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The original was posted on /r/weightroom by /u/black_mamba44 on 2024-01-02 22:13:37.

For the past few months I’ve been running Brian’s Conjugate program from neversate.com.

To start, I haven’t fully completed this program yet; and because of my vacation it will remain incomplete for 2023. However, I think I’ve gotten enough weeks(11 out of 12) to make an educated guess on how my lifts would have gone after completion. Bottom line up front; this is the strongest I’ve gotten in a long time and if I tested my maxes I’m sure I woulda blown my maxes out of the water.

Max Effort Days These days are used to hit a 3RM for weeks 1 - 6, or a 1RM in weeks 7 - 12. So what do you pick as a variation? Brian has his own selection on the program, but I would say you want a super maximal variation (Block pulls, High Box Squat, Push Press, Pin Bench) and then variations that attack your weak points (Deficit pulls, Front Squats/Zercher Squats, pause pulls, pin squats, Z-Press, Close Grip Bench). Note that this will change over time, and Brian puts in variation like he normally does so you can pick and choose what you want to run.

Once you find your 1RM/3RM, you back-off 80% and hit an AMRAP set, then straight sets. I found this to be a good gauge of finding out if you’re sandbagging a workout or not; if I’m going to hit an AMRAP then 2 sets of 8, my AMRAP was always around 8 reps. When my friend was lifting with me, he hadn’t lifted heavy in awhile so he got like 15 reps for that first set but had trouble performing a 1RM.

I think these days are a great way of getting comfortable with heavy loads in general. I set new PR’s on my box squat 1RM (hitting a quick 505 lbs), front squat (365 lbs), and close grip bench (335).

As with most of Brians work, these are done in Giant set format. However, the giant set was pretty much just the main mover, core, and antagonist/explosive. Backdowns got rid of the antagonist/explosive which was interesting.

Assistance and Conditioning was the same like always, except the Conditioning was optional. I did it if I felt good, if not I skipped it.

These weeks are setup so you alternate which movement you do Max Effort on. I.E. one week will be Deadlift/OHP, the next Squat/Bench.

Dynamic Effort This is the “speed” work. I think it’s just a way to get in multiple reps of your main mover at lower percentages so you can focus on doing the same thing every time. Unlike a volume focused program that might have you do 3 sets of 12, CONJUGATE does 12 sets of 2 - 3 reps done in EMOM fashion. The percentages are 50 - 75, so week 1- 6 you work up to 75% and then go back to 50% on week 7.

These felt great, and even at higher weight they were much more of a deload compared to the max effort days. I used chains for my lifts except deadlifts, and found a new max for all my movements. To me, these were such a game changer and made my squats, OHP, and Bench feel much more snappy and explosive. I wish I had taken the time to find my DL 1RM w/Chains too, but oh well.

These are not done in Giant set format, which was actually nice.

Assistance and Conditioning was the same as the Max Effort days, but I noticed that the days didn’t seem as “tough” as Max Effort most times.

Modifications

I write this often, but when going through a program I am not a fan of people modifying something without running through the program first. So after doing that, you should make modification to your Max Effort lifts to find what variations work well for you.

I would say a majority of people should keep dynamic effort the same per the program.

Something that I did modify was lifting in the AM and PM everyday so I would be ready for vacation. So max effort lift in the AM, assistance/conditioning PM. Dynamic Effort AM, assistance/conditioning PM. This has worked well for me, but I recognize not everyone has a home gym or the time structure to do that.

Who Should Run This?

I’ll start off with saying this is definitely a bulking/maintaining program. Since working out in the AM and PM, I’ve had no issues eating all my meals. This program is designed around getting strong in select movements and it did that exceptionally well.

The workouts took around 1 hour to complete, max 1.5 with long conditioning thrown in at my home gym. If you workout at a commercial gym this program should still be doable with a little thought.

My absolute strength was through the roof on SBDO. Even my deadlift has increased, since I’ve hit 475(for a bad pause) and I’m using a max of 455. But my pullups/rows have taken a slight hit. We can’t have everything I supposed.

I’d gotten some tendonitis in the elbows and I haven’t felt that in years. Normally the pulling movements help, but I’m feeling the lack of them this time. Maybe do band pull-aparts if you run it? I know I’ll try that in the future. (Since taking time off, tendonitis went away).

What’s next I’m going to look for my beltless maxes, and I think I’m going to just lift without any outside support for 6 months or so. I’m going to be doing RPM again so I can lose fat, then the minimalist so I can continue. My goal is to be under 180 lbs by EOY.

I also think I’ll keep lifting in the AM. Evening lifts are okay I guess, but I prefer the AM.