How long does it take for strength training to be effective?

You can feel the real improvement in strength in as soon as 2 weeks. Visible changes in body shape usually require 8 to 12 weeks of regular training. The specific speed varies from person to person.

A while ago, I took care of a girl who was born in 2000. She had no foundation in exercise before. The first time she practiced deadlift, the empty bar shook. She practiced 3 times a week for 14 days. Last week when the company moved to the work station, she went directly to the third floor with three boxes full of documents. It was only after she put them down that she realized that she had even 1 Carrying 0 pounds of cat litter to the second floor makes you gasp. This is actually the neural adaptation effect that first appears in the novice stage - it is not that the muscles suddenly become larger, but that your brain finally learns how to efficiently mobilize the muscles to exert force. Before, many muscles were in a "fishing" state, and they were directly activated after training.

However, if you expect to see your abdominal muscles or arms getting thicker in the mirror after two weeks of training, it is basically impossible. The growth rate of muscles is much slower than you think. Without the blessing of special supplements, novices who train naturally will only gain 0.5~1kg of pure muscle per month at most. This weight is spread throughout the body and will not be visible at all in two or three months. I met an impatient guy before. He practiced for a month and took comparison photos every day. He almost gave up after saying that there was no change at all. I looked through his training records and found out that every time he went to the gym, he took 20 minutes of photos and rested for 5 minutes in each group during training. He would be lazy at every turn for a week. His diet was to have a barbecue and cold beer after training. To put it bluntly, he didn't save enough "effective training volume". How could he get the effect?

Nowadays, the opinions on this matter on the Internet are very polarized. On one side, there are those who sell courses advocating "build a peach butt in 7 days" and "become a muscular man in 30 days". They are purely trying to cut leeks with the mentality of people who are eager for results. On the other side, there are many veterans who have been practicing for many years. They say that "no two or three years is considered a beginner", which is too discouraging for newcomers. In fact, there is no need to be so strict with the standard card. If your goal is to move things effortlessly and climb stairs without gasping for breath, you will see the results in two weeks. ； If you want to wear clothes that look better and have faint lines, you can see changes in about three months. ； If you want to play in competitions and get ranked, you really have to calculate it on a yearly basis. It all depends on what "effect" you want.

This thing is actually similar to saving money. If you save 300 every week, you can buy an entry-level tablet in two months. If you save 50 today and spend 200 tomorrow, and the payment is interrupted from time to time, then saving for a year may not be enough. Every time you train hard, eat enough protein, and sleep for 7 hours, you are saving money for "results." Paddling, staying up late, and eating blindly are just spending money. Doesn't the speed of your progress all depend on how much money you make?

You really don’t have to worry about looking in the mirror every day. When you carry two big bags of groceries from the supermarket to the fifth floor without any difficulty, or when you wear a tight-fitting T-shirt that you couldn’t wear before and now it just stretches up your shoulder line, then the effect has come to your door.