Rate of Muscle Gain

There exists a common misconception that one either trains to be strong, OR trains to be "big".

The two are made out to be mutually exclusive,

And at the same time, fitness marketing presents itself that different kinds of training build "lean" muscles versus "big muscles"

And this creates lots of confusion with men and women alike. The women dont want to do "bulky" training, and the guys want to "mass",

Or, the men dont want to "bodybuild" but just want to be "strong", and the women dont want to train "like men”.

None of this helps your average joe or jane.

The Truth is as follows

-Muscle CREATES strength. You cannot have strength without muscle. Strength is partially neurological, but regardless of your motor coordination ability, force production comes from muscle tissue contract.

You will get stronger by lifting progressively heavier weights and become more coordinated. You will become more muscular by lifting progressively heavier weights which challenge your muscles contractile ability.

These are two sides to the same coin.

One can be prioritized over the other, but they are not exclusive of each other at all

In the long term, if you want to be STRONGER, you need to be MORE MUSCULAR, and vice versa.

Muscle gain is a long term process

In the beginning, you can pounds and kilos of muscle. These are the novice gains or “noobie” gains.

80% of your muscle is gained in the first 2 years of lifting. After that, the process slows.

Beyond the 5 year range, you can might gain 1lb of muscle a year. And thats assuming you are eating and training to GROW. Not just maintain.

Regardless of how long you have been training, and regardless of whether your diet, you should always train to be bigger and stronger

Eventually as you age and get into your 50s, it will become more challening to maintain lean body mass. Strength will decline, training will require more warmups, more careful exercise selection, more thinking.

Muscle is the holy grail for health. You want to build as much of it as you can, and maintain it for life.