It’s a very common question I hear “How long does it take to build muscle” and like it or not but people want to know the answer. The most interesting thing is they want to know how many weeks or months they will spend (or waste) by eating different non-pleasant stuff, lifting the weights or doing exercises. Tom from Davenport Green wedding photographer has the answers…
Trying to answer this question I would like to give some basic information about “why” and “why so long”. The answer depends on different factors like food, intensity of exercises, properly designed muscle building plan and so on, but at the very beginning I would like to invite you to the mirror. Look at this guy! What do you see?
Right! You see a human body! I will not open you America if say that not all the human bodies are the same. They look different, they are different and they should be trained differently. 70 years ago the famous American psychologist Dr. William Sheldon made classification of human bodies based on three tissue layers: endoderm, mesoderm, and ectoderm. He called them Endomorphic, Mesomorphic and Ectomorphic body types.
Endomorphic Body Type has a soft body, underdeveloped muscles, round shaped and over-developed digestive system.
This kind of people love food, is tolerant, love comfort, is sociable, has good sense of humor, and is relaxed. They have naturally big body frame, usually have a round face, wide hips, big bones and low metabolism. They can gain and lose weight and body fat easily. They have natural potential to gain muscle mass quickly. Only problem this body type has is your muscles can be hiding under the body fat making you look big. Your six pack abs will be hidden under your tummy fat and not going to show.
Ectomorphic Body Type means you are thin, have a flat chest, delicately build, have young appearance, tall, lightly muscled, stoop-shouldered and have a large brain.
You love food and comfort, are tolerant and sociable, have good sense of humor, relaxed.
People with this body type have very high metabolism, narrow shoulders, narrow hips and waist. It is much harder to put a lot of muscles on such frame. Even you eat too much. These people are called hard gainers and they require much more time and effort to build muscle mass. Although it can be done, it is a constant battle for them because they are fighting with the own nature.
Mesomorphic Body Type has hard, muscular body, overly mature appearance, rectangular shaped, thick skin, upright posture. They are adventurous, have strong desire for power and dominance, and are courageous but indifferent to what others think or want, assertive, bold, zest for physical activity, competitive and love risk and chance.
They are blessed with a naturally muscular body and have wide shoulders, small waist, and athletic body frame, low body fat and high metabolism. They can pack on muscles really fast and can take up bodybuilding as a career if they want to. They excel naturally in sports and will always have sexy and handsome body to create an envy at others.
But most people fall in between of these 3 body types and have characteristics of every one. So, you have to decide which body type you are and make a weighted decision based on your specific body type.