Are You Really Advanced?

Don’t go looking for fancy training programs when all you really need is to do the basics well.

There is a big distinction made in training literature between beginner and advanced fitness programs, but there are still some massive misunderstandings among the training public about where exactly they fit.

You see, people want to feel like they’re special and it grates at them to be labelled anything other than fantastic. That’s why we have kids’ sport where everyone gets a medal, or in the case of martial arts, frequent gradings and more belts so people will feel their efforts are being recognised.

In the world of strength training, it’s often written that if you’ve been training less than a year, you’re a novice. Fair enough, no argument from me there. But then it starts to get a bit hazy. Intermediate is somewhere between one and two years, and after that it’s generally thought that if you’ve been steadily training for two or more years, you’re advanced.
Unfortunately, that isn’t  necessarily so. I’ve seen plenty of cases where people say they’ve been training for many years, yet can’t do basic exercises such as squats, or handle decent weights.

So here are my recommendations for what should be considered beginner, intermediate and advanced level in terms of strength and conditioning. I will include standard resistance training and kettlebells, plus conditioning.

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Beginner

• Can do a proper deadlift
• Can bench-press, squat and deadlift less than their bodyweight
• Cannot perform multiple reps of chin-ups
• Cannot perform more than 20 push-ups
• Cannot properly squat, deadlift, lunge or perform push-ups
• For men, cannot press or snatch a 16kg kettlebell for multiple reps; for women, a 12kg kettlebell
• Cannot run 5km in under 25 minutes.

Intermediate

• Can bench-press, squat and deadlift 1.5 times their bodyweight
• Can perform multiple bodyweight chin-ups.
• Can perform 50 push-ups non-stop
• Can maintain correct form on all exercises even when fatigued.
• For men, can press and snatch a 24kg kettlebell for multiple reps; for women, a 16kg kettlebell
• Can run 5km in under 20 minutes
• Can do 100 burpees in less than 10 minutes.

Advanced

• Can bench-press, squat and deadlift double their bodyweight
• Can do multiple chin-ups with extra weight added
• Has exceptional form
• Can press a kettlebell equal to half their bodyweight one-handed; can perform double clean-and-jerks with 32kg bells for reps equal to one-tenth of their weight in pounds (e.g. a 190-pound man must perform 19 continuous reps); and can exceed 200 reps in the 10-minute snatch test with a 24kg kettlebell. For women: can press the 24kg; can perform single clean-and-jerks with one hand-switch, for reps equal to one-tenth their bodyweight; and can exceed 200 reps in a 10-minute 16kg snatch test
• Can run 5km in 18 minutes or less
• Can do 100 burpees in less than seven minutes.

Now, I realise I’ve just made nearly everyone who trains at this point mad at me. Tough luck. If you can’t hit all the criteria for each category then you’re not as good as you think you are. It is possible to be advanced in one area but a novice in another (powerlifters take note — go for a walk!). That means that your training should take into account your weaknesses and work to rectify them.

I write a lot of programs and people often comment that my programs aren’t complicated because they feature lots of squats and deadlifts. They then ask me for a more ‘advanced’ routine. I tell them when they can squat and deadlift double their bodyweight, it’ll be an advanced routine.

For those of you who say things like, ‘I can’t squat, I’ve never been able to’ — well, go fix it. It’s a basic athletic move so you can’t really call yourself athletic without being able to perform such a simple move. The same holds true for form during a set; if you cannot maintain correct form, then the weight you are using is too heavy and you’re not yet skilled enough to train with it. The set stops when your form deteriorates, not when you reach some arbitrarily decided number. I can’t count the number of people who come along to me to learn advanced kettlebell exercises, or get a plyometric training program to increase their speed, yet can’t even squat — and in some cases can’t even stand still with good posture!

In 2010, I had a tremendous year training five gold-medallists at the Pan Pacific BJJ titles, two world champion BJJ players, three judo Olympians, four Olympians from two other sports, a baseball pitcher from the Atlanta Braves and three of the qualifiers for the ADCC no-gi tournament. But it would surprise most people to see how ‘basic’ most of what we do is. Sure, there are some funky things I do in warm-ups with people to get their bodies ready to train via FMS drills, medicine-ball work and skipping patterns, but the strength work is very basic.

We perform lots of get-ups, deadlifts, clean-and-presses and a small number of anti-flexion/rotation core drills. No session lasts more than an hour, with many lasting only 45 minutes. It may surprise you to see that even elite, world champion athletes are doing very basic work but the fact is, what sets them apart is their sport-specific skill, not their skill in the gym. So I treat them as the beginners they are — focus on basics and gain skill within the lifts so they are able to train harder. The only advanced thing that is going on is my manipulation of load, volume and density to ensure constant progress. One of my guys, who won two gold medals at the Pan Pacs, essentially followed the same program all year; we just changed how many of each exercise he did, what he used and how fast he went while training. The result was him being astonished at how easily he could manhandle his opponents, after being beaten in the first round at the Victorian titles only seven months earlier.

What sets champions apart is not how advanced their training programs are; it is their sport skill. Many people are often surprised at what the champions really are training when they train. My pitcher for the Braves, who can throw 94mph fast balls all day long into a space the size of a shoe box from 20 metres, does one thing when he practises: he throws fast balls into a space the size of a shoe box from 20 metres, and up to as far away as 60 metres. But it’s always the same thing: throw hard, fast and straight. Nothing fancy, nothing special; just performed at a very high level of skill.

So stick with the basics. Chances are it’s all you’re ready for anyway.

Andrew Read runs Dragon Door Australia and is certified by Pavel Tsatsouline in his kettlebell system and CK FMS. In strength and conditioning, Read has coached BJJ and judo champions, and stand-up fighters. He can be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it