I Hate Medium
by Dan John


A couple of days ago, my friend and occasional workout partner,
Dan Fouts, said something interesting, "Danny, you just hate medium, don't you?"
I answered, "Now, why do you say that?"


"Because, you always say, 'I just hate medium.'"
It's funny because it's true. Talk to any police officer and ask
if the force likes this description: "Medium height, medium build,
with medium hair." Imagine your daughter coming home from college
announcing she's found the love of her life and describing him as
"mediocre in every way, but poor or excellent in nothing."

Thanks to Alwyn Cosgrove and Joshua Hillis, a quote of mine has
been running around the internet for a while:
"Fat loss is an all-out war. Give it 28 days — only 28
days. Attack it with all you have. It's not a lifestyle choice;
it's a battle. Lose fat and then get back into moderation. There's
another one for you: moderation. Revelation says it best: 'You are
lukewarm and I shall spit you out.' Moderation is for sissies."
Now, Gentle Reader, I have to warn you: I acknowledge that I'm
probably wrong about my issues with medium workouts, medium
training, and moderation in all things.
Actually, I know I'm wrong.
But, there are dozens of fine authors, coaches, and trainers out
there urging you to keep a balance in your diet, your training, and
your life, and, well, most of us don't listen to them either.
Hesiod, the Greek historian, noted, "Observe due measure,
moderation is best in all things." Yeah, but what could Hesiod
bench press? Plato, noted for underperforming in the squat, said,
"We should pursue and practice moderation."


"What Was the Goal?"
Here's my issue: Every four years or so, I start getting emails.
Not long ago, I received this thing called a "letter" with
something called a "stamp" on it.
Anyway, the messages are dire.
Hard working, intelligent, genetically gifted athletes who've
just competed at the Olympic trials write to tell me that after
four years of hard work, on the day that it mattered most, "I just
didn't have it."
Now, "Have what?" is the best question to follow up with at this
point, but I know exactly what they mean.
When I ask about their training programs, they often send back
literally dozens of pages of charts, graphs, diaries, programs,
projects, and spreadsheets. It's easy to deal with all the paper,
as I simply ask one question:
Picking a random month or time period, "What was the goal of
October, 2007?"
I always get an intelligent follow-up:
Ah yes, that month, we were trying to focus
on:


Fat loss
Power
Strength
Coordination
General conditioning
The Olympic lifts
Technical preparation
Learning new drills
Increasing muscle mass
And, you can see why these athletes fail.



The Two Principles
Let's review the two great principles of strength and
conditioning:


1. Everything works.

2. Everything works, but for only so long.
Oh, don't ignore number one, here: Everything works. Yep, everything. That's why sometimes we find that radically
changing our workouts leads to remarkable body composition changes
in a short time.
Say, for example, you're like me and think that long, slow
running is really a method of getting information out of
terrorists, but after reading John McCallum's The Complete Keys
to Progress, you decide to add a little running to your
training. Just going from one lap without stopping to a mile
without stopping will drop fat off your body over a few weeks as
quickly as those deadly cocktails of rat poison that some
underground fat loss experts touted.


"You may have abs, but I'm decomposing!"
A few weeks later, at a party, someone will note you look
"leaner" or, worse, "better." This will get you to run until your
knees ache, you lose muscle, and your body comp is actually worse
than when you started.
You see, remember number two, too: Everything works, but for
only so long.


When Everything Means Nothing
So yeah, it all works. Nautilus training really developed my
pecs and biceps. Jogging can really help with fat loss. Joining a
gymnastics team will help your strength and flexibility. Doing
ultimate fighting will help with all kinds of things.
But, doing everything all at once will destroy you.
You see, to do everything at once, you have to be lousy at
everything. To be great, you have to focus on very few things
— most of us can barely handle more than one.
Don't believe me? Ask an elite sprinter to try another event.
There are 100-meter runners who won't run the 200 meter because
they "don't want to be embarrassed." Now, they'll run a time faster
than anyone you've ever met, but it'll be an "embarrassment" for
the athlete not to post an elite time.
But, we all fall into this trap.


Highs and Lows
The best summary of training I've ever heard was from Charlie
Francis at the clinic I attended this spring. Most people's problem
is this:

"Their highs are too low and their lows are too high."
I've been as guilty as anyone in taking potshots at the High
Intensity Training crowd (c'mon, they call themselves "Jedis"), but
the original work of Arthur Jones still demands respect.
Years ago, I had an interesting conversation with an eyewitness
at the original training facility who told me that Jones nearly had
to use firearms to get people to train the second time.
Screaming, threatening, cajoling, and inspiring didn't seem to work
in getting people to attempt to go to that level of pain again.
Here are two leg workouts done by Casey Viator, reported by
Stephan Wedan.



The first workout observed:


Leg press — 460 pounds x 25 reps
Leg extension — 200 pounds x 22 reps
Squat — 400 pounds x 17 reps
On June 10, he did the following:


Leg press — 750 pounds x 20 reps
Leg extension — 225 pounds x 20 reps
Squat — 502 pounds x 13 reps
These were done back to back to back without rest between sets.
This isn't a medium day. These highs are high.
Dr. Arthur De Vany has some more insights based on early human
activities. He recently had a great interview here at Testosterone.
My favorite part of the interview was his few words on cardio
work:

My cardio is the fast pace of my workout. And it's sprinting
in a field or on a stationary bike. I alter the pace
intermittently. I never put in the miles or time on a treadmill.
It's boring and worthless.

Look at joggers and distance runners. They aren't slender,
they simply have no muscle mass. They're weak, they can't generate
power, and in spite of their slender appearance, joggers aren't
lean. The average body fat content of jogging club members was 22
percent in one study. Anything above 13% is
deleterious.

I wouldn't jog for health, but playful runs are wonderful.
Vary the speed and terrain and you have a really great activity
that's fun and healthful. Routinized jogging is factory work, not
natural activity. If you log long miles on a track, I believe
you're compromising your health.
De Vany's point leads us directly to the second part of Charlie
Francis's insight: "Their lows are too high."
Call them "off days," "easy days," "recovery days," or whatever
you like, but the bulk of the people I work with miss the point
entirely on these "days."
I used to allow my athletes "easy days," but an interesting
thing started to happen. I won't name the guilty, but I had an
elite athlete, in some ways the single best athlete I've ever
worked with, who once came to me the afternoon of a major
championship and told me, "You won't believe my workout
yesterday."
Yesterday, I thought? Yesterday was the last of three easy
days.
He went on, "The weights felt so light, I did a 425 bench press
for five. Unbelievable. It felt effortless." The goal for the day
was a single with 335, but, like he said, "the weights felt so
light."
He then went out and had the single worst track and field
performance I've ever witnessed. He left it all in the gym the
afternoon before the meet. His low was too high.


Breaking the Addiction
Most of us have a form of addiction to training, so off days are
nearly impossible.
I've lost athletes to off days of playing pickup basketball
games and twisting ankles, broken arms in backyard football games,
and frostbite to an off day of cross country skiing (a strength
athlete in a long-distance snow activity... please help me
here).
Joshua Hillis, in his brilliant blog, had an insight that hits the mark
for those of us with training addiction. Two days a week, he
recommends that your "workout" is preparing all the meals for the
week. He notes that Sunday and Wednesday work very well for this. I
agree.
These days serve two purposes:

1. You'll eat the way you say you'll eat. I don't care what diet
you're on, sticking to it is the key. If you do Atkins, don't eat
chips. If you store everything you need for each meal, you're going
to reach for the meal rather than the chips.

2. This might be more important: The time it takes to shop,
prepare, cook, and store will take the place of your usual training
period. Besides locking your nutrition down, you'll also insure
that your off day is — how does one explain this —
off!
Josh then goes on to recommend two strength days a week and two
killer workouts along the lines of my article on Fat Loss in Four
Minutes.
You know, for someone contemplating losing fat, I can't imagine
a more perfect week. Two days of locking down nutrition, two days
of lifting, and a total of eight minutes getting the system to burn
fat. Oh, and the other day? Have some fun. Life is more than just
all of this nonsense.