Celebrate Small Wins (What Every Young Lifter Needs to Hear)

If there’s one mindset tweak I can give any young lifter out there, it is to celebrate small wins.

Most young men who hit the gym consistently are frustrated by how slow progress is.

Outside of your first year of training, you are not going to see dramatic changes in yourself every second month.

Once you’re an intermediate lifter, you would be LUCKY if you gained 100g muscle each week (yes, one hundred grams). And to get that 100g, you’d need:

• Very good nutrition
• Very good training program
• Very good rest/recovery
• Decent genetics (some people gain muscle slower than others)
• Male gender (women can expect to gain muscle at about half the rate of men)

Muscle gain estimates from Lyle McDonald:

Basically, gaining muscle is a slow and hard process.

Gaining muscle takes TIME.

Weight loss takes weeks and months.

Gaining significant muscle takes years. It requires consistency and patience.

This is why instead of being frustrated that you still don’t have the muscle and strength you want, you should celebrate the SMALL WINS you get over time.

Maybe you have bigger delts than you did 3 months ago and your shirt feels tighter.

Maybe you added 3 kg to your bench press.

Maybe you lost 5% body fat this quarter.

Whatever.

Celebrate the small wins.

Because that’s what makes up the bulk of your life.

Every quarter look at how far you’ve come and pat yourself on the back.

Do not just look at the mistakes you made.

Life is both long and short, and the game is about consistency more than it is about making every day perfect. Don’t let the great be the enemy of the good.

The big win is just your small wins adding up, so don’t discount them.

You climb up the mountain one step at a time.

Enjoy every step, because the view from the top is only a small part of the journey:

– Harsh Strongman