How to Train Yourself: The Complete Overview

Hey All!

Pete here coming at you on this beautiful Sunday afternoon!

I want to take a second to talk about what constitutes a good workout. Like so much else in this really convoluted, often-hypocritical industry, the answer can be both simple and not so much.

There are essentially two camps (plus a highly visible but altogether nonsensical third) that are trending right now. First, there’s the camp that I’ll dub the Achieve Camp because Achieve Fitness (based in Somverville, MA) are masters of this philosophy: that fitness should be simple and accessible. Second, there’s the Science Camp — no, not the camp all us nerds in grade school went to — but the camp that validates every training decision and exercise selection with a really long, boring scientific paper published in one of the many, many “reputable” exercise science publications out there. Then, there’s the third camp which might carry the most pull in the industry and that’s the Influencer Camp; here, you’ll find booty workouts for days and a lot of really shredded models selling very expensive programs that are neither simple nor adhere to any scientific principles.

Every camp has its own idea of how to perform exercises. For instance, let’s take the Squat. The Achieve Camp will show you a number of squats that anyone with some modicum of mobility can perform. For the Achieve Camp, whether you squat upright or bent over or anywhere in between, squatting is squatting and it’s just a question of figuring out which version you can or wish to perform.

 For the Science Camp, it’s better to squat with your knees pushed out over your toes and to the fullest range of motion you can control. In fact, some of the biggest names in this camp a la the Pat Davidsons of the industry are pushing hashtags like #makesquatssquattier and so on to counteract some of the nonsense purported by our final camp — the Influencer Camp. Now, the Influencer Camp has neither the noble intention or business savvy (depending on how you look at it) of the Achieve Camp so as to use the many squat variations as a means of creating an inclusive, anti-elitist environment, nor, as a whole, do they really care about the science, and therefore cannot care about your well-being in part or in total. Instead, they continue on the long tradition of preying on your insecurities and making money off of “programs” and “workouts” that are designed with the express purpose of resembling a legitimate workout and making you feel like you’ve really beaten the crap out of yourself (which often times you actually have). Whether or not this is intentional or just a sad outcome of ignorance is really not the topic of this post. For the purposes of this post, I’ll assume a spectrum with the Achieve Camp on one end and the Science Camp on the other.

Let’s take a moment to examine the flaws of both camps while assuming the best intentions of both. The Achieve Camp wants to include everyone — and by everyone I really mean anyone who is attracted to the idea of being included. They run classes and (using some guess work here) generate a lot of revenue from their online platforms. Naturally, that isn’t going to include anyone who is looking for a more personalized experience nor does it hope to cater to individual need. In their programming, they’ll give ten progressions/regressions of an exercise and then will leave it up to you to figure out which one works for you. The plus side of this is, there’s almost always going to be something that works for you; the negative side of this is, it’s rarely ever the best variation for you. The Science Camp, on the other hand, may or may not be all inclusive; it almost doesn’t matter as it certainly doesn’t present itself as such. It really just draws those who are attracted to the evidence-based approach or how smart something/someone sounds. Many of the pros and cons of this perception are pretty self-evident. Perhaps the biggest con here which many in the Science Camp are trying to resist is the trend to practice out of scope. Kyle Dobbs of Compound Performance identifies the probelm as trainers acting like “pretty crappy physical therapists” rather than “really good trainers.” For the client, that means you might be doing some really great therapy — perfectly positioned bodyweight squats — but that’s doing nothing for your fat loss / strength / general fitness goals.

What does this have to do with what makes for a good workout? Well, everything. The truth is, the fitness industry is a lot like the entertainment industry; it’s valuable but the drama of its celebrities (or, here, camps / popular ideas) distracts from the complete value it can provide. Fitness should really be all inclusive AND science-based, and there are exceptions to the rule that achieve both. A really great workout is as Achieve Fitness tweeted one that includes push, pull, legs, and core; I’d refine it to:

• Prep/Self-Assessment
• Squat
• Deadlift
• Push
• Pull
• Core
• Cardio

Exercise is, at its most inclusive, just these elements. There’s not a lot to the structure here but you could get away with Squatting, RDL’ing, Push-Upping, Pull-Upping, Planking, and Running for most if not the rest of your life and see some significant benefit to your general fitness. Are there more sophisticated ways to sequence these exercises? Are there exercises that are better for you? Are there ways to mess around with set/rep schemes that will make your hour of work more efficient? Are there ways to improvise for feeling tight in specific areas or for your particular physiology? Are there ways to periodize across weeks/months/years? Yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes. But does that mean there’s anything wrong with that basic framework? No.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to break down each movement and provide my own list of progressions/regressions for your general physiological categories. What kind of squat should you perform? How many sets and reps should you perform? Should you just do one exercise at a time or should you work in a superset or even a giant set? What even are supersets and giant sets?

My goal is to marry the philosophies of the Achieve Camp and the Science Camp. Unlike the Influencer Camp which is really a cancer to the body that is General Fitness, the Achieve and Science Camps work with your best interest at heart and would benefit from including more specific and general principles respectively to deliver the best results to whom both camps serve: you!

Next week, look forward to self-evaluating your body and picking the right prep drills for you so that you don’t spend half the hour you designate for working out to rolling around on a foam roller.

Until then, feel free to reach out with any questions you might have about all this! Get at me on ig, at [email protected], or at the contact link at the top of the page.

Talk soon!

Pete