CategoriesProduct Review Program Design

The Single Biggest Mistake Most People Make With Their Training Programs

Full Disclosure: Today is a repurposed post written last year and coincides with Eric Cressey placing his resource, High Performance Handbook, on sale this week for $30 off the regular price.

Sale notwithstanding, it’s still a good post. You should read it.

The Single Biggest Mistake People Make With Their Training Programs

I want to tell you about a friend of mine. Lets call him Matt Damon.

For the record, no, Matt Damon isn’t his real name. In fact this friend I’m referring to doesn’t even exist (or star in any Jason Bourne movies).

Rather, he serves as a metaphor for many of you reading this post.

You see Matt is like many of you who, unknowingly or not, repeats the same mistake time and time again when it comes to his (or her!) training.

To his credit, “Matt” makes it a point to ensure the bulk of his training revolves around the compound lifts.

Instead of an “arms and shoulders day, “ he performs a chin-up day; instead of a “hamstring and anterior tibialis day,” he performs a deadlift day; and well, you get the idea.

Likewise, while he generally prefers to lift weights 3-4 times per week, he’s not immune to stepping outside that bubble, understands that variety is the spice of life, and enjoys doing other things. Every now and then he’ll attend the Bikram yoga class or spin class or hell, he’s even been known to spend an afternoon hiking or playing Ultimate Frisbee.

At the end of the day, though, his heart and passion lies in the gym and tossing around some iron.

But here’s the thing: he loves to lift weights. That’s what he eats, drinks and breaths. He spends a lot of his free time reading fitness websites like T-Nation.com, Men’s Health, or various blogs (even this one!)1, and he’s been doing it for a few years now.

Yet, he’s never been really happy with his results.

Matt hasn’t sniffed a PR in months (if not longer), he always seems to have some kind of nagging injury – a tweaked shoulder here, a dinged up knee there – and he can’t remember the last time he looked in the mirror and thought to himself, “are those my pecs or a steel plate I have on my chest?”

He’s more or less spinning his wheels.

Does this sound vaguely familiar? Can you relate?  What the hell is he/you doing wrong?

It’s certainly not lack of effort or desire.

I’ll Tell You What’s Wrong

You know that popular saying, “The best program is the one you’re not doing?”

Well, I think a more cogent saying should be,

“The best program is the one you’re not doing, and the one you’ll actually follow for more than a week at a time.”

In other words: Far too many people tend to fall in the trap of program hopping.

One week Matt wants to focus on fat loss, only to do a complete 180 after reading an article the following week talking about a kick-ass Smolov squat cycle.

Then, inevitably, he’ll join his local CrossFit box and do that for a few weeks. That is, of course, until he’s done so many kipping pull-ups and burpees that he hates life or can’t feel the right side of his face.

Which ever comes first.

And then he’ll come across yet another program that promises to add four inches to his biceps, 50 lbs to his bench press, and help him speak fluent Mandarin in a month.

Oh, but wait – two weeks into that program he forgets he promised his girlfriend he’d train for a 5K with her scheduled later next month.

Shit. Goodbye gainz.

You get the point. And I have a fair assumption that, while the above example(s) are a bit exaggerated, many of you reading are sitting their with your tail between your legs.

Many begin an exercise program (whichever it may be), only to follow it for a week, or worse, days, and don’t get immediate results…then blame everything on the program.

Guilty as charged, right?

Program hopping can have a number of detrimental effects:

1.  You never give the body the chance to truly adapt to anything. While it’s a good thing to NOT perform the same things over and over again for months on end (which a lot of trainees make a mistake of doing); the same can be said for switching things up too often.

More to the point: There’s a distinct lack of skill development. You never get “good” or develop proficient at doing anything.

It’s a pendulum that’s swung either too far to the left (not changing anything) or too for to the right (program hopping), and what most people need is to swing it back to the middle.

2.  Moreover, with program hopping, it makes it much more of a challenge to gauge actual progress.

As noted above, if one week you’re performing a deadlift specialization program only to switch gears three weeks later to follow a bench press specialization program, how the heck do you expect to measure progress?

I don’t know if there’s such a thing as program hopping Adderall, but I will say that for most people, most of the time, what will help them most is a program that will give them structure.

Something that will lock them in and keep their focus for more than a week at a time.

A program that will give them purpose, a goal. Results!

Boom, Goes the Dynamite

A few years ago my good friend, business partner, and long-time training partner, Eric Cressey, released his flagship resource Show and Go.

To say it was a popular program and a huge success would be an understatement. It helped countless people nail personal records they never thought possible, take their physiques to another stratosphere, not to mention helped thousands to learn to move better and feel like a million bucks.

As much as the programming was top-notch, I think the biggest benefit was that it held people accountable and kept them on track for an extended period of time.

It gave them focus!

And like magic, people finally attained results.

A few years later Eric released his second digital training program, The High Performance Handbook.

It’s everything Show and Go was/is, but 10x better.

For movie buffs out there reading, it’s like this: The Godfather was the shiz. But the Godfather II? Well, that mofo slapped you in the face and called you it’s daddy.

High Performance Handbook is The Godfather Part II (<– Eric, you have my permission to use that as a blurb).

It’s been a very popular program, one of the best selling programs on the internet since its initial release, and it’s currently on SALE at $30 off the regular price.

NOTE: I recognize everyone who’s anyone in the industry is highlighting the sale today (and all this week for that matter2.) on their respective blogs and websites.

And rightfully so…it’s an awesome program.

But unlike everyone else, I’ve actually seen the program performed in the flesh and KNOW how well it works.

1. First off, The High Performance Handbook allows anyone who purchases it to customize the program to fit their body-type. There’s a self-assessment component that no other training program has implemented before.

Rather than provide a cookie-cutter program – which, lets be honest, is how things have to be done over the internet when you have limited (if any) actual face time with people – Eric made it a priority that people would be able to modify the program based off their body type, exercise frequency, as well as equipment availability. So, in many ways, this is as NON-cookie cutter of an internet program as you can get.

2. This is about as close as anyone is going to get to training at Cressey Sports Performance without actually stepping foot in Cressey Sports Performance.  The templates used and the exercises provided have been tested (and proven to work) time and time again, and are the EXACT same protocols we use to turn people into tanks on a daily basis.

3. Speaking of exercises:  Eric filmed over 200+ videos for this product, including all the coaching cues and bullet points we use with our athletes and clients at the facility.  That’s over three hours of content on its own.

4. Lastly, there are some pretty sweet bonuses involved from fellow Cressey Sports Performance coaches Miguel Aragoncillo and Andrew Zomberg

In all,  you’ll have the option of purchasing the Gold Package (which includes the Nutrition Guide) for $30 off the regular price, or the Silver Package (no Nutrition Guide) for $30 off the regular price as well.

I tried convincing Eric into tossing in a 5×7 picture of me flexing to help sweeten the pot, but he didn’t bite. Pfffft, whatever.

Both options are a steal considering you’re getting 16 weeks of programming with Eric coaching you every step of the way.

The sale’s almost over. Act now. You won’t be sorry.

—-> The High Performance Handbook<—-

CategoriesMotivational Strength Training

Why It’s Not Always JUST About Strength

“One more!  Get it! Yeah!  All you, all you, all you. Just the pinkies.  JUST…….THE……PINKIES!!!”

We’ve all been there.  Rolling our eyes at the two meatheads who are screaming at one another and drawing attention to themselves as they eek out one more rep on the bench press, or squeeze out another rep in the squat rack, or, I don’t know, engage in an epic thumb war battle.  Who knows?

The point is, we’ve all seen it happen. Or, more to the point, have been there ourselves (don’t worry, I won’t judge).

While 95% of the time the guttural screams we hear at the gym are nothing more than some lame song and dance to garner attention or some alpha-male power play akin to a peacock spreading its feathers, sometimes, on rare occasions, it just comes down to someone working their tail off.

And that should be commended.  To an extent.

Let me expound a bit.

You see, deep down inside I’m a meathead at heart.  I’ve been lifting weights since I was 13, and can remember vividly the Christmas morning when I got my first weight training set from my parents (I mean Santa).  It was one of the best mornings of my life, and I can remember like it was yesterday how I instantly plopped down on the bench to bang out a few reps of bench presses.  All in the comfort of my He-Man pjs. It was awesome.

The next 10-15 years were filled with your prerequisite training career.  I can recall doing my fair share of bicep curls in front of the mirror just outside my bedroom door while my stereo cranked out the likes of Wu-Tang Clan and Stone Temple Pilots.

I can only imagine what was going through mama Gentilcore’s head as I was upstairs cranking out curls and push-ups as Wu-Tang Clan’s Ain’t Nuthin to F*** Wit was shaking the windows.

Ma!  The meatloaf!

It was business as usual all through high-school and college.  As my baseball career developed I spent more and more time in the weight room as a means to an end.  My goal was to play professional baseball (and to make out with Mariah Carey. It was the mid-90s, sue me!) and I’d spend much of my free time working out and doing what I needed to do to make myself better.

I won’t sugar-coat anything: While I had a few professional looks and tryouts, it didn’t pan out.

After I was done playing, my goals then turned to what else: getting jacked. While I was able to make some progress in the gym – it wasn’t until I started my first job in corporate fitness and started reading sites like T-Nation that I started to place a premium on STRENGTH!

It’s hard to believe, but I didn’t perform my first deadlift until 2003, when I was 25.

A funny (and looking back, a not so coincidental) thing happened once I started training for strength. I got results!  I went from 180 to 21o lbs in less than a year, and while all of that was cool……..I was no where near closer to making out with Mariah Carey.

For the record:  I’m still referring to mid-late 90s Mariah, not the hooched out diva, uppity bitch of today.  And yes, I realize that at this point in the story I’m past the 90s, and unless I have a flux capacitator in my back pocket the chronological order doesn’t jive. Whatever Einstein.  It’s my story, just roll with it.

Getting back on task – I’m a strength guy.  I wouldn’t call myself a strength coach if I wasn’t.  I feel strength and getting stronger should be the backbone of anyone’s program.  You can’t have things like power, agility, endurance, charm, and unwittingly good looks without first having a solid foundation of strength.

Likewise, there aren’t many guys (or girls) out there who have built impressive or admirable physiques who aren’t strong.

One of the best analogies I’ve ever come across about why strength is important is to think of it as a glass.

What kind of glass are we talking about here?  A standard 8 oz glass?  A wine glass?  An Optimus Prime collectors mug I got in a Happy Meal circa 1985?  This post is just chock full of nostalgia today!

Well, any glass really. The idea, though, is to make the glass bigger!

This is an analogy I first heard from Eric Cressey, and again later on from Master RKC instructor, Brett Jones.

Think of strength as a glass, and the water inside the glass as all the “qualities” we train for:  endurance, strength-endurance, power, agility, speed strength, strength speed, having the ability to somehow take F.O.R.E.V.E.R in the bathroom getting ready (ladies?), you know, those types of things.

The smaller your glass, the less “qualities” you’re able to express, let alone at a high level.  That said…..

Strength is the basis for everything. 

You can’t be “fast” without having some semblance of strength (or horsepower) in reserve.  You can’t improve your timed mile, or taking a bit further, your marathon time if you can’t generate more force into the ground to propel yourself forward.

The larger you make your glass, the more liquid you’re able to place inside said glass, and the likelihood your performance improves.  Whatever your endeavors may be.

That said, and going back to the example of the two meatheads above, as much as I LOVE strength and getting people stronger, and as much as I respect people who work hard and get “after it,” it does come at a price.

In other words:  you can’t ALWAYS grind out reps and beat your joints to a pulp, and a well-rounded program isn’t SOLEY about lifting as much weight as possible until your knees or shoulder or spine feels like tossing you the middle finger.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before………

Eric Cressey released a book this week!

You’ve no doubt been inundated with countless posts, tweets, and Facebook statuses from other fitness professionals about The High Performance Handbook this week.  And getting the obvious out of the way, this was a post “disguised,” in large part, to support Eric’s new book, to sell a few copies, and yes, to help fund my insatiable ice-cream habit…..;o)

Speaking truthfully, however, the main impetus was to help get a quality product into the hands of people who need it.

There are a boatload of people out there haphazardly going to the gym each and every day not making progress, and more often than not, causing more harm than good.

Sure many are lifting weights, but many are lifting weights poorly.  On top of that many don’t understand that a well-rounded program entails much more than just hoisting weights off the ground, and that if more people learned to tweak a program to fit their body-type, needs, and capabilities on top of addressing movement quality, that they would see profound differences in not only how they feel but how they look too.

And that’s the crux of The High Performance Handbook and what separates it from the masses.

Make no mistake:  you’re going to lift heavy things and hate life at certain points.

But it’s not just about lifting weights.

It’s also about moving well, and also understanding how to lift weights correctly.

I think most people reading this site knows my affiliation with Eric, and by extension Cressey Performance. This resource is about as close as you’re going to get to training at CP without actually being at CP, and it goes without saying that I feel the “system” works.

To that end, you only have until TONIGHT (SATURDAY, October 26th) at MIDNIGHT to take advantage of the introductory sale price.  After that the price goes up significantly.*

UPDATE:  it’s been brought to my attention that Eric’s extended the offer to come train at Cressey Performance. Anyone who purchases the book before the deadline, will be entered to win an all expenses paid trip to come train at Cressey Performance. We can totally like, hang out and stuff!

—-> The High Performance Handbook <—-

* = and a baby seal cries.