There is a lot that can be learned in a lab, but on the flipside, much that is learned in the field tends to always be discovered as the truth first, perhaps not as eloquently, but science usually catches up later.
If i may use music as an example, having taught many, those naturally geared towards searching for hours and playing, enjoying thoroughly, tends to rocket upwards when they add theory to their grit and efforts. However, the same cannot be said for those that destroy page after page of music theory, buy the finest instruments and have the most expensive teachers. Said another way, there's something about a crude Marciano or Frazier that when you fine tune the angles here and there, leads to something remarkably unbreakable. Whereas, no matter how many great coaches and scientific theories you can expound, or spending hundreds of thousands on state-of-the-art training, some fighters sleeping on silk sheets (no names need be mentioned here) just cannot get that 'it' factor, and fade out against a hungry fighter, less talented, with a .500 record.
Most of us cannot ever afford a lab, but we all have one that we can find empirical evidence, and that is our own bodies.
And I will say, that after taking almost a year off S&S, I have noticed some things:
-my deadlift went down even though i focused on it.
-pullup strength suffered.
-the lack of goblet squats in my warmups left me less flexible for back squats, and left me feeling 'a bit old'
On the other hand, when i did S&S almost everyday, i started getting that drowning-in-cortisol feeling and craved other things. At 47yrs old, cycling from a perfect 2x/wk 80% of the time, to a 4x/wk once in a while, seems perfect...in my lab. When I did 4x, my strength/endurance on the wrestling mats surprised everyone, and most definitely myself.
I missed S&S due to renovations at home, so i have come back to it, hopefully permanently. Starting tonight with the 16kg again was fun and interesting- and I need this rather than the half-dead nature of HIIT 3x every week...science be damned, 'kay, Bart?!