There is a tendency in training culture to believe that getting stronger means lifting as heavy as possible as often as possible. This belief produces lifters who are always sore, always grinding, and plateau far earlier than necessary. Louie Simmons spent most of his career proving this wrong. The conjugate system is built on a fundamentally different idea: maximum force and maximum velocity are both necessary to develop absolute strength, and they cannot be trained with the same stimulus.
The body develops strength through two mechanisms: structural (muscle cross-sectional area, tendon robustness) and neurological (motor unit recruitment, inter-muscular coordination, rate of motor unit firing). Max effort training primarily develops the neurological component — specifically, the ability to recruit the maximum number of motor units simultaneously and fire them at the highest possible rate.
This adaptation is movement-specific and intensity-specific. You cannot develop the neurological qualities needed for a 500-pound squat by squatting 300 pounds for sets of 10, no matter how many times you do it. The neural patterns are different. The motor unit recruitment demanded is different. At some point, the stimulus needs to be heavy, because only heavy loads force the nervous system to recruit everything it has.
The problem with always using maximum loads in the same competition movements is accommodation. This is why the program rotates the ME exercise every 1–2 cycles. The load is maximal; the movement changes. The nervous system never fully accommodates any single pattern, and it continues to adapt to maximal demands expressed through a rotating library of similar but distinct movements.
The dynamic effort method is often misunderstood. It is not light work. It is not a deload. It is a specific training stimulus for a specific adaptation — the rate at which the body can develop force from the beginning of a movement.
Simmons uses the analogy of a punch: a boxer's power is not just a function of how hard they can push; it's a function of how quickly they can generate that force. The DE prescription — 50–60% of competition max, 8–12 sets of 2 reps, maximal intent on every rep, 45–60 seconds rest — is calibrated to develop exactly this quality. The percentage is light enough that the bar can move at near-maximal velocity. The short rest keeps the nervous system alert. The multiple sets accumulate the neural training effect without fatiguing the heavy musculature.
Accommodating resistance — bands or chains — is essential to DE work. Without it, the bar decelerates in the top portion of the movement because the lifter is stronger there than the load demands. This deceleration is the opposite of the training intent. Bands and chains increase resistance as the bar reaches where leverages are most favorable, forcing the lifter to continue applying maximal force all the way through lockout.
The 72-hour separation between ME and DE days is the approximate time for large muscle groups to fully recover from intense stimulus. After a max effort session, the nervous system and musculature need approximately 72 hours before they can produce maximum quality output again. At 72 hours, the system is recovered enough to express genuine speed.
In the program's schedule: Day 1 (ME Lower) → Day 2 (DE Upper): upper body DE doesn't compete with lower body ME recovery. Day 5 (DE Lower) → Day 6 (ME Upper): lower body DE doesn't compete with upper body ME recovery. The DE and ME days within each body segment are separated by the full 9-day cycle — longer than the 72-hour minimum.
Event 1 (1RM squat, OHP, deadlift) is directly trained by both methods. ME work builds the absolute strength to express a legitimate 1RM. DE work builds the explosiveness that allows that strength to be expressed quickly under fatigue. Events 2 and the explosive elements of Events 3 and 6 are trained by the alactic and DE work throughout — broad jumps, box jumps, the Olympic complex. These are DE-adjacent in their training stimulus: submaximal load, maximal intent, maximal speed.
ME work alone produces strength that can't be expressed quickly. DE work alone produces speed that can't be applied to heavy loads. Together, trained properly, they produce an athlete who is both strong and fast — the only kind of athlete who can pass the test.
Both days are in every cycle of ETR. See the full structure.
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