The Definitive Cros Word: "No amount of drugs will replace the stimulus" – Dave Crosland on why most people don't train intensely enough

As he returns as a columnist for FrontDouble, eVal founder Dave Crosland explains why chasing reps and weight is holding most lifters back

DAVE CROSLAND believes most people in the gym are making the same mistake – and it has nothing to do with how hard they work.

"Most people just don't train intensely enough," he says in the first instalment of his new FrontDouble video column, The Definitive Cros Word. "No amount of drugs is going to replace that stimulation. The better you stimulate, the less drugs you need, the healthier you are, the harder you can train."

Stimulus is the goal

Crosland identifies three pillars of progress – training, recovery and nutrition – and argues training comes first, because it creates the stimulus everything else responds to.

The problem, he says, is that too many lifters mistake the measure for the goal. Reps, sets and heavier weights are ways of tracking progress, not the point of training. "The goal of training is to stimulate the target muscle that you want to grow," he said.

He uses the bench press as an example: plenty of people do it, but many feel it in their shoulders, triceps and elbows rather than their chest, usually from going too heavy or too fast.

In this video, Crosland covers

• Why an assisted extra rep can do more harm than good once the target muscle is fried
• Why he believes "no muscle pushes" and why that changes how you think about push, pull and legs
• How levers and hand position change where the load goes
• His preferred rep tempo and why he avoids explosive reps
• Why every session is precious: "Treat those workouts as the last chance you've got of stimulating growth"

About Dave Crosland

Dave Crosland is the founder of blood analysis service eVal and an experienced coach. For coaching enquiries, email: dave@croslands.org.uk

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