November 17, 2025 //
Mike Williams //
Strength Training //
4 min read
Remember when you first started strength training and every week felt like you were getting stronger?
You’d add weight to seemingly every exercise, knock out extra reps and walk out of the gym feeling like a superhero.
Then somewhere around the 6 month mark, things started to slow down. Maybe you even wondered if you were doing something wrong.
Here’s the truth: you’re not broken, your program doesn’t suck, and you haven’t hit your genetic ceiling.
You’ve just graduated from the magical land of “newbie gains” into the real world of training adaptations.
The Science Behind Slowing Progress
A fascinating meta-analysis by Deschenes and Kraemer (2002) compiled data from approximately 150 studies examining how training status impacts strength gains.
The results paint a clear picture of why your progress feels different now than it did 6 months ago.
The researchers identified 5 distinct training categories based on experience level and the potential strength gains associated with each are eye-opening:
These percentages represent the potential strength training gains over a timeframe of 4 weeks to 2 years.
Generally speaking, the longer you have been training, the more runway you’ll need to realize additional strength gains.
The Missing Puzzle Piece
Here’s where it gets interesting (and slightly frustrating for those of us who love clear definitions): the research doesn’t actually specifiy exact parameters for each category.
There’s no official decree stating once you’ve trained for X months, you’ve officially graduated to the “trained” category.
The categories are more like overlapping zones than hard boundaries, which explains why your friend who started at the same time might be experiencing different results.
Think of this like moving through college except nobody tells you exactly when graduation happens.
All you really know is that if you stop working, your progress will likely begin to backslide.
What This Means For Busy Professionals
If you’re an executive, engineer, or entrepreneur who’s been hitting the gym consistently for the past year, you’ve likely transitioned from “untrained” through “moderately trained” and possibly into the “trained” category.
This means your days of increasing your weights regularly are probably behind you. And that’s completely normal.
Let’s put this into perspective. If you started with a 135 pound deadlift as an untrained individual, a 40% increase would increase the weight on the bar to around 185 pounds.
Not bad for a few months of work, right?
But once you’re in the “trained” category, that same effort might only yield a 15% increase but over a much longer time period.
Using the same example, let’s say your deadlift has progressed to 225 pounds. Increasing this by another 15% to say 255 pounds will likely take significantly longer than the jump from 135 to 185.
It’s almost like compound interest in reverse. The more strength training gains you’ve made, the harder it becomes to add more.
The Silver Lining
Before you throw in your gym towel, remember this: those smaller percentage gains on bigger numbers still represent significant improvements.
A 10% gain on a 315 pound deadlift (approximately 30 pounds) would be a 22% increase to a 135 pound deadlift.
As you advance, you’re not just getting stronger…you’re developing better technique, improved muscle quality, enhanced connective tissue strength, and neuromuscular coordination.
These adaptations don’t show up in a simple percentage calculation but they will make you a stronger, more resilient and capable person.
Managing Expectations Moving Forward
Understanding these strength training categories helps set realistic expectations.
If you’ve been training consistently for 18 months and your progress has slowed, congratulations!
You’re not necessarily stuck…you’re appropriately adapted.
Advanced trainees can’t just show up randomly, lift heavy things and expect to see progress.
They need periodization, strategic deloads, and potentially more specialized programming to continue progressing.
So the next time you feel frustrated that you’re not progressing like you did in the beginning, remember that slower progress is likely a sign that you’ve leveled up.
Being in the “trained” category and struggling for that 15% gain can be significantly more rewarding.
Your gains msy have slowed down but that means you’ve shifted into a different gear.
