You deff got me interested with that. I would say a lot of my gainz over the last few years are as a direct result of following a detailed progression plan. I spent years just banging and slanging weight around and whilst I made progress it was nothing compared to where I am now. Add to this that I am seeing this progression in my late 40’s (50 next week) and I think the progression model is maybe underrated.
Maybe personality has a lot to do with this, I often see people who cant stick to a program for more than a few weeks talk about how programs are overrated.
I deff think supps are over rated, they always have been (he says as he drinks a protien shake)
I agree that full body training is underrated bu not sure I agree with lower frequency. I actual think you can progress really well with higher frequency full body as long as the loading is undulating.
I don’t agree that rest days are underrated, I think too many people sit on the couch and think they will be Dorian Yates when getting up and moving would give them better results. Maybe its just the word rest days I don’t like.
Are they overrated or just missused ? I think carbs have their place particularly as a quick energy source but most people can get by without them.
I love this one and 100% agree. I think this is where lots of people see great improvements with a coach or running someone elses program. Faith in what you are doing is a game changer (and not vegan diet type)
Very much agree, and we observe this sentiment among a LOT of coaches, to include ones that DO have a weightlifting background. Dan John talks about a colleague of his that switched away from the Olympic lifts and stuck with high pulls and other variations that didn’t have the wrist turnover, as this person was a field athlete and felt like preserving their wrist would allow them to throw for a longer time. Dan goes on to say he thinks this guy had the right idea. We’ve seen Joe DeFranco utilize strongman lifts to develop this explosiveness, we’ve seen Westside do this with dynamic effort, we’ve seen Jim Wendler accomplish this with throws and jumps, etc. For some reason, we had it in our heads for so long that the only way to get explosive was with olympic lifts.
This is a great callout. In fact, I could add to my underrated list: not doing stuff that hurts. Sounds ridiculous, but how many of us actually do that?
I think so. Your progression model is my calorie counting. I know there are other ways (in fact, that’s where I’m at lately), but I’m simply not as successful without strictly counting my macros.
Sansone’s diet is not low-carb at all. That is probably close to 300 grams of carbs. This is what he looked like.
Rheo was just a supplement guy pushing his protein “mother’s milk” products. I bet he was paying all those guys to say they worked great.
Lou and Steve both used steroids, and we know they both consumed a lot of carbs. Sergio Oliva and Frank Zane also worked with Rheo, and they were not low-carb or natural.
Balik’s diet recommendations, along with Rheo’s and Dickerson’s are for losing weight/fat. That is not new. Just a different approach to fat loss.
Pulling out carbs for a contest has always been a thing. It is still done today. The difference is that we now know much more about bodybuilding nutrition, and there is no need to remove them completely.
You said they were overrated and mentioned getting jacked, so I assumed putting on size/muscle was the context. That is why I mentioned Gironda.
When it comes to fat loss, I would actually say they are underrated. Many lifters when deciding to lose fat drop carbs dramatically and then wonder why they are losing muscle, strength, and feel fatigued.
High intensity training - So many good stories of how effective this is but how many have tried it and either gone no where fast or ended up injured.
Isolation exercises - Maybe good if you are a competitive bodybuilder or have already built some decent size but the majority of people would achieve better results with compound movements
Supportive equipment - Given I use a belt, knee sleeves for squatting and occasionally wrist wraps and straps maybe I am a counter to my own argument here. But I see so many lifters in the gym using all sorts of supportive equipment for accessory movements. I get it for heavy squats or deadlifts but knee sleeves for leg extensions seems a little overkill to me.
Underrated:
Training without a barbel : So much strength and size to be had using sandbags, farmers, stones, sleds, etc.
Programming intensity - This is more for beginners but I feel like there is a tenancy to want to just go in and work hard all the time. There seems to be big focus on training to failure (dont even get me started on the actual definition here) and chasing an extra rep. Some simple programming to allow for sensible progression and light and heavy days would be more productive.
This is a great topic, I’m sure it’ll have 500 replies before we know it and I’ll be too overwhelmed to check back in haha
I feel so tempted to give the classic
overrated: Training volume
Underrated: Training intensity and proper biomechanics
It’s so simple and so many people say it, but I really find it to be true. So many of my clients come to me training very high volume and low intensity and they train with me and do 1-2 working sets to failure and make the best gains of their lives. Teaching people the importance of the quality of each set, rather than the number of sets. The volume of sets mean nothing without the intensity!
With that quality, I also mean following the proper biomechanics to target the musculature appropriately and not put undue stress in areas such as your low back. This is something I think I had even somewhat neglected until recently and I hope to continue to learn and improve in this area.
These were definitely notions that I’ve had for years, but applying these methods successfully with my clients is really where I’ve learned just how true my sentiments were.
@TrainForPain thanks dude I appreciate the words and sentiment. In hindsight I should’ve added to my first post:
Underrated
Workouts as an aid to mental health and to build resilience and fortitude.
If you seek and frequently put yourself in a dark and tough place physically it builds a resilience and fortitude which lends itself to real life.
This is what separates us from them, many people will avoid at all costs putting themselves in challenging situations both physically and in other ways (professionally comes to mind) where as we know that only by putting ones self in those situations and circumstances does true growth come.
How about we call them “active recovery days”? That’s what I mean by rest days - not the couch and a bag of chips kind of days, but movement outside of the gym days.
This is great! @simo74 came to fight. What I love about this is we differ on some specifics, but I can’t argue you’ve the results to prove it. And I, obviously, am easily mistaken for a Greek god, so my version must work too.
One place I’ll push back a bit is isolation exercises. I’d say they’re appropriately rated. I do think they have a place, but shouldn’t be anywhere near a priority. At least lately, on here and in gyms, I feel like that’s how I’ve seen folks using them.
This is a tough question, one I’ve been mulling over for a while. Ultimately, I think it comes down to overrated for who?
For me, personally, deadlifts from the floor are the most overrated lift on earth. I hate them and can’t find an upside to them. I also suck at them. I’m sure if I were a remotely good deadlifter, I’d think differently.
I think keto is overrated by the general public, although not as ridiculously as, say, 10 years ago. Many of my overweight friends/acquaintances start keto, go live in the shadows, afraid of even accidentally laying eyes on a stray breadcrumb, lose huge amounts of water weight, stall, cheat like they’re prepping for a marathon, then start the process all over.
I think front squats and high bar squats are underrated for middle-aged bad-assery. After doing a few sets, I’ll spend the next few days feeling like I move better, like movement is almost effortless, even catch myself proudly skipping stairs at work.
Band pull-aparts for warmup and shoulder mobility were a game changer. Criminally underrated–at least for me.
Maybe what this tells us is that it’s all overrated and getting stronger and bigger really isn’t that hard. Weird thing is though there seems to be so many people who struggle to make any kind of real progress. Does this point to something that is underrated - mindset. Maybe the only thing that matters is our ability to cope with being uncomfortable and back it up time and time again.
Funny you say that because from what I see most people don’t actually do much in the way of deadlift. Plenty of videos on social media and it seems like everyone is doing them, but in the gym any a small % of people do the with any consistency.
