This article is based on a discussion I had today with one of the athletes I coach. I thought it was worth sharing, and I hope you find it helpful. If you’d like to work with me one-on-one, click here to contact me for coaching.
Last week, I wrote about my goals for 2024. In that article, I explained that I want to become a better coach and educator and help to move the industry forward. In my mind, that means “un-teaching” a lot of the horrible advice that permeates social media. This article explains why one very popular programming strategy is flawed at best, and, at worst, could really undermine your training.
Every time I find myself on my Instagram explore feed (which, if I can help it, isn’t often), I end up scrolling through post after post of lifters “training” the competition lifts. There’s this idea that the more often you perform a competition-style squat, bench, or deadlift, the stronger you’ll get. This is not always true. In fact, training the competition lifts too frequently often holds lifters back.
In this article, when I write “high-frequency training,” I’m referring explicitly to training the competition lifts three or more times per week.
Why Lifters Like Higher Frequencies
First, I want to explain why high-frequency training is popular. It’s partly due to research that indicates higher-frequency training tends to produce better strength gains than lower-frequency training, when all other variables are equal. If you’ve read any of my previous work, you probably already know how I feel about the “evidence-based approach” to training. I think it’s bullshit (and, since I have a doctorate in kinesiology, I think I’m qualified to say that).
At some point I’ll write an extensive article explaining why it’s bullshit, but for now, I’ll just link you to one of my favorite earlier posts on the subject. I’ll also admit that I think high-frequency training is a good option for raw beginners – those with less than 6 months of serious training experience. These lifters need that practice to learn the basics of good technique as quickly as possible.
Honestly, though, I don’t think research is the primary driver of the popularity of high-frequency training. In my opinion, high-frequency training is popular because beginner and intermediate lifters want to emulate their favorite well-known, higher-level lifter or coach who trains the competition lifts very frequently. In other words, I think most lifters resort to high-frequency training simply because they see other guys doing it. That’s not a good reason!
The Benefit of High-Frequency Training
In my mind, there’s really only one benefit of high-frequency training past the beginner level. High-frequency training makes programming simple and easy. Just pick a few variations of competition lifts, plug in any sort of percentage-based progression, and poof! You’ve got a “custom” program just like the pros use! Right?
Wrong.
Look, there’s nothing inherently wrong with keeping programming as simple as possible. In fact, there’s a lot to be said for lowering the barriers to entry when it comes to designing a training routine, which is exactly what I attempt to do with my Unf*ck Your Program course. Simple programming becomes a problem when it’s prescribed haphazardly, at the expense of a more effective, more nuanced approach.
In the case of high-frequency training, haphazard programming looks almost exactly like what you’ll get if you sign up for one of the many AI coaching plans through Juggernaut or Renaissance Periodization or whoever. The really sad truth is that those AI plans are actually better than the plans from many unqualified online coaches who come up with their training splits and progressions almost at random.
The Problem With High-Frequency Programming
To recap: I’ve explained why high-frequency training is popular, and how it can be used and misused. I’ve been dancing around the question of why it’s actually bad programming. The answer is pretty simple: until you’re actually an elite lifter, training the competition lifts too frequently costs time and energy that would be better spent training your weaknesses. And, for nearly everyone between the beginner and elite levels, addressing weaknesses requires diversification, not specialization.
This is the most important part of the article so I’m going to write that again:
Until you’re actually an elite lifter, training the competition lifts too frequently costs time and energy that would be better spent training your weaknesses. And, for nearly everyone between the beginner and elite levels, addressing weaknesses requires diversification, not specialization.
I’ve written extensively about why this is the case:
Now, your favorite high-level lifter can train the competition lifts all the time, with great success. That’s because most elite lifters have both stellar genetics and have already done the work needed to eliminate any major limiting weaknesses. (In many cases, these high-level lifters still do a ton of work outside of the comp lifts — they just don’t share it on social media, because it’s boring.)
And if you happen to have checked those boxes yourself, great. Most people — myself included — have not. Most people are far better off embracing the boring stuff, being honest about our weaknesses, and training accordingly. In the next article, I’ll explain how to do exactly that.
Great stuff! I am looking forward to an article describing the problems with the evidence based approach to training as well.