| Tools: It's the Results That Count |
| One of my favorite analogies is of a carpenter and his tools. I use it habitually when referring to the methods people use to get results in their training or fat loss. What have you.
You ever seen that show "Ye old Yankee Workshop"? I think that's the name. The host uses old fashioned wood working tools with almost no automation to make beautiful pieces of furniture. Fun to watch but in the end someone could produce the same joins with modern computer-driven power tools and the resulting piece of furniture would be just as good as something produced with hand held chisels, planes, and the like. But carpenters get very attached to their favorite tools. So much so that sometimes they will use a tool more because it feels comfortable in their hand than because it is the right tool for the job. If I were going to help you master an overhead squat there are many different plans we could use. As long as we didn't get you hurt in the process what would matter would be a good overhead squat at the end. If we did really well the process itself would reinforce many fundamentals and lead to better movement in general. But the goal is to produce an overhead squat and to progress that squat. I might feel that my methods for getting the OH squat are better than others. But that feeling will not help you achieve one. In fact, it will more likely prevent me from being effective. There is nothing like an individual and their unique problems to squash your feelings of superiority. I'd love for some of the strength coaches out there to get to work with a 15 year plumber or someone like that rather than a seasoned athlete. Some of the smugness would get washed out of the industry..but I digress. The point is the tools don't matter as much as the results garnered from careful selection and use of those tools. So as soon as someone starts impressing their "methods" on you they are, in effect, impressing themselves on you. That should tell you that their motivation is not as much to help you than to help themselves. Learn to recognize it. I remember an overhead squat document put out by Greg Glassman of Crossfit which proclaimed that others were teaching the OH squat "WRONG. DEAD WRONG!". That is not a unique statement. Countless articles are written proclaiming how others are generally wrong. Now it's one thing to show how one particular person is wrong about one particular statement. Or how a popular and oft repeated belief is wrong. But proclaiming the power to know that countless professionals from all possible backgrounds teach one exercise wrong compared to you? This is miraculous and impossible knowledge. While some tools are good tools for certain jobs and not others, other tools are just plain over-rated. So called linear progression is one of those tools. In fact I think the whole concept is a lot of going on about nothing much at all. The Single, Double, and Triple Progression article was written to explain what single double and triple progression is and how you might look at it in order to incorporate it seamlessly into your training. It is not a "method" or a "program" and it's not meant to be the answer to Starting Strength or any of that. But the comments I made on that page are of particular importance for those who don't want to be thrown under a bus because of short therm thinking. Progression may be linear at times for all of us but you need to understand how MEANINGLESS that is in regards to general progression over a strength training career and even over a couple of years. I'm not one to beat people over the head with stuff, but the comments I make thoroughly put this nonsense to bed I and really think you should click over and read up on them. These are meant to arm you against general dogmatic ideas about progression. So here is that link one more time to make twice in this paragraph: Strength Training with Single, Double, and Triple Progression Another related article I wish you would read is Strength: Simple but Difficult? Another area where people get precious about their tools is fat loss. Read my new post Diet Alone, Exercise Alone, or Both for Fatloss? There is some updated news about "EPOC" and HIIT in that post. HIIT and any other mode that claims to take advantage of EPOC is another example of getting all precious about tools. |
| Gurus, Cults, Programs and Books |
| Something you need to know about most of the strength, bodybuilding, nutrition and fitness experts out there. They want your money.
Big surprise, right? But let me qualify that. We don't think there is anything wrong with developing a very good product or service and selling that product or service at a reasonable price, do we? Problem is though, if you believe that most of your favorite gurus are about selling products or services you have misunderstood. The products or services are just the vehicles. The physical link between you, the consumer, and they themselves, the PRODUCT. That's right. They are selling themselves. You see, the biggest successes in this industry are built on nothing more than image. When an image is properly built and shored up by adoring fans, success can hold even while that image is being shown to outstrip qualification. Once the "rep" is in place the products sell themselves. Add to that the ability to quickly produce an "e-book" with almost NO overhead and you've got a handy little money machine. You drop coals and fans go around gathering them up like they are diamonds. Here's something else you may not know. At least those of you who don't have your own websites. One of the main ingredients that most website or blog owners want is a massive troupe of ravenous followers that hang on their every word. Even when those words are full of diatribe. Or repetitive messages. Or just plain crap. If you've been subjected to flaming or insults by forum members or blog commenters because you dared to disagree with their authority figure then you've seen this in action. One statement can garner twenty pages of outright hatred from these followers who in many cases can be compared to a cult. Exactly. A "cult-like" following is what it is all about. But ask yourself something. Would a true professional actually sit still while a bunch of mindless followers verbally attacked anyone who disagreed with him? Would he not find this embarrassing? What's more would he not feel that it was in his interest to curtail such behaviour in his "congregation" lest the behaviour reflect on him as a professional? C'mon. A person who would encourage this behavior is what is known as a "blowhard". When you come across this you've seen everything you need to about that person. Let me tell you one of the worst things that could happen to a person with potential. It is to have people praise everything they say every time they open their mouth. It is, essentially, to have people constantly kissing their butt. The second worse is for that person to like it. The reason the fitness, bodybuilding, fat loss, and strength training fields are so ripe for the picking is that so many people who come to these experts are insecure. They may have low self esteem, body issues, you name it. They are easily intimidated, impressed, bullied, etc. They are easy to bring into the fold. In fact, becoming part of a "select group" simply soothes their insecurity. Another misunderstanding has to do with arguments or debates. Even some of the "good guys" don't get this. Winning an argument or debate does not mean you are right! Just means you are the better arguer. A skilled bs'r can do just as well as a PhD in the right circumstances. The internet has created a unique vehicle for skilled arguers to transition that skill into the image of an expert. There are people selling books right now who got there by basically winning arguments against 18 year-olds on fitness related forums! Better believe it. It doesn't matter in the end if they get there by being "smarter" or just by being louder. The effect is exactly the same. Do NOT become a blind follower of ANYBODY. Nobody is a bible. Always apply critical thought to anything anybody says. You know what? I've won a lot of arguments in the past about things I turned out to be dead wrong about. I wasn't embarrassed. I wasn't chagrined. None of that. Because I won those arguments based on my best knowledge of the evidence AT THE TIME. Knowledge changes and evidence changes. If the other guy had connected the dots better maybe he would have won. But when that knowledge undergoes it's inevitable revolution and I stay firmly implanted in the mud like one of those geoduck clams it's then I should be embarrassed and ashamed of myself. But like the geoducks it's those stuck in the mud types that seem to live the longest in this industry. Probably that's because of the power of belief. Not only do we hold on to our cherished beliefs we actually tend to view others with such sure and unwavering beliefs as more authoritative than those who continually change and evolve. When in fact the opposite is true. Many people actually count it as a failing to refuse to adopt one side of an issue. You may have heard derogatory statements about such people: "That guy doesn't believe in anything." Well, neither do I. I either know or I don't know. Belief is the practice of accepting things in the absence of evidence. I'd rather not know the answer to someone's strength training problem than to make an error based on belief: "Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong." - Thomas Jefferson Related stuff: Bodyweight Exercises: The Wide-Eyed Effect |
| If you would like to subscribe to this newsletter… |
