Deception #3
Better Results are Always Due to Better Training
There are situations where a lifter may be lifting too hard for optimum strength gains but they are obtaining better results than others. This leads people to believe that they should train extra hard as well. In this third section on training deceptions, I will discuss three common circumstances where this can occur.
The Champion’s Deception
A false perception can occur when a lifter who has a very high anabolic zero point uses a training method that is based on harder and harder training. Because of their high anabolic zero point, they can use this type of training to obtain championship results. A tell tail sign of this occurring is when a champion becomes huge in a few years but never grows any bigger or stronger in the following years of consistent training. While it is true that a champion does reach an anabolic zero point where they cease to make progress, they do it at a much higher point of strength and muscle mass than normal. Nonetheless, it’s easy to fall for the champion’s deception by believing that the champion who is training harder than anyone else has found a great training secret that should be imitated. However, the champion’s real secret is a high anabolic zero point that most people do not have who are imitating his training.
The Chemically Enhanced Deception
It is no secret that many top bodybuilders, power lifters, and strength athletes take chemical substances that enhance their anabolic state. This gives them an advantage of being able to stay in an anabolic state that would not be present to the same degree through training alone. Since they are achieving their anabolic state with the help of performance enhancing drugs, it becomes unclear as to how much of their strength and muscle size is due to smart training, and how much is chemically induced. The biggest problem that this causes in terms of training strategies is that the chemically enhanced lifters appear to be using the most successful training strategies. This makes other people want to imitate their training. However, many of the training strategies that they use will not produce an anabolic effect without the anabolic drugs that they use. People who do not use the same anabolic aides are deceived into thinking they are using productive training strategies that don’t really work when training without the use of anabolic aides.
The Growing Deception
People who start training at a young age, along with coaches who train teenagers, are susceptible to the Growing Deception. For example, if a lifter starts training at the age of 13, they may find themselves growing bigger and stronger until they are 18 or 20 years old. During this time, it’s hard to discern how much of an increase in growth and strength is due to weight training, and how much is due to the natural process of growing up. This makes it possible for a lifter who started at 13 years old to believe that their training is very effective because they grew bigger and stronger for several years. Coaches who train young athletes may also believe this. However, the major cause of their increase in strength could have been due to a progressive increase in physical maturity when growth hormones are naturally high. This can lead to the “Growing Deception” since it is based on a deception that occurs during the years where a lifter is growing up physically. The lifter ends up believing that training harder and harder is the most effective way to train because it seemed to work so well while they were growing adolescent. However, once they reach physical maturity, the anabolic zero point sets in and gains cease.