If you’re focused on natural training, you should read this article to learn what to expect.
Natural Training: Prioritize Strength
I’ve been training natty for over a decade, but I haven’t really packed on much size in several years.
I have, however, gained quite a fair bit of strength — even though I’ve only put on a few pounds of muscle.
At about 26-27 years old, my muscle gains really began to stall. I had trained hard since 19-20 years old after developing a decent foundation in my teens from focusing on aesthetic muscles — arms, delts, chest, some back, and explosive leg workouts.
From ages 19-22, I made my most significant muscle gains, gaining around 20-25lbs of muscle in this time. From 22-30 — I am thirty now — I gained in the vicinity of 15-20lb of muscle in eight years, most of which stalled at around 26-27 years old. In my teenage years, I must have put on between 10-20lbs of muscle, but it’s hard to tell as I was also quite chubby.
However, it was at around age 25-26 I began to lift my heaviest weights. Between 25-29, although my total muscle mass didn’t increase much, my deadlift went from 240kg to around 300kg, my squat from 220kg to 280kg, and my bench from 140kg to 190kg — all natural.
The point of this brief blog post is to illustrate how it’s a lot quicker to max on your genetic ceiling when it comes to gaining size over gaining strength.
Arguably, although I hadn’t fully reached my genetic ceiling until my late twenties, I could still gain considerable strength thereafter.
If, of course, your goal is to get as big as possible or even a fitness model physique, you can expect to make decent gains — provided you have semi-decent genetics — in 5-7 years after beginning to train.
This is why a lot of gym bros advocate for lifters to train for at least five years before they hop on the sauce.
And I would stress for every novice lifter to way at least 5 years before considering PEDs.
We have an article outlining how long you should wait for taking PEDs.
You can get a near-fitness model physique naturally — the only thing that might be lacking is fullness, roundness, and deep cuts; all of which can be rectified with a mild compound for a few weeks/months.
But if you decide to stick with natural training, it is advisable that you choose a full body or upper/lower split instead of the traditional “bro split” as you will be preventing yourself from accessing more opportunities to stimulate muscle growth.
Anyway, that’s my two cents and experience with natural training for the length of time that I have.
Admittedly, it is very frustrating to lift heavier weights and train harder than last time but see very little progress at all when giving it your all — which is why a lot of lifters decide to take the plunge even if they promised themselves to remain natty for life.
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