This is a tricky subject because if you are not seeing good results from your current program you should think about what is missing but I’ve recently realized that the people I work with break down into two categories. The first group doesn’t question what I ask them to do. They trust that whatever program they are on is the best one for them and they work as hard as they can on it.

The second group is always wondering if there is something missing from their program. They tend to wonder if there is enough core training, or if they need to be doing a different exercise for their lower body or any one of a dozen other “concerns”. While they work hard you can tell that there is always a question in the back of their mind about what they might be missing.

In the facility these are the people who are always telling me about a new article they read in a magazine or an exercise they saw on the internet. They want to know if we can incorporate it into their program and sometimes I oblige – until they are repeating the process every few weeks. It seems like no matter what we are doing with their program they are busy worrying about what is missing.

Online these are the people who order one of my program and then send me an email asking how they can “incorporate” other workouts into it. They send me a 7 day workout plan they created using a little bit of a few programs, creating a Frankenstein’s monster of a training program. Or they will send me an email asking how they can incorporate every exercise I post on my blog into their current workout. Again, it seems like the focus is on trying to cover every base possible instead of simply working hard on a few key things.

While I certainly encourage people to educate themselves about training so they can make smarter decisions you have to be careful about learning just enough to be dangerous. The truth is that there is no “perfect” program. No matter what you are doing today there is something missing from it which is why you have to systematically change your workouts.

The trick is to not worry about what you might be missing and instead just give your all to what you are doing. That is actually one of the advantages of not trying to put your own program together – you can simply turn off your brain and do what the program says. Busting ass on a few simple things will always produce better results than wondering what you are missing and trying to incorporate everything you read on the internet into your program.

Now, before I end this post I have to admit that I tend to fall into the second category. It is very easy to follow a workout a few times and then start to think about all the things you aren’t doing. However, you have to be aware of how this mindset can sabotage you and discipline yourself if you ever want to achieve long term success.

So, which category do you fall into?

-James Wilson-