BOOK REVIEW: JUGGERNAUT TRAINING’S “A THOUGHTFUL PURSUIT OF STRENGTH”

 

 

Greetings once again internet.  I am continuing in my voracious quest to read things on lifting again, and when Labor Day sales were abound I decided to pick up a paperback copy of Juggernaut Training (JTS)’s “A Thoughtful Pursuit of Strength”.  At $40, it was right around the cost of 5/3/1 Forever, and considering how much I enjoyed the latter, I figured there was a shot of this being a similarly worthwhile purchase.

The book absolutely looks pretty

 

BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT:

 

This book left a bad taste in my mouth.  It’s not a book: it’s a collection of articles Chad had already written before and crammed together into a book.  This is similar to the Elitefts Basic Training Manual, which I ALSO spent $40 on back in the day, and ALSO felt pretty unhappy with as a result.  It’s especially unnerving to call it “A THOUGHTFUL pursuit”, because there was no added thought in compiling previous authored articles together.  With this being marketed as the magnum opus of Chad’s career in coaching, I really expected it to be a book that was intended to BE a book from the start.

 

THE BAD:

Not very thoughtful...

 

It’s primarily stylistic issues this approach runs into: throughout the book, Chad refers to what he’s writing as “in this article”, which gives away the game that he took his old articles and mashed them together.  In addition, Chad is a fan of relaying a select few anecdotes about training which, when it’s done in articles released over a span of several years, makes sense to remind a reader about what he’s talking about, but when you JUST read an anecdote 2 pages ago and Chad re-introduces it in a new article like you’ve never heard it before, it removes you from the immersion.  There are also several formatting errors, instances of paragraphs getting cut off, and ALSO instances of Chad taking a previously written paragraph and inserting it into a new article.  Since I read the whole thing over the span of 2 days, it become pretty obvious, so maybe if you read it slower it’ll be ok.

 

THE GOOD:

There is something to be said about credentials....

 

Chad wrote great articles for his website, so having them all complied in one spot is helpful.  I also REALLY dig Chad’s philosophy.  We’re very much aligned.  He’s big on not getting psyched up in training, saving PRs for competition, training in phases, etc etc.  I also REALLY dig that Chad emphasizes the importance of hypertrophy and variety for a new lifter.  I recently re-read the second edition of Practical Programming for Strength Training (I may review that too), and the two books could not be further from each other in approaches.  Consequently, it shows that CWS is a world class shotputter, powerlifter and pro-strongman who has trained many successful athletes and Mark Rippetoe is…Mark Rippetoe.  I think this book would be a fantastic manual for a newer athlete to have a grasp of what training should look like on the quest to get bigger and stronger.

 

On top of that, in the back of the book, there’s a ton of Chad’s programs laid out, which percentages and movements.  Incredibly valuable.  I honestly really like the look of the strongman/powerlifting program.

 

Chad does a good job breaking down the 3 powerlifts as well, and gives tips on how to maximize performance and select that appropriate supplemental work to improve it.

 

THE…OK:

Yup: that's vanilla alright

 

There’s a big section in the book on back re-hab written by a chiropractor that worked on Chad for a herniated disk.  I genuinely didn’t care for/about it, but I’m sure it’s helpful for people that care about that sorta stuff. 

 

FINAL VERDICT (SHOULD YOU GET IT?)

 

…it depends.  I will flat out say that this is NOT as valuable as 5/3/1 Forever, and so, with it being the same cost, I would not buy it.  HOWEVER, it IS offered as an e-book at a significantly reduced price, at which point I think it’d be worth having.  If you’re an experienced lifter (counting training time by decades), I don’t think you’ll learn anything from it, but can at least read it and appreciate what is shared.  If you’re a newer lifter, this book is a MUCH better influence on your training compared to a LOT of garbage that’s out there.  CWS is legit: it’s why I bought the book in the first place, and ALSO why I was a bit disappointed in it.  I expected more FROM Chad as a result.  However, Chad is ALSO so legit that, when he fails to deliver to the standard expected, his “substandard delivery” is still leaps and bounds over other folks that EXCEED expectations…if that makes sense.  It’s like Michael Jordon playing only with his left hand: it’s still going to be pretty good.  Or like the old joke about how there’s no such thing as bad pizza. 

 

That got super rambly.  Don’t buy the paperback unless you REALLY hate e-books.  If you’re a newer trainee, get this book and read it before you contaminate yourself with other junk.  Otherwise, I’m definitely going to re-read Powerlifting Basics Texas Style and 5/3/1 Forever before I come back to this one, but I’ll definitely steal from the programming in the back.

A PRESSING MATTER: BUILDING A STRONG (OVERHEAD) PRESS WITH A “BAD SHOULDER”

Hey folks, for one, I wanna say that including the word “overhead” in the title of this post kills me on the inside, as any trainee worth his salt should know that “the press” refers to pressing the bar overhead, but I see the question asked so much and I wanted to make this topic helpful to a wider range of trainees that I threw it in there to make sure we’re all on the same page at the start.

 

Here’s a little background on me: I’ve pressed 265lbs over my head with an axle in the same workout that I pressed 241lbs for 5 reps and very nearly finished a 276lb press soon afterwards (caution: NSFW language at the end of the video)

 

 

I did this during a normal workout, no peaking, no psyche up, no tricks with chemistry. 

 

In addition, it’s worth noting that I have dislocated my right shoulder 6 times, subluxed it several dozen times, and torn the labrum in it.  The labrum tear happened on the first shoulder dislocation at age 16 during a wrestling match, at which time I had the shoulder repaired surgically, went through physical therapy, and went on to pop it out 5 more times through a combination of more combat sports, 1 botched press, and rolling over funny in my sleep.

 

I bring all that up because I constantly hear people say “I wish I could press overhead, but I have bad shoulders”, sometimes even saying this to ME, to which I just gotta scratch my head (with the hand attached to the good shoulder of course) and wonder just how broken their shoulders can possibly be.  Let me share with you what I’ve done to build up a strong press.  This will be lengthy, but hopefully useful.

 

THE FOUNDATION

A strong press has always been worth celebrating

 

I legit never even considered pressing a barbell over my head until I had been lifting for 4 years already.  The majority of my pressing efforts were bench pressing and push-ups.  In turn, when I first went to press, I had a 335lb touch and go bench press, had done 400 push ups in one set (reference my post on “The Richest Man in Babylon), and could barbell strict press 135 for 5x5 on my opening workout.

 

What’s the lesson there?  Building strong pressing muscles carries over to pressing.  Now, that said, some dudes can bench monstrous weights and can’t press overhead to save their lives (I’ve actually beaten a lift set by Kroc on strict pressing an axle overhead, despite the fact Kroc can raw bench for reps weights I can’t even touch), but there’s still going to be SOME carryover between pressing in various planes of movements.  Hell, the bench press was originally DESIGNED as an assistance exercise for the Olympic press anyway.

 

The programming I was following at this point was Pavel’s 3-5.  This was abbreviated training, double progression/linear progression.  I’d go for 5x5 with a set weight.  With a new weight, I might get 3x5, 1x4 and 1x3.  The next week, I’d try to beat that rep total and go for like 4x5 and 1x3.  Once I hit 5x5, I’d up the weight again.  Since I already had a foundation of pressing strength from all the previous training, weights moved pretty quickly, and I eventually got to 185 for 5x5 before transitioning to Westside Barbell style training, rotating between pressing and benching.

 

For those of you starting out your training with the press, you won’t have this foundation, and will be most likely struggling with the bar or slightly more than that.  Progression is going to seem slow compared to the other lifts, but it’s more a product of the fact that you simply can’t load the bar in a meaningful way to realize the strength you’re building in the press.  Going from 45lbs to 50lbs is adding almost 10% of your workset weight to the bar: that’s like going from a 500lb deadlift in one workout to a 550lb deadlift in another.  That takes time.  Recognize the strength of the press growing in other ways: faster bar speed, smoother reps, shorter time between sets, etc etc.  Keep building up the pressing muscles with other pressing exercises.

 

ROUNDING OUT THE PRESS

To press like Kaz, you need a back like Kaz

 

I touched on this in my previous post about using the press as a goal to achieve a solid physique, but a key point in having a strong press is you need to train both the front AND the back.  The latter, honestly, even moreso than the former.  When you bench, you have something physical you can brace against in order to ensure you can give maximal pressing output.  When you press: YOU are what you brace against.  You need to build a thick, wide, STRONG back in order to be able to have a strong press.  Everything from the glutes up needs attention, as they all play a role in stabilizing and expressing strength in the press.  And if you’ve got bad shoulders, you need to build the hell out of your rear delts so that they can lock your shoulders into place when you press and keep things rigid.  I know everyone thinks mobility is super neato, but when your shoulder is so mobile it falls out of the socket, it’s less than cool.

 

I’ve been doing band pull aparts in between sets of stuff since 2008.  I’ve gone through periods of doing 100 a day on top of other things.  They are a staple in all of my programming.  You cannot do enough band pull aparts.  Minibands are stupidly cheap: there is ZERO reason for you to not own and use one.

 

Otherwise, on top of the pull aparts, ensure you are doing an absurd amount of rowing and chins.  Pulldowns are fine too: I just rarely have a good rig for them.  I train my lower back with a reverse hyper, and if you have one, you should use it.  If you don’t, I can’t vouch for anything else, but find a way to get your back big and strong. 

 

“Strong” doesn’t mean going for maxes on rows and turning it into a circus act.  I stay away from low reps on back work and instead train it “like a bodybuilder”: focusing on feeling the muscle while I do the movement and ensuring that I’m developing what I want to develop.  Reps in the range of 6-20 with plenty of sets.  I like putting back work in between sets of other stuff in my workouts, and also like daily chins as a means to accumulate volume.  If you do daily chins, keep it submax: going for a rep max each day always makes my elbows bad.

 

MY MOST EFFECTIVE PRESS TRAINING CYCLE

I imagine it shocks absolutely no one that this lunatic was involved in the process

 

I want to preface it by saying this isn’t a 6 week plan or a 12 week plan: this is a multi-YEAR approach, but it got me out of a multi-year plateau, so it fits.

 

For years, I’d been stalled at a 240lb strict press.  I’d try 245 several times with several programs (primarily Westside Barbell style and various 5/3/1s) and just not be able to get it.  This was at a bodyweight of around 195-200lbs at 5’9.  I finally beat that with the following approach.

 

DEEP WATER

 

It starts with Jon Andersen’s Deep Water Program.  I’ve written extensively about this program and my experience with it, but to lay down the basics of the pressing work: The beginner program alternates weekly between 10x10 for strict press and 10x10 for push press.  4 minutes rest the first time you do the workout, 3 minutes the second, 2 minutes for the final workout (6 week program).  The weight used is 70% of your 10rm (find your 10rm by taking .77 of your 1rm, so this is also just 54% of your 1rm for easy math).  This is on top of some other assistance stuff, a full on back day workout, etc.  It’s a fully fleshed program: that’s just the pressing part.

 

The intermediate program follows.  This starts with 10x10 and keeps the alternating weeks.  You’re supposed to use 80% of your 10rm now, but I went for 75%.  Weeks 3 and 4 has you get those 100 reps in 9 sets, and weeks 5 and 6 has you get the reps in 8 sets. 

 

The advanced program follows.  This one is less predictable in terms of what happens on what week, but through it there will be days that you hit a strict press ramping 5x5 workout followed by 2 backoff AMRAP sets using percentages of that weight hit at the topset of 5 (reps in the range of 20+ can often occur here). 

 

It behooves you to actually read Jon’s book and see the program in full to appreciate the effort that went into this.  Along with it, I ate according to the diet (minimal carbs, high protein and fat) but afforded myself a weekly cheat meal the night before I did the lower body workouts (most often it was Panda Express, so rice and sugary food, but occasionally Taco Bell).  I went from a bodyweight of around 192 to 207lbs, the highest I had been in a while, and put on a fair amount of muscle in doing so.

 

BENEFITS OF THAT APPROACH

 

I had grooved the absolute hell out of my press by doing so many reps of it.  In addition, I got good at training under fatigue.  The push pressing helped with overload as well.  And, of course, the muscular weight gain ensured I was set up for some big numbers.  Lots of reps and lots of food=lots of shoulders.

 

5/3/1-ISH

 

Hey, more strong dudes pressing

After Deep Water was done, I went back to what I usually did for pressing: first edition 5/3/1 with a First Set Last backoff set.  So basically hitting a PR set for the topset and then going for another PR set using the weights employed on the first set.  Because I had kept training weights so light in Deep Water and had put on so much muscle, I was observing something really cool: I was actually hitting MORE reps on my PR sets each cycle rather than less.  Typically, I’d use the “5 forward/3 back” style of Training Max management with 5/3/1 because, as I went on in cycles, PR set reps would drop until I was hitting 5-6 reps on my 1s week and I had to reset the training max, but each week I’d end up hitting a BETTER PR set than the previous cycle which was done at a lighter weight.  And this was while losing some bodyfat.  I was primed for growth after Deep Water, and 5/3/1 allowed me to express it.

 

In addition, I made the supplemental work my own, and unique.  Here is where I want you to really pay attention.

 

SUPPLEMENTAL WORK STRATEGY

 

As a strongman, I wanted to maintain proficiency on a variety of implements.  Specifically, the axle and log.  I always did my mainwork with the axle, but I also liked doing my supplemental work with it too, as the log can sometimes make things a bit too easy with its short ROM.  I ALSO wanted to start including some behind the neck pressing in my training, as I felt it was a portion of press work I had neglected for a LONG time and something I could see some growth in.

 

The solution?  6 sets of supplemental work.  2 sets of axle pressing, 2 sets of log pressing, 2 sets of behind the neck pressing.  I’d run it in a circuit too: do the axle on sets 1 and 4, behind the neck on 2 and 5, log on 3 and 6.  I even got to the point where I’d switch up the order each week, just to alter the stimulus a touch.  Always aiming for sets of 10.  No fixed percentage: just typical double progression style approach.  At one point, I dropped the BtN pressing and went with the trap bar, simply because I got a rackable trap bar to play it and trap bar pressing is also awesome.

 

On top of this, I took to including dips in the supplemental work, because they’re an awesome exercise too.  How did I fit it in?  Immediately after the press supplemental work, I’d hit up the dip station and dip until failure.  I took to thinking of this as a “filler movement”: after you burnout on pressing something heavy, there’s still some life left in the pressing muscles, and bodyweight work allows you to really squeeze the last bit out.  I’m sure this could be done with push ups too, but dips are awesomer.

I mean, they just plain are

 

I took to running this as a giant set, starting with a press for 10-ish reps, immediately burnout on dips, then lateral raises for 10-15 reps and finally a set of 12-20 band pull aparts, then rest 90-120 seconds and do it all over again with a new implement to start.  This blew up my shoulders something fierce and got me strong from all sorts of pressing angles.

 

During this time frame, I went from having dropped down to a bodyweight of 192lbs to moving to a bodyweight of 210lbs, a very recent all time high.  While losing the fat, I focused on those rep PRs in the main work, and while the bodyweight climbed, I watched my supplemental lifts get incredibly strong.

 

During this time I also competed in 1 and trained for a second strongman competition (that was eventually canceled due to COVID) that had me make 1 small change to the mainwork: instead of a FSL backoff set with the axle, I did a PR set of push pressing with the same weight as the topset for about 6 weeks leading up to one comp, and for the other, I swapped out the axle for a loadable keg and used FSL sets of that for a few months.  I imagine that keg work went a long way to making me “chaotically strong”: able to exert maximal strength at odd angles.  It was during that period with the keg I ended up hitting the 266lb press on the axle.

 

TAKEAWAYS

Yeah, that will probably help too

 

Deep Water set me up to express strength, and 5/3/1 let me express it.  Without that foundation laid down, I woulda run into my traditional stall at 240lbs, but now I blew WAY past it.

 

In addition, the supplemental work was the smartest thing I had done as a “bad shoulder” lifter in a while.  I always press only once a week, as more frequent pressing than that can mash up my shoulder and make it achy.  However, by rotating between a bunch of different exercises WITHIN the workout, I was able to really push volume without beating the hell out of my shoulder from one angle over and over again.  It allowed my shoulder to maintain resiliency while still getting incredibly strong.  I’ve kept that approach since that time, because it’s the most effective approach I’ve used.

 

I’ve kept the filler exercise too.  I stick with bodyweight dips when it comes to pressing exercises, and now that I’m using weighted dips as part of my supplemental work, I chase it with light weight dumbbell pressing to fill in the gaps.  I think it’s a very solid approach if you’re looking to add volume and muscle.

 

Giant sets remain a great way to get in a lot of work in short time, and this specific approach continues to strengthen the shoulders from various angles and help lock it into place.

 

IN SUMMARY

·       *  Build a strong foundation of general pressing strength (push ups, dips, benching, etc)

·      *  Build the absolute hell out of the BACKside of your body (get in those pull aparts)

·       *  Set up with a LONG and purposeful accumulation phase (Deep Water) with a focus on gaining muscular bodyweight

·       *  Follow up your accumulation phase with an intensification phase (5/3/1) to realize the strength built

·      *   Vary the movements in your supplemental work WITHIN the workout to allow for great volume without mashing up the shoulder

·      *   “Filler” exercises and giant sets

·       *  Bodyweight gain

 

 

And there you have it!  For building a big press with bad shoulders, this has worked the best for me.  Hopefully there are some lessons from there that you can use in your own training. 

THE POWER OF BELIEF

I have spoken to this concept a bunch of times, but it’s worth just writing about specifically.  Belief is key when it comes to success, and I’m of course writing on the topic of getting bigger and stronger, but it’s true across all domains.  The only people who don’t accept this fact are, consequently enough, the people in MOST need of accepting this fact.  The “forever skeptics” hamstring themselves by refusing to ever belief in anything, as they refuse to allow themselves the ability to have stupid, unyielding, illogical, reality defying faith in something, which is basically playing life on hard mode.  If one is willing to allow themselves to believe in something despite the fact that all logic and reason dictates that it can’t possibly be the case, they are able to transcend MANY limitations and achieve, in turn, unbelievable results.  Let’s discuss…

I mean, if you're going to believe in nothing, believe in it with everything you have

 

The big one to hone in on, as far as getting bigger and stronger goes, is belief in the program you are running.  I encounter a LOT of faithless when it comes to programs, and it doesn’t matter WHAT the program is.  People contact me directly about programs I have run, had success with, and wrote full reviews on and ask “Is there enough benching in Building The Monolith?” “Can you really get big and strong using 70% of your 10rm in Deep Water?” “Is 1 set of squats in Super Squats really enough to grow?”  Dude, I DID it.  It clearly works.  How are you still doubting it?  Because you’ve convinced yourself, through something you read or heard somewhere, that the program can’t work.  And guess what: you’re right.  That program isn’t going to work: for YOU.  Because you have no faith in it.  And a program you have no faith in is a program you will not invest yourself in, which, in turn, means it will NOT WORK.  Meanwhile, one you’re willing to actually believe in will surpass all those “superior programs”, because, for you, you’ll actually do the things necessary to make yourself grow.

 

A great personal example is my experience with “Westside Barbell training”, which I put in quotes because, of course, I wasn’t training AT Westside, and also because I was doing things so completely wrong that it was Westside in name only.  I was using the competition lifts in my max effort work, my dynamic effort work was too light, I couldn’t figure out the difference between supplemental and accessory work, my GPP work was haphazard, etc etc.  And I got the biggest and strongest I’d ever gotten in my life following it.  In 9 months, I went from a 405 deadlift to 540 (without a belt), not being able to hit depth on a 405 squat to a 475 squat, benching 335 to 365, and hit a 235lb strict press.  I also upped my bodyweight from 190 to 217.  And it’s because, in my mind, I was “doing Westside Barbell training”, and at that time (the mid 2000s), that was THE way to train if you wanted to get strong.  And I believed it, because everything I read said as such.  And hey, wanna know why I got to 217lbs?  Because at 5’9, I saw fellow 5’9 lifter Kroc was jacked as hell as a 220lb competitor, so I believed that, if I got to 220, I’d be jacked as hell.  I was wrong, of course, because I didn’t have near the years of training under my belt to turn all that weight into muscle, but eating in such a way to support growing that big was getting me strong as hell.  Once again: the power of belief.

 
Much like how I believed I could eat like Tate to look like Kroc...

Here's another story: Super Squats.  I already wrote my “Ode to Super Squats”, and I encourage reading it if you haven’t, but as a quick summary, I ran the program in college, drank a gallon of milk a day and ate everything I could in our dinning hall.  I put on 12lbs in 6 weeks running the program.  Why?  Because I believed I could gain THIRTY pounds in 6 weeks.  Because it’s what the book said and, if you read the book, you know that Randall Strossen employs all the tricks his PhD in psychology allowed to convince the reader that this was true.  And as long as you didn’t approach this as a “too smart for the world” skeptic, you bought into it, ran the program, and grew.  “But you can’t gain muscle that fast!  It was all fat!”  Hey: look at you with your big brain.  Shame that’s the only thing that’s big.  Because yeah, I didn’t get 12lbs of muscle in 6 weeks, and I’m sure most of it was water, foodmass and glycogen, but know what I got from the experience?  THE EXPERIENCE!  I learned how to train harder than I ever thought possible and eat more than I knew I could ever eat.  I got a 6 week brutal/intense crash course in training AND recovery intensity, and I got to take those lessons with me on all programs I ran in the future, which was huge for my success.  And I even got a little bit of muscle on top of it, because after I ran the program I set a 10lb PR on my bench.   WITHOUT benching for the entire 6 weeks I ran the program.

 

And THIS is the critical element to look for when evaluating programs: is it something you can believe in?  Does something about the program grab you and assure you that it’s going to work?  That it HAS to work?  Absent that, it WILL not work.  As long as a seed of doubt exists in your mind, you will not be able to succeed on a program, no matter how well it is laid out.  Your mind will work against your body, and the perfect rep and set scheme will fail you.  Lack of belief is just as powerful as belief, and you sabotage yourself by your unwillingness to have faith in SOMETHING.  Which is why, when you go down the exercise science rabbit hole and keep finding studies that contradict other studies, the conclusion you NEED to draw is that EVERYTHING works: not that nothing works.  With the former, you give yourself permission to go find the program you like the most that you are willing to believe in and let the power of that belief carry you to success.  With the latter, you doom yourself to simply questioning everything and making no progress, because you’re unwilling to take the chance in believing in something, no matter how stupid it may be.

No 

Go find something to believe in and get strong.

STRATEGY GUIDES AND FAQS

 

Some more “back in my day” video game nerdery for my fans of such things, but allow me to once again express that I grew up in the 90s and had access to some of the most amazing and most revolutionary RPGs of the era to cut my teeth on.  The original Fallouts, Final Fantasy 6 and 7, Chrono Trigger, etc etc: I got to play these games when they came out, rather than as part of a retro release package (which, don’t get me wrong, I buy all of those and play them all over again).  In turn, I remember one of the key features of these games: getting absolutely, totally and hopelessly lost for days (real time), if not WEEKS, having NO idea what you’re supposed to do next.  And during that time, there was very little one could do to resolve that situation.  Sometimes, games had strategy guides (for my younger audience, these were PRINTED guides for the game either written by a team authorized by the game’s publisher or an unauthorized guide written by a third party) that you could consult to get unstuck, but often, as a matter of pride, gamers wouldn’t use these on the first playthrough.  These guides were meant to be used the SECOND time around, so ensure you really got everything that time.  And, if you were SUPER desperate, you could call a helpline, where, for $1 a minute, some teenager would walk you through what you needed to do to beat the game.  These days, these ideas are absurd: just type your question into a google search, and either a youtube video will give you step by step instructions on what to do, or you’ll find an old forum post that explains your exact situation and gives you the exact path to follow.  And THIS is the issue: no one is getting lost anymore!

I still have this.  Bought it from an EB Games, to continue dating myself here.  This was the "SuperTraining" of Final Fantasy 3 (6)

 

Yup, I’m saying it: getting lost was the point.  You were SUPPOSED to not know what to do and try to come up with a bunch of different strategies to see if you could somehow find a way to get unstuck.  You talked to every townsperson, tried new weapons and armor, put in weird passwords, etc etc.  These games were about discovery and problem solving.  Now, new players are incredibly spoiled (god I DO sound old) because the instant they hit a snag, they race to reddit for a solution.  Hell, some don’t even wait that long: before they even START the game, they want to know the best character to build, where to go, and what to do.  Folks: at that point, just watch a “let’s play” and be done with it.

 

Man, halfway through and I haven’t even talked about lifting, but I bet you can already tell where I’m going with this: this phenomenon is not a video game thing at all but a generational thing.  With so much information readily available, new trainees don’t understand the value of “getting stuck” and want to set out on the absolute most correct path possible before they even START training.  And should they run into a snag, they immediately seek outside assistance to tell them exactly what to do to get out of snags.  Hell, I’ve observed trainees ask for the party approved “unsticking procedure” so that they know what to do WHEN they get stuck before it even happens.  “What do I do once I stall?”  Jesus man, I don’t know: how did you GET to the stall in the first place?  That’s going to decide how you get out of it!

I don't get it.  I was just following the program. 

Going back to RPGs, remember what happened when you tried all those other strategies to get unstuck?  You experienced a bunch of random encounters along the way and leveled up a bunch, got a ton of gold, found some new equipment, etc etc.  And now that you finally found what to do, you’re TEARING through the game because you’re so ridiculously overpowered.  Do you not realize that the same thing happens in lifting?  Let’s say your triceps are what are holding you back on the bench, but you just don’t realize that.  So you build up your shoulders, then your pecs, then your lats, then you refined your technique a bunch, improve speed, etc etc.  When you FINALLY fix your triceps, you end up BLASTING through bench PRs because everything else got built up during your period of “being stuck”.  Conditioning is holding you back, but you can’t figure it out?  Well after a bunch of hypertrophy and strength cycles, when you finally come around to conditioning, you’re now jacked, strong and conditioned.  There’s SO much value in beating your head against the wall trying to figure out what’s wrong.

 

And this isn’t to say that there’s anything wrong with seeking outside assistance: coaching is grand.  Get a GOOD coach, rather than crowd sourcing your success though.  If it’s important enough to ask someone for help, it’s important enough to ask someone QUALIFIED for help.  But absent asking that question, there’s a ton of value to be had in taking the time to figure this out on your own.  Time training and eating well is NEVER time wasted, even if it appears that progress is not occurring.  Often, it’s simply that you’re missing the ONE piece that allows you to REALIZE the progress that you’ve been accumulating this whole time, but once you find that piece and put it all together, you’re in for a new rash of gains…up until you hit the next snag and it all starts over again.  That’s just how the game is played, because good games are CHALLENGING, and there is reward in overcoming those challenges through strategy, skill, wit, and just plain old fashioned brute force. 

Maybe even a LOT of brute force

 

If actually playing the game doesn’t suit you, you can always watch a “Let’s Play”.  Watch everyone else get big and strong instead, because this isn’t for everyone.