Experience is anecdotal. And that’s fine.

After training (or anything really) frequently enough for long enough you’ll start to notice particular patterns.

Anecdotally speaking I know I can handle more volume and less load/intensity when training my upper body specifically, particularly vertical pushing and the opposite is true for my lower body. Experience tells me this. I’ve worked it out over thousands of reps, sets, sessions, blocks, mesocycles, macrocycles, and training career as a whole. 

And this anecdotal evidence in no way dictates what might yield the best results for YOU in YOUR training. It’s individual trial and error (which makes the case for frequency and consistency more than anything). 

Anecdote gets very wishy-washy and problematic when we apply it globally generally. 

“I did this and it worked for me so you should do this too because you want what I want” is essentially the health and fitness industry in an endless loop from coaches on the internet to your office mates to your family around the dinner table and often doctors in the clinic.

• Stress -> Recovery -> Adaptation (repeat) 

That’s all we can be most certain of at this point because it’s been tried and tested for millennia (because that cycle is the root of evolution in a very boiled-down model).

What works for you might not work for others. So let us all aim to think critically about and avoid giving/taking anecdotal advice (it’s not evidence) from others. Instead let’s focus our limited attention and resources on the scientific principles of adaptation in methods that match our goals, preferences, environment, and lifestyle with a view to building and maintaining consistently repeated bouts of effort.

If you want help working out what that looks like for you, reply to this email and we can chat.

Cheers!