This is the novice effect article that originally ran on the Wichita Falls Athletic, on starting strength website.

The novice effect.

We had a member here at Wichita Falls Athletic Club who gained 55 pounds in 11 weeks.

I shit you not.

55 pounds in 11 weeks. I shit you not. 55 pounds in 11 weeks. Zach Evitz started with us here in late August of 2009 and by November 12th when I weighed him and measured his body fat he'd gained a total of 55 pounds

of body weight and a little over 31 pounds of lean body mass.

This calculates to a lean body mass gain of 2.84 pounds per week, approximately the rate of growth seen in young farm animals.

Little baby pigs grow about this fast and lots of people make money raising little

baby pigs. No, Zach was not taking steroids. Being an extremely broke 20-year-old college kid,

he could barely afford his gallon of milk a day. And yes, he gained about 24 pounds of fat, none of which

you can see very well, and all of which would come off very easily when it became an issue.

The point is that about 60% of his body weight gain was lean body mass, and that it's much

easier for an athletic young man to lose fat than it is to gain muscle,

at least when approached in the more typical 2009 model conventional wisdom bodybuilding paradigm weight.

He also took you squat from 145 pounds for five reps for three sets, three sets of five, 145,

two, three sets of five at three 15 in this same 11 week period.

This is terribly important to grasp since herein lies the mechanism for the growth.

Zach came to the gym three days a week, never missing a workout,

added 10 pounds to his three work sets each time for two weeks,

and then added five pounds to his work sets until he started slowing down at 315.

He ate more than 6,000 calories a day,

counting the gallon of whole milk,

...