How quickly do muscles typically grow?

[DuLac]

Assuming a novice/intermediate bodybuilder is using a solid program with good barbell and dumbbell training exercises (and not just training for 'Teh Biecpts P34k' ), how quickly does muscle begin to build, in terms of weight? Also assume no over-training, proper nutrition, plenty of rest, and no 'special ingredients'.

1 pound of muscle gained every 2 weeks?

How quickly would a low-bodyfat individual (say 10-12%) begin to measure actual changes in muscle size? (say quads, calves, forearms, biceps, etc)? And how long would it take to grow from, say, 12" to 13" (1 inch increase) in a relaxed state in one of those areas? The reason I state a low-bodyfat individual, is because I work with plenty of people in the 35-45% bodyfat range (I work in I.T.), who have massive 21" necks and immense 20" arms, but who cannot curl anything heavier than a 12 oz Coors Light).

Is it more difficult to grow in size for an advanced bodybuilder than a novice? I have read that it is more difficult to advance in terms of strength. What generally determines the maximum growth of a bodypart, or is there no such thing?

[Cheesin]

Bump, because i'd also like to know.

[User4543432]

Assuming a novice/intermediate bodybuilder is using a solid program with good barbell and dumbbell training exercises (and not just training for 'Teh Biecpts P34k' ), how quickly does muscle begin to build, in terms of weight? Also assume no over-training, proper nutrition, plenty of rest, and no 'special ingredients'.

1 pound of muscle gained every 2 weeks?

How quickly would a low-bodyfat individual (say 10-12%) begin to measure actual changes in muscle size? (say quads, calves, forearms, biceps, etc)? And how long would it take to grow from, say, 12" to 13" (1 inch increase) in a relaxed state in one of those areas? The reason I state a low-bodyfat individual, is because I work with plenty of people in the 35-45% bodyfat range (I work in I.T.), who have massive 21" necks and immense 20" arms, but who cannot curl anything heavier than a 12 oz Coors Light).

Is it more difficult to grow in size for an advanced bodybuilder than a novice? I have read that it is more difficult to advance in terms of strength. What generally determines the maximum growth of a bodypart, or is there no such thing?

What I have found over time is the bigger you get (i.e. more muscular haha, not fatty) the harder it is to gain.... It is taking me forever and a day to reach my target weight and size.... Forever! Average natural gain (key being natural) for solid muscle (not water, not fat) is 12lb a year, that's the average...

It's a process brother, have to wait it out and just enjoy the ride...

[DuLac]

Ok thanks Justin.

12 lbs a year of muscle gain is 1 lb / month. Is that what you're seeing now, as an advanced lifter, or was that the case for you back when you were first beginning to lift?

I don't mind the process taking a while. 1 lb / month does seem like it would take an incredibly long time to add 1" to a body-part.

Some quick math (sorry, bear with me or skip to the bold part below):

Say I have 12" circumference arms (bicep + tricep) relaxed. Assuming a cylindrical shape, that means my arm has a radius (r) of r= d/(2xPi) or 1.9", so I would need to add 0.1" to my radius to get the circumference of my arm to increase to 13", or 1". (13/(2xPi) = 2.0")

Assume my upper arm is ~7" long when relaxed, from tendon to tendon along the bicep. That gives my arm a volume of 7" x 1.9"^2 x Pi, or 79.3 cubic inches of mass.

Assuming my arms are pretty fat-free, muscle has a density of 1.06 g/ml. I have no idea how thick an arm-bone is, but average bone density is 1.85 g/ml. lets assume my humerus is .9" thick. That means i have 1" of muscle coating my humerus, on average. I need to increase that 1" to 1.1" to add 1" to my arm-size.

The volume of my bone where the muscle sits is 7" x .9"^2 x Pi = 17.8 cubic inches. Subtracting the bone from my arm, to leave just the muscle volume gives us 79.38 in^3 - 17.8 in^3 = 61.57 in^3 of muscle. This gives my theoretical arm a total weight of 2.35 pounds.

My theoretical body size is, 200 lbs, at 10% bodyfat, giving me 10 lbs of fat and 190 lbs of lean body mass. Now the question is, how much of my lean body mass is muscle, and how much is organs, skin, bones, and various other fluids? According to one website (lol, yeah, i know...) a person's overall weight is 55%-60% water, 15-20% fat, 10-20% muscle and tissue, and 6-8% minerals.

So lets say that I am pretty athletic so that 15% of my overall mass is muscle. 15% of 200 = 30 lbs of muscle. Adding 1 pound is an increase of 3%.

Since our increase in true-muscle is 1 lb per month (not too shabby), and our current single arm muscle weight is 2.35 lbs of our total 30 lbs, we can expect 7.8% of that 1 lb to go to our arm. That is .078 lbs, lol, or 35g per month added to each arm. Slow and steady wins the race. We need to increase our arm-size volume from 61.57 in^3 to 70.15 in^3 (1.9" radius to 2.0" radius, leaving out the volume of the arm bone (which doesn't change)). Given our ratio of 1.06 g/ml, or .002 pounds/ml, or .00012 pounds/in^3, we can expect to add that 8.57 cubic inches of muscle (aka 140 ml of muscle) in 140/35 = 4 months of solid growth, at 1 lb body-muscle gain per month.

So what about 15" arms growing to 16" arms, relaxed size?

15" arms = 125 cubic inches.
16" arms = 142 cubic inches.
Difference: 17.28 cubic inches. That is double the volume needed to add 1 inch to a 12" arm! 17.28 cubic inches = 283 ml.

at 35g/month, it would take 283/35 = 8 months of solid growth to add 1".

Ok Math all done, skip to here to ignore the crazy ramblings above

So to add 1" to 12" arms, it will take 4 months. Obviously, since muscle grows at the same rate (given Justin's info above) no matter how big you are, it takes much longer to grow visibly if you're already huge.

In fact, it takes twice as long to add 1" to 15" arms, compared to 12" arms (8 months, compared to 4 months).

Cool. Thanks again for the info Justin.

[User4543432]

Aside from training and diet advice I am dumb as a bag of rocks and this math just put me into a seizure man haha.... Make it stop!!!

I have found it takes me about a year to put an inch of mass on a bodypart, the only thing growing at a more rapid pace right now are my fore arms, because I am hammering them to get them to match my upper arms... aside from that growth is slow, but consistent....

Based on the 1" every 4 months theory, that's 3" a year, 30" in 10 years, so if I started with 14" arms, which I did, that would put me at 44" arms by September for my 10 yr anniversary lol.... At some point the growth slows down, but the muscle better develops... Just go with the flow, give it Hell and enjoy the ride brother...

[SledgeHammer01]

Haha... WTF... mad math skillz. Isn't it easier to just say add roughly 15 to 20lbs to add an inch to your arm? That seems to work for most people.

[User4543432]

Haha... WTF... mad math skillz. Isn't it easier to just say add roughly 15 to 20lbs to add an inch to your arm? That seems to work for most people.

The math scared the piss out of me.... I tried to read through it but I started to feel like I was going to go into convulsions from all the brain work being done....or trying to be done...TRYING being the key word...

[BlackPaladin]

Ok thanks Justin.

12 lbs a year of muscle gain is 1 lb / month. Is that what you're seeing now, as an advanced lifter, or was that the case for you back when you were first beginning to lift?

I don't mind the process taking a while. 1 lb / month does seem like it would take an incredibly long time to add 1" to a body-part.

Some quick math (sorry, bear with me or skip to the bold part below):

Say I have 12" circumference arms (bicep + tricep) relaxed. Assuming a cylindrical shape, that means my arm has a radius (r) of r= d/(2xPi) or 1.9", so I would need to add 0.1" to my radius to get the circumference of my arm to increase to 13", or 1". (13/(2xPi) = 2.0")

Assume my upper arm is ~7" long when relaxed, from tendon to tendon along the bicep. That gives my arm a volume of 7" x 1.9"^2 x Pi, or 79.3 cubic inches of mass.

Assuming my arms are pretty fat-free, muscle has a density of 1.06 g/ml. I have no idea how thick an arm-bone is, but average bone density is 1.85 g/ml. lets assume my humerus is .9" thick. That means i have 1" of muscle coating my humerus, on average. I need to increase that 1" to 1.1" to add 1" to my arm-size.

The volume of my bone where the muscle sits is 7" x .9"^2 x Pi = 17.8 cubic inches. Subtracting the bone from my arm, to leave just the muscle volume gives us 79.38 in^3 - 17.8 in^3 = 61.57 in^3 of muscle. This gives my theoretical arm a total weight of 2.35 pounds.

My theoretical body size is, 200 lbs, at 10% bodyfat, giving me 10 lbs of fat and 190 lbs of lean body mass. Now the question is, how much of my lean body mass is muscle, and how much is organs, skin, bones, and various other fluids? According to one website (lol, yeah, i know...) a person's overall weight is 55%-60% water, 15-20% fat, 10-20% muscle and tissue, and 6-8% minerals.

So lets say that I am pretty athletic so that 15% of my overall mass is muscle. 15% of 200 = 30 lbs of muscle. Adding 1 pound is an increase of 3%.

Since our increase in true-muscle is 1 lb per month (not too shabby), and our current single arm muscle weight is 2.35 lbs of our total 30 lbs, we can expect 7.8% of that 1 lb to go to our arm. That is .078 lbs, lol, or 35g per month added to each arm. Slow and steady wins the race. We need to increase our arm-size volume from 61.57 in^3 to 70.15 in^3 (1.9" radius to 2.0" radius, leaving out the volume of the arm bone (which doesn't change)). Given our ratio of 1.06 g/ml, or .002 pounds/ml, or .00012 pounds/in^3, we can expect to add that 8.57 cubic inches of muscle (aka 140 ml of muscle) in 140/35 = 4 months of solid growth, at 1 lb body-muscle gain per month.

So what about 15" arms growing to 16" arms, relaxed size?

15" arms = 125 cubic inches.
16" arms = 142 cubic inches.
Difference: 17.28 cubic inches. That is double the volume needed to add 1 inch to a 12" arm! 17.28 cubic inches = 283 ml.

at 35g/month, it would take 283/35 = 8 months of solid growth to add 1".

Ok Math all done, skip to here to ignore the crazy ramblings above

So to add 1" to 12" arms, it will take 4 months. Obviously, since muscle grows at the same rate (given Justin's info above) no matter how big you are, it takes much longer to grow visibly if you're already huge.

In fact, it takes twice as long to add 1" to 15" arms, compared to 12" arms (8 months, compared to 4 months).

Cool. Thanks again for the info Justin.

Math minor who was impressed with your word problem (repped)

[DuLac]

Haha... WTF... mad math skillz. Isn't it easier to just say add roughly 15 to 20lbs to add an inch to your arm? That seems to work for most people.

Haha yeah, plus i am sure growth isn't going to be constant like I assume that it does.

Good points guys.

Justin, in 10 yrs, one would expect (using my super simple and incorrect math above) to have added 35ml x 12 mo x 10 yrs = 4200 ml or 256 cubic inches.

if you started out at 10 inch arms (again, relaxed, not flexed) or 55.76 cubic inches of muscle, you'd add 256 cubic inches to get 311 cubic inches. That would be a size increase up to about 23" arms.

Quick math:
7" humerus x (10"arm/(2*pi))^2*pi = 55 cubic inches (length x radius ^2 x pi = volume of a cylinder)
7" humerus x (23"arm/(2*pi))^2*pi = 294 cubic inches.

So it must slow down at some point, definitely. Still, an ok goal for most people to add 1-2" per year if they're already huge, or up to 3" in 1 year, for tiny people that are just starting out.

Edit: for clarity, you don't add 3" per year, you add 35ml per month. That is the difference between volume sizes. The circumference of your arm grows slower and slower as you add the same amount of mass to it every month.

Another example. say you had a Large Pizza that has 8" slices (16" diameter) and you have Medium one that has 6" slices (12" diameter). The total area of the Large pizza is (8^2*pi = 200 sq inches). The total area of the Medium pizza is 113 square inches. Just by taking 2" off the slices, you cut the total amount of pizza in half!

So even if you double your Arm in volume, you only go from a 15" arm to a 21" arm (that would take adding 125 cubic inches, by the way, so it would take you 2,048/35 = 58 months, or nearly 5 years of straight constant growth!)

[Hut*Hut]

Assuming a novice/intermediate bodybuilder is using a solid program with good barbell and dumbbell training exercises (and not just training for 'Teh Biecpts P34k' ), how quickly does muscle begin to build, in terms of weight? Also assume no over-training, proper nutrition, plenty of rest, and no 'special ingredients'.

1 pound of muscle gained every 2 weeks?

How quickly would a low-bodyfat individual (say 10-12%) begin to measure actual changes in muscle size? (say quads, calves, forearms, biceps, etc)? And how long would it take to grow from, say, 12" to 13" (1 inch increase) in a relaxed state in one of those areas? The reason I state a low-bodyfat individual, is because I work with plenty of people in the 35-45% bodyfat range (I work in I.T.), who have massive 21" necks and immense 20" arms, but who cannot curl anything heavier than a 12 oz Coors Light).

Is it more difficult to grow in size for an advanced bodybuilder than a novice? I have read that it is more difficult to advance in terms of strength. What generally determines the maximum growth of a bodypart, or is there no such thing?

As a rough guideline expect non-newbie muscle gains on a good program to be in the ball park of about 2-3lb a month. It won't be neatly linear or predictable like that, but that's the rough rate of growth, IME. And expect your arms to grow about an inch per 15lb of mass you gain. So as a rough guideline expect gaining an inch on your arms to take roughly 6 months, if you do things right.

[DuLac]

Thanks for the response Hut, that is pretty much in line with very generalized equations from above, 1" = ~6mo. 15 lbs per 6 mo does seem to be quite a bit faster than Justin has indicated. At his 285 lb weight, though, he might be growing slower than those of us without as much experience. 2-3 lb /mo is triple his speed, which is probably the difference between intermediate and and advanced bodybuilders.

[tehkev14]

im sure it's depend how far your advance

cause a brand new guy to the training could gain more then 12lbs of muscle in one year

[Hut*Hut]

im sure it's depend how far your advance

cause a brand new guy to the training could gain more then 12lbs of muscle in one year

definitely. the nearer to your potential you are in any area of life the slower progress will be.

[rafgar1983]

Haha yeah, plus i am sure growth isn't going to be constant like I assume that it does.

Good points guys.

Justin, in 10 yrs, one would expect (using my super simple and incorrect math above) to have added 35ml x 12 mo x 10 yrs = 4200 ml or 256 cubic inches.

if you started out at 10 inch arms (again, relaxed, not flexed) or 55.76 cubic inches of muscle, you'd add 256 cubic inches to get 311 cubic inches. That would be a size increase up to about 23" arms.

Quick math:
7" humerus x (10"arm/(2*pi))^2*pi = 55 cubic inches (length x radius ^2 x pi = volume of a cylinder)
7" humerus x (23"arm/(2*pi))^2*pi = 294 cubic inches.

So it must slow down at some point, definitely. Still, an ok goal for most people to add 1-2" per year if they're already huge, or up to 3" in 1 year, for tiny people that are just starting out.

Edit: for clarity, you don't add 3" per year, you add 35ml per month. That is the difference between volume sizes. The circumference of your arm grows slower and slower as you add the same amount of mass to it every month.

Another example. say you had a Large Pizza that has 8" slices (16" diameter) and you have Medium one that has 6" slices (12" diameter). The total area of the Large pizza is (8^2*pi = 200 sq inches). The total area of the Medium pizza is 113 square inches. Just by taking 2" off the slices, you cut the total amount of pizza in half!

So even if you double your Arm in volume, you only go from a 15" arm to a 21" arm (that would take adding 125 cubic inches, by the way, so it would take you 2,048/35 = 58 months, or nearly 5 years of straight constant growth!)

Hey man, I been working out for about 4 years, when I start lifting weights I was 125 lbs my height is 5'11", so that makes me a broom stick, my arms relaxed where 11 inches. 4 years now I am 200 lbs arms 15 relax, but I want to have 20 inches. Now you telling me that I need to wait 5 years with an intense workout to get to 20 inches.

[trexmoad123]

Hey man, I been working out for about 4 years, when I start lifting weights I was 125 lbs my height is 5'11", so that makes me a broom stick, my arms relaxed where 11 inches. 4 years now I am 200 lbs arms 15 relax, but I want to have 20 inches. Now you telling me that I need to wait 5 years with an intense workout to get to 20 inches.

I doubt you will ever have lean 20 inch arms.. even on the juice. Sorry

[qoohhlt]

As your fitness level goes up, lbs to lbs gets harder until you hit ur natural limit. More sets,weight,reps or frequency are required to get more mass on.

[Jack101]

what the **** is wrong with you op

[SuffolkPunch]

Well that was a pointless 7 year bump