How long does it take for home exercise to be effective?

As long as the frequency and intensity are up to standard and the diet and rest are in place, most people will be able to feel positive changes in their physical condition in 2-4 weeks, and visible changes in appearance and girth will be visible in 3-6 months. The specific effect time will fluctuate depending on the individual's fitness foundation, training intensity, and life coordination.

Many people rush to the scale to measure their waistline after just a few days of training. If they don’t see the number change, they feel that their training is in vain. In fact, this is not true. The girl next to me at the previous work station has rounded shoulders all year round. She always feels that her shoulders are unsightly when she wears suspenders in summer. So she does 20 minutes of shoulder and back activation plus 3 sets of dumbbells every day when she comes home from get off work. It hasn’t even been two weeks since I started rowing with bells, and I was told that the stiffness in my neck that I used to suffer from every day after get off work is much better, and the shirt that was stuck on my shoulders feels a lot looser when I wear it. This kind of small physical change is actually the earliest effect, but many people only focus on the weight number and directly ignore it.

Nowadays, there are very different opinions on the Internet about the time for results. Some people say that you will lose 5 pounds after practicing for a week, while others say that there is no change after practicing for half a year. In fact, the essence is that everyone has completely different definitions of "effect". If a person who is pursuing rapid weight loss does aerobics + carb cutting from the beginning, it is normal to lose three to four pounds a week, but most of it is water. If you return to a normal diet for a while, it will rebound, which is not really effective. ； There are also many people who practice strength and muscle building. After two months of training, their weight has not moved much, but their waist circumference has become two to three centimeters smaller, their pants are obviously looser, and their body fat rate has dropped by several points. In fact, there have been substantial changes, but the scale will not tell you this.

Of course, there are indeed many people who have been practicing for a long time without any results. When I first got into home fitness, I just followed the video and made random gestures. After 10 minutes of practice, I had to stop to check my mobile phone, do squats and knee buckles, and the plank collapsed like a suspension bridge. After practicing for a month and a half, my knees hurt so much that I had to struggle to go up and down stairs. Not to mention the effect, I almost suffered a sports injury. Later, I found a coach to correct my movements and arranged my weekly training into 2 strength sessions + 2 aerobic sessions, with each training session lasting 40 minutes. At night, I replaced the late-night snack I had been eating for several years with warm milk. Around the third month, my jeans that could not be zipped up actually became loose. When my mother came to live with me, she asked me if I was secretly dieting to lose weight.

In fact, to put it bluntly, there is no mystery. When we exercise, we are actually causing tiny damage to the muscle fibers. Afterwards, during the process of resting and replenishing protein, the muscles will be repaired stronger than before. This is what the fitness circle often calls "excess recovery". This cycle is generally 48-72 hours, so there is no need to train to the death every day. Regular training 3-4 times a week is enough. If you are too hasty, you will easily strain, and the gain will not be worth the candle.

Oh, by the way, if you are overweight or have underlying diseases, you really don’t need to pursue quick results. Start with low-intensity Baduanjin exercises and slow walking. Even if it takes half a year to see significant changes, as long as you persist, the benefits to your body will be much greater than falling off the scale in a short period of time. I had a friend before Qi weighed nearly 200 pounds, and the doctor asked him to exercise more. He did low-intensity exercises at home for half an hour every day after dinner. He did not diet deliberately, but drank less carbonated drinks. He went for a physical examination for more than half a year. Not only did his body fat rate drop by 6 points, but his mild fatty liver was also eliminated. This is much better than getting a waistline.