Somewhere, out there in the ether, exists the perfect strength program for YOU.
Somewhere, out there in the ether, exists the perfect strength program for YOU.
It’s unsurpassed in every way: custom tailored for your genetics, leverages, level of experience, age, time-budget and all other factors that make you the strength athlete that you are.
Following this incredible program would lead you to your maximal potential without fail, and every deviation from this program would, by definition, lessen its effects*. It is the perfect program after all.
Sounds impossible right? Well in theory it isn’t. In theory such a program exists: the optimized combination of sets, reps, exercise selection, percentages, frequency and progression that will guarantee maximal gains. It’s out there.
You just have to find it. But how?
Ask an expert?
Don’t be absurd. No such thing as an “expert” when it comes to you. Also experts tend to just be people. So far from perfect.
Watch 100+ hours of youtube on science based training? I actually tried that and no that just makes you into an insufferable asshole.
So what’s left then? Trial and error?
The problem with that strategy is that you are in a constant state of flux, so the perfect program today is not the perfect program tomorrow. Also: you are a sample size of one individual, and comparing programs through a/b testing is impossible.
So what to do: how on earth do you find or write the perfect program for you?
That’s the neat thing: you don’t!
Never.
You will never train perfectly. Your training will never be optimal. No matter how many times you google “how many sets of deadlifts should I do” or “is high frequency training better than low frequency”, no matter how much you obsess and sweat over the difference between training at RPE 6,5 and RPE 7 or whether or not you point your thumbs up or down during lateral raises: you’ll never train “optimally”
And if by some freak cosmic accident you would stumble on an infallible program, you wouldn’t know it. No one would.
So what are you supposed to do with this revelation?
Well I suggest you embrace it. Abandon the obsessive search for optimization. Learn to be happy with “effective” instead.
An effective program has many, many advantages over the hypothetical optimal program. For starters an effective program can take many forms, whereas an optimal program -by definition- can only take one (and it would probably be boring)
Settling for a merely effective program allows you freedom from worry that you are missing out on something better. You can rest comfortably in the knowledge that you could be training better, but who cares; so can everyone else.
Now that you’re one step closer to enlightenment: you can start looking for a strength program that you actually enjoy guilt free.
And that’s good news. Because just like the “perfect” program: the “enjoyablest” program is ALSO floating in the ether. And I am convinced it’s better to spend your time finding thát one instead. Mainly because you may actually find it someday.