When it comes to training, your body is a remarkable adaptive machine — which is both a good and a bad thing.
It’s great because we survived the Ice Age thanks to our ability to adapt. It’s bad because our bodies don’t exactly want us to pack on unlimited muscle mass (insert sad Rubio face here).
Adaptation means that proteins are constantly breaking down and rearranging in preparation to handle a new stimulus. Resistance training is one such stimulus. Sufficient amounts of intense muscular work (meaning picking stuff up and putting it back down) cause microtrauma in muscle and connective tissue, leading to inflammation and the ignition of muscle growth — or muscle protein synthesis, a.k.a. GAINS.
Muscle growth is only one of the ways your body adapts to the repeated, progressive stress of a properly executed training regimen. The other key component that improves is your recovery ability.
The Science Behind Early Gains
In untrained lifters, research shows that elevated rates of muscle protein synthesis (growth) can last as long as 48 hours after a workout. This is the reason for the typical “rest a day in between training a muscle again” recommendation — and why inexperienced trainees can grow quickly with a low-volume, low-frequency approach (say, performing three sets of chest once a week).
For beginners, those early “newbie gains” can feel dramatic, making many wonder how much muscle you can gain in a month – but those results naturally slow down as your body adapts to consistent training. What once triggered rapid growth now becomes maintenance-level stimulation unless you progressively challenge your muscles with more volume or frequency.
Why Adaptation Demands Progression
As that same trainee continues lifting week after week, the body adapts and becomes less responsive. We know that muscle protein synthesis rates can rise and drop back to baseline in as little as 12 hours in advanced lifters. Clearly, a low-volume, low-frequency approach isn’t going to cut it for maximizing progress once you’re past the beginner stage.
And no — the answer is not to start doing 20 sets of chest on Monday to “extend the anabolic window.” Trust me, I’ve tried.
Instead, once you’re past the newbie gains stage, you’ll need to increase both volume and frequency to maximize your rate of muscle growth. This means training every muscle group at least twice a week with sufficient volume — basically what my personal training clients in NYC are doing (whether they like it or not!).
Training Through Recovery
Training during the “recovery” period doesn’t hurt progress; it actually accelerates it. Have you ever wondered why elite cyclists have massive quadriceps? It’s because they work those muscles to exhaustion on an almost daily basis while still including intense lower-body resistance training.
I’ll leave you with this: the fastest ever recorded rate of muscle gain in human subjects occurred during quadriceps training performed to exhaustion 24 times in two weeks. How can it be overtraining if you’re gaining muscle and getting stronger?
The Takeaway
If you’ve been training for longer than 18 months, it’s probably time to crank up the volume. Adaptation isn’t your enemy — it’s the roadmap your body gives you for improvement. Push smarter, recover harder, and remember that growth isn’t linear; it’s earned through consistent, intelligent progression.
Maik Wiedenbach is a Hall of Fame swimmer turned bodybuilding champion and fitness model featured in Muscle & Fitness and Men’s Journal. An NYU adjunct professor and award-winning coach, he founded New York’s most sought-after personal training gym.