Guides
How levels, routes and stages work
1. Your experience
How new you are to structured training. This decides which programme stage fits you, not which piece of equipment you own. The plan selector asks it directly, in plain terms: are you new or restarting, have you finished a beginner programme, or have you trained consistently for a year or more.
Experience is never inferred from an answer about equipment. Someone with a full home gym who has never done a structured programme before is still a beginner by experience, and the selector treats them as one.
2. Equipment route
Inside one guide, NST Beginner Strength Plan - 8 Weeks offers three routes: Starter, Beginner and Progression. A route is chosen by what equipment you can reliably use, not by how experienced you are.
- Starter route
- Basic household items, such as a sturdy chair and loaded bags
- Beginner route
- A pair of dumbbells (adjustable or a couple of fixed pairs), or a basic home/hotel gym.
- Progression route
- Full gym access: barbell, plates, a squat rack or power cage with safety arms or pins, a flat bench, an incline bench and dumbbells.
Having full-gym equipment is not treated as proof you are ready for the barbell lifts. The Progression route asks a separate question about whether those lifts have already been shown to you in person; a reader who answers no is matched to the Beginner route instead, whatever equipment they have.
3. Programme stage
The roadmap NST plans to publish over time, one stage at a time. A stage becomes available to buy only once its own programme review is complete; nothing here is unlocked by finishing an earlier stage or by owning more equipment.
FoundationIn development
Readers who want to build a consistent movement habit before starting a loaded strength programme.
Beginner StrengthAvailable to preview
Readers starting structured resistance training from little or no experience, or restarting after a long break.
BuildIn development
Readers who have completed a beginner strength programme and want the next structured step.
PerformanceIn development
Readers with at least a year of consistent structured training who want a more demanding programme.
4. What is actually available
- Free guides and tools: always open, no purchase, no account. See what is free.
- Plan preview: NST Beginner Strength Plan - 8 Weeks. The plan page shows its current review and checkout availability.
- Later stages are described honestly as in development, with no date promised, so a reader can see what is planned without being asked to buy something that does not exist yet.