I’D RATHER BE WRONG AND STRONG THAN RIGHT AND WEAK

I have said the topic title on many occasions, and may have actually even written this exact same blog post at some point over the nearly 12 years of this blog’s existence, but I thought this thought this morning while putting on my shoes (which seems to be when a lot of my thoughts come about) and decided to just run with it, because it’s one of my favorite things to say to upset people.  One of the benefits of growing up a full-fledged Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons playing 90s fat kid nerd was that I got to be a total social outcast degenerate BEFORE it was cool and, in turn, I gave up on being cool or socially accepted very early in life.  This has been a boon in my pursuit of physical transformation, because, for one, being that fat kid gave me a catalyst to WANT to change, but more topical to today’s discussion: I never cared if anyone agreed with how I was approaching the transformation.  It didn’t matter if what I did was accepted, agreed upon, backed by science or research, “party approved”, or the method-du-jour: all that mattered was if it WORKED.  And whenever people would tell me my methods were wrong, didn’t work, weren’t backed by science, weren’t “approved”, I’d reply in kind “I’d rather be wrong and strong than right and weak.”

Think how much time Arnold spent being wrong...

This is fundamentally Dan John’s “The goal is to keep the goal the goal”, because it’s amazing how quickly we lose sight of that, and, once again, I attribute it to this desire to be “one of the tribe”, irrespective of where that actually lands us.  So many trainees seek assurance that their method is THE method: the one true path that will ABSOLUTELY get them results without question.  And the only way to ensure that one is following the one true path is to have all the necessary assurances that we are heading the right way: scientific backing, agreement amongst the tribe, the right influencers singing its praise, etc.  I mean, without all of that stuff, how can we possibly KNOW that what we’re doing is right?

 

…how about by looking at the RESULTS?  Why not evaluate the outcome of our actions to determine if they’re effective or not?  Madness, no?  For some, actually, yeah, that’s apparently a patently insane idea, to the point that I’ve had at least one well respected author in the sphere of physical training inform me that I could NOT rely on my own personal experience to determine the outcome of my efforts because I did not possess an ability to objectively evaluate my outcome…at which point I looked at them like a dog looking at a wristwatch.  “You have some sort of purpose, I’m sure, but I don’t know what…”  One of the surest ways to know if a thing works is to try the thing and see if it works.  If you want to know if a light switch is working, try flipping it and seeing if the lights turn on.  And yes, my undergrad philosophy professor used that analogy to explain Hume to me, and in turn went on to explain how only REALLY know that there is a correlation there between action and outcome…but also said, when it happens often enough, that’s “good enough”, and thus here we are.

Other lesser known philosophical quandaries 

But, of course, no one likes the “f**k around and find out” approach because it requires a few things people hate: being patient enough to wait for the outcome, and willing enough to pursue an avenue with no guarantee for success.  People HATE the unknown: they FEAR it, and they are incredibly impatient, especially in this world of instant gratification and streaming on demand everything, and putting these two principles together will absolutely break their brains, so instead they seek to be “right” right out the gate by finding ANYTHING that will back them up and make them right…and, in turn, when they run into someone that is “doing it wrong”, they MUST destroy them, or else it was fracture the reality and narrative they have delicately constructed that is protecting them from the unknown.

 

But we pioneers in the realm of physical transformation have discovered a terrible secret: it’s REALLY hard to eat and train wrong.  Like really REALLY hard.  This very blog is proof of concept of that: over the 12 years I’ve been logging, I’ve tried a BUNCH of different approaches, and I kept finding success with all of them, so long as I had faith in the approach (overcomes the fear of the unknown) and poured my effort into it.  Super Squats, Deep Water, Mass Made Simple, various 5/3/1 programs, Westside Barbell/Conjugate, DoggCrapp, Easy Strength, 10k Kettlebell Swing challenge, programs of my own design, seefood diet, body by Taco Bell, low carb, carnivore, gallon of milk a day, etc: ALL of it worked.  And absent my own experiences, I observe other people having success with methods I wouldn’t even CONSIDER because they don’t jive with my own personal psychology…but I can’t deny that they’re working.  There are successful vegans, HIT-Jedis, calorie counters, If It Fits Your Macros types, MRV/MEV/RPE calculators, Sheiko, etc etc: just because it doesn’t suit ME doesn’t mean it doesn’t work…and THAT is what those seeking to be “right” fail to take under consideration.

Sure, you can bench 600lbs raw with conjugate periodization and resistance bands, or you can do it with heavy dips and meatloaf sandwiches

 

The success of someone else does NOT invalidate your own personal success: it simply means there are even MORE ways to succeed out there than what your own experience and education has led you to believe.  This is a GOOD thing: isn’t it awesome that you can accidentally do the “wrong” thing and all it means is that you’ve stumbled into yet ANOTHER way to succeed in the pursuit of physical transformation?  Blindly stumbling, completely ignoring all the “right” ways to go out there, guided only by hubris and effort, one has an abundance of opportunities to succeed, all the while being “wrong” according to all those who are dutifully following the one true path and getting the results they deserve for their piety…which is to say, nothing impressive.  Because THAT is why I would have rather been wrong: I saw what “right” looked like, and, quite frankly, I was NOT impressed.  Doing what everyone else was doing was getting the results everyone else was getting: who wants that?  If the goal is to BE different, we must ACT different.

 

Because I’d rather be wrong and strong than right and weak.       

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Hey readers, if you made it this far, Jamie Lewis and his wife have been incredibly awesome and offered a discount code for my readers on any of his books.  Use code "BetterLate10Never" for 10% off.