You Have to Do the Shit: Put What You Know to Work

You have to do the shit.

I learned more from one meet I bombed than I did from ten years of reading training programs. The months we damn near missed payroll at elitefts taught me more about business than any business course.

And the years life beat the hell out of me taught me things nobody could have explained to me.

That was the point of the Instagram post that started this article. You can understand the plan and still be unprepared for the decisions you have to make when the plan falls apart.

Read the books. Study the programs. Ask questions. I have spent years doing all of it. But eventually, you have to find out what you can actually apply. Otherwise, you can spend a long time getting better at explaining something you have never done.

The Meet Doesn't Care How Good Your Program Looks

In a story I wrote about my first squat bomb-out at Westside, I described what happened afterward. The lifters who bombed sat at a separate table at dinner. The next morning, we had to arrange our own transportation to the airport. I also had to go back to the gym without knowing how that would go.

The useful lessons were straightforward: select better attempts and listen to my handlers. I would bomb again later, so this wasn't a story about learning one lesson and becoming perfect. It was about taking responsibility for decisions that affected the result.

You can spend an entire training cycle debating exercise selection and percentages, then make a bad decision when it counts. The program still matters. So does your ability to execute it under the conditions in front of you.

After a bad meet, “I need to get stronger” may be true. It may also let you avoid looking at the part you could have handled better. Did you choose an attempt you were prepared to make? Did you listen to the person helping you? Did you change the plan for a reason you can defend now?

Answer those questions before you throw out the whole program and start shopping for another one.

The Person in Front of You Changes the Problem

In an interview looking back on nearly twenty years of elitefts, I talked about the gap between helping high-level powerlifters and helping my personal-training clients. I was comfortable with the powerlifting side. My clients had different needs, and those clients paid my bills.

That pushed me to keep studying. At Westside, I also encountered people with knowledge from different training disciplines. Listening to them gave me more to work with. Those experiences helped shape the idea of sharing knowledge through elitefts.

A client gives you a real application problem. What you know has to become something that person can understand, perform and benefit from. Explaining your favorite method more loudly won't solve a mismatch between the method and the person.

This applies to your own training, too. Something can work very well for another lifter and be a poor choice for you right now. You need enough knowledge to make a decision, enough experience to notice when it isn't working, and enough honesty to adjust it.

A Mission Still Has Bills

The old office photo says plenty without dressing it up as something it wasn't. There was work to do.

In The Business of Strength, I wrote about wanting to educate and support the strength community while learning what it took to fund that work. Giving information away still had costs. Selling the bars, racks, benches and accessories we used helped support the education. Shipping, payroll and overhead still had to be covered. The information also helped build the trust the business depended on.

You can believe in what you are building and still need to learn how to keep it operating. A good intention doesn't tell you which expense to address first or how to make the next decision. You have to understand the numbers and the obligations attached to them.

When people are counting on you, the question gets specific fast: what are you going to do about the problem in front of you? Another hour of talking about your vision won't answer it.

“Try harder” is a lousy answer when you don't know where the effort needs to go. So is changing everything at once. If you change the program, your setup, your attempt selection and the people helping you, you may end up with another result and no better understanding of what produced it.

Find the hole. Work on it. See what happens.

Stop Waiting for Every Answer

There is always another book, another interview and another person with an opinion. You can use them to prepare. You can also use them to postpone a decision you already have enough information to make.

Enter the meet. Build the business. Make the decision. That doesn't mean ignore the risks or gamble with other people's responsibilities. Know what is at stake, do the preparation the situation requires, and take a step you can stand behind.

Then pay attention. Keep a record of what you did and why. When the result surprises you, you will have something more useful to examine than how confident you felt before you started.

Give Somebody Else More Than a Slogan

When you pass on a lesson, include the situation. Tell people what you were trying to accomplish, where your thinking fell short, and what you changed. Leave room for the fact that their situation may be different.

A story about failure can entertain people. A specific lesson can help somebody make a better decision. Give them enough to use.

Somebody else is standing where you were. You won't be able to keep them from making every mistake. You can help them recognize one sooner, ask a better question or avoid a decision you already paid to learn about.

Study. Do the work. Look at the result. Use what you learned the next time.