I was asked a question last week about insulin and adrenal hormones, and why you wouldn’t want to spike them before your workout.

I field a lot of intelligent questions like this: from clients, training partners and people who write to me, to friends and family.  The answer to so many questions like it is: who is asking?

Many people who read well intentioned or even largely true training advice must keep in mind who is dispensing the advice and who their intended audience is. While there are universal training truths, you must remember the old adage: Sometimes you have to rob Peter to pay Paul.

What do I mean?

• In times where you hope to increase muscle mass, you’ll be sacrificing training for strength (in intermediate to experienced trainees).

• In times where your goal is to burn fat, you probably won’t be gaining muscle (novice trainees might, but intermediate and advanced will not).

• You do not want to take in sugar or carbohydrate to spike your insulin before you workout because it will come with performance detriment, but a wrestler or grappler who is doing two-a-days and has a strength session may actually benefit from increasing their blood glucose levels with GOOD sugars before a workout or training session.

I think I’m making my point. There are only so many masters you can serve, and simultaneous goals you can achieve. That's why you must establish your priority and be realistic about your situation to get better results. It comes back to the big question: Who is asking?

Often times, you have to be aware of situations where you “don’t know what you don’t know” (to borrow another old phrase). This is where professionals and coaches are critical: they help you identify who you are, what group you fit into, and how to best address your question. More importantly, they can help you prioritize your goals. Sometimes you don’t even know what questions to be asking. That’s why anyone serious about their training needs coaching in some capacity.

From the side of the professional, the coach, the trainer, the therapist: this is where we need to band together and establish good networks: if I am being asked by an olympic lifter how to “clean up” their clean and jerk for competition, that is not something I can offer finer nuance on, and I am acutely aware of that. We can work your clean, front squat and mobility to get you a bit better, but if you have very little time, and it's all mechanics of sport: I want to refer you to the best sport coach. If you ask me about conditioning, strength and mobility for grappling, then I can help you quite readily, and if a yoga teacher was asked about grappling, I would expect he/she to do the same.

I digress and offer the simple advice we opened with: if you or your client can better identify the priority in your current program and reality of the situation, you can better identify the big question:

Who is asking?