THE 'PERFECT PROGRAM'?
- Oliver Sifkovits
- 20 minutes ago
- 4 min read
If you have ever wondered about the existence of a training program that will turn you into a championship lifter overnight, within a year, or across your lifespan, you have come to the right place.
The word 'perfection' stems from the Latin 'perfectiō' - meaning 'a completing, finishing.' The word therefore tells us that a process has developed to such a high level of excellence that it cannot be improved any further. Einstein's definition of insanity ('Doing the same things over and over again while expecting a different outcome') could have taken a turn here by thinking that anyone or anything will ever achieve perfection.
The reality is, there is always room to improve yourself or something. So things can never be perfect. Don't be the odd one in the room who thinks otherwise.
Human nature - while to large degrees predictable - contains elements which cannot be predicted. This includes the laws of biology and physiology. How do you know whether a certain program you are going to apply over the next training block is going to give you precisely the results you are anticipating? One would say 'I'm sorry, but...' - but I'm not sorry, and I'm telling you that you cannot predict the results of any given program you are going to untertake. How on earth could you?
This brings us to the point where have to distinguish between programs generated by a crystal ball - and best practices. Over many years of experience, we can draw somewhat accurate conclusions on how a program could work out for us - some with greater, some with lesser degrees of precision - but we can never 100% tell how our body is going to react to it.
It is important to understand in this context that trade-offs and adjustments are a key part of successful programming. Working around niggles and injuries, breaks from training, high stress at work, and other factors which can impact our ability to perform in a given training session all have to be taken into account.
Don't get me wrong: working with the right set/rep schemes, combined with the appropriate exercise selection and training frequency are still key for making progress in the gym. But whether a 5x5 or 6x4 or 7x3 scheme is a better choice for your bench volume day (or a combination of all), you are only going to find out once you have applied it.
There are many things which make sense on how to set up a program, and there are even more ways which don't make any sense at all - other than being a sure-fire way to mess things up.
For example, you are benching heavy in your monday session where every rep looks like your face is going to explode. Trying to hit a new record on your volume press after that? You will most likely have to make a trade-off as there's only so much energy in your upper body muscles to grind through reps - especially if you have gotten reasonably strong by this point. In this case, you will have to drop your press weight down to around 90%.
Grinding on your squat three days a week and feeling like death? Perhaps a good idea to drop the intensity in some of your sessions as your body can't keep up with the fatigue it has created.
Training in the gym three days a week, while playing two other sports at the same time? You can't hope for new PB's in every session, and you are going to have to introduce lighter days into your training so you can manage your overall workload during the week.
If you are confused whether you are doing the 'right' program at a given moment in time, ask yourself these four questions:
Are you making progress at a predictable rate, while feeling recovered throughout the week? Green light for you.
Are you making progress in the gym, but feel beaten up? Perhaps drop the overall volume a little (especially on the squat and deadlift), and check your calorie intake. You're under-recovered.
Not making any progress and feeling run down? Focus on recovery (especially sleep), and give doing a week of lighter training some thought (or as long as it takes until you feel recovered again). You are running on empty.
Not making any progress, but also not feeling sore or tired? Ramp up your training. You're messing around by not applying enough stress to your body.
The key message is that you can only choose what is 'best' for you at a given moment in time. I know that 'best' is a vague definition, but it is better than looking for that 'perfect program'.
Because if you look for perfection, you are looking for something which does not exist.
And looking for something which does not exist (while knowing that it indeed does not exist), means you have arrived at the doorstep to self-delusion.
Time to manage your expectations.