STRONGER? DID YOU MEAN BIGGER?

Time for one of my rare academic type posts, but my slumming on forums has resulted in me having a dialogue with what was effectively my past self and it forced me to flesh out some ideas that I wanted to capture here.  For many of you, this will be rudimentary, but hopefully a fresh take on an old concept.

Since this blog’s creation, it’s been about “getting bigger and stronger”, and I felt like that was the simplest way to convey my goals, but upon further reflection, what I’ve written is redundant.  Bigger IS stronger.  And not simply in the sense that weight moves weight and the absolute weightclasses have the strongest competitors, but that, when one’s goal is to get stronger, this is a statement that one’s goal is to become bigger.  Why?  Because, all things being equal, a bigger muscle is a stronger muscle.  This is something we all know…yet somehow, there is still confusion regarding this topic.

Some of you nerds can't even tell just by looking at this photo that the Half-orc gets +2 to strength while the halfling is -2...

What is the issue?  As I’ve written about in the past, people employ incorrect heuristics in the discussion of training, and it leads toward incorrect conclusions.  You tell a trainee “to make a muscle stronger, you must make it bigger”, and they instinctively counter with “then how come powerlifters are stronger than bodybuilders?”  This question may seem genuine from the asker, but in truth, this is arguing in bad faith.  Why?  It presupposes that bodybuilding is the training of muscular size while powerlifting is the training of muscular strength.

These are SPORTS (I know, some folks are going to be upset that I called bodybuilding a sport, but stick with me), NOT training methods.  Size is important to the sport of bodybuilding, but it is not the SOLE factor.  Strength is important in the pursuit of powerlifting, but it is not the SOLE factor.  And it’s the inclusion of these confounding variables that makes the comparison of the sports as training modalities and proofs of concept non-viable.

Plus, good luck explaining this

What do I mean by the above?  That it’s ineffective to say something like “if making muscles bigger makes them stronger, then how come powerlifters don’t train like bodybuilder?”  Because the training of a bodybuilder is about training to be better at bodybuilding, NOT simply to make all muscle as big as possible.  If it were truly the latter, Markus Rhul and Greg Kovacs would have been the longest running Olympia champions the world has ever seen.  Instead, bodybuilding will always be about the ILLUSION of size moreso than just size itself, and this means emphasizing certain physical qualities and deemphasizing others to create a more striking appearance.  Why else are so many people upset about the current bloated stomachs seen in the mass monster arena?  If bodybuilding were TRULY the sport of maximizing size, wouldn’t the individual with the biggest abdomen be the winner, not the loser?

And the same to be said about powerlifters (and, by extension, strength athletes in general).  If being strong was truly the only thing that mattered in strongman, O. D. Wilson never would have lost to Jon Pal Sigmarson.  Mark Henry would have been the greatest everything forever.  Mariusz Pudzianowski would have been a ZERO time winner of WSM.  There’s more TO these things that JUST strength, and again, that is why the training will vary.  As funny as it sounds, a strongman or powerlifter who focuses ONLY on getting their muscles strong will lose to a competitor who is better at being a strongman or powerlifter.

Not strong enough for WSM?  Are you serious?

Acknowledging this, we understand that we cannot analyze the training of these athletes as the established standards of training for size vs training for strength.  Where to start?  Analyze the off season methods, where weaknesses are brought up.  What is the solution FOR these athletes across the spectrum?  Volume and specificity.  The weak muscle is singled out, targeted, and hammered.  Why?  To make it GROW!  And why?  BECAUSE SIZE IS STRENGTH.  Written in all caps because it’s stronger, BECAUSE WE GET THAT.  Humanity totally gets this on an instinctive level, primarily because nature has conveyed this reality to us consistently through our history, but it’s only recently that the internet has tried to convince us otherwise. 

Look at Westside Barbell’s approach to conjugate.  80% of the workload is repetition effort.  Why?  Because when you make muscles bigger, you make them stronger.  Max Effort is about learning how to strain, Dynamic Effort is about learning how to be fast, and RE is about getting strong (by getting big).  Basic Western Periodization?  You have an accumulation block at the beginning, so you can get stronger by making the muscle bigger, and then you start intensifying so that you can get better at moving heavier weights for low reps.  The leader phases in 5/3/1 are higher volume to get you bigger and make you stronger in time for the anchors.  This pattern persists CONSTANTLY in the world of getting stronger: you have to make the muscle BIGGER.  That’s the “secret”! 

Ever stop and notice how the HULK gets bigger when he gets stronger?

You want some bro-science?  How about we understand that increases the muscular cross sectional area is what generates more strength potential?  Because more cross sectional area=more available fibers=greater ability to pull from said fibers.  Yes, it’s true that size doesn’t immediately result in improved ABILITY to move a heavier weight, but it certainly improves the potential to do so.  A realization process is required in order to benefit from this improved size, but this isn’t a new concept in the world in the slightest.  If I have a 10 gallon gas tank, then buy a 20 gallon tank but only fill it with 10 gallons, this doesn’t negate the fact that I have a bigger gas tank: it just means I’m not maximizing its potential. But at the same time, if I have a 10 gallon tank, attempt to fill it up with 12 gallons, and then spill 2 of them, I didn’t somehow make my 10 gallon tank a 12 gallon tank.  …that metaphor got weird on me, but I think you still get it.  Peaking strength isn’t building it, and building strength doesn’t necessarily peak it, but if your goal is to GET stronger, you want to get bigger, not peak strength.

The big takeaway here is that the folks getting wrapped around the axle about “training for size vs training for strength” need to take a BIG stepback and realize that these are the same things.  The processes that make muscles bigger will necessarily make the same muscles stronger, because you’ve increased that muscle’s potential for strength.  To be stronger in a specific movement requires specialization of training, and that is where vectoring toward something like powerlifting or strongman can come into play.  But if you legit just want to get muscles to be stronger, you need to focus on making them bigger.  And, as a bonus, you may actually look like you lift, which is always cool.      

AND THEN?

I tend to have something even greater than a 30,000 foot view, more along the lines of a 30,000 mile view, as my propensity to engage in nihilism/stoicism/absurdism tends to make me not appreciate the present at all as I’m already living in the era where I’ve been dead so long that not even the memory of the memory of my memory even exists.  But goddamn if some of you folks need to learn how to have at least a 3 foot view.  I swear some of you folks can’t see 2 hours into the future, let alone weeks, months and years, and it’s severely hamstringing your ability to progress and grow.  When you can’t see the future, not only can you not plan for your success, but you also are unable to truly realize the significance of your failure.  Specifically, just how INSIGNIFICANT your failure will be.  When discussing the immediate future, you must never forget to ask yourself the follow-up "and then?”

Do people still get this reference?

I’m gonna start with what originally prompted this post today, and something that shouldn’t shock my regular readers: injuries.  Oh my god do I lose my mind when trainees talk about these, because they absolutely do NOT exercise “and then?”  “If I do that, I might get injured!”  Ok, great…and then?  Your story does not end with an injury.  It’s not like you get injured and then fade to black.  This isn’t a goddamn movie.  LIFE GOES ON.  What is the “and then?” of your injury?  Will it be the kind of injury where you just shut down the workout for the day, go home and ice yourself and come back tomorrow?  Will you be out for a week?  Are you going to need surgery?  Physical therapy?  And guess what: those are RECOVERABLE!  Your “and then” is that you get injured…and then you heal, and then you continue to get stronger.

But these folks aren’t thinking in the future, where they’ll be healed, big and strong again.  No, most these people are so in the immediate that their only fear of the injury is simply the PAIN they’ll experience as a result of the injury.  They don’t want to get injured because, for one incredibly brief moment in their existence, they’ll experience a moment of pain.  This is why people will terrifyingly BEG internet strangers to tell them how to know when they’re close to failure on squats, because they don’t ever want to run the risk of failing a set and having to dump the bar.  What if the knurling scrapes their skin!?  What if they conk themselves in the back of the head?!  Christ folks, live like 15 minutes in the future at least, when they owie no longer smarts and you’ve already stripped the plates off the bar.

and fired your coach

And this phenomenon continues to exist outside of this realm of my personal annoyance: it bleeds into training in general.  So many trainees exist in the absolute and most immediate present that they have zero ability to appreciate the future and working towards it.  Trainees want PRs NOW, rather than building toward something much MUCH greater in the future.  And so they’ll constantly be grinding away at max weights, setting tons of Instagram PRs and ultimately making zero REAL growth over the span of weeks, months and years, all because their ego can’t handle the idea of taking some weight off the bar, accumulating some serious volume and building up to something insane.

I know I’ve become a Deep Water zealot as of recently, but it’s been a great example of long term thinking in effect.  I was handling weights that were around 60% of my 1rm for 12 weeks: a situation that would drive so many internet denizens absolutely bananas since they NEED those PRs NOW.  However, once I completed the program and transitioned to something with greater intensity, I started absolutely crushing some old PRs, to include ones I had set prior to blowing out my ACL.  I became stronger than I had ever been before, and it was because my plan included an “and then”.  “I’m going to run Deep Water, and then I’m going to make use of that volume to hit an intensification phase and set PRs” vs “I’m going to set a bunch of PRs in training and then…I don’t know.”

Seems like a good plan

The “and then” is always present, and it’s incumbent upon you to ask the question and provide an answer.  If you don’t, the future is going to catch you flat footed, and you’ll have to REACT rather than be proactive.  Don’t be at the mercy of the future: decide your own fate IN ADVANCE.  Know how things are going to play out and already have a plan in place.  And when there are multiple paths, have multiple plans.  Have a plan for how you’re going to succeed if you succeed and how you’re going to succeed if you fail.  If your “and then” results in you getting injured, have an “and then” that is how you’re going to train and recover from that injury.  If your “and then” is that you’ll soon have a compressed training schedule, have an “and then” that is HOW you’re going to get all of your training done with less time.  Don’t be at the mercy of an unpredictable future: go SUPER big picture and recognize just how potential is out there.    

WESTSIDE VS THE WORLD REVIEW

As I’ve written about previously in this blog, I backed the kickstarted for the movie “Westside Vs the World”.  For those completely unaware, this was an independent film chronicling the history of the Westside Barbell powerlifting club.  Also for those unaware, the release of this film was mired in as much drama as anything powerlifting related could be, to include having its release date pushed back indefinitely after one of the developers of the film split from the production crew, stole all the kickstarter funds, used the money to buy drugs with intent to sell before getting arrested, resulting in the original film creator having to sue that individual to get back the kickstarter funds along with screenings of the film held in gyms all over the country in order to help replenish lost funds.  A good amount of us backing the film had pretty much resigned ourselves to the fact that we’d never actually get our copies, and many disparing things were said about the film and its creators.  I myself equated it to the “Duke Nuke ‘em Forever” of powerlifting.  But then, finally, the day had arrived and I got my early release digital copy of the film.  I have sense watched it, and wanted to share an advanced screening review with you to help you decide if it’s something worth spending your $10 on (if you pre-order).

WHAT IS THE FILM ABOUT?

Pretty much just this guy

The actual “Westside vs The World” film is about the history of the Westside Barbell Powerlifting Club, which, in turn, means it’s primarily a story about Louie Simmons, as there is no Westside without Louie.  It starts off discussing Louie’s youth, his discovery of the Culver City Westside Barbell club, his journey into powerlifting and his accomplishments.  You find out that Louie was (and really, still is) a badass, and definitely earned his place in the sport.  Not much time is spent discussing the methods of Westside, but really more the stuff that most people wanna hear about: the drama.  You hear stories of some big names in the bygone era of powerlifting before youtube, where most info read about in Powerlifting USA or through stories passed on in clubs.  If you follow the sport, it’s cool to hear some indepth stories about these legends.  If you’re new to it, it’s great to get acquainted with the forefathers.  The film tracks Westside all the way to its current form, detailing its domination through the 90s and early 2000s to its relative obscurity in the raw era of powerlifting. 

This film REALLY could have been better understood to be “Louie Simmons vs the World”, because he is the key and central focus of the film here.  Other folks get interviewed, and you hear some perspective from current and former Westsiders, but Louie IS the show of this film.  However, you do get to hear a few cool things regarding the evolution of the methods, why Louie did what he did, and his thought process.

THE GOOD

- Ron Perlman is a delightful narrator, and allows the story to flow through very naturally.

- As stated above, you get to hear some cool stories about lifters from yesteryear.  I was familiar with what an accomplished lifter Matt Dimel was, but I had no idea how psychotic he was in and out of the gym.  Hearing more about Chuck V is always worthwhile too.  Many of these guys had larger than life myths about them, and getting to see behind the scenes is awesome for fans of the sport.

- Pacing is solid.  I didn’t find myself wanting to break away from the film out of boredom at any point. 

- Louie provides a fantastic role model of a total force of nature as it relates to getting and making people stronger.  The interviews completely solidify this.  As well, you get a peek at what was going on behind the scenes at Westside, and discover that the rumors were all true.  You also get some interesting perspectives as well.  For as much as Brandon Lilly talked about being a “Westside Lifter”, I never realized he only trained at the gym for a year before being kicked out.

THE BAD

- This film simply cannot live up to its own hype.  And that’s an unfortunate problem created by its production, but kickstarters have been waiting since Jan 2018 (when it was originally promised to be released).  During that time, we’ve seen the updates over e-mail, promises, rave reviews at screenings across the US, and just tons and tons of drama as the movie FINALLY was released in digital form…all for what is, by all accounts, simply a good movie.  This would readily find a solid place in Netlfix’s bin of decent documentaries on fringe sports.

- I would have enjoyed more time spent focusing on the actual methods of the gym.  How they came about, why, static they faced for introducing them, etc.  Kickstarter backers are supposed to get physical DVDs that go into how to implement the conjugate method, and I’ll review them once I get them, but still, this was primarily a dramapiece, which isn’t shocking for powerlifting.

- No subtitle option from what I can tell.  Louie only has 13 teeth and speaks in a jumble many times, and I had to go back a few times and try to hear what he was saying.  The music occasionally makes this an issue too.

SHOULD YOU BUY IT?

If you are an old fan of powerlifting, I’d say it’s worth the current $10 pricetag.  If you followed the sport during the WPO era, you know all these names, heard these stories, and will most likely get something out of it.  If you just joined in during the raw era, I honestly can’t imagine you’ll find much of this terribly interesting.  If you don’t know the sport at all, I’m not too sure how much appeal it will have for you.  You could spend 90 minutes doing something worse than watching this film, but I can’t imagine it will appeal to anyone but the most hardcore of powerlifting nerds.

AD HOMINEM

Oh man, time for everyone’s favorite topic: logical fallacies!  Journey with me once again, dear reader, to the early 2000s, where I was dutifully attending a majority of my undergrad classes and had found myself taking a semester of Logic in pursuit of my philosophy minor.  We started the course with the good stuff: logical fallacies.  Within 2 days of the course, I suddenly felt as though I had become the conversational equivalent of Neo in the Matrix (remember, once again, that this was the early 2000s, so that reference wasn’t dated then).  There I was, able to call these all out the moment I saw them.  Strawman, boom!  Red Herring, KAPOW!  And of course, ad hominem ad hominem ad hominem!  Oh you suckers are screwed now…until I noticed that no one gave a damn about these fallacies.  Either they argued that they had not committed them, or they disregarded them entirely.  What gives?  Why was no one relenting to my skill?  Because in the real world, during a real conversation, an argument being logical is only PART of the equation.  The real world isn’t purely logical: it’s empirical, and, in turn, experience, expertise and observable qualities DO matter.  Knowing this, here is what I’ve come to say: ad hominem?  You’re goddamn right ad hominem: who are YOU to make this argument?

And never accuse a misanthrope of ad-hominem and expect it to matter

When you share your opinion on something, YOU come under the spotlight AS the opinion sharer.  That’s simply how a dialogue exists.  That this is somehow shocking to some folks is a reflection of the falsely perceived anonymity that social media and forums and the internet have granted to us as a population.  People want to trick themselves into believe that all voices are of equal weight, and it’s merely the content of the message that is of any concern, and this is patent absurdity.  Examples?  Why not combat absurdity WITH some absurdity.  Say you are presenting zero symptoms of any diseases, and then a random individual says “I think you are in the early stages of cancer.  Some cancer do not present until later.”  Would you take them equally at their word, compared to if these same words came from an oncologist?  No?  But it’s the same argument!  How ad hominem of you!  How dare you hold that person’s lacking credentials as reason to not give their words any weight.  Why…why you siding with the oncologist is merely an appeal to authority!  Not logical in the slightest, my friend.

Because logic isn’t the only thing that matters!  Not in an illogical world.  Not in a world where we AREN’T the experts.  And when you delude yourself into perceiving that you ARE one, logic can cripple you, because your “logical” arguments are based off of false pretenses in the first place.  If you sat in on my Logic course with me, you woulda heard the same thing: the pretenses MUST be true when constructing a logical argument.  Otherwise, you end up with arguments that are logically sound but factually untrue: of benefit to no one.  That’s why, when you skim the abstract of a few studies and then get into a 400 post long internet shouting match screaming “Ad hominem!” every time someone calls you stupid and unaccomplished, you end up setting yourself up for failure.  You HAVE to acknowledge your own shortcomings, limitations and misunderstandings, and many times this means applying the old “appeal to authority”.

This guy should have appealed to more authorities...

There’s a goddamn reason these people ARE the authority to appeal to!  We MADE them authorities because they tend to be right on the subjects FAR more often than they are wrong!  That’s what you do in a society: you make experts so that everyone doesn’t have to know everything.  Without having experts TO appeal to, society would crumble, because there simply isn’t enough time to learn everything about everything.  Think how long it takes to become a doctor.  “But doctors are wrong sometimes”, yeah, when you push them OUT of the realm of their expertise, but that’s the point: stay in your lane.  People would rather not vaccinate their kids because they heard from Jenny McCarthy that it causes autism rather than trust the collective medical knowledge of the entire Western hemisphere over the span of many decades?  What madness is this?!  The same madness that prompts people to roll the dice and trust random internet youtube sensations on how they should lift weights simply because they have an Instagram account versus listening to the collective wisdom of thousands of successful trainees and high level coaches that have accomplished things of note. 

And THAT is why you get challenged when you present an idea.   ARE you the expert?  No?  Have you accomplished anything?  No?  Have you TRAINED anyone to accomplish anything?  No.  So then why do I listen to you?  “BECAUSE IT’S ILLOGICAL NOT TO!”  Great: I guess I’m choosing to be illogical.  Because I’d rather be illogical and strong than logical and weak.  And I don’t care if you’re parroting the experts, because if you don’t have the requisite education to even be able to understand what they are saying, there’s a significant chance you’re misinterpreting or misapplying what they’ve written.  So then I get to ask: what are your credentials to read and APPLY what the experts say?  F**k me man, I’ll even take an undergrad degree in SOMETHING exercise related, as it’ll hopefully show that you have AN understanding of how to read and interpret the science in these studies.  But man, if you’re a poli-sci scrub like me, the jig is up, because I know EXACTLY what you don’t know.    

However, my philosophy background has helped quite a bit with my training

Put yourself in a position where you CAN’T be ad hominem’d.  BE credible, BE accomplish, BE worthwhile…or just be quiet.  And hey, there’s nothing wrong with sharing your opinion when asked, but remember our previous talks on the signal-to-noise ratio: ask yourself, what is the value of my contribution to this topic?  Does my opinion NEED to be heard?  Does it DESERVE to be heard?  Have I done enough, seen enough, learned enough, that I actually matter?  Or am I just talking just to hear myself talk?  Because, if it’s the latter, you could always just go write in a blog. 

SOME THOUGHTS

-If you wanna eat the way you wanna eat, you don’t get to train the way you wanna train, and vice versa.  What I mean is, I enjoy eating a LOT of food.  I have a voracious appetite.  However, the only way I’ve ever trained to be able to justify that intake was when I ran Deep Water or Building the Monolith: and both of those programs were ROUGH.  However, if I don’t train like that, I have to ease up on the food intake.  There’s never going to be both going in the right direction.

-You did one meet and now you’re a powerlifter, or you did one comp and now you’re a strongman?  Great.  Instead of using this as an opportunity to strut around and call out non-competitors, realize that now you’re an ambassador for the sport and act accordingly.  You represent more than just yourself.

-I thrive when given limitations.  Limitations are what breed creativity.  I got creative when I couldn’t train my knee, I get creative when I have to train in a gym that isn’t mine, etc.  I feel like decisions are easier to make WITH limitations vs without, because now you know the operating parameters.  Understanding this, maybe you should self-impose some limitations if things are getting stale.  Or maybe, if you’re just starting out and you’re feeling overwhelmed, you create some arbitrary limitations.  Only 1 author you listen to, only 5 movements, etc etc.  See what it forces you to do.

If you can't figure out how to train for a decade using this and a barbell, you're most likely spoiled

-So many people are drinking “Bang” energy drinks now, to include non-lifters.  I remember when creatine first hit the scene and people thought it was steroids.  Hell, some people STILL do, and yet people are just knocking back creatine drinks.  I’m wondering what’s going to be the impact, especially for those drinking a few of these a day and not hydrating terribly well.

-People with meticulous form and light weight seem to get upset when I point out that the weight they are lifting isn’t much, whereas I don’t get upset when they point out that my technique is poor.  Is one of us living unauthentically?

-I miss the old MHP Mass Gainer “Up Your Mass”.  Also, I most likely also miss MHP, because I don’t see them around anymore.  Maybe I should just be honest and say I miss the mid 2000s.

-I legit don’t understand the dietary goals of some people.  “I’ve been eating to gain muscle, but now my gas smells bad: how do I fix it?”  Are you eating to have good smelling gas?  What a weird goal.  “I’ve been eating to gain muscle, but now I’m getting acne.  How do I fix it?” Use proactive and keep eating. ARE YOU GAINING MUSCLE?  That’s what you are eating for!

-Ever notice how it’s only testosterone that guys will try to manipulate with over the counter remedies?  Like, so many kids are wondering “How do I boost my testosterone” with no actual idea on if they have low test, but where are all the people shooting up insulin because they think that they MIGHT be diabetic?

I'm sure that asterisk is just standard boilerplate stuff

-Dips and chins are 2 of the most popular upperbody assistance exercises because they’re the easiest to set up.

-On the above, the lesson is to not confuse popularity with effectiveness.  Dave Tate talked about how, on some Westside days, they’d decide their supplemental and accessory work based off what the ME workout was for that day.  “Hell, we’re doing block pulls?  Let’s do some RDLs for supplemental work, and then some barbell rows for accessory.  We can just unload the bar as we go!”  If you just looked at their workout WITHOUT that context, you’d be confused as hell about the layout.

-They call kale a superfood because, otherwise, no one would eat it.

-I really hoped that, when Eddie Hall retired, his fans would go away.  Not only did that NOT happen, but now we have Larry Wheel’s fans along for the ride too.

-And that’s not to denigrate Larry.  He’s a strong dude.  In fact, I think it’s pretty uncool that NO ONE is giving him a competition shirt to wear at his competitions.

-Allegedly, Westside Barbell vs the World is being released on 7 May to iTunes, and I’m supposed to get my direct download sometime before that.  I have a feeling there is no way it can live up to the hype of 2 years of production and drug deals and money laundering and lawsuits, but at this point I’m in too deep NOT to watch.  Also, I want to point out that what I wrote is probably one of the few times “Westside Barbell” and “too deep” appeared in the same paragraph.

It's amazing that powerlifting has become even MORE ridiculous since this time...

-How to tell if you’re stupid: when you see a unilateral exercise in a program and it says 3x10, do you ask “Is that per side, or total reps?”  Know how you can tell you’re stupid?  Would you have asked that same question if it said 3x11?

-I’ve switched to benching exclusively using the Ironmind Five Star bench press, which is basically just solid steel with a thin close cell foam padding, and in doing so I’m wondering what the hell the big deal is about the Thompson Fat Pad for benching?  And hey, if you’re putting up 600lbs, I get it, but that’s not the people I see clamoring over it.

-People ask for the “solution” to being light headed when you train as though it’s a problem.  Just be lightheaded. 

-When people link me studies, I’ve taken to just say I don’t understand the science enough to be able to comment or respond to what is being reported.  I’m wondering how many people will follow my lead on that…

-I can always tell when a lifter is just parroting an author when they say the phrase “The deadlift is the most taxing movement on the CNS.”  Oh really?  Ever try walking with a yoke? But that’s the other fun comedy too: you do one of those “which 5 movements would you pick if you could only do 5” things, and 99% of the people that respond will pick static lifts.  Bench, squat, deadlift, press and chin.  Oh cool: guess there’s no front carries, or farmers, or yokes, or throwing, or jumping, etc etc.  Good luck with all that.

You know: the IMPORTANT exercises

-I find many people quoting abstracts at me fail to understand what the words “prove” and “cause” actually mean.

-“Touch and go deadlifts are bad form”.  Agree.  Squats too, right?

I DON’T KNOW

Alright folks, I’m not gonna try to go full Socrates here (and, if you grew up watching Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, you read that as “so-crates”, which is awesome), but I think some of you need to start embracing his wisdom.  And for my readers familiar with classical philosophy, you had a chuckle at that opening sentence, because Socrates was a hack as far as wisdom went, because his big shtick was that he knew nothing.  There was, of course, a method to that madness, as otherwise he wouldn’t rank up there as one of the forefathers of philosophy, but honestly let’s just take a step back and admire someone actually admitting (even if for their own intentions) that they don’t know something.  These days, that’s a monumental undertaking to have anyone make that claim.  Why?  What’s wrong with admitting you lack knowledge in something?  We can’t all be experts in everything, and even WITH the internet at our disposal, there can STILL exists knowledge gaps, because information still needs to be understood, processed, sorted and interpreted before it can actually be “known”.  Folks, some of you need to learn that, when asked a question, it’s ok to reply with “I don’t know”.

Pleading the 5th also works

“I don’t know” is a totally legit response to a question, and people refuse to employ it, and what it has done is significantly pollute the dialogue as it relates to training.  This is especially the case amongst “experts” in the realm of training.  And already, let me start developing a caste system here in this dialogue, because you’ll note I had to put the word experts in quotes.  There are so many youtube and Instagram stars out there whose expertise pretty much relates to video editing and finding good lighting and angles to make paltry physiques look impressive.  Their expertise lies in manipulating social media to make income.  However, even amongst those that are credible in their field, their credibility only relates TO their field, and in the realm of training, there can be very unique niche’ fields that one can be a master in and yet totally clueless in all other things as it relates to training.

What do I mean?  Again, we think this is all just lifting weights and eating good, but when you got a guy who decides he’s going to be “the glute guy”, and then they decide to start talking about what a trainee needs to do to deadlift more…and they only deadlift 400lbs and have never coached anyone in the deadlift, they’ve gone outside their realm of expertise.  “But the glutes are in the deadlift!”  Yup, and somehow the guy who has mastered the training of that muscle can’t deadlift for crap, so there must be more to it than that.  Or if a guy who specializes in training beginners in the 3 barbell lifts decides their going to expound on how to training the US Olympic Weightlifting team, or talks about how conditioning is a sham, that guy stepped outside his realm, and it’s obvious.  There’s a good chance these folks are saying things just for the sake of having their words make them some money, but the truth is, when it came time for that discussion, the real answer to those questions was “I don’t know”.  Because an “I don’t know” from those folks is FAR less destructive than a definitive AND absurd answer.

This trainer definitely needed to exercise those 3 words...

And again, I get it: the masses see these folks as the experts of all things fitness, rather than recognizing where their expertise exists.  And I also get it that it’s human nature to not want to appear stupid when asked a question, and one is compelled to offer an answer.  But owning what you do and do not know is incredibly valuable, it keeps the dialogue open, and it identifies your own knowledge gaps.  HOWEVER, what it ALSO does is identify what you HAVE needed to know in order to get to where you are.  Folks, I am completely and totally honest when I say that I cannot do hard science to save my life.  My background is political science and philosophy, I got Cs and Ds in my high school science courses, and I legit almost did not graduate undergrad because I was failing an Earth Systems Science course referred to by my tutor as “rocks for jocks”.  I’ve never taken an anatomy course, or an exercise science course, I’ve never measured my TDEE, I haven’t counted calories since 1 day in 2004 where I did it was a gee-whiz, etc etc.  When asked questions in regards to any of these topics, I reply with “I don’t know”, but I’ll also continue with “I’ve never needed to know that to reach my goals.”

That’s the point.  We’re not going full Socrates in that we say we don’t know something and then we keep asking those in the know until they admit that THEY don’t know something.  That’s a modern day internet argument, with people screaming studies at each other for 400 posts and no one backing down.  We’re admitting our limitations and staying inside our realm.  We want a bigger realm?  We go learn something.  However, consequently, what we also get to do is claim to know the things that we DO know, irrespective of the claims otherwise.  I’ve had people who “know” inform me that single set work isn’t effective.  That’s fine: I know it is.  Same is true with only training a movement once a week.  That’s fine: I’ve built a 650lb deadlift training the deadlift once every 2 months, I know it’s effective.  You wanna talk protein synthesis rates and what’s considered a low amount of testosterone, I’m not your guy, but if you ever wanna discuss getting bigger and stronger, let’s chat, because that’s something I know.

I also know a thing or 2 about training around injuries...

And, in turn, it’s a very unsatisfying dialogue for the modern day wannabe Socrates that want to push the discussion further.  “Well you do you KNOW these things?”  Because these are the things that I know.  I have been there, and done them, and now I know them.  “But can you prove it?”  Nope: but I still know it, and I’m willing to let my results speak in that regard.  But when you go in the inverse, it’s also a much more efficient dialogue.  When they ask how much protein you need to gain muscle and you reply with “I don’t know”, you avoid the 12 day war between the 1 gram per lb bodyweight vs 1 gram per lb leanmass vs .8g per kg camps who all “know” their answer.  Be willing to identify and accept where you are ignorant, and then observe what you’ve achieved in spite of that ignorance.  If it’s a paltry result, maybe you need to learn some more.  If you’ve come far, maybe it wasn’t worth knowing, and maybe when you get asked about it, you can proudly declare that, in regards to that topic “I don’t know”.

   

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH THAT INFORMATION?

This is a long time pet peeve of mine, and that I’ve gone this long without addressing it astounds me, but here we go.  Maybe this is stoicism, or nihilism, or maybe it’s just common sense, but for the life of me I just plain can’t understand the need people have for useless information.  And I don’t mean useless like trivia: celebrity underwear sizes, which Kardashian is married to who, etc etc, because hey, maybe one day you’ll be on a quizshow and knowing that will get you some money.  No, I’m talking truly useless information.  Information that, once learned, changes absolutely nothing about your current situation.  Examples?  “I just got hurt: how long will it take to heal?”  “Is my progress slow?”  “How much muscle will I lose when I take 2 weeks off?”  Oh my god folks, I just about have an aneurysm when I read this nonsense.  What the hell are you going to do with that information?!

At least THESE guys were getting paid to telemarket...

No, seriously, I want to know.  Why should I answer these questions?  What changes when you get that information?  Are you on some sort of timeline?  And hey, wanna notice something funny: there’s a benefit to answering all these questions I’M asking you here, whereas there is NONE for answering your own.  Primarily, when you answer my questions, it helps you understand how silly yours is.  That’s what a GOOD question looks like: the information obtained from it is beneficial towards making decisions, changes and action.  Questions where answers serve no action benefit are simply trivia questions, and you’re polluting the dialogue by asking them.  These things will happen AT the rate that they happen at.

What are you going to do NOW that you know how long it’s going to take your injury to heal?  You can’t undo the injury.  If the answer is too long, are you just going to quit?  No?  Then you’re going to heal at the rate you heal at: no faster, no slower.  If I tell you your progress is slow, are you going to start working harder?  Why not work as hard as you can possibly work now, and leave no doubt?  Or what if I say your progress is fast, are you going to ease off the throttle now, so you can be closer to average?  Who the hell does that?  Are you going to cancel your vacation plans if I tell you that you’ll lose 1.8lbs of muscle in 2 weeks?  What is your threshold for not taking time off?

These are worthless questions!  All they’re going to do is give you anxiety, at BEST.  An anxiety is a great way to be kept up at night, compromise your recovery, accumulate a good degree of cortisol and go catabolic.  Oh geez, how much do you think that’s going to affect your progress?  No, Jesus, STOP!  Quit wasting brainpower on this nonsense.  Your time is a finite resource and you’re squandering it on trivia.  Not even minutia: pure trivial knowledge that has ZERO bearing on your ability to succeed OR fail.  This is just an answer to a gameshow quiz.  Hell, at least if you’re asking about if sleeping 7 hours compromises recovery compared to 8, you have an actionable answer, even if it’s a dumb question.  That question is stupid, but not completely useless.

You have to accept that there are blatantly some thing you cannot change.  These are the “rules” that you have to play the game by, and as much as we’re conditioned to break the rules, cheat, skirt the law, or blatantly ignore them to succeed, these ones are unbreakable.  You simply have to frame your paradigm around these rules, and wondering about the hows and whys behind them is just wasting brain power.  Instead, accept these as givens and then go forth operating with these rules.  You have to take 2 weeks off?  Cool: if you lose any muscle, first, seek immediate medical attention as you may have some sort of muscle wasting disease or flesh eating bacteria, and THEN, go put it back on over the next 2 weeks.  Injured?  Great: take as long as it takes to heal, and then go back.  These things are going to occur irrespective of your knowledge of them occurring: you knowing changes nothing.

With these answers that don’t matter, you may as well just make up your own answers to these questions.  You can’t possibly change reality, but you CAN change the way you think and react to it.  That IS a lesson straight out of stoicism, and it works.  Injured?  Decide that you’re going to heal quickly.  How are you progressing?  Fast.  Taking a vacation?  You’re going to gain muscle.  All these gee whiz questions are an opportunity for you to reaffirm and solidify your knowledge that you ARE something amazing, you’re on the right track, you’re making good decisions, you’re training hard and succeeding.

And if you CAN’T do that, figure out WHY.  Most likely you’re exhibiting some form of guilt over the knowledge that you aren’t doing what you should in order to meet your goals.  No, it’s not a question about not knowing some sort of best kept secret from the pros and you’re wondering if you’re missing out: if you’re not growing the way you want to grow, you KNOW why that is.  When you know you’re eating like crap, cutting your workouts early, skipping your conditioning, living off energy drinks and haven’t had water in a decade, etc etc, no wonder you’re asking questions about if you’re progressing fast enough.  No wonder you’re worried about muscle loss from a 2 week vacation.  Do those things that you KNOW make you great and then you’ll no longer worry about if you’re achieving greatness: it’s a foregone conclusion.