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Hi Reader!

"I started a new strength training routine and gained weight. What?! How can it be?" - I've heard it from many of my clients, both in the past and recently. So here is what happens when you start resistance or strength training.

Muscle Damage

During strength training, you create microscopic damage to your muscle cells, triggering an inflammation response. As a result, your body delivers fluids, immune cells, nutrients, etc., to the muscle tissue. Muscle repair can continue for 24-48 hours, and so can fluid retention around the muscle tissue. It's common to see the scale jump by 1 to 5 pounds the day after an intense workout. This variation depends on factors like exercise intensity, your body size, hydration, and carbohydrate intake after training.

The initial workouts cause much more muscle microtrauma than you'll experience later. But you can expect some inflammation and fluid retention whenever you push yourself harder than usual. So, if you've been strength training for a year and you have a particularly brutal leg day, you will likely experience some swelling and a temporary weight bump. The more soreness you experience, the more inflammation and swelling occur in and around muscle tissue, and the more weight will show up on the scale.

Once your body has adapted to a particular type of workout, the response is much milder. If you do the same 3 sets of 10 squats with the same weight for several weeks in a row, your body becomes highly efficient at it. The muscle damage is minimal, the inflammatory response is minor, and you will likely see little to no soreness or water weight gain.

Muscle Growth?

Can it be that my muscles got bigger? Unfortunately, muscles don't grow in size and weight so quickly. How quickly do they grow? - You might ask. There is significant variability in the evidence I found on PubMed. The traditional view is that by the 4th week of training, you can notice an increase in strength, which scientists attribute to neural changes, rather than architectural (bigger muscles). However, another study showed muscle growth after only 2 and 4 weeks of training!

How much muscle can you grow? The most significant muscle growth typically occurs within the first 3‒6 months, after which the rate of increase declines substantially. But your muscle strength can continue growing even if muscle size doesn't. In older adults, 65 and older, resistance training substantially improved muscle strength but had a smaller effect on muscle size.

In summary

If you notice a weight gain after starting strength training, don't worry about it. It's temporary and normal. Whatever your personal goal is with exercise, it's crucial to incorporate strength training as we age to reduce the loss of skeletal muscle and increase healthspan.
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Take care!

Olga