🍙 Why Newbie Gains Slow Down
The phenomenon of "Newbie Gains" and your muscle-building plateau, explained.
Everyone Who Exercises Starts Somewhere, And Most People
Will see an outsized return in “gains" upon starting their exercise journey.
Novice lifters or people who’ve never touched a weight can enjoy these extra benefits — “newbie gains,” as they’re often referred to — for up to a year.
But after a certain point, newbie gains stop, and the regular gains take over. These are the ones most people need to get used to; the marginal improvements in physique that span months and even years require more patience and even harder work.
Newsletter Summary
Why newbie gains don’t last forever
Ways to train harder and make sure gains of any kind come consistently
Nutritional ideas to consider to fast-track gains
R.I.P. Newbie Gains
Newbie gains are a byproduct of accelerated muscle-protein synthesis (MPS), which is the exercise science terminology for the rate at which your body absorbs protein and turns it into lean muscle.
New lifters enjoy a longer period for which to absorb protein as fuel for training sessions (up to 2-3 DAYS). This means for days after a hard workout, your body is swiftly converting all the protein you ingest into new muscle.
After this newbie gains phase dissipates, the window closes to a much shorter 12-24 hour window.
The image above is a representation of newbies versus advanced lifters in a study conducted by the University of Sao Paolo.
What’s clear here is this:
Gains are for everyone.
The first initial spikes in protein synthesis within the 2-5 hour marks post-workout show that anyone can reap the benefits of post-workout protein and recovery if they’re properly fueling.
But newbies enjoy an extra 15 hours of synthesis more than their more advanced peers, so if you’re new, go and get that protein ASAP.
But why do newbie gains go away?
Why can’t we have this level of protein synthesis forever, you ask?
It’s complicated.
Newbie gains likely happen as a result of FAFO training among new lifters.
For those of you not up-to-speed with that acronym, sometimes “f*cking around and finding out” is a good way to get your muscles super-pumped up in a given session.
However, as you grow out of the newbie phase, you’ll have less freedom to FAFO and will probably benefit more from tracking your weights in a notebook or having a coach (like myself) write a structured plan for you to ensure you’re actually progressing in a meaningful way as I talked about last Wednesday.
Newbie gains also probably start to go away because of repeated exposure.
One would hope that three sets of ten chest presses at 40 pounds wouldn’t always make you sore.
The same goes for soreness in general — it’s a good sign you’ve worked hard, but it’s not always the thing to aspire for.
Eventually, your muscles recognize activities and begin to adapt to the stress that’s put on them. The muscles themselves don’t actually have mini-brains, but there’s some truth to muscle memory in how it applies to fatigue.
“It’s just like riding a bike.” - Parental Proverb
Like all once exhilarating things, the short answer is that the newness of lifting eventually becomes boring to your muscles until something new is introduced again.
Then the muscles grow again, and the cycle repeats over and over.
Fun, right?
But I want Forever Gains. Not just Newbie Gains
Well, it might get less fun at some point.
That first plateau is incredibly deflating.
It’s the moment when you ask yourself, “Is this it? Is all the hard work I’ve been doing now suddenly useless?”
That’s far from true, but after months and months of repetition, changing your routine will be the most direct way to keep gains coming.
The change you implement will determine your outcome.
For most people, simply adding repetitions to sets can have a massive impact on muscular growth and/or fat loss.
Some might argue that increasing the weight and decreasing repetitions could benefit your outcomes more.
As Dr. Mike Israetel notes in the video above, sometimes new lifters can overdo it with volume and hit a plateau even harder than they already did and not see progress.
I think it’s worth starting with more repetitions — 10 to 12, 12 to 15, and so on, adding these increases over 2-4 months — before progressing weight.
But you’re welcome to try any variable that suits your fancy, so long as you’re not combining too many at once.
You can increase both weight AND repetitions if you want to speed up your muscle growth/fat loss process, but you probably don’t want to go further than that.
For example, if you progress from a heavy kettlebell squat (let’s call it 3x10 at 50 lbs) to an even heavier Barbell Squat, say, 4x12 at 85 lbs, and add heel elevation and tempo reps, that is WAY too many variables to change between training blocks.
If you’re just graduating from newbie to intermediate lifter, that many changes in a lift could result in serious injury, or at the very least some improbably long-lasting soreness.
Keep the variable changes to a minimum, and focus on adding complexity only when other variables have become played out or aren’t showing you the returns you want.
Weight and rep increases, though, will reliably get you past any plateau if you’re training hard and long enough. I should know.
I still do barbell squats the same way I did in high school, but for way more sets and reps, and I feel the most muscular I’ve ever been, even if the gains over the past 3-5 years have been partial-percentage points of muscle mass.
🍣 Newbie Gains Need Nutritious Meals
Well, actually, all gains do.
No physique is built solely in the gym. It’s never a good idea to assume muscle will just come from lifting heavy and then fasting after your workout.
Most people’s hunger signals would not let them wait that long after training to let food go by the wayside anyway.
We also know from the first half of the newsletter that any protein consumed within 1-2 days of an intense workout will be allocated toward muscle rebuilding.
How can we ensure that the muscle is being built and we’re sculpting the body we want?
Here’s a short list of ideas:
Don’t skip breakfast. If anything, make breakfast one of the most protein-loaded meals of the day. Contrary to popular belief, breakfast does not “speed up your metabolism,” but it can help you feel satiated, and satiety throughout the day leads to better choices for lunch and dinner. It’s also one of the last meals in your 24-hour protein synthesis window after surpassing the “newbie gains” level. Aim for 30g of protein at breakfast.
Make or order meals that have a protein option, a complex carb, and a vegetable. Many physique competitors are famous for ordering Chinese platters with bland chicken, steamed broccoli, and white rice. It’s no coincidence that they are the most shredded among us. This isn’t to say that you need that level of specificity, but if your meals in your MPS window have a protein — chicken, beef, tofu, fish, eggs, yogurt — a complex carb — rice, whole grain pasta, potatoes, fruits, nuts or legumes — and a vegetable — preferably something green like broccoli, or spinach, peppers, cauliflower, etc — then you’ll be WAY ahead of the curve.
Eat the rainbow. Carbohydrates and fiber are also big contributors to muscle growth, and lots of multi-colored foods will full in the carbohydrate arena. Aiming to eat a diverse color palette of food throughout the day (keep a color journal/checklist, even) gamifies your nutrition journey and allows for some fun daily challenges in your meals.
When you’re past the level of putting on muscle and PR’ing your lifts at insane rates, come back to this newsletter. Bookmark it today somewhere so that you’re never stuck at the intermediate and advanced plateaus for too long.
If you need guidance at any stage of those lifting phases, reply to this e-mail and let’s talk.
Or, support my small business and consider buying my Protein E-Cookbook.
Alright newbs.
Have fun.