 Next question is from Katie Sian. What are the qualifying markers in becoming an intermediate lifter? That's a good question. Yeah, there's no belt system in lifting, right? Like in martial arts where you can go through the belt system and it signifies. We should have that though. That would be cool. We would never create that. Right? Certain it will signify that you've, you know... Time under the iron or something. It will give people better ideas of who you should be paying attention to in the gym and not. Right? Like, oh, look at that white belt over there. So, here's what I think. I would say generally speaking, if you have been working out consistently, and what I mean by consistently is weekend, week out, at least two to three days a week minimum for about a year, you're probably close to an intermediate lifter. You know, skill level wise, you should probably be able to perform certain fundamental movements like a squat or a deadlift or an overhead press or a row. But really it's about learning your body because you may be lifting for a year and working on mobility and still not be able to squat, but you know your body because you've been training for a year. You kind of know what it can and can't do. You know how to apply intensity properly. So, I would say probably around a year of consistent, no break, you know, no long break in between type training. I think that's probably where I'd say someone's intermediate. I like this question too, mainly because I don't think there's a right or a wrong answer. I mean, I think we could go back and forth on what we would consider an immediate lifter. Now, so for me, I think in an intermediate lifter, I would say that you have good form in any exercise that you do. So, the beginning process of lifting, whether that takes you six months, nine months a year, two years to get to this point, but all the fundamental movements, everything from squat, deadlift, to a row, to a bench press, to a bicep curl, to a shoulder press, all the basic movements and exercises that you see most people doing, to be considered an intermediate lifter, I think you should be able to perform those exercises with good form. That to me is the, and then advanced is to take that good form and do things. Start piling on it. Yeah, load, like lots of load and high intensity, right? So to me, beginner, you're learning technique form. What does that look like? Intermediate, you've now accomplished good form. You can pretty much pick up a barbell, a dumbbell, perform the exercise, execute it with good mechanics, advanced lifter. You can now load like crazy, do explosively, dynamically, and maintain good form. Yeah, I would tend to agree with that. I mean, in terms of the qualifiers, because I know a lot of people usually think immediately, like how long they've been going to the gym and doing their routine. And for some people, it's even been eight to 10 years or however long it is, but I wouldn't even consider them an intermediate level, just because the form is something that I do sort of pick apart right away. And that's not to say that's not to take anything away, but me as a trainer and you're asking me this question, I would have to then take them from where they are and start from the beginning to learn the mechanics, establish all the right patterns. So if you've actually done that work and you've gone through and established all the right mechanics, you know how to adjust your posture, you know how to perform these things with ease, then I think we're ready to graduate and really kind of start getting yourself more on the path to start loading it more heavily. And then when we get to advanced, it's got to be how quickly you can load it with how much load. Well, I like using that instead of a time frame too, because the opposite is true sometimes too. I've had clients that hire me and because they have an athletic background or they have incredible body awareness, they pick up on cues really quick. You know, once I show them the movement one or two times, they get right in the groove and like it's like, oh wow, this person's already, so that person could be, I could consider that person even after a few months potentially an intermediate lifter because we've done all the exercises, they can perform it perfectly, I can give them verbal cues and they can adjust their body right away. Like that to me over like into Justin's point, you could be lifting for five years and I consider you still a beginner if I look at the mechanics, how you move and there's no attention to the detail of the movement and all you've really focused on over those five years is can I lift more weight, can I lift more weight, can I lift more weight? Because the body will do all sorts of things to contort itself and leverage itself to lift more weight. That doesn't necessarily mean that you're an advanced lifter in my opinion. Yeah, I think, you know, you're hearing this answer from trainers and I know what we're doing right now. We're trying to think of watching someone work out and what kind of work out what I recommend to them. Yeah, where we place them. Right, and honestly, it doesn't matter because here's the deal. Here's a wonderful thing I think about resistance training in particular is there's no destination. There's never a point you hit where you're done, right? Where you're done. It's always making it philosophical. Thank you. It's all of that's a matrix reference. It's all about the journey. It's all about constantly, you know, changing your workout to suit your current goals, the context of your life. You know, if you have injuries or pain, your age, you know, how your diet is, stress levels, the workouts are always going to change. It kind of doesn't really matter. I mean, if I'm training a client, I'm going to assess them no matter what. It doesn't matter how long they've been working out. I'm going to do an assessment based off of their movement, based off of their fitness level. Then I'm going to train them accordingly. So that's a constant. No, it's a really good point you're bringing up, Sal, because I'm now thinking about, okay, why is this person asking this question, right? And so a lot of times like we list programs like this falls in the beginner, this falls in advance. And so based off of that theory, then someone like myself who's been lifting for 20 years would never do something in starter. Well, that's not true at all. You know, our starter program is the most beginner program that we own, yet there are movements and exercises in there. It still has a lot of value. Yeah, that have tremendous value. I will always revisit and intermittently introduce into my own routine. So to your point, that's a very good point that doesn't matter whether you're an advanced beginner, intermediate. That doesn't mean that oh, this is the program for you and there's no, nothing of value that is in a beginner program either. No, and I love the intermediate phase if there is such a thing because there's a lot. This is where you do most of your learning. In the beginner phase, you're actually learning that you actually start to realize you don't know a lot. You don't, you can't do certain things. This is what you realize in the beginner phase. And a lot of the strength things that come in the beginner phase are neurological. And you don't necessarily build a ton of muscle, but you get strong. What's that called Dunbar's law? Or the more you know, the more you realize you don't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's honestly, I don't really know what you can take away from this question other than I think it really is just about your education. Like how much time you've put into where, like how much you know about your body and how much you know how to manipulate things to get your body to then get through these plateaus and keep progressing. Yeah, I could say this. For me, I don't think I would have considered myself from what I understand to be advanced. I think it took me a good five, five plus years to really understand my body. I still believed in certain false ideas about resistance training for five, six, seven years after I started working out. It took me that long to figure. Now I didn't have a podcast like Mind Pump that I could listen to. A lot of the information I was getting was trying to sell me supplements or whatever, but it took me that long of listening to my body, figuring my body out and to really get to the point where I could train myself like I can now, right? I feel like I can go into a gym and if I'm being honest with myself, I can really do what I think I need at that moment to feel my best.