Get Faster AND Stronger: The Dynamic Effort Method

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The dynamic effort method of training is the best method of training for speed that you’ve never heard of. It’s part of what’s called a conjugate or concurrent method of training that was popularized by Louie Simmons of Westside Barbell and involves lifting weights at submaximal intensities for maximal speed. This article is going to give you a good understanding of this method so you can incorporate it into your training.

Conjugate Periodization vs Western Block Periodization

Westside influenced (Conjugate) templates in training have gained a lot of traction over the past 15 or so years, and for good reason. They work and they’re the thinking coach’s template. Westside Barbell is a gym in Columbus, OH that produces some of the strongest humans on the planet. They’ve got over 140 world records in powerlifting and it’s considered the Mecca of training much like Gold’s Gym of Venice was back in the 80’s and 90’s. Although powerlifting is not necessarily great preparation for your sport by itself, as a strength and conditioning coach it would make sense to at least look into the methods used by a gym who has produced this kind of success over the years.

The Conjugate Method of training involves three different methods within the method: The Maximal Effort Method, The Dynamic Effort Method and the Repeated Effort Method and the stimuli are maximal strength, speed/power, and hypertrophy respectively. Training with this template is organized so you’ll utilize these three methods for both the upper and lower extremity via squatting, deadlifting and bench pressing or variations of these movements. It’s also organized in a manner that allows for hypertrophy, absolute strength and power/speed production all at the same time which up until this template (and undulating models) was brought to the Western World was relatively unheard of. For a very long time most training with athletes involved what’s called Block training. In Block training periodization models your training is broken down into specific blocks for typically 4 or so weeks at a time. Each of these blocks of training have one primary focus whether its hypertrophy, strength, power, speed, etc. These blocks of training are meant to build off of each other with the end goal being a “peak” of sorts at the end of the final block, typically a power block. It would look like this:

• Block 1 - 4 weeks - Hypertrophy

• Block 2 - 4 weeks - Strength

• Block 3 - 4 weeks - Power

• Download Week - Intensities and volumes are pulled way back in an effort to give the athlete a “break”

• Back to Block 1 or competition

Now in this 12 weeks we’ve gone through three separate blocks, each devoted to a different physiological adaptation that is meant to set the ground work for the next block with the ultimate goal being to peak at the end. For a long time this is how training was done and nobody really put much thought into doing it any differently. This presents us with somewhat of a problem though, what if I’m coaching a team sport that has a season, and I can’t just expect to peak one or two times per year? You can make the argument that we should try to peak for the playoffs, BUT we gotta get to the playoffs first. Should we peak for the middle of the season and hope to go on a tear so we can get into the playoffs? Should we peak at the beginning of the season in hopes of catching some teams sleeping? In addition to this issue, the physiological adaptations we make don’t last forever. Block one will carry into block two, but block one will NEVER carry into block three. So by the time we’re in block three focused on power production, we’ve more than likely lost some of the work capacity and growth we were able to develop in block one which ultimately means we’re going to leave some gains on the table which is a giant no no when it comes to development.

What if I told you there was a way to both stay at a relative peak throughout the season, AND have long term athletic development in mind for your athletes? Well the conjugate or Westside influenced template allows for both of these processes at the same time. You’re able to train for power, strength and growth year round in a manner that’s going to allow for enough recovery so we can get after it during games, and display all those awesome adaptations we’ve made throughout our training. To show what this looks like I’ll present you with a week of training (typical 4 day split), as opposed to the blocks of training displayed above.

• Day 1 - Max Effort Bench Press w/ repeated effort upper body work

  • Focus on strength and growth

• Day 2 - Dynamic Effort Squat w/ repeated effort lower body work

  • Focus on speed and growth

• Day 3 - Dynamic Effort Bench Press w/ repeated effort upper body work

  • Focus on speed and growth

• Day 4 - Max Effort Squat w/ repeated effort lower body work

  • Focus on strength and growth

As you can see, we’re spending ample time chasing every adaptation we need within the week. This organization of training allows for better monitoring of readiness and we can even create blocks within this training to better focus on speed-strength, or strength-speed. It’s incredibly versatile!

What is the Dynamic Effort Method?

Ok so now we’ve touched on what a conjugate template consists of, let’s zero in on the Dynamic Effort Method. This is the method we use within the conjugate template to focus on speed and power production. This work is categorized by using sub-maximal weights with maximal effort/force, with low volume within each set to keep the bar speed high, and a bar speed of roughly 0.8m/s2. Here’s a breakdown of what all that entails:

• Bar Speed - 0.8m/s2

• Intensity (load) - roughly 50-60%

• Volume - 1-3 reps per set, 7-12 sets

• Rest Periods - 30-60 seconds

These are the typical parameters when it comes to the Dynamic Effort Method, but as stated earlier this is the thinking coach’s template! We can scale this up, down, left, right, wherever it needs to go. Want to work on speed endurance? Drop that intensity and increase the volume! Want to focus more on strength-speed? Let’s increase that load and extend the rest periods a little bit. The ways to manipulate this method are almost endless and if you can justify it, you’re never wrong.

Benefits of the Dynamic Effort Method

Even the average person can see that moving moderate weights at maximal speeds is going to have a positive effect on overall power and speed. BUT how does this happen and what are the other benefits of this method? Glad ya asked! Here’s a list of the added benefits of the Dynamic Effort Method:

• MORE SPEED!

  • The SAID (specific adaptations to imposed demands) principle dictates that if we aim and train for speed, we’ll adapt for speed

• Increased rate of force development

  • Teaches your body to create maximal muscle contractions as quickly as possible

• Increased speed endurance

  • Higher volume and shorter rest periods create an environment conducive to being faster for longer.

• Practice with the lift itself

  • More reps at sub-maximal intensities allows for better ingraining of movement patterns. More thoughtful practice is always a good thing.

Now as you can see there’s many benefits to utilizing this method outside of just “speed". There’s one more aspect of this method that we haven’t touched on yet and that’s accommodating resistance.

Accommodating Resistance

For lifters with a low to moderate training age, the percentages outlined earlier are more than good enough to focus on speed, speed endurance, ingraining proper movement patterns and increasing RFD (rate of force development). However, there are a few issues when it comes to performing these movements for speed at such moderate intensities: the deceleration process and as you go through the range of motion your leverages get better so the movement gets easier. The rate limiting range of motion for most movements is the “bottom”, and as you go through this range of motion the lift gets easier as you go “up” because your leverages get better. To simplify that, just think about quarter squatting a weight and then trying to achieve full depth in the squat with that same weight. Which one’s easier? That’s right the top of the movement. We need to combat this if we want to develop strength/power through the entire range of motion. How do we do this? With accommodating resistance!

What is accommodating resistance? There’s basically three different methods we can use to add accommodating resistance to the bar and they are (in order of most effective to least effective):

• Bands

  • Bands are great for accommodating resistance. They allow for overspeed eccentrics and they give a fluid increase in tension throughout the entire range of motion.

• Keiser Air Compression

  • This is a little practiced method because most facilities don’t have access to Keiser equipment, it’s expensive. Keiser equipment is really neat technology. It utilizes air compression to keep the force-velocity curve constant, so no matter how hard you push, the “weight” will be constant. It will ALWAYS weigh what’s been entered, no matter how fast the bar speed is.

• Chains

  • This is my least favorite type of accommodating resistance. They’re a pain in the ass to set up and on deadlift movements it’s incredibly hard to keep from getting under the plates when doing the eccentric portion of the lift. They can be used in a “chaotic” manner if they’re set up just right however 99% of people don’t have a training age high enough to facilitate the need for this.

This accommodating resistance forces you to have to continuously apply force throughout the entire range of motion because it takes away the deceleration process. Typically when we’re lifting weights, towards the top of the range of motion we have to “slow down” or else we’d come right off the floor. Adding accommodating resistance takes this deceleration process away, allowing for force production all the way through the end of the range of motion.

Loading Parameters for the Dynamic Effort Method

We briefly touched on the loading parameters for the dynamic effort method in an above section but here I’m going to lay it out lift by lift. The volumes and intensities will all be based of Prilepin’s Chart which I will include below as well.

• Bench Press

  • Sets - 5-10

  • Reps - 3-5 per set

  • Load - 30-60% of 1RM

  • Accommodating Resistance (if using) - 20% of 1RM

  • Total Load - 30-80%

  • Rest Periods - 30-60 seconds

• Box Squat

  • Sets - 8-12

  • Reps - 2-5 per set

  • Load - 30-65% of 1 RM

  • Accommodating Resistance (if using) - 20% of 1 RM

  • Total Load - 30-80%

  • Rest Periods - 45-60 seconds

• Deadlift Variation

  • Sets - 8-12

  • Reps - 1-3

  • Load - 50 -70% of 1RM

  • Accommodating Resistance (if using) - 20% of 1RM

  • Total Load - 50-90%

  • Rest Periods - 30-45 seconds

Prilepin’s Chart shows us what volumes we need to lift at with specific intensities to be able to train OPTIMALLY. This is not a chart of our capabilities.

Prilepin’s Chart Breakdown

So here’s this cool chart that took Russian and East German sport scientists years to put together, but what does any of it mean and how do you use it? Honestly early on in my career I didn’t understand it at all and I wish someone could have walked me through it to better understand it. Here’s a breakdown of what all of this means and how to use it to set the parameters of your dynamic effort work.

• Percent of 1RM

  • This one’s fairly easy to understand. In order to use this chart you’re going to need your 1RM. You can test a 1RM, or you can test for a calculated 1RM by performing a 2-5 rep max as well, and enter it into a 1RM calculator. Here’s the corresponding percentage for these rep maxes:

    • 1RM - 100%

    • 2RM - 95% of 1RM

    • 3RM - 92-93% of 1RM

    • 4RM - 90% of 1RM

    • 5RM - 87-88% of 1RM

• Reps per set

  • This is the volume per set that’s going to allow for the bar speed to stay high enough to elicit those adaptations for speed and RFD. Too low in volume and there isn’t enough of a stimulus to elicit actual changes, too high in volume and bar speed will inevitably suffer as a result.

• Optimal Total Reps

  • This is the amount of volume that should be completed for this movement meaning the total reps performed across all sets. Reps x sets

• Range of Reps

  • This is the range of total volume that should be completed for the movement. This gives us an upper end and lower end of what we’re capable of in a given session. While we want to lift optimally, sometimes we have a higher readiness and can take on more volume and other times we’re not fully recovered and need to scale back. Lifting in this range while not “optimal”, will still have a positive effect on training over time.

Putting it All Together

So now we have an understanding of both the loading parameters and Prilepin’s chart which means we’re ready to throw this work into a program. Mind you, the dynamic effort method was originally meant to be incorporated into a Conjugate template, but it can definitely be used as a stand alone method or inside other undulating periodization models as well. Here, we’re going to use the box squat as an example for our fictitious athlete and set up a 12 week program geared towards getting this athlete ready for the fall season.

**Note this is only DE squat sessions in a 4 day per week, 12 week program**

• Movement - Box Squat

• 1RM - Tested at 400lbs week 1

• Athlete Age - 19

• Training age - 4 years

• Accommodating Resistance? - No for block 1, yes for blocks 2 and 3

• Injuries - None

Our 19 year old athlete with a decent training age with no history of injury is going to be box squatting as their squat variation on dynamic effort days. Here’s what these training sessions will look like over 12 weeks:

Foundation Block

Week 1

• Load - 50% 1RM

• Reps per Set - 2

• Sets - 12

• Total Volume - 24 reps

• Rest Periods - 45 seconds

Week 2

• Load - 55% 1RM

• Reps per Set - 2

• Sets - 10

• Total Volume - 20 reps

• Rest Periods - 45 seconds

Week 3

• Load - 60% 1RM

• Reps per Set - 2

• Sets - 10

• Total Volume - 20 reps

• Rest Periods - 45 seconds

Week 4

• Load - 65% 1RM

• Reps per Set - 2

• Sets - 8

• Total Volume - 18 reps

• Rest Periods - 45 seconds

You’ll notice in week 4, we’re slightly below the range of reps in Prilepin’s chart and that’s ok as we’re at the upper end of the intensity.

Intensity Block

Week 5

• Load - 50% 1RM plus 20% accommodating resistance in band tension

• Reps per Set - 2

• Sets - 12

• Total Volume - 24 reps

• Rest Periods - 60 seconds

Week 6

• Load - 55% 1RM plus 20% accommodating resistance in band tension

• Reps per Set - 2

• Sets - 10

• Total Volume - 20 reps

• Rest Periods - 60 seconds

Week 7

• Load - 60% 1RM plus 20% accommodating resistance in band tension

• Reps per Set - 2

• Sets - 10

• Total Volume - 20 reps

• Rest Periods - 60 seconds

Week 8

• Load - 65% 1RM plus 20% accommodating resistance in band tension

• Reps per Set - 2

• Sets - 8

• Total Volume - 16 reps

• Rest Periods - 60 seconds

Speed-Endurance Block

Week 9

• Load - 50% of 1RM plus 20% accommodating resistance in band tension

• Reps per Set - 3

• Sets - 8

• Total Volume - 24 reps

• Rest Periods - 45 seconds

Week 10

• Load - 45% of 1RM plus 20% accommodating resistance in band tension

• Reps per Set - 4

• Sets - 7

• Total Volume - 28 reps

• Rest Periods - 45 seconds

Week 11

• Load - 40% of 1RM plus 20% accommodating resistance in band tension

• Reps per Set - 5

• Sets - 6

• Total Volume - 30 reps

• Rest Periods - 30 seconds

Week 12

• Load - 35% of 1RM plus 20% accommodating resistance in band tension

• Reps per Set - 6

• Sets - 5

• Total Volume - 30 reps

• Rest Periods - 30 seconds

This 12 week program is broken down into 3 different blocks or phases. Block 1 is designed to set a base and get the athlete back in the gym and handling weights for speed. Block 2 cranks up the intensity by adding accommodating resistance and this is actually going to have a positive effect on power, AND strength thus creating a better base for block 3. Block 3 scales back the intensity, increases the volume per set, and decreases the rest periods in an effort to have the athlete perform these movements in a “game-like” situation. This final block is going to have the greatest effect on acceleration performance on the field of play so it makes sense to do it just before this kid heads off to college for the season.

Wrapping it All Up

Louie Simmons of Westside Barbell created an amazing method for developing maximal strength, and in the process accidentally created the greatest method of training for athletic development. The Dynamic Effort Method doesn’t get nearly the praise that it deserves when it comes to athletic development and not nearly enough coaches understand it well enough to incorporate it into a program for their athletes. Hopefully this article gave you a little bit of insight into how this method can help you take your training to the next level!