Level Zero?

How would you define the following (in a fitness sense).

Beginners (novice)
Intermediates (amateur)
Advanced (elite)

Would you personally classify each by the abilities one may possess to be deemed worthy of said placing in this hierarchy, perhaps time served or level of progress.

You may see it as a combination of all of the above.

To me it’s down to these three simple qualities:

• Body Composition
• Base Strength
• Athletic Ability (skill in their sport/thing)

These are my chosen markers due to their basic objectivity, just look at all the people who’ve trained for 10+ years and have achieved very little, they’re beginners in my eyes, yet on paper you’d think these people to be training sages.

While entirely arbitrary why don’t we look at these a little more for some context because i know some people will get butt hurt because it’s 2020 and the world is still hyper sensitive.

Body Composition:

Beginner (novice) – low levels of LBM in retaliation to the individuals total mass with potentially high or low levels of fat mass because skinny fat is totally a thing, arguably the worse thing to be in my ignorant opinion, that’s just me though.

Basically they don’t look like stye train.

Intermediate (amateur) – reasonable levels of LBM in relation to the individuals total mass, often these people have lower levels of fat mass as well, not always, just often.

Essentially they look like they’ve bumped a weight or two and in fact train the way they claim as oppose to simply talking about it.

Advanced (elite) – high level of LBM, often reasonably low levels of fat mass, not always just often. At a glance you’d stop and think, they look strong, and if measured accurately this would be confirmed due to high LBM.

Yep, these are the people many look up to in awe of.

Base Strength:

Rather dependent on what the person trains for, however as an arbitrary guide I base this off of what they can pick up and put overhead in a strict press.

Beginner (novice) – Less then 3/4 total bodyweight

Intermediate (amateur) – Their current total bodyweight

Advanced (elite) – 1.25x bodyweight or more

Why pressing overhead you ask?

It’s because it keeps people honest, and pressing overhead often reveals a multitude of sins and gaps in someones structure, stability and mobility as well.

Athletic Ability:

As with strength it will come down to the specificity of what they do.

If we take Running as an example, just because why not make it relatable to the gen-pop.

Beginner (novice) – 10min (or more) average mile
Intermediate (amateur) – 8min average mile
Advanced (elite) – 6min (or less) average mile

Of course each of the above will come down to the person we are looking at, yet even using the example above you’d find some decent trends in how well to do a person is in fitness.

Anyway, how do you see yourself fin regards to fitness?

Beginner, intermediate or advanced?

Why?

Why not, it’s just bit of fun and gets people thinking, plus we also need to remember that even if we are advanced in some things we may be absolute noobs in another.

After all, isn’t life about climbing as many mountains as possible and achieving a lot of different things, or is it just me who thinks that way?

Please do share your thoughts below.

Are you the average man or woman?

Do you want to train for health, performance and to feel better because if that is the case keep reading.

 

Three things in the gym you should ideally be able to do.

 

Ladies:

 

1 – 1x Double Bodyweight Deadlift

2 – 5x Chin Ups

3 – 1x 3/4 Bodyweight Press

 

Gentlemen:

 

1 – 1x Double Bodyweight Deadlift

2 – 10x Pull Ups

3 – 1x Bodyweight Press

 

None of the above requires astronomical strength.

 

Hit the above though and chicness are you’ll have some good base results.

 

Say you struggle to achieve these then it can mean a few things, such as you might have been injured one upon a time, have a legitimate medical excuse that makes you exempt etc.

 

If you have no aliments (real ones), then it may mean this:

 

– You’re too heavy

– You’re too weak

 

Now a lot of people will get the hump reading this.

 

Some will scream and shout about their not being any cardio goal however I shall explain why there are none.

 

CV is easy to build.

 

(I’d recommend a sport, like boxing, BJJ, skipping etc)

 

Think about it logically for one moment, please.

 

You can go from couch to 5k in a matter of weeks, perhaps even train to run a marathon within 6months (I’ve known people to go form never doing any fitness to that feat, it was most impressive).

 

Yet when it comes to building strength you’ll find that shit takes a long time, especially if you’re very de-conditioned.

 

Strength, or base strength has a universal crossover to life.

 

As does mobility, as such here are three other things you should be able to do:

 

– Sit in a full ROM squat pain free for 5min

– Lay down, stand up, crawl and climb things pain free

– Pass all minimum ROM tests (google this)

 

Many will see me as overly harsh, other will know my intentions are good though.

 

Like a post I shared a few weeks ago about being abel to haul around a sandbag of your own bodyweight.

 

Ideally you should be able to carry it for at least 1min without any real trouble. get it to your shoulder and even over head too with not too much soul crushing effort.

 

^^ All of this will build decent CV levels by the way.

 

(If you want to build strength and CV use kettlebells)

 

We’ve become so sedentary.

 

All of the above seems like truly huge feats and they’re not.

 

Not really.

 

Investing in your own strength, mobility and base levels of conditioning will help stave off meeting Charon too soon.

 

Give it some thought.

 

Enjoy,

Ross

Lift, Lift, LIFT!

“I want to be big and strong”

 

^^ A sentence many a man has said over the years and continues to say to this day.

 

“I want to be lean and strong”

 

^^ Something I’m pleased to announce more women are saying, it seems there has been a shift in them saying ‘I just want to be skinny’ to now learning the benefit of being lean and strong, it’s great to see.

 

While it is only my opinion, I feel everybody should be strong.

 

I’m not talking about record breaking strong, just strong enough to stay healthy and stave off the effects of ageing on the body.

 

These sports all centre around lifting:

 

– Weightlifting (olympic lifting)

– Body Building

– Powerlifting

– Strongman

– CrossFit (some may not like this one)

 

Did you know lifting weights can have the following positive effects on the body:

 

– Improved bone density

– Ligament/tendon health

– Delayed sarcopenia

– Hormonal benefits: Higher testosterone, better insulin regulation, more growth hormone, lower cortisol to name a few

– Lowers body fat (great for improving health)

– A higher TDEE (total daily energy expenditure, more calories burnt in a day)

– Increased strength for sport/daily life

– A boost in confidence

– Looking better naked (the most important benefit, obviously)

 

Those are only some of the benefits, there are numerous more.

 

Personally I’d say the mental improvement is the pivotal one as this can have the biggest impact on a persons life in a very positive way.

 

However….

 

If you’re not an athlete and lift for health/confidence you should do it because you enjoy it, not because you feel you have to, that’s the secret to balance and long term sustainability.

 

Don’t eat yourself up if you miss a session, chalk it up to life and sue it as a rest day, that way you’ll be more motivated when you get to go in, excited to train in fact. Keep this in mind and you’ll find you don’t fall out of love with training.

 

What if lifting isn’t for you?

 

That’s cool, find soothing you do enjoy, here are some other options for improving strength and all achieving all the other benefits mentioned above:

 

– Calisthenics: bodyweight/movement training, loads of fun

– Martial Arts

– Gym Classes

– Track & field

– Kettlebells (sport or hard style)

– Climbing/outdoor sports

 

There are almost endless options.

 

Find something you enjoy, training shouldn’t be a chore.

 

Now go, have fun and make progress.

 

Ross.

Body Weight Basics – Test Your MIGHT!

We all would like to think of ourselves as strong, but in what context?

Being able to lift 2x your body weight over your head is phenomenally strong, so it deadlifting 4x body weight from the floor. With strength levels like this you would assume such people could perform basic body weight movements without any issue and for multiple reps too.

Some people do not disappoint you in this aspect, but there a great many that would leave you speechless at their complete lack of body weight strength.

If we are to take the largest compound exercises most commonly used – Squat, Bench, Deadlift and Overhead Press – then convert these in to body weight alternatives with some target rep ranges how would you fair?

Squat – Box Jump 3/4 of own height & 40 Burpees

Bench – Push Up 60 reps (Male) 40 reps (Female)

Deadlift – Broad Jump your own height & perform 1 Nordic Hamstring Curl with full R.O.M

Overhead Press – Wall supported Hand Stand Push Up 10 Reps (Male) 5 (Reps Female)

It’s also worth throwing in Pull Ups (overhand grip) 20 Reps is the target for Males and 10 for Females.

*All of these reps should be performed with good form and in an unbroken fashion.

These are simple standers to meet but not many people would achieve them. I myself can’t do them all, I hit 6 reps on the handstand press up and start to lose form which shows my shoulders need some work.

I have based these number off of various different sources (military standards, gymnastic standards and people who purely train in calisthenics).

Do you think you have what it takes to hit these necessary requirements?

Test your might!

Enjoy

Ross