If you have started training, you might have heard the term “newbie gain” somewhere. If not, do not worry; you will learn everything you need to know about the newbie gain in this article.
Newbie gain is a phase where you tend to gain muscle at a swift pace. It usually occurs when you start training for the first time. In most cases, advanced people get advantages in almost everything, but when it comes to training, beginners avail themselves of this special gift that advanced athletes do not possess after a certain period.
In the newbie gain phase, you can gain muscle much faster and also get leaner at the same time without putting in that much effort.
While researching newbie gains when I first started training, I found it really hard to understand. All the articles and videos I watched explained them scientifically, and I did not know anything about physiology at that time. So, I will try my best to keep this article as simple and realistic as I can so any beginner can understand newbie gains and extract all the benefits they can take from this phase.
Contents
Why does newbie gain occur?
Newbie gain is a hyperactive response of our body. Muscles are built when they receive enough stimuli. When you train, your body it sends the signal to the brain that it is going through stress, and to overcome the stress, it needs to get stronger.
How can it get stronger? Yes, you guessed it, by making more muscle.
When you train, small micro tears occur in your muscles. Do not worry about hearing tears, as it is entirely normal. When you rest, your body uses protein to repair the muscle and builds new muscle to fight off the stress it receives while training. That is why you can lift much heavier weights than you did previously after training for some time.
When you start resistance training, your body does not know how to respond. The process by which muscle mass increases is known as hypertrophy. As your body does not know how to respond to this hypertrophy initially, it becomes hyperactive, thus causing you to gain more muscle and also start losing fat.
How long does the newbie phase last?
There is no time duration that can be specifically stated. However, many research papers have found that it normally lasts one year. Many disagree with that and suggest it lasts more or less than that time.
From my personal experience, I support the one-year time duration. So, the first year of training time is very effective; you can increase your gain by 2x or 3x then. It takes one or two years of proper training and nutrition for an advanced lifter to grow 2 or 3 pounds of muscle. In the newbie gain phase, in many studies, it has been found that you can gain 5 to 7 pounds of lean muscle mass in three months or so. You can understand how fast you can grow through this.
How should you train to optimize the newbie gain phase?
There is no magic trick or secret exercise you need to do when you are in a newbie gain phase (you just started training). Stick to the basic exercises.
The best suggestion I can give to you is that when you start training, ask the gym trainer for a routine and have them guide you to it. If you know someone who has been training for years, you can also ask them to teach you the basics of exercises. I am telling you that because you might think you can YouTube the exercises and perform them, but there are two problems you can find if you use YouTube. Number one is there is a lot of “BS” in there; many influencers with good physiques will misguide you, and you will not be able to distinguish it initially. Number two is that it looks easy to perform specific exercises in the video, but in reality, there are particular form ques that are hard to correct initially without supervision.
If you still want to learn from YouTube, follow these channels: Renaissance Periodization, Eric Janicki, Sean Nalewaynej, and Jeff Nipard.
Just follow a fundamental training split, and you will quickly see gains. Another question people usually ask me is how many days they should train. If you have time, I suggest you train for at least 4 or 5 days. You can check the best training split for you by reading this article: “What training split should you follow? “
I also have articles regarding the best exercises for each body part that you can perform at the gym or at home. Check them out, and you will have all the necessary exercises to boost your newbie gains.
Do you need to adjust your diet on newbie gains?
Usually, most people who start the fitness journey are underweight or overweight. You do not need to make any significant change initially when you are in the newbie gain phase.
If you are underweight, try increasing your daily total calories or, in simple terms, eat more food. On the other hand, if you are overweight, you need to slowly cut down on calories.
If you ask me how to adjust your diet, I suggest you stick to what you eat for the first month or two; you do not need to change. From month three, make minor adjustments, like slightly increasing the amount of food if you want to gain some weight. If you eat two spoonfuls of rice, increase it to 2.5 spoons. If you are overweight, you need to do the opposite.
Do not make hasty changes in the diet, as it will not be sustainable. Try to increase your protein intake. If you want, you can get a whey protein. Whey protein can be a handful when meeting daily protein intake. Do not fall for the “BS” that is surrounded around whey protein, as it is entirely safe. There are a lot of myths about whey protein, which you can learn from the “Top 5 myths about whey protein.”
What can you do when the newbie gain phase is over?
The newbie gain phase does not last forever. As I mentioned before, it lasts for the first year of your training. When the phase is over, you need to make some adjustments in your training to continue progressing.
Progressive Overload
Progressive overload increases the training intensity by increasing the weight, sets, reps, or any other way. To continue progressing, you need to provide your body with stimuli, which can be done through progressive overload.
Though you will not gain muscle mass like before, you will gain a significant amount of muscle mass and strength over time.
Increase protein intake
Muscles will only grow if you provide your body with enough raw materials.
If you want to gain weight, you need to be in a caloric surplus, and for cutting, you need to be in a deficit. Muscles are made of amino acids or simply by protein. To promote muscle growth, eat adequate, good-quality protein foods like meats, eggs, tofu, and other protein foods.
Introduce new exercises
Doing the same exercises for a long time becomes boring, and the body gets used to it. After 7 or 8 weeks, you can alter your exercise routine.
For example, if you do squats on your leg day, you can replace them with hack squats or Bulgarian squats.
Do not change exercises frequently, as you cannot track progress. It is not necessary to introduce new exercises if you like your existing routine. However, a little bit of change can remove dullness and make each session more enjoyable.
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