Weight gaining (muscle building) & Strength training

Your skeletal muscles have a high potential in adaptation to progressive training and development. There are few factors determine strength and size gaining:

Genetics. It determines your bones length, the number of muscle fibers within muscles and how well your nervous system can coordinate your muscles work. Usually people take genetics as a limitation factor for most of them, however exactly at the genetic level evolution programmed human body to carry a great potential. For example, as very long ago our ancestors were tree climber, as the most of today monkeys, potential of your back muscles such as latissimus dorsi allows EVERY healthy human, male or female, to pull their body up, whether climbing a tree or doing sets of 15-20 chin-ups. Can you do it or not – that depends on your current physics, but the potential is always there. The same is true about great strength potential of forearms, calves and buttock muscles. 

Gender. It defines the original body proportions, possible muscle size and the level of different hormones. Usually males have more muscle mass in the upper body, thus stronger in shoulder girdle than females; however measured proportionally to the size, muscle tissue in female body has only 1-2% less strength compare to males in upper body and almost as strong in legs. In spite of a popular lore, however, no physical activity, including weight lifting, can naturally turn female body into a “man-like” one; females have a great strength potential, but a possible muscle size is naturally limited.

Training. With a right training program basically any one can improve their body development greatly (we talk about all training aspects together). And exactly due to mistakes in training people fail most often in reaching their goals.

Specialized for the maximum body weight gain and strength training usually brings equal gain of muscles and fat (in proportion 1:1, or even 1:2 – more fat than muscles); however you can improve your strength and muscle development and loose fat simultaneously, there is no contradiction.