A CELEBRATION OF OBSTINACY: ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER AND TRAINING

Boy do I feel sorry for you, because I’ve had the chance to do some more reading and how you get to hear about it. In Schopenhauer’s “Parerga and Paralipoema”, he touches on many interesting themes, but today I’ll discuss two quotes of particular interest.  The first is that “when will crowds out knowledge, the result is ‘obstinacy’.”  In understanding Schopenhauer’s writing, one must know that he viewed will as the primary motivator of action, rather than reason, and in turn viewed knowledge as the sole agent humanity possessed that could possibly elevate them above the power of will in order to achieve something greater.  Schopenhauer prized knowledge, the pursuit of it, and the possession of it, and constantly berated those that were content to let others think for them, rather than to think for themselves.  HOWEVER, also of interesting note is Schopenhauer’s quote in regards to the play between religion and knowledge, stating “Either believe or philosophize!  Whichever you choose, choose whole heartedly.  But to believe up to a certain point and no farther, and to philosophize up to a certain point and no farther – this is the half-heartedness…” after which point he is going on to attack a following of religion known as Rationalism.  Here, we observe that, even in the man who prized knowledge, there exists a celebration of obstinacy, for even in he who would rather be an agent of intelligence than an agent of will, he would much rather be completely one or the other than a lukewarm amalgamation of the two.  So how about you?

I wanted a "heart pun" photo, but didn't want to post the original in case people accidentally mistook my blog for "Chaos and Pain"

If we review the choice of philosophy or religion, Schopenhauer attested that BOTH were manners of arriving at fundamental truths: it was simply different packaging.  To note, Schopenhauer felt philosophy was for those that could understand truth without allegory, while religion was more for those of lacking intellect that required a medium to grasp these notions.  Feel as offended as you need at this point, but understand that there was still an acknowledgement in that both paths lead to the same goal, and both paths were IF followed in their entirety without attempting to stray down the other path.  The same holds true in training.  People constantly lament that there is “SO MUCH INFORMATION” out there, and that everything contradicts everything else and they don’t know what to do, but they fail to understand that all this indicates is that there are MANY ways to succeed.  On my goodness so many ways.  For diet alone, there is low carb, high carb, high fat, keto, paleo, atkins, RPT, vertical, etc etc.  For training, this is HIT, high volume, low volume, low frequency, 5/3/1, Juggernaut, Westside, etc etc.  THEY ALL WORK.  But they all work ON THEIR OWN.  Contained in their own rulesets, following their own prescriptions, they work.  It’s when you become the bespoken “rationalists” of Schopenhauer’s time that you get all the negatives and none of the positives.

Quit trying to play systems against each other in order to find some sort of ultimate hybrid with nothing but positives, because you will continue to get the negatives.  If you are a lifter that responds very well to highly cerebral training, go ALL IN with that stuff.  Learn about RPEs and MRVs and tempo speeds calculated with a piece of string tied to a bar and band tension and advanced calculus.  If that gets you going, go for it.  Then why do I mock it so much?  Because I’m the opposite, and I’m ALL IN for the opposite.  I AM a willpower based lifter, who cares more about testing myself and doing dumb crap that I have absolutely no business doing and biting off more than I can chew and beating myself into the ground just to see if I can recover.  And it works, because I don’t try to stray out of my lane and go and see if I can explain any of this with science.  Just as much as you shouldn’t slap a 100 rep dropset onto your precision calculated training plan, because you’ll definitely wreck yourself.  Find one way and commit to it fully.          

I mean, at least he did that...

In truth, this playing of systems against each other is simply yet another creative way to be lazy and weak.  People will find a method that has succeeded MANY times.  The empirical evidence is ever present.  But, before they decide to commit to it, they find some sort of way to question and invalidate it, so that they don’t have to actually work hard and suffer.  I rag on the keto diet, because I think it’s dumb to follow a diet intended to stop seizures if you don’t suffer from the affliction, but I have to admit that it works.  If you comply with it, it will be effective.  But that’s the thing: compliance with it actually REALLY sucks.  You have to be in a goddamn state of ketosis, you have to eliminate a LOT of carbohydrates from your diet, you have to prepare food in advance, etc etc.  That’s too much work!  Much easier to just clash keto against some study that says you need carbs, and then, PHEW, now you don’t have to follow it.  Same with how 20 rep squats doesn’t have the optimal amount of volume.  Dodged THAT bullet.  Training every day is TOO MUCH volume now?  Good, because that sounded hard too.  It’s much better to just explain away all training methods and diets by contrasting them against each other and never actually having to commit vs finding your “faith” and pursuing it fully.

And in this, I celebrate obstinacy, because I wish for my will to crowd out my knowledge.  I was once the opposite, and I tried to justify everything intellectually and “know” all there was to know about training…and I failed hard.  I failed everything, because I could never get my knowledge to match the output of material that was there.  I couldn’t get smart enough, FAST enough, because as soon as I’d “learn” something, something new would come out and challenge what I thought I knew, and my “faith” would be shook, and I’d spiral and make no progress.  I had to come to terms with the fact that I simply wasn’t as smart as I thought I was.  Whereas others could philosophize, it appeared that I needed “religion”.  I just needed something I could believe and shut off my brain and just let the truth happen irrespective of my actual understanding of it.  I let my will overcome my knowledge, and became an agent of obstinacy, refusing to let new knowledge get in the way of my pursuit of my goals.