In this episode, Todd & Paul discuss the five "whys" of training.

At SLSC, we see a lot of people with a lot of different goals. Some are motivated primarily by aesthetics – they want to look good with their shirt off. Others are motivated by long-term health – they got some scary blood results back from their doctor or they have kids and want to be healthy long-term as their children grow up. There's also people who want to find their maximum physical potential in sport – whether that's in CrossFit or in something like distance running or rugby. And, to be completely honest, a lot of people have mixed goals or haven't fully investigated what they want. They may say that they want to lift more weight and get better over time, but they really want to look a certain way at the pool.

Each of these goals is equally valid. There's no value judgment on someone's "why" behind training.

However, the best practices for each of these goals is different.

We see a lot of confusion and conflation surrounding the way that people train for competition, the way people train for aesthetics, and the way people train for health.

There's a lot of information and advice floating around, a lot of which is being misapplied to people with different goals. A bodybuilding stage prep diet is a great way to get super lean for a competition, but a horrible way to prepare for a CrossFit competition or to lose weight for long-term health and wellness. A lactate endurance protocol is a great way to peak for a CrossFit competition, but is a horrible way to develop every day fitness for an over-stressed office worker.

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