weight lifting

Jessicaruby
Jessicaruby Posts: 881 Member
edited October 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
when you begin lifting weights how long does it typically take to see great results. i have been lifting for about a month now and see small changes but i am wondering how long it will take to have some real muscle definition

Replies

  • xraychick77
    xraychick77 Posts: 1,775 Member
    years.
  • bobbybdoe
    bobbybdoe Posts: 472 Member
    Depends on the frequency of the lifting and how much and what you are eating.
  • stroutman81
    stroutman81 Posts: 2,474 Member
    Yeah, a month just isn't going to cut it. Regardless of your frequency. Lifting weights either builds or maintains muscle. It builds it when you're doing it correctly and eating a calorie surplus. It maintains it when you're doing it correctly and eating a calorie deficit.

    Granted, some people can realize concurrent body composition changes - where they're losing fat and gaining muscle simultaneously... but it's never very appreciable and it won't last long. Eventually your body will catch on to the fact that it doesn't have sufficient energy coming in the door to maintain the tissue it has... so it's not going to keep adding a bunch of metabolically expensive tissue such as muscle while it's shortchanged on energy.

    So if you're dieting... your nutrition and cardio needs to set the proper calorie atmosphere for fat loss and your lifting needs to be structured so that it maintains as much muscle as possible while dieting.

    No matter how you slice it though... it's a slow process.
  • Elleinnz
    Elleinnz Posts: 1,661 Member
    Depends how often and how hard you train.....
    If you look at a program like P90X people gets some fantastic results in 90 days - but from what I hear you leave blood on the floor ;-)
  • stevemcknight
    stevemcknight Posts: 647 Member
    You can get amazing and quick results if your nutrition is on track, and you're lifting heavy. If you're lifting weights that are quite light and doing 15+ reps, then don't expect quick results, as you're already thin, go as heavy as you can with good form and find a plan with proper progression. I like a plan like "The New Rules of Lifting for Women" as it preaches mostly compound, big, traditional lifts, with no silly triceps kickbacks or whatever isolation move a beginner lifter really has no business doing :)
  • FaithsVegWorkout
    FaithsVegWorkout Posts: 471
    I think it depends on where you're starting.
  • ambermichon
    ambermichon Posts: 404 Member
    when i first started I was doing cardio 6 days a week and lifted 2 days a week.....I didnt see any muscle definition very quickly at all (2+ years now and I see it) but the combination of the two helped me to lose a tremendous amount of inches in about 30-45 days. I lost no weight but alot of inches which made me look smaller. Its definitely worth the investment.
  • Inlet
    Inlet Posts: 135
    It also depends on genetics/DNA/bodytype. I build muscle annoyingly fast. I'll lift twice a week for a few weeks and then I'm the freak show muscle girl... I pick up a cup of water and whoever happens to be nearby starts yelling for the others to come see my arm. Blah. I do yoga to try and lengthen, and it does help though.
    Eat protein. Get lots of sleep.
  • stroutman81
    stroutman81 Posts: 2,474 Member
    In my 11 years of personal training and strength coaching... even working with some freaky female athletes... I've never encountered a woman who packs on slabs of muscle very easily. You must be a crazy statistical outlier.

    Also, yoga doesn't lengthen your muscles. That's physically impossible. Your muscles are attached to your skeleton. Unless your bones are getting longer... your muscles are remaining the same length.
  • Jessicaruby
    Jessicaruby Posts: 881 Member
    In my 11 years of personal training and strength coaching... even working with some freaky female athletes... I've never encountered a woman who packs on slabs of muscle very easily. You must be a crazy statistical outlier.

    Also, yoga doesn't lengthen your muscles. That's physically impossible. Your muscles are attached to your skeleton. Unless your bones are getting longer... your muscles are remaining the same length.

    in your opinion what kinds of weight lifting and how much weight should i be doing to get results?
  • Inlet
    Inlet Posts: 135
    My muscles aren't terribly huge... Hopefully not slabs... :p even though they're bigger than those of my friends, but they do look very defined, and kind of big when they are engaged... When I'm holding things, for instance. I've wondered if I gain quickly now because I built a lot of muscle as a young gymnast or because I'm just genetically made that way. If I did more than twice a week I would look kinda like a builder. So I have to hold back a bit.
    Good to know about that about yoga. There're so many ideas floating around about lengthening and toning and such and I sometimes don't think them through. :p
  • babyblake11
    babyblake11 Posts: 1,107 Member
    you need to be eating at a calorie surplus to build
  • stroutman81
    stroutman81 Posts: 2,474 Member
    My muscles aren't terribly huge... Hopefully not slabs... :p even though they're bigger than those of my friends, but they do look very defined, and kind of big when they are engaged... When I'm holding things, for instance. I've wondered if I gain quickly now because I built a lot of muscle as a young gymnast or because I'm just genetically made that way. If I did more than twice a week I would look kinda like a builder. So I have to hold back a bit.

    And that very well can be the case. Or so I hear. I just think it's funny that I've worked with literally hundreds of women. I've strength coached female sprinters, volleyball players, lacrosse players, and even a couple of olympic weight lifters. And never have I encountered a woman that gets all "muscly" easily.

    What I find is that most women who claim to pack on lots of muscle in actuality have an easier time maintaining relatively low body fat levels than most other women. And because of it, they can pretty easily expose the muscle they do have. And it's well known that an optical illusion is at play when it comes to the appearance of looking jacked when body at levels are low.

    Even on myself... when I'm walking around at 195... nobody comments about my size. When I'm a much leaner 180 though... I get comments about how huge I look all of the time.

    It has nothing to do with changing muscle mass though and everything to do with changing fat mass.

    The fact that you said your muscles look defined sort of hints towards this actually. Muscles don't get defined, really. Being defined is simply a matter or reducing body fat levels low enough where your muscle mass is easily exposed highlighting that chiseled look.

    If that makes any sense.

    Do you have pics on your profile? And if so, would you accept my friend request? Curiosity has the better of me now, lol.
    Good to know about that about yoga. There're so many ideas floating around about lengthening and toning and such and I sometimes don't think them through. :p

    It's hard to think things through when there's so much BS being thrown at us from every single angle as frequently as it is. This industry sucks, haha.
  • stroutman81
    stroutman81 Posts: 2,474 Member
    in your opinion what kinds of weight lifting and how much weight should i be doing to get results?

    You need to be more specific. What results are you shooting for?
  • Jessicaruby
    Jessicaruby Posts: 881 Member
    in your opinion what kinds of weight lifting and how much weight should i be doing to get results?

    You need to be more specific. What results are you shooting for?

    i am 5'7 and weigh 130lbs. my goal weight is 120lbs but no matter what i do i can not lose any weight. as i said i just started adding weight lifting into my routine but i do not know alot about this and sometimes feel akward in front of all the guys lifting huge weights. my goals really are to just tone my body all around. my legs have gotten pretty toned through some lifting and all the cardio i do. i am mainly trying to work on my arms and mostly my stomach right now.
  • amccrazgrl
    amccrazgrl Posts: 315 Member
    Subscribed to hear what stroutman81 has to say.

    I lift MWF's with 10-12 mins cardio at the end.
    I do cardio Tues/Thur for 30 mins b/c my workout partner thinks thats the only way she'll lose fat.
  • stroutman81
    stroutman81 Posts: 2,474 Member
    in your opinion what kinds of weight lifting and how much weight should i be doing to get results?

    You need to be more specific. What results are you shooting for?

    i am 5'7 and weigh 130lbs. my goal weight is 120lbs but no matter what i do i can not lose any weight. as i said i just started adding weight lifting into my routine but i do not know alot about this and sometimes feel akward in front of all the guys lifting huge weights. my goals really are to just tone my body all around. my legs have gotten pretty toned through some lifting and all the cardio i do. i am mainly trying to work on my arms and mostly my stomach right now.

    Typically I give everyone who asks me questions individualized attention. But in this case, you'd be far better served by reading two things I've written before here on MFP. I promise they'll help you immensely. And if you have questions afterwords, please feel free to ask them here.

    The first I'll just copy and paste from the thread:
    Secondly, in order to obtain the lean look everyone is aiming for, a solid base of muscle has to be in place. Let's face it... being lean is a function of carrying minimal fat stores and maximal muscle stores. For a woman, maximal muscle stores are a fraction of what a man's maximal muscle stores can be. It's still vitally important though.

    If you lay a blanket over a sheet of paper, can you tell there's a sheet of paper under the blanket? Now what if you place an entire ream of paper under the blanket? Can you tell? The blanket is your skin and the paper is your muscle.

    When we're carrying a lot of excess fat, the fat resides between your skin and your muscle (subcutaneously). As these fat stores are reduced, we need to do all that we can to hold onto the muscle so that once it's gone, the skin can project the shape of your muscles - this is ultimately what drives the lean, ripped, toned or whatever adjective you'd like to use look.

    Many women reach their goal weight and aren't satisfied with the reflection in the mirror because they focused solely on weight and not enough on body composition. They didn't do the things necessary for preserving as much muscle as possible while being in a calorie deficit. These things entail lifting weights heavily relative to your strength and eating sufficient protein. And because they didn't worry about muscle preservation (or even growth for that matter)... they're laying a blanket over a sheet of paper.

    Put differently, they may be lighter, but they still look soft.

    For those who make this mistake... it's not the end of the world. They're likely going to have to go through a few cycles of building up muscle alternated with ditching fat in order to obtain a shape that's close to what they're shooting for.

    So I know you are asking about nutrition.... but I wanted to make sure this was thrown out there as well. Unfortunately I come across a lot of women who don't worry about muscle maintenance, reach their goal weight dissatisfied, and wind up chasing a leanness that's impossible given their current base of muscle by perpetually dieting. They might get lean eventually but it'll be at the expense of looking healthy. That crackhead, concentration camp look isn't in these days!

    :)

    As far as nutrition goes... stick with the basics:

    1. 1 gram of protein per pound (in your case) coming from lean sources.... chicken and turkey breast, lean cuts of beef, pork tenderloin, fish, protein powder, low/no fat dairy, eggs, etc.

    2. 25-35% of cals coming from fat... the majority should be from the good fat sources such as olive oil, nuts, fish oil, flax, avocados, etc.

    3. 3-6 servings of fibrous veggies per day

    4. 1-3 servings of fruit per day

    5. If you still have "room to wiggle" calorically speaking, you can pretty much fill these cals with anything you want. I imagine you won't have a lot of room to wiggle though so be sure to use these wisely.

    Sugar isn't going to kill your hopes of being lean. I maintain a lean physique year round and eat more sugar than most any two MFPers consume in a day. Sugar doesn't negate the laws of energy making us store fat in the absence of an energy surplus. But you're right, you should prioritize the foundational stuff (the stuff I mentioned above) above what many would consider junk or dirty food.

    Secondly, you should definitely spend the time to read this entire thread:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/276660-i-do-dvds-so-i-don-t-need-to-strength-train
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