So, have you’ve seen ads like this: “Gain___pounds of muscles in just____weeks!!” I probably should have put a few more of those exclamation marks.
You want to gain muscle and you want to gain it fast! Well, I’m sorry to rain on your parade, but gaining muscle isn’t just a slow process, it’s also a difficult one! You could gain 20 pounds of fat in one month, but barely gain a pound of muscle in the same time frame. You could pack on 100 pounds of fat in a year (or less), but could barely gain 10 pounds of muscle in the same year.
If you want a realistic number of how much muscle you could gain in just one month, you’ll be disappointed to learn that one to two pounds of PURE muscle per month is average. Gaining three to five pounds of muscle per month is absolute pure dedication, and perhaps most of us won’t even achieve that kind of muscle gain.
So, only one to two pounds of muscles a month? And that’s assuming that you’re not spending hours in the gym six days a week. But even if you truly want to kill yourself with training, the absolute best that you could truly hope for would be no more than three pounds per month — and that’s truly pushing it! That’s thirty-six pounds of beef per year!
Why is building muscle so dang difficult? Well, for one, you have a protein in your genes called myostatin. This protein actually limits your muscle growth. Yes, we were actually designed to not get too muscular. Too bad we don’t have the same ability to limit our fat growth! We would just get fat until we die!
Some individuals have a myostatin deficiency, meaning that they would experience abnormal muscle growth. These folks could gain more muscle in a month than the average person. This is not necessarily a good thing. Too much of any good thing is a bad thing. Too much muscle could get in the way of daily activities — almost the same as having too much fat.
Another reason for slow muscle growth is that recovery time is slow. When you pump that iron and break down muscle tissue, they won’t grow until they have fully recovered. Muscle recovery typically takes 24 to 72 hours, depending on how hard you’ve worked. So, let’s say that you’re working on your legs. During the week, you probably won’t work your legs but just two to three times that week, and only eight to twelve times a month. That’s not a lot of working time for your legs to produce any significant muscular growth.
Another reason is that the muscles could get stronger and obtain more endurance WITHOUT any additional muscle mass. There are two main things that contribute to strength and endurance: your nervous system and your muscle fibers (cells). Everybody has the ability to lift a significant amount of weight with the muscles they already have. However, if you’re aren’t used to lifting heavy weight, then your nerves won’t activate all your muscle fibers to contract, so you would appear quite weak. However, the more you work your muscles, the more muscle fibers your nerves would activate. So it’s very possible to go from lifting 30-pound weights to 80-pound weights with very, VERY little muscle growth.
Think about it this way. Your vehicle has a regular DRIVE gear, and a second drive gear, and possibly a THIRD drive gear. When you’re driving on the regular DRIVE gear, that is just enough power to get your car from point A to point B. However, if you’re driving up a steep hill, then you’ll shift to second gear. Or, if you’re stuck in the mud or hauling a very heavy trailer, you might switch it to THIRD gear for maximum power. Did the car get any bigger when you switched gears? No.
The same rule applies to you: you’re equipped to lift a significant amount of weight, but unless there is a need to lift heavy, your body would only use just enough muscle fibers that it needs. When you increase the load, your nerves activate more fibers without increasing growth.
So, what if someone swears on their own grave that they’ve gained 10 pounds of muscle in one month?? Well, here’s a great explanation: they’re gaining fat and water weight. If that person is eating more than normal, he’s probably not burning more fuel than his body is using. So, the extra fuel (calories) would be stored as fat. And with extra fat comes extra water storage. More food doesn’t mean more muscles — it just means more fat!
Another explanation is his glycogen (stored sugar) levels are increasing. Glycogen stores water, and when you have enough glycogen, you’ll gain a few pounds of water weight. So, along with the fat and water storage weight, the person probably gained just one pound of muscle. There you go, 10 pounds of “muscle” in one month. You could gain five pounds of fat in no time, and gain five pounds of water weight within DAYS.
And yes another reason is something call “muscle re-gain.” This is when someone already had a lot of muscle, but somehow lost it, but gained it back. You could lose muscle through dehydration. Since muscle is about 70 percent water, severe dehydration could shrink them. But drinking a lot of fluid, over overhydration, could plump your muscles back again. Inactive muscles, such as a leg in a cast, could cause muscles to shrink, but it won’t take long for that muscle to plump up again. So in these cases, you could gain (or really, re-gain) 10 more pounds of muscle in a short period of time.
I tell my clients to not focus on the scale, whether for weight loss or weight gain. What’s important is what you look like in the mirror. When you gain weight, it’s hard to tell exactly what you’ve gained unless you do a bioimpedance test to measure the amount of fat, water, and muscle you have. You could buy one yourself and get a general idea what your weight gain truly consists of.
Sorry for the disappointment, but don’t expect huge amount of muscle gain in a short time period. Those guys you see walking around with muscles on top of muscles have one of two things going for them: one, they’ve been lifting weights for YEARS, or two, they’re on steroids. You’re either going to need patience or short cut it while putting your health at risk.
Building muscle is HARD work and it takes time and dedication to get those magazine bodies that you dream off. Forget all the “how-to-get-big-in-two-weeks” ads and articles that you see. And don’t waste your money on supplements that claim to increase your size quickly. Stick with patience, hard work, and good nutrition. You want to gain the muscles as healthy as you can without hurting yourself.
Shoot for one to two pounds of muscle a month. Some may even suggest that one pound of muscle a month is pushing it. One pound a month is a PERFECT goal. If you could get two pounds in, great! When you start pursuing any more than two pounds a month, then you’re pushing it and may not even achieve it.
Aiyo A. Jones, M.S.
NCSF-Certified Fitness Trainer
http://www.21dayhealthchallenge.com