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| This is my story, and I'm drunk as hell. |
Telling Our StoryWe all have a story that defines who we are and the choices we make. Sally Sorority is the silly drunk girl who screams cadences of WOO-HOO for no reason. She is in every picture that has ever existed on Facebook, ever. Avery Toolbox is a Floridian with giant biceps and an ego to match. He will fight you, but never with a shirt on. Jill Goldencorn is a superJew bookworm extraordinaire. She has a 6.7 grade point average, which is fucking impossible.
What happens to these people when their story is rudely interrupted? Sally finds out noone really likes her and her WOO-HOO voice resembles a flayed bull in heat, Avery has the shit kicked out of him by a nerd who didn't want to fight in the first place (but knows kung fu like a champ), Jill gets Chlamydia and dies (thus failing a test she neglects to show up for). Suddenly, their perfect faith in a story is thrust violently underwater, and they need to either guide themselves back on track, or find a new story.
Chaos and Pain vs Everything Else
When we choose a training style, we create a story for ourselves. We not only need to dedicate ourselves towards training hard with our program, we need to believe that it will move us towards our goals. We do not need to be blind, but we do need to have faith. The internet is a useful tool when it comes to finding new or old training ideas, but it also serves as a catalyst to destroy the faith we have in ourselves and our programs. When you see someone who is big and strong touting a program, all you can surmise is that
the program worked for HIM. The reason hopping programs is a foolish idea is rooted in adaptation. Your muscles and central nervous system grow by adapting to a stimulus, then being overloaded with a new adaptation (more weight, different rest periods, drop sets, blah blah blah). If your body is not given the chance to adapt to anything, progression will come at a much slower rate than if you stuck to your guns.
I know how difficult it is to stay rooted to a training style. Just last night, I was read an article in the blog LIFT-RUN-BANG concerning bodybuilder vs powerlifter training. The blog's author argues that sticking to a routine comprised of triples, doubles, and singles is not sustainable long term because of the stress involved on the body's joints and CNS. My current training strategy is not pure powerlifting (Chaos and Pain), but it is built around using triples, doubles, and singles on multi-joint exercises for the majority of my heavy work. The author of LIFT-RUN-BANG has certainly proved his mettle in the world of powerlifting as well as gaining size, but this is no reason to blindly follow another path. Besides the fact that Chaos and Pain focuses on adapting to a high volume with low resting periods routine (something not discussed in the aforementioned blog), who gives a shit what someone else's opinion is? If it works, and it's fun, it's going to be my story. Reading the internet is useful, but believing it all is poison.
When you choose a story, stick with it and work hard.
Have faith, have fun, and get stronger.
