Official Acknowledgement: My Way Is Not The Only Way To Get Into Shape

I've said that dozens of times I'm sure. I happen to believe that more resistance training and a little cardio on the side is the best way... but depending on your goal, your circumstances, your preferences... hey, knock yourself out. I've said a lot that if you have a specific goal you need a specific course of action, but other than that as long as it is safe and enjoyable go do whatever you want to do.

Now having said all that... there are certain things that just don't work, or are a bad idea for other reasons. Those stupid VLCD meal replacement products, for example. I've talked a lot about what a bad idea they are and how they're likely to backfire in a number of ways. Exercising with no more strategic purpose than "to burn calories" is another pointless and futile waste of time and effort as well, as previously discussed.

It does sell a lot of equipment though. Home treadmills, stationary bikes, cross trainers, those gadgets that count how many calories you've supposedly burned during exercise... lawd. Whether it's at home or in a gym, the people who just walk on the treadmills for an hour or more per day... do they ever seem to change shape?

So... there's some stuff that doesn't work and isn't a good idea and unfortunately that happens to be the stuff that the industry promotes because there is money in it. It's also stuff that seems reasonable to more people, I guess. Walking on a treadmill, I can do that. Right?

Regardless of how much stuff doesn't work, there's still plenty that does. My program for example. I've put it together strategically with a few different things in mind to keep it evolving, keep it varied and interesting, and most of all to produce tremendous results in body sculpting through strength training. It does the job very well, but could you expect similar results with some other similar resistance based program? Absolutely. Of course there are elements to my program that I think are quite unique and beneficial, but you can take your pick of any strength training program and as long as there is a good balance of movements and you keep trying to do a little more than you did the week before, you'll make progress and get results.

Push / Pull splits, Push / Pull / Legs.... I've kind of gone off the 5 day splits I used to use but whatever... there's plenty of options and any of them could be good. Or, you might not want to do a weight training program at all. Plenty of other options out there too.

What's a little amusing though and very ironic is the people out there who DO think their way is the only way, and nothing else works. For a lot of people out there, it's not enough just to say "this is how I do it, and it works very nicely indeed", or even "this is what I do and I think it's best way and you'll be hard pressed to find something better". Nope, their way is the only way that works for all of these reasons they'll spell out to you, and if you don't have all of that stuff covered you can't expect any results.

It's entirely normal for us human beings to want to be "right". It seems to me though, in terms of what's the best approach in training and nutrition... there's not much point arguing about things. If you think your way is the best, go out there and get better results than anyone else. I'd suggest if you're really happy with the results you are getting, you'd be secure enough in your self esteem not to feel the need to tell everyone else that they're wrong. You'd already know that what you're doing is great.

The only reason this stuff is worth arguing about is when the information being put out to the public is not just incorrect or misleading, but potentially harmful and damaging to vulnerable people. This is especially true in areas of nutrition and dieting that directly effect people's physical and mental health.

Now you've got different reasons for this from different people. Some of them are just flat out scam artists, some are real trainers but they've been getting lessons from marketers that turn them into borderline scam artists themselves, and others are people who have got some issues of their own especially related to eating disorders, which influences their ability to objectively process information and form an opinion based on logical reasoning. These are all dangerous people to have in the industry, spreading potentially damaging misinformation.

The ironic part is when you call these people out on their bullshit and they can't explain their position, and they get shitty and tell you "you think your way is the only way!" When they were actually the one saying "none of that works you have to do it like I do it", and all you were saying is "but plenty of people have done it other ways".

Morons.