July 30, 2019

The science of beginner growth

In the first two parts of this article series, we looked at what exactly beginner gains are. I then presented three models that can be used to make a relatively good prediction of potential gains during the first year of training (and beyond) and looked at the reasons why many exercisers report larger gains during their beginner phase. Finally, we looked at why rapid beginner gains end after about a year. In this final part of this article series, we will look at whether it is possible to miss out on these beginner gains and how you should continue once the beginner gains period is over.

Can you miss your beginner gains?

Some people believe that you can miss your beginner gains if you train and eat poorly during your first year of training. While there is a grain of truth in this statement, it is more false than true. If you do a lot of things wrong during your first year of training, you won't build as much muscle mass as you could.

For example, if you don't eat enough calories or protein, don't work hard enough to increase your training weights or your reps each session, and don't get enough sleep, then you probably won't build as much muscle as the formulas in the first part of this article series would predict.

Some people make these mistakes for months, years or even decades and sometimes don't realize this mistake until they are in their late thirties or forties. Once you reach that age, you won't be able to train as hard, as heavy or as often as someone younger, and you won't be able to build muscle at the same rate.

However, if you correct your course before it's too late and have only been treading water for a few months or years, you can still make beginner gains even if you already have a few years of training experience.

I am a good example of this. When I started training with weights at the age of 16, I used a good program - Starting Strength - but only built about 5 kilos of muscle during my first year of training and then stuck at that weight for several years.

Why? I was also competing in triathlons and cycling races at the same time, which made it more or less impossible for me to make the progress I would normally have been able to make in my training with weights. I had built up some muscle mass and brought my body weight down to 68 kilos with a body fat percentage of 10%, but if I had been training and eating correctly, I should have been approaching my genetic limit in my early twenties.

After I stopped cycling and got more serious about strength training and proper nutrition, I was able to increase my weight from 68 to 77 kilos within a few years, while my body fat percentage always remained below 15%. In other words, I experienced a second round of beginner gains by changing my training and diet.

The point is that even though it's possible to miss the window of opportunity for rapid muscle gain, that window remains open for a couple decades. If you've been training incorrectly or poorly for a few years, it's still possible to experience beginner-like gains once you stop making stupid mistakes and get serious about your diet and training.

What can you do when your beginner gains are over?

First of all, it's time for a change of perspective. As you now know, you can't expect the gains to keep coming at a rapid rate. Many people get discouraged when they realize that the results of their training resemble trench warfare: they have to fight for months to inch forward.

What's really important at this point, however, is not the rate of your progress, but the simple fact that you're making progress at all. As long as you are getting stronger, you are moving in the right direction.

Secondly, you must be willing to change your training program. What has gotten you this far is probably not going to get you where you want to be. You need to be willing to work harder and smarter and invest more time in planning your training sessions once your beginner gains are over.

Thirdly, you need to become more demanding when it comes to your diet. Although eating as much as you want during your first year of training may work for muscle gain, this strategy will result in a rapid increase in body fat once you get past the beginner phase.

Fat loss is similar. During your beginner phase, you can get away with crash dieting because you simply don't have that much muscle mass to lose. However, the more advanced you are, the harder it will be to maintain your hard-earned gains during a period of calorie restriction.

To achieve these three goals, here are five things to keep in mind as you transition from a beginner to an experienced exerciser:

1. maintain a moderate calorie surplus of 5 to 10% during the muscle-building phase

This should allow you to gain 2 to 4 pounds per month, which should be your goal once your beginner gains are over. Women should aim for half these numbers: one to two pounds per month.

2. eat about 2 to 2.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day

This amount is enough to ensure that you reap all the benefits of a high-protein diet. There is no need to eat more protein to build muscle.

3. alternate cyclically between muscle building phases and diet phases until you have achieved the amount of muscle you desire

You can build muscle and lose fat at the same time when you have just started training, also known as body recomposition. However, this becomes increasingly difficult the more advanced you become and after your first year or two of training experience, such an endeavor becomes a futile effort.

Instead, you should do the following:

If you are a man and have a body fat percentage of over 15%, diet down to a body fat percentage of 10% first before starting a muscle building phase. If you are a woman and have a body fat percentage of over 25%, then diet down to a body fat percentage of 20% before starting a muscle building phase.

Once you have reached a body fat percentage of 10% as a man and 20% as a woman, maintain a calorie surplus until you reach a body fat percentage of 15% as a man and 20% as a woman. Then repeat the whole process of building muscle and losing fat until you have achieved the body development you want.

4. emphasize progressive overload over everything else in all your workouts

The term progressive overload refers to an increase in the amount of tension your muscles produce over time, and the most effective way to achieve progressive overload is to progressively increase the amount of weight you move during an exercise. In other words, the key to building muscle mass and strength is not to perform a long list of different exercises, balance on a BOSU ball or sweat as much as possible during your workout, but to make your muscles work harder and harder over time. And this is exactly what you do when you force them to move progressively heavier weights.

5. consider using supplements to increase your muscle gains

I saved this point for last as it is far less important than optimal nutrition and training. Ultimately, supplements don't build a great body, dedication to good training and nutrition does.

Unfortunately, the supplement industry is full of pseudoscience, exaggerated hype and misleading advertising, making it hard to separate the wheat from the chaff and figure out which products are really worth the money when it comes to supporting muscle building.

However, there are some safe, natural substances that have scientifically proven benefits such as increased strength, muscle endurance, muscle building and more. At this point, I just want to take a quick look at the supplements that can help you build muscle as quickly as possible and make the most of your beginner gains.

Creatine

Creatine is a compound that occurs naturally in the body and in some foods such as red meat. Creatine is probably the most studied molecule in the sports supplement field, having been the subject of well over 1000 studies, the consensus of which is very clear: supplementing with creatine helps:

Build muscle and increase strength (9)
Increase anaerobic endurance (10)
Reduce muscle damage and soreness (11)

You may have heard somewhere that creatine is bad for your kidneys, but these claims have been repeatedly disproven (12). Creatine has not been shown to have any harmful side effects in healthy people, either with short-term or long-term use (13). However, people who suffer from kidney disease should not supplement creatine (14). So if you have healthy kidneys, I highly recommend supplementing with creatine. It's safe, inexpensive and effective.

Protein powder

You don't need protein supplements to build muscle, but considering the amount of protein you should consume daily to maximize your muscle growth, it can become impractical to meet your protein needs entirely through whole foods. This is the main reason I use protein supplements.

The two most commonly used protein powders are whey protein and casein, both of which are made from milk. Casein is slower to digest than whey protein and provides your muscles with a steady supply of amino acids for growth and repair over a longer period of time, which is why some experts consider it a better choice for muscle building. Whey protein, on the other hand, digests quickly and causes a faster and greater increase in blood amino acid levels, which is why some experts believe it stimulates more muscle growth after exercise.

However, most scientific research shows that it doesn't really matter whether you use casein or whey protein and you won't notice much difference as long as you consume enough protein per day.

Pre-workout drink

A pre-workout drink can increase your motivation to train and boost your performance in the gym. However, it is important to make sure that this product contains effective doses of effective ingredients. Here is a small selection of such ingredients:

Caffeine: Caffeine provides you with more than just an energy boost. It can also increase muscle endurance and strength (15, 16).
Beta-alanine: Beta-alanine is a naturally occurring amino acid that can reduce exercise-induced fatigue (17), increase your anaerobic training capacity (18) and accelerate your muscle growth (19).
Citrulline malate: Citrulline is an amino acid that can increase muscle endurance (20), relieve muscle soreness (20) and increase aerobic performance (21).
Theanine: Theanine is an amino acid primarily found in tea. Theanine can reduce the effects of physical stress (22), increase nitric oxide production (23) and improve alertness, focus, attention, memory, ability to combine and mood (24, 25, 26, 27).

Conclusion on the topic of beginner gains

Beginner gains are the rapid increases in muscle mass that occur when people with little or no weight training experience begin resistance training. When you pick up a barbell for the first time, your muscles are hypersensitive to the effects of training with weights and respond with a rapid growth response.

A good rule of thumb is that both men and women can gain about 1 to 1.5% of their body weight in muscle per month during their first year of training with weights, with gains occurring slightly faster during the first 6 months than during the second half of the first year of training. Assuming that you do everything right in terms of training and nutrition, in practice this means a gain of 10 to 12 kilos of muscle for men and 5 to 6 kilos of muscle for women.

The rate of beginner gains decreases significantly after the first 6 months of training and after more or less 12 months the period of beginner gains is over. The reason for this is that the closer you get to your genetic limit, the harder it is to build muscle.

Even if you have built up significantly less muscle mass than would have been possible due to training or nutritional errors during your first year of training, this does not mean that you have missed out on these beginner gains. As long as you're still relatively far away from realizing your ultimate lifelong muscle building potential, you can still see rapid muscle gains even if you've been training with weights for several years.

As the curtain begins to close on your beginner gains, there are five things you can do to maximize your rate of building muscle and strength as you evolve into a slightly more advanced exerciser:

Maintain a moderate calorie surplus of 5 to 10% during the muscle-building phase.
Eat about 2 to 2.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day
Alternate cyclically between muscle building phases and diet phases until you have reached the amount of muscle you desire
Emphasize progressive overload over everything else in all your training sessions
Consider using supplements to increase your muscle gains Do all of this and you will continue to build strength and muscle for years to come.

References:

Source: https://www.muscleforlife.com/newbie-gains/

From Amistead Legge

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