At the first stage of training, all beginners ask a lot of very simple and naive questions from the point of view of an experienced athlete. Of course, the most acute interest is in the impact of training. How long does it take to pump up? Of course, when asked a simple question, athletes immediately receive a lot of simple answers from other beginners with a couple of months of experience. Alas, in life, simple answers are rarely accurate. Let's try to understand the problem in more detail.
Evaluation criteria
What is meant by the word “pump up”? Let's remember that there are three main ones:
- A thin ectomorph with thin muscles and a minimal amount of subcutaneous fat;
- Muscular and broad-boned mesomorph;
- An endomorph whose loose muscles are usually buried in a fair amount of fatty tissue.
Each of these athletes has their own goals:
- An ectomorph's main goal is to build more muscle. Terrain is not a problem for him. Even an increase of five kilograms muscle mass under his thin skin will visually greatly change the perception of the figure.
- A mesomorph wants to combine an increase in muscle mass with contouring.
- Finally, for an endomorph, bodybuilding means, first of all, the treasured abs. By pumping he means building a sculpted body.
Let's agree that we will leave the relief outside of our consideration: it depends to a greater extent on, rather than on training. We will take an increase of 15-20 kilograms of lean muscle mass as an objective guideline. This increase corresponds to volumes that significantly distinguish a person of average height from the crowd.
Stages of growth
Any novice bodybuilder who picks up a barbell and dumbbells for the first time goes through the following stages:
- Adaptation to loads and development of technique. The athlete gets used to working to the limit, forcing his muscles and brain to give their best. The growth in strength results is rapid; but do not delude yourself - not so much due to real muscle growth, but due to improving neuromuscular connections and muscle tone. The period takes from three months to six months.
- Mass gain. Muscles respond adequately to peak loads, increasing mass and strength. The main thing during this period is not to let your enthusiasm drive you into deep overtraining. The period can last from six months to two years - it all depends entirely on genetics. All that is needed during this period is heavy basic training with plenty of rest in between.
- Stage of an experienced athlete. After some time, the muscles stop responding to heavy, monotonous growth loads. On average, this happens a couple of years after the start of training. The solution is periodization of training, a wave-like change in their intensity. Then growth will continue. Ways to increase the intensity of training, such as negative and forced repetitions, supersets and reverse pyramiding in the final approach, will also help.
Please note: these methods are ONLY needed to overcome stagnation in growth. They greatly lengthen the period and require a review of the entire training schedule. As long as your muscles respond to growth to heavy basic training, don’t complicate your life beyond what is necessary.
- By the end of the first stage, the athlete usually gains one to three kilograms of lean muscle.
- By the end of the second - up to 10-15, depending on your body type. It is clear that the mesomorph is far ahead of the ectomorph.
- The third stage covers the entire period of your weight training. The possibilities of growth within its limits are limited only by your physiology and genetics.
With a proper schedule of training, rest and nutrition, the treasured 15-20 kilograms of mesomorph and endomorph muscle will be built up after 3 years of training. Ectomorph - in five. It is these terms that a beginning athlete can safely focus on.
Growth factors
What affects the rate of muscle gain? We have already mentioned body types, but this is probably not the only factor.
- Recovery. Muscles are destroyed during training and immediately after it, and during rest they are restored in abundance. If you give them enough time to do so.
- For ectomorphs it is very important to minimize any additional loads. One of the main problems for you is your general level of strength and energy. You get tired easily; your body requires a long, complete rest.
- Nutrition. Muscles are built from protein. With each meal, the body can absorb 20-30 grams of protein; if you provide it with less, the return from training will be less.
- Age. If you are over forty, both your testosterone levels and metabolic rate are slightly lower than those of a twenty-year-old athlete. Muscles will grow more slowly.
- Dream. If you sleep less than seven hours a day, this will have little effect on the physiological mechanism of muscle growth, but the brain will not be able to develop maximum intensity during training.
- Healthy lifestyle outside the gym. After a fun party, you will also hardly be able to train at peak intensity. Smoking, by clogging your bronchi and lungs with tar, will not allow them to supply the muscles with sufficient oxygen.
Conclusion
As already said, there is no clear answer to the question of how long it takes to pump up. In the article, we mentioned only approximate deadlines that you can focus on.
Most novice athletes cannot draw up a clear plan of action, because it is impossible to take into account all the nuances at the start, and some do not even think about planning their time and expenses. To understand how long it takes to pump up, you need to at least approximately understand the stages of muscle growth, the time spent and everything else.
When starting to plunge into the world of bodybuilding, the first question a beginner has is “How long will it take me to get pumped up?”, which is annoying. experienced trainers, because this is a purely philosophical question that cannot be answered without complete detailed information about a specific person. After all, everyone is different genetic potential, financial situation, motivation and level of knowledge, which is mainly the decisive factor.
I think you have heard more than once, to the question “how long does it take to pump up in gym?”, the answer is “in the first year of training in the gym you can gain 3-5 kg of mass.” It’s not clear who we’re talking about, what kind of training, with what intensity and frequency, what weight. One person will not gain even a kilogram in a year of training due to incorrect actions, a second person with good genetics will add 8 kg, and a third person with similar genetics, motivation and the right knowledge will add 15 kg.
As you understand, weight growth will be affected large number factors. For maximum muscle growth, you need to take them all into account when planning. Proper planning reduces the time and money spent for maximum results. Planning also includes achievable goals that you can achieve taking into account all of the above factors. But keep in mind that goals must be realistic; if you set a goal of 50 cm biceps, but in fact have 37, you will quickly be disappointed and give up this “unpromising” thing. Without quality nutrition, it’s difficult to gain even 1 cm. The goal should be 39 cm, after achieving it set 41 and so on.
Therefore, never set unrealistic goals! Set only achievable goals!
How long does it take to get pumped up?
Now let's try to determine approximate time indicators for achieving the desired size. As an example, let’s take an average person (male, height 175, weight 70) with an average financial situation. Can afford to eat enough animal protein (meat, eggs, dairy products, fish), but sports nutrition there is not enough money. Seriously motivated and ready to absorb knowledge. So how long does it take for him to get pumped up?
The progress of each athlete consists of four stages:
- The body's preparatory process for hypertrophy. (2-4 months);
- Hypertrophy period (2 years);
- Period of hyperplasia (1-2 years);
- System adaptation period.
Preparing the body
This stage of preparation for future mass growth is the shortest, but is the most important. Training with additional weights is perceived as severe stress for the body's systems. With regular stress, the body rebuilds its systems so that less energy is expended.
First of all, the energy supply system is changing. Muscle contraction requires large energy expenditures and therefore the body adapts, learns to store and release large quantities. Glycogen and ATP in muscle fibers increase, and the work of enzymes that affect energy metabolism accelerates.
Muscles also adapt and perform more optimally, expending less energy when performing new exercises. The muscles act more coordinated, which is how this effect is achieved. You can also feel a big increase in strength, for example, at first you benched 50 kg, and after a month it was 20-30% more. This happens not because your muscles have become larger, but because they work in concert. This means the muscles learn.
That is why the first months of training should be spent with large scales with maximum correct technique execution. The main task is to teach the muscles to contract correctly. A novice athlete must hone the technique of performing exercises, trying to achieve perfection. Having learned to feel and contract muscles correctly, progress will go quickly and in the right direction. All that remains is to increase the load and see, following your example, how long it takes to pump up in the gym or at home.
In addition, in the first months, the transport of nutrients (oxygen, protein, blood, energy, etc.) through the muscles improves due to the expansion of the capillary network. The bone-ligamentous apparatus thickens, which increases the strength of the muscles.
Muscles increase due to improved blood supply and storage energy reserves. Please note that this is the growth of the “accompanying” systems, not the muscles, which increases their visual volume. As mentioned earlier, you will increase your strength, gain 2-4 kg of weight during the first stage, and then everything slows down. This is because there was no growth of muscle fibers, the efficiency of the work and accompanying systems simply improved. Muscle growth occurs in the next stage.
Hypertrophy period
This stage begins after the muscles and body systems are prepared for growth. Only by adjusting the energy supply will a significant muscle hypertrophy. After all, if the body can still improve in the usual ways (increase in energy and accompanying systems), it will not resort to complex ones (increase in muscle cells).
The main task of this period is to maximize the existing muscle fibers. The stage is not as long as many people think, the maximum cell size is reached after 2 years, that’s how many years it takes to pump up. In detail it looks like this: the first months of training will raise your body weight from 70 to 74 kg. In the first year he will gain 10-15 kg and 5-10 kg in the second. A person of average build, taking into account proper training, will gain 20 kg of weight.
Of course, the weight gain doesn’t end there, even though the cells have reached their maximum size and are no longer growing, there is a way out. It is necessary to reproduce new muscle cells, which will give more mass.
Period of muscle hyperplasia
The main task is to achieve muscle cell division using high intensity training with light weights. New fibers will provide additional volume. As a result, you can gain an additional 5-10 kg of muscle in 1-2 years.
Most athletes combine the last two periods into one long 3-4 year period in achieving maximum muscle gain. This mixture makes sense, training hypertrophy and hyperplasia in parallel, these two processes help each other, so progress will accelerate significantly. Based on this, you can figure out how long it will take to pump up.
It turns out that the maximum result can be achieved in 3-4 years, then everything stands still. But here too there is an opportunity to develop further. It is necessary to increase the body's capabilities so that it can serve more muscles.
System adaptation
The main task is to develop other body systems that limit muscle growth. It is necessary to strengthen the foundation, namely the circulatory system, nervous, cardiac, energy, tendon and others, they must be more powerful, which will allow you to build even more muscles. Having done everything necessary, you will be able to pump up truly huge muscles. Few people realize this and know how to use it, and those who know how stand on the Olympia stage.
This period has no deadlines, only a real professional is able to understand the whole essence and build his body the way he wants.
So how long can it take to pump up?
If you want to pump up large muscles, then stick to the given plan:
- Dedicate 2-4 months to preparing the body and future muscle growth;
- 3-5 years swing (period of hypertrophy and hyperplasia) to achieve the genetic maximum;
- Then take care of the body systems, use oxygenation and various trainings.
Know that you can pump up to impressive volumes in 2-5 years and without pharmaceuticals. The main thing is to do everything right, not give up and always learn.
Masses and relief to you!
Gaining muscle mass is the dream of gym beginners. Quickly increasing the required volume, becoming stronger, more defined and looking better is a worthy goal. But exact time Its achievements are difficult to say. Human bodies are subject to many genetic and physiological laws. We all lead different lifestyles, and have characteristics of diet, food absorption, training regimen and rest. But people keep asking how long it takes to actually get big, how much you can gain, and where the limit is for 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. Inflated expectations in the gym are the cause of injury, disappointment, and premature transition to anabolic steroid use. We read articles that tell how this or that actor gained 12 kg of lean muscle in 3 months, and we think that at lower speeds there is no point in hoping for adequate results in the gym.
It’s good if a beginner simply continues to learn the technique of basic exercises and lament that, unfortunately, he is not Wolverine. What if he starts buying useless supplements for muscle growth, purchasing diets from “Instagram gurus,” and eating everything from weight gainers to grandma’s cottage cheese with jam. What will he get in the end? Stomach upset at best. Excess fat, and problems with the liver and kidneys, at worst. Useless supplements siphon off a lot of money, a person begins to think that the gym is for the rich, and, as a result, he lies down on his favorite sofa again. This does not improve health, and self-esteem collapses.
For girls it's even more difficult. They dream of having round buttocks, toned thighs, and beautifully drawn lines of the back and shoulders, but they do not want to look like professional bodybuilding athletes, for the most part. Many truly believe that huge “male-type” muscles are built not from a combination of heavy training, anabolic steroids, and a certain diet, but simply from the very fact of doing squats, deadlifts, and bench presses. That’s why the fitness industry offers a new “muscle tightening” program every day. As a result, many hours that could be spent effectively in the gym are wasted on yet another nonsense, which, at best, strengthens cardiovascular system, and at worst, it simply increases appetite without providing incentives for muscle growth.
Knowing the actual rates of muscle growth eliminates wasted time and money, and simplifies the task for the psyche.
Gaining muscle mass is not a priority subject for research by medical scientists. Today there are only a few scientifically based positions on this topic. A fairly well-known 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. We were talking about initially strong and athletic people who were not overweight.
Biologists say that in a lifetime you can gain:
- Approximately 22 kg if you are a man;
- About 12 kg if a woman.
Why professional bodybuilders do they refute this? The answer is simple - anabolic steroid. They accelerate protein synthesis, allowing you to increase volume and weight beyond what nature intended 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 - in a week, with an ideally structured regime, a man can add about 100 g of muscle mass, a woman - about 50 g. Sometimes they say that the maximum gain for men over a 12-week training cycle is about 6 kg, for women - 2 -3 kg, which means total mass body, not just muscles.
Important: weight gain can be more significant, since with excess nutrition not only muscle mass grows, but also fat layer person.
Of course, there are exceptions to the rules. Average values are valid for the so-called average genetic endowment. There are people who can gain more and faster, and those who can gain less. Typically, insignificant gains are compensated by the fact that a person practically does not add fat. Therefore, ectomorphs can be lean and sculpted with less muscle, while endomorphs can spend significant effort on reducing body fat, but still look “damp.”
So, we found out the maximum rates of muscle mass gain. At what speed 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 occur in reality? Usually people gain more or less. There are many factors - diet style, amount of salt in the diet, macronutrient ratio, quantity and quality of carbohydrates. In addition, weight is affected by stress levels, hormonal fluctuations in women, medications, and even a common cold.
Sometimes people cannot gain an ounce simply because they are exposed to work and family stress, and stress increases calorie expenditure. Some people suffer from lack of sleep, while others suffer from sleep quality. Therefore, calculating weight gain in advance is quite a difficult job.
IN power types sports, usually an 8-12 week cycle allows a novice athlete to add 3-5 kg of weight, taking into account the fact 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 significant that before a competition a strongman can lose 2-3 kg of “water” weight, when the microtraumas of the muscles heal and the muscles stop holding weight. This well-known effect allows you to plan weight categories. And fitness beginners can judge the actual weight gain and its speed.
6 Factors Affecting Muscle Growth and Their Relationships
The above works well in theory. In practice, muscle growth factors and their ratio can change significantly under the influence of various conditions. These include
Anaboic steroids
Cultural silence about the fact that anabolic steroids accelerate protein synthesis several times allows online trainers around the world to sell 12- weekly programs crazy muscle growth, and sports nutrition companies regularly offer different proteins, amino acid complexes, and gainers to those people who “normally” would not buy something like that. Anabolic steroids are prohibited in most countries of the world, but not for personal use, but for distribution. They have side effects, but will never leave the world of bodybuilding and fitness, since only steroids help you really get pumped up quickly. If you see someone completely change their physique in literally 3 months, it is very likely that they have taken steroids.
Training experience
Beginners can truly build muscle and burn fat at the same time. At the same time, weight 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 gym due to some life circumstances, coming again, he will return results faster. It is believed that with each “mass-cutting” cycle, progress slows down only in growth, and cutting will be easier, because experienced athletes look better than beginners.
Muscle memory
This phenomenon has more to do with people who previously used anabolic steroids and then suddenly decided to become natural athletes than with “clean” athletes. First, a couple of years are devoted to classical training with pharmacological support, weight is gained, and a large training volume is done. And then the athlete deliberately goes for some “rollback” in weight, stopping using anabolic steroids.
If he does not give up training, but only reduces the training volume, his muscles will remain “in their place.” If he leaves the gym, his muscle mass will decrease. After this happens, several years may pass, but the developed neuromuscular connections will not go away. Then, when the athlete returns to the gym, some of the mass will “gain back” quite quickly.
Natural athletes also have muscle memory. The higher the level of the athlete, the more experience and technical skill, the better the muscles return after a break.
Genetics
Someone is unlucky with it, 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 using steroids, but they themselves only exercise 3 times a week and regularly eat regular food. Unfortunately, genetic predisposition to certain sports is not fiction, but reality. Hormonal balance, bone structure of the body, the number of muscle fibers, the tendency to gain fat and the speed of metabolic processes, as well as the amount of digestive enzymes, the characteristics of the central nervous system and the speed of reactions - all this matters when it comes to the speed of muscle pumping.
Age
The hormonal explosion characteristic of youth must be used to the fullest. Testosterone levels in mature age may fall, and therefore the rate of muscle gain will be slower. Young athletes not only have more high level anabolic hormones, but also better fulfills the load of the central nervous system. Therefore, those who played sports before the age of 20 are more likely to gain muscle in the future. Neuromuscular connections are developed, and a person can only slightly adjust training volumes and loads. It is believed that it is effective to practice natural bodybuilding Possible from 15 years old.
Training program and nutrition
It is impossible to gain muscle unless there are sufficient training stimuli for their growth, and high-quality nutrition for body restoration and protein synthesis. There are many factors that come into play here, but usually the point of the program is that it should be suitable for a particular person based on his lifestyle, motor characteristics and training level. Many beginners use ready-made training plans from bodybuilding magazines and do not achieve success. They go to the gym 5-6 times a week, firmly believe in the need to do cardio on the masses, 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, regular food is not enough for recovery, and instead of weight, a person gets tired, injured, and quite big muscles. The main rule of training for a natural athlete is less volume, more weight, and more multi-joint movements. In addition, there is no particular point in doing strength training more than 3 times a week. The diet should contain 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 come from sugar and fruit. Pasta, potatoes, rice and buckwheat are the basis of a natural athlete’s “bulk” diet. 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 the “most working” universal programs for the masses? No, everything needs to be selected individually. More suitable for some frequent training at an average weight, someone really needs to do one set of failures to generate enough muscle growth stimulus. There are also athletes who grow well solely from strength training, and others from high-repetition training. With nutrition, too, not everything is so simple, some people are gluten intolerant, others can eat everything, there are also individual preferences. Meaning coaching work It’s just about analyzing the individual characteristics of the athlete and selecting a program for them.
Conclusion
So, how much can you gain, and in what time frame? It all depends on the experience, the desire to devote your training to recruiting, and general development, and the opportunity to eat regularly and quality food. No gainer will “beat” the fact that a person simply eats too little food and does not gain the required amount of macronutrients for recovery. The mass period does not need to be planned even when there is severe stress at work, school or in life. Nutrition, sleep, recovery, rest and literacy training plan will help you gain more muscle in a short time.
How much do you think it will take to get pumped up if you regularly go to the gym, follow all the trainer’s advice and eat right? It will be funny if you answer in six months or a year. The shorter this period is in the answer, the more fun it will cause among professionals.
However, the funniest part is yet to come. The fact is that no one will ever be able to determine the time when and for how long the increase in muscle mass occurs. Today there are studies that show why this happens and how to use scientific findings. But the final result will depend on the individual characteristics of the athlete’s body, his desire or motivation to exercise, nutrition, daily routine and many, many other factors.
Let's start studying our issue with planning. Yes, it turns out that it is not only possible, but also necessary to draw up some kind of diagram where landmarks for muscle growth will be built over time. To somehow imagine this, let's look at what is known on this issue today.
- First, the body prepares for hypertrophic changes.
- Onset of hypertrophy
- Transition from hypertrophy to hyperplasia.
- Long period of system adaptation.
Let's start looking at the first stage in detail. Before us is an average young man, not very fat, but not very thin either. Let’s say he weighs 70 kilograms and is 175 cm tall. Let’s assume that this young man has strong motivation and won’t stop going to the gym for the next lesson.
Faced with large and unfamiliar loads, his body will become stressed. I can’t give any changes during the first days of training. All his muscles are simply in shock at what they have to deal with. The task of our subject is not to chase great achievements in the first three months of classes. They simply won't exist.
And where do they come from if the muscles have not yet learned to work harmoniously and all the time because of this there is a loss of energy. But by the end of the third month, muscle memory finally appeared. The movements became coherent and the results began to grow. The figure of the novice athlete also began to change noticeably.
As soon as these are noticed characteristic features, you can conclude that the first stage has been completed, and you begin to smoothly move on to the second stage. By this time, the energy supply system had begun to be restructured and less energy was now required to maintain it. The muscles have adapted to accumulate and release more energy at the right time.
In practice, at the beginning of your training, you need to learn how to perform exercises correctly with light weight. Then you won’t have to relearn to do the workout, but with heavy weights. At the first stage, the body must first be taught to increase glycogen and ATP reserves in order to speed up the work of enzymes. And they are associated with energy metabolism processes.
In parallel, due to neuropsychic processes, almost every fiber is trained muscle tissue. Over time, they begin to carry out the work in a coordinated manner, which results in an increase in results. That is, this does not happen due to an increase in volume, but only due to the fact that we have hidden reserves in our body.
This can be clearly seen in the example of our average athlete. If at first it was difficult for him to weigh 50 kilograms, then by the end of the third month he was without weight. special effort If you start to bench press 60, then all 70 kilograms. During its formation, a network of capillary vessels grows. And this gives an increase due to a better supply of oxygen, proteins and energy to the muscular system.
It is impossible not to mention the ligaments in the skeletal system. By the end of the first period, they too will have received their workout and will be stronger than before. Externally, the muscles will increase slightly, but this will most likely be swelling, and not their desired growth. Then the process will slow down and will remain in place for a long time, if nothing is changed.
Second stage or intensive muscle growth
1. You will feel it begin when all indicators stop growing. This happens, as we already wrote, between the second and fourth month regular classes V gym. By this time, all the athlete’s systems should have completed their initial transformation. There are no miracles in this life, until the first stage has been completed, there will be no growth of muscle cells. Why should the body do this if it has other reserves.
2 . In the second stage, the muscles being trained will increase. It doesn't last long. According to some observations, only two years. Although many, even experienced athletes and coaches, believe that this process can last a lifetime. This is why a novice athlete smiles when he asks a more experienced master how long it will take to pump up.
In reality, everything looks something like this. We settled on the fact that our imaginary athlete, in the first months of training, learned to lift a load 10-15% more than when he did not do this. So, within two years he will gain a few more percent and will be able to come close to 90 kilograms.
He will have a well-built body with light fat weighing up to 90 kilograms. In practice, these indicators will be slightly different for equally built people. Genetics plays a role proper nutrition and regular classes.
3. So, in two years, our young man’s body has completely exhausted its capabilities and stopped responding to training. Muscle cells have stopped growing because they cannot do so indefinitely. It turns out there is a way out of this completely hopeless situation. We need to make sure that new muscle fibers appear and then increase their volume.
This is done through the use of light weights and multiple repetitions. This is called muscle hyperplasia. During these exercises, completely new fibers will begin to appear. They will add additional volume. And due to this, the total weight of the athlete will approach one hundred kilograms. This adds approximately another 30 kilograms of muscle mass over the entire training period.
4 . You can combine the second and third stages. Then you get one long period of 3-4 years. Now this direction is very popular. When you train hypertrophy and hyperplasia at the same time, a mutual complement occurs and the results of your training will grow much faster.
There is another ceiling, when in 3-4 years the human body will reach its limit. And then we need to figure out why this happens.
System adaptation
After a crisis has begun for a “straight” person (for him this is more critical), and no matter how much you train, the muscles do not grow, so you need to start changing those systems that interfere with this process. This is a cardiovascular, energetic, circulatory, nervous system. Strengthen your tendons; in short, you will need to pay attention to all the nooks and crannies of your body. That is, it is necessary to build a foundation and strengthen it in the place where the building itself (muscles) will be built. And then muscle growth will truly begin.
Few bodybuilders know about this process. This is why there are so few athletes with truly big muscles. The fourth stage has no time restrictions. This is most likely a lifestyle that can last a lifetime. The bodybuilder chooses his own goal and opens up new horizons. Therefore, as you understand, asking the question “How long can it take to pump up?” not quite right...
Friends, hello everyone. In this issue we will talk about the most frequently asked question, both from beginner athletes and more advanced ones - how long does it take to get pumped up? This is the question that worries many. I receive a lot of letters in my inbox that are somehow related to this topic. Just yesterday, I received a letter and made the final decision to write an article on this topic.
Most athletes and even coaches do not plan the stages of muscle growth at all. Nobody either knows anything about this or simply doesn’t want to worry. Because my task is to tell you how to learn how to plan muscle growth, and of course answer how much it will take to pump up.
Most often, such questions are asked by beginners, i.e. those who have just joined the gym and are just starting their journey. He wants everything at once. And knowing what we know now, it's honestly just ridiculous. Because it is impossible to answer this question without knowing the person under your care inside and out!
Let me explain, all people are different, we all differ from each other in our desire to train (motivation), level of knowledge, finances, etc. Would you like a simple example for this line? One geneticist is mesomorphic, the other is ectomorphic – i.e. it is much easier for the first to gain weight, because his physique is prone to this, and the second ectomorph (popularly called "dryshch") has great difficulty gaining weight. Some people have a mad desire to train, they are full of motivation to achieve a goal, while others have less of it, or none at all. Some people have the level of necessary knowledge (they have a head on their shoulders) and they work out correctly in the gym, but others don’t, i.e. to put it bluntly, he spends his time in the gym year after year doing the wrong workouts. Some people have money for and, but others don’t. In general, there are a lot of factors that influence muscle growth, and I hope I have clearly explained why it is so difficult to answer our question.
Okay, that's good, let's get down to business (now I'll give you an approximate, and for some, an exact time reference - how long you can pump up). In order to compile the following, I repeatedly looked at statistics in order to select the right type of person for example.
A guy weighing 70 kg, height 178 cm, with average capabilities (i.e. there is motivation to exercise, there is money for regular food: fish, meat, eggs, cottage cheese, etc.) but no money for sports nutrition . Some people read it and are amazed, but it’s me. Well, friends, how can such a person plan his muscle growth, how long will it take him to pump up?
Your progress should be built in four stages of bodybuilding:
- Stage 1. Prepare the body for hypertrophy (muscle growth) - it will take 2-3 months.
- Stage 2. The process of muscle hypertrophy (i.e. muscle growth itself) takes 2+ years, for some 3,4,5...
- Stage 3. The process of muscle hyperplasia takes 1-2 years.
- Stage 4. Systemic adaptation of the body
Let's start in order, I will tell you everything about these stages in order.
Stage 1. Prepare the body for hypertrophy(i.e. prepare the body for future muscle growth), takes from 2-3 months, the shortest period of time, it is also the most necessary.
Our body, roughly speaking, is smart-ass. A beginner who came to the gym for the first time and trained with weights caused enormous stress for the body as a whole. And if such stress is repeated regularly, then our body simply rebuilds everything transport systems our body in such a way as to waste less energy (suffer less from such stress), in short, our body does not enjoy it (it is blocked).
The first thing that changes our body is energy supply. Those. when we train, we spend a lot of energy, this is not beneficial for the body, it begins to store and release more glycogen and ATP in the muscles.
In addition to the above, our muscles learn to work more economically, well, spend less energy than before during training. This occurs due to more coordinated work of our muscle fibers under the influence of the central nervous system, i.e. The more muscle fibers work together (as a group, friendly), the less energy the body needs to perform the exercise.
But in practice, everything happens in the form of an increase in human strength. Those. our teenager, without knowledge, did not plan the stages of muscle growth, he came and started training like all ordinary people. At the first workout, I bench pressed 60 kg, the next session I easily bench pressed 75-80 kg. Or he pulled 60 kg, then 90 kg. This is not because his muscles have become larger in size, it is because our smart-ass body has learned to work more efficiently than before. Yes, of course a person can add a couple of kilograms of muscle mass, his appearance changed to better side, the person thinks: well, everything is ok, I’m moving in the right direction. However, this is not true. You are making a grave mistake
, literally in a couple of months the growth of your strength and muscle mass will slow down. And all because he didn’t exist! In fact, there was an increase in muscle efficiency and an increase in muscle transport systems. But the MUSCLE GROWTH ITSELF occurs during the second stage.
![](https://i2.wp.com/steelsports.ru/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/za-skolko-01.jpg)
This stage (muscle growth) doesn't take long, I gave you a rough guide, but it doesn't. Most, seeing that muscle growth would take 2-5 years, closed the page with a look of Oh why.
In fact, it takes 2 years for a muscle cell to inflate to its maximum size! Therefore, in order to It only takes 2 YEARS to realize your maximum muscle growth potential.
Using our guy as an example, weighing 70 kg these two stages will look like this: in the first 2-3 months it will increase its weight from 70 kg to 72-74 kg. During the second stage (over the next 2 years) he will actually increase the growth of muscle fibers (muscles), in the form of 10-15 kg in the first year and about 5-10 in the second year. I guarantee that if a person exercises correctly, eats, rests, in general, does everything correctly, he will easily increase his weight from 70 to 90 kg, without the use of pharmacology.
That's basically all, I hope I answered your question - how long can it take to pump up. Those if our guy does everything according to science, then for two years he can, roughly speaking, pump up.
Another question is how to continue muscle growth, how can our guy grow further?) He has been training for 2 years, in fact, you can still train for a year or two, depending on visible result. But when our guy sees that there is really no progress, this means only one thing, his fibers have increased to the maximum and are no longer growing, so what should he do, how to live then.
The third stage of our today's release will come to the rescue - the stage of muscle hyperplasia.
Stage 3. The process of muscle hyperplasia. Its essence lies in the fact that due to a new specially selected high-volume training with light weights, you need to separate the muscle fibers. Those. those fibers that are formed will be able to grow and therefore we will grow.
In practice, it looks like this: our boy, already weighing 90 kg (after the 2nd stage of muscle growth), switches to high-volume training and, due to the formation of new muscle cells, grows. In the first 1-2 years he will gain 5-10 kg of muscle mass. Those. again, if everything is according to science, then our boy is already a 100 kg athlete.
Okay, let’s say we’ve already been training for 4 years (we’ve passed the 1st stage, the 2nd stage lasting 2-3 years, and we’ve passed the 3rd stage, well, let’s say it lasts 1 year), our weight is already 100 kg, we’re no longer skinny . But even here the progress has stopped, the muscles are still not growing, what to do next?
Stage 4
– systemic adaptation of the body.
The essence of this stage is that you develop all those functions and systems of our body that limit the growth of our muscles. Those. you train energy, nervous, cardiac, circulatory system body and other systems of the body, and all for the sake of making them stronger, more powerful, and this, in turn, will make your muscles even bigger. Almost no one reaches this stage, only professionals, only successful experienced people who are ready to make sacrifices for the sake of their future potential growth. The duration of this stage is also uncertain. Those. the one who reaches it will be able to decide for himself how and when to stop.
Well, friends. A very useful lesson for you to learn. I encourage you to do this. If you really want to build big muscles, you need to do it scientifically (with your head). You will need to go through each of the stages: 2-4 months to prepare for future growth, 2-4 years to realize hypertrophy (muscle growth) and 1 year for muscle hyperplasia, then you will reach your genetic ceiling, and you will have to pay attention to the fourth stage.
If you liked the article, if there is something you don’t understand, if you have any questions, if you just have something to add, leave your comments under this publication, I’m very interested in what you think about all this, I’ll definitely unsubscribe.
Best regards, administrator.