Bodybuilding.net - Bodybuilding Forum - View Single Post

EricT · 08-08-2008, 01:39 PM

It's all just generalities. Really, everyone is a "model" unto themselves. But you can pretty much rest assured that a "novice" is going to have a period of "free strength" and really, "free fitness". Then you take them and put them on something fairly organized for the first time and they will progress even better. But there really is more to it than how someone can progress. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

For someone actually doing their job as a trainer the beginner, intermediate, etc models are nothing more than touchstones. It's one thing what happens on the internet or what a book tries to aim at a general audience...but if a TRAINER just says to you, what do you lift?...and then hands you a program; get a new trainer. It's about assessment. Testing. Most trainers don't do it and most of them are getting paid for what people can get for free on internet forums. Unless they want to pay someone to count reps.

I like the article and I think it's accurate. But it comes down to situations. Either you are going to give out general advise based on whatever general training models you accept; or you are going to take a whole lot of time and assess people more as individuals...or something in between.

Why do so-called beginners, on a beginner program, tend to stall out of bench first? What does this say about how they can train? And what does it say about some likely problems? And can they even do more than one pushup? Or pullup? You could go on and on...

I'm squarely in level 4, not that I am elite by any standared nor will ever be. But my training tends to be 60 or 70 percent planning and the rest thinking on my feet. Some things follow a more strict schedule though.