Updated Opinions of Chris Beardsley?

General Discussion
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I recently was introduced to Chris Beardsley and I started reading up on studies he cited on Medium about neuromechanical matching. The concept makes sense in that the load needs to move in a motion that allows the body to maximally activate motor units. And his social posts have given me some solid tips on activating specific muscles. I also saw recommendations on this forum from 2018-2020 for his book, Strength is Specific. Please correct me if Im wrong on this or need to check out other research to balance the take.

However, I found out about him because of a particularly angry comment on a post critiquing Mike Israetel. The commentor called Israetel unscientific, and directly quoted insults from Paul Carter (also new to me until this commentor). So I checked out the anti-Israetel group named by the commentor, including Lyle McDonald, Paul Carter, and Chris Beardsley. At first I couldnt find any open problems between Chris Beardsley and Israetel. But then I listened to the Chris and Paul Show, specifically the episode about “You Still Dont Understand Muscle Tension”. And Beardsley’s tone was completely different. Carter was probably the worst, but both spent over an hour being derisive and laughing at their own insults of the “Hypertrophy Hive Mind”. Which, included Israetel. Wolf, Nuckols, Pak, and Henselman by name, but also included anyone associated with stretch mediated hypertrophy.

And that really threw me off. On the basics, most of these fitness gurus dont really disagree: 10 sets per muscle group a week and adding more as the lifter advances, reps in the 5 to 20 range taken close to failure, using basic exercises in a preferrably full range of motion. But in this podcast and on places like Lyle McDonalds socials, there seems to be a growing group of particularly antagonistic lifters who are being specifically told that people with PhDs on Physiology or Kinesiology are “unscientific.”

So my question is, has the general opinion of Chris Beardsley changed in the last two years as he has built the Chris and Paul show with Paul Carter? And while I agree that the evidence based community has done to exercise science studies what the 5 o’clock news did to coffee studies, why all the hate? It feels like rival martial arts schools in an old Hong King action movie.

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I am not familiar with much of Beardlsey’s work outside of his book, Strength is Specific. I like that book quite a bit for understanding some important concepts in strength training.

The tweets I’ve seen describing “studies” have generally been low quality, unfortunately. I have not listened to any of the podcast you reference. However, I am aware of how Mr. Carter speaks about others he disagrees with, as well as his grasp of the scientific literature. I do not think he is a good resource for those looking to learn or improve their training results. I also think their version of the effective reps model strains everyone’s credibility, particularly when being derisive towards people with equal or more education, as well as more personal and professional success. There’s just not good evidence supporting that specific of a model.

As far as whether the general opinion of Beardsley has changed, I can’t speak for everyone, but my opinion of his work and messaging is that it’s not very helpful for most. Carter makes it infinitely worse, as does any involvement with Lyle.

Fortunately, there are many smart, well-spoken individuals that are willing to help.

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