When otherwise intelligent people get into the gym for the first time (or their second/third/fourth time after a layoff), they invariably come up with some elaborate program that isolates body parts and looks ridiculously scientific to them. To people who have even a basic understanding of exercise science, it's a load of garbage.

Take for example this workout routine:

Day 1 - Chest/Abs:

Cable Flies 3x12-15 reps (alternate between working upper and base) Incline Smith Bench 4x12-15 reps Flat Bench 4x12-15 reps Decline Bench 4 12-15 reps Incline DB flies (30 degrees) 3x10-12 reps Exercise Ball Crunches 3x15-20 reps Leg Lifts 3x12-15 reps Cable Crunches 3x15-20 reps

Day 2 - Back:

Deadlifts 5x8-10 reps Lat Pull Downs 5x10-12 reps Seated Rows 4x8-10 reps DB Single Arm Rows 3x12-15 reps Barbell Rows 3x10 reps Str8 Arm Lat Pulldowns 4x12-15 reps

Day 3 - Shoulders/Calves:

Rear Delt Flies 4x10-12 reps Arnold Press 3x8-10 reps Lat Raises 4x10-12 reps Front Raises 4x10-12 reps Wide Grip BB High Pulls 3x10-12 reps Behind The Head Smith Machine Military Press 3x10-12 reps Seated Calf Raises/Donkey Calf Raise Superset 5x12-15 reps Farmer Walk Forward and Backward

Day 4 - Arms/Traps/Abs:

Alt DB Curls/Single Arm Tricep Extension superset 4x10-12 reps BB Curl/DB Tricep Kickbacks superset 3x12-15 reps Isolated DB Curl/Dips superset 3x 10-12 reps Armblaster Cable Curls/V Bar Pulldowns or Rope superset 4x10-12 reps Close grip BB Shrugs (front and back) 4x10-12 reps DB Shrugs 3x10-12 reps Close Grip BB High Pulls 3x10-12 reps *repeat Ab routine

Day5 - Quads/Hams/Calves:

DB Deadlifts/Stiff legged deadlifts superset 4x10-12 reps Lunges/Lying Leg Curls superset 3x12-15 reps Standing Leg Curl 4x10-12 reps Leg Extension 4x10-12 reps *repeat Calve routine

This lifter is a beginner based on his previous lifts and training status. What do you immediately notice? Well, that he's "isolating" muscle groups and doing a ridiculous amount of repetitions per day over five days in the gym. Beginners do not need this much volume. It is far too much fancy nonsense and not enough actual compound movements to get strong and/or look better.

If you can wade through that giant mess of a "program," you'll see that there aren't any squats. Any training program without squats is useless - period.

The program above is fairly common for people who like to think for themselves and pride themselves on being smart and free-thinking. The problem, of course, is that nearly all these people suffer from the Dunning-Kruger Effect, which essentially states that unskilled/uneducated people suffer from an illusion that they are smarter than everyone else and can do things their way, when in reality they are completely incompetent. As Charles Darwin said: "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge."