Mesomorphs; do you feel blessed to be able to build muscle easily?
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GuitarJerry wrote: »Because 99.9% of people that say they are gaining muscle, or really either losing fat, or gaining fat. Adding new mass to a human body is very difficult to do. Even when you try really hard, it's still very difficult.
I've been at it for a year or so. At first I thought I was gaining a lot of muscle because I equated strength gains with muscle mass gains. I think that's an understandable, if not a little newbish mistake to make.
It didn't really dawn on me that something else was at play until I started seeing shirts that were tight beginning to loosen, everywhere - shoulders, arms, chest, belly last of course lol...I'm still very slowly loosing weight now, but I have definition where there was none before - the appearance of definition along with the added strength makes it really easy to fool myself, but, as you've been saying, there's really no added mass. Added muscle in lieu of fat? Maybe.
Either way, OP, you keep pressing on and hitting those goals.
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oh you are so #blessed4
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There's a few reasonably accurate ways to measure bodyfat at home. Some scales will do it, though I'm unsure of the accuracy. Look up the skin fold test, that is a fairly accurate way and cheaper than getting yourself weighed underwater...
I'm a pure mesomorph... I get my thumb and finger touching exactly in the wrist test, and I have a V-shaped chest and store fat mostly uniformly. Unfortunately I do have more bodyfat than I'd like. I'm relatively strong. I can lift higher weights relatively quickly. But it's impossible to know how much of any of that is really tied to bone structure. So anyone who isn't a mesomorph should never think that the cards are stacked against them... what really matters is exercise and nutrition and anyone can be over or underweight based on those factors.0 -
OP, just out of curiosity, how do you measure your bf%?
There are women who add muscle faster than others. Specifically, it can at times be seen in women with PCOS, who can have 2-3 times the testosterone levels of women without PCOS. I don't know your hormonal profile but if you had a bf of 19% I'm guessing you haven't been trying to diet. If you are eating well and training I don't think that a 4 pound muscle gain in nearly 6 months is as impossible as many want to think.
Thanks so much. I am roaring a little bit here bc I see the muscle and how rock hard my body is getting lol
My PT measured my bf using a Tana machine back in April.
My guess is out of the 6 lbs I've gained, about 3.5-4 of it is muscle bc of the way my body is getting really hard in places it used to be soft. I probably shouldn't be so defensive and just believe in myself. A woman at my gym is mid-40's and you gotta see the muscle she has been packing on. She told me the first year, she gained about 5 lbs of muscle at age 45.
There's also a woman who has her own blog who trained from age 47 to 50 and you gotta see her body transformation! Check it out:
http://www.naomirules.com/no-more-pancake-butt/
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Somatotyping was developed by a psychiatrist based on people's behaviors. The "look" was correlated from these behaviors.mgalovic01 wrote: »nutmegoreo wrote: »No, because somatypes have been debunked. Glad you are happy with your progress. How about giving yourself credit for the hard work, rather than giving it to shoddy science?
What do you mean debunked? Are you saying genetics has nothing to do with it? From my understanding, all somatypes are saying is that we have genetic tendencies towards certain attributes. We can be, and much more often than not are, combinations of each.
Each type has its own advantages and disadvantages. So, take what you got and make the most out of it.
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Not to burst your bubble, but if a 20 year old male gained 10lbs of muscle in a year, that would be excellent. You're speaking of gaining more than that.trigden1991 wrote: »You probably aren't gaining as much muscle as you would like to think
I think I'm gaining at about .75 lbs of muscle per month, so no I don't think I'm underestimating it. For a female, that's very good.
How are you determining that you're gaining that much?
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I used to think I had unattractive calves because they were very defined - then someone complimented me on my "shapely legs," which helped change my perspective.
Also, for ten years, I was a potter and my upper arms were muscular from throwing large quantities of clay on a potter's wheel. Now I have the same results from weight training.
Maybe a lot is about self-judgement. Also changes in what society deems attractive.
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Not to burst your bubble, but if a 20 year old male gained 10lbs of muscle in a year, that would be excellent. You're speaking of gaining more than that.trigden1991 wrote: »You probably aren't gaining as much muscle as you would like to think
I think I'm gaining at about .75 lbs of muscle per month, so no I don't think I'm underestimating it. For a female, that's very good.
How are you determining that you're gaining that much?
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I'm guessing I've gained 3.5 - 4 lbs of muscle in the past 6-8 months. I think this is possible. i began training with a PT in April and began training seriously in June.0 -
For what it's worth, my former PT and i were talking and she agreed with me that I've probably gained a good 4 lbs of muscle by the way I look and that she was very impressed.
She first assessed me in April.0 -
I'm not going to say that's impossible. Kudos to you if it's happening.
Not to burst your bubble, but if a 20 year old male gained 10lbs of muscle in a year, that would be excellent. You're speaking of gaining more than that.trigden1991 wrote: »You probably aren't gaining as much muscle as you would like to think
I think I'm gaining at about .75 lbs of muscle per month, so no I don't think I'm underestimating it. For a female, that's very good.
How are you determining that you're gaining that much?
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I'm guessing I've gained 3.5 - 4 lbs of muscle in the past 6-8 months. I think this is possible. i began training with a PT in April and began training seriously in June.
Just from experience with clients in that age range, 3 females who train hard every week with me, the gains aren't that significant in muscle. In loss of body fat, muscular definition and reduction of clothing size yes, but actual muscle gain, not so much. Now I'm not following their nutrition either, which would impact it to an extent.
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I don't think she meant anything by it. She's been working hard to gain muscle too and it's been slow.
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I don't think she meant anything by it. She's been working hard to gain muscle too and it's been slow.
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What? Who said I'm working hard to build muscle?
That's just what I see people do on instagram when they feel blessed. #blessed3 -
My bad, I might have mixed you up with someone else.
I don't think she meant anything by it. She's been working hard to gain muscle too and it's been slow.
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What? Who said I'm working hard to build muscle?
That's just what I see people do on instagram when they feel blessed. #blessed
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My bad, I might have mixed you up with someone else.
I don't think she meant anything by it. She's been working hard to gain muscle too and it's been slow.
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What? Who said I'm working hard to build muscle?
That's just what I see people do on instagram when they feel blessed. #blessed
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Ya. Remember I'm trying to not be fat.0 -
Not to burst your bubble, but if a 20 year old male gained 10lbs of muscle in a year, that would be excellent. You're speaking of gaining more than that.trigden1991 wrote: »You probably aren't gaining as much muscle as you would like to think
I think I'm gaining at about .75 lbs of muscle per month, so no I don't think I'm underestimating it. For a female, that's very good.
How are you determining that you're gaining that much?
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how much do they gain in your exprience?0 -
While genetics may give some people some advantages, its never "easy" to do something that, by definition, requires hard work.2
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A female over 40 gaining a couple of pounds in a year would be excellent. Realize that to build muscle, hormones have to be involved (mainly testosterone) and from about 35 on, testosterone levels decreases not increases (unless artificially done). Since females don't have much to begin with, aging females have a less likely hood to gain more muscle than their male counterparts. And I have done recomp and building with many males over 40 and 3-8lbs of muscle in a year would be deemed excellent.
Not to burst your bubble, but if a 20 year old male gained 10lbs of muscle in a year, that would be excellent. You're speaking of gaining more than that.trigden1991 wrote: »You probably aren't gaining as much muscle as you would like to think
I think I'm gaining at about .75 lbs of muscle per month, so no I don't think I'm underestimating it. For a female, that's very good.
How are you determining that you're gaining that much?
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how much do they gain in your exprience?
The other factor here is doing it in deficit. Building muscle in deficit isn't that easy or fast. Building muscle requires adding mass and adding mass on a deficit isn't mathematically easy at all.
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A female over 40 gaining a couple of pounds in a year would be excellent. Realize that to build muscle, hormones have to be involved (mainly testosterone) and from about 35 on, testosterone levels decreases not increases (unless artificially done). Since females don't have much to begin with, aging females have a less likely hood to gain more muscle than their male counterparts. And I have done recomp and building with many males over 40 and 3-8lbs of muscle in a year would be deemed excellent.
Not to burst your bubble, but if a 20 year old male gained 10lbs of muscle in a year, that would be excellent. You're speaking of gaining more than that.trigden1991 wrote: »You probably aren't gaining as much muscle as you would like to think
I think I'm gaining at about .75 lbs of muscle per month, so no I don't think I'm underestimating it. For a female, that's very good.
How are you determining that you're gaining that much?
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
how much do they gain in your exprience?
The other factor here is doing it in deficit. Building muscle in deficit isn't that easy or fast. Building muscle requires adding mass and adding mass on a deficit isn't mathematically easy at all.
On the flip side, would you say it's quite possible to appear more muscular as one loses body fat while in a deficit? Which, along with strength increases due to neuromuscular adaptation, could make one believe they're putting on muscle?2 -
i feel like the topic has derailed from the op's self-image shift and become about spanking her for various 'inaccuracies'.
i say if she's finding physical change in any sense and is proud of it instead of feeling like she's making herself look less 'feminine' then yee hah. it is really nice when you find yourself feeling proud of something your lifelong conditioning has always said you should feel ashamed of.4 -
How would one explain this study?
"University of Oklahoma researchers compared people of different ages who followed the exact same program for eight weeks. They found that guys between 35 and 50 years old built just as much muscle as those between 18 and 22 years old."
http://www.menshealth.com/fitness/build-muscle-over-400 -
Don't be depressed. You are doing great, you are happy about the changes you are seeing. That's the important part.2 -
Why?! That's 2 pounds of muscular goodness you didn't have before! I have no idea how to measure what I've gained muscle mass wise, but at this point I look and feel so different than at the start that that number really isn't important. What's important is how I feel about myself, and the fact that I'm now running circles around some coworkers who are 15 or more years younger.
Trying to quantify every single change that's happening as you improve can also leave you disappointed, which isn't good. You're doing this, you're succeeding where, quite frankly, a lot of people fail, women and men. Give yourself a pat on the back and move forward. 2 -
well, if you have strength, then you have the strength. don't all pulled sideways into caring too much about 'size'. errbody knows it's not the size that matters; it's what you can do with the size that you got
and there's a respect in which you are right anyway. i feel like getting all hung up in the rightness or wrongness of using the somatype concept to label it misses the point. it took me a while when i began working out, to get adjusted to the fact i'm never going to have any long graceful-looking silhouette thing going on. it's all going to be blocky and solid-looking because looks like i'm just put together that way. relatively short tendons and relatively long muscle bellies. so any muscle that i do grow - or even just any change to the texture/tone of the muscle i've got - it's going to look pretty cubist on me. if i'm lucky and work really hard, i can end up shaped something like a teenage mutant ninja turtle, more than some front page model.
and your point stands and it's still one i like.3 -
Why?! That's 2 pounds of muscular goodness you didn't have before! I have no idea how to measure what I've gained muscle mass wise, but at this point I look and feel so different than at the start that that number really isn't important. What's important is how I feel about myself, and the fact that I'm now running circles around some coworkers who are 15 or more years younger.
Trying to quantify every single change that's happening as you improve can also leave you disappointed, which isn't good. You're doing this, you're succeeding where, quite frankly, a lot of people fail, women and men. Give yourself a pat on the back and move forward.
I agree with this 100%. You started this thread so pumped up and now you're deflated. Maybe you didn't gain quite as much muscle as you had hoped (or maybe you did...who knows), but hey...if you've managed to gain 2lbs and burnt off some fat to boot, that's a win. Think about what 2lbs of meat looks like. It's a lot actually! I think you're doing a great job and you should be nothing but proud.
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OP, you're getting stronger, you feel good, you look good. Don't let this thread get you down. Just take it as a lesson in what to expect from an MFP thread. Increasing your lifts will be lauded but being pleased with how much muscle you've built will be criticized.5
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Nothing to be depressed about. There's no way to say for sure how much muscle you've gained, can't go back in time and get a dexa, but it doesn't change the amazing improvements you're seeing in your body.
Like you, I feel like I gain faster than most, particularly in my arms and legs. In middle school, I'd swim and get my "manly" arms made fun of by the other girls on the team. My thighs have grown 2" this past year despite being in either deficit or maintenance. Honestly, I normally wouldn't dare talk about it cause most people just think you're either: wrong, lying, or bragging.... Even though ease/difficulty and whether you gain "a lot" of muscle can be pretty subjective. To answer your question, do I feel blessed? Not particularly when trying to buy pants... but it is what it is, can't change it, so might as well be happy.5 -
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I bulked last winter, running a strength/hypertrophy program in a surplus of calories. I gained about 15lbs and assumed that maybe I gained 3lbs of muscle. Not depressed. It's a decent amount of muscle on a female. It's hard going.3
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