Last post I talked about the importance of reading, here I'll balance things out a bit.

In my last post I wrote "even blogs" along with journal articles and books.  The reason I put "even" in that statement was because there's a new trend starting with the internet.  Maybe it wasn't started there but it went from a small flame to a wildfire.

That trend being the armchair coach/trainer.  The guy who has never coach or worked with another human in person before.

They seem to have all the research and knowledge that Google can offer to prove everything you say is wrong.

They tend to hang out in chat rooms and forums of popular websites.  Some even sell their work out programs that were written by God and available to you for the low price of $150.

You can usually tell them apart from programs used by real trainers because they are based off of Olympic athletes' work outs or even something that Arnold did in his steroid days.

They don't seem to realize that these programs are made for people who did nothing but train.  They aren't designed for full time students or people working 9-5 jobs.  I see it too often on the internet that people writing programs just don't understand that it's a human that has to do it.

With these "trolls" as the internet refers to them, you'll quickly notice that they know how Arnold gained that tough 20lbs on his deadlift.  They know what Randy Barnes did to break the world record in the shot put.  They know all the written knowledge one can expect but they haven't a clue how other people might respond to these methods of training.

They don't realize that some things work for certain people and others would be better off doing anything but that training.

Books and reading in general help you find new things but can't replace experience.  Experience teaches us what will and won't work with certain people.  

For example, I discovered quickly that a plyo program will not work for a 300lb out of shape high school sophomore.  But my god, it did wonders for that 245lb senior linebacker.

Plyos are in general, good. You can see objective improvement in using them and measure it scientifically.  But have an out of shape novice do plyos and watch how quickly they are limping to the trainers room.

I forgot where I heard it but an older coach said that the balance should be about 80/20.

• 80% of your time should be towards experience.  
• That's where true growth happens.  
• The 20% is towards your evolution 
•  or reading, anything (better than nothing).  

Spend that 20% reading journal articles, blog posts, books and any articles you can find.

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