why he doesn’t care for research in strength & conditioning. The jist of the rant was that we shouldn’t wait for research to prove what we already know is working, and that experience is the best way to know what works.
In many ways, I agree with what he was saying. We can’t always wait for a research project to be funded or for a study to control for every variable before we start using a training method. What bothered me were the comments I read below the post from random people. As I read through the comments, it hit me that all of this information on the internet has gotten people to believe that they really know a lot about physiology, anatomy and training methods. Many of them claimed they know what works because it worked for them. Unfortunately, most people really don’t know what got them to where they are today, because they never take the time to really evaluate things.
You see, most people who claim to know what works have only experimented on themselves. They don’t have that much experience. Even Thibaudeau started out the article by saying that he experiments on himself and training partners. That’s cool. Most people don’t have the luxury to get groups of people to do exactly what they say for a period of 8-12 weeks just to see if something worked.
Instead, most of us try a workout and pretty much decide right there on the spot if we liked it or not. Deciding that quickly is in not an acceptable way to judge a workout. To really know if something worked, you’d have to take measurements and test your strength levels before you started. You’d then have to train using the same system for several weeks, adhering strictly to your plan. At the end, you’d take measurements and test your strength again to determine if it worked.
How many people actually do that? No one.
Most of us don’t have the patience to stick with a workout for more than one day, let alone several weeks. And, with all the marketing hype about muscle confusion and instinctive training floating around, most of us fall prey to it and change up our workouts so frequently that we really don’t know what’s working. It could be the 3 x 12 routine we did for a week. Maybe it was the 5 x 5 workout we did for a few weeks. Could it be possible that we changed up our diets or supplements?
The human body just doesn’t adapt to a stimulus THAT quickly that we’re going to notice a difference in just a few workouts. This stuff takes time if you’re not on steroids. Unfortunately, a lot of the guys spouting off about what works take steroids, so they see the changes quicker than the rest of us. In that case, was it the workout that gave them the results or was it the anabolics? Could they have gotten the same results with a different program as long as they were on the juice? Would that program work for a natural guy?
You also have to keep in mind that all of us respond differently to training, nutrition and supplements. I may respond to higher reps, brief workouts and creatine, while you respond better to heavier weight , high volume and lots of protein. Our genetics are going to determine this, and there’s really nothing we can do about it. Genetics over-ride every strength training principle you can think of.
Unless a specific program has been used by lots of people, for a long time and those people are a lot like you, then it’s really hard to decide what actually works the best.
The best way to find out what works for you is to commit to a program for several weeks and see what happens. Don’t just go by feel either. Do yourself a favor and write some things down so you can document your progress. That will help you determine what worked, or didn’t work, so you can decide what you’re going to do in the future.
Unless you’re willing to go that extra mile to thoroughly examine what you’re doing, you’ll always be stuck in theory. Unfortunately, all most people have these days are their theories because they don’t stick with something long enough (or train enough people) to really figure out what works. I hope you understand now that building strength, muscle, power, speed or athleticism is a long-term proposition that takes time to see real results. Be patient and give yourself that time so you can learn more about what works for you.
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