6 Weeks In and Nothing Looks Different

You've been training consistently 3x a week for the past 6 weeks without fail and you're proud of yourself. There's a big problem though, you look exactly the same! Before you decide the program is broken, count the sessions, 3 workouts a week for 6 weeks is only 18 workouts. You're expecting a whole body transformation by doing something less than 20 times.

Sessions 1 through 6

What actually changes in that first stretch is your body getting better at using what it already had. Your body is getting better at bracing, balancing, and firing a whole muscle at once. That is why the progress moved so fast and why nothing looks different.

Sessions 7 through 18

The progress get smaller. You're not as able to increase weight as fast. Plus and the novelty of working out is wanning usually somewhere around here. Nothing has gone wrong, your body just doesn't level up as fast. Your muscles are building slowly through this stretch. It doesn't matter that you want to look your best for an upcoming vacation. It's the other things you can't physically see like getting stronger, or you not being sore for 4 days after a workout.

2 things here, 1 other people usually notice changes to your body before you do, and 2nd there is also a good chance you have not done all 18 workouts. 6 weeks at 3 days is 18 on paper but life tends to get in the way. That is still fine. It is just a completely different situation from the one you have been replaying in your head. You think you've done more than you actually have. This disconnect is where people start to quit. Its not necessarily that its too hard, but they're working with bad data.

Worth putting a number on that gap, because the weeks you miss cost less than you think.

Sessions 19 through 36

This is the part that gets you the where you want to go. Let me warn you, this is the boring part, and it is boring on purpose. No more switching things up because any activity after no activity will make progress in the beginning.

If the switching is the pattern rather than the exception, why the restart keeps happening is the part to read next.

Pick 4 or 5 lifts and stop changing them, every random swap resets your progress. Progressive overload is key. That can mean adding weight, shorter rest periods, changing tempo or increasing reps. Pick the plain version of a lift over the new shinny one. Keep most of your sets at 70 to 80% of what you could do consistently.

Somewhere to keep that honest helps, and the tracker covers what to measure when the mirror is not moving.

How fast you will reach your goals are different for everybody. Your age, your sleep, what you did before this, how much you are actually eating and stress levels affect progress.

You are not behind. You have just not been doing this as long as the calendar makes it feel.

If you would rather not guess at the next stretch, a program that already plans the next six weeks lays it out in order.