How long does strength training take to be effective

If you can maintain regular training 3-4 times a week, standard movement, diet and rest basically meet the standards, ordinary people can feel the clear training effect as soon as 4 weeks. If you want people around you who have never seen you train to see the changes with the naked eye, it usually takes 8-12 weeks.

A female student I taught a while ago who had zero basic knowledge is a typical example. Before, she could not even lift a 5kg dumbbell, and her laptop felt heavy when she was carrying it to and from get off work. When she was in the third week of training, she told me that she had to carry 20kg of cat litter up the 6th floor last week, and she couldn’t catch her breath midway. She didn't feel tired at all. The measurements were taken in the 5th week, and her thighs were 1.2cm tighter. The waistband of the jeans she wore before that stuck to her hips was loosened. However, it wasn't until the 10th week that her colleagues in the same department asked her if she had been exercising recently, saying that she looked much taller.

Some people will definitely think it’s wrong. I’ve seen online that some people say that after practicing for 2 weeks, you can see the effect, while others say that you can only see changes after practicing for half a year. In fact, half of the difference is the different definition of “effect”, and the other half is whether you have really practiced it well.

Those who say that you will feel stronger after practicing for 2 weeks are really not an illusion. It’s just that you haven’t reached the stage of muscle growth yet. Your neural recruitment ability has improved. To put it bluntly, your brain can’t use the muscles in your body before. You have to rely on your arms to lift things. After practicing a few times, you can finally mobilize the muscles of your core and back to work together, and you naturally feel relaxed. Quite a bit, but at this stage, the muscle mass has not increased significantly, and there is basically no change in appearance. Many novices give up because they feel that they have not lost weight after practicing for a long time. In fact, it is a pity. This is like the succulents you just planted. They have grown roots in the soil for the first two weeks. On the surface, they look wilted and unchanged. In fact, the roots have already taken root underneath, and new leaves will slowly sprout after a while.

As for those who say it takes half a year of training to be effective, most of them are pursuing more obvious muscle lines, such as clear vest lines, triceps lines on the arms, right-angled shoulders that can be supported by wearing a T-shirt. If the body fat rate is not low, it does take more than 3 months to slowly show up. A male colleague next to me practiced It’s been almost 4 months. My body fat used to be 22%, but now it’s down to 18%. Recently, when I wear a slim-fitting T-shirt, my shoulders can already show a clear curvature, and the outline of my chest muscles is also revealed when I take off my clothes. He said that his chest muscles have become hard after the second month of training. Before, they were soft and soft, but they were covered by fat and couldn’t be seen.

Of course, there are also people who have practiced for two or three months without any change at all. They either fished for three days and dried nets for two days. They practiced twice last week and then took a rest for a week this week. Or their movements were all wrong. They relied entirely on their waists to practice squats. Their legs were not so sore but their waists hurt for a week. Some people turned around after practicing and went to eat hot pot and drink milk tea. They consumed more than a fraction of the calories they had eaten. It would be strange to see an effect.

In fact, there is no need to waste time to calculate the effect. If what you want is to relieve the shoulder and neck pain caused by sitting for a long time and improve the hunched posture, if the movements are standard, you can feel the tightness in the shoulders and neck disappear a lot after practicing for three or four times. I used to I have a programmer friend who is obviously very wealthy. He does shoulder and back exercises two nights a week. Within a month, his wife said that he would no longer lean his neck forward when walking. He himself also said that the shoulder and neck pain that he used to have once a week almost never happens again.

Anyway, when it comes to strength training, you don’t have to worry too much about the progress. Every time you go there, do the movements in a down-to-earth manner. Don’t hold your phone for ten minutes between sets and forget about the next set. Eat less high-fat and high-sugar foods, and get enough sleep for 7 hours a day. Changes will come quietly. By the time you realize it, you may be much stronger than you were a few months ago.