Weight lifting does get easier as the strength of your muscles increases over time. The repetitive action of weightlifting causes your muscles to tear, which is why there is so much pain involved with lifting weights. However, as your muscles heal, they repair stronger ensuring that your new muscles are capable of carrying or lifting that same weight. The effort required to lift that same weight becomes significantly lower.
There is a reason why stronger people can carry small weights with ease. This is because they have trained themselves to the point of carrying such heavy loads, that the smaller weight that they carry seems effortless. Think about it, how easy is it for that huge guy in your gym to move the 10 kg dumbbells? While you have a hard time doing ten repetitions of bicep curls using the 10 kg dumbbells, the bigger guys in the gym would pass them around like cotton candy. This is because, the stronger you are, the less effort is necessary to move smaller weights. I’m sure the previous sentence is obvious to you, however, it was one that had to be stated prior to understanding as to when weight lifting gets easier.
To answer the question as simply as possible, it is a matter of strength. Weight lifting doesn’t necessarily get easier per se, in actuality what happens is, you get stronger. That being the case, the ease of weight lifting comes with the programme that you are following. For instance, even if you use light weights for various sets during a workout, the last few sets could feel like climbing a mountain. This is obviously true, the muscles in the part of your body that you’re working out are torn during the process of lifting weight, which makes moving these muscles painful. Doing that last set under these conditions becomes one of the hardest things to complete and we relate when we say this, regardless of whether you are an experienced weight lifter or a complete beginner on the 5 kg weights; the last set is always the hardest.
Weight lifting definitely gets easier over time, the more seasoned you become to lifting weights, the easier it will become for you to endure the pain that comes with lifting weights. There is a mental element to the fact that pain is part of the experience of lifting weight. Whether you are a seasoned professional or a complete beginner, you will experience pain; there is no way around this. Pain is part of the game when you consider lifting weight, ‘no pain no gain;’ most weight lifters would acknowledge this as truth.
To better understand how weight lifting gets easier, we must first try to understand what happens to your body when you lift weights. What is the science behind lifting weights? What are the changes that happen in your body during the exercise of lifting weights?
What Happens to Your Body When You Lift Weights?
When you start lifting weights, on the very first day, you would probably notice that your body is feeling fine and dandy and that there is no pain whatsoever. Come next morning, you are in absolute agony, almost breaking at the scene, not being able to move, especially the body parts that you worked out. If you did bicep curls, you’ll notice that you can barely bend your arms or lift that morning cup of coffee. This is all part of the charm that comes with lifting weights. Don’t worry, as mentioned prior, this gets better over time; you start experiencing less pain and the whole process of lifting weights becomes easier.
So why is it that you experience all the pain the day after? This is because when you lift weights, as mentioned prior you as in essence breaking down muscles. The act of lifting weights causes tears in your muscle fibres. These tears are less painful during the act of weight lifting itself. During the act of weight lifting, you suffer from mental and physical exhaustion which adds to make the process harder. Though you experience pain during the act of lifting weights, that pain is short-lived and is caused by muscle fatigue and the build-up of lactic acid which is produced in your muscles. It is the build-up of lactic acid in your muscles that cause the temporary pain and discomfort which usually accompanies a workout.
However, the pain experienced after rest is rather different to the discomfort experienced during the act of lifting weights. This is because as you rest, your muscles start to heal and fuse back together. The muscles that were torn during the workout start to repair themselves. The repairing action causes the size and number of muscle cells in your body to increase, which is where you start seeing results. With the number and size of muscle cells increasing over time, it isn’t surprising that the act of weight lifting starts becoming easier over time. This process of muscle multiplication is called muscle hypertrophy and is responsible for the increased strength and size of muscles. Keep at it and soon you will start looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Then you’ll probably ask yourself this question, does Arnold Schwarzenegger find lifting weights hard? Though he obviously does or did push himself to limits, putting on more weight and increasing sets and repetitions to build more muscles; considering his size and strength, obviously lifting that 5 kg dumbbell would be a piece of cake for him.
When you consider weight training, it is important to keep weight lifting form in mind. Your posture is very important. This is because, if you don’t hold the right posture during lifting weights, you could end up doing some real harm to your body. By that, we mean, disproportionally sized muscles, back pain, joint pain and more serious muscle tear, all elements that come with bad weight lifting form. Hence it is important that regardless of how heavy of a weight you lift, that you maintain the right form to prevent any unnecessary harms from befalling on yourself.
In the long term, when you lift weights for a long period of time, obviously you start getting stronger and bigger. In fact, you should notice changes to your body within the first month. Your muscles will start to appear bigger and you will start to notice more defined lines of your muscles on your skin. You will also notice that you may have also lost a bit of fat, which again depends on the type of workout routine you are on.
Why is Lifting Weights Hard?
What Happens if You Lift Weights Every Day?
If you lift weights every day and only target the exact same muscle group each and every day, you may start doing more harm than good. This is because your muscles need time to heal, which is why weight lifters usually alternate muscle groups between each day. That way, not only do you lift weights every day, you target a different part of the body each day, thereby giving the other part of your body which you worked on the previous day, sufficient time to rest and heal.
Healing time is very important in weight lifting and is almost as important as the act of lifting weight itself. If you tear muscles and don’t let them heal, you tend to overwork the muscles which can lead to more permanent muscle damage.
However, if you do make a practice of lifting weights every day, you are more likely to see results than say lifting weights once a week. You would see results much faster, and so long as your muscle groups are divided into alternate days, you stand to gain the most from your workouts.
When you lift weights every day, you start to train your body to expect the pain involved. This in essence makes weight lifting easier for you. If you lift weights one day and go off on a break for a week and come back again, then you are practically starting all over again; you would have to go through the pain all over again, making weight lifting harder than it has to be. Hence if you make a practice out of lifting weights every day, in essence, it will make weight lifting easier for you.
How Long Until Working Out Gets Easier?
The effort exerted during the first week is usually the greatest. When you are starting off, usually the first week will be a lot of work. However, with time, working out will become easier; which usually means after the first week.
The speed at which the workout starts getting easier depends on two things. Firstly, the type of workout programme that you are on; and secondly, how motivated you are to keep going. The motivation level and the enjoyability of the workout is for certain a mental element as to what you experience as easy. If you are focused and are looking for results, though the first week will be hard, the second week will be easier and the third week easier and so on. However, if you aren’t motivated to stick to the exercise programme, then it never becomes easier and you always make a chore out of working out.
What is important when you consider this question is, thinking about whether you enjoy the workout. The more you enjoy the workout and the journey that you are on, the easier the workout will get overtime. Though you would be physically exerting yourself, exhausting yourself and pushing yourself to the limits during your workouts, if you are motivated, you will find it easier to push yourself to these extremes.
Hence when you consider how long it takes until workouts get easier, you have to take the mental element into the equation. It’s only hard if you make it hard for yourself.
How Long Does it Take to See Results From Lifting Weights?
Why Do People Stop Weight Lifting?
Does Weight Lifting Get Easier?
Happy Lifting!
