I wasted 5 years of training making only mediocre gains.

Sure, I got stronger, and built some muscle, but advanced feats of strength still eluded me.

My first foray into strength training was with Reddit's Bodyweight Fitness. It's a community for calisthenics training (using your own bodyweight as the mode of resistance). Like lifting weights, but without the need for so much equipment. Pull ups, dips, push ups, that kind of thing.

I read up on their 'Recommended Routine' and got to work.

I got hooked.

For several years I'd continue grinding at this, using a 5x5 program (5 sets of 5 repetitions per exercise).

In the beginning, the gains came QUICK. But as everyone one day learns, so-called 'n00b gainz' don't last.

When I first hit a plateau, I looked online for a solution. What did I find?

Recovery.

Why am I telling you this? The problem I was facing is one I see all the time in online fitness culture. A quest to optimize the effects of training — all while ignoring the cause.

The truth is simple: No amount of recovery can make up for inadequate training stimulus.

No combination of:

• Perfect sleep

• Nutrition

• Supplementation

• Exercise selection

will make you stronger if you never stimulated strength in the first place.

A Stimulus - Response Relationship

This way our bodies adapt to training is called 'supercompensation'

First we submit our bodies to a stimulus (Lift a weight, contract a muscle, raise our heartrate). The energy cost and stress on the tissue reduces the body's capability for a short period of time (which we can call 'recovery').

In other words - You instantly become weaker.

Next is a recovery period, during which your tissues repair and replenish, returning you to baseline.

The magic of supercompensation occurs only if the original stimulus was enough to force your body to adapt. If you didn't send a signal to your body to get stronger — to be able to contract harder next time — it won't.

If you've been training for a while, these are concepts you're likely familiar with. In my personal story above, all the emphasis was on the 'recovery' part of the equation. If you're on the same internet I am, that's what you've been taught to focus on too.

But all the effort of recovery goes to waste if you don't get the training right in the first place.

So what was I missing?

I wasn't training hard enough. Throughout years of training, I'd push hard enough to stimulate growth only inconsistently.

Last summer I started training with 1 set per exercise, going to or beyond muscular failure. If I've truly given my all — by proving to myself that I cannot complete one more rep — I've achieved adequate stimulus.

By dropping the sets down from 5 per exercise to just one, I can give 100% focus and effort - leaving literally nothing on the court.

In order to grow and supercompensate, a sufficient intensity of stimulus must be given in each workout.

Now all the recovery optimizations I spent years dialing can actually pay off.

This illustrates an idea that transcends physical training.

Don't neglect the basics. You gain mastery by mastering the basics. Accessories and Optimizations don't move the needle by themselves.

• Exercise selection: Compound movements > Isolations

• Nutrition: Meat, Fish, Plants (i.e. food) > Supplements

• Strength Training: Training Intensity > Rest & Recovery optimizations

• Endurance Training: Aerobic Base > Speed Work

How to Find the Appropriate Training Intensity in 6 steps:

1. Cut your current workout down to 1 single set per exercise

2. Perform the set with a focus on perfect form, but to absolute muscular failure.

3. Prove it was actually failure by trying 1 more rep

4. Do partials until you can’t move the weight at all anymore. Remember what that feels like. Let’s call that RPE 11 (Rate of Perceived Exertion).

5. That was ‘beyond’ failure; definitely sufficient stimulus. That’s your new calibration for what max effort feels like.

6. Go back to training at whatever RPE you like ( I like 8-11). Periodically visit 11 again to remember what honestly giving it your all feels like. Walk the line.

Thanks for reading this letter. Now go take action in your next workout.

— John

P.S. This exact same problem holds people back from improving their flexibility.