Training Article

How Quick Can You Build Muscle As A Natural Athlete?

One of the most common questions in strength training is: “How much muscle can I realistically put on per week?”

Social media promises rapid transformations in 12, 8 or 6 weeks, but when you strip away the bullshit, the science paints a much slower (and more realistic) picture.

Muscle growth isn’t a weekly miracle, it’s a slow accumulation of time, effort and consistency.

The good news? Those grams of muscle add up.

Author: Adam Johnston

Reading Time: 6 mins

Date: 4th September 2025

Tags: #Training #Strongman #OlympicWeightlifting #Strength #Performance #Hypertrophy #MuscleGrowth #Research

Key Points:

Beginners can gain 0.1–0.2 kg per week
Intermediates can gain 0.05–0.1 kg per week.
Advanced lifters may only gain 1–2 kg per year.
Women gain at about half the rate of men, though relative progress is similar.
Weekly lean mass gains larger than 0.23 kg are usually water and/or fat, not muscle.
Consistency over years, not weeks, is how muscle is built.

The Physiology of Growth

Hypertrophy is driven by mechanical tension, metabolic stress, and muscle damage, fueled by muscle protein synthesis and capped by recovery and genetics.

Your body can only add new muscle tissue so fast, no matter how perfect your training or diet.

What the Research Shows

New lifters typically add ~1–1.5% of bodyweight per month as lean mass in year one. Which is about ~0.11–0.18 kg per week. (Morton et al., 2018)

Diminishing returns: After the first year, growth slows sharply — intermediates see ~0.05–0.09 kg per week; advanced lifters might add ~1–2 kg per year.

Short-term studies: Even with DEXA/MRI, natural lifters rarely exceed ~0.23 kg/week of lean gain. Anything faster tends to be glycogen, water, or fat. (Phillips, 2014) (Slater & Phillips, 2011)

Year 1 anchor: In truly dialled-in cases, totals of ~9–11 kg across 12 months are possible for untrained men, but that’s the upper end with great training, food, and sleep.

Liam is a natural athlete and has been coached by me for years. In that time we’ve transformed his physique… Notice the word ‘Years’.

Influencing Factors

Training age: Beginners grow fastest.
Caloric surplus: Too big of a surplus = fat gain, too small of a surplus = stalled or sub optimal progress.
Protein intake: 1.6–2.2 g/kg/day. (Morton et al., 2018).
Sleep/recovery: 7–9 hrs per night.
Genetics/hormones: Unfortunately, while most people won’t even touch what their natural genetics allow, your genetics will play into the rate you gain muscle and will set the natural ceiling.

Practical Application & Takeaways

If you’re working hard in the gym, taking movements close to failure and have your sleep, hydration and diet dialled in outside of the gym:

Beginners: Expect roughly ~0.45–0.9 kg per month if everything is nailed.
Intermediates: Progress slows to grams per day (expect about 0.2–0.4 kg/month).
Advanced lifters: A small number of kilos per year at best.

If you’re gaining 0.5–1.0 kg of bodyweight per week, most of that isn’t muscle. Sustainable progress looks slower, but keeps fat off.

Final Thoughts

Per week, or per month, muscle growth is measured in grams, not kilos.

It’s why I believe everyone and their dog online is a fucking fat loss coach, because the results come much quicker.

I like to think I’m quite grounded which is why my advice is rarely flashy, and this is no different…

‘Patience beats false promises’ (you can quote me on that).

Those small weekly wins add up to serious strength and physique changes and you can build a lot of muscle as a natural athlete, but it takes years, and chasing rapid scale jumps usually means piling on fat.

Zoom out, be patient, trust the process, and let consistency compound.