Ever been STUCK in your training program? Ever review your training log and realize that despite your best efforts, the last several months really hasn’t generated any substantial progress?
Of course you have. We all have. Sometimes these things happen that are beyond our control. Most of us have had some kind of injury that has set us back. We’ve all had the flu or a stomach virus. Sometimes family vacations or business travel put is in locations without access to adequate equipment. These things are going to happen and in my last article we looked at a few ways to navigate a comeback after a longer than expected lay off from the gym.
However, the purpose of this article is to examine some behavior patterns that are SELF INFLICTED. In other words, these are behaviors or habits that “stick” our progress when we are trying like hell to make progress. That’s the most frustrating aspect of training. When you feel like you are putting out your best effort and just not getting a return on your investment of time in the gym.
I do a lot of distance coaching with clients not training in my gym via phone and email. I’ve done it for years and so I’ve seen a lot of the same patterns repeated over and over again. And over again some more. 9 times out of 10 the person who contacts me for consultation is someone who fits the description from above – training and trying hard, but just seems to be STUCK. They are frustrated beyond belief. They keep coming up to the same numbers and stalling out in the same old places on all their lifts.
Over the years I’ve identified 6 primary categories where people keep sticking themselves. For some people, it’s just one category, most people fall into multiple categories. Some are victims in all 6 areas.
Each category is it’s own coin with two opposing sides to it, so I guess technically there are more like 12 potential pitfalls we’re trying to avoid.
Let’s take a look today at the first THREE major categories that hang people up:
1. FORM & TECHNIQUE
In scenario 1 our trainee hasn’t mastered the basic mechanics of the major lifts. Most people know when this is an issue, but some people don’t treat it seriously enough, and many aren’t willing to invest the time and potentially the money to get their form fixed. Look, some people need coaching. Some need it more often than others. But certain technique flaws in a squat, deadlift, press, or bench press must be corrected or you’ll never progress or you’ll keep getting injured. If you keep shooting your ass up in the air on a deadlift you’re going to get stuck coming off the floor. There is only so much weight you can pull off the floor with straight knees and a rounded back. And if you keep trying you’re gonna hurt your back. If you keep trying to lift your chest instead of drive your hips on the squat, you are going to keep missing reps halfway up on hard reps. If you keep letting the barbell track forward of the midfoot on a press, you are going to keep missing at nose level. All the programming tweaks in the world aren’t going to fix bad mechanics. Read and re-read Starting Strength. Post videos to Starting Strength Coaches (this is free by the way). If you keep fucking up, hire a Starting Strength Coach for a few hours. Or a few weeks. Even if you have to travel a bit. Again – some people need in person coaching. We’re not all good athletes. Some of you are motor morons (I say this with all due respect!). But if you can’t hold your form together, you need a hands-on coach. YouTube video demonstrations help, but it may not be enough. You need someone to yell at you or even physically adjust you….in real time. True coaching is done in real time, on the platform. Get yourself fixed.
In scenario 2 we have the other end of the spectrum. We have the guy who has basically mastered the form on all the major lifts, but is too timid to take this ability and run with it. The fitness world is wrought with Obsessive Compulsive tendencies. Your form needs to be good, but it doesn’t need to be 100% perfect on every rep of every set in order for you to keep progressing. If 90% of your reps are clean – good! Keep going! As long as you can identify your form errors when they occur and work to correct them as you go, you’ll be fine. Don’t ignore flaws and don’t let them get worse, but don’t let them hold you back either. I’m not kidding when I say that I’ve had people tell me that they reset all their Volume Day weights because 1 or 2 reps were “just a little bit high.” In other words in a 5×5 squat workout, 23 of the 25 total reps were clean. But 1 or 2 of them were a little high, so they reset everything by 10%. NO, NO, NO!!!!! Cases like these are an example where Perfectionism is Killing Progress. Keep working to clean up form flaws, get coaching if you think you need it, but don’t use an error here and there to justify being a pussy. Put weight on the bar forge ahead. If I reset my clients every time they made a mistake on a lift, no one in my gym would be squatting past 135. We’d spend all day drilling technique and never getting strong. Training is a constant refinement of technique. Always pursue better technique, but don’t forget we’re training for strength, not technical perfection.
2. Programming
Again we have two types of people here. Trainee #1 is suffering from the deadly disease of CHP – or Chronic Program Hopping. You know who you are. Every week it’s something new, hoping you’ve found the magic bullet. A trainee has a bad workout on his Texas Method Intensity Day on Friday…so Monday begins Wendler’s 531. Well, that didn’t feel like enough volume so let’s try the Smolov Squat Program the next week. Wow, overtrained after a week, so let’s dial back on the volume and do a 2 day per week maintenance routine. Well that was boring, Westside looks fun, let’s try that this week. I’m serious. Sometimes it’s that bad. Listen, there is no perfect program. Jumping around from one thing to the next every week is a surefire way to stifle progress. In the military we used to say that one bad plan is better than 10 good plans. It’s true. Find something that makes sense for you and stick with it for 12 weeks. Try not to adjust every major variable every week. Just right down your plan and stick with it. Re-evaluate at the conclusion, make some adjustments and keep going. If things don’t work, well at least you have learned what doesn’t work for you. Over time, you’ll start to get a feel for what works and what doesn’t for you and you can start writing your own programs that fit your needs better than anything you can find in a book or online. But you have to see things through long enough to determine whether it works or it doesn’t.
Trainee #2 is what I call the Stubborn Spreadsheet Warrior. This is the guy that has been doing the Starting Strength Novice LP for 2 years. He stubbornly refuses to admit that he has exhausted all the potential for his current programming and wants to squeeze out every last bit of progress before moving onto the next thing. Even if he’s not making progress. Look, I don’t want you hopping from one thing to the next every week or every month. Consistency is a virtue in training. But there is such a thing as “going stale.” You can’t do the same routine year in and year out and get progress without some sort of build in fluctuation in the degree and type of stress you apply to yourself. I’ve looked at training logs from clients who haven’t trained in a single rep range except for FIVE in 2 years. That will never work. You go stale, mentally and physically. Remember what I said about OCD tendencies? You need adjustments in volume, intensity, sets, reps, frequency, exercise selection etc from time to time. Fives will always be a staple, but you can’t get strong without occasionally challenging some heavy singles. You won’t grow as much without some work in the 8-12 range. You need it all once you are out of the novice stage. There are times for hitting it hard 5 days per week and there are times to throttle back to twice per week. Don’t be a slave to any one program if you haven’t gotten any stronger in weeks or months. I’m not sure why, but these types of clients just love spreadsheets. Show me a client with 2 years of no progress on the same program and I’ll show you a spreadsheet that has documented the whole journey.
3. Conditioning / Cardio
Most of you reading this article are interested primarily in one thing – STRENGTH. Cool. Me too – primarily. So most of us want to be strong first, but we’d also like to “look like we lift” and we’d like to have enough cardio to go for a hike in the mountains without an oxygen tank. Most of us recognize the need for some conditioning work in our training program, but many of us will overdo it and kill our strength gains. I get it. Many of you like to run. But you have to come to grips with the fact that long distance running and heavy duty strength training are not all that compatible. I have clients that are not going to give up their daily 3 mile jog. It’s a mental and physical release for them. It clears their heads and gives them a physical high. Fine, but for 90% of you, don’t expect to squat 500 and still keep up your daily jog. If you are long distance running to try and get rid of your beer gut, stop. Fix your diet first. The beer gut is from the beer, not because you don’t run. Body composition is primarily diet + strength training. A little cardio here and there can help “smooth out the wrinkles” from a diet that isn’t 100% perfect all the time, but don’t try to use cardio to counteract the effects of a shitty diet.
On the other end of the spectrum, we have the guys that are purely anti-cardio. They believe that even walking through the cardio section of their gym on the way to the bathroom might put them into a catabolic state. This is purely bullshit. Some cardio is good for us. As I mentioned above, if you are a natural fatty like me, then a little cardio in the mix will help smooth out the wrinkles in your diet and keep your metabolism elevated so you can process a high calorie diet for more productive purposes and keep body fat at bay. But body composition aside, good cardio fitness can actually help your strength gains in my opinion. Louie Simmons talks at length in many of his articles as to why he has all of his lifter drag a sled on a fairly regular basis….you have to be in shape to train. Many of you only think about this in reverse – I have to train to get in shape. Both are true.
We talk about Work Capacity and GPP (general physical preparedness) all the time. That basically refers to the fact that a certain amount of aerobic and anaerobic fitness will help you train harder and longer in the gym. You can fit in more exercises and take less rest time between sets. You won’t gas out as easily on that 5th set on a heavy 5×5 workout. You’ll have the energy to perform a few assistance exercises on the tail end of a draining barbell based training session. Some degree of volume is a necessary component of continual strength gains and muscle growth. But to perform multiple high volume workouts in a week, you need to have good general fitness. A little bit of the right type of cardio can help with that. I also feel that a little cardio during the week helps with between workout recovery. Moving blood around the whole body helps with recovery so we aren’t chronically sore, stiff, and beat up. My faves are sled dragging, incline treadmill walking, airdyne type bikes, and elliptical trainers. None of these make you sore or add too much to general fatigue that competes with recovery from heavy training. 20-40 minutes at a time 2-4 times per week is enough for most. Remember, we’re not trying to prep for the Crossfit games. We’re just doing enough to slightly improve our cardio base for weight training.
I also like circuit training with non-essential assistance exercises for conditioning. We don’t do this with major barbell exercises, but after you squat and pull heavy, you can set up a lower body based circuit that include 2-4 exercises such as Weighted Step Ups, 45* Back Extensions, Sit Ups, and maybe even calf raises for 10-20 reps each repeated for 2-4 rounds at a quick clip. This won’t take long and will help with conditioning.
In part 2 of this series, we’ll look at 3 more areas that contribute to trainees getting STUCK in their training including assistance exercises, training intensity, and “expert” advice.
