I never did get into this profession to “help” people, I should admit. I took to the field because I wanted to KNOW everything there is to know about the human body and the infinite interior of the human mind. To feed the most powerful craving of all – the craving for knowledge. And as far as helping people. That is a beautiful side effect that I am glad comes with the territory.



We Are All The Same AND We Are All Different, At Once

There is no exact right or wrong when it comes to the interpretation and methodological application of the observed principles of human functionality and response. This mathomechanical thinking, flimsily hid behind the veil of reason and logic, is the foundation upon which the boring, mundane, grey and dead fitness industry, IS that way. Averse to creativity, shielding itself from criticism using the imaginary powers of lab-coat worshipping “evidence based” thinkers. We humans are all as different from one another, as we are the same. Each person is a unique expression of the human project. The human project being a unique expression of the biological engine of creativity itself.

All the same essentially, but different at the same time fundamentally.

And the DIFFERENCES create the rules of individualization. Taking the essential block of human function and response, and carving it with the specific and uniquely sharpened chisel of individual need.

There is no mathematical formula that can predict the future functional state of a living biological being. And when linear mathomechanical thinking and thus logic and reason fail us, we see how biology, art and creative initiative can save us.

The Greatest Exercise Of All Time

If I had to pick just ONE. One only. Only one? I wouldn’t pick.

An exercise itself is nothing without considering its place in a workout. A workout is nothing without considering its place in a program. A program is nothing without considering where she, the trainee is coming from, where she is and where she wants to go. The key is context and nuance. They give relevance. And relevance explicates meaning. Context wipes the eyes of the haze of uncertainty and sharpens the solution finding apparatus of the coach. His mind, experience and foresight.

Each person is unique, though we are all the same. And that means each exercise means something for everyone, but that it also means something unique for that person. But it will not have the same magnitude of meaningful effect for two people in exactly the same way. BOTH situations need to be accounted for. The specific and the general.

Low Volume Training VS High Volume Training

Probably the most childish debate in the fitness world. And to imagine entire coaching niches have been built around both concepts just makes it all that much sillier. But lets move the entire situation into the realm of no context. Where we can see that BOTH are useful if cycled correctly. BOTH can provide their own unique stress signatures and BOTH can thus be beneficial for the trainee. So let’s end this adolescent bickering. Maintaining volume over time is to create stagnation. Playing with its highs and lows will add more cumulative benefit than sticking with either alone. As I’ve explained before, your body is adept at recognizing stress patterns. And any stress pattern maintained long enough will result in the creation of it’s own poison.

Result Do Not Happen At The Rate Your Mind Desires, They Happen At The Rate Your Body Allows

There is no clean linearity in biology. Your physical fitness progress will be a slow, heavy, drudging process. Testing the endurance of your patience. It will have micro-periods of linearly accelerative progress, punctuated with phases of near absolute stasis. A limbo of change. The stasis does NOT necessarily mean something needs to change in your program, because even when we interpret the body to be in stasis, it never is. As I’ve said before, you never train in the same body twice. The need to “change” is a massively common misconception based on a very average understanding of cause and effect in complex adaptive bio-systems like you and I.

One common theme? That stasis usually seems to be followed by another period of accelerated change. Why? I’m still working out the exact description in my head, so you’re going to have to wait on that. But till then, stasis is better than regression. But to be honest, sometimes regression is best of all. My friend Kerry Hayes, an exceptionally intelligent Engineer, forged the thought into a beautiful metaphor. With some editing from myself, he put it this way, “Like driving a fast car, the greatest acceleration is measured from the point of origin. As you go faster and faster the acceleration decreases. With the phases of stasis, I am guessing your body needs to change gear to reach a higher top speed. Each gear change invokes moments of deceleration.”

The biology of fitness is everything you never expected.