T Nation

What Happened to Trial and Error?

Bodybuilding
#1

As I’ve been reading over the past couple years I’ve been seeing more and more excuses to explain why someone cant put on muscle, why they gain fat really quickly, or a combination of the two.

I keep seeing terms like ectomorph, mesomorph or endomorph being thrown around. I see people saying they have high cortisol levels or low T levels and thats why they cant ______________________.(enter whatever you want here)

What happened to good old fashioned trial and error? You try eating a certian way and see if it works? Then you try lifting X heavy, doing X exercises or lifting in X rep range and see how it works out for ya. If it works then great keep doing it. If it doesnt work then change something up and try again?

Back before everyone under the sun had internet access people were lifting and eating using the trial by error method. Hell, 70 years ago no one knew what an ectomorph, endomorph or mesomorph even were. I feel like the accessibility the internet provides and the ease at which you can get blood testing done has just armed the worlds youth (it seems that most of the people making excuses are young) with a pre existing excuse for why they cant do something.

It just really pisses me off when I see this. Anyone else agree?

.greg.

EDIT: I know that some people have legit issues. Some have actual medical issues/conditions and I know blood tests have helped a lot of people, in that regard, to understand what is going on with their bodies. These people ARE NOT the ones I am referring to.

#2

People make excuses. Nothing new. “I can’t help it” is my favorite. When you really think about it, almost all excuses are extensions of “I can’t help it”.

Can’t help it, I’m an ecto.
Can’t help it, I have low T.
Can’t help it, too much stress at work… not enough time… can’t afford to eat healthy… bad genetics…

#3
#4

What happened to trial and error? A bunch of impatient pussies happened.

When I finally lost all my weight and started bulking, the rate at which I posted here or even lurked decreased probably three-fold. Instead of asking established guys around the site who would just push general information on me, I went out and learned and listened to how my body reacts to different stimuli… whether it was exercises, types of foods, etc.

People just need to buck up and fucking realize that X supplement and X Super-training program isn’t going to reap results with general half-assery.

#5

I approve of this thread. But I gotta go to the gym, so I’ll check in later.

#6

People want shit handed to them…trial and error is gone away in most aspects of life.

I’m truly thankful my parents were “older” when they had me so I could recieve that old school work ethic.

#7

[quote]SSC wrote:
What happened to trial and error? A bunch of impatient pussies happened.

When I finally lost all my weight and started bulking, the rate at which I posted here or even lurked decreased probably three-fold. Instead of asking established guys around the site who would just push general information on me, I went out and learned and listened to how my body reacts to different stimuli… whether it was exercises, types of foods, etc.

People just need to buck up and fucking realize that X supplement and X Super-training program isn’t going to reap results with general half-assery.[/quote]

FUCKING YES!!!

#8

Yea, it just comes down to information overload, to the point where people are doing more reading than lifting.

#9

[quote]Akuma01 wrote:

“I’ve got a case of the mondays, the tuesdays, the wednesdays… my tummy hurts” hahahahah that shit was awesome! That video should be posted in probably half the threads on this site! good shit Akuma

.greg.

#10

[quote]Ct. Rockula wrote:

[quote]SSC wrote:
What happened to trial and error? A bunch of impatient pussies happened.

When I finally lost all my weight and started bulking, the rate at which I posted here or even lurked decreased probably three-fold. Instead of asking established guys around the site who would just push general information on me, I went out and learned and listened to how my body reacts to different stimuli… whether it was exercises, types of foods, etc.

People just need to buck up and fucking realize that X supplement and X Super-training program isn’t going to reap results with general half-assery.[/quote]

FUCKING YES!!!

[/quote]

I think more people should adopt the Motto “Nut up or Shut up” (unless dealing with a legitimate injury)

.greg.

#11

[quote]gregron wrote:

[quote]Akuma01 wrote:

“I’ve got a case of the mondays, the tuesdays, the wednesdays… my tummy hurts” hahahahah that shit was awesome! That video should be posted in probably half the threads on this site! good shit Akuma

.greg.[/quote]

Im not one to accept excuses, from anyone, for anything. I found that video one day, and Play it weekly for myself, aswell as for anyone who directly asks me anything and doesnt accept what i say. “Go to youtube, type in ‘Nike No excuses.’ Then come talk to me.”

#12

I discovered my current lifting program that is working for me through trial and error. Then over the months I’ve discovered others on this site are similar things and it’s working for them also

#13

I like it! I’m going to steal that and pretend it was all my own idea and give you absolutely zero credit for it. K thanks

.greg.

#14

Damn, I missed a bunch of posts.

Can’t help it, I was squatting.

#15

[quote]gregron wrote:
I like it! I’m going to steal that and pretend it was all my own idea and give you absolutely zero credit for it. K thanks

.greg.[/quote]

If you hear a tapping at your window one night, and the air around you gets a little colder, dont worry too much, i’ll make it quick!

#16

doubles checks to make sure all doors and windows are securely locked tight. Puts a kitchen knife under my pillow

#17

Yeah it makes me laugh when people do that shit. Laugh AT them of course, not with them. Or when they act like my young lifting achievements are because somehow I’m cheating. What about the fact that while I was 17 and 18, at college, I never missed a meal at the cafeteria, always stuffed myself with foods that I didn’t even enjoy that much, never missed a day in the gym, didn’t go out and party, while they were slacking off doing nothing? And at 19/20/21, I was pretty much doing the same, minus the college part? It’s not coincidence, it’s work ethic and dedication. The end.

#18

People let the pendulum swing way too far and can’t make rational decisions. Diet is the big one to me as you can somewhat cookie cutter training but diet needs a lot of tweaking.

Joe Newb at 5’10 170 decides he’s going to eat right to put on size and sets up his macros

300 grams protein
350 grams carbs
50 grams added healthy fat(not counting what’s in the protein)

OK depending on what his individual metabolism and genetics(blah blah blah) that could be good and it certainly isn’t outrageous. 2 weeks go by and he doesn’t see Jay Cutler in the mirror so he trashes everything and eats like hell for 4 days. He reads a thread on T-Nation about the Anabolic Diet and gives that a go for… 2 weeks. Again not huge so he quits that and goes back to regular person eating. Carb backloading? Hell yeah! This process can repeat over and over again until he either quits or gets so frustrated he hires someone to do his diet.

Had Joe at week 3 on the initial macros just said “Hmm I didn’t gain any weight at all, maybe that wasn’t enough… I’ll bump the carbs up 50 grams between my two meals after I train and add another 10 grams of fat to my 2 night time meals” he might have been onto something. It’s slow, it takes logical and reasonable decisions but it’s the way this works.

You don’t even have to count macros to do this if you eat roughly the same amounts each day, you know lunch is 2 chicken breasts and a starchy side 5x a week… if your weight stalls add a 25 gram whey shake+some ground oats to that meal to bump the size up without really changing what you’ve fallen into habit of eating.

Training is the same way, it’s this program one month and then that and that… when if you were having issue maybe it’s just one EXERCISE that needs changed, 1 less set, 1 more exercise etc. This sport is not for the lazy but they certainly seem to be the loudest and have the most internet access lol

#19

Mini Rant:

Another thing that bugs me is when people are so easy to throw around the word “overtraining.” From my own experiences, while going through NSW training and deploying overseas, is that your body can do WAY MORE than you think possible if you just will/push yourself through it. (Being up for days straight, running and swimming several miles each day in full gear, more push ups than you can count or remember, running the O Course) I think most people never really push themselves and have no idea what REAL overtraining is.

Oh and the whole CNS activation/overload thing that seems to be really big recently. I know its a legit thing but seems like something that people use as an excuse. They wont even try something because on paper it seems to be “too taxing on the CNS”… Why not try it out and see if its too much for you personally?

Ok end mini rant :slight_smile:

.greg.

#20

Trial and Error.

I started out doing things much more complicated than they needed to be. At the same time I was thinking about things in a more complicated way than they needed to be thought about.

Then, as if magic, I came to the same conclusions that BB’ers have come to over the past couple/few decades— simple.

Train bodyparts. Train them separately. Train them often. Train them heavy. Eat enough to support them growing. Rest enough for them to grow from the separate, heavy, work that is done often. Repeat.

It’s so freaking crazy to have to have that epiphany for one’s self given that that is what everyone says before them. But, like many other things in life, one must come to the conclusions themselves.

It’s all trial, but by listening to the successes before, you can minimize the ‘error’.

I just wrote this in another post, but I’m a simple-is-better kind of dude. I work with some complex shit in my line of work, and the simplest solutions are almost always the best, most elegant, and most successful. True in many aspects of life, including BB’ing.