Do you wonder how much muscle mass you can gain in 1 year and what plays a role in this? Read it here!
The transformation from lean to a muscular body |
Have
you just started training and do you want to build up as much muscle mass as
possible and thus gain muscle mass? Or have you been busy for a while and do
you see less progress than you would like to see? Read here how much muscle
mass you can actually build and view our 6 handy tips to gain muscle mass.
What
is Muscle Growth?
This sounds like an open door to many, but building muscle mass is most effective through strength training. Muscle growth mainly takes place through an increase in the size of muscle fibers. This is also known as hypertrophy.
The
latest scientific insights suggest that muscle growth is largely the effect of
hypertrophy, but the increase in the number of muscle fibers (hyperplasia)
should not be ruled out. This has been clearly observed in animals. In addition, in both animals and humans, when building muscle mass, an
increase in the amount and strength of the connective tissue also occurs.
What
is Realistic?
“Many magazines and marketing campaigns advertise with attractive, unrealistic slogans, such as 6 kg of muscle mass in 6 weeks.”
Many
of these slogans are hot air. The build-up of muscle mass does not start
immediately from moment 1 that you touch the weights. The actual build-up of
muscle mass takes place approximately from 12 to 18 workouts.
In the first weeks that you train, you learn more efficient movements, improve your
coordination and build up muscle damage. If you give the body enough time to
recover, it will recover from this muscle damage.
With
the aforementioned rule, you therefore only build muscle mass after 4 to 8
weeks (depending on how often you train). It is also interesting to mention
that muscle growth is faster in the upper body compared to the lower body. And for
the jokers among us: this is not because men prefer to train their upper body.
Enough
theory, but how much can I build up?
Specific
numbers are difficult to name. This remains speculative and varies a lot from
person to person. For some, it is possible to build a few kilograms of muscle
mass in a year, and for others, it is only a few hundred grams per year. In
addition, this is very dependent on your physique, training stimulus, previous
training experience, and nutrition. It remains guesswork. Just get on with it
and try not to compare yourself too much with others. Numbers don't help you in
this case, it can only frustrate you.
But
if you still want some numbers. A leading scientist in this field called
"Alan Aragon" has estimated that:
- A novice lifter can gain about 0.5-1 kilograms per month in muscle mass
- Strength athletes with more experience can gain about 0.25-0.5 kilograms per month in muscle mass.
- And for (advanced) advanced users that is about 0.2 kilograms per month.
So
you see that as you have more muscle mass, the building of muscle mass slows
down.
A Simple Step-by-Step Plan
Many
books, magazines, and marketing campaigns advertise with attractive slogans:
'five kilos of muscle mass in four weeks!' If you have read the above, you
realize that it is not that easy to gain muscle mass quickly. Therefore, set a
realistic goal and be happy with every small progress you make. If you want to
gain muscle mass, think of it as a multi-year plan where you take small steps
every month. With this in mind, I've got six helpful tips to help you out.
Step
1: Training
Choose
a training schedule that stimulates and stimulates the muscles sufficiently to
grow. Make sure that you increase the load slowly and that you use the correct
implementation.
Train your muscles |
This continuously stimulates your muscles and forces them to adapt to the resistance level. If you train harder every workout, your muscles will grow a little bit each time.
You simply will not grow without applying progressive overload.
Perhaps as a novice athlete, but certainly not anymore after a while.
Read my article on progressive overload if you want to know more about this.
Step
2: Determine Your Energy Intake
Before you want to build extra muscle mass, take a critical look at your fat percentage. If this number is relatively low (less than 12% for the man, less than 22% for the woman), start with clean bulking (slowly gaining weight) or eating maintenance. Eating on maintenance means that you eat as many calories as you need. In other words: this keeps you on weight.
Is
your fat percentage higher? And do you want a flat stomach? Then try to eat
0-250 kilocalories below your maintenance (energy requirement), so that you
lose weight slowly.
Step
3: Nutrition
Nutrition is definitely one of the most crucial factors when it comes to building muscle mass. You have to eat in a calorie surplus.
If you don't do this, you simply cannot build muscle mass. As a beginner, this is still possible, because you go from not training to suddenly training.
This allows you to eat little and still build some muscle, but it is far from the ideal of course.
So make sure you eat about 200-300 kcal above your daily requirement and that you also maintain the right ratio in macronutrients and micronutrients.
Macro is more important for how you look, but micro is important for
your health.
Step
4: Evaluate Your Sleep
A
rested mind and body are extremely important for your focus and training. Ask
yourself: do you wake up rested every day? Do you feel that your body and mind
have recovered for a new day?
Good rest ensures that your muscles can recover to the maximum, which in turn ensures that they also grow to the maximum.
Step
5: Relaxation
Stress hinders your training and recovery. If you start your training insufficiently rested and focused, you will make much less progress. Maintain a good work-rest balance.
Take some time off every once in a while and enjoy going to work! It
may sound a bit vague and you may not immediately see the link with sports performance,
but experienced athletes will confirm that too much stress is a killer for your
sports performance.
Step
6: Perseverance
You
can have such a good plan, but as long as you can't stick to it, it's no use at
all. That is just frustrating.
Start
with a realistic plan that you also like. Do you have a 6-day schedule, but
find that you can only yield 4 times a week? Then switch back and set up a
4-day schedule. Be honest with yourself and adjust it in time to avoid
frustrations.
I'm
curious: what is your experience with muscle building? How much muscle mass did
you build in your first year of training? Let us know in a comment below!
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