How muscular can I expect to be in 2 years?

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If I eat right and change it up every 4 weeks.

Here is my plan:

Monday:
Chest & Tris
* Bench Press (on weight machine) 8x3
* Butterfly (on weight machine) 8x3
* Push-ups 8x3
* Leg-raised push-ups 8x3
* Bench Press with dumbbell 8x3
* Incline bench press with dumbbell 8x3
* Dumbbell Fly 8x3
* Tricep kick-back with dumbbell 8x3


Tuesday:
Back & Bis
* Lateral seated pull-down (on weight machine) 8x3
* Dead-Lifts with dumbbell 8x3
* Single-arm back row 8x3 with dumbbell
* Hammer curls with dumbbell 8x3
* Decline bicep curls with dumbbell 8x3


Wednesday:
Shoulders, Legs & Abs
* Leg extension 8x3 on weight machine
* Squats with dumbbell 8x3
* Lat Shoulder raises with dumbbell 8x3
* Front raises with dumbbell 8x3
* Side raises with dumbbell 8x3
* Shrugs with dumbbell 8x3

Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 10 min. cardio, increased every 4 weeks.

Depends how heavy the weights are.

Sounds like a tougher workout than I'll ever do.

That's an excellent routine, but I have to worry that for most people including myself, it will be too much and might burn them out after a few weeks. The other thing is, I'd say based on my own history, you might be more sore than you want to be, on a daily basis with that many "on" days in a row. I like to work each muscle group no more than once a week, as that seems to give me the best recovery and increased size. I work out 4 days/week (broken down into two lifting days/week and two non-lifting workouts), and I have decent results for the work I do. The eating habits I maintain, are also the big key to the shape I'm in. I'm not huge, but I am a non-competitive bodybuilder. (6', 185 lbs, 5.7% body fat).

As far as my experience goes, you're right on with the 8 reps x 3 sets for bulking. I'd recommend to keep the weight at a level where you can't quite finish the last set. You'll probably find that you'll be increasing the weight once or twice a month.

Charles

The question is, what are you doing now for exercise? This looks like a good plan, but if you are going from 0 to 60 in 3 seconds, your body may be able to handle it (or you may become demotivated). If you have not had success with exercise before, it would probably be better to work up to it.

I'm no weightlifting expert but I do know that a lot of the "chest and tris" exercises use a lot of the same muscles as the "back and bis" ones (to varying degrees), so I wouldn't put those on back-to-back days. Same goes for 3 straight days of cardio immediately after leg weights.

Personally I'd alternate days of weights and cardio, as opposed to three straight days of weights followed by three of cardio. But that's just me. My muscles heal slow, even when I'm in good shape I have trouble doing a proper weight workout more than once every three days.

If you're just starting, IMHO that's pretty complicated. I'd highly recommend looking at the book 'Starting Strength' by Mark Rippetoe. Also check out stronglifts - I can't post links yet, but there's a lot of good info there and I'm sure you can find the site.

My biceps have gone up half an inch in less than three weeks and I have not done a single curl. For someone starting out, there's no need at all. What are your goals and what condition are you in now?

I have the opposite problem of most people..I'm thin and have a hard time gaining weight. From Mark's book and some advice from stronglifts, I went from 6' 144.5lb (June 21) to 155.5lb (July 10). My goal is 170, then evaluate and see how things are at that point. You really should be doing barbell squats - the squat is what's really going to help build your whole body.

I'm by no means an expert - just telling you what works for me and what I've learned so far.

5.7% body fat is far below the recommended percentage. Are you sure you're alive?

5.7% is livable, look up body builder fat percentages.

the routine sounds enjoyable, but if hypertrophy is your goal its not going to very efficient.

the greatest stimulus for muscle growth is in a (roughly) 2 day period after exercise, so if you only hit each area once a week, youll spend most of the time 'recovering' but not actually growing. A more efficient set-up would be 3 full body workouts each week eg. Mon,Wed,Fri (or you could do a 2way split eg. upper-lower, push-pull, as long as it was a true split with no overlap)

This might sounds like a lot of strain, possibly dangerously, but remember that if your goal is purely bodybuilding you dont have to push yourself to failure every set, or even every week. The stimulus for muscle growth comes from simply lifting a load heavier than you are used to - so as long as you do a reasonable number of reps at your target weight, youve met the conditions for growth - in fact it becomes far more sensible to hit your target without much drama & conserve your energy and readyness for the next session.

if anyone doubts these principles, its all documented here - with scientific references.

http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/hst_index.html

OK, if your going to do a full body workout, given that cortisol (a catabolic hormone) spikes after about an hour, and given that you probably dont have all day to lift weights, youll need to select exercises for a really time-efficient workout, that maybe takes only 35-50 mins. This means dropping lots of the isos and building a routine around the compounds - compound exercises are MUCH more efficient at building mass, and youll probably be pleasantly surprised how much you grow without loads of ISOs (eg. your forearms etc should grow anyway, without any direct work)

Given that the key is loading yourself beyond what your used to, progression is the key. Ideally youd increase weights about 5% every session, (although this might not be possible for smaller weights so repeating for a session or 2 might be necessary) bodyweight exercises like pushups, dont lend themselves to progression, so they wont be much use long-term. However, the pushup is mechanically such a nice compound exercise - its recruiting secondary muscles for balace etc all over the place (unlike a benchpress) - so if it happens to fall within with your loading requirements definately use it.

I strongly recommend the standard HST program. Be prepared that close-minded people will diss it and just follow their own mantras, so just take some time to understand the principles like progressions, deconditioning etc so you can ignore them It is a few years old now, and theres a few mods you can add to improve the efficiency a little, but id probably forget that for now (its complicated enough!) and just try following the old-school routine for a few cycles

to answer your original question, dont quote me on it, but to grow to your natural, genetic limits is over 2 years but id guess (from hazy memory) less than 4 or 5 if conditions are good (food,water,sleep etc as well as general good mental and physical health). So in 2 years you should grow A LOT towards your natural potential, although how big that potential is all depends on your genetics. If your bodyshape is the extreme 'ecto-morph' with narrow shoulders etc then dont expect to get massive!

check out the same site for some good dietary guidelines - if your completely new, then tbh i wouldnt worry about calories or optimised routines for a month or so, as IIRC it takes at least that long before you really start growing noticably (muscles initially get stronger by co-ordinating themselves before any extra mass is called for - you WILL notice this extra strength very quickly). Just focus on your form and enjoying yourself. (definately dont start chugging loads of protein shakes - if your allready eating well, youll be pissing most of that protein away unused)

OP - What JLee said. If you are just beginning, I would strongly recommend running any of these:

Rippetoe's Starting Strength
Starr 5x5
Wendler's 5/3/1

And you are, IMHO, making a big mistake changing things up every 4 weeks. How will you know what is & is not working after only 28 days? Pick a program & run it for 4-6 months, then evaluate.

And, FWIW, I'll share the single best piece of training advice I've ever received:

"Eat, Lift, Sleep, Repeat"

Eat like you are at an NFL training table
Lift like the smallest & cutest guy in prison
Sleep like a newborn
Repeat the 1st three

1. I would throw in some more core and ab workouts. It's the basis for everything you do.
2. And if you're just starting, then I would do less weight with more reps, when I started with my trainer we did about 15. The reason is to instill muscle memory for the exercises you do, then once that's done, you move on to more weight with less reps to build more muscle.
3. Don't be a wuss. If you're only gonna do 10 minutes of cardio, you really should work your muscles again in the week.
Though the most important factor in how far you will get will be how far you are willing to push without killing yourself. Not just here, but in all aspects of life as well.