Immediately this made me think of the workout plan people have. Some of the greatest in the world will tell you that the plan is everything. Dorian Yates, 6 x Mr Olympia has said that he kept every single weight, rep and routine in a journal for many years. In fact you can purchase his journal on Amazon but the ratings seem to be either fan boys or honest people saying it is pretty crap for $30….. You then have other world class bodybuilders like Lee Priest who has said it is more important to listen to your body and that it is good to have a general plan but you need to listen to your body. As you warm up there are days the weight you would normally crush feel real heavy. When that is the case, he believes it is ok to stick to that lower weight you were using as you worked up.
So who is right? Farnam Street and Lee or “The Shadow” Dorian? Arguably, none are wrong. Perspective counts. I recall listening to Ed Coan talk about prior to every major competition he would be able to back calculate the exact weight and rep schemes he would need over a 12 week prep in order to lift the weight he had in his head as the goal. Important to realise too that this is the man who deadlifted over 900 at 220 bodyweight.
So if perspective counts, what is the perspective. Let’s start with the average human. The average human is not Lee Priest, Dorian Yates or Ed Coan. These men are genuine freaks among freaks. Tell me how many guys you know who can do one single set to failure after 2-3 warm up sets and end up looking like Dorian? None….. Similarly how many 5’5 guys do you know have hands the size of giant (Ed) or at the same height can look like Lee? None. The point is that just cause Dorian and Ed said they could write the “map” and then execute this is unbelievably rare.
I follow programs. No doubt. Particularly when I started out in powerlifting I was an absolute slave to what was written in my excel plan. Percentages jumped out at me everywhere you turned. To the uninitiated you would think that to be strong you also had to be a descendant of Pythagoras himself. However, there comes a point in time (unless you are Dorian or Ed) that when the session calls for 4 x 8 with 80% of your max something doesn’t feel right. Especially when you start squatting 2 x your bodyweight. You wake that day and your lower back just feels like crap or as you complete your first set you just know in your heart of hearts that 3 more sets mean you will literally be crippled for the rest of the weekend. Does this mean you just shut it down? Absolutely not. Push and don’t be soft, but perhaps it is 75% and not 80%. Perhaps it calls for a different bar today, say the safety squat bar cause the low bar back squat is just not feeling good. The point is to identify a way to get the hard work done but live to fight another day. Serious lifters will know what I am talking about here. There have been countless times I have grit my teeth, cranked “Five Finger Death Punch” louder and drank more pre workout then is medically advisable to finish what was in my “map” for the day and I have been crippled by it. I have no doubt despite the message I am trying to deliver here, I will make this mistake again and will push too hard but we should all listen to the great Lee Haney “stimulate, don’t annihilate.”
The “map” is not the territory. The “map” is a general plan. The territory is actually muscle and strength building. The territory is not following a “map” just so you can say you delivered on it if it means you can barely get out of bed the next day cause you’ve crippled yourself. There is not a strong man on the planet who would disagree that when it comes to building muscle and strength, it is an incremental process and the quickest way to stuff that is to take one step forward and 2 steps back cause you are stuffing yourself by following the “map” without listening to your body. Like The Man, Chuchill said “200 bricks and 2000 words a day”. The power of compounding will build a true Iron Exec.