense of humor, his equipment prototypes, and Nitro, the dog behind the Westside logo.

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Do What Others Won't Collection: https://www.westside-barbell.com/collections/do-what-others-wont-limited-winter-release

Become a Certified Conjugate Coach: https://www.westside-barbell.com/pages/conjugate-coach-certification

The Conjugate Method for athletes looks different than the powerlifting version. Tom Barry explains how Westside runs a 3-day system for field and combat sport athletes.

Tom walks through the weekly split used in the Westside athletes gym: combined Dynamic Effort upper and lower on day one, then Max Effort upper and Max Effort lower later in the week. He explains why athletes get a day back compared to the traditional 4-day system, how max effort, dynamic effort, and repeated effort work get adjusted around competitions.

Most of the conversation is about what makes the system work day to day: athlete feedback. Tom and Mac talk about what separates a coachable athlete, when feedback is useful, how to handle an athlete who wants to change their program, how strength coaches should work with sport coaches, and what to look for in a coach who can justify their programming.

They also get into weight room culture, preparing high school athletes for a college strength program, acting like a professional before you are one, and why Tom says Conjugate and concurrent training are the same thing today.

If you coach athletes or want to apply the conjugate method for athletes in your own training, this episode covers both the framework and the coaching behind it.

FOLLOW WESTSIDE BARBELL
Website: https://www.westside-barbell.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/westsidebarbellofficial/
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Do What Others Won't Collection: https://www.westside-barbell.com/collections/do-what-others-wont-limited-winter-release

Become a Certified Conjugate Coach: https://www.westside-barbell.com/pages/conjugate-coach-certification

Volleyball strength training from Coach Brian Bott, head strength coach for LOVB Madison and a 13-year Big Ten football strength coach at Wisconsin. Here is how he uses the Conjugate Method to build jumping power and keep pro athletes on the court.

Brian explains what he tests before prescribing anything to an athlete who wants to jump higher: hip and ankle mobility, single-leg stance, hamstring flexibility, and jump efficiency. He covers the difference between vertical jumpers and hip-extension jumpers, how he uses bar speed to find the top weight an athlete can move at their top speed, and why most athletes simply aren't strong enough yet.

He walks through a full offseason week for a pro volleyball player: two max effort days, two dynamic effort days, safety squat bar box squats with bands and chains, floor presses to protect the shoulder, and dynamic effort days that double as conditioning. He also covers how in-season volleyball strength training changes, how much jumping belongs in the weight room, and how to read fatigue without a force plate.

The back half covers the part of volleyball strength training that keeps athletes healthy: ACL injury prevention for female athletes, why the box squat and posterior chain work matter, how youth volleyball players should progress before touching a barbell, and how private-sector coaches and high school coaches can work together instead of against each other.

#volleyballtraining #conjugatemethod #strengthandconditioning

FOLLOW WESTSIDE BARBELL
Website: https://www.westside-barbell.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/westsidebarbellofficial/
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Become a Certified Conjugate Coach: https://www.westside-barbell.com/pages/conjugate-coach-certification

Ally Kennedy is the fastest player in women's lacrosse and the 2026 World Championship MVP. She breaks down the training behind 19.3 mph and what most lacrosse players get wrong about lifting. 

 Ally Kennedy sits down with Mac McFarland at Westside Barbell after a summer that included a world championship in Japan, a WLL championship in Philadelphia, and a five-day Team USA sixes training camp tryout. She talks about what changed once she started training conjugate: a Monday dynamic effort day, Wednesday upper body max effort, Friday lower body max effort, plus a dedicated speed day and one long run at game pace. 

She covers the part most athletes skip. Her baseline used to collapse without warning mid-set. Now she can go two and a half months on the road, barely touch a barbell, and come back without a real drop. That durability is what shows up in the fourth quarter when everyone else is dying. 

Ally Kennedy is 5'3" in a position where everyone is 5'6" and up, so strength training for lacrosse became the thing that let her hold ground against bigger athletes instead of getting bullied through. She addresses the bulk myth directly, why she thinks lifting leaned her out, and why she tells high school girls to get under a bar before they ever get to a college weight room. Also covered: burnout in youth lacrosse, why she wants young players to put the stick down for two months a year, the difference between field, box, and sixes, and what making the 2028 Olympic roster of eleven would mean.

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Become a Certified Conjugate Coach: https://www.westside-barbell.com/pages/conjugate-coach-certification

Mac McFarland sits down with Tom Barry, whom Louie Simmons entrusted to carry Westside Barbell forward, to discuss the line between real adaptation and borrowed vocabulary. Tom covers why definitions matter, what max effort and dynamic effort actually mean, and the questions he asks a coach who says they run their own version of conjugate.

They discuss outcomes as the standard, why exercise rotation needs a reason, and how a diluted definition of the conjugate system compounds through coaching generations until someone decides it doesn't work. Tom also makes the case for high school strength coaches as the unsung heroes of the field, and lays out where to start if you want to learn the conjugate method: the free blogs, the podcasts, Louie's own references, and then actual reps with the athletes in front of you.

If you coach a sport outside powerlifting and want to adapt the conjugate method honestly, this is the roadmap. Show me what you've done.

FOLLOW WESTSIDE BARBELL
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