What Makes You Soft

In The Soft List, I wrote about the method I am using to track how many times an athlete misses a designated training session.

In this article, I want to delve deeper into this topic of "softness".

How I feel when I someone misses a session...

In my mind, there are 3 types of "softness" that would allow an athlete to make The Soft List.

1. Physical Softness

Physical Softness is when you are physically too sore to attend a training session.

For those of you who actively follow this blog, it should be no surprise that this is seldom the reason why someone would miss one of Advanced Training's sessions.

We actively prescribe to the "Less is More" concept, and unless you are Throwing Paint on the Mona Lisa, there is no reason this should ever happen.

2. Mental Softness

Mental softness is when you are not smart enough to remember when and where a training session is being held.

This one always entertains me the most, because athletes think it is an acceptable reason to miss a lift.
Unfortunately for them, I never allow ignorance to be an option.

Either you are not smart or you are a liar.

Regardless, you are soft.

3. Social Softness

Social Softness is when you lack the social skills to find it necessary to inform me that you will be missing a training session.


This softness is the one that actually irritates me the most, as it is rude and disrespectful.

When an athlete demonstrates social softness, it shows that they do not value my time.

They do not value the time I spent going to the gym.

They do not value the time I spent writing their program.

And they certainly don't value the time I spend after the session wondering where they were or how they were going to catch up to the rest of the group.


In Good Company

Right after I introduced the concept of The Soft List, Rob Mulligan (our all-time record holder in the deadlift) informed me that the LSU strength coach used a similar tactic in his weight room.

He would post the names of all the athletes that missed training sessions and show them to NFL scouts.

Below is an actual picture of his Soft List.