{"id":585506,"date":"2026-04-04T18:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T18:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/585506\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T18:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T18:32:12","slug":"exercising-regularly-this-is-how-long-it-takes-to-see-actual-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/585506\/","title":{"rendered":"Exercising regularly? This is how long it takes to see actual results"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the average guy, there\u2019s a sort of blind faith that comes with going to the gym. Ultimately, we\u2019re all there exercising regularly for the same reason. Sure, maybe some of us are trying to lose a few<\/a>, while others just want to get hench<\/a>. But we share a common goal: progress. What exactly that looks like, we\u2019re not always entirely sure. How long will it take? Couldn\u2019t tell you. Yet, on we rep, hopeful that we\u2019re doing it right. At the very least, we\u2019ll live a little longer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Of course, there is a science to progression, whether you\u2019re looking to build muscle, get stronger, or clock a faster time around the track. And while our perception of it might be understandably distorted in the age of bogus TikTok hacks and wayward looksmaxxers<\/a>, it\u2019s actually not all that complicated. Here\u2019s everything you need to know, according to experts.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easier being green<\/p>\n

Ask any personal trainer<\/a> how long it takes to see progress, and they\u2019ll ask you how long you\u2019ve been training. That\u2019s because results come much more quickly when you\u2019re just starting out and tend to level out over time. “People that lift weights<\/a> for the first time are going to probably see a response within the first two to three weeks, just because the body’s breaking down tissue and doing something that’s uncharacteristic,\u201d says David Ayotte, MS, CPT, CSCS, strength and endurance coach and studio manager of Limitless Fitness<\/a>. “If you’re coming off the couch and doing sets of squats<\/a>, you’re going to see changes pretty much immediately.\u201d The same applies for people coming back to training after spending significant time away from the gym, like a return to the weight room following an injury, Ayotte says.<\/p>\n

This holds true whether you\u2019re looking to build muscle, burn fat<\/a>, or run a faster half-marathon<\/a>. “People will always progress a lot faster when introduced to a new stimulus,\u201d says Ben Parker, co-founder and head coach at Runna<\/a>. \u201cIf someone’s new to running, they will typically see progress faster than if they have been running for many years. But there’s nuance to that as well. You could have someone who’s done a lot of recreational running for fun, but never really done any structured training<\/a>. If they go and do some structured intervals in a balanced training regime, they will see speed improvements very quickly. It goes back to that same logic of introducing a new stimulus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plateaus are made to be broken<\/p>\n

Obviously, nobody is a beginner forever. At some point, even if you’re exercising regularly, results naturally start to level out as your body gets used to a particular stimulus. Fortunately, trainers have figured out how to keep the gains flowing. The trick is to view your training not as an endless slog into the abyss, but rather as a series of training blocks \u2014 each one slightly different from the last, whether that\u2019s reshuffled rep schemes, different exercises<\/a>, or a whole new goal to focus on.<\/p>\n

“The length of a training block is normally around 12 to 16 weeks, and those durations have been tried and tested over time,\u201d says Parker. \u201cImagine you’re training three times a week for 16 weeks. You’d improve enormously. If you were to then do another sixteen weeks, you\u2019d probably improve by slightly less. But what we see is that you can then go and adjust your training stimulus, and you’re able to consistently build up over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

“I usually run people on 12-week cycles, and at that 12-week mark we\u2019ll start adding in progressions that will allow them to break through that plateau,\u201d says Ayotte. \u201cIt could be that we did dumbbell squats<\/a> for the first 12 weeks, so for the next 12 weeks we’re introducing barbells. It\u2019s about throwing in new things once you become competent with a certain movement pattern.\u201d<\/p>\n

Training blocks smash mental ones<\/p>\n

The inconvenient truth about progress, regardless of whether you\u2019re pushing weight in the gym or running laps around the track, is that you have to train uncomfortably hard to see meaningful results. \u201cMost people don’t push themselves hard enough to change,\u201d says Ayotte. \u201cTo get to that next level, you have to get those muscles to turn on and push that little bit extra. You can’t get comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the average guy, there\u2019s a sort of blind faith that comes with going to the gym. Ultimately,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[64,63,538,137,537],"class_list":{"0":"post-585506","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fitness","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-wellness"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}