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How Long Does It Take to See Results at the Gym?

How Long Does It Take to See Results at the Gym?

You’ve made a new commitment to start working out to gain muscle or lose weight or improve strength or get your cardio to a better level. Whatever the thing you are hoping to accomplish with your new exercise routine, you are probably starting to wonder, “when will I start seeing changes from all this training?” It’s ok to ask this question because we all need to see some of the benefits of the workouts to help keep the motivation where it needs to be. So how long does it take to see progress?

Factors that Affect How Long It Takes to See Results

Genetics

Genetics are going to play a role in how long it takes for you to start to see results in your new gym or fitness routine. For some, it’s going to be relatively easy to do some work and see some immediate results. If you have a family history of people being able to gain muscle quickly, then you are likely to have the same genetic makeup that lets your muscles grow quickly with a bit of work.

You may have genetics though that make you a “hard gainer”. That is someone who has to work very hard to see changes in their health or fitness even with hard work and strict adherence to fitness training and exercise regimens. If you’re in that group, there is nothing you can do about genetics. Just recognize you are in this group and prepare for the long haul.

Age

Age is definitely going to be a factor in how quickly you see changes in your body after starting a workout routine or joining a new gym. It’s just a sad fact of life that things get harder to do as you get older. If you are an older person reading this, remember in your 20s when you needed to lose a few pounds all you had to do was eat a salad for a couple of days and maybe go for a run on a Saturday and boom, there goes five pounds of fat? If you’re over 40, those days are most likely gone.

Do not despair though. You will still get results and huge benefits from adding an exercise routine to your life, it will just take you a bit longer to see the results of your hard work. It doesn’t mean you should not put in the effort though but knowing it’s going to take you longer to get results will help you overcome those feelings of disappointment if you aren’t seeing changes.

Diet

Diet is one of the most important factors when it comes to seeing results from your workouts and diet. The number of calories in vs. the number of calories out is typically how you can track your nutrition working towards weight loss and change in your body. There are factors that can impact this such as being insulin resistant or diabetic, but for most people, calories in vs calories out are going to be a pretty accurate measure of progress.

The amount of protein you eat in a day will have an impact on your results as well. When you are starting a new routine or working hard to get results, your body will need the proper fuel to do its job. Protein is that fuel. Protein helps your body build muscle and do the repairs and improvements the hard work you are putting in at the gym are making. Without the fuel of protein, or not enough, like a car not having enough fuel, you will have a hard time seeing changes and getting to your goals.

Exercise Frequency

Exercise frequency will have an impact on how quickly, or not, you see results from your new routine at the gym. If you are only exercising or working out once a week, you shouldn’t really wonder why you are not seeing much in the way of progress. Working out three to four times a week is generally recommended for most people as a way to not burn out but still have a good routine that will generate results.

If you really want to see results more quickly, an increase of working out five to six times a week will help to speed you along to progress, but if you are new to working out or you are trying to establish a new habit, it’s not really a good idea to try that many workouts in a week. It can be a hard schedule to adjust to and if you miss a workout or two in a week, it could lead to a derailment and your whole new system is gone and you stop working out completely.

Intensity of Workouts

Workout intensity is an important factor in how quickly you see results from going to the gym. High intensity interval training like we have at Upgrade Group Training, has many benefits to your overall health and ability to see results quickly. HIIT improves your cardiovascular health, improves your strength and the amount of muscle in your body which then helps improve your metabolism and makes you burn calories more efficiently.

In short, if you are not “feeling it” when you go work out, it’s going to take you a much longer time to see any results from exercise at the gym. You have got to push your body for it to change. If you go to the gym and don’t push yourself, chances are that change will either not happen or will take you a longer time to see any results.

How Long Does It Take to See Results?

Strength Training

Strength training is an important part of any workout routine and is essential for seeing results from the gym. Strength training helps to build muscle and increase your metabolism, which in turn helps you to burn more calories and lose weight. Strength training should be done two to three times a week and should focus on different muscle groups each time.

Cardio

Cardio is also an important part of any workout routine and should be done two to three times a week. Cardio helps to improve your cardiovascular health, burn calories, and increase your endurance. Cardio can be done in many different ways, such as running, biking, swimming, and even walking.

Cardio is often the thing people like doing the least in any fitness program, so try to find things you like to do that don’t make it so awful for you. The more you dread doing cardio, the more you are likely to not do it.

Cardio does not have to be running on a treadmill. There are a variety of ways to get your cardio work in during the week. If you are not sure what to do or how to add variety to your cardio routine, talk with an expert coach like our folks at Upgrade Group Training.

Tips for Seeing Results Faster

Set Realistic Goals

Setting realistic goals is key to seeing results from the gym. If you set goals that are too ambitious, you may become discouraged and give up. Make sure to set goals that are achievable and that you can work towards.

Stay Consistent

Staying consistent with your workouts is essential for seeing results. Make sure to stick to your routine and don’t skip workouts. If you find yourself skipping workouts, try to find ways to make them more enjoyable or find a workout buddy to help keep you motivated.

Eat Healthy

Eating healthy is also important for seeing results from the gym. Eating a balanced diet with plenty of fruits, vegetables, and lean proteins will help you to fuel your workouts and see results faster.

Track Your Progress

Be sure to track your progress. Tracking progress starts with finding out where you are starting from. What is your new goal? Are you trying to lose weight? Improve your run time? Reduce a clothing size? Whatever your goal, make sure you track where you are starting from.

When you track your progress, it will help you to see improvements that might not be obvious to you visually. If you know your waist measurement at the start of a new routine for example, tracking your waist measurement on a regular interval can help you see improvements before they even become noticeable.

If you want to improve your 5k time, knowing what your current 5k time is and tracking your results at regular intervals can help you see changes and improvements before you may even feel like things are beginning to work.

Tracking progress is very important to help keep you motivated and to show your brain, which sometimes works to tell you things aren’t going great, that things are in fact improving which helps keep you motivated and on track. Be sure to track your progress.

Mix Up Your Workouts

Mix up your workouts. When it comes to working out and exercising, it can be very easy to fall into a routine and a rut. When you fall into a routine, our bodies become used to the routine and changes stop happening.

It is important to vary our routines when working out or trying to get new results to trick our bodies and keep them from getting lazy on us. Keep your body guessing what is coming next by regularly altering or changing your workouts.

Get Enough Rest

Finally, make sure you are getting enough sleep. Sleep is an essential part of any new routine. When we get the proper amount of sleep each night, our bodies are able to recovery and repair which helps us reach our goals and see the results of our hard work more quickly.

Try keeping the same routine every night for sleep. Try going to bed at the same time each night and waking at the same time each morning. When we make it a routine, like with exercise, our bodies begin to adapt and think this is the way things are supposed to be.

Getting enough sleep is very important not just for exercise, but for our overall health so make sure you get the sleep you need every night to get to see those results more quickly.

So how long does it take to see results at the gym?

Well, it’s complicated right? There are many factors that go into answering that question but hopefully now you understand those factors and can start to make a plan for yourself and your routine that allows you the proper amount of time working out and doing the right things to make sure you will get to see results. Results don’t happen overnight so if you don’t think you are seeing results quickly enough, remember, it takes time and depending on your body, the time may vary. Just keep at it and the more consistent you are, the more likely you are to get the results you are looking for.

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