Consistency Multiplies Everything Else
Mike's opening claim is that the single biggest source of variance in whether someone grows over a year of training isn't program design, isn't exercise selection, isn't even intensity. It's consistency. "If you just go to the gym and scream a lot and do crappy technique, crappy volumes, crappy loads, but you show up multiple times a week over and over, you're going to get some results. If you have the ultimate evidence-based plan but you do it intermittently — on and off stuff — you're not going to get them." The reframe matters because most lifters spend their optimization energy in the wrong place. They debate Smith machine versus barbell, they argue about rep ranges, they overhaul their split every six weeks — while showing up four times one week and once the next. The optimal program done inconsistently loses to the mediocre program done religiously. "If you're going to do something consistently, you might as well do it pretty well. It multiplies the emphasis. Sunk cost — might as well optimize on the margins."