In part one of this blog the question was raised: “How can someone make sense of the vast amount of misinformation we are inundated with from the fitness industry?” In order to do that, we first need to recognize there are two groups of people that make for terrible cohorts by which to evaluate a strength/fitness program. The first is the novice. By novice, I simply mean the person who has been doing virtually nothing in order to improve their strength. This is not an appropriate person to evaluate the efficacy of a strength program, since absolutely anything they do for the sake of exercise will appear to have amazing results on their strength. In short, if a novice begins a regular routine of walking, you would still notice some improvement in their bench press strength. Not a huge improvement and not for very long, but it would still improve nonetheless. That’s simply an artifact of them being so completely detrained at the outset. Most sedentary people do not realize how detrained they truly are. The normal course of everyday life in America does not result in an acceptable level of strength. Surprisingly, even regularly doing physical labor does not result in adequate levels of strength. This is the problem then of not having an agreed-upon understanding of what a “significant” increase in strength looks like. Most programs result in some increase in strength. To refer to this as an adequate increase in order to have a positive effect upon quality of life is misguided. Most programs increase strength in such a miniscule way that it is absurd to refer to them as strength training at all. The public at large has blindly accepted most of these claims simply because they have been repeated so often. The public perception of normal adequate strength levels has been shifted to abnormally low.
Evaluating a Strength & Fitness Program
The second terrible person to evaluate the merits of a strength training program is the naturally athletic person. This is the person who performs well merely by watching someone else and picking up on what to do as if by instinct. They learn physical tasks quickly and easily. Their body seems to adapt and respond rapidly to any training program they try. It may not seem fair, but some people are in fact genetically endowed in greater measure in some ways than others. That makes them poor specimens by which to assess how well a strength program may work for someone of merely average genetic potential or below. This is similar to the way some folks just readily learn mathematical concepts. That doesn’t mean they have a great teacher, nor does it mean they themselves will be a great teacher. It may mean little more than they are gifted in a way most are not. The same principle applies here to those who are gifted concerning getting stronger – virtually any coach they worked with and any program they followed would have yielded equally amazing results. The resulting error many make regarding this type of person is to look at what they do and assume, “If I just do the same things and eat the same way, I will become like them”. By that way of thinking, then we must also assume that if I eat what a gorilla eats and do things the way a gorilla does, then I would become strong like a gorilla. The problem in that equation is that genetically, humans are not gorillas. The gorilla enjoys the benefit of certain genetic physical endowments relative to humans the same way humans enjoy certain genetic intellectual endowments relative to the gorilla. There remains a great gulf affixed between the two species that no amount of diet and exercise or attending a university can bridge. Therefore, we must learn to choose appropriate strength programs according to what will work best for us – the everyday commoners walking around, raising families, going to our jobs and just being perfectly normal.
Finding the Best Fitness Program Near You
We would all do well to recognize the error in assessing strength and fitness programs based upon anything other than the merits of the program itself. Let’s learn to look past the physiques of the people promoting them and look instead to how likely the program is to work for most people, most of the time. Similarly, let’s remember that we must not fall for vague references to how much a program will actually improve your strength. There is nothing wrong with deciding for yourself what level of strength is appropriate or adequate for you. Do not be misled, though, into accepting that relatively minute increases in strength are all that is normally possible for the average person. I encourage you to aim higher, demand more, and expect to achieve higher levels of strength than you thought would be possible.