Hello dear friends! Today's topic is more suitable for beginners, because. a person who enrolls in a gym roughly estimates how much time he will spend to achieve his result. Most, of course, mistakenly believe that they will be able to do this in a month, well, let them try.

The Internet has become full of all sorts of motivational videos, posts, for me this is complete nonsense, a person either wants to or not, and no “motivations” will help, everything is in your mind. Are you ready to follow the regime for years, are you ready to plow? You need to ask yourself this question.

Once, while working in the hall, a man of about 40 approached me and said, if only there was a magic pill to eat like Arnold in the morning. I say you don’t even need such a pill for nothing, because it’s difficult and the whole buzz is there, and if everyone were healthy, then the athletes would not stand out. Go, I say dry, we will get more girls. This is the best motivation to show a person that he could have more or prove that he is no worse than others, it gnaws at his soul, and he pulls himself together.

In general, the question of how much you can get pumped up for is a philosophical question that is difficult to answer. After all, you do not know what a person is capable of for the sake of his goal and what to pump into his understanding. For some, a hand of 40 cm is a chapel of dreams, but for some, even 50 cm is not enough, everyone has their own concepts of inflated. Well, this is all the lyrics, and now let's take a closer look at the timing.

To begin with, I will give one sacred thought. Always set yourself big plans and intermediate ones, so in any business. If you now weigh 60 kg, and decided to gain up to 90 kg, and in a few months, of course, you will not be able to achieve this result, you will be upset and, most likely, will give up your idea. But if you set mini goals of 65, 70.75, etc. then you would rejoice at every peak and it would motivate you more and more.

Let's take an average guy of average height and weight, with an average salary, so that there is enough for a full diet, without sports nutrition and with good motivation.

Stage 1

The first few months he will need for the preparatory period. At this time, he will need to learn the correct technique for performing exercises, train the “brain-muscle” connection for greater muscle efficiency, and allow the body to adapt a little to an unfamiliar load.

Everyone, probably, noticed that, just when you came to the gym, for example, you press 40 kg, and after a month it’s already 50-60, and the muscles no longer became. So you just develop your body, teach your muscles to contract as much as possible. During this period of 2-3 months, there is no need to chase the scales, there will be no sense, it is necessary to smoothly approach future work.

If you now drive the wrong technique into yourself, then it will be difficult to relearn. Perhaps the first couple of months there will be some changes, but this is more likely due to the fact that there are more energy reserves and blood in the muscles. But this is not the growth of muscle fibers. After a few months, you also most likely noticed that the progress in the growth of strength has stalled, and this is no accident that your muscles have not become larger, you have simply taught them to work more productively.

Stage 2

Then the next stage begins - the growth of muscles (myofibrils) in thickness. I already wrote about the number of repetitions for slow and fast muscle fibers, about the number of approaches and rest between them, you can read. If the body is prepared correctly in the first months, then muscle growth will occur at this stage.

I read in various sources that the muscles maximally hypertrophy in thickness in 2 years, a person is approximately capable of gaining 15-20 kg during this period. Personally, I did. Further, growth is already difficult, and here it is necessary to approach training wisely.

Stage 3

The next stage of hyperplasia is the division of new cells. If hypertrophy is an increase in existing cells in size, then hyperplasia is the formation of new cells. Science has not yet proven this in humans, but it has already been tested in animals.

The essence of the training changes from strength to high volume. You have probably heard the word “pumping”, when the muscles are filled with blood to the maximum and a burning sensation appears.

By the way, two friends who came to the gym at the same time, doing the same program and eating the same, will grow differently. It's simple, one initially has more muscle fibers than the other. One, for example, increased 10 fibers by 2 times, and the other 20, this is the whole difference, genetics, whatever one may say, decides. The stage of hyperplasia or volumetric training can also be extended for 1-2 years.

Stage 4

The last and eternal stage is the adjustment of all body systems. It is necessary to train not only strength, but also ligaments, the cardiovascular system, develop the circulatory network, energy, etc. Usually few people follow this. How many times have I given advice to people, I say, you already have your weight, how many years you press and you don’t progress anymore, maybe you will change the program? No, they don’t want to be afraid, but what if it becomes even worse, suddenly it becomes weaker, and much worse than marking time and wasting time. It is necessary to analyze everything and only approaching wisely, you can achieve the desired result.

I will say right away that we are talking about training without pharmacology and there is no need to look at competing athletes, the sport of great achievements is not possible without doping.

To summarize, you can pump up in 4 years, if you do everything correctly and in stages. Then you will definitely gain your cherished 20-25 kg. Many are unlikely to reach such a result because of laziness to constantly learn. For those who do not want to stagnate for years and who do not have time to read dozens of books, you can contact a personal trainer or write to me, I will help.

Personally, I have been training for 6 years, and all this time I read and study regularly. As the saying goes, live and learn. Only in our sport, for some reason, they doubt the need for a coach, I have never seen someone come to boxing and say, I don’t need a coach, I’ll knock everyone out in a couple of months, it doesn’t occur to anyone say. It is the same in bodybuilding, it is a very complex process that requires knowledge in the field of physiology, anatomy, biochemistry, and for some, pharmacology. An athlete is not a loader who has the concept of “take more - throw more”, you need to think here.

Now you know how much can you pump up and I hope you do not drive horses, but act wisely, this will save your time.

The first question that comes up as soon as a new athlete appears in the gym is, how long can it take to load? This question cannot be answered unambiguously, because the answer to it depends on a huge number of components, without taking into account which it is simply impossible to predict the growth of your muscle mass.

The first thing to consider when calculating the time that will have to be spent to achieve the result is the features of your figure, because the height and width of the bone directly affect the speed of the muscles, in addition, the muscles themselves have a different structure. Often there are people whose muscles simply refuse to grow, they do not react correctly to a strong load, they become hard as a stone.

It can also be said that having not high growth, it will take much less time to achieve a result. For example, having a bicep circumference of 40 centimeters with a height of 1.60 meters will look simply intimidating, and the same biceps of an athlete with a height of 1.95 meters will look quite ordinary, without causing much attention from others.

In addition to growth, structural features also play an important role; a person with a wide-boned structure will gain muscle mass faster, but on a narrow-boned one it will be more noticeable. Since narrow-boned people have a narrow pelvis and waist, therefore, the development of the upper body quickly creates the desired proportions.

Therefore, in this article I will describe the stages of development that an average athlete should go through with a height of 1.80 meters, weighing 80 kilograms, if your height is 10 centimeters less, then simply subtract 20% of the time received, if more, then add 20%.

At the same time, we should not forget about the intensity of training and the nutritional habits of each athlete, but in the analysis we will focus on the fact that you are exercising at an average intensity and at the same time eating right, taking all the necessary vitamins.

Training stages.

The first stage takes about six months, during which time you only adapt the muscles to training, it is advisable to train with 50% of the weight of the maximum load, so you will not get muscle injuries and learn how to do the exercises correctly. After three months of training, the muscles will acquire a tone and it will already become noticeable that you have started bodybuilding. The first three months of training give the same result, regardless of the athlete's body structure.

The second stage lasts one year, as a result you will get fairly developed muscles, with good muscle tone, you will see that your studies were not in vain. This is especially true for athletes of average height and below average. It should be borne in mind that training should take place at least three times a week with good intensity.

The third stage takes about three years, during which time you will be able to gain 15-20% of muscle mass from your base weight, excluding adipose tissue. That is, if your weight with a height of 1.80 meters at the initial stage of training was about 80 kilograms, then after three years of training with proper nutrition, it will be from 90 to 95 kilograms. The volume of the biceps will increase by 5 centimeters, the volume of the chest by 12-15. Others will already begin to pay attention to you, the figure will acquire athletic proportions. If you are not tall (below 1.70 meters), then you can already start working on relief, but only if you are not going to participate in bodybuilding competitions.

The fourth stage is 5 years of training experience, this is the most difficult stage at this time you will have to exert all your strength, by this time your weight should increase to 30% of the original. The proportions are fully consistent with a competitive level athlete, you should not just have a figure with large muscles, but a fully formed body, one hundred percent ready to prove yourself in the competition.

Athletes who are not tall achieve such results six months earlier, and athletes above 1.85 meters a year later.

The calculations are given taking into account the regularity of training, proper nutrition and the use of all modern bodybuilding techniques in the training process.

A set of muscle mass is the dream of newcomers to the gym. To quickly increase the desired volume, become stronger, more prominent and look better is a worthy goal. But the exact time of its achievement is difficult to say. Human organisms are subject to many genetic and physiological laws. We all lead a different lifestyle, and have features of diet, assimilation of food, training regimen and rest. But people keep asking how long it takes to actually pump up, how much you can gain, and where is the limit to muscle growth. Let's try to understand this issue.

If you know scientifically based answers to questions about the speed of muscle pumping, you can get rid of illusions and make fewer mistakes in the process of working on yourself. High expectations in the gym are the cause of injury, frustration, and premature transition to the use of anabolic steroids. We read articles that tell how this or that actor gained 12 kg of dry muscles in 3 months, and we think that at lower speeds we should not even hope for adequate results in the hall.

It's good if a beginner just continues to learn the technique of basic exercises and lament that, unfortunately, he is not Wolverine. But what if he starts buying useless supplements for muscle growth, buying diets from "Instagram gurus", and eating everything from a gainer to grandmother's cottage cheese with jam. What will he get in the end? Indigestion at its best. Excess fat, and liver and kidney problems at its worst. Useless supplements pump out a lot of money, a person begins to think that the gym is the lot of the rich, and, as a result, he again lies down on his favorite sofa. Health from this does not improve, and self-esteem collapses.

It's even more difficult for girls. They dream of having rounded buttocks, taut hips, and beautifully defined lines of the back and shoulders, but they don't want to look like professional bodybuilding athletes, for the most part. Many people really believe that huge "male-type" muscles are built not from a combination of heavy training, anabolic steroids, and certain nutrition, but simply from the very fact of doing squats, deadlifts, and bench presses. Therefore, the fitness industry every day offers a new “muscle tightening” program. As a result, many hours that could be spent in the gym effectively are spent on another nonsense that, at best, strengthens the cardiovascular system, and at worst, simply increases appetite, not giving incentives for muscle growth.

Knowing the real growth rates of muscles eliminates the loss of time and money, and simplifies the task for the psyche.

A set of muscle mass is not a priority subject of research by medical scientists. Today there are only a few scientifically based positions on this topic. A rather famous experiment by Arthur Jones showed that a healthy man without the use of anabolic steroids and subject to adequate nutrition, recovery and heavy training in failure can gain no more than 8 kg of muscle in a training cycle of 12 weeks. It was about initially strong and athletic people who are not overweight.

Biologists say that in a lifetime you can dial:

• Approximately 22 kg if you are a man;
• About 12 kg if a woman.

Why do professional bodybuilders refute this? The answer is simple - anabolic steroids. They accelerate protein synthesis, allow you to increase volume and mass more than what is provided by nature for a particular person. But you need to understand that the use of such substances has side effects for both men and women, and for health and fitness purposes is not justified.

There are other data - a week with a perfectly built regimen, a man can add about 100 g of muscle mass, a woman - about 50 g. Sometimes they say that the maximum recruitment rates for men for a 12-week training cycle are about 6 kg, for women - 2 -3 kg, at the same time, it means the total body weight, and not just the muscles.

Important: weight gain can be more significant, since with excess nutrition, not only muscle mass grows, but also the body fat of a person.

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. Average values ​​are valid for the so-called average genetic endowment. There are people who can score more and faster, and those who can score less. Usually, insignificant recruitment indicators are compensated by the fact that a person practically does not add in the fat layer. Therefore, ectomorphs can be dry and embossed with fewer muscles, and endomorphs can spend considerable effort on reducing the fat layer, but still look “damp”.

So, we found out the maximum indicators of gaining muscle mass. How fast can you gain muscle in reality?

• Average for men: from 100 to 200 grams of muscle per week (this is about 0.5-1 kilogram per month);
• Average for men: from 50 to 100 grams of muscle per week (this is about 200-500 grams per month).

Does such a set exist in reality? Usually people get more or less. There are many factors - eating style, the amount of salt in the diet, the ratio of macronutrients, the amount and quality of carbohydrates. In addition, weight is affected by stress levels, hormonal surges in women, medication, and even a common cold.

Sometimes people can't gain even a gram simply because they are subject to work and family stress, and stress increases calorie expenditure. Someone suffers from a lack of sleep, and someone - because of its quality. Therefore, calculating mass gain in advance is a rather difficult job.

In strength sports, a typical 8-12 week cycle allows a novice athlete to add 3-5 kg ​​of weight, given that he monitors nutrition. But training is significantly different from bodybuilding - a large amount of work in basic exercises and relatively small in auxiliary ones. It is also indicative that before the competition a strongman can lose 2-3 kg of “water” weight, when the microtraumas of the muscles heal and the muscles stop holding the weight. This well-known effect allows you to plan weight categories. And fitness beginners - to judge the real weight gain and its speed.

6 Factors Influencing Muscle Growth and Their Relationship

The above works well in theory. In practice, muscle growth factors and their ratio can change significantly under the influence of various conditions. They include

Anabolic steroids

Cultural silence about the fact that anabolic steroids accelerate protein synthesis several times allows online trainers around the world to sell 12-week crazy muscle growth programs, and sports nutrition firms to regularly offer different proteins, amino acid complexes, and gainers to people who are "in normal" wouldn't buy something like that. Anabolics are banned in most countries of the world, but not for personal use, but for distribution. They have side effects, but they will never leave the world of bodybuilding and fitness, since only steroids help you really pump up quickly. If you see someone completely change their physique in just 3 months, it is very likely that they took steroids.

Training experience

Beginners can really build muscle and burn fat at the same time. At the same time, mass gain will be really fast, in the first year many gain up to 5-10 kg, and then progress slows down. The longer the experience, the slower the progress. But if, for example, a person leaves the hall for some life circumstances, coming again, he will return the results faster. It is believed that with each “mass-drying” cycle, progress slows down only in growth, and it will be easier to dry, because experienced athletes look better than beginners.

muscle memory

This phenomenon has more to do with people who have previously used anabolics and then suddenly decided to become natural athletes than with "clean" athletes. First, a couple of years are allotted for classical training with pharmacological support, mass is gained, a large training volume is made. And then the athlete intentionally goes to some “rollback” in terms of mass, stopping the use of anabolics.

If he does not abandon the training, but only reduces the training volume, his muscles will remain “in their places”. If he leaves the gym, then the muscle mass will decrease. After this happens, it may take several years, but the accumulated neuromuscular connections will not go anywhere. Then, when the athlete returns to the gym, part of the mass will “gain back” pretty quickly.

Natural athletes also have muscle memory. The higher the level of the athlete, the greater the experience and technical skill, the better the muscles return after a break.

Genetics

Someone is unlucky with her, and he cannot gain even a couple of kilos, provided that he eats and trains like a professional athlete. But there are also mesomorphs who look like people who use steroids, while they themselves only work out 3 times a week, and regularly eat regular food. Unfortunately, the genetic predisposition to certain sports is not fiction, but reality. Hormonal balance, body bone structure, the number of muscle fibers, the tendency to gain body fat and the rate of metabolic processes, as well as the amount of digestive enzymes, the features of the central nervous system and the speed of reactions - all this matters when it comes to the speed of pumping muscles.

Age

The hormonal explosion inherent in youth must be used to the fullest. Testosterone levels in adulthood may fall, and therefore the rate of muscle gain will be slower. Young athletes not only have a higher level of anabolic hormones, but also work out the loads of the central nervous system better. Therefore, those who went in for sports before the age of 20 gain muscle more easily in the future. Neuromuscular connections are being developed, and a person only needs to slightly adjust the training volumes and loads. It is believed that it is possible to effectively engage in natural bodybuilding from the age of 15.

Training program and nutrition

It is impossible to gain muscle if there is not enough training stimulus for muscle growth, and quality nutrition for body recovery and protein synthesis. Many factors come into play here, but usually the point of the program is that it should fit a particular person according to his lifestyle, motor characteristics and training level. Many beginners use ready-made training plans from bodybuilding magazines and do not succeed. They go to the gym 5-6 times a week, they firmly believe in the need to do cardio on the mass, and perform some special exercises, and everything is quite simple. A huge training volume only increases calorie consumption, and does not allow the central nervous system to "digest" the load. As a result, the level of hormones drops, catabolic processes increase, ordinary food is not enough for recovery, and instead of mass, a person gets fatigue, injuries and rather small muscles. The main rule of natural athlete training is less volume, more working weight, and more multi-joint movements. In addition, there is not much point in doing strength training more than 3 times a week. In the diet, you should keep a proportion of about 1.5 g of protein per kilogram of body weight, and 5-6 g of carbohydrates. Moreover, the latter should not only be simple and scooped from sugar and fruits. Pasta, potatoes, rice and buckwheat - this is the basis of the diet of a natural athlete "for mass". It is important to eat enough fat for the normal functioning of the hormonal system. But they should not be more than 1.5 g per kilo of body weight so that a person does not experience digestive problems.

Are there "most working" universal weight programs? No, everything needs to be selected individually. For some, more frequent training with medium weights is fine, for some, it really needs to do one failure set to generate enough muscle growth stimuli. There are also athletes who grow well exclusively from power circuits, there are from multi-repetitive ones. With nutrition, too, not everything is so simple, someone does not tolerate gluten, someone can eat everything, there are individual preferences. The meaning of coaching is precisely to analyze the individual characteristics of the athlete, and select a program for them.

Conclusion

So, how much can you collect, and for how long? It all depends on the experience, the desire to dedicate your workouts to recruitment, but to general development, and the ability to eat regularly and efficiently. No gainer will beat the fact that a person is simply eating too little food and not getting enough macronutrients to recover. The mass period does not need to be planned even when there are strong stresses at work, at school or in life. Nutrition, sleep, recovery, rest, and a smart training plan will help you gain more muscle in a shorter amount of time.

The general recommendations of bodybuilding coaches are as follows: to see the first results of your training, you need to practice for at least a year. In order to look like a real bodybuilder and be able to participate in competitions - at least 5 years. In reality, if you do not take into account many important factors, this time can increase significantly.

First of all, a powerful influence on muscle growth has a genetic predisposition. There is nothing you can do about it: someone is given the talent to draw well, someone to study science, and someone to achieve success in sports. For example, the same Schwarzenegger has a clear genetic predisposition to bodybuilding: before he became interested in the barbell, he tried many different sports and achieved serious success in each of them. But, on the other hand, the absence of innate qualities does not mean that an athlete will never achieve prizes in competitions. An example is Frank Zahn, a three-time winner of the Mr. Olympia competition, who managed to build excellent muscles on a thin skeleton, which was previously considered almost impossible.

The second important factor is the training program. If for beginners a standard simple training program is recommended that is suitable for everyone, then advanced athletes have to experiment, try different training schemes that are ideally suited to the characteristics of their body. For example, to pump up the chest muscles, one bodybuilder is better off doing 2-3 reps with a maximum weight, and another 20 reps with lighter weights.

The same can be said about the frequency of training. Experts recommend exercising 3 times a week so that the duration of the workout does not exceed one hour, and the rest between classes is at least a day. There are split systems, when using which you need to train 6 times a week. However, they are only suitable for experienced bodybuilders, and even then not for everyone. Many bodybuilding champions have never used splits simply because it doesn't work for them.

But even a standard training program of 3 sessions per week may not be suitable for everyone. If, for example, an athlete earns a living by hard physical labor or he has small children, and he is forced to get up to them at night, 3 times a week is a lot. At this pace, the athlete quickly gets overworked, and muscle growth slows down. Such people should train 2 or even 1 time per week.

The third determining factor is nutrition and a healthy lifestyle. If an athlete drinks and smokes, if he eats somehow, he may not see noticeable results for years. Conversely, a healthy lifestyle and good nutrition provide the fastest results.

A healthy diet means getting the body a balanced amount of proteins, carbohydrates and fats. Moreover, proteins should be obtained from boiled meat or fish, from milk and dairy products, from nuts. And carbs come from fruits, vegetables, and grains, not buns and pastries.

Special attention should be paid to vitamins and microelements. If a complete healthy diet can provide the average person with enough vitamins, then this will not be enough for a bodybuilder. It is necessary to additionally take various vitamin and mineral preparations.

There are also special drugs for athletes that accelerate muscle growth at times - anabolic steroids. It has been proven that taking steroids allows you to achieve much greater results than usual. Manufacturers of anabolic steroids claim that their drugs are absolutely harmless and even beneficial for the athlete. However, adherents of "natural" bodybuilding know that long-term use of steroids is harmful to a person's overall health and sooner or later can lead to serious problems.

Many people think: first I will pump up with steroids, and then I will give them up. But in reality, everything turns out to be completely different. Having received the first results relatively easily, the athlete makes an attempt to refuse to take anabolic steroids. But in response, his muscles begin to “deflate”. And, in order not to avoid this, he is forced to continue taking steroids. And so on until serious health problems begin and sports will have to be tied up.

In this article, we will try to answer the question: is it possible to pump up in a year?". It is impossible to answer this question unambiguously, because everything here depends on many factors, such as:

• money, etc.

All these factors must be taken into account in order to predict your muscle growth. There are also two types of bodybuilding:

• "clean"
• with the use of steroids.

In each of them the result will be different. Let's consider each of these types in more detail.

"Pure" bodybuilding

A person who first comes to the gym and is interested in the result of a year of training, without the use of steroids, can expect to prepare his body for high loads, form a neuromuscular connection, and build a small amount of muscle mass. The amount of muscle mass will depend on motivation, genetics and the amount of money you are willing to spend on sports nutrition in order to achieve maximum results.

If you work out in the gym, with a properly designed training program, with adequate nutrition and rest, it is possible to gain about 10 kilograms of muscle mass. You will also significantly increase your strength indicators. For example, if at the beginning of training you could squeeze 50 kilograms lying down, then after a year it is possible to take 90 kilograms, or maybe 100. All these indicators are averaged, and depend on you.

Bodybuilding with steroids

Steroids allow our body to go faster. Suppose if without steroids this time is 48 hours, then with the use of steroids this period is reduced to 24 hours. They also contribute to the rapid set of muscle mass, and increase. With steroids, it is possible to gain 5-10 kilograms of muscle in 1 month.

But do not think that everything is so easy and simple. Steroids should be used only after a thorough study of their content, action, side effects. And it is best to resort to the advice of a specialist in this field, since there are a lot of "pitfalls" in pharmacology. It is also necessary to undergo PCT (after course therapy) in order to maintain the gained muscles and restore hormone production. Also, do not forget about. Do not trade your health if it is not necessary.

Question: "Is it possible to pump up in a year?" is understood differently for everyone. Someone strives to gain a mountain of muscles, and someone just needs to get rid of extra pounds, so the answer to this question is different for everyone.