I dunno why I let silly things surprise me but this issue keeps creeping into my life. Novice lifters who are looking for a special pill to make them better without actually putting time in the gym. These special pills come in many forms:
*Paleo Diet
*Zone Diet
*Gluten Free Diet
*Carb Backloading
*Specialized programming of accessory lifts
*Low Fat intake v. Full Fat intake and when either should happen
*Things that DON’T APPLY to 90% of you
There is a huge misconception that doing any of the above will suddenly make you CrossFit like Rich Froning; make you throw like Adriane Wilson or Matt Vincent; make you Strongman like Big Z; make you anything like a genetically gifted athlete who has worked YEARS at their sport or activity. Ask Big Z how he schedules his carbs and protein grams and he’ll look at you as if your head and arse were suddenly switched around. Why? Because he doesn’t sweat the small stuff. When asked (not by me) in Finland how he schedules his training, Z simply replied, ‘I do sets of five. When it gets too heavy, I do sets of three. When that gets too heavy I do doubles or singles. Then, I am strongest.’ You can’t argue with that.
Now, if you are truly in the elite class of athletes and your sport demands it, minutiae comes into play. Obviously. But to say you’re going to add one or more of these items into your training or exercise just because the elite does, is silly. Duh. Silly. If you’re a rank novice who simply needs to train and gain weight, then train and eat more. If carb backloading has given you a big gut, you’re doing it wrong. And why are you doing it in the first place? You’re not special, you just need to gain weight. Special diets need not apply, eat more. YBF.
To say you’re eating Paleo to help your Fran time so you’ve come up with the perfect paleo pancake and ate four this morning, shut up. You just ate pancakes. Stop pretending it’s healthy. If you feel better with special diets, fine. Just stop pretending that you’ll suddenly wake up elite because the top gun guys are doing it.
There are plenty of coaches on the interwebz who are selling specialty programs and diets on the premise that this is what the elite are doing. Buyer beware. The guys who have been around for a while more (Wendler; Tate; Westerling; Rip) have repeatedly stated to just train and eat. Especially as novice or intermediate athletes. If you are lucky enough and genetically gifted enough, THEN you start looking at the magic pills. But that’s a big ‘IF’ that won’t pan out for most of us.
But many will still look for the magic pill. Just be honest about it and stop criticizing fat people who look for an ‘easy’ way out of being fat. Many of you are doing the exact same thing with your training. Truth.
You want science and studies? Fuck you. I’ve got scars and blood and vomit.
Jim Wendler
tosabarbell 