A Common Self Coaching Mistake

Like many, I started out coaching myself. Looking back this was kind of a mess and I made many mistakes. Bodybuilding was pricey, so I was trying to scrape by getting the most from the least and paying for coaching wasn’t in the budget. Already mistake number one, I should have cut back on the supplement budget and hired some form of help. But that is a topic for another day, today I am talking about manipulating variables.

Too Many Variables Too Much Confusion

A common mistake I would make was manipulating too many variables at one time. My first prep I stalled out in fat loss, so I switched to ketogenic diet, raised cardio, but then added a cheat meal at the end of the week. Hilariously dumb thing to do. At the end of the week I looked no different and I had no idea why. I manipulated too many variables and didn’t control enough of them. This has been why research has interested me so much. If we really want to test whether a certain method or diet or supplement works, we hold as many variables constant as possible and only manipulate one variable. This is why research is so helpful, since it gives a better insight if something works or doesn’t work. If in research studies, we controlled no variables there would be no way of saying if it worked or not.

The Forming of Dogma

This same lack of controlling the variables leads us down the dogmatic views that crop up in bodybuilding. Say you are in a fat loss phase and add in the latest XY fat loss product. You also drop calories and increase cardio at the same time. Then you get crazy shredded and tell everyone XY fat loss product was the best tool ever. But really was it? Maybe it was the large calorie deficit you made!

The Science Minded Bodybuilder

Take a science-based approach to your bodybuilding. To get better, you need to know what worked and what didn’t work. Be able to look back, assess accurately, then make another decision to for the next step. This applies to offseason and contest prep. Don’t change your diet, cardio, and add PEDs all at once and just hope it all cooks up to the right result. This is so true for peak week as well. Manipulating sodium, potassium, water, carbs, training all at once; this is a disaster approach. Add in or change one variable, maybe two if experienced at a time and monitor your response.

Train Hard! Think Hard!

John Jewett MS RD IFBB Pro