Specificity VS Complexity
Most of us train for a specific goal with complex movements, however is that the best approach? Should you train specific complex movements to reach that specific goal? This trend is growing and growing within the industry, and it can be an endless loop of frustration.
I see so many people go in circles within their training and they’re not sure why. The reality is specificity and complexity don’t always need to intersect.
I get a lot of questions such as “But I’m doing functional lifting? I’m doing complex movements. Why am I not seeing the results I want?” The not so sexy answer is you’re skipping steps. You can get away with that right away, but over time the lack of results speak for themselves.
So, what steps do you need to take?
Be specific within your training, not with complexity. Separate the two, so you can maximize the beginning stage of your training. Once you’ve mastered the beginning stage, and trained specifically you can now graduate to complexity.
This is a very linear approach to training, and the first stage is always the most frustrating and boring. It’s not complex, it’s not sexy, but that’s the point. Before you move to precalculus you should probably have a solid base understanding of specifics in math, such as addition, subtraction, and so on.
To get better at addition, you need to only spend your time on addition. Once you’ve gotten comfortable with that, graduate to subtraction, and so on.
What you probably shouldn’t do is cram addition, subtraction, and calculus all into one learning cycle. Our brain would get easily overwhelmed and shut down.
Don’t you think our body would do the same? Yet we have influencers and personal trainers telling us to perform these complex movements to get specific results. But why?
Complexity sells, we as humans are so inclined to watching complexity. It’s hard wired in our brains to be attracted to it.
I’ll never forget going to the local Golds Gym in my college town and there was this guy who was clearly an athletic freak doing weighted pistol squats. I noticed for a few weeks he kept doing them, and over time other people were all the sudden trying to do the same thing.
It was innate to want to do what this guy was doing, still to this day one of the most impressive physical feats I’ve ever seen. Multiple people tried, and nobody succeeded. The reason why?
They weren’t masters of the basics and had not graduated the physical requirements to achieve that specific goal. One day I went up and asked him why he was doing them, he told me he was a professional boxer and it helps him improve his balance and overall stability.
This was designed in his workout program by his trainer. He had earned the right to. This wasn’t for fun; this was the next progression for him and his physical goals to obtain specific training for boxing.
This is a prime example of specificity with complexity. He was able to do this and to his athletic benefit because he graduated the other stages of his training. This was part of his next curriculum.
To succeed in the beginning stage, we must be specific within our training. You can dumb it down too much and repeat the same movements expecting specific results.
Being specific requires attention to detail and avoiding being broad. When you’re training back and biceps, realize the back has multiple muscles in it, it is not one singular muscle. How do we train each muscle of the back? What are ways we can isolate certain muscles within a general area? The key is machines.
These are vital to learning how to attack and isolate areas we don’t yet know how to during functional free weight training. When you’re doing leg day, this also applies.
This applies to anytime we are training a certain muscle group; think of what other parts of that area we can train. For legs, there’s much more than the hamstrings, glutes, quads, and calves. Find other areas of the legs you can also train, hit every spot of the lower body.
To take it even further, can we isolate certain parts of the hamstring, quads, and calves? The answer is yes, and this is the secret. Train the lower quad, upper quad, inside, and outside part of the quad. Make sure we are maximizing our training by training every specific area of the muscle.
We can accomplish this without complexity. And truthfully, we can accomplish this more efficiently with simpler movements, or machines.
After time goes on, and you’ve learned to maximize the specificity of training, you’ve graduated to the next level which is now where complexity takes over.
The advantage of taking time in the specificity stage, is the carryover you’ll get from the complexity stage is much more. Once you’ve learned how to train each area of the muscle, and know how to attack, or contract it, the complex functional training becomes more beneficial.
A lot of those trainers and influencers are trying to make you, beginners, to perform the complex movements as soon as possible. Their goal is not for you to improve, their goal is for you to go through a prolonged cycle of training with them so they can milk every dollar they can out of you.
That’s why the complexity sells. Their goal is to get your attention with complex movements and sell you on this being the best way to obtain your specific goal. You being the consumer are trusting they’re leading you in the right direction, when they’re convincing you, this cycle is normal.
It is not.
Training is not a constant linear progression; however, you should not have prolonged stages of no improvement. That is not the norm. That is no longer optimal training, now they just have you training. Hoping you keep going on this cycle and eventually you’ll break out of it, you won’t.
So, what should you invest your money in? Not a trainer who promises you they can help you reach your goal within a time frame.
Rather a trainer who acknowledges your goal but see’s a much bigger vision and convinces you there’s more beyond that goal you have in mind. A trainer who sees beyond what you want and takes it a step further.
This trainer is now approaching you, the client, as a long-term investment into obtaining things you didn’t even think possible. Instead of a trainer who helps you achieve your ceiling as quickly as possible.
