Why You SHOULDN'T Be A "Technique Cyborg"... (How To Stay SMALL)

There are a lot of factors that go into making progress in the gym. While I've always said that hypertrophy is a very forgiving adaptation that can be arrived at via leveraging many different variables, there's a VERY good reason that you see few top natural (or enhanced) lifters using the amount of control and range of motion that Dr. Mike Israetel has promoted at times during his "technique cyborg" series. A little goes a long way, and a lot gets you nowhere. Many people DO need to control the weight more. I understand what this type of content is a reaction to, the guy flailing around doing "bent over rows" with 80% of his deadlift. And yes, that was me. Many people should reduce the weight and aim to get a deeper stretch on the muscles, which has been shown to, on average, be better for growth. But that's not everyone. A lot of people need to let go of "optimizing" those variables because it's taking away from their progress due to sacrificing weight on the bar, progression, or effort. While it's easy to criticize the form of Ronnie Coleman, it's decidedly unscientific to declare with certainty that he'd be bigger if he squatted "my way". Whether it's "full rom" or controlling the weight to the point where it looks more like yoga instead of lifting, don't let your identity become too wrapped up into any one variable, because you'll probably end up ignoring other ones. And they matter, too. Controlling baby weight through an exaggerated range of motion is not the path to bigdom, and there's a reason that many of the lifters featured in this series were not spectacularly muscular. Some, by the way, were. There were some GREAT SETS featured that used appropriate loading, but most of them were a year or more ago. Some of the smith machine squats, pullups and leg press sets that I saw were truly fantastic...but recently it's been mostly sets that NO MUSCULAR LIFTER ACTUALLY DOES. MEME SETS chosen for shock value, basically. Why would anyone highlight that? I ask myself the same thing as I see more and more of this content. I've followed Dr. Mike and RP since the early days. I've probably watched hundreds of their videos at this point. Dr. Mike has never been shy about putting his controversial ideas out there in a way that most science based practitioners would balk at, but in the past year it really does seem like the formula has reversed. Instead of believing something and then putting it out there, topics, statements, thumbnails and titles have been deliberately chosen for maximum shock value. This does seem to happen to many big channels, where they notice what content does well, then ultimately become slaves to the algorithm, putting out more and more ridiculous content to scratch that dopamine itch. The cart is now leading the horse, where an unending torrent content merely provided in order to optimize the funnel of clicks-->views-->subscribers-->money. I know I'm not the only one who's seen this. And it's disappointing. I don't have any solutions or advice, I'm just sharing my observations.

"Control the weight down but don't be a tryhard" - Bald Omni Man, 2024

LETS GO HORSECOCK SOME BIG WEIGHTS, NO PENCIL NECKS HERE

Science based programming. Bro based lifting.

I used to be very overly concerned with my form and technique. I think the main reason that this happened was because I was obsessed with watching tutorial videos. The people in those videos are usually showing perfect reps but their intensity is often very low.

The two sides of the same small coin, the ego lifter and the ego movementer

The worst part about it is that Mike and Jared don’t even go to this extent with their own form. I’m all for big stretches, controlled eccentrics and safe lifting but they obviously noticed that their full ROM approach could become a lucrative crutch for noobs and capitalized on it

This just Youtube/social media fitness in a nutshell. RP's 'Hypertrophy Made Simple' series is over 3 years old. If the goal was just giving people useful info, they could've stopped there. But the need for a constant stream of content requires over-emphasizing things or just making stuff up.

As a beginner I learned so much from the old Renaissance Periodization videos. They would release hour long videos delving into the nuances of every training variable. These days, they post 10 minute vids criticizing Hollywood celebs with a recycled sex joke every 30 seconds. I barely recognize the channel anymore, and it does feel like they are just posting to get clicks with no thought of actually being helpful. Really a shame.

Whilst I do love RP there are certain things they do which bother me. This being one of them. Another big one is that Dr Mike routinely says there is no need to train to failure and that it is detrimental to progess (from a S2F standpoint) but then routinely posts videos where they train so hard that they're puking in bins and collasping. Either that or posting that a set is RIR 0 when they quite clearly had more reps in the tank (thinking back to your RP v Lyle MacDonald video)

if the first rep looks perfect, the 4th/6th looks slow or gets stucked midway and the last gets ugly as fuck, I'm happy

That's why I just follow John Meadows principles. RIP the best.

We're all gonna make it brahs

Be GymBro Cyborg Insted)

Dr. Mike is appearing on a bunch of podcasts that are lightly related to lifting, so he is definitely trying to grow his brand and broaden his appeal.

Ever since making his training app, Dr Mike hasn't been the same. I used to be a big fan of his style of saying "I think my strategy is better, but feel free to experiment". I used to watch every video that came out, but now I feel like I'd just waste 20 minutes of my time seeing a huge buffed up dude "going to failure" with 20lbs dumbbells on chest press. RIP Dr Mike

No matter how good your form is, it will get worse after adding weight. You will just have to accept it and improve your form with the new weight. Get to 90-95% of perfect form and move on to heavier weights

Its funny because you and RP are my go to YouTube content creators. Lifting is like anything else in life. Learn all you can and take parts of everything that works for you. I'm the biggest at the leanest, imjury free because of you guys

This topic is the main reason I switched from Dr Mike to Eric Bugenhagen

Thanks for being willing to put this put there, I've been following your channel and Dr. Mike's for a few years now and couldn't agree more. Still love Dr. Mike, but man, it's getting obvious what the channel goals are. 👊🏻💪🏻