Optimal Strength Training
With information access and social media the way it is these days, everyone has an opinion on what optimal strength training looks like.
Don’t get me wrong I am an advocate of maximising my own and my clients time in the gym. After all, we all have busy lives and unless you’re someone who competes in a sport at a high level, you don’t need to train for a huge amount of hours every week to stay healthy or achieve whatever your goals may be.
“Optimal” never stands still in terms of science. New evidence comes out all the time undoing our prior beliefs or reinforcing our current ones. But science is not the be all and end all when it comes to optimal training for you, and that’s something to remember.
Context
The evidence and principles that come from the scientific studies need to be applied to your context. While the science gives us the rules on what is the “best” way to train, context is the most important factor when it comes to what is optimal for you. Your context is probably moving all the time, unless you lead a very static life.
Your preferences and your context is something that is personal to you. Whilst the science provides the fences to create optimal results, you have to walk the path, and that is not always a straight line. Experience tells us that its really hard to predict what an optimal training setup looks like ahead of time. Life changes and so does the the amount of energy you can give to your training. This is where personal anecdotes come in very handy. After all who knows you better than you?
Truth be told, as long as you are applying the basic principles to your training and nutrition, results are probably going to be about 95% of what they could be if you dedicated your entire existence to your fitness.
So next time you start a training block and maybe beat yourself up about not doing exactly what an evidence based practitioner says is the most optimal way, remember that if you are training regularly, progressing over time, eating and recovering well, you’re probably going to be alright.
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