Muscle Gain - Happen all a once?

Be interested to know when muscle tends to add it self to the body.What I mean is it usually a gradual thing over the year or do people tend to have growth 'Spurts' when in you suddenly notice 'wow I'm getting bigger'...
 
Assuming you are all natural and no steriod assistance, train through different cyles or power, strength, hypertophy etc hard over the year and diet is tip top!!
 
Be interested to know what you guys of experience think about this!!
 
Thanks..

It's very individual and depends on a lot of factors (genetics mainly, but also diet,  training styles, sleep patterns, overall wellness, stress levels etc etc)
 
As a general rule, new starters will see a spurt of muscle growth but it will plateau.
 
Once established training most people experience peaks and troughs. The new starter syndrome can be faked by making changes to the programme from time to time - changing exercises, altering the splits, set/rep changes etc will all shock the system and this can result in a growth spurt.
 
Generally, measure progress first - how much you can lift for how long - and when this plateaus, make a change and start the progress all over again till the next plateau. This way the growth will come in it's own way.

I'd be interested to know... My body genetics are weird!! Started training properly in October, my weight has gone up say about a stone... My legs have got slightly thicker but more so my torso whilst my arms don't look any bigger just more toned... If my arms were a bit thicker, I'd be quite pleased with my physique... Nobody has mentioned that I look any bigger but it's only been 4months max but can assure that my strength levels have shot up and I had a pretty good base to start off...