I was reading an interesting article about a gym training system some weeks ago. The advice it contained was organised according to beginner, intermediate and advanced levels, and getting the most out of it required readers to classify themselves according to these three stages.
Despite it being my own profession and the years I have dedicated towards practising and learning about fitness training, I still feel somewhat pretentious classifying myself as advanced in such a situation, a conflict that always sets me thinking.
How does one define their level? Are there any set criteria to go by when making such a decision? Almost on cue, a related query reached my inbox last week: “How do you know when you are ready to step up your training to the next level?”
I realised that I myself often dish out such confusing advice, as I too believe in training appropriately according to one’s level. The training professional athletes, fitness models or bodybuilders do, for instance, simply does not apply to most of us and will not necessary yield the best results in exchange for the efforts we make.
So how do you know where you stand in this apparent fitness hierarchy? How do you choose the best type of training for you? And how do you know when you are ready to make the appropriate transitions?
The amount of years spent training can be an unreliable measure, because performing a basic programme once or twice a week – consisting of the same exercises performed in the same way at the same intensity for 10 years – cannot be compared to somebody who throws themselves into fitness with their heart and soul, training every day, reading, researching, seeking expert advice and experimenting with a wide range of exercises, techniques and methods.
What level would such a person reach in 10 years? A question I often like to probe people with in any area requiring knowledge and skill is, do you really have 10 years of experience? Or do you actually have one year of experience, repeated 10 times without change or improvement of any kind?
Ability doesn’t help us much either since we all have different starting points. Some are dealt a better hand than others in terms of talent. A champion 100-metre sprinter for instance may have run the distance in 10.5 seconds the first time they ever attempted it, and know a lot less about the game than a sprinter who clocks 12 seconds after years of training. Perhaps the 12-second sprinter started out clocking 14.5, representing a more ‘successful’ training effort in shaving off those two-and-a-half seconds than the champion who shaved off only half a second.
How do you choose the best type of training for you? And how do you know when you are ready to make the appropriate transitions?
Investment of time, effort or enthusiasm do not even help us define our level much better either, since time, effort and enthusiasm can all be misplaced or misguided. Yes, it is easy to identify the problems, but how can we approch this a little more productively? Let us see if we can devise a more practical and constructive framework for establishing levels and selecting the most appropriate corresponding methods.
If you need to determine your level in terms of physical fitness for an endurance-based programme, your resting heart rate may be a useful test, barring any medical conditions that may affect your result. Find your pulse on your wrist at the base of your thumb, count off the beats for a period of 15 seconds and multiply the value you come up with by four. If you have a resting heart rate of 75 beats per minute or more, you could be classified as a beginner. Below 55 would be advanced, with anything between falling across varying degrees of intermediate standard.
If you need to determine the level in terms of fitness for a strength-based programme, your performance on the deadlift, bench press and pull-up exercises may be a useful guide. If you are unfamiliar with either one of these exercises and do not feel confident to attempt heavy weights on the squat or deadlift or cannot perform a single pull-up, then you could consider yourself a beginner.
If you can perform 10 repetitions in the deadlift with good form and a straight back, with one-and-a-half times your own bodyweight; the same amount of repetitions in the bench press in good form through a full range of movement with your body weight multiplied by 1.1; and at least 10 pull-ups through a full range from straight arms, then you can consider yourself advanced. Anything in between would represent varying degrees of intermediate standard.
If you need to determine level in terms of familiarity with gym training and general experience, you should consider yourself a beginner if you are only familiar with the exercises in your own programme, and have only ever followed one programme.
Consider yourself advanced if you know how to use all the machines in your gym, have tried both continuous cardiovascular training and interval training, are familiar with a range of resistance training methods including straight sets, super sets, pyramids and circuit training, know your one-repetition-maximum values in at least three major free-weights exercises, have used alternative equipment like the medicine ball and resistance bands, and are aware of healthy eating strategies and the defining characteristics of training programmes for weight-loss and muscle-building.
If you still need to tick any of these boxes, then you could consider yourself intermediate, and likewise, if all this sounds fairly simple, then you could even consider yourself an expert.
matthew.muscat.inglott@mcast.edu.org.mt