Accessory Structuring

A more refined perspective from recent conversations/readings

I’ve heard many differing opinions on how to structure accessories in the mid/long term for years now, but I wanted to key you all in on some conversations I’ve been having with friends that have overlapped with lots of lifters whose routines I’ve read about.

If you’re a true Westside disciple like me, you probably change your accessories often. Louie said every 2-4 weeks, some say every training cycle, and lots of my training since being at Deathwish Barbell was always closer to weekly.

More recently, things have been a little different- and I finally put my finger on a good way to explain it; mostly after a conversation with my good friend Jacob Hendrich (who just started his own substack detailing lots of his training- would highly encourage you to go read here).

Ever since recruiting my training partner Zach Santangelo to come train with us, I found lots of our accessory work became much less varied in movement and more only in small changes to loading or volume. For example, on squat days we almost always do glute ham raises in some capacity- but we rotate whether it’s with our bodyweight, a band, a bar on our back, or weight in our hands. We also always do reverse hypers- but the volume is determined by how much tonnage we handled on main work that day.

These are bread and butter exercises for the posterior chain. We’ve determined their value for us is so high it is not worth it to change them, but to keep from accommodating we change small things. We also autoregulate them well. Last training cycle comes to mind- it was a fast and intense 7 weeks from bench meet to full meet, and I looked awful on my last squat day. After main work, my training partners pulled the reins and shut down there.

Here’s where some others come in. In a conversation with Jack Cambra of Fifty Barbell, whom I consider to be one of the best minds in the sport right now; he told me he hadn’t changed the accessories he uses in about ten years. Ten years! That’s a hell of a lot longer than 2-4 weeks. None of his people are stagnating or riddled with overuse injuries. In a similar vein, Jacob Hendrich has went down many rabbit holes about Donnie Thompson’s training and found some similar trends: find the moneymakers, and always keep them in at some capacity.

What these will be for you I cannot answer. You will have to seek the answer out for yourself. Find your winners and keep getting better at them!