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How to determine whether someone is beginner, intermediate or advanced bb

G

gents.bond

New member
G'day all,
I have got a random thought in my head and its confusing me for a bit. How can be determine whether a trainee is beginner, intermediate or advanced. I guess there might be few ways to determine. How much a person can lift depending upon his body size and weight or for how long he/she's been training for? or there are some other factors?? This question came in to my mind because in my gym i see lot of guys doing 5 different exercises on a chest day, then 5-6 for shoulders etc. I know one of them very well, he has got a very good physique i mean he is ripped and can do heavy like say 40 kg db for inline bench or something like that. but one day i saw him doing squats and deadlifts and he is struggling doing 60 kg squat and 80 kg deadlifts. He is training for 2-3 years now. Where as i started training last year only, And i am doing 140 kg squats with 3 sets of 5 reps and 160 deadlifts with one set of 5 rep and 80 kilo bench with 3 sets of 5. very confused!!! I think i m training for muscles too and so is he and many others.
 
This has been flogged to death.

A novice is someone who can make strength gains from session to session (daily programming).

An intermediate is someone who makes strength gains on a weekly basis (weekly programming).

An advanced lifter is someone who requires a month or more to make strength gains (monthly programming) and is usually a competitor.

Theres some carryover between these - a lot of novices squatting 120-160kg cant make gains every session but gains still come fast enough that programming doesnt need to be altered very much. There are also some people who are intermediates but require programming that goes for longer than a single week (eg me).

Beware of your friend. Lifting mickey mouse weights with lots of volume works for some people but not for the overwhelming majority. If you want to be big you need a good strength base.
 
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Your friend is weaker then my untrained girlfriend hahaha except for his hectic bench..

I can imagine it now// biceps six pack and foreamrms bigger then his quads... I think he goes to my gym!!
 
thanks Oli, i was expecting your answer first. Well yeah i am targeting to increase my lifts and for next 3 months i m doing rippetoe's workout as you suggested. thanks heaps again
 
gents.bond said:
thanks Oli, i was expecting your answer first. Well yeah i am targeting to increase my lifts and for next 3 months i m doing rippetoe's workout as you suggested. thanks heaps again
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No problem.

I'd encourage you to read some of his books (starting strength and practical programming) to get your head around some of these concepts.
 
n00bs said:
Your friend is weaker then my untrained girlfriend hahaha except for his hectic bench..

I can imagine it now// biceps six pack and foreamrms bigger then his quads... I think he goes to my gym!!
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noobs i go to fitness first, and i sometime feel I am the only guy doing squats and deadlifts everyone is doing chest, biceps, shoulders and back all the time.
 
Oliver04 said:
No problem.

I'd encourage you to read some of his books (starting strength and practical programming) to get your head around some of these concepts.
Click to expand...
i actually downloaded ebook of starting strength, hopefully i would get time on weekend to start reading, its some 300 odds pages!!
 
Lol, you can kinda skim it - a lot of its key points are illustrated by big pretty pictures.

OR you can watch the dvd. You can pick that up illegally too.
 
gents.bond said:
noobs i go to fitness first, and i sometime feel I am the only guy doing squats and deadlifts everyone is doing chest, biceps, shoulders and back all the time.
Click to expand...


Wait till you bust out the power cleans and jerks.. And push 100kg above your head while they do 100kg shrugs with straps and belts... Oh i love it :rolleyes:
 
lol .. torrents are great!! but yeah actually i've seen lot of videos of him on youtube .. regarding squats, deadlifts , clean press etc .
 
I havent sat through all of it but if you're a visual learner his dvd looks very good.

Also I know what you mean about public gyms - I get stared at every time I go. Consider building a home gym - its a big investment (probs around $2K for a set up and another $1K once you add more weights, a better bar and a conditioning tool, though you dont have to do that right away).

You can train when you like, how you like in a 'judgement free zone'. recommend highly.
 
Gyms are full of twats like that. Who are hero's & champions to their mates. In the overall training community though, their like red headed step cousins at a big family picnic, we know their there, we just chose not to pay much attention to them.

'mate i can do a 40kg bicep curl for 5 reps!!!!'. Oh yeah? How come you your squat 1RM isn't even your own body weight? How come you can bench press more than you can deadlift? You know what a deadlift is....don't you?


p.s. i'm starting to re-read practical programming
 
The thread title is referrng to bOdybuilders, not strengh training, I would rate bb'ers by size, small & fat = novice, big & lean = advanced.
Posted via Mobile Device
 
Read the original post Morgan he was refering to weight moved. Only a tiny mention of aesthetics and it was just being big and ripped.

Its not hard to tell who is nov/int/adv if your refering to looks, just use your eyes. Anyone with half a clue can see muscular development.

Assessing strength is a bit more difficult.
 
i think training age.

but there are a lot of weak, small people with 3+ years training experience.
 
its all in what u see :).. If a person tells u he has trained 4 years doesnt mean jack if all they did was bench and biceps.

The overall thickness and muscle maturity vs a newbie u can start spotting as u go to the gym more.
 
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