The One True Way of Training

Yours is not the One True Way, nor is theirs. There is no One True Perfect Routine, it depends on the capabilities and goals of the individual. 

For some, low-rep strength work will be best. For others, circuit will be best. For others still, something else. Deal with the individual person. What's the first word in our job title? Personal. 

As well, there's room in the industry for a lot of different approaches to training. At a previous gym I worked at, the two most successful trainers had very different approaches to training. One was all the bosu ball stuff, the other had the people running around puffing like a steam engine. If they swapped clients, in a week half of them would be gone - the people have chosen that PT as their trainer because they like that style. But the clients of each both get good results, and stay with them. Me, I was the third most successful one there and rising, and I have a different style again.

The diversity of styles is a strength, not a weakness. There is no One True Perfect Routine, clients need to be able to choose from a variety to suit their own personality; but at the same time, we as trainers need to have a broad view and see what we can take from others' styles.

The best routine is the one you stick to. If your clients are not returning, then your routine is no good (but see below). Compromise and be patient. Better an okay routine they stick to than a "perfect" routine they quit after one session. As well, communicate. There should be a rational reason for every exercise, every rep and every set, and you should be able to explain this to the client. Once they understand why they're balancing on a bosu ball or squatting deep or whatever, they will be more motivated to do it - and perhaps come back after the first session.

Lastly, remember that you are dealing mostly with beginners, and for beginners, it doesn't really matter what they do. For the first 6-12 weeks anything at all is going to improve them all-round. Just using the treadmill will improve their strength, just doing barbell squats will improve their cardiovascular endurance, and so on. They were doing nothing before, now they are doing something, something is more than nothing, so they improve. 

So even if there were One True Perfect Routine eventually, there isn't for the first 6-12 weeks. This gives you time to ease them into your particular style of training. 

I'm reminded of a story a client told me. She'd told a previous trainer that she wanted to get stronger, and she had 2x 1/2 hr sessions a week. He told her that because she needed 2'00" rest between sets, she needed a full hour, anything less was pointless, and she had to warmup and cooldown. And of course there were warmup sets too. So she was doing about 3 work sets in half an hour session, and spending a lot of time sitting around doing nothing. This is why he is her former trainer.

I told her, "Look, would it be better to have more time? Sure. Give me 4 hours a day 6 days a week and in two months you'll be built like Jessica Biel in Blade Trinity. But does this mean half an hour a couple of times a week is useless? No. We can still do useful stuff. Your progress would be quicker with longer and more frequent sessions, but you will still progress." 

The woman started off squatting 30kg and struggled to put a 20kg barbell overhead. The exact sets and reps and rest are not that important for her, she just needs practice lifting heavy shit.  12 months later she squatted 70kg and pressed 30kg. Would she have progressed faster if we had more time each week? Undoubtedly. But with less time she still progressed 

He was impatient and uncompromising, so she ditched him as a trainer. I was patient and compromised, so now she has increased session frequency; for the first six months she was once per week, after that twice, nowadays she does three a week, and is still with me after 18 months. Sometimes the route to your destination is not a straight line.
On the other hand: While the client's being injured or failing to return shows that your routine is probably no good, the client's uninjured return does not mean it is good. Maybe they just like you, or don't know any better. There is no One True Way, but there are many many Bad Ways. 

"When in doubt, refer out"

I've already discussed the problem of when is a physical issue simple weakness, and when genuine dysfunction requiring medical treatment. Over on Dean Somerset's blog, an American physiotherapist writes, 

"I can say almost universally, if a client comes in complaining of back pain and has not been evaluated by a physician or physical therapist, you should not train them."

This would require us to turn away about 5 in 10 new clients, of whom only 1 would actually go to a medical professional of some kind, the other 4 wander off and either find another trainer or not train at all, and of the remaining 5 clients, those presenting with no lower back pain, 4 of them would be turned away from sessions by us at some point in the next three months. That is, half of all new clients present reporting some sort of lower back pain in the recent past or present, and nine out of ten will have it at some point. They'll also have hip, knee and shoulder pain at some point. 

But the simple fact is that for many issues the best medicine is movement. 

This does not mean I accept any and all clients. One showed up the other day, a 76yo woman presenting with a history of high blood pressure, a total knee reconstruction 12 months ago, waiting on a second in another 12 months. I referred her to an exercise physiologist, which in Australia is the person who deals with high risk clients. On the other hand, many cases are not so clear, because there is after many years of looking no clear diagnosis and prescription for treatment. 

Many clients will also go medical shopping, getting different advice from different medical professionals, some of whom are ignorant of exercises, and others whose claim to the title "medical professional" is doubtful.

• General practice doctor: "Rest and take anti-inflammatories, don't squat or deadlift, nobody should, those exercises are bad for your knees and back."
• Chiropractor: "Your joints are misaligned, I'm going to manipulate them back into place, this will only last a week so you'll have to come every week at $150 a time."
• General physiotherapist: "You must rest from exercise and do this one exercise I'm showing you, come back in two weeks for a second exercise, that'll be $75."
• Sports physiotherapist: "You'll be alright, just do these stretches and then squat and deadlift."
• Orthopaedic surgeon: "You need immediate surgery. Of course the reinjury rate after this surgery is higher than before it, but I still suggest it. That'll be $8,000." 
• Second chiropractor: "Your sore shoulder is caused by tightness in pecs, which comes about from liver dysfunction. You should visit my friend the naturopath."
• Naturopath: "You are lactose and gluten intolerant."

The client tries each bit of advice for a bit and nothing changes, the pain and hindered movement are still there. 

So the client comes to me as a personal trainer and wants to start exercise, saying, "when I was younger and active I had no problems, I want to be active again, then I will have no problems." My fitness organisation's code of ethics, common sense and legal liability require me to follow all medical advice given to my clients. But what to do when the medical advice is contradictory? 

I have two simple guidelines: 

• Firstly, beginning with the simplest and least loaded version of an exercise, we teach correct movement. 
• Secondly, if it hurts, check technique. If technique is bad, fix it. If technique is good and it still hurts, we'll do something else. 

It's my experience that most medical professionals are excellent at dealing with acute issues, like torn ligaments and so on, and really not much use at dealing with chronic issues, like misaligned sacroiliac joints, patellar maltracking, scoliosis and so on. Of course a chronic issue may become acute, and vice versa. 

One of my clients Tim has loose shoulder joints, this is a chronic issue. He does karate, and keeps dislocating his shoulder doing it, this is now an acute issue, so he's gone for surgery. My client Agatha has patellar maltracking, which is a chronic issue. She did the 100km Oxfam walk, her knees swelled into immobility, it became an acute issue. Rest, ice, compression, elevation, and a week later it's a chronic issue again. We just don't run, we do lots of strength training, and while doing that her knees feel great. 

Another is 157kg and has sore knees and back - his problem is chronic, he has 157kg going through his knees and back, if he drops the weight those back and knee problems will be greatly reduced, but when these flare up in pain we stop what we're doing and do something else. When he did three workouts a week pain flared up every two months, now he does one workout a week pain flares up every two weeks. And so on. 

I feel that acute issues are best dealt with by medical treatment of some kind, chronic issues are best dealt with by correct movement, progressing the technical difficulty and load of the movement over time. The client must always be critically assessing the value of their training, asking, "Do I feel better after a session than I did before it?" 

Conversation with gym-goers

A young man came to me recently for a new routine. I asked him about his progress and previous routines. I'm using poetic license a bit but this was the gist of my hour with him.

"I've been coming four years, at 1.81m tall I used to be 62kg, now I'm 67kg. I have never done a below-parallel barbell squat, I cannot do a chinup, and I can bench 45kg, I have never run more than 3km in one go, I get tired and stop. I've done 12 different routines since I've been here, usually I do them for about 4 weeks then stop and just do whatever I feel like."
"Okay... um, what are your goals?"
"What?"
'Why do you come to the gym? What do you want to achieve?"
"I want to be bigger and have a V-shape in my torso and leaner and be able to run 10km, and ride my bike faster and be stronger."
"Usually it works best when you focus on one thing at a time. Which one thing is the most important to you?"
"I want to be bigger and have a V-shape in my torso and leaner and be able to run 10km, and ride my bike faster and be stronger."
"Which one thing... nevermind. Rightyo. I suggest this more focused routine. Goblet squats, pushups and inverted rows, start with 10 reps total of each, add 1-3 reps each time. Barbell back squats for 20 reps, bench press for 4 sets of 5. Start with the empty bar, each session add 2.5kg. If you can't make the lift, that's okay, just try again next time. Dumbbell bent-over rows with 10kg, do 2 sets of 10, then press overhead for 2x5. When these are easy, get the next heavier dumbbell. Go through it quick and you'll get fitter, too." I coached him on all these lifts.
"Only 2.5kg each session? That's very slow."
"Come twice a week, that is 20kg every 4 weeks. In 8 weeks you'll be squatting 60kg for 20 reps, and benching 60kg for 4x5. So in two months you'll be lifting more than you've lifted after 4 years. Too slow?"
"Okay, but this routine would only take about half an hour. I want to spend an hour here."
"You could just talk to the girls."
"What?"
"You may find it takes longer when the weights are heavier. Squatting and benching 20kg you can go again straight away, 60kg will be a bit different."
"Still, so quick..."
"If you want, just add on some cardio, aim for 20 minutes with your heart rate around 140."
"Will this help me with my goals?"
"Not really. But it will take 20 minutes, and won't do you any harm."
"Okay, I'll do it."
"Good."
"So how do I get bigger?"
"Eat more."
"I eat heaps."
"I would suggest that if at 67kg, you probably do not eat heaps. Try drinking an extra litre of milk a day."
"I can't drink that much!"
"That's four glasses. One glass with breakfast, one with lunch, one with dinner, and one before bed."
"So much."
"Up to you. To get big, eat big"
"I don't want to get big."
"Um, sorry, I have to go to my next appointment."

The next day as I was going about the gym, I saw a guy standing on an upturned bosu ball, slamming a medicine ball down on the ground and catching it on the bounceback.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked.
"It's a challenge."
"Certainly. If I were to kick you in the groin while you're doing it, that would be even more of a challenge, but would it be useful?"
"Well, I play sports."
"Ah, which sport?"
"Cricket."
"So to prepare for standing on a flat stable surface and hit or catch a cricket ball, you stand on an upside-down bosu ball and fling a medicine ball to the ground?"
"Yes."
"Is it working for you? Do you feel your cricket game is helped by this?"
"I don't really feel any difference. But it's a challenge."
I didn't really know what to say to him after this, so I left him to it.

While it would be fun to blame other trainers, generally I find they've made these odd exercises up themselves, like the guy trying to do a pushup with each of his hands and feet on a medicine ball. Another "challenge."

Figure out where you are now. Choose your destination. Map out the route between the two, that's your workout routine and diet. Do that and nothing else until you reach your destination. If you do not, I will laugh at you.

weakness and dysfunction

When is it dysfunction, and when is it just being weak? Fact: there are many people in gyms with a history of serious injuries and health conditions who are stronger, fitter and with better joint mobility than many "healthy" beginners.

It's often said in physical training that we should not apply load to dysfunction. For example, if someone does a bodyweight squat and as they rise they always swing their hips to the right, there is some sort of imbalance there that needs to be dealt with before we put even a 20kg barbell on their back. When you add load to an imbalance, the imbalance is amplified.

But what's the cause of that imbalance? There could be a previous injury like a hip dislocation, or a condition like scoliosis. Obviously these should be looked at and considered, a competent trainer or coach will know about this in their lifters, and work with medical professionals to help the person. 

But what if the person's just weak? Few of us stand with the weight evenly distributed between both feet, usually we'll shift our weight to one side, and usually it's almost always the same side. This then leads to a muscle imbalance left-right, and something like that could cause the person's hips to shift to the right as they come out of a squat. We don't need a medical professional for that, we just need some proper training, lots of one-legged work to balance things up. 

This is something that's rarely talked about in physical training and medicine, the line between injury or condition and ordinary weakness. There's a guy at my gym, I've seen him do around 5 wide-grip pullups, benching around his bodyweight - and deadlifting his bodyweight. He has a below-knee amputation with a prosthetic, you don't get any more imbalanced than the limb being missing! But despite his medically-caused imbalances he works out hard and with good results.

And yet at the same gym there are guys who say they can't squat deep because it hurts their knees, and beginners whose posture resembles that of a gorilla say that they can't deadlift because it's bad for their back. And when you look at their squats or deadlifts you see why, their movements are imbalanced and rough. Their ordinary weakness is worse than a medical issue. 

A one-legged guy deadlifts 80kg and does wide-grip pullups with added weight, and is called "disabled." Another guy cannot deadlift with correct form, and cannot pull 60kg from the ground, and is called "healthy." 

Of course there are people in between, for example someone might break an ankle, it's in a cast for six weeks so gets weak and stiff, after that they tend not to use that foot as much, it's usually not a medical problem but twenty years later when they squat that ankle is less mobile and strong. However, if it's bad enough it might be a medical problem. Maybe to strengthen the ankle we put the person on a one-legged leg press, and they get shooting pains up and down the sides of their calves. 

Thus the issue of where a medical problem ends and simple weakness begins can be a muddled one. Trainers are usually pretty bad at dealing with medical issues, it goes beyond our scope of practice, and too many will get all butch and tell people to work out despite injuries or conditions, "everyone needs to barbell squat," etc. But medical professionals are pretty bad at dealing with simple weakness, being overcautious about proscribing movements, "just rest." 

The vast majority of people don't have any real medical issues preventing them from doing particular movements in the gym, however they will find lots of things very hard, and will have all sorts of funky muscle imbalances going on. These are usually dealt with by teaching correct movement rather than focusing on individual muscles, and simple verbal cues will often do a lot to balance things up. 

Don't give 110%

"Give 110%!" is a phrase beloved of marketing gurus, self-help seminar speakers, people trying to convince themselves they won't give up this time, and – I'm ashamed to admit – many personal trainers. Of course you cannot actually give 110%, you cannot give more than everything. But many people try, which leads to burnout, illness, injury, general misery and fuckups.

If you try to give 110%, you have to take something from some other area of your life. Most of us have been in love and found we're spending all our time with our beloved, leading to loss of friends, calling in sick to work and so on. Or we've stayed up all night reading a book or playing a computer game and our work the next day was far from our best. Perhaps we worked late and missed a dinner date with our lover. Or maybe we trained too hard.

When it comes to physical training, we have to be able to look at our lives and ask ourselves how much we're giving in all the areas of our lives, including physical training – is it all balanced? Two stories should help here.

Firstly, me. My son was born in June last year. For the last month before his birth I did workouts, but really only went through the motions, I couldn't push myself at all, I just couldn't focus. For two months after his birth I was just tired, I didn't work out at all. Things settled down and I felt ready and started back. Three weeks later I got sick – and I hadn't had so much as a sniffle in the past 18 months. But here I was knocked down with the flu, and I had a cough linger for four weeks afterwards. Now I'm back into things, and better, and lifting again for several months now, it's all good. I'd thought I was ready, but I wasn't. Why? I was giving 110% to my son, and 110% to my work – this had to come from somewhere else, so it came from my health.

The second story is a gym buddy, Greg.

"My lifts were stalled for ages," he said, "then in the last couple of weeks they've just flown up easily, I don't know why."

"Anything changed? Food?"

"Food's the same."

"Rest?"

"Same sleep."

"Work?"

"Well, there's much less pressure and stress at work than there was before... ah, I get it now."

He was giving 110% in work, this had to come from somewhere else, it came from his lifting. When he gave less to work, he had something left over for lifting, and got stronger. 

Never give 110%. Giving 100% is plenty. 

"I don't want to bulk up."

But if you did bulk up, would that really be a bad thing? 

What follows is an unstructured rant, because to be perfectly honest, I've had enough. 

I've heard "I don't want to bulk up" a thousand times from women gym members and personal training clients. Generally it comes from women who are already overweight or underweight. Susan was 153cm tall and 127kg a year after lap band surgery. I knew of no tactful way to say to her, "Having too much muscle is not your problem." Jennifer was 178cm tall and 52kg, looking hunched over, sickly and tired, she needed more muscle and more fat both. Medium-sized women don't seem to be as fussed about getting bigger, it's just the overweight and underweight ones. 

Many trainers will go into some spiel about testosterone and how women have so little of it that putting on muscle is more difficult for them than men. That's true but also irrelevant. Most women, like the scrawny teenaged boys doing their bench and curls, simply won't eat enough good food to gain a lot of muscular mass. Hormones influence what your body does with the food you eat, but if you don't eat enough the hormones have nothing to influence. You can deadlift 200kg but if you go home and eat only a stick of celery or a soggy McD's cheeseburger, you are not going to get any bigger however much testosterone you have. 

The simple truth is that each of us has a certain natural size and build. My training partner Aron is the same height as me, I'm usually around 81kg and him around 95kg. If Aron were 81kg he'd be a scrawny rake, if I were 95kg I'd be either a bodybuilder or my belly would stop me being able to see my penis. Aron's just got a bigger frame. Put us shoulder-to-shoulder and his are broader, put our wrists next to each-other and it's like a sapling next to a grown oak. When he's had time off training it takes him about three weeks to get to the lifts I struggled to over six months. He's just naturally bigger. 

This natural size and build gives us natural talents and weaknesses. There are not many 1.95m tall Olympic-style weightlifters, nor are there many 1.52m tall basketballers. Having a big broad frame is a big help on the rugby field, it's not so great if you want to do ballet. There's nothing we can do about this. You can't turn an oak into a willow, or a willow into an oak. When it comes to sports, certain heights and frames will have great advantages. Most of us accept this and just find the sport that suits our build and nature. That's part of being an adult, realise your talents and build on them, and the stuff you're simply hopeless at forget about. Everyone understands this except for people auditioning for Australian Idol. 

When it comes to looks we forget all that and all want to be someone else. In the case of women, they want to be someone tiny. No, smaller. "I don't want to bulk up." Would that be so bad? You're 127kg Susan, would it be bad for you to have some more muscle to heave that around? You're 52kg Jennifer, would it be bad to be the size of an adult woman? 

This is why I'm not that comfortable with the other trainer response to "I don't want to bulk up," which is, "oh but lifting heavy weights can actually make you smaller! Just look at so-and-so." It's true, but do we really want to encourage women to all get smaller? Let's take that sacred cow to the slaughterhouse. Why can't you get bigger? Didn't you women invent this thing called "feminism" once? I vaguely recall something about you getting the vote, but maybe I'm wrong.  Emmeline Pankhurst didn't go to prison just so you could go on a lemon detox diet. Aren't you allowed to occupy physical space?

I think there's a backlash against feminism, and it comes from women. As women have grown to occupy more social and financial space, they've apologised for it by occupying less physical space. 

"Yes honey I earn more than you, but look, I no longer have an arse!" 

"I have been made CEO at this time of crisis in the company so that when it goes bankrupt a woman can take the blame, however my arms are as thin as my stylish pen and you can see my ribs just below my collarbones, so it's alright."

You are allowed to occupy physical space. You are allowed into the power rack. That's where you belong. 

When people get into progressive resistance training (most resistance training is not progressive, people don't increase the weights over time), the increase in confidence is quick and obvious. I'll often find some woman doing a stack of pushups from the knees, and I say, "You know, if you can do 15 or more good pushups from the knees, you can almost certainly do a few from the toes."

A look of frightened wonder comes into her eyes. "Really? I've never tried, I mean -"

"Give it a go."

"But I can't."

"I think you can. Try it."

She tries, and she knocks out two shaky pushups from the toes, a little shallow but okay. "Well done," I say, "now rest a bit and try again." And she tries again, and this time does two really good ones, steady and deep. "Did those two feel stronger than the first two?"

"Yes!"

"So you're already stronger than you were two minutes ago."

Now the frightened wonder fades, and a nervous surprised pride appears. The woman now feels confident and competent. She feels awesome. Not bad for a few pushups. All she needed was someone's permission to be awesome. Maybe when she grows up she won't ask for permission. 

The same thing happens when they first do a barbell squat or deadlift, especially the deadlift. Cardiovascular fitness is very important to general health and sports, and joint mobility probably more so, but they don't seem to do as much for people's souls as strength does. Strength brings confidence in a way cardio and mobility don't. Hardly anyone remembers the first time they ran 5km in under 30'00" or touched their toes, everyone remembers the first time they pulled 60kg from the floor or did a chinup. 

A client Stacey once said, "Kyle, I came to you because I wanted a smaller bum, but when I put 40kg overhead, at that moment I don't care about the size of my bum." And the fact is that when she put 40kg overhead, at that moment she was beautiful. Competence is attractive. Beauty is about more than the size of your bum. Anyway beauty is not all that matters. Recently Germaine Greer decided to take a giant steaming shit on her feminist icon history by commenting that the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard did not dress in a way that flatters her figure. Honestly,  Germaine, nobody gives a fuck. We do not elect members of parliament based on how much we'd like to shag them, we're not voting on Big Brother. 

Yes, if you are 127kg Susan then you need to lose weight. There are not many 75 year olds your size, and you don't need a knee replacement, you just need to stop carrying all that extra weight.. If you can't or won't drop some weight, then you should at least get stronger to make it easier to schlep around. But Jennifer, women your size get sick all the time, get weak bones, then one day fall and break their pelvis and about a quarter of them never leave hospital. Both Susan and Jennifer need to get strong as fuck, their lives will just be better, and they'll be more confident and better able to deal with the shit life throws at them. 

An adult male should be over 80kg, an adult female should be over 60kg. We should not all look the same, some of us should be bigger, some smaller, some good at this, some at that. We didn't defeat communism just so we could all become the same. Life gets better when you stop weighing yourself and start weighing your deadlift. If you did bulk up, would that really be a bad thing?