You’ve probably heard of Occam’s Razor: it’s the philosophic principle that says the simplest explanation is usually the right one. William of Ockham was a medieval philosopher, but you can apply his idea to pretty much anything. In powerlifting, Occam’s Razor would probably go something like this: if you miss a lift, it’s because you’re not strong enough.

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Dr. John Hickam was a medical doctor, not a philosopher, but he took the opposite view. Hickam’s dictum states: “A man can have as many diseases as he damn well pleases." Hickam was really saying that a patient with multiple symptoms is more likely to have a couple of very common illnesses than one really rare one, but if we extrapolate a bit, we can take it to mean that the underlying causes of an observation can be varied and complex.

Applying Hickam’s dictum to powerlifting requires taking a more nuanced view of your successes and failures. If you missed a lift, maybe you weren’t strong enough – but maybe you were strong enough, except you made a technical error, didn’t get enough sleep the night before, and you were lifting in a new gym using unfamiliar equipment.

The key here is to look for explanations, not excuses, and the difference is all about how you respond to failure. If you miss, get pissed off, blame it on a technical error, and just write it off, well, then, you’re just making excuses. If you realize you made a technical error, the right response is to look for ways to avoid repeating the error in the future. Do you need someone to call depth for you so that you don’t cut your squats high? Do you need to start benching with a rope under your butt so that you’re not shooting your hips up on every rep? Identify the problem, propose a solution, and then practice until you get it right.

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One last thing to note: don’t invent explanations that aren’t there. It’s easy to claim that you missed a deadlift because you set up a quarter-inch off to one side, but is that really going to make a difference? And even if it does make a difference, can you really fix that? Are you going to bust out a measuring tape and protractor on the platform so that you can make sure you get set perfectly? Of course not. If you have trouble being honest with yourself, find a coach who you can trust, and let them apply Hickam’s dictum so that you don’t have to stress over it.