ON BEGINNERS

 

This post is going to be an ultimate case of irony, because through it I’m going to discuss how there is no need to spend so much effort discussing beginners, but this is what I’ve been reduced to.  And my longtime readers/viewers will be fully aware that I have a rant video on youtube wherein I discuss beginners as well, and, in fact, it was the very FIRST rant video, and it even pre-dates this blog, so it goes to show just how long this topic has been something I’ve discussed, so let’s already come to terms with the fact I’m a fraud.  But I’m one fraud among many, because so many charlatans are preying on beginners in order to fill their pockets and bolster their reputations.  Fortunately for you, I write for free and my reputation is equally as poor, so now I can just say whatever I want.  And what I want to say is this: there’s no need for beginners to spend so much time worrying about how to train.

Seriously: all you need is to take your vitamins and say your prayers.  Duh!

 

It’s true: it REALLY doesn’t need to be as complicated as people make it out to be.  Why?  Because the beginner phase of training is INCREDIBLY short.  We’re talking like 3 months.  Oh, after 3 months you get to be an intermediate?  No: shut up with that stupid internet stuff.  This isn’t a role-playing game: you didn’t level up.  After 3 months, you’re simply NOT a beginner.  It just means you can take the training wheels off your bike now: it doesn’t mean you’re ready to race motocross.  And if that analogy is a bit crazy for you, I’ll spell it out completely: after that 3 month period, you can stop doing beginner “programs” and start doing an ACTUAL training program.

 

Before things get even more stupid: yes, 3 months is just a ballpark figure.  You may need a little more time, you may need a little less.  Ultimately though, the super en vogue training programs for beginners (Starting Strength, Stronglifts, and all the other 5 rep based linear progression programs) will eventually cap out.  They’re SUPPOSED to do that.  They’re not meant to be run indefinitely.  Their ENTIRE purpose is just to get a trainee used to lifting and groove the motor patterns.  It’s why reps are kept low: so a beginner doesn’t generate so much fatigue within a set that they start having form breakdown and end up grooving poor technique.  It’s why it has the trainee train so frequently: they’re too weak to be able to generate enough fatigue during a workout to require a significant amount of rest.  And they use linear progression because the beginner’s PROFICIENCY in the lift is increasing rapidly with each practice session they engage in.  They improve their ability to move heavier weights, eventually reaching their REAL potential at the end of the training program, at which point, they can start ACTUALLY training.  Because beginner “programs” aren’t programs at all: they’re routines.

Absent here: a progression model

 

Oh boy, I just became an elitist didn’t I?  No: come on: words mean things.  A program, by definition, has programMING in it.  In the absence of actual programming, you don’t have a program, you have a routine.  A routine is just something you do regularly.  You don’t have a teeth brushing program (at least I hope you don’t): you have a routine.  But a program is building toward something.  It’s a series of interrelated activities and mechanisms working together toward some sort of established end.  In the world of lifting, a program contains a progression model that includes some method of fatigue management (whether it be scheduled deloads, implementation of REP/RIR, MRV [yuck], deloads based around performance metrics, etc etc), along with typically some sort of method of load selection (percentage based off a training max/1rm, based off a daily max, double progression) or possibly even progression outside of weights entirely, based around things like rest times or bar speed.  It’s true: a beginner doesn’t need any of this stuff at first; they can just spend their first few months working the movements and adding weight to the bar each time, BUT once they’re done with that, they’re far better served getting onto an actual programming vs “milking their beginner gains”.

 

Because now we get to discuss the people out there trying to make a buck off the impressionable beginners.  There are SO many more books and media channels out there aimed at beginners vs experienced athletes and it’s for 2 reasons.  1: there are, at any given time, MORE beginners than experienced athletes out there, so it’s a much bigger market to tap, a secondly, experienced athletes are going to see through the crap many of these dudes peddle and know when someone is blowing smoke.  A dude with sick abs on Instagram may be able to hoodwink someone that hasn’t played a sport since 3^rd grade, but anyone with some dedicated time under the iron will know right quick when someone is full of crap.  The unfortunate impact though is that the professional charlatans have been able to cultivate a cult-of-personality among beginners that self-perpetuates as they begin to recruit more among their ranks, and suddenly there are widespread “beginner wars” as trainees who haven’t even crested the elusive rank of “not beginner” fight to the death over which beginner program is the best one.  And these dudes making money from beginners have it in their best interest to convince them that they’re going to be beginners for a LONG time, and thus they need to hang on the author’s every word to make sure that they make the absolute most out of this most CRITICAL time in their young training careers.

Don't squander this opportunity!

 

This is a short phase of life, and the decisions made during this time are going to be entirely inconsequential.  “Beginner gains” cannot be wasted: that’s a silly internet thing.  When you start training, spend time learning how to do the movements well and how to push yourself hard.  If you need a blueprint, check out Dave Tate’s “Education of a Powerlifter” and “Iron Evolution Phase 9” (specifically “The Super Strength Soldier”), but otherwise, get to the point where you don’t feel really stupid with a bar on your back or in your hands, and then start doing some REAL programming.  Or hell, just start with the real programming from the get go.  Lifting is a long game: you measure in YEARS, not weeks.  10 years down the line, the dude that did Starting Strength for the first 3 months isn’t going to look or perform any different from the dude that started with 5/3/1.  The only dude that’s going to look like 10lbs of melted ice cream after 10 years is the dude that spent 10 years trying to make sure they were running the absolute most bestest beginner program ever.

 

Don’t be that beginner.