It’s easier to criticize than to solve a problem. Nobody likes a complainer who offers no solution. However, as a coach, I find myself dismantling so much misinformation that my clients have been told by other trainers or seen on social media that sometimes, I just need to vent.
Here are four of the dumbest things that I hear fitness professional say:
How You Do One Thing is How You Do Everything
Most of us are passionate about something. If you’re reading this, you’re probably reasonably passionate about lifting weights. And people who like to lift are usually motivated, disciplined and hard-working. So it’s likely you’ve heard the phrase, “How you do one thing is how you do everything.” I believe the intention of this message is well-meaning, but the longer I’ve marinated on it, the more I realize it’s completely untrue.
I’ll acknowledge that it’s important to do the little things, not skip steps or cut corners, and have excellent attention to detail. However, there’s absolutely no way to attain top-percentile levels of success in any one thing if you spread your attention and efforts evenly across everything you do. In fact, it seems as though the most elite performers in their field get there by hyper-focusing on one thing at the expense of many other things (whether on purpose or not).
How often have you heard the story of the multi-billionaire who has all the money, power and fame they could possibly want, yet still find themselves unhappy? Still struggle to forge meaningful relationships? Perhaps it’s because in order to become a billionaire, they simply could not put the same level of effort into their family life as they did into their business. How they did one thing (business) was NOT how they did everything else.
I had this realization while reading David Goggins’ book, Can’t Hurt Me. Goggins has become a cult hero for hardo wannabe tough guys everywhere, and while his book certainly has some powerful messages that has helped and will continue to help many people, I couldn’t help but notice one common theme: Goggins left a smoldering trail of failed relationships in his path toward physical and mental mastery. It would be unfair of me to say I know every detail about his life as a husband and father, but it’s crystal clear that how he did one thing (pursue physical challenges) was NOT how he did everything (specifically, build relationships with his family).
It is perfectly OK to spread your physical and mental efforts unevenly based on what’s most important to you. There’s no such thing as balance, especially if you want to achieve extraordinary things. Understand there is a cost of doing business.
You’re Only as Strong as Your Weakest Link
Trainers love to tell lifters that they suck at stuff. I’ve met coaches that would tell world-record holding powerlifters that they had weak hamstrings and pitiful core strength if given the chance. These coaches get an idea in their head that every single person has the same strengths and weaknesses, and they’ll never be good enough until they bring up these “weak” points.
But here’s the thing: every single strength training movement has positions and joint angles that are stronger or weaker. For the squat, bench press and deadlift, it’s typically the midway point on the way up:
- Above parallel in the squat
- About a third to halfway up in the bench press
- Midshin to below the knee in the deadlift
Lifters aren’t necessarily weak at these points because of lagging muscle groups. They’re likely weak because these are the most mechanically disadvantageous positions of these lifts – EVERYONE is weakest in similar positions. It’s physics.
Rather than solving weak points by hammering away at a certain muscle group with accessory exercises, it’s possible to individualize a lifter’s technique to minimize a weak point and lean into their strengths.
If a lifter struggles with a wide-stance, low-bar squat because their hips and lower back “aren’t strong enough,” (whatever that means) maybe it makes more sense to try a narrow-stance high-bar squat which lets them utilize their upper back and quads more. Seems like a simpler solution than doing hundreds of thousands of reverse hypers, hoping that more junk in the trunk magically improves their low-bar squat.
It’s absolutely worthwhile to target lagging muscle groups with hypertrophy-focused exercises to improve your big lifts. However, I’ve found lifters are more successful by adjusting their technique to highlight their strengths, rather than always hunting for weaknesses.
You Can’t Out-Train a Bad Diet
Whenever I hear someone say this in person, I counter by saying, “I’ve been doing that for almost 20 years.” I mention that I drink a beer and eat ice cream almost every single night and somehow manage to be satisfied with my current physical state. Many trainers would consider this “bad” because they attach morality to food choices, which is inherently problematic.
Am I able to drink alcohol and eat dessert regularly while still staying fit and healthy because 80-90 percent of the time I eat lots of protein, fruits and vegetables from whole food sources? Of course. This is not to brag, but rather to show the lunacy that is thinking that you must be 100 percent compliant to some arbitrary idea of what foods are “healthy” or “good”.
Many trainers preach an all-or-nothing approach where foods are either “good” or “bad” with no nuance. This messaging runs the risk of creating negative relationships with food and increasing anxiety, shame and guilt based on what a person eats. This is NOT a recipe for long-term health.
Ultimately, a “good” or “bad” diet is completely contextual based on your goals. A low-calorie diet with lots of vegetables and limited fats and sugars might be a terrible diet for someone looking to gain as much muscle mass as quickly as possible. A diet with room for sweets and alcohol might be downright dangerous for people with certain health conditions. Can you see how making sweeping, generalized statements about what people should eat can be sketchy?
Everything Works… for 6 Weeks
When coaches see someone getting results with a program or methodology they don’t agree with, they often chalk it up to this weird myth that “anything works” for a short period of time. I don’t know where this fallacy started, but I can confidently say after over a decade of coaching that there’s a lot of stuff out there that does NOT work for ANY period of time.
If someone is brand new to exercise, many things will work and results (especially strength increases) will come rapidly, mostly because of neurological adaptations where the person simply becomes more skilled at the movements. It’s easy to add 20-30 pounds to your bench press in a few training sessions if you go from never benching before to becoming modestly proficient at it.
But I can promise you that an exercise program will NOT work if…
- The lifter doesn’t think it will work
- The lifter isn’t consistent
- The lifter doesn’t enjoy it
- The program is too difficult at the beginning
- The program is constantly changing
- The program lacks progressive overload
- The program doesn’t adapt to the individual lifter
Not everything works. And not everything works for everyone. There are outliers. Hyper-responders and non-responders. And it’s perfectly OK to abandon an approach that’s clearly NOT working before you hit some arbitrary time interval that some coach said you MUST reach before switching to a new strategy.
Dumb and Dumber
Cautious optimism is a must when dissecting general, sweeping phrases like those mentioned above. Be mindful that every situation has nuance. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to anything related to strength training, nutrition or overall health and well-being.
