How Much Muscle Can You Gain In A Year As A Natural?
In a world full of magical programs promising you a Mr. Olympia physique in a year of training, hopefully, I can help you understand how much muscle growth you should be expecting as a natural.
The number of crazy transformations flooding social media has been constantly rising over the past decade.
We often hear unrealistic and unbelievable claims such as movie stars putting on another 25 pounds of muscle in just 12 weeks.
This generally tends to throw us off and we end up forgetting about whats achievable naturally.
As a matter of fact, social media has skewed our perception of muscle gain so much that there are countless number of people out there who don't even know what they should be expecting from training.
If you’re thinking why is this a big deal, let me explain.
Apart from having an effect on your mental health, such expectations will end up ruining your relationship with training on the whole.
In fact, you could be doing everything right and still feel that maybe there is something wrong with your programming since you don't get results as fast as you expect them.
How many people do you see simply adding more and more exercises because their arms don't tend to grow even though they have just been training consistently for 6 months?
The truth is that everyone says building muscle is a slow process but no one truly accepts it.
Also, to make this worse, the ‘eat big to get big’ mentality makes people who are bulking end up with excess fat.
What should a natural expect?
To answer this, I’m going to be using The McDonald Model by Lyle McDonald.
The McDonald Model by Lyle McDonald
First, keep in mind that these values are for men.
For women, expect half the amount of muscle gain per year (Read section below).
Also, these numbers factor in proper nutrition and training.
On top of that, several other factors such as genetics come into play hence making it impossible for us to use these figures as something set in stone.
That being said, this is what you should be aiming for if your training and diet are on point.
What exactly is the point of this?
You might be thinking that since these numbers aren’t set in stone, why do they even matter?
Two people wouldn’t gain muscle similarly even if all other factors are held constant only because of genetics alone.
So why should one care about this information?
The answer is simple.
They help you understand what you can achieve realistically as a natural.
Hence, if you’re an individual who is in his first year of training, it wouldn’t make sense for you to gain 5 pounds a month, as the amount of muscle you can put on with all factors being optimal is just 1-2 pounds a month.
You see, not knowing this, an uninformed bulker would just pound down food and keep adding more and more volume in his training with the hopes of building more muscle than what is naturally possible.
Thus, he would end up with a lot of excess fat at the end of his bulk, losing which would require him to diet for a very long period.
And as we all know, long diets could lead to loss of hard earned muscle and strength, defeating the whole purpose of bulking in the first place.
This model also helps us put into perspective the crazy transformations we see on social media.
While there is no harm in seeking motivation, it is absolutely pointless beating yourself over the fact that you aren’t able to put on 50 pounds of muscle in a year like your favorite social media influencer.
What does this mean for women?
As I mentioned earlier, women can aim to gain half the amount mentioned above.
This means, everything being optimal, a woman can gain 10-12 pounds of muscle in her first year of training and this number keeps diminishing with more and more experience.
This helps us put aside the myth that lifting heavy will make women look manly.
While this sounds backward, there are tons of women who still fear lifting heavy.
In fact, I see more and more random workouts using light dumbbells and cables online targeting women which can supposedly help women ’tone’ their bodies.
Following such programming simply means you're wasting your time and effort.
If you're a woman reading this, you should know that gaining 12 pounds of muscle (5.5 kgs) in your first year isn’t going to turn you into the hulk.
In fact, it will help you get the ‘toned' physique you wish to get.
Moreover, having more muscle will help you burn more calories and hence will allow you to eat more food. Who doesn’t love more food?
Hence, what you can take away from this post as a woman is that your focus should be on training on an smart program and making sure that your nutrition is on point.
Want to know the truth about getting toned as a woman and get free workout template? Click here.
Conclusion
Being aware of how much muscle one can build naturally helps us set realistic goals for ourselves in our journey towards our desired body composition.
It helps us understand why force feeding alone does not translate to more muscle gain and as to why gaining weight slowly during a bulk is the right way to go.
It can help many women understand that building muscle does not happen overnight and hence training heavy should not be feared.
The big picture is that having an idea of what to expect, we are better able to gauge our progress.
Not only does this help us stay consistent, but it also helps us improve our relationship with training.
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