If you don’t understand that there are large variations in the type of strength training that stimulates strength gains in different individuals, there is a good chance you will overlook the need for an individualized strength training program.
We all tend to interpret the world through the lens of our own experiences. One lifter thrives on high volume training, another thrives on a minimum of training. Ask the lifter who thrives on high volume training for training advice and he will likely emphasize the importance of doing a substantial amount of sets and reps. Ask a lifter who thrives on a minimum amount of training for advice and it is likely that he will tell you that only a small amount of training is necessary to make optimum gains. It’s very easy to evaluate the type of training that works best for yourself and to generalize your experience to something that must be true of everyone else who lifts weights.
Information Overload Is Not An Advantage
I have heard some of the weight lifters and bodybuilders from the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s discuss weight training. They comment that the current newcomer to weight training has advantages that the old timers never had because those who lift in modern times have access to so much information that wasn’t available fifty years ago. I partially agree with this, but in some regards, I disagree. Why? Because the information is so vast and so varied that it is hard to sift through all of it to find the type of training that actually works. There is a degree to which you will find that the old timers had to figure it out for themselves because they didn’t have access to as much information. Many of them had to go by their own results, and that’s the advantage they had back then, they learned to listen to their bodies and went by their own results. The natural outcome was that many of the lifters developed an individualized strength training program based on their own experiences. In many cases, it probably worked better than the confusion that occurs today because of publicized experiences of those with extreme genetics and an infinite variation of weight training methods.
Too Many Methods To Choose From
Now days there are so many ideas and training concepts floating around that lifters often listen to everything but their own body. If they are caught up with intensity concepts, all they think about is intensity. If they have been indoctrinated by those who advocate volume, all they can think about is doing enough sets. If they have heard that 5 x 5, or Westside, or The Cube Method, or The Texas Method, or some other method is the best method, they will get stuck on a formula instead of listening to their body and developing an individualized strength training program.
Individual Differences
Some of the recent research shows that some lifters gain more muscle doing a basic strength training workout than when doing a bodybuilding workout that is specifically designed to build muscle. There is also research that shows some lifters who did low volume-low intensity workouts such as 3 x 5 with only 60% of their max actually improved more than when they used a higher training volume or a higher training intensity. In the minds of many, 3 x 5 with 60% is a mere warm up, but for some lifters, it worked better than what we think of as a full workout. The point of all of this is that we are not all the same, which requires the need for individualized strength training programs.
Beware Of The Extremes
My last article featured Mohamed Makkawy who was trained by Vince Gironda. Vince considered Mohamed to be an extreme in regard to his ability to thrive on a high amount of training volume. It would be way too much for most people. At the other extreme would be Mark Chaillet who did deadlift workouts consisting of just five single reps. The first single was fairly light. Weight was then added to each successive single rep until he reached a heavy weight on his fifth single rep. He did this once per week to reach the point where he could perform an 800 pound deadlift. Mark thrived on low volume workouts that were only done once per week. The training he thrived on was the exact opposite of what Mohamed Makkawy thrived on.
False Reasoning
When learning of Mohamed Makkawy’s success with his high volume workout, I could reason that he found the secret workout that made him great. I could further reason that if I did the same workout he did, I would also become great. I could apply the same reasoning to Mark Chaillet’s deadlift workout and believe that since his workout made him a great deadlifter, it would also make me a great deadlifter. However, the truth is that when I try to imitate Mohamed Makkawy or Mark Chaillet, I get lousy results. This is what happens when doing something that worked for someone else instead of finding what would work best for me. It would be far better to develop an individualized strength training program or bodybuilding program that matches my own physiology.
Developing An Individualized Program Will Take Time
Learning what works best for your own physiology will take some time. I believe you can decrease the time it takes to find a good workout for yourself if you know some basic training concepts. The concepts I am referring to serve as guidelines that will help you discover your personal capacities for intensity and volume. These are the concepts that are emphasized throughout the precision point training website; especially if you click on “what is precision point training” section of the menu. Let me emphasize that the precision point training guidelines are just that, guidelines. If you explore various training variables that move you outside of precision point training guidelines, you may find a form a training that works really well for your physiology, but I believe the guidelines are a good baseline to return to if your training experiments aren’t going well.
In the next article, I will address different ways of experimenting to discover an individualized strength training program that matches your physiology. Best of training to you.