[Keith Wassung]

I have come to the conclusion that weight training is either one of the simplest things in the world, or the most complicated. Developing impressive strength and muscular development seems to be a matter of simply stressing the muscle with increased loads in order to force them to respond with greater strength and muscular development and then feeding them with the appropriate nutrition.

On the other hand, if the average trainee begins reading just sampling of the available literature available on strength and development training, they will immediately see differing opinions, conflicts and dogmatic statements, which can cause them to lose faith in their own training program. Doubt, confusion and frustration can wreak havoc on your progress. It is vitally important that you have confidence in your program even if it is not quite where you want it to be. Stick with the fundamentals of resistance training and combine that with consistent goal setting and record keeping, and you will be on your way to realizing your maximum strength and development potential. Along the way, you can experiment and add some variety to your training plan. I am constantly "tinkering" with and fine-tuning my training regime, but I never stray from the fundamentals.

When I began lifting weights at age 14, which was 1979; the main problem was finding information. There were very few books in those days, retail stores did not sell bodybuilding and lifting magazines and the internet was still 15 years away. Back then you learned as much as you could from those who had gone before you and figured out how to apply it into your own training. Many times this was done by trial and error.

Today there seems to be too much information. I believe one of the most important things is to have CONFIDENCE in your training and nutritional programs. If you lack this confidence, then you will also be second-guessing yourself, you will hold back in your efforts and you will constantly be changing your program as you read and hear about new and better programs. You have to stay with the basics of one program long enough to realize the long-term results. An "average" program that is done consistently and with enthusiasm is FAR BETTER than an outstanding program that is done intermittently and with hesitation.

There are many great training and nutritional programs available-virtually all are effective to some degree or another. Training is a much an ART as it is a science. We can use science to explain certain things and to fine tune our training, but I think its a gross error to try and use scientific research to justify a certain person's training principles as "superior". Different people require different things ( I have always had a hunch that a lot of this was psychological--but then again we all have individual mental parameters)

It is often brought up that a person can be very knowledgeable about training even if they have limited personal strength and development. I agree that they can have the knowledge, but they also need the wisdom and experiences of having been in the trenches themselves. People will often point out that there have been several great coaches in the NBA, who were not very good players themselves. This is certainly true, but you can search the world over and you will find very few good coaches-of any kind who did not pay their dues by working their way up the ranks. There are many stories of coaches who were terrible players, but loved the game and they started volunteer coaching at a local high school-with no pay and then learned and perfected their knowledge and eventually fielded winning teams and then they moved on to the next level and so on until they reached the top.

You could go to any college and university in the nation and find all kinds of professors with MBA's and PhD's in business who know "business" inside and out--but if they have never run a business and faced all of the thousands of challenges that a businessman faces, then they are not qualified to advise those who seek to become successful in business.

People, especially those who are in teaching or advising roles will tend to emphasize or promote that which they are very good at and tend to downplay that which they are not good at-its human nature and just about all of us do it, whether we intend to or not.

With the advent of the internet, there are many, many self-acclaimed gurus-and its often hard to separate them from the legitimate folks who want to help others. Use the internet and various sources as a 'buffet" taking information that you need-applying to your training-keeping written records and using yourself as your own experiment and then deciding whether to keep or discard this bit of wisdom. You will find the best trainers are NOT dogmatic about their programs-they will seldom if ever say-"This is the best or only way to train, eat, etc" People who say that tend to have an ego or financial angle and usually both. When they say "never" or "always" it tends to be about things that are pretty obvious. If I posted a thread and said something like "Never eat broken glass before or after a workout", you would all say, "Um, Keith, that is pretty obvious"-my point exactly.

I hope some of this made some sense.

"The best training advice always comes from the pages of my own personal training journal"

Keith Wassung

[thomas87]

Ahh... what can I say ...? Good read and you truly know your stuff. I agree; too many persons say that this program is better than that. How do they know? Exactly, they don't know.

Great read

[Urban]

I agree Keith. As somebody who has gone from one program to another looking for the superior routine for years, I have found that simply picking a routine based on basic principles (heavy compound movments) and emphasizing making it work (striving for progress every week) I'm making better gains now than I have in the last two years. I found it particularly relevant to me that you expanded this notion of confidence to nutritional programs, because I'm trying to gain some weight with limited success right now. time to feed I guess.

Good read Keith.

[UbetterTAPout]

Excellent read, Keith. There is so much information out there these days, it is very hard to decipher. Tried and true methods are definately the most reliable. There are no "opinions" in your own handwritten strength journal.

[TheFoo]

Doubt, confusion and frustration can wreak havoc on your progress.

Consider my progress havoced!!! The more I read, the less I seem to understand. The less I understand, the more I want to screw it and give up! It's an entirely different language, and I still can't figure it out.

[Ra1d3d]

Great read, its easy to get discouraged from lifting when bombarded with all sorts of contradicting information.

[Urban]

Originally Posted by TheFoo

Consider my progress havoced!!! The more I read, the less I seem to understand. The less I understand, the more I want to screw it and give up! It's an entirely different language, and I still can't figure it out.

Easily remedied. go to the gym and just look around... see all these clowns that are really good at bench, but shit at EVERYTHING else? ever wonder how they got that way? it sure as shit wasn't a good program. It was hard work and trying to outdo themselves every week. Put together a program based around simple principles (compound lifts, and regular progress) and go for it. You'll pick up what works best for you as you go along.

[Aldaron]

Very well put Keith.

My recent experiences with not adhering to a program for an adequate time period and achieving very little have lead me to believe perhaps strength training is something like the famous Bruce Lee philosophy about a punch initially just being a punch, then later becoming more than a punch, and finally it is just a punch again (I forget the exact words).

When I started weight training one program was much like any other due to ignorance, later with more experience I started to seek the ultimate program for my goals and limitations (but never settled for any one for long enough because I was constantly seeking), and now I'm starting to realize what works for me and my lifting regimes/cycles are becoming relatively similar to each other (all compound lifts for the big three and heavy core work).

[BabyPhenom]

Training is really simple. It gets complicated for some since they over analyze things.

[PariahCarey]

Great read and your a welcome addition to S&P for sure!

I think everyone who learns has to go through the paralysis by analysis stage to come full circle to back to keeping it simple no matter what endeavor one undertakes...