Another Semi Rant: Too Much Variety

[Colt McCoy]

My fiest semi rant was somewhat well-recieved. I expect this one will probably not be as well received as the first.

This semi rant was inspired by this thread about Chad Waterbury's Total Body Training program. I think I've made it clear that I'm a big proponent of total body training in general. I'm also a proponent of Waterbury's stuff in general, and think he's one of the writers on t-nation that's very much worth reading, especially his takes on training frequency, and training to failure. So I don't want this post to be taken as any kind of shot at him or that program. What I am saying is that these programs that continually shock your muscles and system with variety are not best for beginners.

In his Total Body Training article, Waterbury says:

[ QUOTE ]
Bill Starr came damn close to pulling off one of the best training programs with his classic text, The Strongest Shall Survive. His initial parameters were excellent. Unfortunately, his program wasn’t willing to adapt, so progress on his "Big Three" program came to a screeching halt for most trainees. You can’t endlessly perform the same exercises with the same parameters and keep experiencing results!

[/ QUOTE ]

Now if you've read any of my posts here, you know I love Bill Starr's 5x5. I also agree 100% with what Waterbury says here. However, Starr's 5x5 is a beginner program, and beginners don't need variety! The fact is beginners will gain on almost any halfway decent program.

Will they, as Waterbury states, eventually need a program with more variety to break plateaus and continue to progress? Yes. But that's not an issue for beginners to worry about. They need to be building a solid strength base. This is best done with a few heavy movements.

Why is this the case? Because a large part of what you're doing is not just working your muscles, but teaching your Central Nervous System. If you haven't worked hard and heavy before, your CNS doesn't know how to efficiently recruit muscle fiber. It doesn't know how to be strong. It has to learn. Like everything else, it learns through repitition. This is at least partially what the grease-the-groove (GTG) method that Blarg lies to write about accomplishes, and how people are able to get so strong using it.

If you're constantly switching up, your CNS has to constantly try to learn to recruit different muscle fibers to different movements. It has to "learn" the new movements. Then, just about the time it's done that, instead of being able to learn to recruit more fibers to make you stronger in those movements, it has to learn a new movement. So basically, your CNS has halfway learned a bunch of movements, but you still haven't taught it to recruit more fibers. In other words it hasn't learned to be strong. So you'll never be able to optimize strength gains, or at the very least you'll delay your progress.

Instead, what I'd propose is that you stick with one of the beginner programs like Starr's 5x5 or Rippetoe's Starting Strength as long as possible. Let your CNS learn to recruit as much muscle as possible with those basic big compound movements. When you plateau, and you will, try changing a variable or two. Play with rest periods, rep schemes, swap out a movement for another one.

Eventually you may end up needing something like Waterbury's ABBH or Total-Body Training routines, and at that point I'd say go ahead. But don't be surprised if, when they eventually stop working, the thing that again jumpstarts progress is another simple program of a few compound movements.

[thirddan]

i really like these posts colt...you should do at least one Rant or exercise (like your farmers carry/getup) post per week...i think they are good for the forum and educational...

question...i haven't looked to much int CW's TBT program, but ive been doing ABBH for 5 weeks...its a 4 day upper/lower split...
Day 1 = bench/row
Day 2 = squat
Day 3 = dips/chin-ups
Day 4 = deadlift

all compound movements, just different params than the 5x5...im enjoying it, seeing some gains, and will probably just go another 6 weeks when i finish this series...i don't really see a problem with this approach...