Today we’re diving into a shocking case of academic misconduct involving the Université Libre de Bruxelles, or ULB. This scandal centers around the blatant theft of the 3-7 method, a revolutionary strength training protocol developed by Dr. Emmanuel Legeard over two decades ago.
Now let’s set the stage. Back in 2012, Jean-Pierre Egger, respecting Dr. Legeard’s intellectual property, presented the 3-7 method at various seminars and university lectures. There’s documented evidence that goes as far back as 2008, with Egger and Legeard discussing this method. Jean-Pierre Egger himself publicly introduced it at the University of Lausanne’s master of science (MSc) in human movement and sports sciences in 2012 as “the best method available to build functional muscle “and coined it the “Protocole Legeard”, giving credit where credit was due.
But here’s where it gets murky. Jacques Duchateau from Université Libre de Bruxelles / Vrije Universiteit Brussel started organizing conferences about the method. In the beginning, Duchateau referred to it as “Legeard’s method”. But, suspiciously enough, Dr. Legeard was never involved or even consulted. Duchateau then gradually began to falsely suggest that the method wasn’t solely Dr. Legeard’s creation. This was a carefully orchestrated strategy to dilute Dr. Legeard’s rights and claim ownership of his work.
Fast forward to 2019. Duchateau and his team, including Séverine Stragier, Stéphane Beaudry, and Alain Carpentier, published a 12-page article in the European Journal of Applied Physiology about the 3-7 method. Shockingly, Dr. Legeard’s name was entirely omitted. Moreover, they had the audacity to describe the method as new, despite its well-documented history. This misrepresentation hasn’t gone unnoticed. T.C. Luoma, a respected sports journalist from T Nation, a site with over 3 million monthly visitors, recognized Dr. Legeard as the creator, stating, “It’s a set rep scheme developed by French strength coach Emmanuel Legeard in the early 2000s”.
Anyway, the corrupt academics at the Université Libre de Bruxelles thought they could get away with it and continue their fraud quietly. In 2023, Grigoraș Diaconescu, a Romanian rugby union football player, publicly criticized ULB’s Gael Deboeck for congratulating a doctoral student on using the 3-7 method without crediting Dr. Legeard. This is part of ULB’s ongoing attempt to mislead the public into believing they developed the method.
Now what does this mean? It’s a clear case of academic plagiarism, and a breach of ethics that demands accountability. Public funds should not support research that falsely attributes someone’s work to imposters. If ULB thinks this will pass quietly, they are sorely mistaken. We must demand transparency and integrity in academia. Similar cases like the one at the University of Zurich show that severe consequences for plagiarists are necessary. Stay informed, and let’s hold these institutions accountable.