Training vs. Practice vs. Playing Around in the Weight Room

by Mark Rippetoe | December 04, 2024

In a previous article, I discussed the difference between “training” and “practice,” and the important differences between the two activities. “Training” adapts your physiology for the performance, and “practice” makes your adapted body better at the movement patterns used in the performance. This analysis is quite useful in deciding how to prepare for a competition performance. And it has further implications for deciding what to do in the gym, even if you're not a competitor.

Assuming you go to a gym, how do you spend your time there? I have worked in gyms for 50 years, and I know what goes on in the standard industry model health club – not much of anything productive. When the typical member signs up, they start off by playing on the machines. Unless they hire a personal trainer, in which case they have somebody watching them while they play on the machines. The sad truth is that most of the floor staff in most commercial health clubs don't know any more about this than the new members do.

This is because of the business model of the typical commercial health club: sales is what they do, and “exercising” is of secondary importance. Get the prospect sold. Close the sale. Schedule the first workout and run them through the machines. Act like you know what you're doing from the beginning, so the prospect will sign, pay the enrollment fee, set up the dues draft, and come back for the second workout. And keep paying the dues.

What does the second workout look like? Probably looks exactly the same as the first workout. So does the third workout. But it doesn't matter, since the sale has been closed. In the standard corporate commercial health club, the sale is all that matters. That's what the machines are for: they enable unskilled labor making Minimum Wage to operate the exercise floor and sell memberships. Some of the kids working there will take an interest in learning more about exercise, but it's not really necessary as long as they know how to operate the machines and set the pins.

This really means that the majority of what goes on in most health clubs is Play. Yes, the activity favored by kids and puppies – moving around for the purpose of having fun.

There's nothing wrong with play, unless you think you're doing something else more productive. There's nothing wrong with wasting time, if you have a lot of time to waste. But be clear on this: unstructured pointless activity accomplishes the having-fun-part only. It doesn't increase strength or fitness beyond the initial stages of the novice effect, and is therefore recreational activity only.

If your objective is improving your performance, you have to train and you have to practice, both of which are structured activities based on an analysis of the performance being prepared for. Going from machine to machine in the health club produces no training effect, and is not practice for anything in a performance.

But even if you are not a competitor, a more structured approach to your gym time yields much better results than playing on the machines. And you may find that you really are a competitor after all.