There is a chronology to Muscle Growth…
A time and a place throughout your lifecycle where certain things ‘work’ better than they would at other times.
As an example, ‘eating for mass’ really does appear to work for people in their twenties…
Not so much for people in their 40’s and 50’s.
I also believe you set your ‘muscle phenotype’ in your early years of growing, during puberty and shortly thereafter, or during the first year or so of consistent lifting.
While a lot of how you look and where you gain muscle is genetic, it seems that the work you do during and shortly after puberty really finalizes the ‘pattern’ of your body.
In other words, whether you have big arms or big legs, a big chest or a big back, is largely determined early in your life and early in your lifting career.
I have never seen a person in their 40’s who have had skinny arms or skinny legs their whole lives somehow reverse their fortunes and become renowned for their large arms or large legs.
(Of course, anabolic drugs are the great equalizer in this equation as they essentially move you back to that period of peak puberty.)
Yes, you can always improve, and you can add muscle into your later years, but the overall foundation and proportion of your muscle mass does become relatively fixed.
My advice is, if you are young while reading this, then treat yourself like a sculpture and carefully add mass where necessary.
If you are older while reading this my advice is to accept what you have, work with what you have, and work within those confines.
.
There is a chronology to Muscle Growth…
A time and a place throughout your lifecycle where certain things ‘work’ better than they would at other times.
As an example, ‘eating for mass’ really does appear to work for people in their twenties…
Not so much for people in their 40’s and 50’s.
I also believe you set your ‘muscle phenotype’ in your early years of growing, during puberty and shortly thereafter, or during the first year or so of consistent lifting.
While a lot of how you look and where you gain muscle is genetic, it seems that the work you do during and shortly after puberty really finalizes the ‘pattern’ of your body.
In other words, whether you have big arms or big legs, a big chest or a big back, is largely determined early in your life and early in your lifting career.
I have never seen a person in their 40’s who have had skinny arms or skinny legs their whole lives somehow reverse their fortunes and become renowned for their large arms or large legs.
(Of course, anabolic drugs are the great equalizer in this equation as they essentially move you back to that period of peak puberty.)
Yes, you can always improve, and you can add muscle into your later years, but the overall foundation and proportion of your muscle mass does become relatively fixed.
My advice is, if you are young while reading this, then treat yourself like a sculpture and carefully add mass where necessary.
If you are older while reading this my advice is to accept what you have, work with what you have, and work within those confines.
.