In the library you’ll notice there are “Levels” on programs. These are to guide which types of programs may be most suitable based on your training experience.
They’ll be noted with “L1”, “L2”, or “L3” in the title of the program.
They are based on the skills required to get the best results from the program. It is not necessarily based on how long you have been training.
Weight Selection: New to selecting weights based on RIR/RPE and rep ranges.
Exercise Toolbelt: Confident with general movement patterns, familiar with execution and setup of a small list of movements for each body part.
Exercise Discipline: Execution of less stable exercises may decline quickly when approaching failure or struggle to maintain coordination under fatigue
Program Characteristics: These programs will have more gradual changes in written progressions. Usually only adding a set or a minor change in rep range or RPE every 3-4 weeks. Newer and novice trainees can expect to see steadier progressive overload without changing other variables and should emphasize this aspect of progress in addition to continuing to improve execution and weight selection. Rep schemes will almost always be linear (same rep range for all sets) to make weight selection easier.
Weight Selection: Can relatively accurately select loads based on RIR/RPE and rep range prescriptions.
Exercise Toolbelt: Confident in setup and execution of most common exercises and has some training experience with a wide range of exercises.
Exercise Discipline: Can execute most movements to failure with minimal degradation of exercise technique and can safely control exercises under significant fatigue.
Program Characteristics: These programs will typically have 1-2 weeks for initial adaptation to exercise selection and split. This helps mitigate soreness due to novelty and dial in weight selection. Then there will usually be a significant increase in stimulus via various methods such as extended set techniques, rep range or RPE/RIR adjustments. The methods selected will depend on the goal stimulus. Written progressions may occur every 2-3 weeks, in most cases. There will be more rep scheme variations introduced and more variation in rep ranges, which requires more skill in weight selection and adjustment between sets.
Weight Selection: Highly skilled at load selection across a variety of rep schemes, RIR/RPEs, and training techniques.
Exercise Toolbelt: Experienced with a wide range of exercises and variations across most body parts. Can quickly learn new variations
Exercise Discipline: Can execute nearly any movement to failure safely and under control, even under extreme fatigue conditions.
Program Characteristics: Like Level 2, Level 3 programs will often start with a 1-2 week adaptation period before ramping up. The main difference will be the average intensity, which will be higher as it is expected that you’re efficient with your warm-ups and weight selection. Set extension techniques may be quite common to increase the efficiency of the sessions, especially in specialization programs as training volumes climb. A wider variety of rep schemes may also be used, again dependent on your ability to accurately select loads.
A program will be rated based on the highest ‘level’ of the skill requirements that it contains.
It does not mean that someone who mostly fits the “Intermediate” description cannot do a “Novice” or “Advanced” program. The advanced program may take a little more time to dial in weight selection and require trying some new exercises or techniques.
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