all posts post new thread

Other/Mixed Are we cooking or baking here?

Other strength modalities (e.g., Clubs), mixed strength modalities (e.g., combined kettlebell and barbell), other goals (flexibility)
Status
Closed Thread. (Continue Discussion of This Topic by Starting a New Thread.)
Eric Wilson

Eric Wilson

Level 6 Valued Member
Programs are like recipes -- you should try them as written if you want the promised results. Everyone knows that.

But once my wife follows a new soup recipe, she'll almost certainly modify it next time. In fact, given her experience, she might modify it the first time. And she gets good results.

But if she is baking bread, she follows the recipe. The first time, the tenth time, the hundredth time. If she wants the bread to be different, she tries a different recipe. Because baking bread is like a chemistry experiment -- the ratios really matter, if you want a result that you can eat.

So how do you do it? Do you treat programs as a starting point, subject to modifications due to your taste? Or instructions are modified only by the cavalier and foolish?
 
The question assumes that all programs are written the same -- they're not.

Some have exact prescriptions; others have guidelines.
Some have distinct timelines; others have milestones to meet.
Some are meant for specific adaptations and meant to be run along with other training/activities. Others are meant to be all-inclusive.
Some even have parameters to be either way.

My general approach is that I assume that all the wisdom that comes with the program, AND the results suggested to be gained by it, are most applicable when following it as written. Further, by following it as written I join the collective wisdom about the program which then adds to its value as people follow it and share their results and experience.

Right now I get my program prescribed to me each week by my coach, so I follow it as written unless I have some specific issue to work around. He's using a template that he's used before and he customizes it for me. That's about as good as it gets, really! But I have learned a lot about myself and training by following programs on my own in the past. If I had to choose from the options in that case I would say I follow it as written the first time, and after that, it depends.
 
On a personal note, I think it's nuts not to follow a program as written because:
#1. The trainers who put it together are probably more knowledgeable than I am.
#2. You really can't say you've done whatever program unless you do it the way specified.
#3. Based on #2, you really won't know if it worked or not.
 
It depends. Do you know what you're doing? Whether in the kitchen or in the training hall, are you already a competent individual or are you new and inexperienced? And is the program you found off a random website of an aficionado, or has it been carefully curated by a pro? In the analogy, is training baking or cooking?

If I get a recipe from, say, Mary Berry or Alton Brown, I am highly unlikely to make substitutions. I will read, reread, and carefully follow what they say to the letter. And when it doesn't work out perfectly, I blame my skill in application more than their recipe. I look at myself and do an "after action review" to see why my elephant ears didn't turn out right.

On the other hand, when I find a recipe off of some food blog (oh how I despise food blogs), I read the recipe, I look at the comments and critiques, and I take what is said into consideration based on my experience before I decide how I want to proceed.

Sometimes I follow a recipe to the letter, and then make a note. For instance, there is a dry rub recipe that I got from a professional BBQer, made it exactly the way he said, and then after the fact made the note "use half the salt." And that made the recipe so much better!

So as in kitchen so in the training hall... It depends. On a lot. But when I taught a girlfriend long ago how to cook (she couldn't make coffee or boil noodles!) I did't give her room for experimentation. I'm not great at music, so when I do play, I do what the notes say, I don't improvise. I have two cousins that are professional violinists; I'm sure they do plenty of "playing what's written" but it is amazing to hear and watch them just ... Play. But they've developed the skills to do it after devoting a lifetime of study to the violin.

Back to the kitchen... I'm more likely to experiment with modifications after I've made a recipe once or twice, and much more prone to experimenting with breads. But often, with enough experimentation, I settle on a way I like to do something; I've "perfected" a recipe. Maybe, just maybe, when someone like Geoff or Pavel put out a written-in-a-book-for-sale program, that's their "perfected" recipe after countless experiments and trials, modifications and substitutions. It would be a credit to ourselves to at least try it once "as is" before monkeying around with it.

Sorry for the dissertation. Just sharing my thoughts. :) Time to get in the kitchen and cook!
 
I also want to add that when experimenting with cooking - whether trying a new recipe or modifying an existing one - you have to be prepared for "flops." That can be a simple fix - order pizza. In training, "flops" can be merely unproductive (or less productive) training periods, but they could also introduce an increased risk for injury (even if it is a "minor" nagging injury like an -itis). The stakes of flops are higher in training than in cooking. (Although some cooking flops result in house fires in extreme cases... so maybe not... but you catch my drift!)
 
I don't really eat baked goods ;)




I often find that after getting into a program, something specific to my body comes up, and I have to tweak it a little bit to fit my schedule, recovery, etc. However, as @Coyotl put it:
Coyotl said:
are you already a competent individual or are you new and inexperienced? And is the program you found off a random website of an aficionado, or has it been carefully curated by a pro?
Click to expand...
So if one is newer to training, it's going to be best to stick with a program. But with experience one will know better what happens by altering certain variables, so they will probably be okay adjusting things here and there.

To the latter point, this is like reading bodybuiding programs from bodybuilding magazines where all the lifters are on PEDs. If someone has not really worked out before, decides to get "jacked" and reads those programs, well......
 
Status
Closed Thread. (Continue Discussion of This Topic by Starting a New Thread.)
Back
Top Bottom