You can write it, but can they do it?

This is an important principle often forgotten by trainers and coaches, particularly online gurus. Here is one example, but there are many.

"load your body weight equivalent on a barbell and perform 100 repetitions. That is, if your scale weight is 205 pounds, load the bar with 205 pounds and go for 100. Most likely, you will not be able to get 100 repetitions in your first bout, so stop to rack the weight to garner a modest break. That's okay. Just don't rest too long - rest no longer than 2:00. Following that maximum of 2:00 between bouts, continue your journey to the 100-rep goal. It may require five to six bouts to get there, but find a way to achieve 100 total repetitions."

Really? You're unlikely to do 100 reps with your bodyweight in one go? At first I thought the guy might be in some super-hardcore gym where a young woman does 20 rep squats with 100kg and the guys in the background don't even look up from talking shit with each-other. But then I saw the other suggested workouts which were either pointlessly easy or reasonable. This told me the authour wasn't really thinking about what he was writing. This trainer had forgotten, you can write it, but can they do it? 

It's also forgotten by trainees, sitting there with their neat spreadsheets with everything planned out to the last set and rep to take them from a 40kg to a 240kg squat in six months and three days.

Online gurus have an excuse: they don't train anyone, so their wild ideas never risk being dissolved by the harsh acid of reality. Gym newbies have an excuse: they're newbies. But even experienced trainers, coaches and trainees will do this from time to time. Just last night I was fiddling about with a spreadsheet and adjusting variables and then in six months my squat will be... really? I'm going to go six months without any interruption to my training? I won't get sick, injured, won't have to take time off to look after my son while my wife visits someone interstate, won't get busy with work or just plain lazy? 

Be realistic. Let's aim for something which is challenging, but won't destroy us. A plan which is ambitious but not crazily so.