Where Do You Fall?

Somebody asked me about strength standards and where they might fall on the “beginner-intermediate-advanced” spectrum when it comes to training.

My final answer was that most folks sort of fall along a general distribution. There are a few outliers at the beginner and very advanced ends, but a relative clusterfudge in the middle.

There’s a common belief in training that the weights and numbers might tell the whole story. This is rarely true, despite my own best attempts at creating challenges worthy of free t-shirts.

Two people can deadlift the exact same weight and be at completely different levels as lifters.

One might grind, shift, and compensate, but ultimately move the weight. The other lifts with precision, consistency, and control. 

Relative strength (i.e. force produced per unit of bodyweight) is a slightly better indicator than absolute load. A 150-lb lifter moving 400 lbs is organizing force differently than a 250-lb lifter moving the same weight. 

But even relative strength doesn’t truly define whether a trainee is advanced or not. 

Technical skill isn’t just about output. It’s about motor control.

A beginner might experience a lift as challenging or hard, but their reps will likely look different from one another, as if each rep is a new set with a different weight.

An intermediate begins to create consistency in their technique and drive higher neural outputs, both aspects of our motor control in the gym.

An advanced lifter likely doesn’t even think about technique too much, knows how RPE10 truly feels, and might even understand some of the driving forces beneath the surface.

And when you develop that kind of awareness, your weights usually go up anyway. Strength and fitness, then, are a by-product of motor control, not the other way around.

So instead of Googling strength standards (which, to be clear, are not totally useless), it might be better to focus on creating consistency in your routine so that you can put in the requisite reps to build the technical mastery it takes to advance yourself.

It would be better to focus on driving intensity during sessions, adding weight and reps where appropriate, and pushing yourself to new limits. 

Advancement in the gym isn’t defined solely by weight on the bar or strength metrics, but by how consistently and precisely you can control and express the strength that you have.