Oddball Strong Training Principles
In my last post I talked about the principles that guide how I approach building a training program, from a philosophical perspective. This covered the WHY behind my methods, but not the methods themselves.
Today I am going to give you a little more insight into the actual ideas behind the HOW of my programming.
Starting with why is vital for long-term success but the how is also important. The best mindset in the world is useless if the training systems supporting it are no good.
The following principles are what guide my decisions during building a training program in order to get the best outcomes. This isn’t a specific “How to” for building a program, but it provides you with the outline of what to think about and provides a filter through which you can make your decisions.
These are the principles of how to train like an oddball.
Assess, don’t guess.
Everyone who steps into the gym has different goals, levels of experience, abilities, and body types.
For a training plan to be effective it needs to take these considerations into account, and the only way to know if every variable has been accounted for is to conduct a thorough assessment of a trainee before building out their program.
The goal is to collect as much detail as possible about their background, health history, experience, goals, etc. and to establish a baseline of movement ability and overall fitness.
Once this data has been collected and analyzed a framework can be put into place for their program.
But the assessment doesn’t stop there.
Once the training plan is underway it’s important to constantly assess whether a given approach is the best one to affect change.
Without this data we have no objective way of knowing which approaches are working and which aren’t, or if we are actually doing what we set out to do. Without it we may as well direct them to any one of the thousands of cookie cutter programs available on the internet. They would be just as effective as anything we could put together without the right baseline data.
Without initial, recurring, and continual assessment… you’re just throwing workouts at the wall and seeing what sticks.
Training like an oddball means never assuming that a given approach is the right one. It means rigorously assessing every part of the training journey to confirm that it is.
Train movements not muscles.
The human body is much more than the sum of its parts; everything is interconnected and nothing happens in isolation.
Yet that is exactly how many traditional exercise programs are structured: by training individual muscles, or muscle groups.
In my gym if you’re not a bodybuilder you shouldn’t train like one. That means no “leg day” or “back day” or “chest day”.
In the real world you use your whole body, and your workouts should reflect that.
Instead of doing lots of isolation work and focusing on the body as different segments we are going to train the body as a whole by targeting movement patterns: Squatting, hingeing, pushing, pulling, carrying, crawling, etc.
We can still sprinkle in some isolation work, as needed, to shore up areas of weakness, prevent injury, or for aesthetics. But the majority of the work will be more focused on the entire body and how it is meant to move.
Training like an oddball means training the body in a way that is consistent with how it actually works, rather than breaking it down and training different segments in isolation.
Train holistically.
Just as we want to train the entire body, not just its segments, we also want to make sure that we train every aspect of fitness instead of focusing solely on one or two at the expense of the rest.
There are 5 widely agreed upon health related components of fitness: cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular endurance, muscular strength, flexibility, and body composition.
I say widely agreed upon, but I don’t agree. My list is a little different.
I split cardiorespiratory endurance into two separate categories since there are two primary ways that it operates and the training approach for each is very different.
I include muscular power since it's one of the first things to decline with age and a fantastic predictor of health and injury risk.
I replace flexibility with mobility, since it's a more holistic concept that actually takes multiple factors into account instead of just muscle length.
And I drop body composition because in my experience if you focus on the 6 things I’ve just listed then the body composition won’t matter as much and will often take care of itself.
So that leaves us with the new 6 components of health related fitness:
Aerobic conditioning, anaerobic conditioning, muscular strength, muscular endurance, mobility, and power.
Each of these requires a specific approach to improve it and In a lot of training programs you will target one, two, or maybe 3 of these at the expense of the others.
To train like an oddball means incorporating every aspect of fitness into your program, to some extent. Some goals will require a greater emphasis on some areas over others, but every program will have a little bit of everything at some point.
Everyone is built differently and their program should reflect that.
I’m 6’6” and 250 pounds, my wife is over a foot shorter than me and over a hundred pounds lighter. Do you think that MAYBE we will have different anatomical advantages and disadvantages in the weight room?
Uh, yeah. You could say that.
Differences in body type, body composition, injury history, mobility, etc. make an enormous difference in what exercises are, or are not, appropriate for an individual.
Even across individuals of similar body types and proportions the unique abilities of two lifters may be wildly different, yet very few workout programs take this into account; rather than adapting the workout to the individual the individual is forced to adapt to the workout.
Even some very good coaches fail to recognize this need because, unfortunately, the fitness industry is still woefully behind in this regard. Only recently has much attention been given to this idea, and it still hasn’t gained the traction it deserves.
Training like an oddball means recognizing that everyone is unique and will have unique needs based on a number of factors, and then designing the BEST, SAFEST, and MOST EFFECTIVE program based on these factors.
Don’t take unnecessary risks.
Exercise carries inherent risks. The entire point of it is to intentionally and systematically stress different body systems in order to force them to adapt and improve.
There is a basic tenet of training known as “overload” which refers to the fact that the only way to create meaningful change through exercise is to demand more than the body can easily give in its current state. Doing so forces the body to adapt and increase its baseline ability to better handle said stressor the next time it’s encountered.
This process can obviously be dangerous, if not done carefully. Injuries, illness, and even death can occur if we ask too much of our body, particularly for individuals who are at higher risk such as those with underlying medical conditions, injuries, etc.
Despite this underlying risk the juice is still worth the squeeze. Few things have the potential to improve your overall health and wellness like a structured exercise regimen.
The key is to minimize the risk to the extent possible. This is done largely through adherence to the previously mentioned tenets. We need to collect quality data so we know what is contraindicated or potentially unwise. We need to train every aspect of the person we are working with to ensure that nothing lags behind and creates potential for injury down the road. We need to modify exercises to the individual in front of us rather than giving generic recommendations.
But most of all we need to weigh the pros and cons of each and every exercise that we incorporate into a program.
Sometimes an exercise may carry a higher degree of risk than another alternative, but the potential benefits make it worth the risk. But by and large we want to opt for the lowest risk, highest return, variation.
A lot of the exercises you may see on social media, things like juggling kettlebells, doing burpees over a barbell, doing handstand push-ups, etc. look really cool and impressive and may make you want to try them. But in almost every scenario the amount of risk for such exercises is very high, and the potential benefits are relatively low, so it’s not worth our time.
Even some very ubiquitous exercises like bench press and back squats, which are the staples of many a training program, won’t be the right variation for a lot of people. They’re great exercises but by and large the risks associated with them may not be appropriate for a lot of new trainees, particularly if they have pain, injury, or immobility.
Training like an Oddball means being conscious of the risks involved in a given exercise and being OK with its exclusion from the program if those risks are higher than the potential reward. It also means understanding that the risk:reward ratio is just as individual as any other aspect of the program and what might be a good fit for some won’t be for others.
No pain, no Gain.
I’m sure you’ve heard the mantra “No pain, no gain.” in regards to exercise before, but in my gym that mindset doesn’t fly.
Pain is not a normal or desirable outcome from training. Pain is a signal that something is wrong, damaged, or at risk of becoming damaged. NOT a signal of a great workout.
DISCOMFORT, on the other hand, is a normal and desirable part of the training process and is, ultimately, what Jane Fonda meant when she coined the phrase in the 80’s.
It may sound like semantics, and to an extent it is, but the finer points do matter. It’s OK to push through discomfort to finish a workout, but pain is something that should give you pause and make you re-evaluate what you’re doing.
Pushing past something that hurts and trying to finish a workout anyway is a great way to get injured. Listen to your body when it whispers, or it WILL raise its voice to get the point across.
**Caveat: If you have an existing injury then pain with movement is expected, to an extent, and IS something that will need to be very carefully and very slowly pushed through to re-educate the body how to do the movement without pain. But it’s a fine line to walk and is best left up to a professional. Don’t assume that the pain from your injury is the “good” kind that you can work through, go see a PT and let them decide.**
Training like an oddball means learning the difference between pain and discomfort and pushing through the former while respecting and avoiding the latter.
A good program will give you more than it takes from you.
Training isn’t supposed to tickle. You’re stressing your body and breaking it down with the intent of making it better, but by definition this is going to be uncomfortable.
But that discomfort is a byproduct of training, not the end goal, and we want to limit it to the extent we can, and we certainly don’t want to glorify it.
There’s a pretty consistent mindset in the fitness industry that if a workout doesn’t leave you lying on the ground in a puddle of sweat, or hurt so bad you can’t walk for three days after, then you didn’t go hard enough.
In reality a great workout will usually leave you feeling better than when you started and, though you may be sore for a few days after (particularly early in the training process) it should never be debilitating.
Now there is a time and a place for going hard and pushing yourself to the limit, and every so often we are going to take you pretty close in order to squeeze the most out of a given attribute, but those efforts are going to be the exception not the rule.
Training like an oddball means recognizing that exercise is going to suck sometimes but as a byproduct, not by design. It means training in a way that makes you feel better, not worse.
Imperfect consistency > Perfect inconsistency
Everything we have talked about so far is important, and plays a vital role in building a safe and effective training program. But if that program isn’t adhered to then it won’t matter. Nothing will happen.
The true secret to training, if there is one, is that the only way to make consistent progress is through consistent effort.
Very few of the hundreds of people I’ve met with over the years are brand spanking new to training. Most of them have tried, and failed, to see progress on their own; often many, many times.
The story is almost always the same. They start strong, and with good intentions, and for a little while they do everything right and check all the boxes (exercise regularly, eat healthy, sleep, drink water, etc.) until one day they just… stop.
Typically the average person approaches fitness through fits and starts. They do an amazing job for a little while, then stop for a little while and do nothing until the impetus to get back in the gym is strong enough to start again.
This “yo-yo” approach to fitness and health is the primary reason why most people don’t succeed on their own, and it's one of the best arguments for working with a trainer.
But not everyone can, or wants, to work with a trainer, and that’s OK. To those people (and I am one of them, even trainers can benefit from a trainer) I say this: Doing pretty good, most of the time is better than doing perfect some of the time.
Your training plan doesn’t need to be perfect. You don’t need to work every single muscle group equally, put equal emphasis on every aspect of fitness, or be perfectly periodized. Good enough is good enough.
What matters is that you stick to your program, whatever it is, week after week, year after year, decade after decade.
You don’t have to have perfect adherence to your imperfect plan. Missing a day, or a week, or even a month (or two!), is going to happen. But getting right back into it and doing your best to limit these large disruptions is the key.
Training like an oddball means training to improve your life, and that means training for a lifetime.
Everything I have mentioned here today is important and you should do your best to include it in your training. But even if you half ass or ignore every point I’ve made, except this one, you will still come out ahead of the people who cross every t and do every i… and then quit after 3 months.
**Important note: Doing the bare minimum might not move you forward, but doing less than the bare minimum WILL move you backwards. It’s OK to maintain. You don’t ALWAYS have to be pushing hard and moving forward, staying where you are is a form of progress. As soon as you stop moving you start declining. Learn to be OK with a maintenance program if that’s where you are in your life. If, and when, you have the time and energy to push harder you can start moving forward again, but in between those bouts of energy… just tread water. It sure beats drowning.**
Training like an oddball means recognizing that imperfect action will always trump perfect inaction. It means that showing up, consistently, is more important than anything else I’ve said here today. It means being OK with not moving the needle forward when life gets crazy, but still showing up and doing SOMETHING to keep from going in reverse. It means training for a lifetime.
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I’ve spent my career assembling and refining this list and I have studied just about every facet and discipline of improving human performance in order to compile my own schema. I reserve the right to change or add to this list in the future because I am constantly learning and improving. But it has served me, and the hundreds of people I’ve helped over the years, well.
These principles may not be, by themselves, a blueprint for designing a training plan, but if you filter the decisions you make about your training plan through these guidelines your program is going to be leagues ahead of what most people are doing.
I’m not saying it’s the “right” way or the only way, but it’s my way. It’s the oddball way.
If any of this resonates with you, maybe you’re an oddball too. Email me at info@oddballstrong.com if you want to learn more.
