You are currently exploring the Fundamentals Library , which is designed to provide a basic overview of the topics that are covered in other longer articles. This article is a part of the Progression section.
Athlete’s Journey
As a calisthenics athlete progresses through training, their body adapts to specific stimuli. This manifests itself in changes, primarily in the musculoskeletal and nervous systems (but just about every other system as well).
This process of becoming more capable and resilient, while largely beneficial and gratifying, is associated with a rather unpleasant phenomenon of diminishing returns. The more we develop, the slower our rate of improvement becomes, and the more work we have to do per "unit" of progress.
Why Phase of Development is Important
Athlete development is influenced by a variety of factors, including genetics, training history, lifestyle and psychological factors. However, despite these individual differences, every person who engages in calisthenics or any other type of training will go through certain stages that are characterized by certain traits.
Understanding these stages is not just a matter of academic interest, it has practical implications that can make a significant difference in how you approach your training. Using tools that are not compatible with a particular stage can be not only unnecessary, but also detrimental. This can occur across the entire spectrum of exercise programming, from exercise selection and progression tactics to training organization strategies.
As mentioned earlier, one of the first things you'll notice is that the rate of progress can vary greatly depending on the stage you're in. In the early stages of development, athletes typically experience rapid improvement. This is a time when your body is highly responsive to new stimuli and almost any form of training will produce noticeable results.
However, as you continue to train, you'll likely reach a point where these rapid gains begin to slow down. This is a natural part of the process, signaling that your body has adapted to the initial training stimuli and progress is becoming more incremental.
This brings us to the next point: the behaviors and habits that were effective in the early stages of training may no longer be sufficient. Much of your initial progress can be attributed to simply showing up and putting in the work. Consistency and effort are the key drivers of success at this stage, and as long as you put in the time, you're likely to see results.
However, as you progress, the focus shifts. It's no longer just about doing the work, but doing the right work. This means that paying more attention to detail across the spectrum of your training becomes increasingly important. The behaviors that drove your initial success must evolve or you risk reaching a plateau where further progress becomes difficult.
Another key aspect of athletic development that is often overlooked is the adaptation of tendons to the stresses of training. While muscles adapt relatively quickly to increased loads, tendons and other connective tissues adapt more slowly. This difference in rate of adaptation becomes particularly important as you transition between phases. In the early stages of training, your tendons are usually strong enough to handle the demands placed on them. However, as your training intensifies, the risk of overuse injuries increases if your tendons haven't had enough time to strengthen.
Systems of Athlete’s Level Classification
This is why many things about training methodology must change as we move through these phases. This is quite a popular concept in calisthenics and fitness. We often hear about training for novices, intermediates and advanced athletes. We hear terms like “elite”, “beginners” or its ribbing equivalent “noobs”.
There are however two main problems with most classification systems of athletes based on their level of advancement:
1) They are based on the training age
While training age typically correlates with how much change our bodies have undergone, it is not the sole determining factor - even when we talk about specific, resistance training time.
This is because the effectiveness of training depends on many more variables than just the number of months someone has been training. We can see this even on a smaller scale.
Some people do their workouts in 30 minutes, while others take 1-2 hours. Some athletes train 2 times a week, while others train 3-4 times a week. Some athletes train hard, consistently, with a well-designed training program and significant training volume, while others don't.
This is not to say that it's bad to be less dedicated to your athletic pursuits. It is just a good illustration of how shallow the "I've been working out for X amount of time" description is.
2) They are based on performance level
This point can be quite surprising for you to read, because we naturally associate performance metrics with level of development. For example, we would typically describe someone who is capable of performing a tuck or straddle front lever as less advanced than someone who can hold a full version.
While this may be a good metric when we are competing, comparing or ranking athletes, it is not helpful in training programming. We should not make our programming decisions based on the external level of performance relative to other people (for example, automatically increasing the volume of work when someone reaches advanced tuck planche level in planche training).
This is because how good we are at gymnastics is a product of multiple factors - not just training, but also our body composition, anthropometry, and some other genetic factors. These factors include frame size, internal muscle moment arm lengths, muscle fiber type distribution, and possibly even a propensity for motor learning.
Imagine a person who, due to some genetic predisposition, is able to perform full planche from day one. Would we classify that person as an "advanced athlete"? Well, maybe some of us would, but in terms of training programming, this athlete should be treated more like an early novice.
The point is that performance alone doesn't map well to the individual physiological response to exercise, which is what we're trying to do with training programming.
3) They include too many distinct phases
Many of the commonly used splits are rather social than physiological. Due to the variety in our bodies' responses to training, it is impossible to classify athletes rigidly based on a large number of distinct phases.
Novice & Post Novice Stages
In our practice we differentiate between 2 phases of training, each of which has its own early and late sub-phases:
- Novice Stage
- Post Novice Stage
Novice and post-novice are clearly different, and this can have a real impact on physiology and training program decisions.
We will get to the actual process of determining developmental level. But it is important to note that if there is one determining factor - it is the rate of development. In other words, how quickly someone adapts to the stimulus.
The Novice phase is characterized by rapid improvements in almost every aspect of fitness - strength, muscle mass, coordination, and even flexibility. This is the time when your body is most responsive to training, and improvements come quickly and relatively easily.
As you continue to train, your body will adapt to the demands placed on it and the rate of progress will naturally slow. This marks the beginning of the post-novice phase, which extends indefinitely. And, of course, this is more of a spectrum than a clear transition.
Several factors contribute to determining which developmental stage you're in. Your strength training experience, often referred to as your training age, is one of the most important. Training age, as I define it, is not simply a measure of how long you've been training, but rather how long you've been following a structured and progressive training program. The more time you've spent training this way, the more likely you are to be in the post-novice phase.
Muscle mass is another important indicator. Athletes with a greater muscle mass generally have more advanced strength levels and are likely to be further along in their development. The key point here is that muscle mass is one of the mechanisms for getting stronger. People with more muscle on their frame will have less room for improvement than people with less muscle, because we can assume that they have already maxed out some of their potential in a morphological sense.
Body composition also plays a role in determining your stage of development. A lower percentage of body fat with a higher percentage of muscle mass typically correlates with more advanced stages of development. This is because excess body fat can hinder performance in calisthenics, where relative strength is a critical factor. In addition, if a person is lean, they have already "capped" one of the very effective mechanisms for improving their performance, which is getting leaner.
Recent training history is another important consideration. If someone has taken a long break from training, despite their level prior to the break, we should place them in the Novice phase rather than the Post-Novice phase. Of course, in this case, the phase will last much shorter, but it will certainly be a more accurate representation at the beginning of their comeback.
Finally, your performance in specific calisthenics skills will reflect your stage of development. If you look at a person who can already perform a skill that is generally considered advanced, we can assume that they are in the post-novice phase. We could be wrong sometimes, but the higher an athlete's performance, the less likely they are to be a novice.
As mentioned above, it is a mistake to categorize athletes based solely on performance, which is a common practice in training app algorithms and non-customized training programs. As we've already mentioned, the main factor that categorizes people into different phases is the rate of progression. It is just that typically the higher a person's performance, the more time they have likely spent under a heavy and intelligent program, the longer they have built up their adaptations, and as a result the slower their progress will be.
In general, it is rather impossible to create an algorithm that would lead us into a definite classification, there are too many variables to consider, but also the whole concept of athlete development stage is rather a vague, made up estimation that aims to make our training decisions more effective or efficient.
So my recommendation is that when you are assessing someone or yourself, use these basic guidelines, and if a general picture seems to suggest that a person is in a certain stage, then simply place them in that stage and keep that in mind when making your further training decisions. You can always iterate later.
| Novice | Post-Novice | |
|---|---|---|
| Progression Rate | Fast | Progressively Decaying |
| Resistance Training Experience | </= 1 Year | A Couple of Years |
| Coordination/Body Awareness | Low | Decent |
| Psychological Profile | Behavioral Fragility | Habits Established |
| Lean Body Mass | Low | High |
What is My Stage of Development?
Finally, remember that these levels are also contextual. An individual athlete may be a novice in the lower body while being post-novice in the upper body. Some athletes may be novice in their pushing skills, while being post-novice in their pulling skills (some rock climbers are a good example).
This is just another reason why we should not be overly specific when analyzing these stages, but rather look for general trends.
Development Stages & Training Programming
The purpose of this article is to provide a basic model for classifying athletes and not to get into the specific application of this model in programming. It is important to note, however, that recommended training practices will differ across the novice and post-novice continuum, regarding:
- Goal Setting
- Exercise Execution Emphasis
- Exercise Selection
- Proximity to Failure
- Progression Models
- Periodization & Variation
To a lesser degree it will also influence:
- Volume
- Frequency
- Training Split
- Load Selection
So, as you can see, the athlete's development phase is not really something we can skip in our process of building a training program. It will impact the majority of decisions we need to make in calisthenics.
Development Stages & Psychology
It’s also worth mentioning the psychological aspects of transitioning between phases. The shift from novice to post-novice often requires a change in mindset.
The early gains that come so easily in the novice phase can lead to a sense of complacency or even frustration when progress slows. Athletes may find themselves questioning their methods or doubting their abilities when, in reality, what’s needed is a more refined and patient approach to training.
Embracing the slower, more deliberate progress of the post-novice phase requires mental resilience and a long-term perspective. This phase is where the real work begins, as gains become harder to come by and the margin for error narrows.
The mental fortitude developed during this time is just as important as the physical strength and skill, as it will sustain you through the inevitable ups and downs of advanced training.
However, there is another threat related to a concept known colloquially as “ego lifting” or as I like to phrase it in the context of calisthenics “reverse ego lifting”. Since our performance is relatively higher in the post-novice phase, we may find ourselves in a situation where we get comfortable displaying our current level rather than continuing to build up to a new level of performance.
Development Stages & Lifestyle
As athletes progress through the developmental stages, the influence of non-training factors such as nutrition, sleep, stress management and recovery strategies becomes more pronounced.
In the novice phase, progress can often be made despite "sub-optimal" lifestyle choices simply because the training stimuli are so new to the body.
However, as one moves into the post-novice phase, the importance of optimizing these factors becomes much more critical. Overlooking these aspects can lead to plateau or even regression.
