Let's say you were interested in baking a cake for your special someone in order to woo them with your culinary prowess. You go through a website of one of the world's top pastry chefs, view their cook book, and find a recipe that looks amazing. You then proceed to buy the ingredients, switching one or two out that you feel will make a better recipe or one in favour of what kinds of ingredients you want to use, and get set to rock out your kitchen.

What results is less than appealing and more often than not will leave a you eating some sadness that isn't even remotely close to what you had initially planned to make.

This leads to an early "I have a headache" and quick departure of that special someone, leaving you all alone (probably for ever) to contemplate what went wrong. Inevitably, you turn to the recipe and say to yourself "this recipe sucks!!!" Never mind the fact that you decided to switch out the wheat flour for some kind of concoction like rice flour or hemp flour, which doesn't have the gluten you want to avoid, even though the gluten is what gives most baking its consistency and ability to form a structure that doesn't resemble something used to fill potholes. Gluten bad? Not for most. Cooking bad? Even worse.

Note to guys: Learn how to cook. Real food. Not that mixture of fried meats and veggies in some sort of bottled sauce. Actual cooking that involves ingredients and recipes and a bit of preparation. Chicks tend to like that sort of thing. Learn how to make at least one appetizer, main course, and dessert item. Trust me, it makes a difference.

This is pretty much the same as someone getting a program from a reputable strength coach who has gone through the nuts and bolts of why each exercise is in there, why they're in there in that specific order, why there's X number of reps for Y number of sets, and has a specific goal outcome in mind for the program, and the recipient starts making illegal substitutions left right and centre. Major foul on that one.

I'll just take out the six mobility exercises and make that into two cuz I don't wanna spend all day at the gym, and I'll double the number of sets of deadlifts, then I'll add in an extra day of conditioning cuz I wants ta get lean for da ladiez.

Hey, what happened?? Only one week in and I can't move my arms and I'm getting numbness down my legs and I feel like I got run over by a flock of Kardashians, all whiny and shoulder-padded?? This program sucks.

Most programs made by highly reputable strength coaches who actually train real live human beings tend to have a lot of forethought and use variables from training programs that they've found to be highly effective with their own clientele or athletes in producing a specific result. Extending rest periods, dropping key exercises, or subbing in your own thing that you've done for the past decade will either do nothing good for you, or potentially injure you.

If you find a program from a coach who has had the opportunity to train literally thousands of people, both in person and through distance coaching, which has led them to understand some of the fundamentals that cause people to move, perform, and look a whole lot better than they do now, you might want to stick to the program as written. Especially if they do it in a way that doesn't make you feel like you just got hit by a Mack truck and can't function when said special someone returns to let you make it up to her for ruining her dessert soufflé.

Now these programs are all well and good because they have a specific goal in mind and develop a specific plan of action for how to get there. Just like in baking they provide a recipe to follow. You can make the odd substitution if it's absolutely necessary and doesn't affect the core reason as to why that exercise or variable is there in the first place, but meddling too much can cause disaster.

Or maybe you need a workout that only uses dumbbells instead of barbells and you need to sub bench press for a DB chest press. That's fine. Or maybe doing squats bothers your knees, or holding a bar on your back makes your shoulders sore. There's options for that kind of stuff.

This is no different from the client who was an habitual overhead presser and wanted me to help her with her shoulder problems following being rear-ended and developing some neck and shoulder irritation.

I gave her a specific program that I wanted her to follow for the next month to make sure she had the scapular stability to not consistently irritate the area and have more flare-ups, to which she decided wasn't sufficient to her goal of having smoking hot shoulders, and started overhead pressing again in addition to what I had her doing, even though I specifically said absolutely NO overhead pressing for the time being.

Amazingly, she started to complain about headaches, losing neck range of motion, radiating pain down both arms, and had to go to the emergency room one fun and enjoyable evening.

She decided to bake the wrong cake here.
​

Following the program as it's outlined is a hard thing to do. Sometimes it's uncomfortable, challenging, or feels like it's taking you in a different direction than you'd want. Ask your coach questions about what the end goal is supposed to be, why you're doing it this way, and what you should expect. A good coach should welcome this communication and help you understand their thought process more effectively, which should make it easier to follow the program.

Want to get more training info? Get a copy of Rock Solid Resilience Today! Order direct from the publisher in the US --> Click HERE​ Order from Indigo in Canada --> Click HERE​

​

Follow on Instagram and Youtube for more free content

​​