Is Strength Training Overcomplicated? What the New ACSM Guidelines Actually Say

If you spend enough time on social media, you could be forgiven for thinking that getting stronger requires a PhD.

What’s the perfect number of reps? Machines or free weights? Full body or upper/lower split? Should every set go to failure? What’s the perfect exercise for building your glutes, chest or hamstrings?

The fitness industry loves complexity. But one of the biggest pieces of strength-training research released in years has delivered a refreshingly simple message: consistency beats complexity.

The new strength training guidelines

Earlier this year, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) released its first major update to its resistance-training guidelines since 2009.

Researchers synthesised 137 systematic reviews involving more than 30,000 participants, looking at how resistance training affects strength, muscle growth, power and physical function.

One of the biggest conclusions? For most people, the most important thing isn’t finding the “perfect” training program. It’s doing resistance training consistently.

The details can absolutely help. But they’re details.

The fundamentals still matter

At RevoPT, this probably won’t sound particularly revolutionary. Good strength training still comes back to a handful of fundamentals.

1. Train consistently

One incredible workout followed by two weeks off isn’t particularly useful. You don’t need to live in the gym. What matters is establishing a training frequency you can maintain week after week.

The new guidelines recommend training all major muscle groups at least twice per week.

2. Progressively challenge yourself

Your body adapts to what you ask it to do. If you continually perform the same exercises with the same weights, reps and effort, eventually there’s very little reason for your body to keep adapting.

Progress doesn’t always mean adding weight. It could mean another rep, better technique, greater range of motion or more control. Over time, however, we need progression.

3. Train for your goal

This is where good programming matters.

If the goal is strength, heavier loads become more important. If the goal is muscle growth, sufficient weekly training volume becomes increasingly important. If we’re developing power, moving moderate loads with speed and intent becomes important.

There isn’t one magical rep range or training style that does everything equally well.

What about all the advanced stuff?

This was another interesting part of the new guidelines.

For the average healthy adult, complex periodisation, always training to muscular failure or obsessing over machines versus free weights didn’t consistently produce better outcomes.

That doesn’t mean these variables are useless. For experienced lifters and athletes, the finer details become increasingly important. We certainly consider them when designing your training at RevoPT.

But there’s a difference between optimising a program and making it effective in the first place.

If you’re training twice per month, the answer probably isn’t a more sophisticated program. It’s training more consistently.

If every set feels easy, the answer probably isn’t finding a more “optimal” exercise. It’s creating an appropriate training stimulus.

And if you constantly jump between programs because you’ve discovered something new on Instagram, the answer probably isn’t another program. It’s giving the current one enough time to work.

Don’t let perfect get in the way of progress

There is absolutely a place for exercise science, intelligent programming and individualising training around someone’s goals, experience and physical capacity. That’s what good coaching is about.

But none of it replaces actually doing the work.

You don’t need the perfect exercise, rep range or training split. You need a sensible program, appropriate effort, progressive overload and enough consistency for those things to compound over time.

A good program performed consistently beats the perfect program performed occasionally.

So this week, rather than wondering whether your program could be 2% more optimal, ask yourself: am I actually doing it consistently enough to give it a chance to work?

Keep reading

• Are You Actually Training Hard Enough? A Simple Guide to Reps in Reserve
• Why We Lift Heavy (Safely)
• Are We Becoming Too Obsessed With Protein?

Ready to start?

There has never been a better time to kickstart your strength and conditioning journey. Find out about the RevoPT Jump Start Program or get in touch with a university-accredited RevoPT coach today.