You won’t make muscle gains without this… Barbell bench press! Surely?! Or is it making sure you train biceps twice a week? Or how about the big compound movements such as squats, they must be the key to getting results?

All of these are, in part, quite true and without them your results would be hindered. However, there is a much greater determining factor of how much progress you will see and whether you will stick to your training. One which does not involve any certain exercise as such or any particular training style and does not involve nutrition or quality of supplementation.

Then, how will you make muscle gains?

That factor is patience. You need to practise patience.

Patience is what determines whether you are willing to go that extra mile and stick it out when it isn’t always sunshine and rainbows. When you’ve been training hard and eating right but are still waiting to see significant changes in your appearance or increases in strength… this is the point where you don’t give in!

For beginners

You don’t have to be as patient as more experienced lifters who have been training for several years. As a beginner you will see changes very quickly. Whether that’s in your appearance, strength or body weight you’re at a huge advantage and should make the most of this time of your training by making sure you’re training well. Pretty much any style of training is completely new to your body within your first year of training, so being patient during this stage isn’t as necessary.

For more experienced lifters

Well, you’re not quite so lucky. Experienced lifters just have to accept that they need to adopt a good amount of patience if they are to stick to their training long-term. Your body has adapted to many forms of training that you have engaged with over the past 2-3 years and it takes a lot longer to see significant results with your current training. This doesn’t mean that as an experienced lifter you won’t make much progress in lets say 6 months, but it does mean that there is less room for the following: poor training, poor nutrition and poor sleep. By making sure that these are all taken care of, an experienced lifter can maximise the progress they will see over the next 6 months.

Now of course the same applies for a beginner, however considering that weight training is a form of training that is completely new to you, you will make progress despite your nutrition or hours of sleep that you’re getting per night perhaps not being always on point. If your nutrition and sleep are on point then great! But what’s important here is that you can get away with more when you’re just starting off.