STRENGTH TE CHING: UNSPEAKABLE STRENGTH

With my philosophy background and propensity to be smartass, it most likely surprises none of my regular readers to know that I was a total pain in the ass during my undergrad years.  During a course on Asian philosophy, we started reading the Tao Te Ching, which opens with “The Tao that can be spoken of is not the true Tao”.  I asked my professor, “If this is true, will you give me an A if I turn in my test with nothing written on it?”  In fairness, my professor told me that, if she had tenure, she would totally live up to that.  Anyway, I open with that story because, as promised, inspiration struck while I was on a cruise and I wanted to share with you all.

First, let me just say that my life is a constant source of comedy despite my best intentions, and though I am incredibly misanthropic, for some reason humans seem to like ME.  This cruise proved to be no exception, as one of the staff members took a liking to me early in the cruise.  He was a fit gentlemen, and on the first day made comment in regards to my physique.  Later in the cruise, he asked if I had worked out on the ship’s gym, and what I thought of it.  Another time after that, he asked if I competed.  On the final day, he asked me if I could write a program for him.  Apparently, this was something he often did with cruise members that he thought seemed exceptionally fit.  Before I go any further, yes, I’m fully aware of the man-crush this gentlemen had on me, you don’t need to bring it to my attention.  Anyway, this is a 2 paragraph intro into the main crux of what I want to write here, because despite the fact that I’ve been writing 1000 words a week for almost 6 years now, I went back to my room, stared at a blank piece of paper for 30 minutes, and came up with nothing.

I know this is what this intro seems like, but stick with me

How is this possible?  Everything I’ve written up until this point is all stream of consciousness.  I’ve NEVER been at a shortage for words.  Sure, many times it’s the same idea already written before simply expressed in a different manner, but it’s still new words and a few small new ideas.  Where did all that inspiration go?  Well what can I say folks, you found me out: I’m a charlatan.  I write about concepts, notions and ideas, because THOSE are easy to expand upon.  But when it came time to put down how I train, in a manner that someone else can use it…I came up empty.  Yeah, I coulda just wrote “Do 5/3/1” or “Buy the Deep Water book”, but when asked to come up with MY OWN program, I just couldn’t do it.

Folks, how can you put training into words?  Not the mechanics of it, but the real actual HUMAN element of training?  How can that possibly be captured into a spreadsheet?  This isn’t a formula, this is poetry.  It’s art.  And I don’t say that in a manner to convey pretentiousness, in an attempt to elevate it “beyond” numbers, but more to express how, with training, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.  A poem is just words arranged in an order and usually to a rhyme scheme, however the effect of a poem (at least a good one) is that it stirs emotions, thoughts, feelings, and memories in the reader.  It evokes, and it makes the words resonate on a personal level.  Each person experiences the poem differently.  The same is true of art.  Sure, colors, shapes, patterns, but the EFFECT of the art is in the human.  Mere words aren’t enough to capture this, they simply provide the liaison between the creator and the recipient, and the same is true of training.

Some people end up not experiencing the art at all

A training program may end up being just some numbers and words, but if executed as thought that is ALL that a training program is, the results become incredibly lackluster.  Not captured in those words and numbers is the effort, the intensity, the aggression, the overcoming, the fighting through injury, pain, discomfort, and fear.  I can write you a program that says “1 topset of 10 squats”, but not captured in that statement is the notion that “You’re going to think it’s time to rack the bar at rep 5.”  The program might say “Lift 4 days a week”, but not captured in that is “irrespective of schedule, sickness, pain, injury, or sleep depravation”.  Nowhere in your excel sheet will you find “you’re going to be in pain the whole workout”, nowhere is it expressed “you’ll most likely think you’re going to get injured, keep pushing”.  How does one capture “Take the disappointment you feel in having not yet reached your true potential and channel that into the spirit needed to get through this next set, and the next workout, and the next decade?”  This intensity simply cannot be captured and expressed in words, it must simply be understood without knowing.

And as such, I’m hesitant to write a program, because I cannot ensure that what I’ve written will in turn be what is received by the reader, which means the effectiveness cannot necessarily be captured.  And a reader who “follows the program” and does not see the same results as the author will immediately claim it is the author who is at fault for writing an ineffective program, rather than a reader being at fault for following an effective program ineffectively.  In turn, when faced with this task, I will admit that I floundered.  I did not submit a program, but instead merely some training ideas that could be implemented into an already established program.  “Running the rack”, and using it for leg press, dumbbell press, curls, etc.  Mechanical Advantage Dropsets with the incline bench.  “As few sets as possible” for rep totals with pull ups.  Etc etc.  All effective techniques, all ideas that get to the notion of how I train, but nothing that quite fully grasps exactly how I approach training.  And why?

Because I write about notions, ideas and concepts.  Just like today.