The Repeated Effort Method
I’ve written about the Conjugate Method and Westside Influenced Templates quite a few times here on this site, but I’ve never covered the Repeated Effort Method, which is arguably the most important method when trying to lay the foundation for your strength training, especially as a lower training-aged athlete. Today, we’re going to fix that, and this article will be all about the repeated effort method and the value it can bring to your training.
The Conjugate Method
The Conjugate Method is a method and structure of training that was created and popularized by the late great Louie Simmons of Westside Barbell. Westside is home to many of the strongest people on the planet, and even owns more than 150 world records spread across men’s and women’s powerlifting.
You can think of this method as the Bulgarian Method Lite. Instead of hitting maximal effort work (new maxes) every time you enter the gym, Louie found ways to create a max effort stimulus while also increasing work capacity, hypertrophy, speed, and strength.
The Conjugate Method consists of three separate methods, organized into a seven-day training split. These methods include:
The Maximal Effort Method
The Dynamic Effort Method
The Repeated Effort Method
Like the Bulgarian Method, this method revolves heavily around what are called special exercises. These special exercises are just variations of your main lifts. In the Bulgarian Method they revolved around the Olympic lifts; in a Conjugate System, they revolve around the squat, the bench press, and the deadlift. These movements give a movement stimulus similar to the main lifts, but the load will be slightly changed due to your leverages. For example you can box squat instead of squatting, or close grip bench press instead of bench pressing, or you can good morning instead of deadlifting. These movements get rotated periodically so the athlete can continue to get stronger over time while rarely hitting plateaus.
I don’t want to get into the weeds here with the Conjugate Method as a whole, just understand that you will hit the dynamic effort method, the maximal effort method, and the repeated effort method for each lift, every week. In theory, this gives you four opportunities to hit “maximal” lifts without having to lift maximally every single day. As a byproduct, these extra methods also allow for speed development and hypertrophy.
Louie Simmons inadvertently created the greatest physical preparation for sport training method ever devised while trying to give his powerlifters the greatest opportunity to become the strongest lifters on the planet. It’s pretty amazing when you think about it.
To understand the Repeated Effort Method, we’ll first touch on the HIT Method as it seems to currently be more popular in strength training circles.
The HIT Method
Now it’s well known that I am not a fan of the HIT Method for athletes. That being said, there is still a TON of value in training to failure in some respects. The three biggest reasons you should train to failure are:
Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy
Work capacity development
Practice with the main lifts
We’ll go over these below.
Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy
Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is the kind of muscle growth that consists mostly of sarcoplasm (this is cytoplasm of muscle cells), mitochondria, and other energy substrates within the muscle cell. It makes the muscle look big, but doesn’t really contribute to strength all that much. We refer to it as “non-functional” hypertrophy. That nickname is a bit misleading, though, as these adaptations actually do contribute to success on the field of play; they just don’t contribute to strength.
Having more sarcoplasm, mitochondria and energy substrates will allow you to become more “conditioned” for your sport. This kind of muscle growth is the result of higher volume work. Your body adapts to needing more mitochondria, more energy substrates, and more sarcoplasm by creating more of these things. This will all come in handy as you start to fatigue on the field of play.
Work Capacity Development
You’ve probably heard the word conditioned be used to refer to someone who doesn’t get as tired in games and practices. The word conditioned actually refers to the body being in “good condition” for whatever sport they may play. The word conditioning in strength and conditioning coaching actually means just this. We put people in good condition to be able to play their sport. It doesn’t mean running, biking, or cardio.
Work capacity is basically conditioning your body to be ready for the field. This phrase means to increase your capacity to be able to work. The higher your work capacity or conditioning, the more prepared you are to deal with the demands of the field of play or even the gym. If you have high work capacity or you’re conditioned, your ability to perform work is expanded or your condition is good for the field of play.
Higher volume work increases sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, which expands your capacity to be able to do work. You now have more mitochondria, more energy substrates, and more sarcoplasm within your muscle cells, which means you can go longer and recover faster. Win/Win.
Practice With The Main Lifts
If you’re training to failure at a moderate to slightly above moderate load, then you’re going to be getting a ton of volume in these lifts. This will give you better technical abilities, which in turn will allow you to become stronger over time.
The HIT Method Isn’t the Repeated Effort Method
The HIT Method isn’t the repeated effort method, but the benefits are very similar, which is why we laid those out in this section. You’ll see increased hypertrophy, increased work capacity, and believe it or not, increased strength.
While the repeated effort method is very different from the HIT Method, you’ll reap many of the same types of benefits when using the repeated effort method, in addition to some other important adaptations. We’ll go over those next.
The Benefits of the Repeated Effort Method
The HIT method is very similar to the repeated effort method with a few important distinctions:
You’re typically working with compound barbell lifts with RE work, not machines.
The load is going to dictate the reps, not time.
The loads used in the repeated effort method will be higher than with the HIT method.
These distinctions matter because they’re going to dictate the adaptations. Higher loads will yield more tension and lower volume. This will be more applicable to the field of play and will actually play a role in strength gain, as well as functional (myofibril) hypertrophy, unlike the HIT Method.
So, with the Repeated Effort Method, we’re going to see increased sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, increased myofibril hypertrophy, and increased work capacity. These are all desired traits both in the gym, and on the field.
Since we’re using compound movements, we’ll obviously reap the benefits of those movements like increased ground reaction force, better posture, increases in core strength, etc.
You’ll also get a “max effort” lift in as well, as long as the work is taken to a total mechanical/physiological failure and the load is high enough. Louie talked often about this, and physiologically, it absolutely makes sense sue to the size principle. The body is going to recruit every possible muscle fiber to accomplish the task. As fibers fatigue, the CNS will move to recruit more and more fibers, until the last possible fiber is exhausted (failure). This is similar to working up to a true 1RM. So, in essence, we can get stronger with this method in addition to all the benefits the HIT Method provides.
How to Program the Repeated Effort Method
Believe it or not, the repeated effort method is fairly easy to program and implement. You can use something like 5/3/1, or you can check out Simple Strength. The book is an easy read (you’ll be an expert in about an hour), and you can even purchase a template here on the site to make it easy for yourself.
Another super easy way to incorporate the repeated effort method is to incorporate AMRAP backdown sets. In this scenario, you’d work up to a new daily max, and then back down to 60-80% and do an AMRAP (as many reps as possible) set. That’s it, just plug the numbers and get after it.
The Repeated Effort Method Wrapped Up
If you’re an athlete and not utilizing the Repeated Effort Method, you’re leaving a ton of value on the gym floor. You’ll see increased work capacity, increased sarcoplasmic and myofibril hypertrophy, and increased strength. This method also doesn’t fry the CNS to the same degree that the max effort (or even dynamic effort method) does, so you’ll have more in the tank for where it matters: the field.
An easy way to program this is to choose a moderate load (between 60-80%) and do it to failure then move on. We oftentimes, as coaches, overcomplicate things in an effort to serve our own egos. This method doesn’t require that, and like I said before if you’re not utilizing it, you’re missing out!
