“How much muscle mass can I gain in a year and what is my genetic potential or limit? What is possible to build muscle in 3 months? ”- I actually get these and similar questions relatively frequently, which is why I will provide you with detailed answers to these questions in this article.
Thick arms, round shoulders and a massive chest – that’s what everyone secretly wants. But the question is, when will I have all of this? How long do I have to do this ‘fitness thing’ until I reach my goal and have built up muscle mass?
There are both philosophical and clear scientific answers to this question. Today we want to deal more with the scientific facts ( and not my ramblings about life and success in this ).
Therefore, we look at what is possible according to common experts and studies and in the end, I’ll give you the most important key elements so that you can build muscle mass as quickly as possible.
Item Content:
- How much muscle can you gain in a year?
- How much muscle can you gain in 3 months?
- The more advanced, the more difficult – is that true?
- This is how you exploit your genetic potential
How much muscle can you gain in a year?
Very few athletes ever reach their genetic potential in their lives and the one factor that really depends on how close you get to this limit is commitment or discipline.
For example, some people believe that you have already reached your limit after 2 or 3 years …
You may be at your limit after 10-15 years of full commitment and sacrifice – but luckily, we don’t have to wait that long to build impressive amounts of muscle and achieve an athletic and impressive body, because all of this can be achieved much earlier and more quickly.
But how much muscle mass can you build up in a year?
There is no final and only true answer to this question either, simply because there are actually many genetically determined factors involved here: age, training experience, personal commitment, individual requirements and and and …
Nevertheless, some top coaches and researchers in the field of bodybuilding and strength training have been able to set up a kind of guideline with hundreds of coachees over the years. I would now like to introduce 2 of them to you.
On the one hand that of Alon Aragon and on the other hand that of Lyle McDonald.
Alan Aragon’s guidelines
In practice, this could mean the following. A 70 kg beginner with the right training and correct nutrition will be able to build up around 700 g to 1050 g of muscle mass per month or 8.4 kg to 12.6 kg in a year.
As soon as he reaches the second year of training, an athlete is an advanced strength athlete, according to Aragon. Now our athlete already weighs 80 kg and can expect a monthly gain of around 400 g to 800 g of new muscle mass or 4.8 kg to 9.6 kg per year.
From the third year our athlete is already “professional” here – even if that doesn’t have to be the correct term – and now probably weighs around 86 kg.
If he stays on the ball, progressively overloads his muscles and feeds himself well, then he can achieve another gain of around 215 g to 430 g per month or 2.6 kg to 5.16 kg for the third year of new muscle mass,
- According to Aragon, in the first 3 years, we would have a possible new increase in muscle mass from 15.8 kg to 27.4 kg – and that is a hell of a lot in my eyes.
15 kg more muscle mass on the ribs after only 3 years of intensive strength training is a great and blatant result, which visually makes a difference from worlds.
Before I give you my opinion on all of this, let’s take a quick look at Lyle McDonald’s view or guidelines.
Lyle McDonald’s guidelines
However, McDonald also makes it clear here that these values and guidelines depend on several factors (age, hormones, genetics, lifestyle).
- Nevertheless, according to McDonald, we can achieve an increase in new muscle mass of 16.8 to 21.6 kg in the first few years.
Now there is the following important note for both guidelines. Both Aragon and McDonald assume training and nutrition that are practically perfect.
Just going into training, ignoring all the principles of muscle building, not adapting to your diet, and generally being drunk from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning, are not going to give you these rather significant advances.
However, both Aragon and McDonald say that this process can only start later when everything is in place.
It may well be that you have been spinning in a circle for years, have already “years” of training on your watch, but are now making drastic progress with the right optimizations.
How much muscle mass can you build up in 3 months
A question that is often asked primarily among beginners – although as a beginner you should probably “worry” primarily about other things. Nevertheless, here is an approximate statement:
- In 3 months you can build up between 2 and 3 kilograms of muscle mass.
This would correspond to one kilogram of muscle mass per month and I also think that with my many years of experience it is absolutely realistic.
Now 3 kilos of muscle mass doesn’t really sound impressive – in practice, however, a three-month transformation can be very impressive.
Here is a picture of my very first transformation after 3 months of proper training and dieting (on the left picture I’ve been training for 2 years – just completely wrong!)
Still far from reaching the goal – but not bad for my first real 3-month diet…
Muscle building 3 months before after
Here are other – in my eyes – impressive transformations of athletes who worked with me:
Sascha K. (- 7.2 kg)
Dirk M. (-12.4 kg)
There is a 3 to 4-month difference between all these pictures and we have all changed our stature drastically, all of them have become stronger and have radically chiseled the fat off their hips.
However, we all got between 4 and 8 kilograms lighter on the scales – not heavier, even though we look more muscular.
The muscular and athletic effect will be achieved primarily through a low body fat percentage – and not only after 15 kilograms more muscle mass on the ribs.
The more advanced, the more difficult – is that true?
Depending on your point of view and perspective, these figures are either encouraging or sobering for you – and I can understand both points of view well.
If we compare a top natural bodybuilder (the best of the best) with a bodyweight of 86 kg with a professional bodybuilder who goes on stage with around 120 kg of pure muscle mass, then one or the other may experience disappointment …
And yes, as I always say:
Natural bodybuilding and “normal” bodybuilding are two absolutely different sports – with the difference that natural athletes are also healthy on the inside and have not reached their bodies with the most severe and absolutely disgusting anabolic steroid abuse.
When I’m in shape, I myself weigh 81 kg on about 9% body fat. At this point, I am in my fifth year of training and I still have a lot to improve.
I am not close to my genetic limit, nor have I already achieved my ideal proportions – and yet I have been a fitness model for 3 years and have built a body that 98% of all exercisers would like …
The problem – Over time, muscle building becomes increasingly difficult and slow …
After more than 5 years in the gym, I can probably only expect an increase of 1 to 3 kilograms a year – and you have to seriously ask yourself whether this is still worthwhile progress …
However, my answer is clear: yes, it’s worth it!
Because the last 5 kilograms of muscle mass will appear much more blatantly and act much more drastically on the stature than the first 5 kilograms.
Qualitative 2 to 3 kilograms more muscle mass on an already athletic body with around 10 to 12% body fat percentage will make worlds.
You just look pretty early on – and then you will just look even hotter over the years.
End of story …
This is how you exploit your genetic potential
Basically, the right strategy and the right knowledge is at the center of a successful transformation over the years and one of my readers has already said “The more knowledge you have, the thicker the biceps!” – and there is nothing more to add.
We have to focus constantly on progressive overload in training, become steadily stronger and thus always build up new muscle mass.
In terms of nutrition, most athletes should focus primarily on body recomposition, i.e. lose fat and build new muscle mass, until they have an athletic body with a low body fat percentage.
After that, light phases of the excess calories can be alternated with small entertaining diets for further muscle building.
A good idea would be, for example, a small daily excess of calories over a 9-month period followed by a three-month diet.
But be careful with the “mass phase” – a lot can go catastrophically wrong here and this time is often misunderstood. Here you can find my detailed contribution.
In training, you should try to accumulate as much volume and workload as you can handle the current status quo.
The keyword here is individualization and you should ideally balance things like the training volume, intensity, frequency and much more in order to be able to build up maximum muscle.
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