Your Principles

Training
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Tons of great info in here, gang. Too much to comment on specifically, so I’ll toss a blanket “Good Stuff” all around.

My own couple of cents:

  • One of the biggest things I took from my personal trainer cert millennia ago is Good, Better, Best.

Doing concentration curls and push-ups every night before bed to stay “fit”? Good. It’s something. You’re making an effort, misguided and inefficient though it may be. We can improve the plan when you’re ready.

Following the complimentary machine circuit workout from when you signed up for the gym two years ago to “tone up”? Better. It’s a plan that hits every major muscle group with some semblance of structured programming, cookie-cutter though it may be. We can improve the plan when you’re ready.

Using a well-designed, individualized program to reach a time-constrained, specifically outlined goal efficiently and effectively? Best. Stick to the plan and prosper. It’s why a 41-year old obese woman seeking fat loss doesn’t work for a big total in the Big Three and why a 63-year old golfer with arthritic shoulders doesn’t flat bench with a barbell.

  • Many years back when I was still blogging, I was arrogant enough to think people needed to know “30 Things I Think”. I’m kinda happy to review them and see that I only agree with a small handful of the training mandates I used to believe. The stuff that made the cut. And yes, these are word-for-word cut and pastes. :facepalm:

“Functional training” isn’t a broad generalization, it’s always context-specific. Competitive bodybuilders are extremely functional… for their sport… but they suck at MMA, and vice versa.

There’s always more to learn, in lifting, nutrition, and in life, but that doesn’t mean things that worked 6, 16, or 60 years ago suddenly stop working. There should be enough room in your brain for the new info to bump into the old info and be like, “Why, hello, fellow idea. Let us live together as harmoniously productive roommates.”

Becoming a “Jack of all trades, Master of one or two” will turn you into a very valuable and useful person to friends, family, and employers. It also comes in handy when designing your training plan.

[Yeah, uh, that’s pretty much all that survived.]

  • Know your Long-As-I’s.

“I can putz around most of the time, but ‘long as I make sure to do X, Y, and Z, I’ll get closer to my goals.” Basically, a catchier way to drive home Pareto’s Law (the 80/20 rule). Figure out your bang-for-the-buck absolute needs in the gym and in the kitchen, and then stick to them no matter what else pops up.

So it might be: ‘Long as I do power cleans once a week, eat 6 eggs a day, and keep booze to two days a week, I’ll be in a good place whatever else happens.” Not such a good example would be, “‘Long as I go to the gym and stick to my diet, I’m good.” That’s way too vague to be useful parameters.

  • This last piece is part principle, part general commentary: Know the difference between jokes/memes and reality.

Bodybuilders really aren’t weak. Some of the greatest bodybuilders of all-time were stupid-strong. Yates, Coleman, Oliva, etc. Also fun to see the light bulbs appear when you realize 5/3/1 PR sets are, much more often than not, done in the “bodybuilding rep range”.

CrossFit really isn’t for skinny dudes. If you stuck to legit CF programming (training 3 days on, 1 off; using a wide variety of exercises; doing consistent conditioning as well as lifting; etc.), you’d get into pretty kickass shape and build some solid muscle with plenty of go to match the show.

  • On the nutrition front, I hands-down believe that three whole food meals a day and one workout shake is pretty hard to beat, regardless of goal, and should be the go-to starting point before playing with IF or six meals a day or any other nutrition template. People are too quick to think they “need” a funky nutrition approach instead of plain old boring three squares a day.
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Fantastic post Chris. Thanks for writing it. The framing of good, better, best is huge. So many folks act like there are only two options: optimal or garbage. We live in the in between.

Realized another 90s era nutriton principle I use: small frequent meals over infrequent large meals. “Stokes the metabolic fires”…maybe not, but the outcome is always better for me.

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The thoughts of a long-time forum lurker, and longer-time gym rat and general nerd here. I’ll caveat what I’ll say with 1-2 things to offer up some context, for whatever that’s worth. I’ll also add that I’m from the UK too, which doesn’t really change much but I noticed that a few posts above discussed things from the perspective of folks over on this side of the pond.

I’ve been training consistently for 25 years, give or take, in a few different iron-related endeavors (bodybuilding, powerlifting, weightlifting), but I’ve also worked within professional and elite sport too. I’ll list a couple of things below that reflect first hand experience and observations from being around people much bigger, better and more experienced than me. I’ll add a few more when I get time later on.

Quality trumps all
I was lucky enough to train with and learn from a decorated weightlifing coach with 57 + years’ of coaching experience for a number of years. The guy had seen and done it all but still had a passion and thirst for all things training well into later life. He was also a complete hard ass: crotchety, difficult to please and an absolute stickler for technical precision. He was also sarcastic, with a typically dry, British sense of humour. Hit a bad snatch and it was time to put on your flack jacket and duck for cover, there’s a grenade incoming with your name on it. Hit a good lift and the accompanying nod of approval was like all of your Christmas wishes come early. I’ve always preferred Halloween to Christmas anyway.

An emphasis on technique, quality and precision was a key lesson that can be applied to most lifting contexts. if you’re a bodybuilder, you need to create an internalised awareness of your muscles and how they can lift the weight with greatest emphasis; put your mind in your muscle and create an internal focus of attention; if you’re a lifter or athlete you need to develop technical mastery and efficiency that allows you to demonstrate your strength in the competitive lifts optimally for your body type and movement literacy.

Focus on quality, whatever your goal.

Find the positive, even on your worst days
Hitting a PR (PB in the UK) is awesome, but sometime can also be a huge anticlimax too I’ve found. You can spend weeks or months working towards an outcome, achieve it, to then find yourself asking yourself if it was really worth the effort. It sucks when this happens, and I’ve seen it happen to more than a few people. Bad training sessions are the worst though, particularly if your head was in the game that day but nothing seemed to go right. I’ve seen many a lifter have a full on tantrum, kick the chalk bowl and storm out the gym in a huff during a bad session. I guess that’s both the beauty and the beast that is the iron: the numbers don’t lie, so if you’re not lifting what (or how) you wanted that day then there’s no way of hiding it really. You’re off that day and that’s that.

…but (and this is a big but) improvements are not always completely measurable numerically. Maybe you didn’t squat that 5 RM today, but when you were ramping up you noticed that the hip shift you’ve been working on has disappeared? You moved really well during warm ups and maybe set up a better foundation to build on for years to come if you maintain that pattern. Maybe the niggle in your elbows stopped you from doing your favourite triceps exercise that day, but you got a wicked pump and were sore for days doing that variation you saw on T-Nation last week? This new exercise didn’t hurt, did the trick, and is now another tool to add to the growing box to choose from in future programs and cycles.

Consistency, coupled with progression (see below) drive progress. To be consistent you need to find a way to keep coming back for more. To come back for more you need to find this stuff rewarding. There is nothing more rewarding than a positive experience. Some of the best athletes find the positive in even the most negative of times. I’ve even seen people describe terrible injuries as an opportunity to reset, start again and build form afresh. That’s a positive outlook.

Find your positive, even on your worst day.

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The final thing I’ll add is as follows:

Find a way to get better
One of my PhD students has just interviewed a bunch of elite coaches in strength, power and speed sports (weightlifting, powerlifting, throws and track), to understand more about their understanding and experiences of functional overreaching, fatigue and overtraining. He’s interviewed some great coaches from all across the globe. There’s some great information in their transcripts, and one common thing that we could all learn from.

To get bigger, stronger, faster, leaner or more conditioned we need to progress. Getting better, though, can (and maybe should) be more than just adding weight to the bar. If one week we lift 100kg for a set of 8 but our reps are slow, out of position and not feeling great, but two weeks later we do the same weight, for the same reps, but lift more fluid, faster, with precision and great technique then we’ve improved and progressed.

The above relates to something that one of my old training partners would tell me: “You need to earn the right to add weight to the bar”. This rings true on many levels: warming up and not feeling or moving great? Re-do your set and see how it feels. If it gets better you can add weight to the bar, if not, then maybe you need to do it again or do something different that day. Deep into a strength block and wanting to add 10 kg to your training max? You need to earn the right to add weight to the bar by first lifting 5 kg with the same speed and technique as your training max.

We have many variables to play with: volume (set, reps, etc.), intensity / load, density, velocity, complexity (of exercise choice), equipment (belts, sleeves, wraps, etc.) that there are virtually innumerable ways of finding a way of getting better over time. Effective programming is built upon planned variation of some of the above to achieve a way of achieving progression. Sometimes with programming though, simpler is better, so maybe pick 1-2 things to work on at once. Less is more.

Time catches up with all of us though, and our ability to improve in one area has a ceiling. Our environments and lives change too, which sometimes means that we are playing a slightly different game. I recently entered my 40s (how did that happen?). I’m washed up, with injuries, niggles, a stressful career (at times) and I like doing other athletic things than lifting weights now like running, yoga and BJJ. I don’t think that I will ever be as strong as I was when I was 29/30, so I probably shouldn’t compare myself to that time in my life. I can, though (and relating to the second point in my above post) find a way of getting better than I was yesterday.

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I have to respectfully disagree with everything in this paragraph. I know from personal experience that this just isn’t true, and in fact might qualify as a “Rookie mistake” to follow it. It is not unusual for adding 5 or 10 pounds to the bar to clean up the movement. As in, iI did a set with 485 on the squat and it was all off. If I follow that paragragh what will happen is that I will still be fooling with 485 a month from now and nothing is different. Throwing a 5 on each end however, almost always improves everything about the lift. Even the number of reps goes up sometimes. People are way too scared of weight. This is coming from a 48 year old former Strongman competitor, and I have never managed an injury this way. The two or three times I got hurt lifting in my life it was always with light weight, and there was an underlying medical problem for all but one of those occasions.

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That’s cool, we’re all entitled to our opinions. And we all have our own unique experiences to draw upon don’t we? Things aren’t always hard and fast rules.

Mindset and environment are really important, and we absolutely should be pushing for doing more where feasible. So, maybe in your example you needed that extra weight to put you into the right frame of mind to attack your lift, or achieve the right groove for your squats. Perhaps for you that’s what you need to do to get better, or even the people that you train with and around. I certainly wouldn’t argue that sometimes you have to attack the bar and get out of your comfort zone to break out of perceived barriers.

That said, I’ve been influenced by others and environments that have, in general, a philosophy around incremental improvement.

Funnily enough, I remember when I started to dabble in Weight Lifting, coming from a background of Powerlifting and training with some Strongmen at the time, I was used to training in an aggressive frame of mind, psyching myself up for lifts, listening to just loud, heavy music, etc. This was what I was used to and needed to do to be better.

I, along with the weight lifters I was training with, had to do almost the opposite of the above: lifts needed to be done with less arousal, complete focus with little /no distractions (particularly visual). Everything had to be still (music was OK). To make the lift, even the smallest of imprecision could lead to a missed lift, so the barbell trajectory had to be exact and placed in the right positions. A very different experience.

Thanks for the reply and I wouldn’t argue with your point if I’m honest.

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I think with this point there is something important that is lost in the world of maximal lifting. In training I dislike feeling like I don’t have total control of the weight. I’m not saying move slow or any of that, I’m saying control in the sense of a comfort level. I have seen plenty of guys be super shaky and uncertain - maybe if you’re in a PL meet really going for it on the ragged edge. Even then though, I feel like you should have the base to be in control when you take the weight. Maybe I miss a 1RM attempt (I don’t do them often because I don’t believe missing is good), but it won’t be because I was all over the place with it on setup and was just going on prayer for the lift. It will be because I just didn’t have enough left in the tank or I have a weakness that needs to be addressed. If it feels scary before I even try the lift, how do I keep my head in the attempt? Getting outside of that window of what I can set up with is probably a bad plan in training.

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Agreed. And I think that there might physical and mental elements to this too which I’ll try to explain. A shaky PR or maximal lift has the ability to misgroove if you’re not careful, which could mean that you miss it despite potentially having the strength to do it. Lifts like this don’t always feel great and can put a moment of doubt in your mind during the lift itself. Imagine unracking and starting a PR squat, in competition, to begin your descent and then find that you start shaking uncontrollably. When that happens you might talk yourself out of the lift and missing it as a result. Maybe if you were able to to ignore it, attacked the weight, then you might have squeezed it out? It happens.

There’s also the element where when you have a new weight in your hands or on your back it can feel heavy, incredibly heavy. Again, this can be something that makes you doubt yourself for a moment, causing you to not commit and miss.

That said, feeling stable and in control – owning the weight – can give you confidence to attack the bar when needed.

A popular accessory exercise in weightlifing are jerk dips / drives, which are heavy partial front squats, for the most part. Lifters do them to strengthen the dip and drive phase in the jerk, sometimes with massively heavy loads. Whenever we would program them in front squats always felt light in comparison, as we were used to the heavy loads on our chests which then increased our ability to maintain good posture during the squats. The extra stability and postural strength we gained, along with making other weights feel light, meant that our front squats would go up.

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I’ve taken my time to think about this. Apologies if it drags the thread back to the OP’s original question:

Start low, add slow.

This is a simple principle that should need no explanation.

Keep workouts as simple as you can, whilst still getting results.

Super sets, drop sets, giant sets and the like. All great if you need them. However if I could still make progress on squat with 3 sets of 5 - I would. If something is complicated, simply should have stopped working. This also goes for chains, bands, iso holds and concentric only.

There are no positive physical attributes that high rep squats will not help.

I’m not saying you must do a set of 20 breathing squats a week. But if you want to get bigger, stronger, leaner - high rep squats (15+) are a great tool.

The workouts that give the best return are the shitty ones.

10% of all workouts are brilliant.
60% are average
30% are crap.

These 30% are where the metal fortitude to carry on is made. And where you learn one of life’s hardest lessons. How to perform - in spite of yourself Trying to hit a new deadlift PR when all you REALLY want to do it go home is hard. If you can do it - it teaches you what you are capable of and sets the bar for when you are not fighting yourself.

Lastly:

There is so much about weights that you can;t choose. Like your genetic disposition to weight gain, muscle types and strength potential. The one thing you can always choose is attitude. Turn up looking to bust a gut. Work hard. Set high goals for yourself. Want to get better. Be that guy in the gym that the owner / instructor looks at and goes “They are a machine. Turns up, 3-4 times a week and smashes it every time.”

I’ve joined a group of lads doing strongman on Sundays - and that is what I want them to say about me. Not “wow that guys strong”. But “Wow - that guy works so hard, he is only going to get stronger”.

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For me at least, the following work

  1. Everything is bullshit except hard work (eg. Everything works so don’t get bogged down in the keto vs high carb/CrossFit vs the world nonsense)

  2. Focus on the stretch goals, not the small goals. I can do cool shit, but only because I’ve chosen to believe I can and focus on achieving those. Sure I could aim for small jumps, but mad goals motivate me.

  3. Stay ready don’t get ready. I stay pretty lean, mobile and conditioned all the time. I do little bits consistently and it works way better for me than dedicating a ‘day’ to it.

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This couldn’t be more true. When I’m setting up a training routine. I try to make it as easy as possible to start. That means, only making mandatory the big, basic exercises needed. Pick 1 to 2 exercises, set a goal to achieve progressive overload on, and work them. Then after that, if you feel like doing assistance work, you can but you don’t have to. The key here is not putting anymore on your plate than needed.

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Couldn’t agree more. A subpar program followed consistently will yield superior results over the optimal program not followed consistently.

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Just read this post for the first time. I need to read it every day…

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I’m still a beginner lifter but I’ve gotten to the intermediate/advanced level at a few other things. It’s always the same story. Almost everything that people say is “important” ends up not mattering if you get the following right:

“How to Get Good”:

  1. Consistency
  2. Effort
  3. Focus

If you get these right, almost nothing else matters because you’ll automatically do the right thing.

The casual hobbyist should just worry about 1 and 2 actually. That’s not easy for something that’s not your top priority in life so good job if you can pull it off. If you’re consistent and do nothing else right, you’ll actually get decent results. Not the greatest, but still better than most people. Most people never break out of “beginner” territory because like I said it’s hard to consistently work hard at something that’s a side hobby. If you’re consistent and also work hard, you’ll get good results. “Focus” is what really separates people though. I don’t know if “focus” is too vague, but at the same I feel like if it needs to be explained, then you’re not going to nail this one until you figure it out.

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I thought I’d bump this thread for any new members, or for anyone who’s thoughts have since updated.

Personally, I feel that my principles have grown even more “big picture” since I posted these:

1 - You are what you do repeatedly
2 - You do what you find rewarding
3 - Avoid limiting the things you demand your body to do

In a training context, this means that I am going to follow the system that helps me achieve my “perfect” goal: be jacked, athletic and fluid.

I have a certain level of trust that my body (and any human body) is capable of achieving incredible feats if I consistently expose it to appropriate, progressive stressors. I’m not immensely concerned with precisely how I achieve that stress, only the effort and intensity of my training. By extension, I also believe that the body is capable of doing a wide array of things, and improving at all of them simultaneously. By constantly including and rotating an array of positions, speeds, movements and loads I feel that I not only stay engaged, but that I am more “prepared for anything”

Nutrition remains to be a weakness, but here are the rules that have helped me drop ~10kg this year:

  • Prioritise quality protein and vegetables at all times
  • If it looks like the source ingredient, you can eat it
  • If it came from tree, shrub or soil, you can eat it
  • If it had a face and/or parents, you can eat it
  • (For packaged foods) if it has 3 or fewer ingredients, you can eat it

Things like full-fat dairy, nuts, honey and quality breads (i.e from “real” bakeries) are okay but not to be consumed in high amounts.

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