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We all train for various reasons. Here are a few of them:
1) Increased performance (for sports, martial arts, whatever)
2) Increased size
a. Increased self-esteem
3) Addicted to making progress (this is me)
4) Fulfill immediately psychological need
a. Enjoy moving the weights, the pump, the feeling of it
There's one that we don't explicitly talk about much but often is in the subtext of many larger and more controversial posts. That would be 4).
Whether you realize it or not, that psychological need is at the crux of many of our major arguments here: failure vs. non-failure, training for the pump, doing high volume and/or dropsets, etc. Science tells us that many of these things don't really help us make progress, but we do them anyway. Why? Because we are fulfilling the little-known 4th need of the weight trainer.
The pursuit of lifting for its own sake (ie NOT for growth, NOT for strength, just because you enjoy banging out reps), is JUST as noble as training for any of the other things.
Why do I say this? Well, it seems like some members have a bone to pick when people don't do things the way they think it should be done. I used to be like this. I'm sure many of you guys remember me getting in bitchfights with DC advocates way back when. Well now I take it easy.
Here's my outlook: I don't know why any given individual is lifting unless he/she tells me. So I'm not going to go out of my way to criticize what he/she does and show him/her the better way. Now, if a member posts up their goals, reasons for training, and asks for a critique, then I will say "You should do this, and not do what you're currently doing."
But other than that, I realize that not everybody is going after the same things; not everyone cares about the best possible way to elicit muscle hypertrophy. For some, blasting the living bajeesus out of their muscles with many to-failure sets fulfills just as much of a need for them as reading up on hypertrophy research does for me. At any given point, the various lifting needs exist to different degrees. It's possible to train to failure, knowing it's not helpful, because you get so much out of it mentally.
So before you blast someone else's routine, find out what their goals are, and what they're trying to GET OUT OF weightlifting. Then advise. But don't take it upon yourself to spread, unsolicited, the holy gospel of whatever routine you support.
1) Increased performance (for sports, martial arts, whatever)
2) Increased size
a. Increased self-esteem
3) Addicted to making progress (this is me)
4) Fulfill immediately psychological need
a. Enjoy moving the weights, the pump, the feeling of it
There's one that we don't explicitly talk about much but often is in the subtext of many larger and more controversial posts. That would be 4).
Whether you realize it or not, that psychological need is at the crux of many of our major arguments here: failure vs. non-failure, training for the pump, doing high volume and/or dropsets, etc. Science tells us that many of these things don't really help us make progress, but we do them anyway. Why? Because we are fulfilling the little-known 4th need of the weight trainer.
The pursuit of lifting for its own sake (ie NOT for growth, NOT for strength, just because you enjoy banging out reps), is JUST as noble as training for any of the other things.
Why do I say this? Well, it seems like some members have a bone to pick when people don't do things the way they think it should be done. I used to be like this. I'm sure many of you guys remember me getting in bitchfights with DC advocates way back when. Well now I take it easy.
Here's my outlook: I don't know why any given individual is lifting unless he/she tells me. So I'm not going to go out of my way to criticize what he/she does and show him/her the better way. Now, if a member posts up their goals, reasons for training, and asks for a critique, then I will say "You should do this, and not do what you're currently doing."
But other than that, I realize that not everybody is going after the same things; not everyone cares about the best possible way to elicit muscle hypertrophy. For some, blasting the living bajeesus out of their muscles with many to-failure sets fulfills just as much of a need for them as reading up on hypertrophy research does for me. At any given point, the various lifting needs exist to different degrees. It's possible to train to failure, knowing it's not helpful, because you get so much out of it mentally.
So before you blast someone else's routine, find out what their goals are, and what they're trying to GET OUT OF weightlifting. Then advise. But don't take it upon yourself to spread, unsolicited, the holy gospel of whatever routine you support.
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) as well as something for me (as a HST-physiology nut) to keep in mind as I interact with others. Again, well said.
