Who doesn’t want to look good? We all want to be the best version of ourselves, to look like super heroes and stars, be it Superman, Captain America, or Daniel Craig. And like Homer Simpson, we want it the soonest possible time.

Fortunately for us, there is no shortage of magazines, products, and supplements promising us those results in just a few short weeks/months! UNFORTUNATELY for us, reality doesn’t agree. Yes, we can eventually get the results we’re after…provided we put in the time, energy, effort, discipline, and dedication.

So how DO we get there? For most people – the superhero version of themselves would require a loss of fat and both increase in muscle. We covered the weight loss side of this in a recent article.

If you’ve read that article, then you know our recommendation is usually to start with trimming the fat before we pack on some muscle, which is the focus of today’s article. If you’re a person on the thinner side of average looking to bulk up, this article will cover you too.

Here are some of the most common questions we get that we’ll be addressing today:

How fast can I build muscle?
If I’m new, can I gain more quickly?
I’m worried about getting too bulky, help?
Can I target specific body parts?
I’ll be answering all of those questions in today’s article, I also welcome you to check out our massive, free guide on this stuff – Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know. You can grab this free guide when you sign up in the box below: it’ll help answer any other questions you have.

Under OPTIMAL conditions, you can expect to gain around 1-2 pounds of muscle per month – though we’ve found that for most Rebels, closer to one pound is the reality.

“Optimal conditions” mean that you are eating the right amount and the right kinds of food, AND you are training perfectly for muscle growth (which we’ll explain below). Proper sleep is also absolutely necessary.

This also means you are trying to thread the needle of eating JUST enough to build muscle, but not too much that you put on a lot of fat, too. Yeah, you could go full hulk mode (“dirty bulk”) and just eat anything and everything, maxing out your muscle building… but it’ll be buried under fat, which you’ll have to trim again and restart the cycle. While it is certainly one effective way to gain muscle and strength, we more often recommend fiddling with your diet and training so you can find that sweet spot where you’re building muscle and not gaining too much fat.

All of this to say: Yes, can build muscle, but it will NOT be the crazy amount you read about in the magazines, unless you’re taking Dr. Stark’s super serum (ROIDS!). If you had grand visions of looking like the dudes in the ads you see in muscle and fitness, don’t expect to do so in 90 days with a few days of training and protein shakes.

Remember: Expect 1-2 pounds of month of muscle gain…under optimal conditions.