At what speed should muscle mass be built?
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It is something that happens to many: as soon as a period of volume begins , muscle mass seems to accumulate on its own. In a short time you gain muscle quickly, but that does not last forever. After the first few months, maintaining muscle gain becomes difficult. The muscles seem to adapt to the new effort and do not grow so easily. What to do then?
While many people are upset and trying to rush the whole process of muscle gain, scientific evidence seems to show that maintaining this long-term approach is not convenient. Discover how fast you should gain muscle and other aspects that will help you develop muscle mass at a good pace.
How fast can you gain muscle mass?
The problem with gaining muscle is above all something of perception. It is easy to track weight loss, because the loss of fat is easy to perceive by both the eye and the balance. Volume periods, on the other hand, are a bit more complicated.
The gain of muscle mass is made with muscle and fat. To do this long process well, you must increase muscle and fat proportionally; otherwise, there is a risk of gaining weight due to excess calories in the diet. This leads to periods of volume being slow, despite what is experienced in the first weeks.
Before starting a volume period , it is best to ask yourself how and how much muscle can be gained . It’s about being honest with yourself: will you be a winner of natural muscle mass or will you take shortcuts? How far do you intend to go on this road? Incarcerate is the best way to avoid frustrations.
A natural winner of muscle mass can increase, on average, about 25 kg of muscle mass in five years. Of this amount, it is possible that with good diet, supplements and proper training you get half (about 12 kilograms) in the first year. But over time that process will slow down.
How much muscle mass can be earned per month?
For people of average genetic conditions, the estimates of muscle gain per month are these:
Rookie (first and second year of appropriate training): increase of 1% -1.5% of body weight each month.
Intermediate (third and fourth years of appropriate training): increase of 0.5% -1% of body weight each month.
Advanced (fifth and sixth years of appropriate training): increase of 0.25% -0.5% of body weight each month.
As you can see, it is a process that usually becomes slower and slower if it is done in a linear way. That is why it is so necessary to create a period of strategic volume .
How to track the process of muscle gain?
When you enter the intermediate period of muscle gain, the advances are so slow that getting on the scale is frustrating. Based on the previous gain scale, we can say that an intermediate person with a body weight of 90 kg would gain monthly between 0.45-0.9 kg per month, which translates into an approximate daily gain of 0.015-0.03 kg. In this way, unless your scale is too precise, there is no way to get encouragement if you get on it daily.
In addition to the above, we must remember that our weight fluctuates daily between 0.25-0.5 kg due to factors such as hydration or daily glycogen reserves ; that is to say, that what you change your weight daily will hardly be a reflection of progress. The best, then, is to discard the idea of such a thorough tracking.
The best way to track your progress in muscle gain is to use longer, but constant, time spans. For example, measure the gain once a week. This gives a constant line to track, with a smaller margin of error.
Following the example of the 90 kg person, we can say that each week he would gain 0.1125-0.225 kg. This is a midpoint between the daily margin of error and what a scale can normally measure, which in the long term results in a more reliable measurement.
Is it better to build muscle quickly or slowly?
As you can see, making a period of volume does not mean going crazy and breaking shirts for months, as many expect. It is slow, it is difficult and requires commitment, and that is why many people look for shortcuts through dubious supplements.
The problem with too fast muscle mass gains is that they are unsustainable in the long term. As much as they can comfort you by making the balance numbers go up sooner, it is not what we would call real progress. Does this mean that we should try to go much slower? It seems to be the answer, but it is not like that.
Too slow gains are relatively healthy, but they have two cons: they are hard to track and give more opportunity for error. For example, if you increase sodium or carbohydrates in your diet slightly during this process, you could be gaining more weight in fat slowly and without noticing it, wasting weeks and months of training.
What objectives to set in a volume period
In general, this could be a good place to start:
Rookie: aim to achieve a 2% increase in muscle mass per month, saving a light period of discharge when you see that it is necessary.
Intermediate: stay at a reasonable goal of 1.5% increase in muscle mass per month.
Advanced: in this period you will have more control and knowledge of your body, and without doubt you can raise the bet and achieve an increase of 1% of muscle mass per month, playing with various factors -supplements, volume and diet routines .
Commit yourself to what you want in the long term and you can make an effective volume period without taking shortcuts and without getting frustrated.
The definitive guide for women to gain muscle mass
Most women want the ideal body, which can look toned but not bulky. Achieving this is possible regardless of your current physical condition, genetics or your exercise history. You also do not have to live in the gym or eat very little. It’s a lot simpler, all you have to do is:
With those two goals you will have the body you want. To achieve this, you have to focus on gaining muscle; however, it is very common to hear some myths about female muscle growth as the idea that women simply can not gain muscle effectively.
Guide for women to gain muscle mass
Can women gain muscle as effectively as men?
Perhaps you have heard that women simply do not have the physiology to gain muscle effectively, and that they must stick to other training classes, such as yoga. This seems reasonable at first sight because women produce less testosterone than men, about 15-20 times less.
Most people know that testosterone is the main hormonal driver for muscle growth, so it is fair to assume that a body with little testosterone will not be able to build much muscle. However, testosterone is not the only hormone involved in muscle enhancement. Another important actor is estrogen, which women produce at a high level compared to men, and which confers a variety of muscle strengthening benefits, including the following:
Does lifting weights make women very bulky?
A rule of thumb for women who want to be lean and defined is: the more muscle you have, the thinner you’ll have to be to avoid looking bulky.
For example, a woman with a significant amount of muscle will probably love how she looks with 18% body fat, but she would feel uncomfortable being at 25%.
This is the reason why most are happiest when they have gained 5 to 7 kilograms of muscle and lower their percentage of body fat around 18%.
Should women tone up instead of gain muscle?
There is a lot of information in fitness magazines about how to tone the body through restrictive diets, cardio exercises and lifting light weights. But, if you want to go in another direction with your physique, then you have to follow different advice regarding diet and exercises.
The muscle is what provides the curves , shape and tone to the body. Therefore, to achieve a well defined and muscular body you must consider how much muscle mass you must reach.
Most women need to gain around 5 to 10 kilograms of muscle mass and reduce the body fat percentage from 18 to 20% to get the look they want. Only then will it be possible for them to see themselves in form.
How should women gain muscle?
The biggest mistake women make when it comes to building muscle is to eat very few calories. If you constantly consume fewer calories than you burn, it means that you will significantly hinder the body’s ability to build muscle.
The construction of new muscle tissues is not vital for survival and requires energy for its creation, so it is of low priority for the organism. In addition, a deficit of calories increases the levels of the metabolic hormone, causing a systemic change away from muscle gain and towards muscle metabolism .
On the other hand, eating regularly at least a little more calories than burned ones produces the opposite effects, helping muscle growth. It also increases the production of anabolism hormones, improves muscle building machinery, performance in the gym and recovery capacity after training.
Ingest the correct amount of macro nutrients
If you are looking to improve body composition, then you have to pay attention where calories come from in terms of protein, carbohydrates and fat.
Proteins
First, you should eat 2 g of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. This is enough to get all the benefits of a high protein diet , including faster muscle growth.
Fats
You must consume 0.6 grams of fat per kilogram of body weight per day. This is enough to maintain health, performance and fulfill your diet plan.
If you wish to have additional advantages, emphasize the monounsaturated fats present in foods such as nuts, olive oil, peanuts and avocados.
Carbohydrates
You must get the rest of your daily calories from carbohydrates. Many people restrict the intake of carbohydrates because they think they will avoid gaining fat. Research shows that a moderate-to-high-carbohydrate diet can help you gain muscle and strength faster.
Unprocessed carbohydrates such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains are also great sources of micro nutrients and fiber, which is why a high-carbohydrate diet is recommended to maximize muscle gain .
Do muscle building exercises
- The best training routines for women meet the following criteria:
- Weight lifting with sufficient weight.
- Focus on compound movements.
- Focus on the lower part of the body more than on the upper part of it.
- Keep cardio exercises to a minimum so as not to harm your strength and recovery training.
- This approach will not meet everyone’s needs, but it is how most women should be training.
- To begin with, a simple 8-week weightlifting workout is recommended. To do this, locate an experienced coach who can orient you for that purpose.
Conclusion
Gaining muscle mass in a month is comforting, but after that many people tend to go to extremes: either too much shyness makes them go too slow, or because they want to maintain that first success they exceed the number of calories for months and months.
Our advice is that, if you expect to win in earnest, do not fear and take advantage of the first months of the volume period to go all out for everything. It is quite likely that you gain more fat than muscle, but it is not anything that can not be corrected eventually by doing a slight shock: you stop the volume for a month or two, you dedicate to maintain and then return to the load. It is an intense and fast strategy, but not too long or linear. If you want to follow this advice, you must commit and track your progress from the beginning. This way you will know when you are starting to lose that initial impulse, and you can adjust your diet.
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