When looking to gain muscle, it’s no secret that exercise and a good diet are key. Additionally, many factors contribute to the rate of muscle gain, including your training experience, gender, age, and the type of exercise you perform. So you might be wondering how much muscle you can gain in a month. This article looks at how much muscle you can gain in a month, including how to get started and which supplements may be worth taking.
In most cases, muscle gain is a slow and gradual process. It can take years instead of months to see significant results. That being said, beginner and some intermediate lifters can see little changes after just a few months of intense training.
Gain muscle mass faster if you are a beginner
Although it is almost impossible to determine exactly how much muscle you can gain in a month, some studies can give you a good idea. A study of 30 college-age men with prior training experience observed a 23% increase in the size of the vastus lateralis (one of the leg muscles) after 6 weeks of resistance training.
Similarly, a small earlier study observed a 5.6% increase in muscle size after 21 weeks of resistance training in 8 non-resistance trained athletes.
This suggests that people with no prior strength training experience have greater potential to gain muscle than athletes with training experience. Additionally, your genetic makeup may also mean that you are more responsive to muscle growth stimuli.
Although data is limited as to the exact amount of muscle you can gain in a month, these studies suggest that short-term muscle growth is modest in natural athletes.
How to start
When looking to gain muscle fast, there are a few factors you can focus on to get the most effective results for your efforts.
High intensity resistance exercise
Arguably the most important factor is to focus on high intensity resistance exercises in the 8-12 rep range.
These exercises include compound movements such as variations of the squat, bench press, deadlift, overhead press, or snatch. These movements work several muscle groups at once, improving the efficiency of the exercise and stimulating muscle growth.
In addition to compound exercises, there are several isolation exercises for specific muscle groups. Unlike compound exercises, isolation exercises target one muscle group at a time. This allows for maximum stimulation and growth potential.
While cardiovascular exercise is important for overall health, it doesn’t play a big role in muscle gain.
a good diet
Another important part of gaining muscle fast is proper nutrition. For best results, it is recommended to eat 10-20% more calories than your metabolic rate, also known as total daily energy expenditure. . This means that you need to consume a little more calories than you burn, since building muscle is an energy-intensive process.
In addition to a calorie surplus, it is important to ensure adequate protein intake of 0.7 to 1 gram for every 1.6 to 2.2 grams per kg of body weight. Because protein is the main component of muscle.
Different Populations: Different Muscle Gains
One of the biggest factors in the rate of muscle gain is the age at which you train or how long you train.
Two other important factors to consider are age and gender, which can also have a big influence on muscle building.
beginners
When you’re just starting to train for strength and hypertrophy (muscle building), you have great potential for muscle growth.
This is because training is a new stimulus, and as muscles are worked, growth occurs to prepare them for future training.
That said, muscle growth remains limited during the early stages of resistance training, when most strength gains are due to neural adaptations. This means that as you train, your brain gets better at recruiting muscle fibers to contract during a particular exercise.
So if you’re new to resistance training, you probably won’t see significant muscle gains in your first month of training, even if you do gain strength.
intermediaries
After regular training for at least a year and mastering the fundamental movements, we move on to the intermediate phase of training. This is usually where practitioners spend most of their time, and some never progress to the advanced phase.
During the late-beginner and intermediate-beginner phase of training, you have the greatest potential for muscle growth because you have passed the neural adaptation phase. At this point, you can perform most movements skillfully and stimulate significant muscle growth.
advanced learners
The advanced phase of training requires a lot of time and effort, usually at least two years for the most gifted athletes. At this point, most trainees have achieved most of their muscle and strength gains. Finding new muscle mass is difficult.
Progressing as an advanced trainee often requires advanced training techniques that provide maximum muscle stimulation. Even in the best of times, advanced trainees may not see muscle gain beyond a few pounds per year.
Men
In general, men have some advantages over women when it comes to gaining muscle. According to research old and new, men tend to have larger and more numerous muscle fibers, leading to larger overall muscles and greater strength potential.
Additionally, men have higher levels of testosterone, the main circulating male sex hormone that is responsible for masculine characteristics such as muscle development, body hair, and a deeper voice. Taking these factors into account, men tend to gain more muscle than women in a month.
Women
Women are at a slight disadvantage when it comes to building muscle and strength quickly due to genetic and hormonal differences. That being said, women do have an advantage over men when it comes to fatigue and recovery. They are often able to exercise more and recover faster.
This is mainly due to higher levels of estrogen, one of the main female sex hormones.
So while men can gain muscle at a faster rate than women, women seem to recover more efficiently after exercise. This allows them to handle a greater volume of training over time.
older adults
Loss of muscle and strength, also called sarcopenia, is one of many factors associated with the aging process in both men and women.
Fortunately, resistance training has been shown to slow or even slightly reverse this effect in older adults. Although the rate of muscle gain tends to be slower in the aging population, improvements in muscle strength and functional mobility are still seen. This underscores the importance of following a regular exercise regimen that includes resistance training as one ages.
Are food supplements useful?
During your quest for muscle gains, various supplements can enhance your results. While many supplement manufacturers claim their products can help you gain muscle fast, only a few types of supplements have broad scientific backing.
Here are the bodybuilding supplements that have the most scientific backing.
protein powder
Protein powders are the isolated form of several types of protein, including milk protein like whey or casein or vegetable protein like pea or brown rice.
When looking to promote muscle gain, getting enough protein is key. Because they provide the building blocks of muscles.
Experts recommend consuming 20 to 40 grams of high-quality protein. That is, protein that contains all the essential amino acids and is easily digested, within two hours of resistance exercise to maximize muscle gains.
While protein powders aren’t necessary, they can be a great tool to help you meet your daily protein needs. Especially if you find it hard to get to them as part of your regular diet.
Sources
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31166954/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12734759/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30971942/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6303131/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6710320/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5434832/
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