Do you remember the Pet Rock?
Do you remember the Pet Rock?
I think their business is selling to people who are afraid of big weights.
I've seen, for example, a relatively light man (I don't know, maybe 70kg) reach an "RPE 8" by doing 60kg squats and things like that.
I don't know exactly the whole theory of this, but RPE 8 would be like you're pushing yourself pretty hard, or so I think, and you're feeling pain.
RPE 9 or 10 maybe it would be 70 or 75 kg??? Don't know.
I have seen some of those videos and I have laughed. A nutritionist and """""trainer""""" from my community trains people with that. Obviously, they're also big promoters of kettlebells, bands, jumping rope and all that crap.
The man lifting those 60 or 70 kg is the most "powerful" thing you will see in that "gym".
Of course, she and her accomplice say they are "strength trainers."
What assholes...
Comforting ritual.
I think it's probably two parts. The first part is the novice effect. Any program will work if you are unadapted and put in effort. A lot of people have gotten strong doing less than optimal program just by working their asses off. The second part is that you can blame the lifter for not using it right if it's not working: "well you just don't know how to use RPE right. You implemented it incorrectly."
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Pest control and pool cleaning services are also a thing. All it takes is some research and elbow grease to do these things yourself and get the same, if not superior, results.
What these things have in common is an attempt to over-complicate the subject and make it seem beyond comprehension of the average “busy” person.
It “works” for the people who sell them. By the time you, the buyer, realize that, you’ve already bought them.
Mixing numbers with feelings never felt so good. It’s a win-win for everyone.
It isn't that it just doesn't work at all but the same people selling them are telling everybody that not training that way is wrong despite the fact that nobody even knew what RPE was for decades and still got strong.