"Weight Training Progress - From Puny to Pumped"

Depressed by your weight training progress? Discover the strength numbers you need to get pumped.

Heeding the Hollywood Hucksters

If you casually thumb through the fitness mags, you'll read how weight training progress is easy. Want to go from puny to pumped? It's plain sailing... simply leap onto the latest 30-days challenge and you'll soon own the Hollywood physique of your dreams.

And this presents us with a problem. How so? It’s like this: anyone who is familiar with weight training knows real and significant progress takes time.

Yet this fact won't stop the hucksters from trying to kid you into thinking otherwise. Their job is to sell you the latest "guaranteed muscle building program" and to hell with the consequences.  

So if you can't go from puny to pumped in 30-days, what type of timeframe are we talking about here?

Puny to Pumped - How Long?

But first, some home truths: if you don't know already, you should realise gaining strength and size is a marathon and not a sprint. Also, your training should be a lifetime pursuit and not something you attempt for 30-days then nonchalantly toss away.  

Be aware of these factors, and suddenly we can start talking about real, achievable numbers instead of the mythical nonsense spouted by gurus hungry for your hard-earned dollar.

So here are some strength standards numbers for you: 

For the average, healthy, drug-free and injury-free individual who follows abbreviated training practices (like those outlined on this site), you can expect to reach the higher end of the strength standards in 3-5 years.

These figures assume you have never raised a barbell before and that you are entering the iron game new.

Your Weight Training Progress

Now these numbers won't be the same for everybody. Depending on a host of factors, one person might meet these targets in less time while others might take more. What matters to you is your rate of progress, and comparing yourself to yourself. 

For many beginners, these numbers will sound unreasonable. Impatient and desiring a "quick fix", they will jump from workout to workout in the vain hope of finding the ultimate program or routine. 

But here's what the neophyte does not know: the ultimate program or routine simply does not exist. (I can hear the hucksters' screams as they jump off the nearest bridge.) All that matters is YOUR progress. Everything you study and apply to your weight training progress should be geared to this.  

Progress is king. Progress is your number one priority.  

Because without it, you will never gain the mass and size worthy of your efforts.

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Strength Standards - Are You Strong Enough to Gain Size?