My biggest pet peeve, question wise, are these types of questions…
“What do you think of…” then it’s some routine, or change in a program or asking me about some program written by someone else.
“Can I do…”
I don’t know…can you? Are you currently stuck in a prison camp in Bangladesh?
These questions are like nails on a chalk board without context. They literally make me want to punch babies.
Before you ask a question like this, start by asking yourself what the answer to those questions are. And you arrive at those by asking yourself, what your goals are.
And what your goals are will dictate the best answers. I have no problem giving my opinion on a routine, but there’s a myriad of things I would have to know ahead of time in order to provide an intelligent answer.
For example…
“Paul, I’m about to do this program. What do you think I should change about it?”
Do you guys not see the problem with that question? I have no idea how long the guy has been training, what kind of training he’s been doing, what his goals are, etc.
Here’s an example of this. If you have been doing low rep work for months on end, and your twin has been doing high rep metabolic style work for months on end, and you both decide to do a program together that calls for sets of 8-10 reps, you will both have different responses to the change in stimulus. It won’t be equal.
The guy that has been doing very low rep work is going to have more a metabolic response to doing sets of 8-10 from low rep work, but your twin who has been doing sets of 20-30 reps is going to have more of a neural response to the change.
“Paul…I plan on switch to starting strength but I’m going to do it in a 2 a day fashion where I train in the a.m. and p.m. everyday except Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday I will go fishing for 8 hours and then on Sunday I will shoot skeet and snow board for 20 straight hours. Does this look good to you?”
The point is, don’t ask me if something looks good without taking the time out to inform me about your previous training, what your goals are, and how you’re eating and what your recovery habits are like. This saves me a ton of time and allows me to answer you intelligently.