Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Dead horse beatings

This last weeks dust up over Westside and speed work and conjugate this and F = ma, blah blah blah made me write the below to beat a horse I turned into dust a long time ago.

Yes, I chimed in.  But not on whether or not speed work had merit or what RPE you needed to be at in order to get maximally strong, but settling in on what works.  Now this phrase was "corrected" by someone saying (writing), it's not about what "works" but what is optimal.

That statement is not correct either because it still isn't a complete phrase in regards to training.

I'll correct the "works" part with optimal.  But the sentence is still not complete.

It's about finding what is optimal in accordance to what your goals are.

Someone will say that "finding what is optimal" covers that.  However I think that you need to be more specific than that.

If a dude says "I want to find what is optimal for gaining muscle, losing fat, and gaining strength." then the answer to that is going to be "a really heavy hefty dose of test, tren, some GH, and some T4."

Why?  Because getting big and lean and strong all at the same time is generally not possible outside of noob world.  So being very specific about goals tends to answer the question of "what works" or "what is optimal."

I have to beat this particular dead horse every so often because people get so dizzy from all of the "methods" that are available, that they forget a few simple principles of training.
  • Enjoy and believe in your training - Look let's throw methods out the window right now.  Every method out there, was developed by one guy that enjoyed training that way.  He found results with it, and gave it to his buddies, wrote about it in an article, or put it online.  You should always train in a way FIRST AND FOREMOST, that you believe in and enjoy.  Without these things, your effort will be substandard and such results will follow.  
  • Have specific goals - You can't plan your training properly when you have no clue as to what it is you are planning for.  I still get e-mails or messages every week where some guy asks me "does my routine look ok?"  I don't know, are you planning on playing professional tennis or doing a strongman competition?  A routine on paper is only as good as the goals it has been written out for.   
  • Maximize training economy - Settle back into the lifts that give you the best "feedback".  By "feedback" I mean the ones you get strong on fastest and "feel" the best to you mechanically and technically.  Unless you're training for a competition of some kind, do the big movements that speak to you the most.  When I am not training for a meet I do lots of inclines, elevated stiff legged deadlifts, db pressing, and things like that.  Of course I still squat, but I dial back the intensity quite a bit.
  • Be consistent - I wrote about this in the base building series here and here.  
Now in regards to all of the "scientific methods" and the shit that went on, or goes in regards to training with it, here are my thoughts.  

  • For better or worse, science isn't exact when it comes to exercise, nor does it always apply in the realm of training.  People often cite studies that "prove" something in regards to exercise but there have been many times where these studies were flawed or basically worthless in regards to exercise.  Not only that, but there seems to be a study to counter every study you will find for the most part.  Especially in regards to training.  
  • Nutrition I think, seems to be a little more cut and dry in terms of what is "truth".    However, everything we need to know about lifting, for the most part, is known.  The human body is maxed out in terms of strength.  Most times when a world record is broken now, it's by a few pounds here and there.  As the gene pool for people involved in lifting increases, we will see some world records fall of course.  For the most part, we've seen what the strongest of the strong are capable of.  Five pounds here or there gets your name in the record books, however we have defined pretty well what are the upper limits of elite level strength.  
  • I don't like the "everything works" shit.  It's just not true.  People add on a caveat.  "Well everything works for a while."  There are plenty of methods that never worked for me.  I don't like "dynamic" training.  I think it's a brutally ridiculous waste of time.  Now when I write that, I write that for me.  Lots of guys DO find that it has helped them in their training.  I just didn't.  I also found that rep work helped.  Some guys don't like to do reps.  I found that more moderate frequency worked well for me.  Too many days a week burned me out and made me hate training.  Too low made me feel sluggish and weak.  
  • We are all "humans", however we are all different enough that the stimulus and recovery factors in training need to be tailored a bit in order to be OPTIMAL.  In other words, you're going to have to tinker to find what speaks to you and that also take into account the other stresses of your life.  If you're a dude living at home with mom and dad, no bills, and an easy part time job with some fanny on the side, then stress may be low.  If you're a dude with two girlfriends and a 50 hour a week job, stress will be at nuclear meltdown levels sometimes.  This WILL impact training and recovery.  So your training will take a hit if you're trying to train like ol boy with the part time job and a friends with benefits.
Over time, if you stay the course you will find all of the appropriate answers more than likely.  My guess is there is a reason why the majority of the strongest dudes I know all end up at the same place.  The meat and potatoes eventually bear out, and the trendy stuff gets tossed to the way side.  No one likes to REALLY hear this.  Every time some new complicated method appears people start jacking it something fierce only to find out "oh yeah, this is exactly like something else" or "why did I ever do this?  Just load up the bar and let's do some work."  

That last sentence tends to fix just about everything I think.  

  


17 comments:

  1. Great explanation, Paul. This is my biggest beef with CrossFit, and those who tell me I should do it. My first question is always, "How does that generalized "program" help me meet my individual goals?"

    I usually get blank stares...

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    1. I agree! I tell these guys at my gym that CrossFitting is not in my agenda. I don't care how brutal they tell me it is. My goal is to get stronger and do pl meets.

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  2. The biggest problem is people don't see the forest through the trees. For example on 5/3/1, people get caught up on the assistance work. Want to get strong on the squat? Squat. Man can get big and strong on nothing but squats, deadlifts, bench press, military press, pullups, dips and rows. Throw some sprinting in there and you have a solid strength and conditioning program.

    Paul, tell Wendler that Lift Run Bang is better than Eat Sleep Mate Defend. Cheers!

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  3. It's all downhill once the physics majors chime in

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    1. It really is. Once the guys who love studies start chiming in a fall in testosterone occurs.

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    2. Paul, I over heard a little bit about this force argument from people who train Westside style once. What is it? The greater the acceleration the greater the force you produce?

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    3. The theory is, you apply X amount of force to Y amount of weight. So you're doing speed deadlifts with 315 but you're applying the same amount of force you apply to also move 700. It sounds good on paper, but it doesn't really work that way.

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  4. Paul,

    Just wanted to hit you up and ask you if you ever had knee pain in only one knee and if you have what did you do about it?

    Ok, seriously I just wanted to say thank you for the blog. I enjoy reading it and I appreciate the time you put into it. Have a great day.

    -Brad

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    1. never had any knee pain ever really. knock on wood.

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  5. uhm....

    that was a joke, you know, cuz of the other guy who asked about his knee problems in the thread about trust??????

    Nevermind. Comedy is hard.

    I'll leave now.

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    1. LOL it's ok. I'm working on three weeks with very little sleep. So it's probably me.

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  6. Paul I completely agree with you on dynamic work. I honestly think the reason "Lots of guys DO find that it has helped them in their training." Is because it keeps them from using "maximum weights" every freakin training day. So their body isn't as beat up and when your body isn't beat to crap your gonna feel more "powerful" and "explosive". If you have any thoughts I would love to hear them (I know I may be WAY off on this its just the conclusion I have come to at this point)
    Have a blessed day,
    Robert

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    1. Yes I do. I'll be going over it more in the future.

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  7. Are we ever going to get Chaos and Bang Eleventy-Hundred and 7? Miss the weekly laugh fest!

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  8. hey paul, ive been hitting rep prs on all my lifts from the big-15 while getting leaner at slow steady rate. i wanted to ask you for example my upper body lifts are already at 15 rep maxes now. I wanted when do i increase the weight and by how much? i already hit the goal but dont know how much do add on now

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    1. If you're at 15 rep maxes yeah go ahead and bump the weight.

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  9. Got ya Paul, thanks for always giving feedback

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