Three Rules Of Training

Rules bother me. I’ve always thought they were a gross oversimplification of a more complex concept. Which, as it turns out, is exactly what rules are. And I’ve come to see their value.

Why simple rules work

Rules condense a messy, nuanced idea into something you can remember and act on. They’re the minimum effective dose of complexity – just enough to get you moving in the right direction. They compress complexity. Like zipping a hundred studies on recovery science down into: “Don’t max out two days in a row.”

They serve memory and execution. You don’t have to re-derive the whole argument every time. The “ism” is a shortcut, keeping you consistent without overthinking.

They aren’t dogma if you know their source. If you’ve done the hard thinking first, the rule isn’t blind obedience; it’s a pocket-sized reminder. And when the rule stops serving, you can always zoom back out to the principle behind it.

Rules are levers. A single, well-crafted rule shifts a lot of behavior with very little effort.

Three rules that guide my training

In training, I’ve built a few of these shortcuts for myself. Here are three I lean on:

Don’t judge the day until you hit your first working set

Feeling tired, sore, or unmotivated is often just noise. Warmup is diagnostic. You don’t know what your body has until you’ve moved some weight. This prevents bailing too soon or sandbagging before you even start.

Every rep has a reason

This rule forces you to train with intention, not just motion. If there is a movement in your program, there ought to be a reason for it. This rule helps me choose what to skip on the days I don’t have much time. If a movement doesn’t have a clear reason that I could articulate, it’s out. 

Err on the side of intensity

If you’re stuck between easy and hard, choosing effort is usually the right call. Intensity is primarily what drives progress in the gym. Now, I’m not saying do everything as hard as you can every day. But, if it’s between 3x6 lunges HEAVY and 3x20 lunges light, do the heavy. 

These rules aren’t meant to be followed blindly. They’ll steer you right most of the time, but exceptions will always exist. The point is to have something you can reach for when training feels uncertain. Rules won’t replace judgment but they’ll give you direction when judgment gets cloudy.