All the Ways You Need to Adapt Your Training As You Get Stronger

We talk a lot about what its like to start lifting weights, or tostart exercising at all.

There will come a day when youre strong.

Maybe not as strong as youwantto be (who ever is?

), but a lot stronger than when you started.

Loading a 45-pound plate onto the bar will no longer be a whole workout by itself.

As you get stronger, some of your habits in the gym will have to change.

So will the programs you follow and maybe even the exercises you do.

As an intermediate, its a safety issue.

you’ve got the option to lift 95 pounds any old way.

Tighten up your setups.

Load your plates properly.

Know when to use a rack and when to use blocks and when to use crash pads.

And politely, helpfully, teach the noobs in your gym the same.

I dont just mean in a social way, although thats important, too.

Youll see how they set up for their lifts, and all the little things we discussed above.

Youll get new ideas that you might want to try out yourself.

Do you want to train as hard or as often as the strongest person in your gym?

Do you understand what it takes to get there?

Your workouts will take longer

This one sneaks up on you.

When youre strong, each step of the way takes a lot longer.

You need more warmup sets to get to your working set for the day.

And because those working sets are heavier, theyre more absoluteworkfor your body to recover from.

More ATP to regenerate, more metabolites to clear, and so on.

Heck, changing the platesitselfis more work, since there are more of them and theyre heavier.

A little tip on keeping workouts from lasting all day: Work on your conditioning.

And when your baseline is zero, literally anything will give you gains.

(Starting Strengthand Stronglifts are two of the most popular.)

But these programs dont work forever, and soon youll discover their shortcomings the hard way.

If youre frustrated with stalling numbers and your knees kinda hurt, its time to move on.

Just like beginner programs, beginners nutrition isnt critical to success.

Youll gain muscle no matter what.

More importantly, youll discover that undereating isnt healthy.

Butthose PRs will slow down someday.

That doesnt mean that your progress is slower, just that it has more components.

My weightlifting coach has told me many times that progress isnt linear; it comes in stair-steps.

In between those PRs, other things are happening.

During these times, youll want to look for progress in all of these other areas.

Maybe my jerk has stalled but my squat is going up.

Sometimes I miss those early days, when I was guaranteed a PR just for stepping into the gym.

But then I remember how much weaker I was!

A two-plate deadlift was a pipe dream back then; now its a warmup.

Getting strong is really satisfyingyou just have to stop training like a beginner and allow yourself to progress.