The 1-2 pounds of lean muscle a year rule

I don't know where to put this thread so I'm leaving it here.

Let's say that someone is naturally 225 pounds by the age of 25 and 5-6% body fat. so 211 of everything else… I don't know exactly how much bones and organs and water weigh but lets just assume a conservative 70%. That leaves 64 pounds of muscle and muscle is actually kind of heavy so I'm guessing theres even more. Thats a lot more muscle than 1-2 pounds a year for 25 years. 14 pounds more at the lowest most conservative estimate.

Where did that 1-2 pounds of muscle even come from and how accurate is it really?

The "rule" you're talking about isn't really a rule but more of a general window for most. Also, it's not 1-2lbs of muscle mass a year but 1-2lbs of muscle mass a month. This depends on a number of factors. As you get closer and closer to or further and further past your genetic potential muscle mass gains will slow down. This is why a new gym goer can have very quick results in the first few years of training and why it gets harder as you progress further. It also ties into how almost any type of program can work for a beginner but those programs fail to get you past the beginner stages (you'll notice how so many ppl make threads about having great success their first 2-3yrs with excellent gains but they plateau and believe they hit their genetic potential after that).

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Originally Posted by Docd187123

The "rule" you're talking about isn't really a rule but more of a general window for most. Also, it's not 1-2lbs of muscle mass a year but 1-2lbs of muscle mass a month. This depends on a number of factors. As you get closer and closer to or further and further past your genetic potential muscle mass gains will slow down. This is why a new gym goer can have very quick results in the first few years of training and why it gets harder as you progress further. It also ties into how almost any type of program can work for a beginner but those programs fail to get you past the beginner stages (you'll notice how so many ppl make threads about having great success their first 2-3yrs with excellent gains but they plateau and believe they hit their genetic potential after that).

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Totally agree.......that's why most if us look for more advanced training protocols to follow. As doc stated once you are past your genetic potential it IS increasingly difficult to gain more size. Most of us try to fight this.....the ones with the better genetics simply do better. Tough pill to swallow.....on cycle or off.