I posted about this in the bad cues section, but the worst advice I’ve ever had was the guy who first told me to arch my back on squats. Fucked me up for years.
The best lifting advice is something I’ve posted about several times, especially recently. “Don’t pin your shoulders back.” Thanks again, Paul Carter. The amount of “cues” that you hear all the time that SUCK is staggering.
The best training advice - meaning general training advice - came from my Senior Drill Instructor at boot camp. Dude had been on 6 combat deployments and was blown up badly enough that he was told he may never walk again, BEFORE becoming a drill instructor (which involves going through a school 3x tougher than boot camp), and he sat us all down at the end of a day where we were worked until about half of us vomited, and said, “Ain’t nobody can slay you like you can slay yourself.”
Might seem kind of bland and unexciting, but it was a real eye opener for me. So many people need music, or a training partner, or their preworkout, or their intra-workout carbs, or 8 hours of sleep, or a cool environment, or whatever the hell it is, but it’s all bullshit - it’s just YOU stopping yourself, when that set or workout or run or whatever it is comes to an end. He was telling us that no matter who is in charge, we are always in control of how hard we work.
It helps me keep a good perspective on things. I’m working overtime, raising 2 kids, and going to school while training, and while I know those are mitigating factors in the intensity I can put forward, I always have it in my head that when I’m taking it easy or reducing some workload, it’s because I choose to do that, not because I have to.