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 

fitness plan

The topic of proper training can be made complicated.

Extremely complicated.

We can obsess about every little detail behind optimal workout frequency, number of sets, exercise selection, rep ranges, rep speed, time under tension, resting between sets and more until building muscle effectively seems like an infinitely complex process involving rocket-science precision and an intimate understanding of human physiology.

Yes, all of these individual factors need to be addressed and properly laid out when structuring an effective training routine… but at the heart of it all lies ONE key principle.

One principle that your ENTIRE training program should be based around.

If you don’t give it your full attention, or even worse, overlook it altogether…

You’re completely ignoring the very foundation of the entire muscle building process.

What am I talking about?

“The Law Of Progressive Overload”

To put it into simple terms, the law of progressive overload states that in order for you to gain new muscle each week, you must accomplish the following two things…

1) Train with a sufficient level of intensity in order to stimulate the body’s muscle growth mechanism.

When you go to the gym, you place your muscles under stress by lifting weights.

Each repetition closer to muscular failure creates deeper inroads into the muscle and causes what are called “micro-tears”.

In other words, you are voluntarily inflicting damage on your muscles by breaking down the fibers.

Muscle growth is an adaptive response to that stress, and therefore, it’s critical that the level of stress be high enough during your workouts in order to give your body the proper incentive to grow.

The plain reality is that you will not make significant increases in muscle mass and strength or transform your physique to a truly impressive degree unless you’re prepared to train at a level that is at (or close to) your maximum potential effort.

Exactly how intense should your workouts be?

As an overall guideline, I would recommend taking the majority of muscle building sets that you peform in the gym approximately 1 rep short of concentric muscular failure.

Concentric muscular failure is the point at which you are unable to complete an additional positive repetition of a given exercise in proper form despite your greatest efforts.

In other words, you’ll want to continue your set to the point where, if you were to give a 100% all-out effort and push with every ounce of strength, you’d only be able to manage 1 more rep using proper form.

Do keep in mind though that if you are completely new to weight training then it will definitely be best to ease yourself into the gym and gradually build up your training intensity using lighter weights first.

It is very important that you always utilize proper form and make sure that your joints and connective tissue are not being stressed too heavily. The goal here is to safely push your body to its limits.

Once you have learned the proper form for each exercise and feel comfortable with the various movements, you can then begin to ramp up the intensity over the course of a few weeks.

2) Consistently increase the amount of weight lifted on each exercise over time.

Let’s use a basic analogy here…

Envision a building. A 7.0 earthquake hits and the building is severely damaged. Workers rush to the scene to repair the damage that has been done and to protect the building against a possible future earthquake. 

Sure enough, a 7.2 earthquake hits and the building is once again broken down. The workers return and repair the building once more. Only this time they rebuild it even larger and stronger to protect against any possible future earthquakes. Now a 7.4 earthquake hits…

I’m sure you can see where this is going.

In order for the muscles to continually become larger and stronger from week to week, you must gradually increase the amount of weight you lift on each of your exercises over time.

In doing this the body will continue to adapt and grow to the ever increasing stress.

Think about it; if you were able to squat 200 pounds today, and were still using the same weight 3 months from now, do you think you would have experienced any considerable muscle gains during that time?

Of course not.

Your body would have adapted itself to squatting 200 pounds and will only progress further when it is presented with a workload beyond that capacity.

This is why it is so incredibly important that every single time you set foot in the gym you have your plan of attack in mind.

You should know exactly what you accomplished in the previous week and what you are striving to achieve this week.

Since the ultimate goal of everything you accomplish in the gym is consistent progression, then quite clearly the central basis for building muscle is to build strength.

This is a universal law of muscle growth and is by far the #1 most important principle in your entire workout plan.

It’s all about getting better each week.

Every time you enter the gym, the first thing you should be thinking of is:

What did I do last week?

What must I do this week in order to improve upon last week?

This is the ultimate bottom line.

Just make sure that any time you add weight to the bar, your form and technique is not compromised.

True progression means that your form remains exactly the same every time you increase the weight. If your range of motion begins shortening, you start using excessive momentum, your rep speed increases and/or your technique just gets downright sloppy, you’re simply adding weight at too fast a pace.

Building muscle is not a sprint; it’s a marathon.

Keep your ego in check, take your time, and focus on gradually increasing the weight while maintaining perfect technique at all times.

Not only is lifting heavier weights with inferior form NOT going to help you gain muscle faster, but it’s going to greatly increase your chances for injury as well.

So, to sum up the law of progressive overload in simple terms:

Train hard. Focus on getting stronger. Repeat.

If you aren’t grinding it out in the gym by training fairly close to your limits each time… and if you aren’t adding weight to the bar consistently… you can be rest assured you won’t be building any considerable new muscle either.

So, if you want the most powerful (yet basic) piece of training advice possible, it’s simply this:

Get a notebook and a pen and start tracking every workout in detail.

Write down the exercises you performed, the number of sets you did and the number of reps executed for each one.

Next time you enter the gym, your entire goal is to “beat the logbook” by either adding slightly more weight to the bar or cranking out an extra rep or two with the same weight.

It doesn’t matter how good your memory is or how much you insist that you “keep everything in your head”, you must keep a written record of every workout you perform.

By doing this you will have a visual representation of the exact weight you used and reps you performed in the previous workout.

This is an extremely powerful tool and will enable you to progress as fast as you possibly can. By keeping a written record versus just remembering, you will be much more motivated to increase your weight and reps since you’ll have to hold yourself accountable if you fail to do so.

It is also very motivating to be able to look back at previous weeks of training and have a concrete record of the increasing weight and repetitions.

The difference from week to week will be minor, but when you extrapolate it over months and years of consistent training, you’ll be amazed by the gains you’re able to make.

It still boggles my mind that 90% of people in the gym don’t do this… but then again, it’s no surprise that 90% of people never make any real progress either. watch video

The law of progressive overload: treat it with respect, revolved the basis of your entire workout plan around it, and the difference in your results will be like night and day.

Health and fitness, after all, needs to be a lifelong journey, not a quick-fix solution and for that to happen what you do must fit clean eating into your life and not demand you revolve your life around it.

Sure, it’s challenging to stick with a regular exercise program or a healthy eating plan even WITHOUT the responsibilities of everyday life – kids, spouse, home, job and so on. Having to work late one day can mean you miss a workout. The thing is, missing a workout does not mean you have blown your whole regimen. Being affected by life’s little bumps does not mean you are weak. It means you are simply human.

watch video     

soup recipes for a flat tummy 

the truth about grill meat,

Most people aren't aware that when you cook meat (whether it's grilled, broiled, or seared) there are carcinogenic compounds that can form called HCA's (heterocyclic amines).  Now don't panic...you ingest various carcinogens all the time, even with some vegetables. You can always protect yourself with more antioxidants.

Please Note:  When you cook meat in a water base as opposed to grilling, broiling, or searing, you eliminate the HCAs. So for example, meats cooked in a soup, or meats cooked in a crock pot will not have the problem of the carcinogenic HCAs and is a healthier way to cook meat.

But let's face it... grilled meat tastes awesome and there's no way I'm giving up my grass-fed steak from the grill, or my grass-fed burgers!

That's why it's important to know that there's a way you can use spices to both counteract, and also drastically reduce the carcinogens formed when you grill meat...

If you're going to grill meats, marinating meats for hours beforehand in liquid mixtures that contain rosemary and other herbs/spices can dramatically help to reduce HCA's (heterocyclic amines), which are carcinogenic compounds that can form when meats are grilled.  So using rosemary, thyme, garlic, oregano and other spices in a meat marinade before grilling meats can drastically reduce any carcinogens that normally would form on grilled meat. 

The antioxidants in rosemary and thyme from a marinade were specifically cited in studies at being powerful inhibitors of HCA formation when grilling meats.  But it was also noted that other spices such as garlic, oregano, and others can help to prevent HCA formation as well, so I suggest using a variety, which tastes great anyway!

One more important point about grilling meat:

Remember that the more well-done a meat is cooked, the higher concentration of carcinogenic HCA's can form, so rare, medium-rare, or medium are healthier choices than well-done.  I've never understood why anybody would want to ruin a good steak by burning it to oblivion anyway.  But hey, if you're one of those folks that likes your steaks well-done, just remember that you're eating a lot more carcinogens than a steak that's cooked less, so make sure to load up on your antioxidants (spices, teas, berries, etc) to help combat those extra carcinogens.  

Washing down your barbequed meal with a glass of unsweetened iced tea (rich in antioxidants) and also a good salad with lots of raw veggies can provide the antioxidants needed to counteract the effect of HCAs in your body from grilled meat. 

By the way, even charring vegetables on the grill creates different carcinogens such as acrylamides, so don't think that the negative effect of charring only applies to meats.

Hey, we all love a great barbeque, so no need to give that up just because of HCAs or acrylamides, but at least now you know how to counteract the effects of these in your body to protect yourself, and also how to use spices to drastically reduce the formation of HCAs on grilled meat!

Lastly, did you know that the TYPE of meat you may be grilling on a regular basis can be destroying your metabolism and health?

It’s true!

The truth is that grilling a grass-fed steak, burger, organic chicken breast or thigh, and many other types of meat can not only be on of the healthiest meals to prepare, but also BURN belly fat because of the high protein content, healthy CLA fats, as well as full amino-acid profile, and many other fat-fighting and metabolism boosting qualities of high quality meat…

However, you really need to pay attention to the type of meat you’re purchasing.  While many health and medical experts caution the consumption of meats claiming they can “cause heart problems,” and many other scare tactics, there are no scientific studies showing this when you're talking about high quality, organic and pasture-raised meats.  Most of the negative studies on meat refer to processed meats laden with chemicals, such as hot dogs or lunch meats, but not a good grass-fed steak.

Animals that are raised in high-population commercial farms are fed mostly corn, corn by-products, and other grains, that completely change the chemistry of the meat you’re preparing.

They turn an otherwise healthy & fat-fighting meal into a health-destroying, inflammtory, fat-GAINING meal.

So the next time you’re at your local butcher or grocery store, make sure to seek out the highest quality pasture-raised meats, loaded with more vitamins, minerals, and healthy fats.

Not only will they taste better, but they’ll also be much better for your waistline and health.

Red Wine and Your Gut?

You've probably heard that red wine can be a very healthy drink option, but you most likely only heard about generic benefits of the antioxidants and resveratrol in red wine. 

But here's another MAJOR reason below why red wine in moderation (1-2 glasses per day max) can be a super healthy part of your routine.  I personally have really grown to enjoy having a glass of red wine with dinner about 4-5 days per week.

A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Am J Clin Nutr. 2012;95:1323-1334) reported that people who drank 2 glasses of red wine per day (dry red wine, not sugary dessert wines) had higher levels of beneficial bacteria in their gut and lower levels of pathogenic bad bacteria in their gut.  

This is great news as you know from reading this newsletter how vastly important your gut flora balance is to everything from your digestion, immunity, metabolism, skin health, and much more.

The study concluded that while red wine consumption decreased pathogenic bacteria in the gut, it actually had a prebiotic effect in the gut in that it supported the growth and colonies of healthy gut microbes which protect your health.

But the powerful health benefits of red wine don't stop there...

Another exciting part of this study is that the red wine drinkers also decreased systolic and diastolic blood pressure, triglycerides, LDL cholesterol, and CRP (C-reactive protein).  CRP is a measure of overall inflammation in your body, so it's great to see an association between red wine and reduced inflammation.

The interesting part of the study is that red wine was compared against equivalent servings of gin (equivalent alcohol serving) and none of the benefits mentioned above were seen in the group consuming the gin.  

This means the benefits were probably related to the polyphenols and resveratrol in red wine and not necessarily the alcohol content itself, although there is likely a synergistic effect of the alcohol and other compounds in red wine since the group receiving de-alcoholized red wine got less of a blood pressure benefit.

You can choose Cabernet, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Shiraz or any other dry red wine to get all of these powerful health benefits of the unique polyphenols and resveratrol.

Note that white wine also has some health benefits but not nearly as powerful as red wine due to the lower antioxidant levels. 

Another benefit of red wine not mentioned in the study above is that some studies show that red wine consumed with a meal can slow and moderate the blood sugar response you get from that meal.  This is yet another benefit to keeping your hormones balanced, lowering insulin levels, controlling appetite, and staying lean!

As you can see, there's plenty of reasons raise a glass of red wine at your meals and toast to your health and happiness!  After all, I've seen several stories on the news where they ask a centenarian how they're so healthy over the age of 100, and one of the answers they seem to frequently give is that they have one glass of red wine per day.

But BEWARE...

Although red wine may be a super-healthy choice for a lean, healthy, & strong body as well as keeping your digestive system healthy…

On the next page, I want to share with you exactly why you should STOP eating whole wheat bread, vegetable oil, sugar, soy, and even some ‘heart healthy’ foods, 

as well as how these foods are silently KILLING you and your family.