Balanced doesn't work

This isn’t a post making a deep ethereal comment on life and all it’s associated difficulties. If that is what you’re after I am sorry but you’re barking up the wrong tree. I’m talking about why trying to find or write a ‘balanced’ programme is about the least effective thing you can spend time on.

Balance doesn’t exist

You may have won the genetic lottery and be perfectly symmetrical at birth, even through your wildly athletic and varied childhood, but more likely than not you found weightlifting by the time the world had screwed you up a little bit. One twisted ankle, semester spent hunched over a laptop and that crook neck you now get every time you fall asleep on the sofa means that YOU’RE NOT BALANCED. And if you’re not balanced, why should your training programme be?

All things being equal

Balance suggests equal. Programming in its very nature requires the identification of things that need improving and the prioritisation of those things above other less significant things and/or things that can be sought later, often optimised by the earlier prioritisation. Periodisation is built on this principle. If we choose to narrow our focus for a short time period, we can not only improve that quality but also enhance another physical qualities development later on.

Muscle mass before strength, strength before power or simply movement skill before load.

Balance suggests that there is equal need for all things but we instinctively know that is not usually the case. Some are good pressers but bad pullers, some people are limited by their posterior chain strength and others by their useable ranges of motion. You can’t spend equal time/effort on all things without maintaining these same disparities.

For simplicity, consider the lifter who snatches 90% of what they clean and jerk. Should they spend equal training volume on snatch, clean and jerk?

Anthropometry

The way you are physically put together; the limb lengths and relative proportions to your torso and their combined affect on your height and build will mean that you have different strengths and weaknesses to anyone with different anthropometry. Add to that any physical asymmetry such as one flatter foot arch or a mild scoliosis and you start to see people quite differently.

This also changes as we mature and grow. The consequent movements we perform are influenced by changes in weight and muscle mass. Our training history, more so our total physical history, combine to create this totally idiosyncratic being that will benefit greatly from a uniquely individual training approach.

What looks like the perfect programme IS in fact the perfect programme for probably just a handful of people who fit neatly into that little box at that exact time.

We know all programmes work. They work for someone, sometimes. Just not for everyone and not forever. Your programme should scream to whoever reads it what you’re trying to improve, where you are weak and what is already pretty good. If it doesn't , or if it looks more like a menu at McWeightlifting with a bit of everything at all times, you need to go back to the drawing board.

The same stuff still works

This doesn’t mean you can ignore what works. It’s not that you are some special snowflake in that sense. You are still a human being and will still react and adapt the way all humans do. So the training stress must still adhere to established protocols from the hundred or so years of research and practice by the leading minds in the field. The individual part of individualisation comes from manipulating the variables within the established guidelines. Volume, intensity, tempos, frequency, and importantly exercise selection are what sets your programme apart from others.

Don’t look for balance in:

Squats vs Pulls - you are likely better in one than the other even before you start. Make sure you’re focusing on the one that will impact your classic lifts the most.

Snatches vs Cleans - your body responds to stress as part of the training process and tonnage (load on the bar x how many times you do it) largely dictates that stress. Full cleans are inherently more stressful due to being heavier so typically wouldn’t be trained as often as the snatch.

Back vs Front Squats - Depending on your strength level, individual training and injury history it’s likely you should NOT have an equal amount of front and back squats in your programme.

Presses and Rows - you may need to fix a weakness or create some more muscle mass but neither requires a 1:1 ratio of pressing and pulling. In my experience most people need a much stronger back so need more rows, chins, pull ups and upper back accessory exercises.

What you’ll need is some good objective introspection. What do you find hard? What don’t you like doing because you’re not very good at it? What are you already fairly decent at that can take a back seat for a while? What part of the lifts breaks down first and how can we fix that?

Design a programme weighted towards, even heavily biased towards those things to see the biggest improvements possible. To make you more balanced chances are you need a lop-sided programme. Tip the scales in your favour.