# Am I a beginner?

**URL:** <https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/am-i-a-beginner/6077>\
**Category:** Training Q&A \[Moderated\]\
**Created:** [June 10, 2019, 3:23am UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/am-i-a-beginner/6077 "2019-06-10T03:23:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![WolfeGrene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a183cd/32.png) [@WolfeGrene](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/WolfeGrene)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2019, 3:23am UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/am-i-a-beginner/6077/1 "2019-06-10T03:23:58Z")

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I don’t know what I am. My existential crisis has led me to change programs a few times in the last 30 days. Can someone point me in the right direction?

Here’s some background information. In October 2018 I decided to lose some weight. Keto, cardio the whole bit. While it wasn’t ideal, I know that now, I went from 260’s to 199. Now I weigh about 210. I am 6’1” 32 years old. My weight loss stalled hard. Like 2.5 months of spinning my wheels, starving myself, and doing more cardio.

I decided to start resistance training, eating carbs, and getting strong. I’ve been consistently resistance training for about 2.5 months. My programming was a disaster (still is). I was doing push, pull, legs splits with little direction. I knew I was weak, so I changed to a full body “strength” routine. Essentially, I’d do a couple sets of 5, then a couple sets of 3, then a couple singles on every exercise, but I did focus on the 4 main lifts. I was mostly concerned with “maxing out” each trip to the gym. I wasn’t getting very far. My strength stats currently; 300 Deadlift, 285 Squat, 210 Bench, 120 Overhead Press.

I downloaded the beginner prescription and the volume is lower than I was training. Despite that I decided to start there anyway. I’ll be honest, free factored in a bit. Any intelligently designed program must be better then the program I haphazardly threw together though.

I intend to follow programming from Barbell Medicine. I just don’t know if I am a beginner and should start with the Beginner Presciption, and move on to the Beginner Template. Or, should I start with something like the bridge series. Or, is there some other program that makes more sense.

Thanks in advance.

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**Author:** ![Jordan\_Feigenbaum](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/forum.barbellmedicine.com/jordan_feigenbaum/32/1315_2.png) [@Jordan\_Feigenbaum](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/Jordan_Feigenbaum)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2019, 4:04pm UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/am-i-a-beginner/6077/2 "2019-06-10T16:04:59Z")

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I don’t think you’re a complete beginner, but you could probably run phases II and III from the Beginner Template and see good results from that before moving on to a more advanced template.

-Jordan

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**Author:** ![WolfeGrene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a183cd/32.png) [@WolfeGrene](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/WolfeGrene)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2019, 5:08pm UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/am-i-a-beginner/6077/3 "2019-06-10T17:08:27Z")

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Thanks for the help. The access to professionals and quality advice is unreal. I really appreciate it.