This is How Long it Takes to See Results

If you’re trying to get stronger and you’re a beginner to this strength training thing, you’ll see improvement your second workout. Beginner programs should repeat exercises, sets, and reps 2-3 times per week. For example, a beginner should perform 3 sets of 5 reps of squat, bench, deadlift, overhead press, and rows 3 workouts each week with a day’s rest in between each workout. Since that’s the program, aka plan, then each workout you add 2.5-10lbs to every exercise. Let’s assume you got the exercise technique down and found your working weights the first workout. By the second you’ve added 2.5-10lbs to every exericse. Thus you’ve started to see improvement in strength. Follow this program for 4 weeks and you might see a 90lb increase or more in strength improvement.

If you aren’t a beginner and you have advanced your strength to a point where you have set different strength goals, e.g. add 40lbs to your powerlifting total, it might be months to years before you reach that goal. However, strength improvements generally take a couple weeks to see the needle move in the right direction. That may be through increased weight on assistance exercises or very small weight increases in the competition exercises. Progress is progress. No matter how small, over time this progress results in noticeable results.

If you’re more interested in aesthetic results, it might take weeks to months before you start noticing results. There are objective ways to track body composition changes, which is what we’re actually talking about, e.g. increases or decreases in weight, waist circumference, and body fat percentage. These measurements take as little as a week or two to change. Like increasing weight on the barbell, small changes equal big results given enough time.

The short answer to the question of how long it takes to see results depends on what your goals are and your level of training. Beginners see results very quickly in contrast to more advanced lifters. Improving body composition and seeing those results in the mirror take weeks to months, maybe even longer depending on your starting point. However, frustration over a perceived lack of progress can be mitigated or negated entirely by using objective measures like weight on the bar, increases or decreases in bodyweight, waist circumference, and body fat percentage. Tracking these measurements are KEY to seeing results and doing so quickly.