Want to know how to identify a knowledgeable fitness professional? AND reliable? Ask them how much muscle you can gain in a month. If they give you an answer other than “it depends,” work with someone else.
In a world that values quick fixes, it’s natural to wonder how quickly a training plan will begin to produce visible results. But hypertrophy—or the growth of skeletal muscle fibers—is a complicated equation with many variables. Biological sex, genetics, diet, exercise, sleep habits and current fitness level all play a role.
“Saying how much someone will gain is an impossible question to answer,” says Todd Buckingham, Ph.D., chief exercise physiologist at The Bucking Fit Life, a health coaching company. “I couldn’t even answer that question for myself, to be honest.
And if someone quotes you a specific amount of pounds or inches? “They’re full of it!” Buckingham joke.
While no one can accurately predict how much muscle you can gain in a month, you can use what we know about muscle growth to optimize your training and lifestyle to work toward your body composition goals. Here’s what you need to know.
How muscles are formed
Hypertrophy is the body’s way of adapting to new or increased stimuli, Buckingham explains. This comes in the form of mechanical stress and metabolic stress.
Mechanical stress refers to the force placed on your muscles during resistance training, which causes micro-tears in your muscle fibers.
“Your body needs to repair and rebuild these micro-tears to make your muscles bigger and stronger so that the next time you do the same activity or lift the same weight, they’re not as damaged much as they had done before,” explains Buckingham.
Metabolic stress it occurs when you work your muscles to the point where “metabolic waste” (a byproduct of energy production) accumulates in your body faster than it can be removed.
But where does the balance lie between mechanical stress and metabolic stress when it comes to building lean mass?
According to a study by one of the leading exercise scientists, Brad Schoenfeld, Ph.D., CSCS, “mechanical and metabolic stress occur together, making it difficult to disentangle the effects of one from the other.”
What we do know is that actual muscle building happens between exercise when your body is at rest.
“While you’re lifting, you’re actually breaking down your muscle, but then it builds,” says Buckingham. Furthermore, the hormones that facilitate muscle growth are mostly released at night. “That’s why sleep is really important for increasing muscle mass,” he adds.
How fast can you gain muscle?
While muscle growth happens overnight, it certainly doesn’t overnight — several factors affect how quickly you can gain muscle. And while you may focus on muscle improvements at the start of a new fitness program, the most important benefits are happening in your nerves.
“In the first eight to 12 weeks of starting a strength training program, the most influential factor in improving your strength is neural adaptations,” says Buckingham. “Your nervous system becomes more efficient at sending messages from your brain to your muscles and recruiting more of the right muscle fibers.”
Buckingham compares it to finishing a maze. The first two times you try it, you’ll hit a dead end. But, over time and through repetition, you eventually learn the fastest way.
“Lifting and recruiting muscle fibers is the same thing,” he says. At first, your nervous system may recruit too many muscle fibers or the wrong muscle fibers altogether, but eventually it learns the fastest and most accurate route. AND this is it when hypertrophy begins to become measurable.
So if you see little or no change in your muscle size after a month of training, don’t give up! Your body is changing – you just can’t see it yet.
Factors affecting muscle growth
Factors both within and outside of your control determine how much muscle you can gain in a month (or any period of time). When setting any body composition goal, it’s important to consider the following.
1. Genetics
Here’s the unfair truth about genes and muscle mass: You can follow the same diet, weight-lifting program, and sleep schedule as someone else and experience completely different results. Some studies suggest that heredity accounts for 50 to 80 percent of your muscle mass.
Also, men tend to gain more muscle at a faster rate than women. “It’s mainly because of testosterone and growth hormone,” Buckingham says, since women have less. But research also shows that women’s strength gains are typically similar to those achieved by men, meaning they are able to build muscle without bulking up.
2. Age
As we age, our anabolic (growth) hormone levels decrease, making it harder to gain muscle. Even the most dedicated lifters will eventually experience sarcopenia, a loss of muscle mass associated with the later stages of life.
“Strength training will help preserve some muscle mass, but it’s inevitable that, even if you continue to lift for the rest of your life, muscle mass will decrease,” says Buckingham.
3. Diet and nutrition
Most people understand that high protein intake is necessary for muscle repair and recovery. Studies suggest that a range of 1.4 grams to 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day can be effective for building muscle.
Other macronutrients—carbohydrates and fat—are also essential, as they are integral to recovery and hormone production (among other physiological processes). Plus, you need adequate carbohydrates to fuel your workout.
Buckingham also notes that you need to be in a calorie surplus to build muscle. “A lot of people want to lose weight but also gain muscle size, and that’s not going to happen because, to gain muscle, you have to have extra calories.”
4. Rest and recovery
“Sleep is where you release the hormones that cause muscle growth,” says Buckingham. “So if you’re not getting enough sleep, then you’re not triggering the release of these hormones.”
Aim for at least seven hours of sleep a night and include recovery time between workouts by periodizing your training and scheduling rest days. “If you constantly lift and never rest your muscles, then they don’t have time to repair, rebuild and grow,” he says.
5. Training
How you structure your training program greatly affects muscle growth, and thankfully, it’s something you can calibrate to your goals. In general, you want to hit each muscle group several times a week (with recovery time interspersed), and your load should usually be heavy.
“Three to four sets of 8 to 10 reps at 75 to 85 percent of your one-rep max,” says Buckingham. “It will give you the most bang for your buck.”
BODi weightlifting programs like DIG DEEPER, LIIFT4 and Sure Thing target different muscle groups in each workout to maximize training and recovery. They also vary the exercises and intensity to prioritize progression and keep things fresh.
The best exercises for fast muscle growth
For hypertrophy, Buckingham recommends focusing on compound (multi-joint) lifts that target large muscle groups. Below are some important exercises.
1. Barbell front squat
- With the barbell resting on a squat rack, grasp the bar with your hands shoulder-width apart. Bring your shoulders under the barbell so that your elbows are bent and facing forward and the bar rests on the bottoms of your palms or fingers on the tops of your shoulders.
- Lifting the bar off the rack, step back and stand tall with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. This is the starting position
- Keeping your back flat, chest up and core tight, push your hips back, bend your knees and lower your body until your thighs are at least parallel to the floor.
- Relax and then push through your heels to return to the starting position.
2. Romanian deadlift
- Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding a pair of heavy dumbbells or a barbell in front of your thighs, palms facing you. This is the starting position.
- Keeping your back flat, shoulders back and core engaged, push your hips back, lower the weight across the front of your body to mid-foot level, maintaining only a slight bend in your knees.
- Pause and then slowly reverse the movement to return to the starting position.
3. Dumbbell bench press
- Lie on a flat bench holding a pair of dumbbells directly over your chest with your palms facing forward. Your head, upper back and butt should touch the bench and your feet should be flat on the floor. This is the starting position.
- Keeping your core engaged, slowly lower the weights to the sides of your chest, keeping your elbows close to your body (your upper arms and sides of your torso should form a 45-degree angle at the end of the movement).
- Rest and then push the weights back to the starting position.
4. Dumbbell bent-over row
- Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding a dumbbell in each hand. Brace your core, push your hips back, bend your knees slightly, and lower your torso until it’s almost parallel to the floor. Keep your muscles engaged to protect your lower back.
- Let the dumbbells hang at arm’s length with palms facing each other. Engage your shoulder blades to keep your shoulders pulled back. This is the starting position.
- Without moving your torso and keeping your elbows planted and flat, line the weights to the sides of your ribs as you squeeze your shoulder blades together. Make sure the elbow has a 90 degree bend so you drive into the ribs and not the armpit.
- Pause and then lower the weights back to the starting position.
