Matt [Burzacott] and I had great discussion yesterday on the novice assumptions that advanced guys must do really complicated shit with training and exercise, and how the reality is generally the exact opposite.
Use an easy-to access-example, Mark Dugdale. He posts his training log at elitefts and his primary chest and shoulder workout was SIX movements:
3 for chest
3 for shoulder
And they were not "secret" exercise either. Machine press, incline press, decline press, completely conventional movements everyone does, executed with a ton of EFFORT (go read his log if you're curious).
Using Mountain Dog training as the larger example, most MD workouts are in fact 4-6 movements. The effectiveness comes from the sequencing and EFFORT of execution. And MD training has something of a proven track record. IF you apply yourself with work perseverance and pain tolerance.
And that breached the second point, in that "intelligent" programming doesn't mean much if it's done with half-assed lolly gagging.
3x20,15,10 can be absurdly easy or highly concentrated, depending on the internal focus of the trainee.
There's also an overestimation that a wildly "smart" program will deliver some unprecedented form of results.
It won't.
The effectiveness of any program will always be limited by inherent biological factors. Muscle can only grow SO fast, connective tissue doesn't get endlessly stronger week in and week out. Your nervous system doesn't add 20+ to every lift every month.
And more complicated doesn't equate with more effective.
Your results then are going to be derivative of hardass work, performed consistently, and NOT getting hurt.
The smartest training is the way that allows you to train hard, consistently, and without injury.
This also leads to,
You can only train so hard as you can recover.
So what limits recovery capacity then?
Sleeping and eating. You can't hack lack of sleep or lack of calories.
CANNOT.
You also cannot "out supplement" shitty recovery. More drugs don't make up for only sleeping five hours and eating inconsistently and like crap.
Which all summarizes into the endlessly repeated "train hard, recover harder."