It's the beginning of the new year. Everyone is excited to start a barbell strength training program to kick off their new year's resolution.
You've got goals:
✓Develop consistency with your training - aka never miss a training session
✓Hit big PRs on the barbell back squat, deadlift, and bench press
✓Compete and win in a powerlifting competition
✓Get big and strong and look good too
✓Get healthier and dust off the Covid-cobwebs
Whatever your goal is, you've decided barbell training will help you on your journey to getting there.
January and February are the craziest time of the year for gyms, in-person barbell coaching, and online barbell coaching services. About four to six weeks into the new year, it also becomes a crazy time for physical therapists.
You may be wondering, "why is that the case, Rori?"
Because the over-zealous and enthusiastic athletes working with barbells start to get injured.
As a physical therapist and barbell coach, I figured it would be a great time to discuss one of the biggest things you may be getting wrong regarding your barbell strength training program.
The typical path to beginning a barbell strength training program is as follows:
→ You spend some time googling "how to get stronger," "the best powerlifting program," "strength coach near me," or "[insert level of advancement here] barbell training program."
→ You find a program template online or in a book, join group coaching, or hire a famous online barbell coach because of their many Instagram follower count or how many National Championships they've won.
→ You follow along, and things start to get pretty hard, or aches and pains keep popping up.
→ You start pushing training back a day because of poor recovery, low motivation, or nagging pain that needs another day to recover.
→ A day or so turns into a week.
→ Poor recovery turns into overtraining.
→ A nagging ache turns into an injury.
So what happened?
THE PROGRAM OR COACHING DID NOT MATCH YOUR ATHLETE IDENTITY.
Most program templates categorize into one of three levels of advancement (LOA):
1️⃣ Novice
2️⃣ Intermediate
3️⃣ Advanced
But it's not that black and white.
LOA does not consider who you are as an individual and your current status as an athlete.
Sure, it's easy to say, "I've been engaging in barbell training for X years, so I should be on an intermediate strength program," but it's not as simple as that.
Figuring out what type of barbell strength training program you should be on comes down to looking at your Athlete Identity as a whole.
According to the PRS™️ Method, the Athlete Identity combines your unique level of advancement, movement abilities, appropriate training schedule, and rate of progression determined by four main categories. Athlete Identity helps us define a starting point and progression system unique to the individual.
ATHLETE IDENTITY IS COMPOSED OF FOUR MAIN CATEGORIES:
These four categories can be addressed by answering four important questions, detailed below!
Question 1: How long have you been training?
First and foremost, understanding how long you've been on a barbell training program is the strongest influence on your LOA. It's not as simple as saying, "sure, I've done squats for years." There is a difference between training and exercise, and we're focusing on training to designate your level of advancement.
Continuity Of Training takes into account how many years of continuous training you've been barbell training as well as:
✓ How long you've been training without a significant layoff or injury interrupting training for more than a month or two.
✓If you're starting on an entirely new type of training format or with a new coach.
✓If you're coming off a peak, competition, and deload consecutively.
✓Injuries and medical conditions that change your physiological ability to adapt permanently or temporarily.
The longer someone has been training without interruption, the more advanced they tend to become.
On the other hand, the more interruptions you have to training, the more frequently you reset into a novice-type training response and benefit from the novice effect.
Continuity Of Training most closely influences your physiological response to the Stress/Recovery/Adaptation cycle.
Here are some general guidelines:
→ If you've been training continuously for less than one year, you're likely still a novice. You could benefit from a simple beginner linear program like this one.
→ If you've been training for more than a year but have been interrupted due to injury, illness, layoff, or extended competition peak (3-5 weeks), you would benefit from running a linear program like this one for a few weeks.
→ If you've been training for 1-3 years without interruption in the last few months, you'll benefit from running an intermediate-type program with a weekly linear progression. Something like HLM, Texas Method, or the VLI program-type we teach in our Programming Fundamentals Course would be a good option.
→ Finally, suppose you've been training continuously for three or more years without significant time off, as outlined previously. In that case, you'd benefit from a lower volume, higher intensity program with linear periodization rather than a weekly linear progression.
Question 2: How athletic are you?
Your athletic ability, or genetic potential, is a significant factor in how you respond to training, develop your lifting skills, and adapt to coaching. If you're a quick learner, a great mover, and integrate coaching cues, you're going to be able to get pretty far on the right novice program.
On the contrary, if your training response is on the lower end, you struggle with moving well and consistency, and you can't quite translate what a coach is telling you into movement under the barbell, you may transition into an intermediate much sooner.
Athletic ability will significantly influence load progression to accommodate your ability to move well under the barbell and recover between sessions.
Athletic Ability most closely influences the rate at which you progress the program.
Here are some general guidelines:
→ If you identify as athletic, you'd likely be able to start any new program with moderately large jumps and then follow the Halving Rule. For athletic males, jumps of 10-15lb on lower body lifts and 5-10lb on upper body lifts are likely sustainable for a few weeks. For athletic females, jumps of 5-10lb on the lower body lifts and 5lb on upper body lifts are likely sustainable for a few weeks.
→ If you identify with lower athleticism, you'd likely benefit from starting a new program with smaller jumps and then following the Halving Rule. For males, jumps of 5-10lb on lower body lifts and 5lb on upper body lifts are likely sustainable for a few weeks. For females, jumps of 5lb on the lower body lifts and 2.5lb on the upper body lifts are likely sustainable for a few weeks.
Question 3: Do you have a significant medical history?
Medical history is probably one of the most critical factors. Medical conditions can play a huge role in your recovery or ability to handle new stress.
Your recoverability resets to novice after injury or medical events, during pregnancy or postpartum, or with underlying neuromuscular or cardiopulmonary conditions. In addition, because of the frailty of your body while healing, training stress is kept on the low end, so progress is slower than typical. However, after a few weeks or the resolution of medical conditions, training stress may be increased, and progress becomes exponential.
Medical conditions can also influence your ability to perform specific movements. For example, perhaps you have a condition that affects your balance or range of motion required to perform the main barbell lifts. So we need to consider your body's physical limitations and abilities when choosing exercises appropriate for your program to be successful.
Medical History most closely influences exercise selection, load intensity, volume, and training schedule.
Here are some general guidelines:
→ If you have strength, range of motion limitations, or balance concerns that influence your ability to perform the main barbell lifts, find an alternative here.
→ Medical conditions or injury recovery influences your body's ability to respond, recover, and adapt to stress. So we recommend keeping the relative intensity of the loads slightly for the average, athletic, healthy individual. Generally speaking, we recommend not exceeding an average of RPE 8 for work sets of any lift.
→ It may also benefit individuals with medical conditions and injuries to split training up, do fewer lifts per session, and allow more time to recover between sessions. For alternative training schedules, check out this article.
→ For individuals with no medical conditions or injuries, working in an average RPE 8.5 on the main lifts while following typical program template schedules will support strength development while reducing injury risk.
→ Check out our 6-Point RPE Descriptor System eBook for assistance learning RPE.
Question 4: How does your life support recovery from training?
One of the most critical components of getting stronger while staying injury-free is the opportunity to recover. In the Stress/Recovery/Adaptation cycle, strength development occurs during the recovery period.
There are many components to recovery, including:
✓Sleep
✓Overall nutrition
✓Protein intake
✓Medical conditions
✓Medications
✓Frequency, volume, & intensity of training
✓Social, occupational, & familial obligations
✓Work schedule
✓Stress
Suppose your program does not adequately account for your ability to recover. In that case, it will almost undoubtedly lead to poor outcomes such as injury, loss of motivation, and poor progress leading to continual frustration or possibly cessation of training.
Recoverability most closely influences training frequency, volume, intensity, and training session length.
The general guidelines for adapting a training program to a schedule that does not allow for adequate recovery follow the guidelines listed under Medical Conditions.
This system identifies the athlete as a whole. It helps you choose the optimal program format, exercise selection, and progression to keep you in the gym training without interruption so you can reach your goals. The components of Athlete Identity help you take the basic principles of barbell strength programming and apply them practically in a systematic way that makes sense for the whole person.
Most importantly, Athlete Identity helps you get the program "right" from the start. You'll avoid too much, too soon, too fast, leading to injuries, overwhelm, loss of motivation, and cessation of training.
Join our free Facebook group if you're a barbell trainee looking for help with where to start or training adjustments. In the Secret Society of Barbell Mastery we provide free programming support every Thursday on a live coaching call to answer your questions.