The Best And Worst Training Advice You Ever Got?

Great thread idea by the way.

The best advice I’ve ever got was that the best program is the one you can be consistent on, progress on systemically, and enjoy. There is no point in following a program that is lacking one of these 3 qualities.

The worst advice is a bit a hard to narrow down so I’ll just have to pick bad advice. My bad advice I have ever received is not trying and exercise because it’s considered “bad” or “unsafe” for you. While there are some merits to this, some of it is bordering on superstition. I have heard from many people who say that behind the neck military press is bad for the shoulders. I would argue that the exercise exposes weaknesses that should be addressed. I’ve never had problems with that exercise and actually feel it effectively training the deltoids without harm.

Beat advice that springs to mind?

Complaining to an old oly lifting coach that I was dommed out of my fucking mind only for him to reply…

“It’s a man’s sport”

Never complained about doms or anything else after that

Pwns log, although not advice, changed my mindset.

I get a lot of ‘you’re crazy’ on here but anything attributed to me is born directly from the spirit of Pwn’s work ethic and mindset.

I can easily say that he’s been one of the most profound influences on my training. Top 3 for sure.

Worst advice?

‘Eat big to get big’ immediately springs to mind. That shit kept me in a perpetual loop of dream bulker delusion.

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Nah. You guys are just willing to go for it in a real and effective way.

Coaches that write about conditioning detracting from gains like its bug spray are just appealing to the confirmation bias of people with record breaking body weight deadlifts.

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Great thread title @T3hPwnisher.

Worst advice - Its hard to pin point anything very specific here. I think in general the worst advice I got was pretty much anything from a muscle magazine in the 90’s. Those 20 set workouts that all the pro bodybuilders did, that really did nothing for me.

Best Advice - When I was young the best advice I got was from my dad, but unfortunately I was too young to really listen or understand. The advice was simple - ‘you are not eating enough’.
At the time I was eating what I thought was the right food and even having one of those fantastic muscle shake supplements that the magazines sell, there was no way my old man could know more than the pro’s!!

The best decision I made for myself in training was when I started back in the gym in my 40’s after many years away. The decision was to focus on just one thing ‘strength progression’. As soon as I stopped worrying about building muscle or looking a certain way and focused on simple progression I made the best progress I have ever made and it was all so simple.

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I think the problem was with the writing. My workouts would look the same on paper, but the weights would be ramped up on each set so only the last 1-2 sets are the real “working sets”. We had pages of workouts from these mags pasted on the walls in my old gym lol. Everyone I knew called it “pyramiding” at the time.

When I finally got to watch the videos of the pros training on YouTube, they were doing the same thing. I think you can find Ronnie Coleman’s back workout where he did the 700lb deadlift pre-contest posted somewhere. It looks crazy on paper. But then go watch the video. He ramps up the weights by 1 plate each set for every exercise.

If it says “5 sets of 6-12 reps” on paper, it really means he starts with 2 plates for 12 reps for his first set and ends up at 5 plates for 6 reps on his last set. I don’t think I have his level of MMC to make one working set work for me so I’d either increase the weight with lower increments for the last 2-3 sets or do 2 top sets with the same weight for most exercises.

Hell, even the Arnold Encyclopaedia of Bodybuilding book said Franco did 7 sets for deadlifts. I think he was really just working up to a top set.

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I’m sure your not the only one. I don’t use the natutilus, I use the Hammer Strength, but when I hold the weight at the bottom and concentrate on pushing with my elbows, I feel it really good! Basically, when I push more with my elbows vs my hands, I feel it in the lats more.

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Yeah, as I said earlier, I think people are “wired” differently. Some get more out of certain exercises. Some just don’t get much out of them. I only suggest the Nautilus machine because most people I know IRL have suddenly gotten an “epiphany” when they tried it out and felt their lats for the first time. It’s the trajectory of the elbows that’s the important part. To mimic this, one would have to start, say, a pulldown with his head under the bar and gradually move his body back during the movement and have the bar end up in front of him at the end.

The straight arm pull downs would be something else to try for people who can’t get the MMC.

It’s also why I don’t even like the idea of thinking about “movements” more than “muscles”. John Meadows always recommends pullovers for lats. I can’t seem to make them work for me so I use straight arm pulldowns instead rather than bang my head against the wall for weeks or months trying to make some arbitrary exercise work.

I look at his objectives for including the exercise instead. He says the rationale is for the stretch. I get a good stretch from a suitable alternative so I’m not even really modifying his program in principle.

I also have a permanent shoulder problem because of too many pullups during my military days so I generally avoid “vertical pulling” most of the time. However, after a bit of experimentation over the years, I found that rowing hits my lats better than any “vertical pulls”. Of course, these have to be done in a way which emphasizes the lats more so one can’t expect to do stuff like textbook Pendlay Rows and expect the same results.

People may think I’m “cheating” when I do barbell rows. I’m really just focussing on my lats since the bar would move up and down in a straight line with anything remotely heavy and I want the bar under my chest/sternum area at the start and below my lower abs at the end to hit them effectively.

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IIRC @EyeDentist once said something like he’d only do abs if he were stranded on a desert island and only had one choice of exercise lol. I could be wrong, though. Apologies to @EyeDentist if this is the case.

I get a lot out of any squat variation that involves having heavy something on your back so I generally don’t train them much.

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Worst: Don’t change anything up. You’re stalling because you are not working hard enough. This got me injured repeatedly and stalled and it hung with me a long time. As soon as I moved on to varying things in 6-12 week blocks I unstuck. Probably lost a year, maybe two of training on that one

Best: Don’t leave the gym until you’ve finished all the work.

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It might have been lateral raises…But abs are far and away the biggest bang-for-the-buck muscle group appearance-wise.

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I think they look awful on people with bloated stomachs or at levels of bodyfat that normally wouldn’t allow them to be visible, though. Not talking about the pros. I’ve seen older guys on certain types of “dry” roids with them.

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Appreciate all the positive responses folks. It’s interesting to see the contrasts in advice being “eat big to get big” being poor but also “you’re not eating enough” being good. Understanding demographics is a big part of things. I got “bad advice” from Elitefts from back in the day because I didn’t understand that advice was being given to 300lb powerlifters looking to maximizing weight lifted in powerlifitng gear, and my 190lb raw lifting self didn’t need to focus on board presses and box squats while mainlining oreos. The advice was good for who it was intended for: I just wasn’t that individual.

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Yep this is the key. The good advise of eat more was aimed at a 150lb 17 year old who had less meat on him than a butchers pencil. If you were already heavily overweight then this advise may not be as useful !!

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None of my best/worst advice was directly aimed towards me, but through reading I retained the information and put it into action… some stuff worked, some stuff didn’t.

Worst-

Carbs are as important to muscle growth as protein. You need carbs for fuel. While I’m dabbling in pre/intra carbs right now, the past 6-7 months have been fairly strict with negligible carbs and progress was outstanding.

Supplementing protein powder is important to meet your protein “goals”… I’ve basically dropped protein powder intake, I have 2 full bags sitting in my cupboard right now collecting dust.

Be cautious of overtraining. Don’t beat yourself up too much or you’ll derail your progress and have to deload.

Best-

@kleinhound there is no spoon

A quote from the great Bugez… “It’s a mindset”

And of course, @T3hPwnisher guiding me towards enlightenment through deepwater. It completely flipped the script in regards to training intensity/headspace for me.

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Worst…

Train explosively…this led to injuries

Train 6 days a week…I was obsessed with the gym when I did this

Bulk up…this got me fat, lol

Best…

Calorie deficit

Negative accentuated training…this is my preferred method of training

Full body…this allows me to enjoy my other hobbies

Best:
If you always want to be fit and strong, you always have to train

Worst:
Do a course of Cybergenics

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Best: Keep If Simple Stupid

Worst: too many

This review called No Time to Lift? Designing Time-Efficient Training Programs for Strength and Hypertrophy: A Narrative Review for me as general population 50 plus year old has the best training advice in one article.

Don’t be doing my boy Ronnie like that, it was 800 lbs in construction boots (deficit).

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My worst, was probably the powerlifting mentality that every male lifter is destined to be a SHW, or at least 242 lbs. Would rather look good and total 50-75 lbs less.

The best, is progression. If you get strong, you will be muscular for you.