Dominic Stone
Gaining muscle is a goal for many, and for good reason. Building muscle can improve your health, boost your metabolism, and increase your confidence. But how do you actually do it? The process involves a combination of diet and exercise. Firstly, you need to eat more calories than you burn to support muscle growth. This is known as a bulking phase. It's important to eat the right kinds of calories, focusing on nutrient-rich foods and adequate protein intake. In addition, you need to engage in regular strength training and resistance exercises, pushing your muscles to the limit and allowing them to recover and grow stronger. This can be done through weight training, targeting all major muscle groups, and incorporating compound and isolation movements. By consistently challenging your muscles and providing them with the right fuel, you'll be well on your way to achieving your muscle-building goals.
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What You'll Learn
Resistance training with weights
When performing resistance training with weights, it's important to use weights that are heavy enough to challenge your muscles. Choose a weight that allows you to perform a challenging but not impossible number of repetitions, typically between 1 and 20 reps. You should feel unable to complete another repetition with good form. As you become more comfortable with a certain weight, gradually increase it to continue challenging your muscles. This principle is known as progressive overload, which involves increasing the difficulty of an exercise over time by adjusting weight, reps, depth, or intensity. For example, you can start with 10kg for 3 sets of 8 reps for a week, then increase to 10 reps the next week, and so on.
It's important to be consistent with your workouts, aiming for at least two days a week of full-body training with weight training. Rest days are crucial, so allow at least 48 hours between sessions for muscle recovery. You can also break your workouts into upper body and lower body days to focus on specific muscle groups.
When starting a muscle-building program, resistance machines can be a good option as they follow a fixed movement path, making it easier to perform exercises with proper form and minimising the risk of injury. Free weights, such as dumbbells, kettlebells, and barbells, are also effective for muscle building and allow for more challenging workouts as they require the engagement of multiple muscles to stabilise the movement.
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Consuming adequate calories
Consuming an adequate number of calories is essential for gaining muscle mass. This process is known as "bulking," and it involves eating more calories than you burn to support muscle growth. It's important to note that simply increasing your calorie intake without proper exercise will not lead to muscle gain.
To effectively bulk, you should aim for a slight calorie surplus. This means consuming 300–500 calories above your baseline needs, which is also known as your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). Many factors influence your TDEE, including age, gender, height, weight, and activity level. You can use online calculators to estimate your TDEE and determine your daily calorie goal for bulking.
During the bulking phase, it's crucial to ensure that the additional calories come from nutrient-rich sources. Eating empty-calorie foods like soft drinks and chips will not support muscle growth. Instead, focus on consuming a balanced diet with sufficient protein, carbohydrates, and healthy fats.
Protein is particularly important for muscle growth, as it provides the building blocks for new muscle fibers. Research suggests that those training to gain muscle should consume 1.4–2 grams of protein per kg of body weight per day. Eating a variety of protein sources, such as lean meats, dairy, eggs, and plant-based proteins, can help ensure you're getting enough.
It's worth noting that the goal of bulking is to maximize muscle growth while minimizing fat gain. Therefore, it's important to monitor your progress and adjust your calorie intake accordingly. If you find that you're gaining excessive fat, you may need to reduce your calorie surplus or increase your exercise intensity.
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Getting enough protein
Gaining muscle mass requires a combination of consistent and challenging workouts and a diet that provides your body with the right amount of calories and nutrients, particularly protein.
Protein is often referred to as the building block of new muscles. It is essential for building and repairing muscles and contributes to greater strength. When you engage in resistance training, you create micro-tears in your muscles, and protein helps repair these tears, making the muscles stronger and larger.
The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for protein is 0.8 g/kg/d, which is the minimum amount required to prevent lean body mass loss. However, research suggests that those looking to build muscle should consume 1.4-2 grams of protein per kg of body weight per day. This amount of protein intake will ensure that your body has enough amino acids to support muscle growth and repair.
It is important to note that simply increasing your protein intake will not automatically lead to muscle gain. You must also engage in regular resistance training or weight training to stimulate your muscles and create the necessary conditions for growth.
Additionally, it is crucial to time your protein intake properly. The muscle becomes saturated with amino acids after consuming protein, and MPS returns to basal levels after about 3 hours. Therefore, it is recommended to separate protein meals by 3-5 hours to maximize MPS throughout the day.
Good sources of protein include lean meats, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy, beans, legumes, nuts, and seeds. It is beneficial to eat a variety of protein sources to ensure you get all the essential amino acids needed for muscle growth and overall health.
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Muscle recovery
Gaining muscle involves a combination of weight training, resistance training, and proper nutrition. However, recovery is also a crucial aspect of building muscle. Here are some detailed tips for muscle recovery:
Listen to Your Body
Sore muscles are an indication from your body that it needs rest. If you've pushed yourself to the limit during a workout, expect muscle soreness the next day. Allow your muscles to recover before returning to intense physical activity. Pushing yourself too hard without proper recovery can inhibit the protein synthesis needed for muscle repair.
Hydration
Staying hydrated is essential for muscle recovery. Dehydration can impair your muscles' ability to repair themselves. Drink plenty of water throughout the day, and consider increasing your fluid intake during and after workouts. Sports drinks can also help replenish electrolytes lost through sweating.
Nutrition
Consuming a high-protein meal or supplement before or after a workout can support muscle recovery. While the timing of protein intake is important, overall dietary protein intake is more crucial for muscle development and recovery. In addition to protein, make sure to eat a balanced diet with a variety of nutrients to support your body's recovery process.
Active Recovery
Instead of complete rest, consider incorporating active recovery exercises into your routine. This involves light-intensity activities such as yoga, tai chi, stretching, or a leisurely walk. These activities help accelerate the removal of lactate and hydrogen from your muscles while stimulating blood flow and signalling proteins for tissue healing.
Sleep
Sleep is vital for muscle recovery. Aim for at least seven hours of sleep per night to allow your body to rest and rejuvenate. Accumulated sleep debt can lead to increased stress and cortisol levels, which can impair recovery and negatively impact your health.
Additional Techniques
Other techniques that can aid in muscle recovery include cryotherapy, which involves exposing your body to extremely cold temperatures for a few minutes, and compression techniques, such as wearing compression garments. Additionally, foam rolling can help relieve muscle soreness and improve recovery.
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Aerobic exercise
While resistance training is often associated with building muscle, aerobic exercise can also help with muscle growth, muscle function, and your overall exercise capacity.
A 2019 study found that higher-intensity aerobic exercise can boost muscle size, especially in those new to training. This form of exercise can also improve muscle function and exercise capacity. It is important to note that any gains in muscle mass from aerobic exercise may plateau after several months, and long periods of low-intensity aerobic exercise could potentially lead to muscle loss. However, this can be mitigated by ensuring adequate calorie and protein intake and incorporating resistance training into your routine.
The benefits of aerobic exercise on skeletal muscle health are often underappreciated, but emerging evidence suggests that aerobic exercise can indeed lead to muscle hypertrophy. For example, a study on cycle ergometry showed that participants of all ages experienced similar quadriceps femoris muscle growth after 12 weeks of progressively intense exercise. Similarly, another study found that 12 weeks of aerobic exercise resulted in a ~9% increase in quadriceps femoris muscle volume, comparable to the gains from resistance training.
To promote muscle growth through aerobic exercise, it is recommended to work out at an intensity of 70 to 80 percent of your heart rate reserve (HRR) for 30 to 45 minutes, 4 to 5 days a week. You can calculate your HRR by subtracting your resting heart rate from your maximum heart rate. Additionally, incorporating a variety of intensities into your routine, from longer and slower to quicker and faster workouts, can help prevent plateauing and improve your body's ability to adapt to different training loads.
In conclusion, aerobic exercise can be an effective tool for muscle growth and improving overall fitness levels. By understanding the role of intensity, duration, and frequency in your workouts and ensuring proper nutrition, you can maximize the benefits of aerobic exercise for gaining muscle.
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Frequently asked questions
To gain muscle, you need to do strength training and eat a diet rich in protein and calories.
You should do strength training, also known as resistance training, which includes lifting weights. Aim to work out for 20 to 30 minutes, 2 to 3 times a week, and make sure to give your muscles at least 48 hours to recover between sessions.
You should eat a surplus of calories and focus on getting enough protein. A good rule of thumb is to eat 1.4–2 grams of protein per kg of body weight per day.
It may take a few weeks to several months to see noticeable muscle gains.
No, supplements that claim to increase muscle mass are not scientifically proven. Focus on eating a nutrient-rich diet and doing strength training exercises instead.
