In my last post about The Right Beginner Training Mindset, I said that I would elaborate much more in the final point: The Need to Adopt an Experimenter’s Mindset. This post is that elaboration.
This is a long post, and I go into some details and examples. However, as per usual, you can get the entire gist of the article if you scroll all the way down to the ‘final note‘ (marked with *) section of the article, and pay more attention to the bolded areas.
With that said, let’s begin with a brief primer. The issue with the real world is that theory often doesn’t conform to real world results. On top of that, we cannot really explain many real world events. This is sometimes because we do not know the workings of the underlying mechanism. However, more often than not (especially with health), it is because the system is too complicated for theory to explain.
The only thing that we can do, is to get informed of current knowledge, try something, see what works, keep it, and toss the rest.
The following will be a description of the factors underlying the need for experimentation. I touch on some examples within the context of training and diet. However, I trust that you will be able to apply these to many other areas in life.
Why Experiment
Why it demands experimentation is because of ambiguity. In other words, we know the general direction, but need to avoid the obstacles on the way there.
There are two types of ambiguity which I want to touch on in this article. The first is ambiguity in the methodology itself, and the second is ambiguity in the execution.
However, there is one last area, and that is with regard to limitations in our body of knowledge itself. This shows itself in certain cases whereby we do something to fix a problem, but never know why the problem was fixed, we just know doing A fixes B somehow. In the context of health and fitness, this occurs more often than not, simply because our understanding of the human body is still limited in many respects.
These may be abstract ideas for now, but rest be assured that the examples raised should clarify these concepts pretty well.
Let there be one thing that you agree to do if you find this article useful, and that is to experiment with yourself.
Ambiguity in the Method
I saw it best to use examples that I, and likely other human beings should be able to sympathise with.
The first type of ambiguity lies in the actual actionable steps that are necessary for one to take to achieve the goal. For example, to create a bridge we must first obtain the materials, than decide on the most appropriate design for the context, and then proceed to build the bridge.
In that case, the method is clear, and we can easily be informed by the science of bridge building. We can thus predict the success of an outcome or not.
Areas which have ambiguity in the methodology don’t allow for this luxury.
A good example would be the writing of an essay. The ultimate goal of an essay should be communication and persuasion. However, we all know that firstly, persuading someone is a subjective goal to begin with. We also know that there isn’t a fixed way to write an essay. There are good writers who drill through an essay in a single session, coming back for only 1 revision. There are equally good writers who outline the essay, let it sit at the back of their heads and slowly design it over the course of a few sessions. Needless to say, there are other methods too.
This is also the case with writing a piece of music, or painting a picture. The methods by which many great musicians and artists create their work vastly differ. In essence, there is no fixed methodology.
What to do about this
Since there is no fixed path that we should follow, we have no choice but to experiment. Using writing an essay as an example, we may experiment with writing first thing in the morning, then in the afternoon, then at night. The variable here is time.
Perhaps after 3-4 tries, you think that you still carry the vestigial sluggishness of sleep in the morning, and are worn out at night, so somewhere in between is right for you. After numerous tweaks, you start realising patterns. Perhaps not as specific as ‘the best work is done between 2-3pm’, but you would be closer to your optimal performance standard.
After playing around with enough variables, you should have a good idea of how to be in your best performance state for the writing of essays.
Unfortunately, this has to take time. However, you can always mirror the experiences of others, try it out, and see if it works for you. If it does, great. If it doesn’t, you now know what doesn’t work for you. So try, try again.
Ambiguity in the Execution
I will admit that ambiguity may not be the best choice of words here, but it gets the message across effectively enough.
What I really mean is that there are some areas whereby knowing what to do is easy, but the actual execution requires experimentation to get right.
I can give two examples, one in relation to sport and another with diet.
Sports
With many sports, technical ability matters a lot. For example, in tennis, being able to hit a solid backhand with adequate top spin is a fundamental core skill to be learnt. The mechanics are pretty simple: hit the ball with the racquet at a certain angle, and follow through.
Of course, this isn’t a natural movement for the body, and just knowing that that is what you need to do doesn’t solve the problem. You have to know how to achieve it, especially since you’re certain not thinking about wind direction, racquet angle, ball velocity and ball spin in the 0.5 seconds you take to hit the ball.
What to do
In the case of such sports, I have found it good to listen to the advice of both the people who manage to execute well, as well as those who manage to coach well. With respect to a tennis swing, some people believe that there should be only a single point of focus, and that is on the ball during contact with the racquet. Some people think that there should be two points, the contact and the follow through.
The idea is then to look and try out the methods presented by such experts, and measure the outcome. Sooner or later, you will be able to pick out patterns. In this case, almost all good tennis players will concentrate on looking at the ball and follow through with the swing, imagining the future path of the ball and not looking up from the spot of contact.
This applies to most sports, and experimenting with various methods will ultimately lead one to realise the end result, in this case, to get the ball to where you want it to go.
Diet
This is probably my most often quoted example of where people just simply need to experiment.
As discussed by many, many people, (I will link once again to “The Energy Balance Equation“), the only single requirement for weight to be loss is a caloric deficit; you expend more than you eat.
The quality of that weight loss (you’d want it to be fat, not muscle) then depends on several other factors, in decreasing order of importance (most important to least important): Adequate protein intake, Adequate muscular tension stimulus, other activity, etc. (note that meal timing and type of food doesn’t matter)
Knowing what to do is one thing, and though many people get it wrong, it is in fact a very straightforward thing. The issue here is HOW to create that caloric deficit in the first place.
Under-eating goes against our nature, and doing it takes a toll on us. Some people can suck it up and diet for many weeks on end. Some bodybuilders are a good example. They manage to starve themselves to extreme levels of leanness, then blow up like beached whales once their competition is over.
That may a necessary evil of the sport, but it certainly isn’t the way for the general population. Instead, a caloric deficit must be able to be created in a way that is sustainable to the individual. Note, when I say sustainable, I am referring to time scales up to or in excess of 1 year, not 12 weeks.
The answer though is pretty obvious: Try to eat foods that you like.
Play with variables, most notably: Meal Timing, Food Variety, Food Type. Yes, this is vague, so I will give some examples.
Let’s say you have an obese male subject. At 30% body fat and at 120kg, he needs some trimming. For our purposes, he wants to get down to 95kg at 15% body fat for his health sake. That’s a 25kg (55lbs) loss. Since he is obese, he can afford to lose weight quite quickly at the beginning. Still, to lose this amount of weight will require at least 18 weeks if done using a specifically designed crash diet. Since that sort of practice is likely to difficult for our sedentary, obese subject who knows nothing of training, I will assume that he needs to diet for at least 25-30. Also, he cannot do this non-stop, so considering some diet breaks (where he can relax and increase calories a little), the whole process is going to take 35 weeks.
Note, I haven’t even considered the vicissitudes of life. We have to accept that shit happens, and things don’t go according to plan. It is safe to assume that he will be dieting for a good year.
I frankly can’t imagine dieting for a year. Doing it the traditional style, whereby you are restricted to certain foods and meal timings is just going to drive the person crazy. Why? Because he is doing Someone Else’s diet.
Instead, what he should be doing is to adopt ideas from other people to cater to his own tastes. After all, it’s him who is dieting.
The first thing to do is to throw out the notion that you cannot eat “unhealthy” foods. I’d rather see the person eat 300kcal of chocolate everyday to help him cope with the diet than remain fat for a year. Regardless of what anyone tells you, the science proves the fact that our body treats fast food the same as chicken breast and broccoli in the short term.
The dangers of fast food lies much more so in the accumulation of ‘toxic’ substances, like trans fat, over years of constant consumption. Remaining fat for a year is going to do much more harm than inserting some (note: some) fast food on a frequent basis.
So after all this rambling, what do you do? Very simply, be conscious about what you’re eating. Ask yourself, does eating chocolate (or any other food) really make me happy? Do I need a huge dinner to be happy? Do I feel really hungry if I don’t eat breakfast? Do I really need those soft drinks?
It depends. Let me say that some people will not extremely happy when they eat chocolate, while others will feel heavenly if they just have 2 cubes from a cadbury bar. The second person then SHOULD include chocolate, even on a daily basis, to curb cravings and effectively create the caloric deficit. After all, life’s great once they’ve had their small piece of chocolate.
Likewise, some people need a huge dinner to be happy, others don’t. Then why not plan around it? The person who enjoys dinner with family can purposefully restrict calories through the day. He/she may not even feel deprived due to the hectic workday. He/she can then look forward to sharing a hearty meal with family and never feel deprived even on a diet. In this case, total calories for the day remain the same, but more (say 500kcal more) are allocated to dinner.
And despite the so called ‘expert’ advice that breakfast should not be skipped, what does your body say? Some people tend to curb hunger better if they eat breakfast. Others simply cannot stomach anything in the morning, yet by noon they are ravenous, regardless of whether they ate breakfast or not. The first person should be eating breakfast, while the second may do better on a diet without it. Heresy, you say, but after trying intermittent fasting for 10 months now, I now do my best mental work (exams) without breakfast.
*Final Note: What you need to start doing NOW
Experiment.
Try eliminating breakfast. Try eating ice cream after dinner to prevent midnight snacks. If you’re hungry in the morning, eat in the morning. If your day job keeps you busy enough to forget about hunger, eat less during the day, and save those calories for a hearty meal with family come dinner-time.
Human hunger is a very complicated thing. One thing we do know however, is that it forms recognisable patterns that individuals themselves can usually detect.
Accept the unknown, but look for patterns. Play to these patterns. Start by looking to other people and finding out what works for them. Then ask yourself what you think would work best for yourself. If you think something helps you achieve your goals, try it again to confirm the correlation. If it does help, keep it. If it doesn’t, dump it.
This is why you see experienced athletes train in a way that doesn’t seem to fit the orthodox ‘common practice’. They have experimented with their bodies to the extent that they know what improves their stroke. This makes them unique, and it also means that past the basics, trying to emulate these pros may not be the right thing for people to do. Eg: Rafael Nadal’s Serve, with its huge amount of spin may not be needed (or accomplished) by another player.
I’m not here to argue on the validity of certain practices. but the issue at hand is the simple fact that everybody is different in more ways than one. Fortunately, this difference is subtle. This implies that you should look at what other people similar to you are doing, try it and see if it works.
Experiment a lot. Keep what works. Dump what doesn’t. Rinse and Repeat. Reap the Rewards.
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