I have some very loose criteria that I use to determine if something I am implementing is doing what it’s supposed to do. First of all, there are a couple of broad categories I consider:
1. Specific Movements – a specific muscle or a specific range
2. Macro System – basically any compound movement
3. External modalities or treatments – things outside of movement, food or sleep. Things like massage or ice.
Let’s start with movement. Quite frankly, if a movement is doing what it’s intended to do, I would expect some semblance of change, improvement, or a response by the second or third application at the latest—especially if it’s in person. If I’m watching you do every single rep, my optimism is that the movement is specifically targeting the intended issue and giving us feedback suggesting adaptation and growth is occurring. Sometimes it takes a try or two—or even three—to nail down the exact range of motion, loading, etc. But for the most part, I want that signal to present itself quickly.
An example to the contrary to make it obvious would be if my knee hurts and I do bicep curls. I could do bicep curls from now until the end of time, and I’ll never feel any stimulus in my knee. Every successive approximation closer to the knee will feel more related to the target outcome, until I get to the point where the specific issue I’m dealing with is addressed by the specific movement. The specific thing I might find to target the issue is a short range knee extension with knee tracking outwards while on the ball of the foot. Far more specific and native to the space compared to a bicep curl (obviously) or (not so obviously) a lunge that kinda sorta hits it half the time.
If you’re doing this on your own with some guidance or homework, it might take a little longer. It’s going to require more trial and error, more guess-and-check on my behalf to give you guidance after you have tried it a couple times. Additionally, you may not be applying the right intensity. I like to think of it as a two-week benchmark. If you’ve done the movement or activity for two weeks and you feel nothing, it’s time to move on or double down on doing it perfectly as intended to rule out its use.
Next, let’s talk about systems. A system should also show improvement nearly immediately. Can I use acute queuing to get you moving correctly? Can I use some sort of tactile feedback to give you a sensation that makes it feel like you’re doing the right thing, or at least feel like you’re incrementally moving in the right direction? For example, if I’m trying to coax out a certain movement pattern and I’m doing some convoluted band-stretching thing and expect it to work, but it doesn’t, then that bandy, convoluted stretch probably can’t elicit the intended response.
When we talk about a movement pattern that joins multiple systems, like a squat, I would want to be able to coax that out of you immediately. If I can’t, it either means I have musculature that’s offline and not cooperating, so the system might not be ready for this complex of a task, or the cues I’m sharing with you aren’t resonating. Maybe you’re unable to digest the verbal instructions and tell your brain to direct your leg to do the specific thing I’m asking you to do in the squat. That’s then on me to revise my approach in communication or scale back my approach to be more simple to execute. But in either event, I would want some improved movement patterns in the very near future.
Now, whether or not that sticks to the next session is another story, but I should be able to produce a change, a solid before and after, in one session with appropriate cues—if the system is ready. If I can’t, then I need to go to something else. On your own, again, this might take a little longer, but with some repetition, you should be able to make changes in fairly short order.
Now, what about external modalities? These are the trickiest of all because there are an infinite number of options, and an infinite amount of money to spend. Chances are, you’ll never really get clarity on whether something is working on its own. These things tend to have very weak overall effects.
Here’s how I generally look at it: Are we trying to create a superlative outcome, or are we trying to bridge a deficit?
A common example would be taking supplements. Am I actually vitamin C deficient, in which case taking vitamin C might resolve something I’m experiencing? Or, if I’m not vitamin C deficient, then adding more vitamin C won’t have much of an effect—it’ll just be metabolized and maybe excreted through my kidneys. Most supplements are geared towards addressing a deficit. If there’s no deficit, there’s nothing to be done. You can’t utilize more vitamins then you are prepared to metabolize, despite claims of “super charging” something. You are hydrated when you drink enough water. More water is just more pee. There is no “superlative hydration” to be achieved by drinking more water than you need.
A superlative example might be caffeine. Supposing you are sufficiently rested, caffeine can give you an extra boost or edge of energy or cognition. You are now expanding what is available without it. Naturally it could be used to bridge the gap on a sleep deficit as well. But for this example, it’s a boost. You drink a cup of coffee and you are firing away on all cylinders at work or blast heavy back squats like nothing.
Most other things will not give you that type of obvious feedback.
Massage? Sure, it feels good when you do it…but the next day…are you really any better off? Hard to say.
Cold Plunge? Yea, it’ll wake you up, but the literature is pretty bleak on its long term benefits. Is is anything more than placebo?
I’m not here to yuck your yum. If you like it, go for it!
But the problem is that there are a million things positioned as the great new miracle and not enough time or money to explore them all.
My default position these days is: No, it does nothing.
Guilty until proven innocent.
When enough promising information comes out (and that can even be the accumulation of pure anecdote) then the first thing I mentally contemplate is what is it proposing to do? How plausible is that? Do I even have the deficit it purports to resolve? Is it capable of an extra-ordinary boost in performance?
Im Summary
If it is going to work, I want it to work relatively quickly. I want it to be obvious. I want it to be durable.
If I have to explain away 10 things that make no sense, then its probably not working.
If I have to try it 100 times to get all the benefits on instance 101, then its probably not working.
If I can’t elicit feedback from your movements in a few short cues, then I’ll try new ones.
The error in all of this would be to persist with behavior or tools that are making no change. And while that sounds painfully obvious, I see people persist with dubious modalities with no improvement all the time.
All on the hopes that some day it will magically start doing what it was intended to do in the first place.