by What muscle’s the best at pulling?
Your soleus.
Just below your calf muscle, the soleus helps with walking, dancing, and just plain moving.
It’s incredible how each individual muscle contributes to your overall health and wellness. If you’re looking to grow your muscles, and improve your body, then this article is for you. We’ll answer some of the most common questions about building muscle, the right way. Instead of making beginner mistakes, start a workout routine that you know drives results.
How long does it take to build muscle? Read on to find out!
Slow and Steady Equals Success
It doesn’t matter how much you work out; it takes regular strength-building exercises to build muscle. That means you’ll need longer than a week before you can see results. Instead, it’ll usually take about one month before you can notice any type of change.
By about 6 to 8 weeks, your friends and family members should start to comment on your new appearance. Your muscles will be starting to shape up by the second month. If weight loss is one of your goals, by 8 weeks, you can lose a significant amount of weight too.
When you reach 3 months, you’ll finally be hitting some major milestones. After 3 months of consistent conditioning and proper diet, your muscles will start to show their true potential.
You can boost your diet by including supplements. Companies like Wilson Supplements are starting to broaden their product selection to give you more options for muscle-building approaches.
Next, let’s look at the best strength-building routines for gaining muscle quickly. Even though you can’t rush the muscle-building process, you can definitely delay it with the wrong routine.
What’s the Right Routine?
What type of exercises should you be doing to build muscle as quickly as possible? You’ll want to focus on strength-building workouts. Anything where you’re lifting weights, or using resistance, will qualify as strength building.
When you work out, you create micro-tears in your muscles. It’s those teeny tiny tears that stimulate your body to rebuild. To rebuild, your body creates new proteins. The new proteins help your muscles become bigger and stronger.
Your goal should be to push your body just hard enough to initiate protein synthesis. At the same time, you need to avoid over-training.
When you push your body too far, your muscles will become fatigued. Without enough energy, they’ll find it difficult to rebuild and become stronger.
Don’t Overtrain Muscles
A lot of new bodybuilders fall into the trap of trying to do too much at once. Not only can this stunt muscle growth, but it’s also dangerous. Sprains, strains, and serious tears can all result from overtraining. Instead, you’ll want to work with a personal trainer to establish the right amount of sets for your goals.
Your body enters into the recovery phase by completing the right number of sets for each workout. Not by going overboard. The process of tearing down your muscles, and letting them recover, is what strength training is all about.
How Long Does It Take To Build Muscle in Your 50s?
How long does it take to build muscle when you’re older? You can grow muscle at any age. However, the older you get, the more challenging it can be for your body to recover.
An intense 18 set bicep workout may be easy to bounce back from in your 20s, but not so much in your 50s. Don’t let your age discourage you, though. You can get the gains you’re looking for; you’ll just need to be that much more committed to your workout routine.
You’ll also need to customize your approach. Don’t try to work out with the same intensity and number of reps as you would when you were younger. Instead, spread those 18 sets of bicep curls up.
Spread the sets up throughout the week, and perform them using a higher frequency. You’ll be able to get full-body training and still initiate the protein synthesis.
Pounds Per Month
How many pounds of muscle can you gain each month? Again, it’s going to depend on your physical condition and workout routine. Not to mention your commitment to getting ripped!
If you’re serious about bulking up, then you could put on as much as 2 lbs a month. In a lot of cases, the right workout routine will allow you to gain 3 lb. However, 2 lb is a more reasonable goal to set.
Are you a seasoned lifter? Then get ready to set your pounds per month goal at a pretty low threshold. When your body is used to working out, the gains are less during the bulking phase.
Lose Fat and Gain Muscle With Sleep
A lot of people have the goal of losing weight and gaining lean muscle mass. However, it’s easy to forget that a simple goal can have a simple plan. If you’re not careful, you’ll wind up creating a complex workout plan that gives you a headache just thinking about it.
Instead of making things harder than they need to be, we suggest simplifying your approach to working out. Take a moment to learn the key things your body needs to be healthy.
Things like sleeping enough, managing stress levels, and eating the right foods, will all help with your muscle-building goals. Take your diet a step beyond protein, and find ways to nourish yourself with the right essential nutrients.
If you start to feel like your workout plan is getting complicated, stop what you’re doing. Give yourself a moment to reflect on the workout routine you’re attempting. Does it contribute to your overall wellness?
If your exercise routine has you losing sleep or skipping meals, it’s time to rework your plan. Remember, your body needs time to recover. Sleep is one of the best opportunities for your body to start rebuilding the torn muscle fibers.
Muscle Building Tips About Carbs
Next, on our list of muscle-building tips, let’s talk carbs. If you’re brand new to the world of bodybuilding, you might not know that low-carb diets are a big no-no. The right carbohydrates will help push your body to do more.
You’ll be able to lift more weights. Over time, you’ll be able to gain more muscle than you ever could if you skipped carbs altogether. However, be sure you’re eating good carbs, like wild rice.
What Exercises Slow Down Muscle Gains?
Repetitive exercises can wind up slowing down your progress. The only way to get fast results is by switching things up frequently. Why?
Let’s say every day, you do 18 sets of bicep curls, chest presses, and leg curls. After a few days, your body and muscles will start to be accustomed to the same movements.
Since your body is used to the movements, there won’t be any tiny tears in your muscles. It’s those small muscle tears that create the opportunity for bigger, stronger muscles to grow.
In other words, if you do the same exercises every day, your body will adapt. You’ll no longer be challenging yourself. When you don’t challenge yourself, you don’t get the results you want. So while there isn’t anyone strength exercise that you should steer clear of, you should avoid mundane, repetitious routines.
Instead, switch things up. Uses a selection of activities throughout your training cycle. Constantly switch between training angles, planes of movement, modalities, and even the way you space your feet and hands.
For instance, let’s say you’re doing bicep curls. For the 1st set, you could hold the handle of the dumbbell with your pinky against one end. For the next set, use your thumb instead. These tiny variations will challenge your body to pull on different muscles.
Start thinking outside of the box. Find small ways to alter your exercises throughout the week.
Counting Calories and Eating Casein
What should your caloric intake be? On a typical day, women need about 2,000 calories, and men need about 2500. However, things change when you’re building muscle.
You might need to adjust your meal plan to go 200-500 calories over your regular caloric intake. Along with eating the right carbs, your calories should also include fats and proteins. Be careful to not overdo it, though. If you increase your caloric intake by too much, you’ll wind up gaining fat instead of muscle.
Another pro tip is to snack on casein before you go to bed. Casein is a slow digesting protein. When you eat it before you go to bed, it can help with the recovery phase of muscle building.
Start Building Huge Muscles
How long does it take to build muscle? Now you know it’s completely up to your approach. If you’re consistent and give your body the nutrients it needs, you could see results in a matter of weeks. However, to see the big results, you’ll need to be a little more patient.
Go ahead and create an exercise routine for this week, and stick to it. Remember to allow plenty of time for sleeping too. For more articles like this one, look at what the rest of our blog has in store.
