To Thine Own Self Be True

At Advanced Training, we kick off "The Challenge" every year with a bench-off.

This bench-off has every member of the program perform maximum repetitions of 65% of their bench press. The person who gets the most reps is the winner.

There is one HUGE caveat...

If you fail on any single rep, you are are disqualified.

This means if you complete 17 reps and fail on the 18th, you are eliminated from the competition.

If you are thinking this story sounds familiar, you are correct.

I told a very similar one almost 2 years ago when I wrote "The Question".

I am kind of burying the lead here to prove a point.

Why?

Because ... every year we hold this bench-off and every year multiple guys get disqualified for failing on one of their reps.

And every year some misinformed athlete tries to call me out for being a hypocrite.

Here is the same conversation I have every year.

Me: "You failed on your 16th rep. You are disqualified"

Athlete: "What??? I'm disqualified?"

Me: "Yes ... You failed on one of your reps."

Athlete: "You've changed coach. I remember when Advanced Training was about pushing yourself to a new limit."

Me: "It is. But pushing yourself to the limit does not mean you are supposed to train to failure."

Athlete: "That makes no sense. You are getting soft."*

Me: (I actually say nothing at this point. I just stare in disappointment, realizing that after all this time my point has still not sunk in.)

So why is it that I do this? 

Why do I tell athletes to push themselves to a new limit, yet at the same time disqualify them for failing on their last rep of bench press?

For one simple reason ... I want them to "Know Thyself".

Why do I want them to "know thyself"?

1. I Don't Want Them To Get Hurt

Shockingly, most of the guys I train have no idea what weight they can handle. Here is another typical conversation.**

Athlete: "What weight should I use on shrugs?"

Me: "How many do you think you can get for 5 reps?"

Athlete: "I have no idea."

Me: "What would you do if I wasn't here?"

Athlete: "I would put about 6 plates on each side."

Me: "You can do that?"

Athlete: "No."

This scenario really scares me. 

It tells me these guys would be severely injured if I wasn't there holding their hand at every session.

While this lack of knowledge certainly helps drive more people to our program, my goal is not to make these guys 100% dependent on me.

My goal is to educate them enough so they coach themselves when they are forced to train alone.

In addition, I am not going to be around forever.

What are they going to do when I retire?

2. I Don't Want Them To Fail

I seldom, if ever, want them to fail on their reps.

Failure is bad. 

It taxes the nervous system, destroys your confidence, and reinforces bad movement patterns (aka habits) in your lifts.

If you don't "know thyself", you are never going to know how close you are to failure.

This definitely becomes a sticking point when I tell guys to leave 1-2 "reps in the tank" during a repeated reps set.

Many guys will either get buried by the bar or go on the complete other end of the spectrum and leave about "10 reps in the tank." Either way, they missed an optimal training opportunity.


The Predictable Responses

I already know what some of you are going to say.

You are going to say that some of the most successful people in the world have advocated failure.

Arnold...

Jordan ...

The great Bruce Lee ...

I don't disagree with any of one of them.  In fact, I would apply those principles directly to our training.

• Don't be so scared of competition that you don't enter "The Challenge".

• Don't skip "The Toughman" because you think you have no shot at winning.

• Don't avoid technical movements like the deadlift just because you are not good at them.

The only thing I am stating is that you should seldom train to failure. 

The long term risks of injury, bad movement patterns, or a burnt out nervous system far outweigh the short term risk of one extra rep on a bench press set.

It's not worth it little guy...

Post-Blog Notes

* Note: These same guys will also call me sadistic if I make them perform an uncomfortable stretch or some form of enhanced density training.

** Note: This conversation only happens the first time we execute a new movement. After that, I prescribe exact weights based on how easily they handled the load. If I cannot 100% gauge how hard the lift was, the cycle of despair starts again with this type of a conversation.

Me: "How did that weight feel?"

Athlete: "It was light."

Me: "How light? How much more weight could you have done for the same reps without failing?"

The athlete then either responds with one of these two illogical answers

Athlete (answer 1): "1,000lbs"

Athlete (answer 2): "5 lbs"




And this, my friends, is exactly why I continue to push each of these guys to "know thyself".