Question
You’ve spoken about a variety of effective training systems over the years. If you were to pick one though, what would it be?
Answer
Someone once asked Dan Duchaine this question, to which he gave a zen like answer: The best training system for you – is the one you’re not currently using.
In other words, all training systems eventually fail with time, as your body is a master of adaptation.
I took this lesson to heart, and at first – simply worked on compiling a list of what I found to be effective training strategies.
Which is all well and good, until you realize that blindly switching from one to the other doesn’t always work. Here’s what I mean.
Let’s say you use XYZ loading pattern to establish a new 1RM, which is 20lbs heavier than what you could lift previously.
I observed that most people switching to something new had around a 50/50 chance of losing those gains, never mind establishing another new, even higher 1RM.
In fact, 50/50 odds would be generous, given most people don’t have even a short list of programs that allow for decent progress.
The Original Blueprint
So I decided to do something about it, which ultimately manifested in The Blueprint’s original, 10 week repeating cycle.
That involved one week of Famine, 6 or so weeks of Feast and 3 weeks of what I called the cruise phase, a period which solidified your new gains.
The most enjoyable part about these phase shifts was Feast, given its modular design. Meaning if you knew XYZ type of training worked for you, you would insert it here.
In fact you’ll find virtually whatever type of training you use in Feast – you’ll gain. And gain faster and longer than if you had just otherwise started the same program .. whenever.
I essentially wanted to make it dummy proof, and the only real way to do that was to get people to change the type of training they did regularly.
It was impossible to screw up, because at certain intervals you switch to another form of training, which is amplified by the preceding phase.
So I would tell you the best program to use is without question The BP’s shell, and the reason for that is that your training is regularly changing (with a purpose).
I honestly don’t see another system could compare, given the fact you rotate through no less than at least 5 different training methods over the course of 10 weeks.
Frequent rotation of training then is the key, and probably always will be in my opinion.
The only problem is that convincing young males to change their training is almost impossible, despite the fact they’ll agree with everything you’re proposing.
I’m working on bringing it to the masses, but need to finalize the plan with another party. Hopefully, we can get it to more of the SHR audience – at which point you’ll see everything I just said is the truth.
