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Mark Rippetoe's "Practical Programming for Strength Training,"
the terms "novice," "intermediate," "advanced," and "elite" relate to the trainee with respect to the time it takes for recovery from a homeostatic disruption induced by training. We do not use these terms as descriptors of a trainee's strength or absolute athletic ability. These terms may in fact be applied differently to athletes in different sports, but our use of the terms here is specific to the model illustrated here in figure 1-3. Because a novice lifts weights that are light relative to his genetic potential for strength and power development, the rate of recovery following training can be rapid. Essentially, this trainee can recover from a single training session in a period of 24 to 72 hours. The novice trainee can train "heavy" on Monday and be ready to go heavy again on Wednesday. These trainees are quite far away from their genetic potential, and therefore lack the strength and the neural efficiency to generate a stress heavy enough to impede rapid recovery. For them, "heavy" is not really heavy. At the same time that strength and power are improving, recovery ability is improving too. Recovery processes are as trainable as any other physical parameter, and this is an extremely significant factor in training progress. But it is important to remember that recovery processes can always be exceeded by the injudicious application of training stress. Recovery must occur before progress can be made. Simply put, a novice, as we use the term here, is a trainee for whom the stress applied during a single workout and the recovery from that single stress is sufficient to cause an adaptation by the next workout. The end of the novice phase is marked by a performance plateau occurring sometime between the third and ninth month of training, with variations due to individual differences. Programming for the novice is essentially the linear progression model that is described in the ACSM manual and defined specifically for weight training in our book Starting Strength: A Simple and Practical Guide for Coaching Beginners (Aasgaard Co., 2005). It is important to understand here that the novice is adapted to inactivity (as it relates to weight training) and therefore progress can be made with training programs that are not specific to the task involved. For example, doing high-volume hypertrophy work would also increase a novice's absolute strength for one repetition. A previously sedentary beginner can even improve his 1RM (one-repetition maximum) squat by riding a bike. This would not be the case with intermediate or advanced trainees, where progress in strength, power, or mass is absolutely linked to appropriate application of specific training programs. Novices accomplish two things with every workout: they "test" their strength, and the test loads the body to become stronger in the next workout. The act of moving 10 more pounds for the prescribed sets and reps both confirms that the previous workout was a success at improving the novice's strength and causes his body to adapt and become stronger for the next workout. As the intermediate lifter begins to handle training loads closer to his genetic potential, his recovery ability is also affected differently by the stress. Recovery requires a longer period of time—a period encompassing multiple workouts (efficiently managed using a weekly schedule). This is because the athlete has developed the ability to apply stress to the system that requires a longer period of time for recovery. For an intermediate trainee, the stress required for a disruption of homeostasis exceeds the capacity for recovery within that period of time (say, within the week). To allow for both sufficient stress and sufficient recovery, then, the training load must be varied over the week. This variation can take several forms, but the critical factor is th 2 distribution, which allows enough stress to be applied in a pattern that facilitates recovery. The key to successful training in this stage of development is to balance these two important and opposing phenomena. Simple weekly periodization of training loads facilitates recovery following one or more heavier training bouts within a single week. Intermediate trainees benefit from exposure to more exercises than novices. These athletes are developing their skills with new movement patterns, and as this happens they are developing their ability to acquire new skills. It is during this period that trainees actually become athletes, choosing a sport and making decisions that affect the rest of their competitive careers. These decisions are more effectively made if based on a broad exposure to a wide variety of training and competition options. The end of the intermediate phase of training is marked by a performance plateau following a series of progressively more difficult weekly training organizations. This can occur in as little as two years or in as many as four or more, depending on individual tolerances and adherence to year-round progressive training. It is likely that 75% or more of all trainees will not require programming complexity beyond this level (remember, the amount of weight lifted or years of training do not classify a trainee). Virtually all sports-specific weight training can be accomplished with this model. Athletes in non- weightlifting sports will not train progressively in the weight room all year; they will focus much of their training on their primary competitive sport. This effectively extends the duration of this stage in the trainee's development to the extent that even very accomplished athletes may never exhaust the benefits of intermediate-level weight lifting programming. Advanced trainees in the barbell sports work relatively close to their genetic potentials. The work tolerance of the advanced trainee is quite high, given that the ability of an athlete to recover from training is itself trainable. However, the training loads the advanced athlete must handle in order to produce an adaptation are also quite high, since the adaptation that brought the athlete to the advanced stage has already occurred. This level of training volume and intensity is very taxing and requires longer periods of recovery than do intermediate training loads. Both the loading and the recovery parameters must be applied in more complex and variable ways and over longer periods of time. When combined, the loading and recovery periods required for successful progress range in duration from a month to several months. For example, we may apply a single week of very heavy training to induce adaptation. That week of training may require three or more weeks of work at lighter loadings for complete recovery and improvement to occur. The average slope of the improvement curve here is very shallow (fig. 1-3), closely approaching maximum genetic potential at a very slow rate, and rather large amounts of training effort will be expended for rather small degrees of improvement. For this reason too, the number of exercises advanced trainees use is typically lower than for intermediates; they do not require exposure to new movement patterns and stress types, since they have already specialized and adapted to those that are specific to their sport. Complex manipulation of training parameters is appropriate for use with these trainees. The majority of trainees will never attain the level of development that makes advanced periodization necessary, since most trainees voluntarily terminate their competitive careers before the advanced stage is reached. The elite athlete is in a special subset of the advanced category. Elite athletes are the genetically gifted few who also happen to be motivated to achieve success despite enormous physical and social costs. They have stayed in their sport by virtue of their success and have dedicated themselves to training at this level because their training investment has been returned. An advanced lifter is one who has progressed beyond the intermediate; an elite lifter is one who performs at an elite level within the standards of the sport. (By this definition, the elite designation could actually be applied to an intermediate lifter performing at the national/international level. There occasionally exist a few athletes so talented and genetically endowed that this situation occurs.) Previous training has brought the elite athlete very close to genetic potential, and additional progress requires much greater program complexity to scratch out those small improvements that might still remain unrealized. These athletes must be exposed to training programs that are very complex— highly variable in terms of stress, although probably simple in terms of exercise selection—forcing the already adapted athlete closer to the ultimate level of performance. At this point the program may be considered in terms of several months, a year, or even an Olympic quadrennium. Any approach to the training of an athlete of this caliber is a highly individualized matter and is beyond the scope of this text. We propose that far less than 1% of all trainees regardless of training history reach this level. Unlike beginners or intermediates, advanced and elite trainees need large amounts of intense work to disrupt homeostasis and force adaptation. This means that the stress required for progress will creep nearer and nearer to the maximal tolerable workload that the body can perform and recover from. An elite athlete who is doing ten sets of squats and making progress may not make any progress with nine sets and may "overtrain" by doing eleven. The window for progress is extremely small. If workload is not increased, then neither performance nor comprehensive recovery processes will improve, since no disruption of homeostasis is forcing them to do so. The manner in which increases in training load are applied is determined by the level of training advancement. The ability of a novice to adapt to training differs enough from that of the intermediate and advanced trainee that similar training organizations will fail to produce results for both. Each level of training advancement requires its own specific approach.