How do you gain muscle mass?

If you’re still relatively new to the muscle building game, this is a pretty natural question to ask.

You’re training hard and eating right consistently from week to week, and you want to know what you can realistically expect to achieve from your efforts over the long term.

You’ll hear answers to this question that range all over the map, and getting an idea of what’s truly possible will benefit you in two main ways…

If you’re still relatively new to the muscle building game, this is a pretty natural question to ask.

You’re training hard and eating right consistently from week to week, and you want to know what you can realistically expect to achieve from your efforts over the long term.

You’ll hear answers to this question that range all over the map, and getting an idea of what’s truly possible will benefit you in two main ways…

First off, it will ensure that you don’t get scammed out of your money by the endless number of bogus supplements, miracle programs and other over-hyped products out there promising you “pounds of rock-solid muscle” over completely unrealistic time frames.

And secondly, it will help you set practical, achievable goals that keep you on track and prevent you from “program hopping” from one muscle building plan to the next because you were convinced that you should be making gains at a faster rate.

So, how much muscle can you really gain, and in what time frame?

Let’s go over it…

How Much Muscle Can A Person Truly Gain?

First off, it’s very important to understand that there is far from any single black and white answer to this question.

The ultimate figure can range quite a bit from person to person, and it will depend heavily on many different factors such as genetics, age, body structure as well as the effectiveness and consistency of your program.

For that reason, any answer you get to the question of “how much muscle can I gain” will always be a rough approximation and should be viewed as such.

And what is a safe “rough approximation” when it comes to the ultimate muscle building potential of a natural trainee?

For those ranging from slightly below average genetics to slightly above average genetics, 20-40 pounds of total lean muscle mass would be a realistic lifetime goal to expect.

I recognize that this is a fairly wide range, but given all the factors involved this is about as precise as I can be.

Those with average genetics would probably land somewhere in the middle at around 30 pounds of muscle, while those with slightly below and slightly above average genetics would land on the outer figures of about 20 and 40 pounds of muscle respectively.

Females can take these numbers and reduce them by about half.

This range will cover the vast majority of the lifting population, so there’s a very good chance that you’ll fall somewhere between those numbers if you’re reading this right now.

That said, there will also be a small percentage of “genetic outliers” who will fall on the more extreme ends of the spectrum.

This includes those with particularly poor muscle building genetics who may only be able to gain 10 pounds of muscle or less regardless of how perfect their program is, as well as those with exceptionally good muscle building genetics who may be able to gain 50 pounds or more even on a sub-optimal plan.

However, this will only make up a very small minority of the population and most typical lifters will fall somewhere within that 20-40 pound range.

Also keep in mind that this figure is referring specifically to actual lean muscle mass as opposed to overall body weight.

As you gain more and more muscle, you’ll also put on some additional body fat and water weight along with it, so your actual body weight itself can increase by more than what is outlined here depending on your goals and what type of look you’re aiming for.

How Long Will It Take To Build That Muscle?

Just as no one can tell you for sure how much total lean muscle you’re ultimately capable of building, your actual rate of muscle growth is also going to come down to an educated guess as well.

How long does it take to build muscle approximately?

For most lifters, achieving roughly 50% of your ultimate muscle building potential in the first year would be a realistic expectation, with the rate of growth slowing down by about half for every year thereafter.

Remember that muscle growth is not a linear process, and it will become increasingly harder to progress to higher levels as you gain more and more size.

Your body has genetic limits in place to prevent you from gaining too much additional lean mass, since muscle is metabolically “expensive” tissue that requires a lot of resources to build and maintain.

The bigger you get and the further you move away from your natural set point, the harder your body will press on the brakes to slow the process down.

Using the above figure though, you could expect the following in terms of total gains achieved relative to your genetic potential…

1 Year: 50%

2 Years: 75%

3 Years: 85-90%

Where you specifically fall within that approximate 20-40 pounds of muscle range (or whether you land somewhere outside of it) is influenced by a few very important things…

Genetics

Regardless of what anyone tells you, individual genetic makeup does play a very significant role in the muscle building process just as it does in most other areas of life as well.

Some people simply have a much harder or easier time building muscle than others, and this is influenced by different factors such as muscle fiber distribution, testosterone levels, growth hormone levels, bone structure, insulin sensitivity, myostatin levels and individual recovery ability.

Anyone can build a significant amount of muscle given enough time as long as they aren’t an extreme genetic outlier, but your individual genetic makeup will heavily influence how much muscle you’re ultimately capable of building as a natural.

Body Structure

This ties in with genetics as well, but also keep in mind that different amounts of muscle can appear dramatically different from an aesthetic perspective depending on an individual’s unique body structure.

Height, limb length, muscle shape and muscle insertion points all play a huge role in determining exactly how your newly built muscle mass will actually look.

For example, a lifter who is 5’5 with a smaller bone structure will still appear quite strong and muscular even if his lifetime muscle building potential is only 15-20 pounds.

On the other hand, those same 15-20 pounds may not look overly impressive on someone who is 6’3 with longer limbs, and that lifter would need to gain more total muscle in order to achieve an equally muscular look.

Age

Those in their late teens and 20’s are naturally going to have the fastest muscle growth rate since testosterone levels will be in the optimal muscle building range during that time.

Testosterone levels play a central role in the muscle building process, and if you’re still in your early teens or are in the 40-50+ age range then you can expect to progress at a slower pace.

Training And Nutrition

All of the figures outlined in this article obviously assume that you’re utilizing a properly structured training and nutrition program and are sticking to it consistently over the long term.

If you’re following a sub-par program or are frequently going off-track with your workouts or diet, all of these numbers go straight out the window as your ultimate muscle building potential will of course be compromised.

On top of the 4 factors listed above, the figures given also assume that you’re a natural trainee (steroids and other drugs dramatically alter how much muscle you can pack on) and that you’re starting from a normal healthy body weight (those recovering from an illness such as an eating disorder will be able to gain more total muscle mass from where they started).

How Much Muscle Can You Build? The Bottom Line

After 4-5 years of training and beyond you’d be right up near your natural limit, and although you’d still be able to make additional progress with continued training, the level of diminishing returns would be very steep.

At that point it would likely require multiple years of hard training and proper nutrition just to gain a few pounds of additional muscle.

Factors That Affect Your Individual Muscle Building Potential

As I mentioned at the beginning, any answer you get to the question of “how much muscle can I gain” will always be an educated guess.

There are simply too many different factors that come into play, and the figures will vary quite a bit from person to person.

Not only that, but different amounts of muscle will appear differently on each individual based on their body structure.

That said, 20-40 pounds of lean muscle built over the course of about 4-5 years is a realistic muscle growth rate for those ranging from slightly below to slightly above average genetics.

When it all comes down to it though, this isn’t something I’d spend too much time getting hung up on.

Although it does give you a realistic idea of what’s possible, you still have no way of knowing from the outset what your exact muscle building potential will be, nor how that muscle will actually appear on your frame once it’s built.

Your best bet is to simply get yourself onto the best training and nutrition plan possible, execute it on a consistent basis, see what your individual genetics have in store for you, and adjust as you go along

THE REAL REASON YOU AREN’T LOSING FAT

Have you been struggling to lose fat despite being on a low calorie diet and exercising multiple days per week?

There are always exceptions, but if you’ve been trying to lean down and aren’t making any real progress despite feeling like you’ve tried everything, the answer is probably the simplest and most obvious one that is staring you right in the face…

Your overall daily calorie intake just isn’t as low as you think it is.

You might think you’re taking in, say, 1800 calories a day, but I can almost guarantee that if you’ve been consistently failing to lose weight, you’re actually consuming quite a bit more than that without even realizing it.

I’ve been doing fitness coaching in some form or another for over a decade now, and I can honestly say that in almost every case where someone tells me they can’t lose fat despite being on a “low calorie diet”, it turns out they were never even on a low calorie diet to begin with.

When I sit down with that person, break up their entire day step by step, and then add up all the calories they’re actually eating, they’re usually landing pretty close to their calorie maintenance level as opposed to a calorie deficit.

And make no mistake – without a consistent calorie deficit in place, you quite simply are NOT going to lose any noticeable amount of body fat.

It doesn’t matter how “healthy” you eat throughout the day or if your diet is made up of nothing but lean protein, high fiber carbs, fruits, vegetables and healthy fats…

Fat loss is only going to occur at a significant rate if the number of calories you’re burning is greater than the number of calories you’re consuming over a consistent period of time.

calorie deficit

If your calorie intake is right on par with your calorie expenditure, your body has no need or incentive whatsoever to burn its stored body fat in order to obtain a source of energy.

This is the most fundamental baseline factor in your entire fat loss plan, yet most people simply don’t put forth enough effort to properly monitor their eating habits and ensure that they are in fact in a calorie deficit.

There’s actually a fair amount of research available on this topic as well, and the consensus is quite clear…

When people on a weight loss diet are left to their own devices, they’ll very often under-report their calorie intake, and by a pretty significant margin.

These are just a few of the available studies that have examined this topic…

Discrepancy between self-reported and actual caloric intake and exercise in obese subjects.

The validity of self-reported energy intake as determined using the doubly labelled water technique.

Systematic errors in middle-aged women’s estimates of energy intake.

Undereating and underrecording of habitual food intake in obese men.

Validity of self-reported energy intake in lean and obese young women.

Psychosocial predictors of energy underreporting in a large doubly labeled water study.

This issue of caloric under-reporting happens for a few main reasons…

A) The individual just isn’t bothering to track their food intake with very much precision.

can't lose weight

They may simply be eating what they consider to be a “clean diet” throughout the day, without realizing that their individual food choices won’t make any difference at all if their overall calorie intake is too high to begin with.

As a result of not monitoring things closely enough, they still go overboard on total calories despite eating mostly “healthy” foods.

B) They are attempting to track things properly but are making small errors with their food choices and measurements that are adding up throughout the day.

weight loss plateau

When you consider that a typical calorie deficit for fat loss is usually around 500 calories below maintenance, all it really takes is a few mistakes throughout a given day for your calorie deficit to be significantly reduced or erased altogether.

For example, if what you think is 1 tablespoon of peanut is actually 2 tablespoons (this is a very common measuring error), that’s 100 extra calories right there.

Other items that get added into your plan without much of a second thought can also add up big time in the overall picture if you aren’t careful.

An extra glass of fruit juice… a handful of almonds… cream and sugar in your morning coffee… cooking oils… small high-calorie snacks added in here and there…

All of these small choices can amount to a significant number of calories by the time the day is over and can mean the difference between consistent weekly fat loss or complete stagnation.

C) They’re taking the concept of “cheat meals” and “cheat days” a bit too far, and this is impacting their overall net calorie totals.

cheat day

Another very common mistake you’ll see is in those who do stick to their diet very closely during the week, and then reward themselves with an all out “cheat day” on the weekend where they go ahead and eat any foods they want in whatever amounts they want.

There’s nothing wrong with so-called “cheat foods” eaten in moderation, but unmonitored binging on the weekends can easily offset a good portion of the calorie deficit you created during the regular week.

If you ate at a 500 calorie deficit Monday through Friday (a total of 2500 calories under maintenance), but then ate an extra 1000 calories above maintenance on both Saturday and Sunday, most of your overall deficit has gone to waste.

Can’t Lose Fat? Here’s The Dead-Simple Solution

how to lose fat

The bottom line is that if you’re trying to lose body fat but aren’t seeing results, you simply need to be honest with yourself and recognize the simple fact that you’re probably just over-eating.

There are always exceptions where other factors may be coming into play, but in the majority of cases this is really all that it comes down to.

If you have a true calorie deficit in place then you will steadily lose fat, so if the results aren’t showing up then you simply aren’t in a calorie deficit to begin with.

If you’re one of the many people out there asking “why can’t I lose weight?”, the solution is very simple…

Sit down and honestly take a look at what you’re eating throughout a given day and in what amounts, and add things up to find out how many calories you’re truly taking in.

You can check the labels on the foods you have at home, and you can use an online nutrition database like CalorieKing.com for items that you aren’t sure about. Another option is to use a calorie-tracking app such as MyFitnessPal.

If your weight has been generally staying the same, then the amount of calories you’re eating right now roughly represents your current calorie maintenance level.

In order to create a calorie deficit and stimulate fat loss, subtract 500 from that number and make that your new daily calorie target.

Then, moving forward, start tracking your diet with more precision to ensure that you’re landing somewhere around that number each day.

weight loss plateau

Your basic goal should be to aim for an overall weight loss of around 1-2 pounds per week, and you ultimately just need to find whatever daily calorie target lands you in that range.

It is possible to lose fat faster than this, but for the majority of people, 1-2 pounds per week is a safe range that will allow you to drop fat at a reasonable rate while keeping your appetite, energy levels, mood and training performance in check.

You might think that calorie counting is tedious or “too obsessive”, but if you’re serious about losing the fat then it’s just something you have to do, at least in the beginning stage until you get yourself on the right track.

If you simply eat “on the fly” out of instinct, you’ll almost always revert back to eating at your calorie maintenance level (or in a surplus), since that is what your body is naturally programmed to do when food is constantly available.

Besides, tracking this stuff isn’t nearly as hard as most people think, and it will quickly become something you don’t have to think too much about once you get the hang of it. (This is especially true if you’re like most people and tend to eat a relatively similar diet from day to day.)

Also keep in mind that you don’t have to be 100% dead-on with your calorie numbers every single day in order to get great results.

Fat loss is ultimately all about what you do in the big picture, and if you do go a bit over on some days it’s really not a big deal as long as you’re coming reasonably close on average throughout the week.

At the end of the day though, all this really comes down to is an issue of being more disciplined with tracking your food intake.

Fat loss is not nearly as complicated as most people make it out to be, and it’s really just a matter of creating and sustaining a calorie deficit over time.

Combine that with 3-4 weekly weight training sessions and some additional cardio, and you’ll be well on your way to consistently dropping fat every single week.

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motivational messages

We’ve all had those days…

You’ve just come home from a long day of work or school… you’re physically tired and mentally worn down… you’ve got a thousand non-gym related things on your mind… and all you really want to do is flop down on the couch, relax and unwind.

Only problem is, it’s Thursday. And Thursday is leg day. And no matter how much you try to rationalize it in your mind, deep down you know there’s just no good excuse to skip this workout, even though you’d love nothing more than to stay right where you are and not move a muscle.

Sound familiar?

Yes, even the most motivated of trainees still experience “off days” every now and then. Days where laying in bed and watching Seinfeld re-runs seems like a much more appealing course of action than getting into the squat rack.

So, what should you do in those situations when, for whatever reason, you really just don’t feel like training and can’t seem to find the motivation to make it happen? Or what if this lack of inspiration is an ongoing occurence for you and you’re finding it very difficult to stick to your fitness plan each week as a result?

The solution is dead simple…

Stop thinking about it and start taking action anyway

See, most people think of action and motivation as being strictly a one-way street. In other words, you feel a sufficient level of motivation, and that inspires you to carry out a specific action.

In reality though, it works both ways.

Not only does motivation cause you to take action, but taking action also causes you to feel increasingly motivated.

In other words, if you feel completely unmotivated to do a particular task but begin taking action anyway in spite of how you feel, you’ll often find that the simple act of merely doing something in and of itself is the very catalyst that causes you to feel increasingly motivated.

This then feeds back on itself, as more motivation inspires further action, and further action inspires more motivation, and before you know it, you’re fully absorbed in the original task that seemed so daunting and insurmountable to begin with.

So, instead of sitting around in your current “uninspired” state and merely hoping that you’ll magically feel some big surge in motivation to get you into the gym… instead realize that the very act of taking positive actions towards performing your workout is often the very thing that will produce the motivation you’re looking for.

The state of mind that you feel as you sit on the couch ready to fall asleep is NOT the same state of mind that you’ll be in while you’re performing your actual workout.

Rather, all of the small actions that you take leading up to your workout, through your warmup and through the first set or two of your session will gradually “shift” your state of mind in a positive direction, so that when it comes time to perform the bulk of the actual challenging work, you’ll already be in that pumped up and motivated state you were originally searching for.

Again, stop thinking and just start taking action anyway.

Stop creating mental pictures of what lies ahead… stop creating “what if this” and “what if that” scenarios in your mind… stop trying to weigh out the benefits and drawbacks of performing or not performing your workout…

If you’ve already made the commitment to yourself and know that the right thing to do is to get into the gym and train, then shut off your mind and just do it.

Stand up… change into your gym clothes… pack your bag…

Even these tiny little actions will kick-start this “state-shifting” process.

Have your cup of coffee, pre-workout supplements or whatever else you usually consume prior to training… walk out the door and start making your way to the gym…

Again, these additional small actions will cause your state to shift further.

Walk onto the gym floor… put your headphones on… begin warming up and moving your body…

Far more often than not, you’ll find that by simply taking all of these individual actions leading up to your actual workout without over-thinking or over-analyzing it, your mindset will shift all on its own and automatically produce the motivation and inspiration you need to tackle your workout with full intensity.

By the time you get past your first few sets, the rest of the workout will usually not only be smooth-sailing, but will actually be fully enjoyable as well, especially since you’ve now reinforced in your mind the fact that you’re a self-motivated person who takes action regardless of the circumstances.

This concept applies not only on the micro-level of individual workouts, but also on the macro-level of your overall fitness program as a whole.

That’s because once you begin taking action consistently and have built up a solid track record of successful workouts over the course of a few weeks or months, it will quickly turn into an automatic ingrained habit that you simply do without thinking too much about.

In fact, you’ll likely begin looking forward to your workouts and will genuinely enjoy performing them rather than viewing them as some unwanted chore that you need to “get over with”.

So, if you’re still a beginner and have been struggling to really get things off the ground with your muscle building or fat loss program, just know that the early stage is always the most challenging part by far, and that it only gets easier and easier with each passing week.

And here’s the most important take away from this article…

This principle can be applied to every area of your life beyond just your fitness program.

Any time you’re faced with something that you know you need to do or should do but are feeling unmotivated and overwhelmed by, you can apply this “stop thinking and just take action” principle in the exact same way.

Have a work project that needs to get done but that you really don’t feel like doing? Just take some initial small steps and then harness the momentum of those first few actions in order to motivate yourself further.

Need to write an essay for school but are feeling completely uninspired and uninterested? Just get the first few lines down on the page and then see where it takes you.

Got an invite from a friend to go out but aren’t in a “social mood”, even though you know you should get out of the house? Just go anyway and watch as the state-shifting process kicks into gear once you speak to a few people.

The bottom line here is this…

If you believe that every single action you take requires you to feel fully inspired and motivated right from the get go, you’ll never get anything meaningful done, or at the very least, you’ll only be a fraction as productive as you could be.

If you already logically know what the “right” thing to do is, then stop relying on positive emotions (or the absence of negative emotions) to drive you forward, and just do it anyway!

If you found these tips helpful, make sure to get your personalized training, nutrition and supplement plans watch video presentation   

how to build muscle

If you’re still relatively new to the muscle building game, this is a pretty natural question to ask.

You’re training hard and eating right consistently from week to week, and you want to know what you can realistically expect to achieve from your efforts over the long term.

You’ll hear answers to this question that range all over the map, and getting an idea of what’s truly possible will benefit you in two main ways…

First off, it will ensure that you don’t get scammed out of your money by the endless number of bogus supplements, miracle programs and other over-hyped products out there promising you “pounds of rock-solid muscle” over completely unrealistic time frames.

And secondly, it will help you set practical, achievable goals that keep you on track and prevent you from “program hopping” from one muscle building plan to the next because you were convinced that you should be making gains at a faster rate.

So, how much muscle can you really gain, and in what time frame?

Let’s go over it…

How Much Muscle Can A Person Truly Gain?

how much muscle can you gain

First off, it’s very important to understand that there is far from any single black and white answer to this question.

The ultimate figure can range quite a bit from person to person, and it will depend heavily on many different factors such as genetics, age, body structure as well as the effectiveness and consistency of your program.

For that reason, any answer you get to the question of “how much muscle can I gain” will always be a rough approximation and should be viewed as such.

And what is a safe “rough approximation” when it comes to the ultimate muscle building potential of a natural trainee?

For those ranging from slightly below average genetics to slightly above average genetics, 20-40 pounds of total lean muscle mass would be a realistic lifetime goal to expect.

I recognize that this is a fairly wide range, but given all the factors involved this is about as precise as I can be.

Those with average genetics would probably land somewhere in the middle at around 30 pounds of muscle, while those with slightly below and slightly above average genetics would land on the outer figures of about 20 and 40 pounds of muscle respectively.

Females can take these numbers and reduce them by about half.

This range will cover the vast majority of the lifting population, so there’s a very good chance that you’ll fall somewhere between those numbers if you’re reading this right now.

That said, there will also be a small percentage of “genetic outliers” who will fall on the more extreme ends of the spectrum.

This includes those with particularly poor muscle building genetics who may only be able to gain 10 pounds of muscle or less regardless of how perfect their program is, as well as those with exceptionally good muscle building genetics who may be able to gain 50 pounds or more even on a sub-optimal plan.

However, this will only make up a very small minority of the population and most typical lifters will fall somewhere within that 20-40 pound range.

Also keep in mind that this figure is referring specifically to actual lean muscle mass as opposed to overall body weight.

As you gain more and more muscle, you’ll also put on some additional body fat and water weight along with it, so your actual body weight itself can increase by more than what is outlined here depending on your goals and what type of look you’re aiming for.

How Long Will It Take To Build That Muscle?

how long does it take to build muscle

Just as no one can tell you for sure how much total lean muscle you’re ultimately capable of building, your actual rate of muscle growth is also going to come down to an educated guess as well.

How long does it take to build muscle approximately?

For most lifters, achieving roughly 50% of your ultimate muscle building potential in the first year would be a realistic expectation, with the rate of growth slowing down by about half for every year thereafter.

Remember that muscle growth is not a linear process, and it will become increasingly harder to progress to higher levels as you gain more and more size.

Your body has genetic limits in place to prevent you from gaining too much additional lean mass, since muscle is metabolically “expensive” tissue that requires a lot of resources to build and maintain.

The bigger you get and the further you move away from your natural set point, the harder your body will press on the brakes to slow the process down.

Using the above figure though, you could expect the following in terms of total gains achieved relative to your genetic potential…

1 Year: 50%

2 Years: 75%

3 Years: 85-90%

After 4-5 years of training and beyond you’d be right up near your natural limit, and although you’d still be able to make additional progress with continued training, the level of diminishing returns would be very steep.

At that point it would likely require multiple years of hard training and proper nutrition just to gain a few pounds of additional muscle.

Factors That Affect Your Individual Muscle Building Potential

how fast can you build muscle

Where you specifically fall within that approximate 20-40 pounds of muscle range (or whether you land somewhere outside of it) is influenced by a few very important things…

Genetics

Regardless of what anyone tells you, individual genetic makeup does play a very significant role in the muscle building process just as it does in most other areas of life as well.

Some people simply have a much harder or easier time building muscle than others, and this is influenced by different factors such as muscle fiber distribution, testosterone levels, growth hormone levels, bone structure, insulin sensitivity, myostatin levels and individual recovery ability.

Anyone can build a significant amount of muscle given enough time as long as they aren’t an extreme genetic outlier, but your individual genetic makeup will heavily influence how much muscle you’re ultimately capable of building as a natural.

Body Structure

This ties in with genetics as well, but also keep in mind that different amounts of muscle can appear dramatically different from an aesthetic perspective depending on an individual’s unique body structure.

Height, limb length, muscle shape and muscle insertion points all play a huge role in determining exactly how your newly built muscle mass will actually look.

For example, a lifter who is 5’5 with a smaller bone structure will still appear quite strong and muscular even if his lifetime muscle building potential is only 15-20 pounds.

On the other hand, those same 15-20 pounds may not look overly impressive on someone who is 6’3 with longer limbs, and that lifter would need to gain more total muscle in order to achieve an equally muscular look.

Age

Those in their late teens and 20’s are naturally going to have the fastest muscle growth rate since testosterone levels will be in the optimal muscle building range during that time.

Testosterone levels play a central role in the muscle building process, and if you’re still in your early teens or are in the 40-50+ age range then you can expect to progress at a slower pace.

Training And Nutrition

All of the figures outlined in this article obviously assume that you’re utilizing a properly structured training and nutrition program and are sticking to it consistently over the long term.

If you’re following a sub-par program or are frequently going off-track with your workouts or diet, all of these numbers go straight out the window as your ultimate muscle building potential will of course be compromised.

On top of the 4 factors listed above, the figures given also assume that you’re a natural trainee (steroids and other drugs dramatically alter how much muscle you can pack on) and that you’re starting from a normal healthy body weight (those recovering from an illness such as an eating disorder will be able to gain more total muscle mass from where they started).

How Much Muscle Can You Build? The Bottom Line

muscle growth rate

As I mentioned at the beginning, any answer you get to the question of “how much muscle can I gain” will always be an educated guess.

There are simply too many different factors that come into play, and the figures will vary quite a bit from person to person.

Not only that, but different amounts of muscle will appear differently on each individual based on their body structure.

That said, 20-40 pounds of lean muscle built over the course of about 4-5 years is a realistic muscle growth rate for those ranging from slightly below to slightly above average genetics.

When it all comes down to it though, this isn’t something I’d spend too much time getting hung up on.

Although it does give you a realistic idea of what’s possible, you still have no way of knowing from the outset what your exact muscle building potential will be, nor how that muscle will actually appear on your frame once it’s built.

Your best bet is to simply get yourself onto the best training and nutrition plan possible, execute it on a consistent basis, see what your individual genetics have in store for you, and adjust as you go along. watch video       

easy recipes