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07-21-2006, 08:46 PM
| #1 (permalink) |
| Rank: Light Heavyweight Experience: 3-5 Years  Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas
Posts: 3,832
Gender:   |  Great post from Madcow That's basically the problem. Everyone thinks there is a static best way that will work from beginner to advanced and that this is the magic program. Essentially they want it simple, a golden program, that they can just "do" and will transform them to whatever their goal is. Unfortunately, it is simple and it's not. There is no golden program. But there is a golden theme, progression. Programming is just a way of going about getting progression and systematically improving capacity. Muscles aren't going to grow from getting "worked" they are an adaptation to increased demands on the body's muscular systems. So it's still simple, just improve things that matter. Obviously the fastest way to improve is to just add weight to the bar as often as possible. Problem being, the ability to pull that off at a beginner rate diminishes with experience. So then you do things a bit different out of necessity but the goal is still the same. Instead of adding weight to the bar once after a hard week, they might add once after a hard month or a longer block of training all geared around that next increment of performance. The real problem is that people want the golden program. They want to believe there is some magic element that they are missing that will tie together that magic order of exercises and days of the week and make them huge or strong or whatever. So lately I've told a few people this, that it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if it's 5x5, or WSB, or XYZ, HST, Blah blah blah - the real core is progression and improving. That's the training element in a nutshell. And then they have a moment of reckoning which I liken to the red and blue pill from the Matrix. They can take the blue pill, close their browser, go read Flex and keep looking for that elusive perfect element that no one seems to have but so many promise. Or, they can take the red pill, figure out what they need to get better at, come up with a reasonable plan to get there and start working. Funny thing is - it doesn't really matter because eventually after taking the blue pill enough times they will realize it's all bullshit and just go take the red and get to work. Just a matter of how long one wants to persevere in delusion. |
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07-22-2006, 11:49 AM
| #3 (permalink) |
| Moderator Rank: Heavyweight Experience: 7-10 Years  Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 5,836
Country: 
Gender: | Here are a couple of points from the "why Aren't You Growing" sticky that I think fits in with these ideas: 9. You have no clearly defined goals. Most people just “lift to get bigger”, and while this is a fine goal, not having and strength related goals will kill your progress in the long run. Your primary goal should be getting stronger on the big lifts on a CONSTANT basis. Setting short and long-term strength goals and achieving them is what equals a big strong trainee in the long run. 10. You are inconsistent. Getting excited about your training and killing yourself in the gym only to burn out and few weeks later and miss a bunch of sessions ends up being 1 step forward, 3/4 steps backward for many trainees. Getting and staying consistent and racking up sustainable gains over the long-term is what it’s about. |
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