The Perfect Program
The perfect program!……Doesn’t exist. Not at all. In the same way that the perfect training style doesn't exist. As cliche as it sounds what we need to understand is that everyone's different everyone's motivations are different everyone's schedules are different everyone's goals are different. What is going to get some people excited to get into the gym maybe another person's worst nightmare but we need to find that excitement for each person. People are spending more time trying to craft or search for the perfect program for them then they are actually training, scouring the plethora of information that's on the Internet without any real hope of finding their own needle in their haystack. It may seem backwards of me to talk about there not being a perfect program out there, as I write programs for people through Elite Potential Athletics. However that's exactly why I write the programs, to give everyone their starting point for whatever their sport or goals are. We aim to their starting point through Elite Potential Athletics. A simple but effective program that they can rely on to help them progress through their own athletic endeavours.
My fear is that too many young people are becoming dangerously hyper-fixated on perfection in the gym. Perfection in any gym setting is an endeavour that doesn't exist. As I said there is no perfect program, there is no perfect physique, there is no perfect meal plan, there is no perfect strength, there is no perfect fitness level, there are no perfect results in the gym. “Perfect” is a constantly moving goal post that you never achieve, that shouldn't be the point of the gym the point of the gym should be to improve yourself in whatever manner suits your desires and to enjoy doing it. If you don't achieve goals along the way and truely acknowledge them motivation will slowly feel like it is impossible to muster. So that leads me back to my fear that young people starting their journey in the gym they have been so exposed to fitness influences and other people's manufactured ideas of “perfect” won't allow themselves to enjoy the journey and acknowledge their own achievements. This is dangerous as it leads down the dark path of early age steroid use that we have been seeing a huge upwards trend in more recently. I believe this is mainly due to social media fitness influences either openly or not so openly manufacturing their bodies or performance through steroid use and cosmetic surgery. The key word is “influencer” these internet personality have a real impact on young vulnerable (a little dumb perhaps) people.
So as I say to anyone that asks me for advice in the gym whether it is what is the perfect exercise for a muscle group, grip on the ezy-bar, or how to do a bicep curl that biases the long head, I say whatever you enjoy doing and is most comfortable to you is the best way. Because coming back over and over again is the most important part of the gym and you’re only going to do that if you enjoy the process not the ever changing destination.
-AJW
