Wherever you look, scandalous statements about how fast you can gain muscle mass.
In one book they promise 8 kilograms in just 2 weeks. And they go rumors about one incredibly strong coach who scored 6 kilogram in just 5 days.
Choose any fitness magazine, and you will lose faith in the fact that gaining muscle mass is so easy.
Different sources contradict each other. Who to believe, for how much can you pump up?
How fast can you actually gain muscle mass?
Honestly, I have no idea. And no one has. Muscle growth each has its own mass and it is almost impossible to predict how much you will dial for a given period of time.
- What affects muscle growth?
- 1. Heredity
- 2. The law of diminishing returns
- 3. Body Type
- 4. Testosterone
- 5. Muscular memory
- 6. Nutrition
What affects muscle growth?
Next, I will try to explain to you how this or that factor affects the rate of muscle growth. This will give you an approximate an idea of what results to expect in a week, a month and a year of regular training to better understand how much time can be pumped up.
1. Heredity
There are a number of variables that you can control: training program and nutrition plan. But there is something that is having the greatest influence on muscle growth, but not amenable to any control from the outside is heredity.
Whether you like it or not, some people gain muscle the mass is extremely fast, an amazing result is already visible to them in a couple of months. The progress of others may not be noticeable. Someone generally stands still, despite all efforts.
Below are the results of a study in which absolutely identical people (same nutrition plan, length of service training, build, age and initial body weight) engaged in strength training for 12 weeks (raw the results were taken from this study).
After analyzing the data, scientists noted that people gaining more muscle mass (with high responsiveness) exceeded those who have gained less muscle mass (with low responsiveness) to four times.
Then the researchers resorted to gene profiling techniques. in order to analyze microRNA obtained from samples tissues of both groups.
MicroRNAs are small non-coding RNA molecules that, in addition to among other things, they play an important role in protein synthesis (i.e. muscle growth) during resistance training.
Scientists noted that there are significant differences between miRNA-378, miRNA-29a, miRNA-26a and miRNA-451 both groups. The number of miRNA-378, miRNA-29a, miRNA-26a found to be reduced among respondents with low responsiveness and consistently respondents with high responsiveness. And miRNA-451 was increased only in subjects with low responsiveness.
MicroRNA appears to also affect activation satellite cells. Satellite cells surround muscle fibers and are the main participants in muscle growth.
People who are prone to rapid muscle gain have a large number of satellite cells surrounding muscle fiber.
Recent studies show that strength gains among people practicing absolutely identical training programs radically different.
Respondents were divided into three groups: high responsiveness (strength gain was 20% or more), average responsiveness (10-19% power) and low responsiveness (less than 10%).
The average increase in strength was 29% among respondents with high responsiveness, 14% – with average responsiveness and 3% – with low.
In other words, someone achieves results in record short deadlines, someone is making progress, but not as fast as I would like for someone the process of mass gain lasts for many months and years.
Yes, it all sounds like an attempt with the help of “bad genetics” evade explanations why it’s so hard for you to gain muscle mass.
In many cases, for years you have not been able to type and grams of muscle mass, the wrong plan is to blame training and nutrition
But the fact remains, there is genetics beyond our control, affecting how fast you can gain muscle mass, and what will be your maximum limit.
The only way to defeat genetics is to agree to participate in the experiences of some crazy scientist, but hardly received the result will please you.
2. The law of diminishing returns
The higher your training experience (i.e. how many years have you been practicing strength training), the slower the changes.
In many cases, the person who has dedicated strength training 10 years, it takes a lot more time to build muscle mass than those in the gym for only 10 weeks.
Of course, the main problem with training experience is that you are assuming a diverse program training throughout the years (months, weeks) of classes. But let’s face it, few people (even me) change their program training sessions.
Someone who carefully pumped each muscle group for 30 approaches once a week for two years (by the way, not the best training option) and gained quite a bit of muscle mass, hardly subsequently will be pleased with a significant increase compared with a beginner who has just started regular training.
It would be wiser to talk about your “ceiling of adaptation” or the “upper limit” of what you are capable of in the matter of recruitment muscle mass. The closer you are to your upper limit, the the process will go slower.
3. Body Type
The rate of muscle gain also depends on physique and the amount of muscle mass initially available in the body. I.e the answer to the question of how many months you can pump up depends from the existing amount of muscle.
Scientists from the Netherlands, for example, used the so-called lean body mass index to rank a person in a group “thin” (a person who is incredibly difficult to gain weight) and “dense” (naturally muscular guys who are enough look at the barbell and their muscles are already growing). Both groups were engaged strength training twice a week for 12 weeks.
All studied in 12 weeks acquired muscles. But average the gain in lean muscle mass was only 0.3 kilograms, while “dense” 1.6 kilograms. In other words, subjects from the second group gained FIVE TIMES more muscles. Than representatives the first group.
If you have a strong physique, then you are capable lift large weights and therefore stimulate more effectively muscle growth.
To determine your body type, measure the width wrists.
The wrist is 19.5 centimeters wider and speaks of a wide bone (endomorph). The wrist is less than 16.5 centimeters – about a narrow one (ectomorph). Everything between 19.5 and 16.5 centimeters is an average physique (mesomorph).
It is assumed that the size of the wrist is related to the size bones throughout the body, but not for all, this rule applies. But the main point is clear and understandable. The stronger the physique, the higher muscle potential.
4. Testosterone
There is a natural level in your body anabolic hormones (such as growth hormone, insulin and IGF-1). Workouts and eating habits affect these hormones, which in turn determine the rate of muscle growth and maximum muscle potential.
At the top of the hormonal “pyramid” is testosterone. Exerting a great influence on the strength and size of muscles, testosterone, undoubtedly, “King Kong” among the anabolic hormones.
For men, normal blood testosterone levels is 350-1230 nanograms per deciliter (ng / dts)
Naturally, a person with a testosterone level of 50 ng / dts cannot gain the same muscle mass in the same terms as the one whose the level is 1000 ng / dts.
Read the article: How to Improve Your Own Level testosterone in the body.
One way to artificially increase your natural muscle limit – use exogenous testosterone.
About the speed of muscle growth has always walked and walks a lot rumors and arguments. They are mainly based on the fact that many successful bodybuilders that you may have read about in magazines or seen on TV, took various drugs.
In this short trailer, Bigger, Stronger, faster popular fitness model Christian Boving (maybe you saw him in an old MuscleTech sports supplement advertisement) admits that he took steroids from 16 years old.
In order for you to have an idea of what anabolics have an effect, I will give you the results of the study, in during which the effect of testosterone injections was studied (600 milligrams of testosterone every week) on muscle growth among groups of men aged 19 to 40.
Subjects who combined testosterone and strength injections training on average gained 6 kilograms of muscle in 10 weeks. The group did not take testosterone, but performed physical exercises gained 2 kilograms of muscle. Those who refused exercises, but did not miss injections, gained about 3 kilograms muscle mass.
In other words, those who took testosterone and did gained 3 times more muscle mass through sports than those who limited only to strength training.
And those who just took testosterone and didn’t do ANYTHING anymore effort gained 60 percent more muscle than those who practiced.
Think about it.
People taking testosterone and not attending the gym gained more muscle than those who practiced three times in a week.
I’m not going to tell you to take the drugs or not. Each a person has the right to dispose of his body as he wants. To that in your life there are so many people telling you what to do and how to live. And I’m not going to become one of them.
But I believe that you need to know what is happening “for backstage. “This will help you set more realistic goals and adequately assess their own progress. Otherwise, you may just protracted depression from the inability to achieve the expected results.
5. Muscular memory
Every time an actor gains a large amount muscle mass for the role, hype begins around him with endless discussions of how he achieved this.
For example, Robert Downey Jr. during the filming of “Sherlock Holmes” weighed about 69 kilograms. Three months later, by the time the filming began 2 parts of Iron Man, he gained about 9 kilograms of muscle.
Nine kilograms of muscle in just 12 weeks is a lot. how did he succeed?
“In fact, he just restored the mass recruited for filming the first “Iron Man,” explains the personal trainer Downey Jr Brad Bowes.
Simply put, these 9 kilograms were not new muscles. Downey just returned the old form to the “deflated” muscles. And it really is takes less time than dialing from scratch thanks to muscle memory.
Studies show that there is a difference between training trained and unprepared muscles
Of course, muscle tissue alone is not capable of really “remember” something. Rather, it is associated with an increase in the number of cell nuclei (which play a crucial role in building new muscle) in muscle cells during strength training even before how the muscles themselves begin to grow.
These cell nuclei do not disappear when you stop training and the muscles “deflate”. On the contrary, this stock of “extra” cells allows you quickly return to its previous mass in a short time.
In most cases, before and after photographs in various sports magazines, you can observe fitness models that several months “lazy” to get a photograph of “before.”
But just as before they were already in great shape, then returning this very form to them is much easier and faster than to those who starts from scratch.
By the way, if you ever thought about the reality of these before and after photos, the next video (only 68 seconds) will be interesting to you.
This is an excerpt from the movie Bigger, Stronger, Faster, which I highly recommend seeing if you haven’t already have seen.
Despite the fact that this is a long-standing practice in the food industry additives, many people are still surprised that advertising is being done In a similar way.
6. Nutrition
We all know that in order to gain muscle mass, need to eat. Inadequate Diet substances will reduce the rate of muscle growth.
But the stupidest mistake will eat much more than you necessary, in the hope that in this way you will recruit muscle mass is even faster. And the question is how much can pumping up with protein is not very important, much more important protein synthesis, quantity and quality of food consumed.
Our body has limited muscle building capabilities, which are largely dependent on the ability of the body create new muscle tissue from the amino acids you consume (squirrel).
You can eat as much as you like, but it will not affect the speed, with which your body creates new muscle tissue. And if you will is, more than necessary, then excess nutrients will be put off in the form of fat, but not muscle.
Imagine that you are a factory for the production of something. (not important, choose what you like)
If you provide less raw materials to your employees (i.e. food), then they will produce fewer goods, respectively performance will decline. That is, nutritional deficiencies substances will slow down muscle growth.
What will happen if we provide workers with more raw materials?
Productivity will increase, but only to a certain moment. Because there is a limit to how much an employee can produce for a certain period of time. If the enterprise runs to the limit of their own capabilities, then increase the supply of raw materials will be a waste of money and materials.
In the same way, you cannot make the body grow faster than it is genetically predetermined. Your diet will make sense until those as long as you adequately control the amount of food eaten. Otherwise you run the risk of becoming fat.
You probably have come across more than once people who claim that they know the “secret” how to gain 30 kilograms of muscle in 6 months or even faster.
More than sure that they are taking steroids, and their results give out as “natural”.
Even Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was lucky with genetics, stubbornly trained with a little help of special drugs and was incredibly happy, gaining 11.5 kilograms of muscle per year. About it he writes in his book Arnold: bodybuilder textbook.
Many try to slope away from the army, and those who failed regret the lost time. But for me, military service was not a waste of time. Back home, I weighed 100 kilogram. At the very beginning of the service, my weight was 91 kilograms. It was the most incredible change in just one year.
Even if the legend of bodybuilding in a year was able to score only 11.5 kilogram (and not all of them were muscles), as you can hope for more?
If you take into account all of the above, then how much muscle mass can I really dial in 10-12 weeks?
In a study at Baylor University, a group Beginners, training 4 times a week, was able to score 5 kilogram in 10 weeks.
A 12-week study found that doing a five-day split program and drinking regularly after exercise a glass of milk, the subjects were able to gain 5 kilograms of pure muscle mass.
By the way, taking creatine (20 grams per day for 5 days) and by consuming more carbohydrates, you can speed up muscle synthesis tissue.
For example, a week on a high-calorie diet with extra consumption of creatine, you can get 1.5-2 kilograms muscle tissue. But remember, muscle tissue is not always equal the amount of muscle.
In addition, you will not be able to forever keep the typing speed mass, it will gradually decline.
For the first year of training, you can score about 5-10 kilogram of muscle mass.
If you are lucky with genetics, then with proper nutrition and In training, you will gain up to 10 kilograms of masa. Those with genetics less fortunate, they are unlikely to be able to overcome the bar of 5 kilograms.
In the second year of training, feel free to divide the amount earlier the mass gained by two is a maximum of 2-5 kilograms. In another year it is there will already be 1.5-2.5 kilograms of muscle.
I understand it doesn’t sound very impressive, but believe me, even this enough muscle to look amazing.
See also: Set muscle mass: how to trick genetics
If you devote a lot of time to training, but There is still no result, we advise you on how to cheat body and gain muscle mass.