Hi everyone-- i copied this article written by a guy on Bryce Lanes website because I thought it spoke volumes-- enjoy.

I have a couple cousins (actually, I have many, but I'm thinking of two specific ones now; two out of four brothers) who really piss me off! I saw them recently, after a number of years, and they got me to thinking …

These two brothers - both about my age (40), give or take a year or two - have been lifting for years; since they were teenagers, I'd wager. Neither one of them seems to put too much thought into how to train. They don't seem to fret over finding the perfect routine, or the perfect training schedule; they don't freak out when they have to miss the occasional workout. They aren't pedantic about the way they eat - they try for good, healthy foods when they can get it, but they don't freak out when they choose occasionally to eat at McDonald's.

They haven't devoted half their lives to studying the art and science of strength and conditioning - as I have, lo these many, many years. As far as I can tell, they have little notion as to what the body's energy systems even are; what the effects of heavy lifting and lighter-weight, higher-rep work might be on the endocrine system; what neurological adaptation is, or the value of synaptic facilitation. They don't know that the 'pyramid' is an antiquated, obsolete training protocol, and that it's not supposed to work. They don't know that the bench press is frowned upon in some circles as being un-functional; that you have to train with heavy awkward objects (sandbags, kegs, whatnot) if you really want to build 'functional' strength. Their training programs almost certainly revolve around a split routine (working different body parts each time they train), as they'd have no way of knowing that whole-body workouts are best for building maximal muscular strength and size. They either don't know or don't care about the fact that interval training is the best for improving not only endurance, but body composition, too; they (especially the one who once was an amateur boxer) don't care that lower-intensity distance running is supposed to be catabolic and impede gains in size and strength.

For all that - for all the things they don't know; for all the things they're doing wrong - these humps are still (much) bigger and stronger and better conditioned than I am. Plus, they seem to be perfectly injury-free - which must be nice; I've heard good things.

So, I mean, what the f-ck!? Am I really that genetically feeble that all of my efforts all these years have been for naught? What's the point of all my time spent trying to learn - what, the secret? Why do I spend nearly every waking moment dwelling on how I can tweak my routine just a little, so it'll be just right? Why do I feel so tormented when I cave in to the craving for junk food? If my constant striving for physical perfection is in fact moving backwards, further from my goal - then what's the f-cking point?

Well, I think I've figured out the point, actually. I think I know where I've been going wrong for the last going-on-ten years. I recently bought and read the book Real Strength Real Muscle, by Coach John Christy; it's actually a collection of his articles (published and not), mostly from the old HardGainer, and I highly recommend it. This book brought home some very crucial points for me, some of which I think go a long way towards explaining the success of my cousins - while I have (relatively-speaking) failed.

Due to the fact that they don't spend hours a day scouring the Internet for training info, or exchanging program design ideas with like-minded folks on numerous message boards and forums, they're free to focus on what truly matters: gradual progression on a handful of exercises. So what if some of them are isolation drills; assuming you're not a motor retard, and that you're even remotely able to coordinate several muscles groups to function at once, it's beginning to seem to me that the most functional attribute is simply greater strength. They've spent years plugging away at the same core lifts, week after week, month after month, year … well, you get the idea. And, holy sh-t if that doesn't work - despite all the Internet naysayers (of whom, until quite recently, I was one). After all, if you build your body (with, let's say, a handful of basic bodybuilding-type lifts - leg press and hack squat, bench press and t-bar rows, seated presses and pulldowns, even the occasional fly or lateral raise, curls and triceps extensions) to the point that you've effectively doubled or tripled (or more) your strength and size, isn't this going to make pretty much all the other physical activities that you do that much easier? Isn't this increased strength going to transfer to your other physical attributes, and thereby offer across-the-board improvements - even in areas/attributes that you've not directly trained? (I mean, since strength - brute force - is said to be the foundation [or at least a key component] of all other physical attributes: speed-strength, strength-endurance, starting strength, explosive strength, strength-flexibility, etc; see the common thread?)

Seeing as how they don't regularly "surf the 'Net", they are blissfully unaware of such 'magical' exercise programs and protocols as Byrce's 50/20, or Wiggy's Singles & Doubles, for instance (and no offense to either of you fellas; I've tried and like both programs). They don't realize that the Westside model is said to be the best method for building the most strength and size. They don't get sucked into constantly trying the next great routine that comes along: This month Pavel's PTP, next month kettlebells, the month after that one of Ross Enamait's workouts. They don't care to try each and every implement under the sun; they don't seem to feel the overwhelming need for ever-increasing variety in their training schedules. Why work with sandbags (or rocks, or kegs, or kettlebells) if the barbells (and *gasp* the machines) at the gym are doing the job quite well?

Unfortunately, I feel as if I've come to this conclusion before, not so very long ago - and not for the first time. Each time I accept this realization, I create a nice, new, streamlined program to focus on for the next several months … Until the following week, when I tweak this new routine just a little (actually, so much so that it no longer resembles the original), to make it just right … and here we go again! It's been said by folks smarter than myself: the Internet is perhaps the worst thing to ever happen to strength training. I'm coming to accept this pearl of wisdom as the gospel. If it weren't for this cursed Web, I wonder if I'd have spent most of the last ten years or so distracted to the point that I've made no real progress at all in my training.

'Maximum' Bob Whelan wrote an article years back (either in HardGainer or the Dinosaur Files; can't recall now) entitled "Guys Who Just Lift", or some such similar thing, and I suspect that there may well be something to this notion. I think that this might also offer some further explanation for why my 'ignorant' cousins have seemingly passed me by so handily in terms of results. They've not been distracted from their purpose; they know (perhaps better than I, with all my training 'knowledge') what works to increase strength and conditioning - and they stick with it. As the saying has it: Stick

with what works. If we find a program that produces results, why do we rush to change it? Why do we seem to insist on changing ('cycling'?) our routines every month or six weeks (or less, sometimes) - even though we may not have even gotten past the stage of neurological adaptation to the new exercises that we've just had to include (because if we didn't have this drill, our program was somehow deficient); even though we may still be making good - no, great - progress?

When was the last time that you've seen continued, long-term progress in your training; I mean, real, measurable progress? I'm not talking about a semblance of maintenance (I can still fit into my 'skinny jeans'!), but actual improvement. For me, it's truly been years - upwards of eight to ten, sadly. True, I've been able to maintain some degree of general fitness (neither progression nor regression, really [not including the almost constant pain of lingering injuries]; a sort of stasis, I guess), but it's literally been a decade since I've made any true forward progress in my training … And it's frustrating as hell, I mean to tell you!

It's been said that the truest path to any physical mastery is to always be working to refine the basics; the basics - whether in lifting, fighting, or some other physical activity - are the foundation - the root - the basis for all other movements. Thus, developing great proficiency in the fundamentals of any endeavor should offer some (theoretically considerable) degree of carry-over to other areas of said activity - simply by the act of perfecting the basics. I would submit that this could apply just as well to mobility training as any other attribute development. For example - I love Scott Sonnon's material. His various mobility products (Intu-Flow, Prasara Yoga, and the original Warrior Wellness) are excellent, and well worth the expense. The things Scott can do on those videos are awe-inspiring (to me, anyway) - but they are not things that I can do, I've found out the hard way. Every time I try some of those totally cool Body Flow drills, I eventually tweak my back; every time. Consequently, while they may be super-cool, and may work like a charm (for some!), they are deleterious to my physical health - so I no longer try and do them. And it occurs to me that there are certainly a good many folks out there who move quite well - with tremendous fluidity and grace - who've never done any of Scott's drills. I offer this one example as a way of trying to make a point: We don't need every single new and exciting product (drill, lift, movement, whatever) to make our training complete. We may be doing perfectly well without such extraneous nonsense; without more things to fill up our training schedules and distract us from what is important - say it with me, now: "The basics!" Hence, my point: Don't fall for the hyperbole of each and every Internet guru with a product or program to sell!