Mind, Body & Soul :: Can You Really Gain A Lot of Muscle?

I think that most of us realize these days that the claims made for bodybuilding supplements are mostly greatly overstated. We see pictures of professional bodybuilders in the magazines with amazingly large amounts of muscle. No matter who you think has the perfect body, they are all carrying more muscle than you might imagine any human could build. So you go to the gym three or four times a week, and you wonder why, when you look in the mirror, Mr. Universe is not staring back at you.

I have been working out consistently for over thirty years, and I certainly do not look like a pro bodybuilder. That is not to say that the effort has not produced good results, but I am nothing like these freaks of nature. So where is the disconnect?

University studies show pretty consistently that the average lifter can gain four to seven pounds of muscle in three months. Of course within the average some guys can gain as much as fifteen pounds, while another gains next to nothing. And don't expect to gain this much in the next three months, because each additional pound of muscle is harder to gain. But what you gained in the first three months is a guide to what your potential is long-term - gain a lot in those early months, and you have a chance to grow significantly over time. Gain a little, and you can bet that your potential gains over time will not be great.

The difference between these two extremes is obviously genetics.

Muscles are not simply lumps of meat -- they are quite complex structures. There are stem cells within your muscles that provide extra nucleii, giving them the ability to grow. If you have a lot of these cells, your body will respond rapidly to resistance exercise. If you have a limited number of stem cells, then nothing will make your muscles grow, no matter how much you work out, although you may develop an attractively fit appearance.

Your genetics determine the shape of your muscles too. For example, my biceps stop about an inch short of my elbow joint. I will never be able to build as good a bicep as a guy whose biceps muscles appear to begin right at the elbow joint, so that when his arms are flexed, there will be little if any space between his upper and lower arm muscles.

You will notice that a majority of top bodybuilders are average height or shorter. Having shorter bones means that when you build muscles they appear to be bigger on that small frame. Long bones means long muscles, and it is harder to build thick muscle bellies when the growth is spread over a longer muscle.

OK, so you want to build muscle? You are really talking about gaining weight. It's easy to gain weight if you don't care what kind of weight you gain. But mostly guys want to add more muscle without adding more fat. If you are a very lean person to begin with, you can overeat and the gain will be mainly muscle, since your body is already programmed to burn off fat. If you are already fat, overeating will usually increase your problem, and only a small portion of the extra calories will be converted to muscle (assuming that you are doing some form of resistance training). In other words, if your body is wired for long-distance sports (a marathon run, for example) you will gain fat less easily than someone whose body is built for sprinting or power-lifting.

Top bodybuilders are usually people who put on weight easily, so to get in condition they train hard and then diet hard to lose body fat.

Of course there are also performance-enhancing drugs, which can help to add muscle without adding too much fat. At the same time, you have to eat well and train hard, otherwise the drugs don't do much. So when you see advertisements for the latest miracle supplement, ask yourself whether the guy in the picture got to look like that with that supplement, or whether he also uses illegal, expensive and potentially dangerous drugs! My view has always been that the decision to use drugs of any kind is a personal one, and some people -- some of those with HIV for example -- may benefit greatly from steroid use. But before making that decision you need to be very sure about the risks as well as the benefits.

As a broad-brush rule, if you are an average guy of 5'8" or 5'9" in height, then if you follow a good workout regime and eat a clean diet to stay lean, it is very difficult to push your weight above 200 pounds without steroids. Add about 7 pounds for each inch of height above 5'9" or subtract 7 pounds for each inch below 5'8". So if you see a guy who is in really good shape at this height and weighs 220 pounds or more, there is a good chance that he is including anabolics in his regime.

When an advertisement for a bodybuilding supplement promises results that exceed these norms, you can be fairly sure that the advertiser is relying more on fantasy than fact.