When Will I See Results?

“When will I see results?” This is a common question I hear, and fair! This client case study illustrates what to do when you are wondering the same.

A client recently asked me if we could change anything in her program to see progress faster. We were about eight weeks in to working with each other. She is athletic and regularly teaches and participates in Pilates classes. She also does a conditioning type class and actively dances salsa and bachata here in Austin.

As you can see, she already has a healthy lifestyle, so her main goals were to increase definition, get a little leaner, and see progress in her abs and glutes. Great goals!

Where Do I Start?

She had never worked on driving up her barbell lifts when we met, so with that in mind, we began by learning how to do the basic movements with ideal form: squat, hinge, push, pull. 

The first big lift that she learned, practiced and increased weight on was the trap bar deadlift. For about a month, we prioritized deadlifting with great form, and continued the other movements as well. Then we added in the barbell squat, and began increasing her weight on the squat as her coordination and strength improved.

So here we are eight weeks in and she is squatting 95 for sets of 5 with amazing form and deadlifting 165 for sets of 3-5. She is a technically sound lifter and her form improves each week. 

She trains consistently, and her strength is increasing. 

Seeing Progress!

At this point, she was beginning to see strength improvements in her daily life. Pilates became easier, the bags of dog food seemed lighter. In fact, she was progressing much faster than most people do in the beginning. 

She was doing fantastic!

Still, she’s an overachiever. Type A personality. She wanted results faster.

The answer wasn’t one she wanted the hear. The answer is, she was doing it. She was on the path. Sometimes it’s just takes longer than we think. Most times it takes longer than we think, and the answer is to keep going. 

Laying the Foundation for Increased Work Capacity

Think about it this way: when you first start working out, you’re not as strong as you will be, and not as conditioned as you will be. In other words, your work capacity is low, or at least, has room to improve. The amount of weight you can move is limited, and the amount of time you can work hard is limited. 

A smart lifting program won’t throw you in the deep in from the beginning, so hopefully you aren’t going all out, you aren’t hitting max weight lifts. What you are doing is learning the exercises, learning to move well with good form, and laying a foundation for more work. 

Sure, you could do more. If your goal in life was to lose 30 pounds THIS MONTH and your life depended on it, you could push harder. In her case, that wasn’t the answer. We wanted her to work hard in a way that contributed to her already active lifestyle, and stay in a favorable position on the risk:reward ratio. 

Thus, our choice was to steadily increase her strength and fitness in a safe and effective way. She has had some days where she worked really hard, and had some soreness carry over into her Pilates practice and dance classes, but she has never been hurt. She’s too active to risk getting hurt. If we take a month or two longer to get where she wants to be, and do so more safely, that’s a better path.

Build Your Strength!

As mentioned above, as you get stronger and fitter and increase your work capacity, you can expend more effort and energy with each training session. You’ll burn more calories and move more weight, and this is how you’ll start to see results. 

This is easy to see if you use Train Heroic, the training app my clients and I use. As you lift and track your session, Train Heroic stores your data. It gives you an end-of-session summary that shows you how many pounds of weight you moved. That number is not the end all be all, but it clearly demonstrates how much work capacity can improve. 

Note in the above screenshots:

• Look how much her volume increased: from 6,850 pounds to 17,740!!
• This is the same session, from warm up through the exercises and cool down
• They are about 6 weeks apart
• She rated them about a 3 on a scale of 1-10 intensity

See how much more work she was able to put in an hour? It’s just densely packed with work!

This is why you will not always see fast progress in the first few weeks. Once you have learned how to work hard safely though, it is GO time!

Focus on this process so that each workout you do will be stronger and more productive than the last. This will add up exponentially, and you’ll get more out of each workout session you do. 

Keep Going!

Resist the urge to jump ship, change your whole plan, or program hop. If you are on a good program, keep giving it your all and do your best day by day. Just keep doing today what you can do today. Set yourself up today to have a productive tomorrow.

Other ways you can optimize your progress:

• Get enough protein
• Add in HIIT
• Make sure your diet is on point (work on eliminating those things you know don’t help you, like extra desserts or Cokes)
• Sleep well

Where is She Now?

In my clients case, her progress is fantastic. She doesn’t have the training perspective that I have from training hundreds – thousands? – of clients over 18 years to know how well she is doing. I have seen so many people at many stages of their exercise journey – and 8 weeks is a relatively small amount of time to get to where she is.

We are still working together and she is still doing great! We are building her foundation and growing her lifts. Each workout she is able to do more work and lift heavier, yet she feels energized after.  

Her hunger for more and drive to work harder are excellent qualities that are serving her well!

When Will You See Results?

If you are looking to make more progress, but aren’t on a plan, I’d suggest starting there. Only then can you really assess if you are going the direction you want to go. 

If you want to explore 1:1 to see results like my client here, and are able to do in person personal training in Austin, then let’s discuss.

Do you have questions about where to start or what kind of program to be on? Email me. I am happy to help you! Kathryn@kathrynalexander.com.

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