[stewarts]

This depends on lift frequency, the lift itself, etc.

In general, for a compound lift (squat/bench/deadlift/overhead press) most would consider newbie gains exhausted once you can no longer linearly add weight/reps on a weekly basis (assuming a normal weekly schedule). This is the point when various forms of periodization (waving weight/reps/frequency up/down in many possible ways) need to start to support the increase of weight/reps over time.

[nwiswell]

> most would consider newbie gains exhausted once you can no longer linearly add weight/reps on a weekly basis

This is likely to happen after about 3 months.

I don't really agree that the kind of weights you can achieve after 3 months pose a meaningfully elevated injury risk, unless your form is terrible or you have some existing condition.