The law of diminishing returns

A beginner's dip is very normal

Frustrating as it may be, a beginner's slump is perfectly normal. Anyone who enthusiastically starts fitness and is consciously focused on their progress will encounter this slump at some point. The beauty of this slump is that it's the lowest point your fitness motivation can reach. From here, your motivation can only go up. Time to pull yourself out of this slump! And that might be a bit easier if you understand what causes it.

The law of diminishing returns

The law of diminishing returns is the Dutch translation of what's called "The law of diminishing returns" in fitness circles. If you break these terms down, it roughly translates to: you get less and less in return. And that's exactly what happened. Initially, your body responds to virtually every training stimulus. But as your muscles get stronger, your body requires a greater disruption of homeostasis (body balance) to be stimulated.

You understand that this law provides some crucial background information for anyone serious about fitness. It states that it's impossible to achieve the same results with the last ten workouts as with the ten workouts you did before. It's so extreme, in fact, that the workout you do today could be your warm-up three years from now.

Example:

You trained your chest ten times over a period of time. This increased your bust size by 3 cm. Six months later, you subject your body to the same chest workout over the same period of time. But when you measure the results of your training now, you notice that your chest has only grown by 1.5 cm. The same effort now yields only half the results.

Dealing with the Law of Diminishing Returns

It's perfectly normal not to make the same progress as when you started working out. Don't let this discourage you. No one can avoid this phenomenon (at least not without "tools"), but you can take measures to reduce your impact on the law:

1. Variety: Adjust your training program and nutrition every two to three weeks. This way, you'll continually disrupt your body's balance, making you less likely to suffer from the law of diminishing returns.

2. Increase your training volume: train heavier, do more sets with more repetitions and do more training sessions;

3. Train more intelligently: by phasing your workouts into training blocks with their own characteristics (for example, training for hypertrophy and training for maximum strength). This can disrupt your homeostasis enough that you can still achieve good results.

Finally

Are you experiencing a beginner's slump? Try to pull yourself out of it as quickly as possible. Remember, you won't get any results by sitting on the couch, and little progress is still better than no progress! Because let's face it, even though you're not seeing as much progress now, you probably look a lot better than when you started training!

Train them!

Author: Bart Kaats