It doesn’t take long for muscles to grow after starting strength training.
Usually, the primary goal for people who engage in strength training is muscle growth. Therefore, the sense of achievement is mainly felt from changes in their muscle mass.
However, most people with muscular bodies exercise for long periods, making it hard to tell exactly when they start to feel muscle growth.
This leads some to believe that muscle growth is only possible for exceptional individuals or those who invest a tremendous amount of time and effort, so they either give up on strength training altogether or quit after only experiencing initial muscle soreness without any growth.
However, muscle growth isn’t a lengthy or strenuous process. Muscles start growing steadily from the early stages of strength training.
According to a study called “The Time Course for Arm and Chest Muscle Thickness Changes Following Bench Press Training” published in 2012, men and women in their 20s who had never done strength training were asked to bench press three times a week for 24 weeks, using 75% of their 1RM (the maximum amount of force that can be generated in one maximal contraction).
As a result, all participants showed a steep increase in chest and triceps muscle growth from the start of the exercise to the fourth week. Notably, the thickness of the chest muscles continued to increase until the end of the 24-week experiment.
Another study published in 2000 on “The Time Course of Strength and Muscle Thickness Changes After Upper and Lower Body Resistance Training in Men and Women” had participants aged 20 to 50 with no exercise experience perform chest, back, biceps, and triceps exercises three times a week, performing three sets of 8 to 12 repetitions at a weight they could handle.
These participants showed a discernible increase in strength from the start of the experiment.
Muscle size showed faster growth in the upper body than in the lower body suggesting that initial muscle nerve activation occurs faster in the upper body than in the lower body.
In conclusion, combining these studies, people can see noticeable muscle growth in the upper body after six weeks of strength training, and in the lower body after three months.
Nondetectable change doesn’t mean muscles are staying the same.
Therefore, try not to give up prematurely with excuses.
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