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When I was in high school and I just started lifting weights I would read any training information I could get my hands on, and I still do. The difference? Now I seem to over analyze training methodologies and periodization schemes.

Back then I learned about one great template and way to do things, written by a respected coach (Joe Defranco) and I didn’t question it. I just walked into the gym day after day with determination and trained my ass off. This was the most successful training phase of my life so far and I loved every minute of it. In one summer I went from a skinny 130 pound kid who could barely bench press 95lbs to a 165 pound kid benching 200+ and box squatting around 365. 

Some may cite the inevitable newbie gains and they’d partially be right. After all I was in a growing stage of my life and any novice who begins to lift weights will get lightning fast results. But don’t be skeptical because there have been a few occasions in my life when I trained with the same determination while keeping it simple and was rewarded with great results in short periods of time.

So how can we harness this seemingly mythical period of great training results? We keep it SIMPLE, SCIENTIFICALLY SOUND, and APPROPRIATE.

Joe Defranco’s “Westside for Skinny Bastards” template worked great for me and countless others because it is just that, a template. For those not familiar with it, it structures the workout for you and you fill in the blanks with the exercises you choose from a list. No guesswork and the sets and rep ranges are provided for you. All I had to do was walk into the gym and choose my exercises and give er’.

Why did it work? It was simple, scientifically sound, and was appropriate for my goal which was to get bigger and stronger. 

What else? I ate to suit my goals. I wanted to gain weight so guess what? I ate. A lot. I didn’t care about counting calories or the latest acai berry, wheat grass shake or whatever people drink these days. I just ate a lot. I knew I needed a good amount of protein to gain muscle so I ran with that and ended up with 30 pounds of new mass.

SIMPLE, SCIENTIFICALLY SOUND, and APPROPRIATE.

Obviously if my goal was to lose fat I would’ve done the opposite: find a scientifically sound program geared towards fat loss, eat less food. Chances are I would have been pretty successful as well.

Eric Cressey once wrote “perfect often gets in the way of good”. Don’t wait for things to be perfect because you’ll waste time doing so. Strive for perfect but accept good in the interim, it’s way ahead of what everyone else is getting.

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