Poast how much lean muscle can be gained each year

[mr-universe]

how much is possible do u think? personal exp?

Got the opp to ask Dorian Yates irl how much muscle he gained each year during his pro career and he said about 5lbs

Dave Palumbo says 2-3kg is possible each 8-12 weeks & 8-10kg per year

tbh i think muscle can be gained quickly initially but once at a certain point the gains slow down a lot imo

[Ninja]

This question doesnt really have an answer. It depends on:

- your genetic ability to grow muscle tissue

- your genetic ability to recover and to release growth hormone in response to training

- your age, sex and height.

- your frame size

- your metabolism

- your body type (endo etc) and your insulin resistance

- your natural testosterone levels (if natty)

- your drug regiment (if using PED's)

- what kind of training you are doing and its intensity

The list goes on and on and on

The point is there are too many variables to come up with just one number.

As for personal experience ive gained roughly 15 kg of pure muscle since i started training 3 years ago, and yes it has slowed right down to very small gains now

[jimmybro1]

how much is possible do u think? personal exp?

Got the opp to ask Dorian Yates irl how much muscle he gained each year during his pro career and he said about 5lbs

Dave Palumbo says 2-3kg is possible each 8-12 weeks & 8-10kg per year

tbh i think muscle can be gained quickly initially but once at a certain point the gains slow down a lot imo

2-3kg each 8-12 weeks I wish!

Like you said the rate of lean muscle growth slows down dramatically with time training. Also are you talking muscle tissue or lean mass?

I think I can gain 2-3 kg of lean mass in 12 months. Obviously if your taking anabolics the rate of growth will be more rapid, however will be difficult to maintain when off.

It's a genetic thing though. Some people produce less Myostatin than others and are freaks

[Android]

yeah agree with above, 2-3kg is the norm...unless if you're starting out from a low body mass in which case gains as high as 10kg in the first year are possible...but not sustainable.

lean muscle is always in a state of flux so it's so easy to lose what you gain.

after all it's mostly about how much can you expand the existing muscle cells by filling them with food and water...isn't that what lean muscle gains are?

[Riccardo]

I've read before that a trained individual can only gain around 500g-1kg of actual lean muscle tissue per year for a completely natural athlete. I think that might be an average across a number of years though. If dorian is gaining only 5lb of muacle per year on how many drugs, I dont think a natural guy could get anywhere close to that. But I guess it comes down to a number of factors.

[Loochi]

I've gained 900grams since my last comp :pfft: sucks but progress is progress I guess :nod:

[I Declare War]

It all depends on your anabolic capacity and the consistency over time of the factors that it is comprised of.

Genetics (and pharmaceuticals for the enhanced) and food intake dictate your capacity for training; how quickly you can recover and grow. The sum of these factors (among others omitted for simplicity) comprise your anabolic capacity.

For naturals the maximum amount of muscle that can be gained in a given year basically comes down to what your anabolic capacity is. To gain the most mass that you personally can gain you must strive to be as consistent as possible with optimising training, rest, and nutrition.

For the highly experienced advanced bodybuilder the maximum amount of lean muscle mass that can be gained in one year can be pretty amazing. Victor Martinez for example, was released from prison last year and resumed bodybuilding at a sub-100kg body-weight, then several months later he was weighing in at around 130kg (...then broke his arm in an arm wrestle!). Given a good run an advanced bodybuilder may put on 40-50kg of lean bodymass in a year (given the starting point is low).

"Progressive Overload". I'd suggest you read up on this term, and incorporate it in to your training as best as you can.

[Android]

sorry to hear that IDW.....p-addiction can be a terrible terrible thing mate

:shock: do you honestly believe that someone on this planet can put on 40-50kg LBM within 365 days.

Even Victor Martinez couldn't sustain that increase!

And at 130kg was definitely pushing his upper limits ... since his off-season weight is at best 125-130kg there seems little chance he could continue to add LBM and reach that 40-50kg gain you speak of

[I Declare War]

sorry to hear that IDW.....p-addiction can be a terrible terrible thing mate

:shock: do you honestly believe that someone on this planet can put on 40-50kg LBM within 365 days.

Even Victor Martinez couldn't sustain that increase!

And at 130kg was definitely pushing his upper limits ... since his off-season weight is at best 125-130kg there seems little chance he could continue to add LBM and reach that 40-50kg gain you speak of

I was sure that some dumb fool would be baited and ask me that exact question.

Of course it's possible, Vic was still doing maintenance stuff in the gym from what I read... what if he had dropped everything and started from scratch at 80kg. Over a full year with the best pharmaceuticals and genetics... of course it's possible!

Levrone at his prime also had such large fluctuations... for a large portion of the year he wouldn't train, he'd just focus on his band.

Fill someone up with insulin and heaps of pharmagrade HGH + IGF1, and they can most definitely get maxed out in one year. Provided they know their body to a T, know their drugs inside out, have top notch response genetics.

Even if I look at myself, several years ago I spent a year dairying, dropped down from 90kg to 65kg that year. Muscle isn't really a benefit when you're on the farm! When I got back in the gym, over that year I blew right up to 95kg (pretty lean). That's 30kg... and I didn't even use any insulin or HGH to do it. Imagine if I had those along with awesome genetics - 40-50kg from scratch for a top notch pro in one year would be doable!

Use ya noggin!

[Android]

yeah and guys can hang bottles of beer from their nipples too...

but doesn't mean it's the norm!

i see your point, some gifted guys who were huge before go to prison, lose all their anabolic-induced size, then get back into it.

...not really adding anymore than they had previously though is it

[I Declare War]

It all depends on where along the spectrum you are.

You're already trained up Android, you've created an anabolic environment that allows you to get to a certain level. You're already close to that level, as your training is already pretty high quality and consistent. You can't really expect to add much more lean muscle at your current level. Basically the only factor that you really have control over to add substantial amounts of muscle would be to increase drugs. More HGH, more insulin, igf1-lr3, ghb to sleep. Basically at some point the only answer is to become a walking pharmacy to gain extra size. I wonder whether you'd be a solid 135kg if you followed Justin Rhys' protocol.

Sorry for juicing up this thread!

[FellowshipOfTheRon]

all depends on your prior experience/development, your current state, training age and like a million other factors. as idw says, a seasoned veteran will be able to pump out huge gains after a long hibernation - he is equipped with the muscle memory as well as the knowledge he had worked hard to acquire over previous years as to which exercises/rep ranges his muscles react best to. in saying that, the example he used is a good reminder that just because the muscles may come on fast it doesn't mean the structures beneath (joints/bones) agree with the rapid increase in workload.

a beginner has huge potential but usually will lack the coaching/will power to work up to reach his maximum potential during the early phases. most beginners will report anywhere from 3 to 10kg lean gains within their first few months. more experienced trainers will generally gain 1~3kg in a year after lots of hard work.

[mattypyuu]

like everyone else is mentioning, there's ALOT of things that can alter muscle gains, a big chunk of that is genetics.

[Chemo]

First year gains are godly. Even if the genetics were shit. There's a lot of joy that comes in that first year from what I've seen.

After that though its pretty rough going for your average dude to gain lean tissue. I can gain mass...but lean mass...much harder (slow as fuq)

For myself first year natty I gained almost 10kg ( with little/inaccurate knowledge of diet and training), second year was less. Maybe 5 and 3rd year was about the same or less. I went from, 67 to, 76' to 81' peaked at 87, training 5 days,diet was pretty good.

I would have liked to seen how far I coulda got but my mate dave introduced me to muscletech creating ethyl ester. Exponential gains. Lol

I'd love to hear someone who's trained natty 5 years plus, and where the gains are at for them. What factors determine their success or failure and how sustainable it is.

[BeastBuilder]

I haven't quite hit 5 years but November this year will make for having been in the game for 5 years. So am at nearly 4 and a half years of training and my gains have been the best in the last year or so muscularity wise.

Started at 16 at 60kg, by the time I was 17 I was hitting late 70's, so thought I was the man and couldn't get any bigger.. At this stage was only training general gym rat style, bench - biceps - abs 5x/week.

From 17-18, my second year of training, I started training moderately well, went up in weight very quickly, started eating like a man (or so I thought) started training muscle groups once a week, started Squats etc. I went from late 70's maybe 80ish up to mid-late 90's over this year, I thought it was mostly lean gains but looking back at it now, I'm leaner now than I was then so yea, but still gained a fair amount of muscle. End of that year around my 18th birthday I did a 10 week cut, went from 96-98kg down to 84kg, got to 12% for the beach season, ended up looking pretty good.

After the cut went up to early 90's where I started Powerlifting with the boys at Eastside. From 18-19 my weight was basically going up the whole time, managed to get up to 100kg for a comp in that December.

Then from 19-20 I actually found out what it's like to eat properly and started training at a new intensity, got up to 111-112ish when I turned 20.

Am now sitting at 114-116, have been sitting here for awhile, am still definitely building muscle, feel like I'm getting leaner but staying the same weight so bit of a unplanned recomp but I'm not complaining.

So over the 4 and a half years of training I have put on 50kg+ naturally. Obviously not all lean body mass, but I was skinny fat at 60kg so my BF % has probably only gone up from say early teens with no muscle to late teens with a reasonable amount of muscle. And I am still making progress muscularity wise and strength wise so when someone tries to say that you can only put on a certain amount of muscle etc in a certain time frame I don't see why they want to put limits on themselves.

[Chemo]

BIG gains. jelly.

What sort of strength gains are you experiencing at the moment man?

Could you give an example?

[BeastBuilder]

BIG gains. jelly.

What sort of strength gains are you experiencing at the moment man?

Could you give an example?

Umm well overall strength gains are huge since I started obviously but I'll give an example for last 6 months..

Nationals last year in August I hit 135 on Bench, got 145 but lifted my head and missed 150. Cycle before last where I went for max reps instead of calling it at 5 I hit 140 for 9 and was just a technique error that stopped me getting the last one that stalled before lock out.

Total at Nationals last year was late 500's, can't remember exactly. Aiming for late 600's maybe 700 if I have a good day in April, so there's 100kg on my total in basically 8 months.

Even non-powerlifting wise example, even at 110+kg I can hit close to 20 full range Wide Grip Pull Ups. Have hit 10 sets of 10 at 90kg on Seated Front Press which 6 months ago was not what I thought I would get to.

[livetolift]

4kg nat

[Superman_D]

I have gained 12 kg in the past year. following a pretty strict diet. I know that's not all muscle but im fine with that. hard to say how much of it is muscle though.

[FellowshipOfTheRon]

I have gained 12 kg in the past year. following a pretty strict diet. I know that's not all muscle but im fine with that. hard to say how much of it is muscle though.

you can figure it out if you compare your bodyfat % before and after though all assuming it was the same person who measured it with the same technique (or machine)

[Shutupandsquat]

As said, a whole lot of variables. For example. I'm short as hell. 8kg on me is a whole lot more than 8kg on someone like Android.

That being said, I think I've put on about 7kg each year (rough average). Probably a little less.

[Matrix]

Some good post's here,

So many variables and also Bell Curve Distribution of LMM Gain as well as the law of diminishing returns.

For example say 70-80% of Naturals who have never previously trained and who are doing everything perfectly (although by definition this is impossible to do, some super focused athletes get pretty close) which involves eating in a calorie surplus, training progressively, resting well and minimizing stress may gain a certain amount of LMM in their first year of training perhaps 6-10kg, during the second year this may decrease etc over every subsequent year as they get closer to their limit and as their body builds a tolerance to the increased work loads and intensities.

Other factors that lead to weight gain (other than muscle or fat) are weight gained by increases in tissue and bone density to support the heavier weight of the lifter and support the larger muscle mass - basically if the muscles are the cars engine, generally the chassis gets stronger and heavier to as it needs to support the heavier and more powerful engine.

The 10-15% on the lower side of the curve will gain less the 10-15% on the higher end of the curve will gain like crazy.

Shut up and Squat made a point that gets often gets over looked. Bigger guys have the capacity to put more LM Weight(in kg) on per year and smaller guys less, however as the gains are spread over a taller frame the actual visual appearance of the LMM Gain is the same and the percentage increase when compared to total body weight can be the same, it's just the actual weight gain in kg's that will be greater. For example and untrained 6 foot 4 guy will likely gain more kg in LMM than a 5 foot 4 guy even though the percentage gained may be very similar - quite simply a larger frame can support more weight in kg of LMM.

Love it or hate it, your genes play a big role here to, some people will have to fight to gain and keep LMM on all their lives and others can almost look at weight and grow.The same can be true with the longevity of gains, some who stop training and eating in a calorie surplus shrink rapidly (usually ecto's) whilst meso's and endo's tend to not lose as fast in my experience - lucky bastards!