Advanced

Recommended Intensity Range: ~2RIR-Failure+

Everyone wants to be able to say that they’re “advanced” but I’ll be the first person to say that it fucking sucks. Being an “expert” or “advanced” in most endeavors corresponds with a scaling-up of benefits to reward for the time, dedication, and achievements of those who have made it to that rarified air. But fitness isn’t one of these endeavors.

With training specifically, more time under the bar just means that making any additional progress has less room for error and requires more effort to be expended and sacrifices to be made. I made it a point to highlight the very slow progress of the intermediate stage, and while that’s definitely not pumping us full of dopamine like the newbie gains did, at least we’re making consistent progress! With the ascension to an  advanced trainee, dependable growth becomes a thing of the past. Regression is just as likely as progression here unless you are on top of your shit and know what you’re doing. This requires more attention to detail, more fine-tuning towards individuality, and yes, more intensity.

The paradox of advancement is that you need more stimulus to further progress but this must be balanced with a requisite decrease in volume tolerance. In other words, the bigger and stronger you get, the more efficient every unit of volume becomes at—not only kickstarting hypertrophic signaling—but also creating fatigue. So the previous progression model of adding volume with moderate intensities (as is typically best practice through novice to intermediate) will no longer be suitable here. Instead, advanced programming typically will see a decrease in total volume, increase in specificity/prioritization, and increase in absolute intensity.

Failure (and beyond) should still be strategic and diligently planned, but now it becomes a (potentially) very impactful tool that can be used to force stagnant progressions and break through plateaus.

Key Points

Advanced:
• ~2 RIR-Failure+
• Progress becomes more challenging and requires more effort
• Risk of regression increases without proper management
• Key considerations:
– Requires more attention to detail and individualization
– Need for increased stimulus conflicts with decreased volume tolerance
– Typically involves decreased total volume
– Increase in specificity/prioritization
– Increase in absolute intensity