Most Honest Advice For Building Muscle (As a Natural)

If you're on the journey to building muscle and reaching your physique goal, here's the most honest advice I can give you about the reality of gaining muscle naturally and what it was like on my fitness journey.

Previous video in the Muscle Building Series:

4 Early Signs You're Not Building Muscle

About the video:
In the last ten years on my fitness journey, I've learned a lot about how to build muscle naturally and how long does it take to build muscle. It's not as simple and easy as most people think. You don't see immediate results from building muscle. Training hard and pushing yourself is essential, but it's just one component for maximizing muscle growth. Nutrition and recovery play an equally important role, and so does your overall lifestyle. As a natural, it's also very important to have the right expectations so you stay committed to your fitness journey long-term.

In this video, I share what I believe is the most honest advice I can give you about building muscle as a natural. It's not the typical stuff you hear about protein intake or different exercises, but the truth about how long it will take you to see results, how much muscle I managed to build in 1 year, and what is achievable naturally.

About Me:
My name is Mario Tomic. I specialize in helping busy entrepreneurs and professionals get their ideal physique in the most efficient way possible and turn it into a lifestyle long-term.

Since 2011, I've spent over 10 000 hours practicing, studying, and coaching fitness, nutrition, and high performance.

Most people don't know that my native language is Croatian and that I worked in computer science before I started my fitness and personal development coaching company.

#leanmuscle #buildingmuscle #fitness

Disclaimer: Mario Tomic is not a doctor or a medical professional. Always consult a physician before starting any exercise program. Use of this information is strictly at your own risk. Mario Tomic will not assume any liability for direct or indirect losses or damages that may result from the use of information contained in this video including but not limited to economic loss, injury, or illness.

[UrmoMänd]

I've been training almost 10 years aswell and I think that question should not be "how long does it take", but "how to trick yourself into loving it till you die".

[spencerschubert]

“I was stuck at this level for a long time”
... shows picture of shirtless Captain America

[MrHyonD]

Your "first year result" is more than enough for most people, BY FAR

[aaronnikels]

5:08 “I was stuck at this level for a long time”

*Shows a picture of himself absolutely shredded*

[Its_Just_Brad]

That’s why I hate the fitness industry. After a year of work I hardly saw any progress. Some but compared to what all these “naturals” show, it was pathetic. It made me lose so much motivation but around year 2 I realized almost every single transformation where these guys go from skinny to jacked in a year are completely on steroids. Don’t compare yourself to those guys. They aren’t realistic and it will make you lose all motivation.

[Zigeuninja]

Ive been working out regularly for about 2 months and after 1 month Ive already started to see some results in my physique. The main differences Ive noticed though were in my strength. I wasnt even able to do a single pull-up before and now Im able to do 5-6.

[fruitloops]

The thing that helped me the most was to realize it doesn't matter how long it takes to get the physique that I wanted. I have a lifelong goal of being in shape, and when the muscle comes, I'll be happier. I had to minimize my strength training for 5 years due to an aneurysm. After that repair, I started seriously working out again after 6 months. It's been 2 years now, and I've gained 10lb and looking good. However I need to lose some fat.

[waschkadse]

You have my deepest respect dude. 10 years of constant training is very impressive. I also started going to the gym like 10 years ago but it never lasted more than a few months. The first years I didn't even track my calories and ate way too less. 

I now focus on what going to the gym really means to me and it´s the feeling I get after every single workout.

[Sectiondc]

People have asked me what the secret to training is, and I always say "consistency", good video man.

[streamingnowstreamingnow]

You’ll feel those results before you see em.

[MrVara]

The cyclical nature of muscle building and maintenance is 100% spot on. As you said, it's how life works! Fitness for me is a state of mind and feeling good. The aesthetics are mere perks.

[Asteros]

I'm currently 246lb, if I can put on anywhere near the muscle you did in your first year and lose 50lbs I'd be satisfied beyond belief, current goal is 20% body fat.
Hell, did gym today and destroyed my biceps, finally reached the 100lb mark for many exercises, keep the videos strong king!

[karna_LoL]

Honestly, for people like me who have never worked out in their life, you see results pretty fast. You're not gonna completely transform and have full biceps in 3 weeks, but you will definitely see noticeable muscle definition. I think for people who've already achieved their "newbie gains", the progress will slow down a lot and that's where it can get discouraging. But for us complete newbies, the results in our first few months of training are very encouraging.

Edit: Idk how people are still replying to this over a year later. I thought it was pretty self-explanatory that I was in the midst of my first few months of training when I posted this, and I was speaking about my own experience with newbie gains. It wasn't a hypothetical. I was speaking on my actual results after beginning training.

[djokito]

The effect of building muscles is way more visible when BF percentage is cut down.
I am 41 and have been lifting for years and beside getting bigger I always had love handles and belly. After introducing proper diet ( cutting on carbs and limiting sugar), I shrunk in size of course, but became lean first time in my life and suddenly results from years of exercising appeared.

[believedragons_]

I've only been at this for nearly 3 years now and it's been a learning journey of what works for me. It's also mentally challenging because I'm an impatient guy and I need to constantly remind myself it'll take years to have a realistically, muscular body that I will feel confident in. This video is a great reminder to not be too harsh on myself and continue to be consistent because I'm prouder and better than I ever was since I've started. Thank you.

[alexlun]

Thank you for this man. I've touched ground when it comes to my gain expectations and now I know that realistically it's gonna take 4 to 5 years before my body starts to faintly look like I lift weights. More people need to see stuff like this because sites like instagram are plagued with unrealistic body transformation posts and all it does is make people quit after 3 months of lifting weights and not seeing results.

[dah_goofster]

Dude you’re one of the VERY VERY FEW people who hit the weights and have stayed natural your whole life. It’s very obvious from your physique how much work you’ve put in and this gives me massive motivation thank you! In the future when people talk about lifting naturally you will be the first person I’ll be recommending to people as to the realistic goals.

[johnnguyen]

The first 2 weeks sucks but after that you start noticing you can lift more, you start getting more veiny and you just wanna keep breaking pr’s every week. Anyone who reads this please don’t stop working out it’s so good for you, stress relief, anger management, it forces you to have good time management. So many benefits besides the health aspect. You will plateau eventually but that’s good in a way because now you can do maintenance or push even harder to get stronger. Everyone grows muscle at different rates but as long as you KEEP GOING then you’ll be good 👍🏾

[robbiemc]

you have helped so much. watched this a month ago when the weight was barely coming off or going up and I was putting in some serious work, journaling my meals, walking, lifting, sleeping. Finally I had a breakthrough, I'm about 30 down and seeing muscles. The breakthrough was quality sleep. I started drinking camomile tea with honey and cinnamon, banana with cinnamon. My sleep got better and results are coming. Still a long way to go but it's my lifestyle now.THANKS!!!! 💪

[emreunal]

This is really the most honest advice video about fitness. Thank you for the valuable information.