Newbie Gains: What They Are

A Story About Newbie Gains

If you have not worked out before (but want to start), or you have taken a very long break from working out, then you definitely want to know about “Newbie Gains”.  Basically, newbie gains are the huge strides you will make in gaining muscle (and strength) when you first start a workout program.  As long as your exercise program is effective, you are getting enough sleep and your nutrition is on point, you will make them newbie gains!

Just imagine this!  The year is now 2015.  You have never worked out before.  You are determined to get into shape though.  You are steadfast and committed to building the body of your dreams for your New Years Resolution!

However, you are anxious about how long it is going to take to build your dream body.  You have never even worked out before.  Your legs and arms are both like toothpicks.  You definitely don’t want other people in the gym to see you looking like this for long!

You pray to yourself that it doesn’t take too long to get the body you have always desired.  On January 2nd, right after New Year’s Day, you decide to make that leap into the gym!  You do some exercising, but it is HARD!  Much harder than you thought it would be!

After working out, your energy is sapped!  Once at home, you have doubts about if you can truly dedicate yourself to seriously working out.  You wonder to yourself how long it takes for a new person to start gaining muscle.  While that thought is swirling around in your mind, you do a quick Google search.

At that moment, you CANNOT believe what you are seeing!

“O MY GOODNESS!” You say in shock.  “This is just what I needed!”  “Now I know I can succeed!”

What had you just read that put you in such a state of awe?  You read about the term, “Newbie Gains.”

You originally thought that building muscle would take an eternity.  That it would be eons before you could build your dream body!  But now, you knew this was not true!

According to what you read about newbie gains, basically, a new person who has just started lifting weights will see a dramatic increase in their muscle mass and strength.  You read that if you just sleep, eat healthy and do a few basic lifts like the deadlift, squat and bench press that you will easily build a lot of muscle, all because you are new!

Knowing that you can make beginner gains so easily, you are resolved to go to the gym and construct your dream body.  You know that going from a zero to hero is within your reach!

Armed with your new found knowledge on how easy it is to make beginner gains, you ATTACK the gym like a ferocious beast!  You start working out 4 times a week for an hour each time.

Over that time period, you notice your body undergoing a metamorphosis.  It is changing rapidly before your very eyes.  You suddenly notice that your newbie gains are getting you much more attention from the opposite sex!

Fast forward a year and you are looking phenomenal!  Through eating well, sleeping plenty and doing basic lifts in the gym, you have put on 25lbs of muscle in only a year!  Your confidence has surged and you feel like you are king of the world!

Fast forward again 6 months and you have put on an additional 10lbs of muscle!  People from your past that haven’t seen you in a long time cannot believe how much your body has changed.  Your newbie gains are out of this world!

Fast forward again another 6 months.  It has now been 2 years since you have taken full advantage of your beginner gains phase.  You have now packed on 45lbs of solid muscle since when you first started working out.  You are looking like a sculpted Greek statue.  You are a true paragon of health!  Your life could not be more perfect!

How To Maximize Beginner Gains

As you can see from the above story, newbie gains can come on quickly.  Within the first 2 years, especially in year 1, you can attain rapid muscle development in your body.  During this time when you first start working out, there are certain things that you can do to maximize your muscle growth and get those beginner gains!

Workout Correctly To Boost Newbie Gains

Although going from not working out at all to working out will make you build muscle, you can maximize your muscle growth by working out correctly with the right program.

For example, on Monday when you workout, you can do chest and triceps.  Because the chest and triceps are both involved in pushing activities like the bench press, it makes sense to work them out on the same day.

On a Tuesday, you can workout your back and biceps.  Because the back muscles and biceps work together on exercises like the bent over row, it makes sense to work them out on the same day.

On a Wednesday, you can workout your legs.

On Thursday, you can do shoulders and abs.

Then you can rinse and repeat this with a day off thrown in there.  Of course, this is a very rough draft of a proper workout format, but you will want to know what muscle groups to workout with one another.  Play around with this though as you like!

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Another component of working out correctly to maximize newbie gains is to workout with proper form.  This is not only important to working out your muscles correctly, but also to prevent injuries!  If you injure yourself in the gym and are then unable to exercise, you can kiss your beginner gains goodbye!

Also, try aiming for at least 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions of each exercise to maximize muscle growth.

Eat The Right Food To Augment Beginner Gains

If you want to take advantage of building muscle mass quickly when you start working out, then you will want to eat right!  If you have a thin frame and want to build muscle, then you will want to go into a calorie surplus.  This means you will want to eat more calories than what it takes to maintain your current weight.  This will take some experimenting.  Generally though, you can aim for eating 500 more calories each day than you normally eat.  Because there are 7 days in a week and 3500 calories in a pound, you will gain roughly a pound a week.

You should also try to consume a gram of protein per pound you weigh.  This will allow you to maximize muscle growth.  Some of that weight you gain will be fat rather than muscle, but a sufficient amount will be muscle mass.

If you are looking to lose weight, try cutting 500 calories from your diet each day.  This will cause you to lose roughly a pound a week.  Luckily, since you have just started working out, you can likely lose weight while also gaining muscle and increasing your strength!

Be Dedicated And Do Not Give Up On Exercising

The most important thing you can have when it comes to maximizing newbie gains is dedication!  You cannot make lame excuses like people seeing that weird face you make when lifting!

You must be dedicated to going to the gym and getting in a good workout each time you go!  If you can make it a habit to go to the gym and lift weights, you will make those newbie gains!  Continually stick with your workout program and you will see results in no time.  So become dedicated and stop with the excuses on why you cannot be!  Now, go out there and get all the newbie gains you can!

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