On the way from beginner to advanced

When I found a request under the article for beginners if it would be possible to write a training for advanced students, I thought it was a good idea. Until I started thinking about what to actually write.

Because the main thing that makes advanced training different from beginner training is the plethora of possibilities of what, how and for what purpose to train. It's the same as with swimming - we can be a short course swimmer, a long distance swimmer, a water polo player or an aquabike - as beginners we first have to learn to float, pace and stay afloat, but as we progress we start to specialise in where our heart is drawn. Likewise weight training - no one should skip the initial 4-6 weeks of strengthening the muscle corset around the torso, learning the basic movements with dumbbells, learning to train so that the dumbbell doesn't control us, we control it...... but what next?

Especially after those initial weeks, we are still beginners. Not the complete ones anymore, but still not the athletic performance that I think an advanced individual is. We are only now starting to build that. The first change in training will be that we can now split our bodies (although we don't have to). For now, we should still be going 3 times a week (I trained for a year myself as a beginner on a Mon-Sat-Fri system before I switched to a 2+1 system). For a beginner (or I'm going to say progressing) exerciser, a workout that is gradual and somewhat reminiscent of volume training is appropriate.

I would dedicate the next 4-6 weeks after the initial ones to compensating for imbalances while increasing athletic performance. Everyone has imbalances - for some people they are negligible and most of the body's muscles are in balance - such people can strengthen the whole body evenly without any problems.

Some sports create imbalances depending on which muscle groups are stressed the most - so they need to focus primarily on the antagonistic muscle groups to strengthen the body where it is not as stressed.

Non-sporting people tend to have the most imbalances related to our body structure - namely tonic and phasic muscles.Tonic muscles are those that tend to shorten, phasic muscles tend to weaken. These muscles tend to be antagonistic.... Working against each other (tonic muscles "pull" the part together and flaccid phasic muscles do not create enough counterpressure against them) can lead to poor body positioning - and also poor patria functionality.

An example of this is the action of the tonic pectoral muscles against the phasic flaccid back muscles causing thoracic kyphosis (rounded back, chest pushed together and inward, shoulders pulled forward). In this case, it is necessary to first strengthen the flaccid muscles (in this case the back muscles) and to relax and stretch the shortened pectoral muscles by stretching exercises (if we strengthen them more than the back muscles, the condition will be further aggravated).

Functional tests provided by some fitness centres will reveal how we are doing, or we can consult trainers who should be familiar with the issue. Alternatively, we can determine for ourselves which muscles are flaccid and which are shortened when we stand freely against a straight wall. The most common is shortening of the back of the thigh, shortened pectoral muscles against flabby back (kyphosis), flabby abdominal muscles against shortened lumbar muscles (lordosis)anterior neck muscles against neck muscles - which can cause neck and even head pain. We have even more phasic and tonic muscles, but everyone who hasn't exercised much before has these defects.
In general, strengthen what's flabby and stretch what's shortened (this is where sensible stretching of the part is irreplaceable). Shortened muscles can be strengthened, but with less intensity, less weight and more reps. Stretching should come right after the strengthening exercises for that part. Weight training in this case serves as a warm-up for the muscle before. By strengthening the flabby muscles, the exerciser can already focus on increasing their athletic performance. In this case, I still advocate simple sets with a lower number of repetitions and a gradually increasing load. The breaks should be longer.

Once the imbalances are corrected and athletic performance is increased, one is at the intermediate level. And here comes the problem of how to proceed. This depends largely on the goal of each individual. Someone will want to specialize, for example, in strength performance, someone needs to gain muscle mass, someone, on the contrary, needs a reduction program. Mostly men want strength and muscle development, women want body shaping and reduction of subcutaneous fat, while only a minimum of them will embark on the classic "bulking".

In general, strength = fewer reps and more weight, longer breaks, shape and reduction = more reps, less weight and short breaks. As I said above - we can still train the body as a whole (e.g. with circuit training, which is good for reduction), or we can break it down into parts. The classic division is to train one big muscle part + several smaller ones on one day. I sometimes see some beginner "intermediates" who have done the previous beginner's workout (or ditched it and started splitting their workouts right away) running around the gym and completely illogically switching from chest to biceps and back again, or alternating chest and legs, etc., and sometimes I feel like they're just working out wherever is free at the moment.

Training should be planned, unless it's circuit training, so one should train ONE whole part and then only move on to the other (intermediates don't need to include supersets on antagonists or anything else yet, simply increasing the weight, shortening the breaks, or playing around with different rep tempo changes (e.g. very strict slow reps or explosive and fast reps) - all in simple sets - is still enough).

The big parts include : chest, back, legs and shoulders (which are involved in both back and chest and therefore sometimes trained separately and sometimes with these parts). The legs are sometimes divided even more into front and back - but intermediates can still manage training the legs as a whole.

The small parts are the arms - biceps and triceps, forearms and calves. The abs and calves stand out. Because the calves are very adaptable muscles, when they are lagging behind they can be trained every other workout, as can the abdominals, which should not be overtrained with unnecessarily meaningless numbers of repetitions, but which should be built just like the other muscles, just with more intensity.

Again, the combinations are as one likes - either add small parts that participate in the exercise to the big part (for example, triceps and shoulders are classically added to the breasts), or vice versa those that do not participate so much (shoulders and arms and with legs, calves with breasts or back). For example, I personally never train my shoulders with my pectorals because it causes me to overtrain, but most bodybuilders, on the other hand, put these two parts together. This is where an intermediate to advanced person should already know what suits them more and decide accordingly. I think that here variability is possible and both systems are equal.

As far as training days are concerned - even intermediates can still get by with a three day a week split, but after a while we can move to a 2+1 or 3+1 system, where you train two or three days in a row and have one day free. For intermediates, I advocate not to go more than 3+1. Systems higher than 4+1 or more can really only be afforded by athletes who train at the edge of the body's regenerative powers (and even for a very limited period just before a race), highly advanced people who have naturally fast and good body regeneration, and people who take doping substances that shorten the recovery time. It is not suitable for conditioned exercisers.

Intermediate people should also focus on nutrition. If nutrition has been a bit on the back burner up until now, and the first dietary adjustment was more about creating a habit of regular food intake and getting familiar with the general principles, as we focus on more performance-based weight training, it is becoming more critical. In fact, the fitness lifestyle combines both, and diet often plays a bigger part in results than exercise itself. Diet also depends on our goals - a person trying to maximize strength gains will eat differently, a person wanting big muscles will eat differently, and a woman losing weight will eat differently. In addition, everyone has to take into account his or her body type (our favorite ectomorph, mesomorph and endomorph). (I won't go into nutrition, because that would be another longer separate story, and I assume that if someone already considers himself or herself intermediate or advanced, he or she is already actively interested in the subject and follows it here on the site and in books or magazines.)

As time passes, the intermediate becomes advanced. Advanced people should already be familiar with the terms, know their body's reactions, know the nutrition issues (at least the basics of what and why). In addition to basic supplements such as complex amino acids and proteins (or for weight loss people either complex burners (various fat burners) or l-carnitine) they can already focus on specialized supplements (creatine "evergreen" should have its place somewhere around here, as well as BCAAs and other amino acids (separate amino acids) and various other supplements - HCA, Chitosan, Diosgenin, digestive enzymes - papain and bromelain and others).

Advanced people also already know the exercises, they perform the movements well and can really focus on fine-tuning the smallest details. I remember once when I was training with a pro, I was surprised that unlike other women she trained, she really addressed the centimeter changes in grip and movement angle with me - as an advanced trainee - and you'll be surprised that even that centimeter plays a big role in feeling out the exercise. However, a slightly advanced and intermediate person still makes too many gross mistakes to notice this. Therefore, addressing the left little finger flexor is a complete waste of time when one cannot properly train the entire hand. Unfortunately, a lot of people get carried away with details very early on and wonder if they then stagnate in fundamental things.

In my opinion, the essential mark of advanced people is not a perfect physique, but a change in mindset. Those who know themselves are able to identify their own weaknesses and they are also able to determine their priorities, goals and ways to achieve them (possibly in consultation with a coach, who is no longer a teacher but rather a counsellor). It is useless to recommend one particular training and one particular technique when there is a whole book on the principles of training methods alone. Advanced people are already at the stage where they can go into various supersets, supersets, stopped reps, half range of motion, etc. etc. etc. Every once in a while a different training system emerges that its proponents will claim is new, revolutionary and the ONLY good one. In my opinion, everything works, but everything only works up to a point in time. In the same way, one type of training may work for one person more than another (which is why I don't like to get involved in discussions where several camps of people try to convince others that THIS is the right way to do things - it doesn't have to be, which is why there are so many ways to get what we want and it's up to us which one we choose because there is no universal advice due to the very different nature of our bodies). An advanced person knows this and can change the training depending on what stage they are in. Also, in the time since he started training he knows what works for him and what doesn't make sense to waste time with. (My advice is to keep a training diary, because in hindsight you can see from the results which principles are holding you back and which ones are working for you!)

Sure - now a lot of beginners will probably say to themselves that this is going to be a lot of work, and also if there is nothing left to do but try, it will take a good number of years for beginners to become advanced. But that's what bodybuilding is all about. A nice physique can be achieved after a few months, competition form after a few years but the ideal physique after many, many years, and sometimes it happens that it cannot be achieved. But everyone should try to keep developing their abilities and push themselves further and further in their performance (and never mind that our maximum is far below the standard of the pros). Weight training and everything around it is a lifestyle. It's not a closed cycle. When we reach a physique we're happy with, we can't just drop everything and live like we did before we started working out if we don't want to lose it.

I may have disappointed someone because they expected me to recommend a workout like And do so many reps in X number of sets so many times a week and you'll look amazing. But there is simply no such universal way. Instead, the more advanced we get, the more the horizon opens up and the issues get more complicated. On the other hand, even as advanced we should be oriented enough to still be able to follow our goal, even if we can't avoid mistakes now and then. However, we should be able to learn from these mistakes and not repeat them.

Written by Lada Plíhalová