THIS ISN’T QUANTUM PHYSICS: THERE IS NO OBSERVER EFFECT

This title is a mouthful and definitely me flexing my big brain that I got from episodes of Futurama and Clutch lyrics, but stick with me here.   The “observer effect” is summarized as “the disturbance of an observed system by the act of observation”.  I know its poor form when defining a word to include the word within the definition, but if you need me to sum that up: it means that, when you look at something to try to obtain information from it, the thing you’re looking at changes because it’s being looked at.  We see this with humans all the time: tell people you’re going to observe their nutritional habits and suddenly it’s all salads and whole grains and no fast food, tell them you’re going to observe their fitness habits and that’s the day “couch to 5k” starts.  But, to the surprise of absolutely no one, I am once again going to rally against science and say that, for you, gentle reader, there IS no observer effect.

Yes, this is exactly where I learned about this

 

What am I getting at it?  I’m ultimately rallying against the overreliance of numbers and data and how often a trainee will try to employ the “reality” of data to refute the reality of…reality.  Examples?  Sure.  How often do we observe (hah!) the individual that claims that they’re ONLY eating 800 calories a day of lettuce and sadness and they STILL can’t lose weight!  They’re doing EVERYTHING right, they have the nutritional logs to prove it, multiple doctors have confirmed that they have no disorders, so they must just be a broken human in some way, shape or form.  But here’s the thing: none of that matters.  Reality is going to change just because you assigned a number to it.  The facts are facts: you aren’t losing weight.  Weight is lost by eating less food.  It doesn’t matter how much you are or are not eating: less food needs to be eaten.

 

The reverse holds true as well.  I am frequently spending time on forums and locations trying to help young trainees put on muscular size, and each and every time I’m greeted with the same story.   “I eat 9000 calories a day and I’m LOSING weight!  I have 14 big macs for breakfast each day and wash it down with a gallon of chocolate milkshakes.  I can’t get over 128lbs!”  Once again: your state of reality does not change simply because you’ve observed it and assigned a number to it.  It does not matter what that number is, it does not matter how that number relates to other numbers, your body will not suddenly start growing now that you’ve PROVEN that you’re eating 9000 calories a day.  It appears, gentle reader, you may need to consume 9000 and 1 calories a day in order to gain.

So, like, all this and a breathmint

 

And this is just discussing food, because that’s a fun topic to discuss, but we see it all the time with training too.  Hell, we really see the self-sabotage of it with training.  Trainees will be making tremendous success with a training method, breaking personal records, achieving goals, enjoying the outcome, but they read/hear/see somewhere that what they’re doing ISN’T optimal…so they change it.  And disaster follows.  The system was working, it wasn’t going to suddenly STOP working simply because information arrived saying as such.  The presence of other successful methods of training does not invalidate success PREVIOUSLY experienced with a successful method.

 

Oh boy does 5/3/1 get a LOT of that.  This is a great tangent to go off of.  SO many folks criticize Jim Wendler for having released multiple books on his training method.  “I got 5/3/1 Forever and I HATE the leaders and anchors.  Everything is reps of 5 now.  I miss the old way where we went for rep PRs every workout.”  You mean you miss the old way from 2009 that WORKED?!  If it worked in 2009, what’s to prevent it from STILL working?  Just because Jim has evolved the system DOESN’T mean that the previous editions no longer work: it simply means he found OTHER ways to make it work, and possibly even BETTER ways to do so, and he’s sharing them with you…but you don’t HAVE to do them.  You can use ANY of the successful methods.  Because they work.

"Why won't he make his simple system more complicated!"

 

No different from Super Squats.  Book came out in the 80s.  Worked then.  It’s based off an approach to training written about in the 60s and 70s: worked then.  And it comes from pioneers that were lifting in the 30s and 40s: worked then too.  Are there “better” ways to train now?  Maybe so: but we DEFNIITELY know that Super Squats worked, and, by extension, works.  We KNOW that a gallon of milk a day works.  We can take ALL this valuable, USABLE historical information and employ it to continue to succeed.  AND, if we decide we want to deviate from that and try ANOTHER method: that’s dandy too.  Maybe IT will also work.

 

And consequently, it doesn’t matter if you’re doing everything “right” if it’s NOT WORKING.  I’ve dealt with so many trainees that share ridiculously complex spreadsheets with me detailing down to the calf raise their precise amount of sets, reps, exercises, reps in reserve, rest times, frequency, etc etc, PROOVING that they are training EXACTLY right...and wondering why they’re not getting results.  They’re not getting results because their training ISN’T right: irrespective of how many times they prove that it is.  Reality is reality: you cannot change it by observing and measuring it.  If you are NOT getting results, what you are doing is NOT working.  Do something different.  What should it be?  ANYTHING.  Do ANYTHING other than what you’re doing.  What you’re doing isn’t working.

I mean...

 

Stop trying to codify chaos.  It’s such a human thing to try to wrestle control away from the cosmos and claim mastery of our fate, but the truth is that we’re all winging this as we go and are slaves to the outcomes of our actions.  At best, we can try to vector the flow of reality in a favorable way, but this necessitates having to bend TO reality when it bends us.  When we follow ALL the rules and get none of the results, it’s not reality that’s wrong: it’s the rules.  Somehow, someway, they do NOT apply to us, and it’s up to us to make our own rules and employ them to achieve our own results.  OTHER people will observe the outcomes, and them doing so won’t change reality: we are awesome. 

PERIODIZATION VIA DUALITY

I’ve written on this exact topic before, but I’m going to try to be a bit more prescriptive this time, primarily based on my current experience on my third run of Super Squats.  A lot of people, upon hearing that I’m running the program again, have been shocked that I’m doing it “so soon”, but in truth I’m doing exactly what was laid out in the book (which is one of the reasons I encourage people to read the damn thing so much).  Strossen talks about how Super Squats typically cannot be sustained for longer than 6 consecutive weeks, but, by rotating in a 5x5 bulk and power program for 6 weeks, one can get back to Super Squatting.  6 weeks on/6 weeks off/6 weeks on again.  Hey, look at that: training blocks.  Periodization.  And this is why, along with reading books, I am big on RE-reading books.  I read “Powerlifting Basics Texas Style” at least once a year and always pick up something from it when I do, and after a few re-reads of Super Squats, I REALLY read this section and suddenly realized the sheer brilliance of it.  It was hiding there in plain sight for over 15 years (for me, even longer based on publication), but I finally learned a great trick on how to simplify periodization: with duality.

Too perfect

I’ve written on duality before, but for a quick sum of today, it refers to the concept of opposing forces existing HARMONIOUSLY vs in contention.  This is very much an eastern thought process.  Western thought tends to operate off the premise of maximizing virtues and minimizing vices.  All chastity and no lust, all charity and no greed, all peace and no wrath, all love and no hate, etc.  Duality, instead, supports the idea that we NEED these opposing forces to provide balance.  The sin against duality is imbalance, whereas fire needs the water so that we are not consumed in flame, and restraint requires gluttony so we do not starve.  

Many trainees, in turn, are western in their thought.  They have no appreciation for periodization and, by extension, duality.  If hypertrophy is the goal, they are ONLY going to train for hypertrophy.  They will ONLY do the Push/Pull/Legs split 6x a week, they will ONLY use 3 exercises per muscle group for 8-12 reps, they will NOT doing any cardio or conditioning because it will interfere with recovery, they will NOT do any sort of jumps, throws or low rep work, etc etc.  Maximize virtue, minimize vice…until we are greeted with imbalance and can no longer progress.  The Tao had it figured out: we need duality.  We need balance.    

Some more than others

And Strossen makes this so stupidly simple that I completely missed it: the program he offers to counter Super Squats IS duality.  What is Super Squats?  A program built around 1 set of squats for 20 reps.  The rest of it is also few sets and many reps.  What is his proposed counter program?  5x5.  What is 5x5?  Many sets of few reps.  We went from few sets of many reps to many sets of few reps…Christ, it’s so simple.  It’s so obvious.  It just makes so much sense.  What do we do after Super Squats?  We UNDO Super Squats!  We do the opposite of what we did for the same duration of time: we achieve balance!  

I didn’t follow the 5x5 plan laid out in the book during my 6 weeks between Super Squats, but I DID set out to achieve balance.  I’m going to share my thought process, because, honestly, I’m proud of it.

Super Squats is the same movements for each workout for 6 weeks.  So I set out to make sure my next 6 weeks featured rotating movements.  I wanted to avoid adaptation.  I picked 3 different squats, horizontal presses, deadlifts and presses to rotate between.  Super Squats is 3x a week, so I trained 4x a week.  I DID stay full body, which if I wanted to I could have gone more 5/3/1 style instead to keep up with being opposite, but with my fully body training I paired a squat with a press and a deadlift with a horizontal press.  Where possible, I’d include a chin or row as well to round out the back work.  Then, to REALLY make it different, whereas Super Squats had me doing traditional sets with rest between, I set up my workout to be a continuous 30 minute circuit, with a goal to complete as many rounds as possible.  I would end up resting 40-50 seconds between rounds, but would end up doing something like squat-chin-press or deadlift-incline bench for 30 minutes.  And where Super Squats had fixed reps, my reps waved, similar to 5/3/1.  I rotated between triples, doubles, and eithers 5s or 8s.  

I know that’s a lot of words, but to give it a summary: train 4x a week.  Full body.  2 days will be a squat and press combo, 2 days will be a deadlift and horizontal press.  30 minute workouts, heavy weights, low reps, as many rounds as possible.  I’d set an 8 minute timer afterwards and use it to do whatever assistance work I felt needed doing, and then typically tack on a conditioning session there.  On the days of the week I didn’t do the lifting program, I’d do a 40 minute conditioning workout.

Some examples

This absolutely primed me for another run of Super Squats AND helped me “undo” the previous run of Super Squats.  In the previous run, I had to let my conditioning slide, and my top end strength wasn’t getting touched for 6 weeks.  I got to now spend 6 weeks training very low reps with heavy weight AND bring my conditioning back up to snuff, so that, when I began my next run of Super Squats, the weights would feel light and my heart and lungs would be dialed in and ready for whatever I threw at them.  Meanwhile, Super Squats also primed me for this program: my body had grown immensely, and with all this new muscle to play with, I was hitting some crazy weight PRs in training…so much so that I ended up tearing my tricep on the eccentric of some trap bar deadlifts of all things…oops.  But if you get so strong that you’re tearing your muscles off the bone, I’d say that’s a sign of something too.  And most of you are far less stupid than I am, which means you run a reduced risk of such an outcome.

So there it is: periodization via duality.  Periodization doesn’t NEED to be complicated.  In fact, making it the opposite is VERY effective: make it so stupidly simple it’s easy to overlook.  What do I do after this current training phase?  Do the opposite of what you just did!  And after that?  The opposite of that.  Keep the balance, and in doing so continue growing in all directions.

ON INSURANCE

This was something I came up with this morning as I was getting ready for my 7th of 18 Super Squat workouts for my third run.  Anyone that has ever run this program knows that it beats the holy hell out of you AND that the only way to survive it is to eat.  I’m not going to lie or be humble here: I looked at myself fin the mirror and thought to myself “Holy f**k I look jacked for being in my 3rd week of Super Squats”.  And that statement was significant BECAUSE I had been eating my face off since starting this program, primarily because I’m not doing the gallon of milk a day, primarily because I’m 37 and have a kid and don’t need them seeing me living like that.  BUT, even more profound, as my mind meandered even further, I got to thinking about the fact that I really can just eat completely unrestricted for this 6 week training block and realize some insane potential, and it’s due to insurance.

I relate too much to this

And no: I’m not talking about having health insurance that will be able to take care of me if I make some terrible mistake (although that IS worth having, be sure to write your blood type on your Chuck Taylors before your widomakers kiddos!).  No, I’m talking about the insurance of knowing what I am truly capable of when I dedicate myself to it, and being able to fall back on exactly that when I need it.

Why can I eat as much as I need on Super Squats?  Because I have the insurance of knowing that I know how to lose fat when I need to.  I’ve lost fat SO many times that I’ve gotten pretty good at it, and I must point out that I’ve done that as someone that DOESN’T count calories or macros or track or log stuff.  If you make use of all that stuff, you should REALLY have some insurance there.  And each and every time I engage in fat loss, I come into it with the background of knowledge I had already accumulated which gives me an opportunity to learn even MORE about the process, so I get better and better at it, making it easier and easier.  In turn, this allows me to have even greater insurance as I gain, because I know that I KNOW how to reverse any of the “damage” of the process.  I can just focus on eating to recover and getting huge.  Which absolutely boggles my mind when I see so many young trainees who DID lose a bunch of fat post online about how they don’t want to go “on a bulk” because they’re worried about “getting fat”.  You’ve demonstrated that you KNOW how to get un-fat: you need to go prove to yourself that you can put on some muscle!

The fact you can make it into a video game is proof that the process is so fast and simple it can appeal to the shortest of attention spans

Going off a little bit more on a rant there, trainees have this other weird fear about how, if you get fat and then have to go on a fat loss phase, that’s time spent away from gaining.  When someone presents that argument to me, I can tell without even looking at them that they’ve never put on a serious amount of muscle from training.  Anyone who has ever undergone a TOUGH muscle gaining program knows that it’s entirely unsustainable over the long term.  You will WANT that fat loss phase, because you NEED a break from gaining.  And trying it back to insurance again, those fat loss phases of training are some of the best FOR experimenting and finding new things that work, because all you really need to worry about with your training during fat loss is training hard enough to keep muscle on your body.  The pressure is really on when you gain, but when you lose?  Just lose the RIGHT tissue and you’re fine.

Which ties into another fun bit of insurance: non-optimal training.  For some reason, trainees have it in their heads that they MUST train in the absolute most optimal way possible…OR ELSE!  …or else what?  What is the consequence of sub-optimal training?  Sub-optimal results?  Oh my: how awful!  What do they call the guy who graduated last in his medical school?  “Doctor”.  You can still get REALLY goddamn big and strong with sub-optimal training, and going full tilt INTO some sub-optimal training will teach you just that.  You learn about the 3 principles of effort, consistency and time, and realize that, once you have those in place, the finer details are going to account for maybe a 1-2% variance in outcome.  If it’s worth training in a way that just plain does not gel with you so that you can get that 1-2%, cool, but for anyone else: train sub-optimally for a while, observe that your results are “just fine”, and suddenly you give yourself a LOT of freedom to explore, play and LIVE.

The man on the right didn't even make the Olympic team and apparently never won against a big name.  How sub-optimal!  The man on the left is technically classified as jello.

And my absolute favorite: the fear of injury.  What insurance do we have here?  Many trainees go about this the wrong way: trying to create artificial insurance by “doing everything right”.  They have PERFECT form, they have dialed in their fatigue management, they stretch AND foam roll AND do mobility AND are properly hydrated etc etc.  Injuries STILL happen.  Life is a full-contact sport: wear a helmet.  No: the insurance from injuries is GETTING injured…and then recovering…and learning that we CAN heal and recover and come back better, faster and stronger than before.  And just like fat loss and sub-optimal training, through injury we LEARN.  I never would have discovered ROM progression if it weren’t for injury, or the value of good mornings, or the degree of body control I have to shift emphasis away from a wounded point.  And through semi-frequent injury, we get GOOD at BEING injured: I know how to wrap a knee wrap around a torn muscle to fake connective tissue and get through a set of squats.  I know the difference between “this is healing me” pain and “this is setting back my healing” pain.  Just like fat loss: I get better and better, which heals me faster, which gives me MORE insurance against injury.

But again, the comedy of trainees: in attempting to avoid injury, they avoid pushing themselves hard enough to REALLY grow.  Well why do they NOT want to get injured?  Because an injury will prevent them from training hard enough to grow…hey wait a minute!  In attempting to AVOID the injury, we already suffer the consequences OF the injury.  What irony!  Fear itself IS the injury.  But when we can operate without it, with the insurance of knowing that nothing can TRULY stop us, we can achieve great things.  And should we get injured, we know it will just be a matter of time and patience before we are back even better than before, and in the time between we can learn and grow.