I'd love to see a video on "this is what 10lbs of muscle looks like on these frames", or similar ideas with bodyfat, actually setting expectations for we noob folk
Don't even pay attention to the scale for the first 3-6 months you'll gain water weight muscle and lose or gain fat along the way. Until you get very lean it's difficult to determine how much of your gains are actual lean muscle mass.
@@cat-le1hf you will gain pretty much nothing but water weight. A lot of people I feel mistaken the muscle they stary seeing as straight muscle the first year. But if you're hydrated (as you should be if working out) a lot of that muscle is just storing water like creatine pretty much does. I went from 160 to 176 in a full year of training mostly upper body a couple years ago. Started taking a whole vitamin shoppe stack including test booster, muscle builder, non stim and stim pre-workout and kept the calories down enough through the day that I stayed lean while "gaining" my size. After that full year I scaled it back to half workouts for 6 months and maintained that weight give or take 2 pounds each week. THEN I got a call from a job I was seeking wanting to hire me if I passed a piss test and I had been eating edibles on the weekends. I went back to training as hard everyday as I did that full year for a week with nightly sauna sessions to sweat and a full ACV detox. In that week I dropped back down to 161.5 and lost ALL noticeable size. My strength was the same though it took two weeks to get back the sets I was used to comfortably and about 6 months to get that water weight back in my arms and back. Legs never changed tho.
Mike is on another IQ level, it's not easy to pull of those kind of jokes while keeping the hole thing extremely interesting, getting educated while being entertained kinda ? we are lucky to have all that valuable informations for free, keep it up boss
1:54 What are they? Mechanisms? 3:50 What can you expect? 9:02 When do they come to an end? 12:25 Do they hang around? 15:01 Did I diet my way out of them? 17:55 All muscles or is it per-muscle? 19:45 What if I never got mine?
I always wondered how much muscle I gained during my noob phase. I was over 500 lbs when I started weight training. Obviously not hard at first but it took me a good 2.5-3 years to lose 260 lbs and I was strength training and in a deficit that entire time. I was so fat there's no way I could know how much muscle I gained but oh well at least I'm not dead now 15 years later. 😂
This is the perfect platform for Mike's sarcastic self-deprecating humor 😆 great entertainment while learning quality information for free, what more could you ask for, thanks Mike!
To paraphrase the Joker from one of my fave Justice League episodes. "That's the thing... I'm ALREADY CRAZY." Lollll Oh and that episode is the two-parter "Wild Cards." YES, I am a nerd! - Dr. Mike
These estimates made me feel much better. Also thank you for clarifying that newb gainz aren't limited to a "window" wherein if you stop training the window disappears, which at least 1 prominent "evidence based" YTer has asserted. Love you Mike.
I spent the majority of last year cutting (I was a fatty) and this is the ONLY place I've seen that's had a definitive answer of whether or not I "missed out" on noob gains during that time. Feeling a lot better about the future now!
I started in december 2022. Never trained before. My primary goal has been weight loss, but strength and muscle gains is also a goal. When I started, I was only able to to twice a week at the gym. I was in extremely bad shape and I needed half a week to recover. Then after six-seven weeks, I went up to three times per week at the gym, which I am still at. I've also started doing light cardio (walking or biking) at least 3 times per week on the days in between. Recently I've done more of this, as the weather has been very nice. I started at a body weight of 121.5 kg / 267 lb. Now, six months later, I am at 107 kg / 235 lb. Most of my working weights have doubled or tripled in that time. In the beginning, I deadlifted 40kg for 8 reps. Now, I can do 90kg for 8 reps. In the beginning, I almost fainted after doing 12 walking lunges (yes, really), now I can do 16 with 12 kg dumbbells in my hands. Now, for muscle gains, it's kinda hard to determine as I am still obese. I can tell that I have visible muscles in arms, shoulders and particularly quads, that I haven't seen before. So, I think I have made some good gains. But, I still have a lot of body fat making it hard to say for sure. In these months, I've only skipped five sessions at the gym for varying reasons (illness, family visit, easter) I definitely feel like I've been able to take good advantage of my noob gains. I am still at three times a week, and am considering increasing to four, but I'm not rushing it. Right now, I feel like I am making great progress without feeling overwhelmed. I am excited to go to the gym.
Is it maybe more accurate to look at noob gains as if it's a lot easier to get to x% of genetic potential, rather than looking at it like it's a time window for better growth?
Exactly, it all has to do with what stage your are at regarding your genetic potential. I wish people would just explain it that way, so much simpler and clearer.
I’d always figured this was how it worked. Everything I’ve seen indicates that your potential is what it is, modifying for age and whatnot, and factors like programming and stress just bend the curve. At any given gym you’ll find guys screwing around, doing whatever exercises at whatever weights they felt like doing, sometimes for years at a time. They get some gains of course, because newbies can gain with anything, but they quickly cap out. Get one of those guys into a slight surplus and programmed progressive training, and BOOM.
6 months into training 3-4x a week with varying degrees of intensity but always improving form. I went from 137 skinny fat to about 145 very lean. So I feel I technically put on 10+ lbs of muscle as it is obvious I lost fat because my 6 pack and obliques are very visible now. I think now my gains are slowing down do I'm employing creatine and a slight caloric surplus(2400 cal a day)into my regiment. I went from barely pressing 35lb dumbbells for 7 reps to 60lb dumbbells for 7 reps. It is very exciting.
Jacob where you in a surplus from the start or in a deficit at first? I'm doubting what to do, I'm skinny fat and losing weight at a (very) slow rate, however i do seem to make some gains. Curious what your take is on this
@@VioI8R if your skinny fat I'd say just eat slight surplus until you've got some muscle on you, then worry about losing the fat. It's alot harder to gain muscle if you are losing weight.
@@VioI8RCardio is the answer brother, if you want to look shredded. Continue working out and add cardio, you will not “lose gains” like some people seem to assume. It will just make your gains pop even more because it’ll really help lower your body fat %.
Great knowledge. I was the type to hit the gym hard for like 2 months straight and then fall off. Now that i've been gaining RUclips knowledge, I'm at 12 months consistent 5-7 days a week and have body dysmorphic disorder. Jk about the dysmorphia, but I am now able to look in the mirror and see success
Dr Mike, you have helped me make crazy gains after training 3 years training like a schmuck. I discovered you after the Collab with Greg and ever since a year or 2 ago I have been making the most gains of my whole life, and I'm fairly certain I have the slow genetics that just keep going with the slow gains, though the rate never really changes unless I stop training obviously. Point is: thanks. You, John Meadow, jonni Shreve, Greg Doucette and a few other quality channels have helped me stop training like a pussy, be consistent with tracking everything and actually stick to progressive overload.
38 year old female, 200 pounder here. Just hit my 5th month, 4-5 days a week training and starting to take this more seriously and came here to find an estimate for when noobie gains will end for me. Great news for me in the video. Thanks, love this channel! ❤
I love you so much. Your videos are unbelievably helpful (and ridiculously entertaining/hilarious). Please never quit producing this incredible content!
A lot of this is making a lot of sense to me, especially the part about being primed for growth after a hard diet. I did an extreme diet (600-800 cal/day) with no exercise (was recovering from Guillan Barre Syndrome at the time) for 9 months, lost 90kg, then started seriously weight training and gained about 5kg of muscle over the next 9 months. I liked the ending too. Much more important than being jacked is being happy in yourself, whatever you look like.
like a beginner I can say that this video was more motivatinal and instructive than many other.... after 7 months I havent seen mayor results and this video gave me some light to the process... the way you explained the growth in time was so clear that motivated me... thank so much...
This is me. Had to start premaking meals cause uni caused me to eat like 3-4 meals... A week max. Obviously my sleep is fucked too, cause gotta work, workout, study, socialise... What do you even cut. Looking forward to sorting all of it out going into my final year!
I'm just starting out the whole gym training thing. I'm skinny fat. I have surplus protein intake, but am on a calorie deficit (to lose the "fat" from my skinny fatass). If I'm not on a calorie deficit, will I put on more muscles in my noob phase?
You mention Cinderella and her "crystal shoe" (or rather glass slipper). Funny story: it started from a mistranslation. The original tale is in French and she wears slippers that are described as made of "vair". Which is a homophone of "verre"(glass). Except it doesn't mean glass. It's a type of fur that's called the same in English and was considered very fancy in the middle-ages. Comes from a nordic breed of squirrel. But we mostly know the story from the Disney animated version that used the mistranslation, so we have that image of a pair of glass slippers, that make no sense at all, that would be so uncomfortable and fragile!
Just stumbled across your channel and you have excellent info! I started my fitness journey back in Jan of '20. I am still current and up to par with working out, 3-4 days a week and went from 135lbs to now sitting at 170lbs. And after seeing this video specifically, I'm glad to know that I'll still make noob gains. You are a gem sir Dr. Mike!
I had a shoulder surgery and immobilised my left arm for almost a month - I lost so much muscle in that arm and there was a significant difference of muscle between both arms. I went back to the gym 3 weeks ago and the gains have been crazy. It's like I experienced noobie gains in my left arm and I am almost back to normal
It's incredible how intimidating you look, but you're honestly such a nice and pleasant dude, also your intimidating look makes me really want to push myself, especially with all the quality info you throw at me, thanks, man!
Man even if you cant put up large amount of muscles the health benefit of as simply as staying fit and lean really is worth it by doing good balanced diet and lifting weight.
Your points on muscle memory are spot on. I was dedicated to bodybuilding and took it to the max for about 6 years. I went from 160-250 below 10% bf in that time period. I quit lifting completely for 3 years, I went back to the gym and perfect diet three weeks ago and I’m already up 20 lbs and leaner than I was three weeks ago. Better gains naturally than I ever got enhanced in my prior training period.
I've lost about 70lb's in the last 7 months, still going to lose an extra 15-20lb's to hit my goal of getting my bodyweight to 180lb's. I've been working out this whole time and I kind of gave up on the noob gains for the sake of weight loss, but I'm glad to hear that I haven't really given up on anything just postponed 'em. Thanks Mike.
I'd love to see a video on preparatory hypertrophy and the mechanisms at play for muscle growth over the long-term. Thanks for the great content, as always!
Thank you so much for your free lectures, Dr. Mike. With your help I've made the most of my newbie gains, diet, and mindset and am seeing noticeable gains for the first time ever.
Best channel on youtube hands down. I wish I went to the gym more often, but my will is weak. I might just switch to an upper/lower split instead of full-body.
I’ve been training on and off for 3 years. This past month I’ve started training more seriously and found it I haven’t been pushing myself close to failure at all, and I’ve seen the most growth I’ve seen. Super excited to see how I grow over time now that I’m finally doing it right.
Dr Mike, would you say that there is a skew in the sample we have of all lifters towards the high responders to training? I feel as if the people who have a better response in their first 3 years or so tend to stick around and keep training past that, but the genetic pipsqueaks drop out faster. Do your numbers account for this effect (if you believe it exists)?
You forgot that 'pipsqueaks' are the most motivated people because they don't want to look like pipsqueaks and training hard is the only thing that can make them look and feel 'normal'. I know one guy like that, he looks like he was a POW if he doesn't eat or train right for a month, it's a tough life.
Hi Mike, your videos are super helpful and informative, and are really helping my maximise my gains and understand what I'm doing. Started out around 2 months ago on 84kg, 6'3", decently high body fat around 30% basically eating whatever I want - fatty, protein diet (still have good metabolism). Ate the same, just with a 46g protein shake added on every day and am now up to 90kg, 6kg of pure muscle in 2 months, down to around 22-23% body fat. Really happy with my initial gains, currently working on balancing my diet to reduce my subcutaneous fat.
What I got from this video: I need to change my name to Jim, replace my dog for a kitten, break up with the girlfriend I don't have (need to fix that first I guess), than I will gain 80lbs of muscle in one year. Thanks Dr. Mike
Hey Dr. Mike, looking good with that hair! Thanks for always putting out this great content. Your regular uploads have been keeping me on that noob gains train.
Hey Dr. Mike! I've heard you reference a handful of times something to the effect of 'if you're fat, you can still gain without being in a surplus.' is there any good research showing at which body fat % this is considered effective? Is there a BF% where you'd tell someone to not worry about a surplus, just maintain b/c you've got plenty of stored energy already?
Plenty of reasearch, but none of the papers directly address your question. Think of it like this: If a morbidly obese person who has never done any kind of resistance trainging before goes on a diet and starts working out, they could get about 20% to maybe 60% of the amounts of muscle that Israetel mentions in this video, assuming a) they train decently, b) they get enough protein and c) the caloric deficit isn't too aggressive. Arbitrary numbers, of course, but they're not that far away from reality. If an almost "maxed-out" IFFB Pro at 250lbs and a BF of 20%+++ tried to gain muscle at maintenance, it would most likely be a waste of time. If they were expected to gain 1-2 pounds of muscle in a year on a sufficient surplus, they would only gain a tiny fraction of that, if they were lucky, not to mention that, at such high level, that kind of progress wouldn't even be measurable.
About two weeks ago, my deadlift shot up by 100 lbs in a single session. No, seriously. I'm 37 and have been lifting for about six weeks after a multi-year hiatus. Prime lifting years were 17-22, then occasionally resumed for a few months here and there, but for all intents and purposes, I was fully de-trained. It's been about seven weeks, and, aside from a longer warmup, some basic prehab exercises --band pulls, face pulls, railing a bamboo shoot full of meth--and a 20-minute post-workout jacuzzi/sauna/steam room circuit, I'm doing more or less the same workout I did in my late teens/early 20's....except I have zero DOMS and infinite energy for absolutely no reason. I cannot stress this enough: I'm pushing 40 and feel better than I did in my early 20's. If my noob gains continue for another two months, I'll be very close to, if not beyond, where I was when I was doing nothing but lifting and MMA. (Update hi it's two days later and my eyes fell out)
Âmazing part that gives a lot of people hope is the "you didn't waste your noob gains" statement. Mark Rippetoe is phrasing it similarly kinda along the lines of "if you, after 2 years of lifting, bench 100 pounds, squat 130 and DL 160, you are still a beginner (strength wise) and got all your noob gains still ahead of you if you start training/eating/recoversing right" gave me a lot of motivation when i re-started training and wanted to kick it off with Strarting Strength (but was hesitant because of the wasted "noob gain- years) thx so much Dr. Mike
I gained 25 pounds my first year, when I was 14-15. Probably because of puberty, because I wasn’t eating shit. But puberty helped because I still grew a lot of muscle
Listening to all of your advice has gotten me a pound a week and losing fat in a bit over a month lifting and 3 months cycling. Compound super sets and bicycle training 20miles a day. 1g protein per lb body weight. I would definitely agree it is from muscle memory.
I had trained consistently for 4 years and then took a 6 year gap. I just started again at the end of May this year. Strength came back really, really fast. 225x5 squat, 245 bench, 420lb DL after 3 months back. Size has not come back as fast but noticeable changes after just 2 months. edit: I had started training at 20, and started again just now at 3 months before 30. Best numbers before were 305 squat, 245x2 bench and 465x2 DL. My squat always sucked lol
Really motivating to see the way you document your work. Man, I would be proud of myself for that alone in addition to all the hard training. If you don't mind asking how old are you?
Could you do a video about maintaining muscle? Is it possible to invest 3-5 years into training and then train like only 1-2 a week to maintain what you've build?
Hey, Dr. Mike. Quick question. Bought the Simple Template 2 day and 4 day. I have consistently been doing 2 days a week and feel like I recover best with a lot of rest since I don't sleep particularly well. How much of a difference is 2 days vs. 4 days in terms of gains? Am I least getting 80% of what I could be getting?
Then there is my buddy at 22, went from like 150 to 185 in roughly 4 months. He still had a six pack, even though he wasn’t as shredded as he was when he started. His genetics are bonkers, his entire life he’s had a 6 pack regardless of how he bulks. I’ve been trying to get him to take body building seriously but he won’t…. If only I had his dna lol.
That is crazy!! I wish I had genes like that. I've been training pretty hard for 6 months, I went from 135ish(skinny fat) to 147ish . I was losing my 6pack at 135 but now it is very visible at 147 and I've been told I have great genetics 😂
Just wanted to chime in here to say that I did not get my noob gains when I started. I thought maybe I had bad genetics for a while, and maybe I still do. But my fourth year of training is when I finally started to put on some muscle. I switched up my technique a bit to focus on RPE instead of doing X amount of reps each set. I started eating more protein too. Things are finally growing :D
11:27 The first time I looked at this I thought wow that is kind of a long process. Then I imagined how long it takes to get a degree, or becoming a doctor and I thought hey at least this is actually significantly easier than those and that was motivational for me.
Hey Mike, by 'muscle' do you mean the mass of water, glycogen, etc in the muscles along with the lean tissue or just the lean tissue? I think 10 pounds of PURE lean muscle in the first year is a little bit of an overestimate. My best guess would be that most average people can put on about 7 pounds in the first year.
I went from 100 to 132 in my first 2 years of training, with height staying the same and could see my abs clearly the entire time. Even after dropping some water weight I stayed at 125
I do in fact mean muscle. Also, glycogen and water count in lean tissue. They don't count in DRY muscle weight, which you can't find out unless you BIOPSY the person! - Dr. Mike
Your numbers don't make sense. The body is orughly 60% water, and muscles even more so at 76-79%, so if you were interested in dry mass for whatever reason (you wanna be the most jacked desiccated corpse in the morgue?), you'd have to adjust from 10 to 2-2.5, not 7.
I am 6'5" and it took me from 19-24 to get from 145 to 195, guzzling Wieder weight gain and probably working out too often. Now at 50 and 210, it's really cool to have your channel confirming what I already experienced, but also learning little things that I had wrong as I try to get back in that 25yo shape.
I started training for the first time in my 40's. What blew my mind was how quickly I saw changes. After 3 weeks of regular training (an hour of weight training 3x a week, plus running every day (except after leg day)) I started to see results. It was nothing major, not the type of thing anyone else would notice, but I remember sitting at my desk at work and noticing my forearms looked bigger and more defined. I mean, if I'd measured I'd probably put on maybe 1/5th of an inch, but just seeing that change in size and definition in such a short time was massively motivating. I just want to say a massive thank you for this channel. I can't express just how much it helps to get actual, real scientific advice from someone who actually understands and explains what to do without over-promising to sell snake oil.
I go through cycles of noob gains over and over again, because I train dedicatedly for 6-12 months and then take a 6-24 month breaks. Female, 31 years old. Making great gains at the moment and determined to stay with it this time. It has put me into the fun position of being a physical noob, but late-intermediate when it comes to technique, knowledge from sources like RP and gym confidence. Nothing to be proud of all over, but ngl, kinda fun.
![Hunxho - Ball Forever [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/nki9ZTF9Uls/mqdefault.jpg)
Jacked Harry Potter’s been learning from dumbelldore
And the huff and puff house
Best comment of 2021
Engorgio!
Too fucking funny nevermind
Dumbleswole
mike with side hair is gonna scare me at nights
It scares me in broad daylight
Wide Mao Zedong John Cena
Star Trek doctor, jacked.
I like how you used plural nights as it’s more accurate.
I'd love to see a video on "this is what 10lbs of muscle looks like on these frames", or similar ideas with bodyfat, actually setting expectations for we noob folk
Don't even pay attention to the scale for the first 3-6 months you'll gain water weight muscle and lose or gain fat along the way. Until you get very lean it's difficult to determine how much of your gains are actual lean muscle mass.
@@cat-le1hf you will gain pretty much nothing but water weight. A lot of people I feel mistaken the muscle they stary seeing as straight muscle the first year. But if you're hydrated (as you should be if working out) a lot of that muscle is just storing water like creatine pretty much does. I went from 160 to 176 in a full year of training mostly upper body a couple years ago. Started taking a whole vitamin shoppe stack including test booster, muscle builder, non stim and stim pre-workout and kept the calories down enough through the day that I stayed lean while "gaining" my size. After that full year I scaled it back to half workouts for 6 months and maintained that weight give or take 2 pounds each week. THEN I got a call from a job I was seeking wanting to hire me if I passed a piss test and I had been eating edibles on the weekends. I went back to training as hard everyday as I did that full year for a week with nightly sauna sessions to sweat and a full ACV detox. In that week I dropped back down to 161.5 and lost ALL noticeable size. My strength was the same though it took two weeks to get back the sets I was used to comfortably and about 6 months to get that water weight back in my arms and back. Legs never changed tho.
@@sgt.lincolnosiris4111 Going from that long ass story, you were definitely not eating enough if you stayed well lean while "gaining"
@@rickterrance4981noted and ignored
@@sgt.lincolnosiris4111did you get the job though?
Mike is on another IQ level, it's not easy to pull of those kind of jokes while keeping the hole thing extremely interesting, getting educated while being entertained kinda ? we are lucky to have all that valuable informations for free, keep it up boss
Yes and remember to not skip the ads 💯
Why am I not surprised that someone that doesn't know the difference between "hole" & "whole" thinks a fairly bright dude is a "genius".
The hole was always interesting my friend.
@@blackphoenix8932 english might be his second language, going off the pluralised “informations”.
@@theknowledgebridge6195 or it might be third or fourth
I'd endorse Dr. Mike as the next Mr. Freeze in any bad Batman movie
A remake of kindergarten cop would also be good.
Penguin height, Mr. Freeze or Bane muscularity haha
what about a good batman movie? Lmao
1:54 What are they? Mechanisms?
3:50 What can you expect?
9:02 When do they come to an end?
12:25 Do they hang around?
15:01 Did I diet my way out of them?
17:55 All muscles or is it per-muscle?
19:45 What if I never got mine?
You the goat vro 🐐 🔥
Thank you.
Legend!
Youre edutainment is hall of fame level. Informative comedic and highly accurate. Happy to learn from you doc.
I get way too excited when I see a new video from you.
Maybe it's just the right amount of excitement? - Dr. Mike
@@RenaissancePeriodization you know, I think you're right!
No such thing
I always wondered how much muscle I gained during my noob phase. I was over 500 lbs when I started weight training. Obviously not hard at first but it took me a good 2.5-3 years to lose 260 lbs and I was strength training and in a deficit that entire time. I was so fat there's no way I could know how much muscle I gained but oh well at least I'm not dead now 15 years later. 😂
Plus.... probably garbage tier genetics seeing how I was 500+ lbs...
Dude u probably had a shit ton of muscle already just from carrying around all that mass all day!
@@zed1123 I know my calves were huge 😁because I was still somewhat active even as big as I was, incredibly.
@@swiper1131 proud of you
@@Danny-db9du hey thanks a ton, homie.
This is the perfect platform for Mike's sarcastic self-deprecating humor 😆 great entertainment while learning quality information for free, what more could you ask for, thanks Mike!
The longer this channel goes on, the more insane mike becomes until he just snaps one day, calling it right now!
Elliot Hulse syndrome, huh?
@@peetos-chan2835 I don't think Mike would turn that specific flavor of insane. He'd be more manic and incoherent type
Comedy on progressive overload 🤣
To paraphrase the Joker from one of my fave Justice League episodes. "That's the thing... I'm ALREADY CRAZY." Lollll
Oh and that episode is the two-parter "Wild Cards." YES, I am a nerd! - Dr. Mike
@@peetos-chan2835 I totally forgot about that guy, so I went to check out some of his recent stuff. Lmao
Albus Dumbbelldoer: "Leg Day? After all this Time?"
Severus in-shape: "Always!"
Why u tryna make us cry bro
These estimates made me feel much better. Also thank you for clarifying that newb gainz aren't limited to a "window" wherein if you stop training the window disappears, which at least 1 prominent "evidence based" YTer has asserted. Love you Mike.
Love you back! - Dr. Mike
Who said that?
dont be afraid to name drop, youd be doing a service to us
The idea of a noob gains window to me is fundamentally ridiculous. It makes zero sense. Hope a lot of people who believe in it see this video.
probably jeff nippard
Can't believe you guys got a collaboration with Arnold
Dr. Mike is absolutely hilarious for no reason. I could listen to him all day. 👍👍👍
I spent the majority of last year cutting (I was a fatty) and this is the ONLY place I've seen that's had a definitive answer of whether or not I "missed out" on noob gains during that time. Feeling a lot better about the future now!
I started in december 2022. Never trained before. My primary goal has been weight loss, but strength and muscle gains is also a goal. When I started, I was only able to to twice a week at the gym. I was in extremely bad shape and I needed half a week to recover. Then after six-seven weeks, I went up to three times per week at the gym, which I am still at. I've also started doing light cardio (walking or biking) at least 3 times per week on the days in between. Recently I've done more of this, as the weather has been very nice.
I started at a body weight of 121.5 kg / 267 lb. Now, six months later, I am at 107 kg / 235 lb. Most of my working weights have doubled or tripled in that time. In the beginning, I deadlifted 40kg for 8 reps. Now, I can do 90kg for 8 reps. In the beginning, I almost fainted after doing 12 walking lunges (yes, really), now I can do 16 with 12 kg dumbbells in my hands.
Now, for muscle gains, it's kinda hard to determine as I am still obese. I can tell that I have visible muscles in arms, shoulders and particularly quads, that I haven't seen before. So, I think I have made some good gains. But, I still have a lot of body fat making it hard to say for sure.
In these months, I've only skipped five sessions at the gym for varying reasons (illness, family visit, easter)
I definitely feel like I've been able to take good advantage of my noob gains. I am still at three times a week, and am considering increasing to four, but I'm not rushing it. Right now, I feel like I am making great progress without feeling overwhelmed. I am excited to go to the gym.
I come for the education, I stay for the comedy.
I just come.
Is it maybe more accurate to look at noob gains as if it's a lot easier to get to x% of genetic potential, rather than looking at it like it's a time window for better growth?
Exactly, it all has to do with what stage your are at regarding your genetic potential. I wish people would just explain it that way, so much simpler and clearer.
I’d always figured this was how it worked. Everything I’ve seen indicates that your potential is what it is, modifying for age and whatnot, and factors like programming and stress just bend the curve.
At any given gym you’ll find guys screwing around, doing whatever exercises at whatever weights they felt like doing, sometimes for years at a time. They get some gains of course, because newbies can gain with anything, but they quickly cap out. Get one of those guys into a slight surplus and programmed progressive training, and BOOM.
Therapist: Arnold Israetel doesn‘t exist, he can‘t hurt you…
Arnold Israetel:
I'M CUMMING ALL DA TAIM!!
GET TO THE COMMENTS
Remember when I told you I would dislike your comment last... I lied 😂
6 months into training 3-4x a week with varying degrees of intensity but always improving form. I went from 137 skinny fat to about 145 very lean. So I feel I technically put on 10+ lbs of muscle as it is obvious I lost fat because my 6 pack and obliques are very visible now. I think now my gains are slowing down do I'm employing creatine and a slight caloric surplus(2400 cal a day)into my regiment. I went from barely pressing 35lb dumbbells for 7 reps to 60lb dumbbells for 7 reps.
It is very exciting.
Jacob where you in a surplus from the start or in a deficit at first? I'm doubting what to do, I'm skinny fat and losing weight at a (very) slow rate, however i do seem to make some gains.
Curious what your take is on this
@@VioI8R if your skinny fat I'd say just eat slight surplus until you've got some muscle on you, then worry about losing the fat. It's alot harder to gain muscle if you are losing weight.
@@VioI8RCardio is the answer brother, if you want to look shredded. Continue working out and add cardio, you will not “lose gains” like some people seem to assume. It will just make your gains pop even more because it’ll really help lower your body fat %.
Just a reminder that muscle adds additional caloric need. You might need to up your 2400 a bit for more gains if you've slowed.
@@VioI8R youre supposed to loose weight slowly, that means youre doing it right
Great knowledge. I was the type to hit the gym hard for like 2 months straight and then fall off. Now that i've been gaining RUclips knowledge, I'm at 12 months consistent 5-7 days a week and have body dysmorphic disorder. Jk about the dysmorphia, but I am now able to look in the mirror and see success
“Jk”
Yeah right. Don’t worry, we’re all there
Dr Mike, you have helped me make crazy gains after training 3 years training like a schmuck. I discovered you after the Collab with Greg and ever since a year or 2 ago I have been making the most gains of my whole life, and I'm fairly certain I have the slow genetics that just keep going with the slow gains, though the rate never really changes unless I stop training obviously. Point is: thanks. You, John Meadow, jonni Shreve, Greg Doucette and a few other quality channels have helped me stop training like a pussy, be consistent with tracking everything and actually stick to progressive overload.
That death face tho, cut going well Dr. Mike
Awesome video as always
38 year old female, 200 pounder here. Just hit my 5th month, 4-5 days a week training and starting to take this more seriously and came here to find an estimate for when noobie gains will end for me. Great news for me in the video. Thanks, love this channel! ❤
Good luck and wish you the best! Have fun moving and enjoying your body, however you do that for you!
You look a lot like Steven Seagal 🤔
@@LtCommanderTato😂😊
I just can't get enough of his humor. Great content. Great humor. Thanks, man.
I love you so much. Your videos are unbelievably helpful (and ridiculously entertaining/hilarious). Please never quit producing this incredible content!
A lot of this is making a lot of sense to me, especially the part about being primed for growth after a hard diet. I did an extreme diet (600-800 cal/day) with no exercise (was recovering from Guillan Barre Syndrome at the time) for 9 months, lost 90kg, then started seriously weight training and gained about 5kg of muscle over the next 9 months.
I liked the ending too. Much more important than being jacked is being happy in yourself, whatever you look like.
That Arnold impression had me fooled.
Me too. I thought Mike was having a stroke.
like a beginner I can say that this video was more motivatinal and instructive than many other.... after 7 months I havent seen mayor results and this video gave me some light to the process... the way you explained the growth in time was so clear that motivated me... thank so much...
Are you in a caloric surplus? Are you training hard? Are you training regularly with good techique and intensity?
If you want a good understanding of the science behind lifting. This chanel here and jeff Nippards are toptier
I had left over noob gains after like 4 years of training with not enough calories or protien lol. Got my diet right and blew up super fast
I had some noob gains on muscles I never trained directly good like my biceps. Made me feel like I was 17 or 18 again lol
This is me. Had to start premaking meals cause uni caused me to eat like 3-4 meals... A week max.
Obviously my sleep is fucked too, cause gotta work, workout, study, socialise... What do you even cut.
Looking forward to sorting all of it out going into my final year!
I'm just starting out the whole gym training thing. I'm skinny fat. I have surplus protein intake, but am on a calorie deficit (to lose the "fat" from my skinny fatass).
If I'm not on a calorie deficit, will I put on more muscles in my noob phase?
@@worldbeingyttechnically yes
You mention Cinderella and her "crystal shoe" (or rather glass slipper). Funny story: it started from a mistranslation. The original tale is in French and she wears slippers that are described as made of "vair". Which is a homophone of "verre"(glass). Except it doesn't mean glass. It's a type of fur that's called the same in English and was considered very fancy in the middle-ages. Comes from a nordic breed of squirrel.
But we mostly know the story from the Disney animated version that used the mistranslation, so we have that image of a pair of glass slippers, that make no sense at all, that would be so uncomfortable and fragile!
To be fair, she was using magical PEDs.
Just stumbled across your channel and you have excellent info! I started my fitness journey back in Jan of '20. I am still current and up to par with working out, 3-4 days a week and went from 135lbs to now sitting at 170lbs. And after seeing this video specifically, I'm glad to know that I'll still make noob gains. You are a gem sir Dr. Mike!
I had a shoulder surgery and immobilised my left arm for almost a month - I lost so much muscle in that arm and there was a significant difference of muscle between both arms. I went back to the gym 3 weeks ago and the gains have been crazy. It's like I experienced noobie gains in my left arm and I am almost back to normal
Muscle memmory
It's incredible how intimidating you look, but you're honestly such a nice and pleasant dude, also your intimidating look makes me really want to push myself, especially with all the quality info you throw at me, thanks, man!
Man even if you cant put up large amount of muscles the health benefit of as simply as staying fit and lean really is worth it by doing good balanced diet and lifting weight.
Honestly you’ve changed my life man, thank you for everything you do.
You are a born comedian man for real even if you try you still are funny. Please do the comedy sketch in the beginning of your videos!!!!
I barely train strength, I don't know why I'm here, and I sat through the whole thing. You're hilarious! Thanks for sharing this info :)
Your points on muscle memory are spot on. I was dedicated to bodybuilding and took it to the max for about 6 years. I went from 160-250 below 10% bf in that time period. I quit lifting completely for 3 years, I went back to the gym and perfect diet three weeks ago and I’m already up 20 lbs and leaner than I was three weeks ago. Better gains naturally than I ever got enhanced in my prior training period.
Even if I wasn't into lifting I'd probably still listen just to hear your deadpan humor. I love it!
I've lost about 70lb's in the last 7 months, still going to lose an extra 15-20lb's to hit my goal of getting my bodyweight to 180lb's. I've been working out this whole time and I kind of gave up on the noob gains for the sake of weight loss, but I'm glad to hear that I haven't really given up on anything just postponed 'em. Thanks Mike.
Seriously, if I need a video on something, Dr Mike has it. ❤this guy.
I'd love to see a video on preparatory hypertrophy and the mechanisms at play for muscle growth over the long-term.
Thanks for the great content, as always!
Unfortunately I don't know enough about that yet, but maybe someday! - Dr. Mike
My new work commute is 30 minutes. Podcast the shit out of your videos! Thanks for all the knowledge.
Female here. Love your content. ❤️
Thank you so much for your free lectures, Dr. Mike. With your help I've made the most of my newbie gains, diet, and mindset and am seeing noticeable gains for the first time ever.
4:50 I feel ya Dr. Mike. I too like to identify as 6'3". Even when my body doesn't like to agree.
I'm so happy I found your YT channel Dr. Mike. I've learned so much from you. Keep up the great work!!!
The leg thing happened to me. Never trained them for years, then after the first 1.5 yrs I gained 3 inches in each quad.
I just started watching your channel and I am falling in love with your vids!
That was possibly the best Arnold impression ever.
Can't believe all this is free for us to use. Could listen to him all day
I kept hearing NUDE GAINS, which is really what most of us are striving for.
Best channel on youtube hands down. I wish I went to the gym more often, but my will is weak. I might just switch to an upper/lower split instead of full-body.
It took me 32 years to get my noob gains.
Atta boy, it’s never too late to get jacked 👊
@@Fraunzi 🤜🤛
I’ve been training on and off for 3 years. This past month I’ve started training more seriously and found it I haven’t been pushing myself close to failure at all, and I’ve seen the most growth I’ve seen. Super excited to see how I grow over time now that I’m finally doing it right.
Harry Spotter
Hairy Spotter is hanging right over your face while you bench.
This cleared up a lot of my doubts. Thank you, Mike
Dr Mike, would you say that there is a skew in the sample we have of all lifters towards the high responders to training? I feel as if the people who have a better response in their first 3 years or so tend to stick around and keep training past that, but the genetic pipsqueaks drop out faster. Do your numbers account for this effect (if you believe it exists)?
Genetic pipsqueak here. Still training and loving it.
You forgot that 'pipsqueaks' are the most motivated people because they don't want to look like pipsqueaks and training hard is the only thing that can make them look and feel 'normal'. I know one guy like that, he looks like he was a POW if he doesn't eat or train right for a month, it's a tough life.
That Arnold impression was fire.
Spot on Arnold impression
Not a bad impression. Always impressed and even a little overwhelmed by how much info you put in these videos. Thank you sir.
I found when my bench/row was approaching my body weight,the muscle gain got more obvious .Before that I guess tendons were just strengthening.
Hi Mike, your videos are super helpful and informative, and are really helping my maximise my gains and understand what I'm doing. Started out around 2 months ago on 84kg, 6'3", decently high body fat around 30% basically eating whatever I want - fatty, protein diet (still have good metabolism). Ate the same, just with a 46g protein shake added on every day and am now up to 90kg, 6kg of pure muscle in 2 months, down to around 22-23% body fat.
Really happy with my initial gains, currently working on balancing my diet to reduce my subcutaneous fat.
What I got from this video: I need to change my name to Jim, replace my dog for a kitten, break up with the girlfriend I don't have (need to fix that first I guess), than I will gain 80lbs of muscle in one year. Thanks Dr. Mike
Hey Dr. Mike, looking good with that hair!
Thanks for always putting out this great content.
Your regular uploads have been keeping me on that noob gains train.
Hey Dr. Mike! I've heard you reference a handful of times something to the effect of 'if you're fat, you can still gain without being in a surplus.' is there any good research showing at which body fat % this is considered effective? Is there a BF% where you'd tell someone to not worry about a surplus, just maintain b/c you've got plenty of stored energy already?
I’ve heard (from More Plates More Dates) that going above 20% is no longer beneficial for gains and will just be extra weight you have to shave off
Plenty of reasearch, but none of the papers directly address your question. Think of it like this:
If a morbidly obese person who has never done any kind of resistance trainging before goes on a diet and starts working out, they could get about 20% to maybe 60% of the amounts of muscle that Israetel mentions in this video, assuming a) they train decently, b) they get enough protein and c) the caloric deficit isn't too aggressive. Arbitrary numbers, of course, but they're not that far away from reality.
If an almost "maxed-out" IFFB Pro at 250lbs and a BF of 20%+++ tried to gain muscle at maintenance, it would most likely be a waste of time. If they were expected to gain 1-2 pounds of muscle in a year on a sufficient surplus, they would only gain a tiny fraction of that, if they were lucky, not to mention that, at such high level, that kind of progress wouldn't even be measurable.
Have started to train, and I was surprised how fast I did progress, thanks for explaining "Noob Gain"
Mike Israetels first 2 months of working out === Harry potters life time training
About two weeks ago, my deadlift shot up by 100 lbs in a single session.
No, seriously. I'm 37 and have been lifting for about six weeks after a multi-year hiatus. Prime lifting years were 17-22, then occasionally resumed for a few months here and there, but for all intents and purposes, I was fully de-trained.
It's been about seven weeks, and, aside from a longer warmup, some basic prehab exercises --band pulls, face pulls, railing a bamboo shoot full of meth--and a 20-minute post-workout jacuzzi/sauna/steam room circuit, I'm doing more or less the same workout I did in my late teens/early 20's....except I have zero DOMS and infinite energy for absolutely no reason.
I cannot stress this enough: I'm pushing 40 and feel better than I did in my early 20's. If my noob gains continue for another two months, I'll be very close to, if not beyond, where I was when I was doing nothing but lifting and MMA.
(Update hi it's two days later and my eyes fell out)
Âmazing part that gives a lot of people hope is the "you didn't waste your noob gains" statement. Mark Rippetoe is phrasing it similarly
kinda along the lines of "if you, after 2 years of lifting, bench 100 pounds, squat 130 and DL 160, you are still a beginner (strength wise) and got all your noob gains still ahead of you if you start training/eating/recoversing right"
gave me a lot of motivation when i re-started training and wanted to kick it off with Strarting Strength (but was hesitant because of the wasted "noob gain- years)
thx so much Dr. Mike
whenever i get asked how tall I am, I say " 6'2" on a good day". I'm 5'2" :(
Must be one heck of a good day
I measure 5'10", but my height can shrink by two inches due to spinal compression on some days.
I opened your video on another window and switched tabs. For a second I thought there was an Arnold ad only to see its Mike. really good!
I gained 25 pounds my first year, when I was 14-15. Probably because of puberty, because I wasn’t eating shit. But puberty helped because I still grew a lot of muscle
Listening to all of your advice has gotten me a pound a week and losing fat in a bit over a month lifting and 3 months cycling. Compound super sets and bicycle training 20miles a day. 1g protein per lb body weight. I would definitely agree it is from muscle memory.
I had trained consistently for 4 years and then took a 6 year gap. I just started again at the end of May this year.
Strength came back really, really fast. 225x5 squat, 245 bench, 420lb DL after 3 months back. Size has not come back as fast but noticeable changes after just 2 months.
edit: I had started training at 20, and started again just now at 3 months before 30.
Best numbers before were 305 squat, 245x2 bench and 465x2 DL. My squat always sucked lol
Really motivating to see the way you document your work. Man, I would be proud of myself for that alone in addition to all the hard training. If you don't mind asking how old are you?
@@dominicmacaya2928 hey bro thanks. I am 30.
I will say taking video is very helpful and wish I had done it sooner.
The National Hurricane Centre has upgraded Mike's blinking to a category 5.
Could you do a video about maintaining muscle? Is it possible to invest 3-5 years into training and then train like only 1-2 a week to maintain what you've build?
Just love the attitude of Mike and how he talks about everythin'😅😅😅
Hey, Dr. Mike. Quick question. Bought the Simple Template 2 day and 4 day. I have consistently been doing 2 days a week and feel like I recover best with a lot of rest since I don't sleep particularly well. How much of a difference is 2 days vs. 4 days in terms of gains? Am I least getting 80% of what I could be getting?
Lost it at "even the dog didn't look at him the same" - I love the humor that is being brought in :D
Then there is my buddy at 22, went from like 150 to 185 in roughly 4 months. He still had a six pack, even though he wasn’t as shredded as he was when he started. His genetics are bonkers, his entire life he’s had a 6 pack regardless of how he bulks. I’ve been trying to get him to take body building seriously but he won’t…. If only I had his dna lol.
That is crazy!!
I wish I had genes like that. I've been training pretty hard for 6 months, I went from 135ish(skinny fat) to 147ish . I was losing my 6pack at 135 but now it is very visible at 147 and I've been told I have great genetics 😂
Yup you're right Mike! I do listen to my own podcast while driving.
Just wanted to chime in here to say that I did not get my noob gains when I started. I thought maybe I had bad genetics for a while, and maybe I still do.
But my fourth year of training is when I finally started to put on some muscle. I switched up my technique a bit to focus on RPE instead of doing X amount of reps each set. I started eating more protein too. Things are finally growing :D
What is RPE?
It's the protein that made your gains not the rpe or whatever the fuck
You are hilarious. The quality of information is 10/10
11:27 The first time I looked at this I thought wow that is kind of a long process. Then I imagined how long it takes to get a degree, or becoming a doctor and I thought hey at least this is actually significantly easier than those and that was motivational for me.
haha your arnie impressions. just heard you do a flawless one on a more recent vid (but forgot to comment), they really make me smile.
Hey Mike, by 'muscle' do you mean the mass of water, glycogen, etc in the muscles along with the lean tissue or just the lean tissue? I think 10 pounds of PURE lean muscle in the first year is a little bit of an overestimate. My best guess would be that most average people can put on about 7 pounds in the first year.
I went from 100 to 132 in my first 2 years of training, with height staying the same and could see my abs clearly the entire time. Even after dropping some water weight I stayed at 125
@@Bdavis2475 what were your lifts?
I do in fact mean muscle. Also, glycogen and water count in lean tissue. They don't count in DRY muscle weight, which you can't find out unless you BIOPSY the person! - Dr. Mike
Your numbers don't make sense. The body is orughly 60% water, and muscles even more so at 76-79%, so if you were interested in dry mass for whatever reason (you wanna be the most jacked desiccated corpse in the morgue?), you'd have to adjust from 10 to 2-2.5, not 7.
@@RenaissancePeriodization Ok, thanks for responding Dr. Mike. Love your content as always.
I am 6'5" and it took me from 19-24 to get from 145 to 195, guzzling Wieder weight gain and probably working out too often. Now at 50 and 210, it's really cool to have your channel confirming what I already experienced, but also learning little things that I had wrong as I try to get back in that 25yo shape.
You had hair?
great, this is what i get for being a girl. Math :(
Dr. Mike is the only comedian I need
I still hope for another chunk of newbie gains every time I make a little optimization tweak 😌
I'm detrained after coming back from an injury! Can't wait for this!
Came here for the jukes
I started training for the first time in my 40's. What blew my mind was how quickly I saw changes.
After 3 weeks of regular training (an hour of weight training 3x a week, plus running every day (except after leg day)) I started to see results.
It was nothing major, not the type of thing anyone else would notice, but I remember sitting at my desk at work and noticing my forearms looked bigger and more defined. I mean, if I'd measured I'd probably put on maybe 1/5th of an inch, but just seeing that change in size and definition in such a short time was massively motivating.
I just want to say a massive thank you for this channel. I can't express just how much it helps to get actual, real scientific advice from someone who actually understands and explains what to do without over-promising to sell snake oil.
I go through cycles of noob gains over and over again, because I train dedicatedly for 6-12 months and then take a 6-24 month breaks. Female, 31 years old. Making great gains at the moment and determined to stay with it this time. It has put me into the fun position of being a physical noob, but late-intermediate when it comes to technique, knowledge from sources like RP and gym confidence. Nothing to be proud of all over, but ngl, kinda fun.
“The whole mid-night thing with the pumpkin” 😹