Personally, I think the term loses meaning when you'd go as far as to call yourself a beginner. I'm not saying I'm some advanced beast of a lifter, and I'll always strive to learn more about lifting in addition to actually practicing it, but to me, a beginner is someone in their first six months to 1 year of lifting while they're still making consistent, linear gains. I asked Petrie not so much for my own knowledge but to make sure I'm understanding his definition. I should have phrased the question as "What's your definition" as opposed to "What's the definition". I'm probably wasting our time discussing semantics here.
I think my first post is being misunderstood; 5/3/1 has proved challenging for me. I'm not going in there and walking out feeling like I wasted my time. Going from a SS-style routine to 5/3/1 though takes some adjustment, as I'm used to doing no more than 3 or 5 reps per set, so when I'm able to hit ~10 reps for my 5s day I just have to remind myself that it isn't abnormal. By the time I hit that 10th rep I'm spent.
I like the 5/3/1 philosophy: start "too" light, progress slowly, stick to the program, eat, rest, condition, and get stronger. When I started lifting, I could add on 5 or 10 lbs to each major lift at least once a week. That ran out after 3 or 4 months. I spun my wheels trying to repeat this practice for a few years, deloading as needed/frequently, and gaining slightly, but finally decided to switch to something different. I appreciate the concern Petrie, sincerely, but I think I'm better off with 5/3/1. Worst case, absolutely worst case, is that I'm "wasting" my beginner gains, which I assure you I already have used up long ago.
