Rogers, P. Figure out how long does it take to build muscle. Verywell Fit. Carbone, J. Dietary Protein and Muscle Mass: Translating Science to Application and Health Benefit. Nutrients , 11 5 , Park, Y.

Effects of whey protein supplementation prior to, and following, resistance exercise on body composition and training responses: A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study.

Cleveland Clinic. Wax, B. Creatine for Exercise and Sports Performance, with Recovery Considerations for Healthy Populations. Nutrients , 13 6 , Trexler, E. International society of sports nutrition position stand: Beta-Alanine.

Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition , 12 , Weber, M. The use of BCAA to decrease delayed-onset muscle soreness after a single bout of exercise: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Amino acids , 53 11 , — Contents Why is muscle mass important? Importance of protein for endurance athletes Does running build muscle?

How to build lean muscle Best supplements for muscle growth Meal plan for muscle gain Summary Key takeaways. Why is muscle mass important? Furthermore, studies have also found that muscle mass may help prevent injury, increase bone density, boost metabolic rate, and help maintain overall mental well-being and cognitive function [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ].

Key takeaways Studies have found that muscle mass may help prevent injury, improve sports performance, increase bone density, contribute to metabolic rate, and help maintain overall mental well-being and cognitive function [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ].

While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to muscle growth, certain supplements like Elo Smart Protein , creatine, BCAAs, and beta-alanine have been found to be effective in enhancing muscle development.

References McPherron, A. Show more. Nutrition Sports Performance Endurance Running Cycling Protein. Whether you're a weekend warrior or a professional athlete, optimizing your body composition can do wonders for your health. But how do you know which nutrition approach is best to help you achieve your goals?

From protein to IF, here are 5 nutrition tactics for how to lose fat and gain muscle. Sarah Achleithner. The ultimate guide to ashwagandha lg Ashwagandha is an ancient medicinal herb that is gaining popularity for its ability to alleviate stress and improve cholesterol.

But what else does ashwagandha do, and why should you consider adding it to your supplement routine? Elle Penner, MPH, RD.

The ultimate guide to iron lg Iron is an essential mineral that plays many critical roles in the body, yet certain populations might be at a higher risk for deficiency. Muscle hypertrophy is the increase in growth of muscle cells, and it's a process that's often kickstarted by resistance training.

It's the adaptation our muscles experience from continual exposure to progressively overloaded forms of resistance training, which then results in an increase in our muscle fiber size, both in diameter and length.

Essentially, you need to push your muscles hard, often by lifting heavy loads for reps, stimulating the release of muscle-growing hormones and other metabolites. Our muscles get physically larger through the act of strategically consistent and harder workouts.

Remember, effort is one of the most definitive drivers of muscle gain over time. However, it's just one of the drivers. That effort needs to be coupled with a desire to push your body farther than you might think it's capable of.

This is something called "progressive overload. This doesn't mean going heavier and heavier with the weights in every set and every single workout, because sometimes, that's not possible.

Over-focus on going heavy in every single workout, and you set yourself up for injury and disappointment. No, progressive overload takes place over months and months of working out.

Sure, if you're new to the gym, you may add major pounds to the bench press, partly because you're just learning the exercise. But the longer you're in the gym, the harder it is to make gains. This is why it's incredibly important to have a plan in place and build a framework for your training and nutritional habits that coincide with your goals.

Note, your muscle building strategy doesn't need to be so rigid that it leaves no room for fun. In fact, you can still eat meals you enjoy, and you don't need to spend hours in the gym, as long as when you're training and fueling yourself strategically a majority of the time. The goal is to create a muscle building plan that is realistic for your goals and needs.

The tips below will help you—whether you're a beginner or somebody who's hit a frustrating training plateau—build muscle with a strategic and realistic means. The more protein your body stores—in a process called protein synthesis —the larger your muscles grow.

But your body is constantly draining its protein reserves for other uses—making hormones, for instance. The result is less protein available for muscle building. Shoot for about 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, which is roughly the maximum amount your body can use in a day, according to a landmark study in the Journal of Applied Physiology.

Split the rest of your daily calories equally between carbohydrates and fats. In addition to adequate protein, you need more calories. Use the following formula to calculate the number you need to take in daily to gain 1 pound a week.

Give yourself 2 weeks for results to show up on the bathroom scale. Biceps curls are fun, but if you want to put on muscle, you have to do more to challenge your body. And one key to doing that, says Samuel, is working through so-called "multi-joint" movements.

Instead, you want to do exercises that challenge multiple joints and muscles at once. Take, for example, a dumbbell row. Every row rep challenges biceps, lats, and core if your form is strict. Using multiple muscle groups allows you to lift more weight, says Samuel, a key stimulator of growth more on that later.

And it pushes you to use muscles together, just as you do in real life. Make sure moves like squats, deadlifts, pullups, and bench presses are in your workout to take advantage of that. All will stimulate multiple muscle groups at the same time, and in order to grow, you want to do that.

If you want to build muscle and strength, you have to train heavy, says Curtis Shannon, C. If done right, the stimulus of heavy weight going down with control and going back up will cause greater muscle tear and rebuild.

That means not every set you do should have you pumping out 10 to 15 reps. Yes, high-rep sets can have value, but for multi-joint moves like squats and bench presses, and deadlifts, don't be afraid to do sets of, say, five reps.

That'll allow you to use more weight, building more pure strength, says Samuel. And as you progress, that new strength will allow you to lift heavier weights for more reps. One way you can approach this in your training: Lead off every workout with an exercise that lets you train low-rep.

Do four sets of three to five reps on your first exercise, then do three sets of 10 to 12 reps for every move after that. A study at the University of Texas found that lifters who drank a shake containing amino acids and carbohydrates before working out increased their protein synthesis more than lifters who drank the same shake after exercising.

The shake contained 6 grams of essential amino acids—the muscle-building blocks of protein—and 35 grams of carbohydrates. You can get the same nutrients from a sandwich made with 4 ounces of deli turkey and a slice of American cheese on whole wheat bread.

But a drink is better. So tough it out. Drink one 30 to 60 minutes before your workout. Your body should move every day, but that doesn't mean your workouts should take you to fatigue and exhaustion. Limit your weight room workouts to 12 to 16 total sets of work, and never go beyond that.

This doesn't mean you can't take on a brutal workout every so often. But limit workouts that take your body to its breaking point to three times a week, never on back-to-back days. Research shows that you'll rebuild muscle faster on your rest days if you feed your body carbohydrates. Have a banana, a sports drink, a peanut-butter sandwich.

uilding muscle and losing body fat go hand in hand. You may think you just want to lower your body fat without gaining muscle… but did you know that even a small increase in muscle mass will boost your metabolism?

These tips to gain lean muscle will have you burning more calories at rest, which enables easier fat loss!

Whether you're doing sets of 6 reps or sets of 12 reps, the weights must be heavy enough that you couldn't possibly do more than one extra rep in each set.

Pushing the limits of your strength requires your body to adapt, so this is one of the most important tips to gain lean muscle.

For women, a common reason they are not gaining muscle and losing fat is that the weights they're using are too light for the body to need to change. Men, on the other hand, will sometimes attempt lifting weights that are too heavy, and end up injured before they can get any results.

These examples are generalisations though, and either could happen to anyone. To build muscle and strength, we must challenge ourselves by progressively increasing the weight we lift. For each exercise, find a weight where you can do sets of reps in perfect form.

If you're easily hitting the last few reps of the last set, then it's time to increase the weight! Starting your workout on the isolated weights machines that line the gym floor will hinder your results, as they only work one muscle group at a time. The best way to lose fat but keep muscle is to focus on the large, total-body movements first.

These are also known as compound exercises, as they target several joints at once. Compound exercises include squats, deadlifts, lunges, pull-ups and pushups, and not only are they the most efficient way to build muscle and lose body fat, but they are great for building core strength too.

Instead of seated leg curls and extensions, start with total-body lifts and finish off your workout with the smaller, isolated exercises to target any weaker areas such as your biceps, triceps and abs.

When it comes to cardio, interval training is the best way to lose fat but keep muscle. Interval training will not only help you get fitter and faster, but it will also spike your metabolism. Sprints can be brutal, but they're so quick and effective that once or twice a week is enough to get great results.

Sprints can be done running or cycling outdoors, or on a cross-trainer, treadmill or stationary bike inside. Once you've warmed up, sprint all out for 30 seconds, rest and recover at a very slow pace for 60 seconds, then repeat for minutes.

After a few weeks doing the same exercises with the same reps and sets, our bodies will have adapted to the challenge.

If we don't change things up every weeks, our progress will plateau , and we'll probably lose motivation too! We need to continually surprise our bodies and our minds with new challenges because this is the best way to lose fat but keep muscle.

A new program every month keeps things fresh and exciting as well, so we're more likely to feel motivated to continue training for the long term. Branch Chain Amino Acids BCAA helps us build lean muscle by supporting muscle growth, recovery and repair. BCAA's are particularly useful if you're in a calorie deficit and need a sustained energy source to fuel your training, as these supplements are also a healthy and natural way to boost energy production and reduce fatigue and muscle soreness.

Staying hydrated by drinking water regularly throughout the day will help you feel and perform at your best, but if you want to maintain the muscle you have, build more lean muscle, or just have an easier time shedding body fat, a natural, plant-based BCAA supplement will get you there.

As with any supplement - always check the ingredients for chemical nasties, animal-derived ingredients, fillers and artificial sweeteners.

Starving is out, and thriving is in! It may seem counterintuitive, as it goes against what the media has been telling us for far too long… but if you give your body enough energy, with a balance of carbs, fats and protein - you'll end up leaner, healthier and stronger in the long term.

This is because adequate nutrition balances our hormones and lowers our stress, convincing our bodies that we are not in danger, and there's no need to hold on to extra fat stores.

To gain muscle and lose fat, we must eat enough. As an example, most women require an average of extra calories per day on top of their maintenance calories to provide their bodies with the building blocks to create lean muscle mass. Continue training and see how you feel - it all comes down to trial and error.

If you're always tired, feeling drained, and you're no longer hitting PBs in the gym - you need to increase your calories remember - healthy calories though!

Sui, S. Associations Between Muscle Quality and Cognitive Function in Older Men: Cross-Sectional Data From the Geelong Osteoporosis Study. Journal of clinical densitometry : the official journal of the International Society for Clinical Densitometry , 25 2 , — Pasiakos, S.

The effects of protein supplements on muscle mass, strength, and aerobic and anaerobic power in healthy adults: a systematic review. Vikmoen, O. Strength training improves cycling performance, fractional utilization of VO2max and cycling economy in female cyclists.

Baum, J. Protein Consumption and the Elderly: What Is the Optimal Level of Intake?. Nutrients , 8 6 , Nutrition and athletic performance. Moore, D. Beyond muscle hypertrophy: why dietary protein is important for endurance athletes. Rogers, P. Figure out how long does it take to build muscle.

Verywell Fit. Carbone, J. Dietary Protein and Muscle Mass: Translating Science to Application and Health Benefit.

Nutrients , 11 5 , Park, Y. Effects of whey protein supplementation prior to, and following, resistance exercise on body composition and training responses: A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study. Cleveland Clinic. Wax, B. Creatine for Exercise and Sports Performance, with Recovery Considerations for Healthy Populations.

Nutrients , 13 6 , Trexler, E. International society of sports nutrition position stand: Beta-Alanine. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition , 12 , Weber, M. The use of BCAA to decrease delayed-onset muscle soreness after a single bout of exercise: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Amino acids , 53 11 , — Contents Why is muscle mass important? Importance of protein for endurance athletes Does running build muscle? How to build lean muscle Best supplements for muscle growth Meal plan for muscle gain Summary Key takeaways. Why is muscle mass important?

Furthermore, studies have also found that muscle mass may help prevent injury, increase bone density, boost metabolic rate, and help maintain overall mental well-being and cognitive function [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. Key takeaways Studies have found that muscle mass may help prevent injury, improve sports performance, increase bone density, contribute to metabolic rate, and help maintain overall mental well-being and cognitive function [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ].

While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to muscle growth, certain supplements like Elo Smart Protein , creatine, BCAAs, and beta-alanine have been found to be effective in enhancing muscle development.

Think burpees , side-plank rotations, and mountain climbers. These exercises often get your heart rate going and give a dose of cardio, especially if you do them as part of a HIIT circuit. Over time, you may be able to work your way to the floor.

Most exercises have several modifications. Before getting started, consider doing your own research or schedule a session with a personal trainer who can teach you moves that make sense for you.

Muscle also protects your body from injury and can ease pain by addressing posture or body imbalances. This concept leads to confusion because of the myth that muscle weighs more than fat. But a pound weighs a pound, regardless of what it contains. The process of the body attempting to recover or return to its resting state after a workout produces an extra calorie burn that can last for several hours to more than a full day.

This afterburn effect is known in scientific lingo as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption EPOC. The higher the intensity of your workout, the longer EPOC will last. Although more research needs to be done on this topic, research suggests that increasing your muscle mass may make you less hungry, which could help with weight loss and decrease the risk for developing type 2 diabetes.

If weight loss is your goal, gaining muscle can help you look leaner, burn more energy both during and after exercise, and even potentially change your eating habits.

If we have weak muscles and slump because of fatigue, we might experience achiness or stiffness. If we strengthen our muscles, however, we can hold good posture for longer and stave off pain, according to a study.

Strength training can also correct imbalances in the body like lordosis or uneven shoulders that could lead to discomfort. After age 30, we say goodbye to approximately 3 to 8 percent of our muscle mass per decade, with even more significant losses later in life.

This muscle loss may account for more fatigue, weight gain, and increased risk for fracture. We can ward off age-related muscle loss, termed sarcopenia , with exercise that includes a combo of cardio and strength training.

The benefits of muscle-building transcend giving you an athletic or lean physique. Adding brawn can boost your confidence to do new activities, improve your health, and amp up your life enjoyment as well as keep you feeling agile and able throughout the years.

Jennifer Chesak is a Nashville-based freelance book editor and writing instructor. Our experts continually monitor the health and wellness space, and we update our articles when new information becomes available. Strength training isn't just about vanity.

It can help control weight, stop bone loss, improve balance, and boost energy levels. Learn weight-training…. Learn about the best pre-workout nutrition strategies. Eating the right foods before a workout can maximize performance and speed up recovery.

A study at the University of Texas found that lifters who drank a shake containing amino acids and carbohydrates before working out increased their protein synthesis more than lifters who drank the same shake after exercising. The shake contained 6 grams of essential amino acids—the muscle-building blocks of protein—and 35 grams of carbohydrates.

You can get the same nutrients from a sandwich made with 4 ounces of deli turkey and a slice of American cheese on whole wheat bread. But a drink is better.

So tough it out. Drink one 30 to 60 minutes before your workout. Your body should move every day, but that doesn't mean your workouts should take you to fatigue and exhaustion. Limit your weight room workouts to 12 to 16 total sets of work, and never go beyond that. This doesn't mean you can't take on a brutal workout every so often.

But limit workouts that take your body to its breaking point to three times a week, never on back-to-back days. Research shows that you'll rebuild muscle faster on your rest days if you feed your body carbohydrates.

Have a banana, a sports drink, a peanut-butter sandwich. As we mentioned earlier, one major key to muscle-building is pushing your muscles to handle progressively greater challenges. In general, most gym-goers think that means you must lift heavier in every single workout.

That's simply not feasible, says Samuel. Don't simply aim to add weight on every set of every exercise, says Samuel. But do work to improve in some way on every set of an exercise. On the next set, instead of adding weight, do the same 10 reps, but do them with even sharper form.

Sometimes, staying with the same weight for all four sets on a day can provide plenty of challenge, says Samuel, especially when you're improving your execution every set.

There are other forms of progressive overload too. You can decrease the rest time between sets, going from, say, seconds to 90 seconds, or you can up the reps, or you can even do more sets.

I may deadlift pounds today four times and not be able to add weight. But if I can squeeze out a fifth rep, or even do my four reps with more control than I did last week, I'm on the right track.

One sometimes-forgotten way to progressively overload your muscles is to leave them under more of something called " time under tension ". When your muscles are working, whether they're under a bench press bar, or whether your biceps is working to curl a dumbbell upwards, they're under "tension" from the weight.

You can feel this too: If you stand holding dumbbells at your sides, your biceps aren't under tension. The moment you begin to curl them upwards, you'll feel them flex against the "tension" of the dumbbells. Experienced lifters often use this tension to their advantage.

Instead of just lifting and lowering a weight on say, that biceps curl , they lift with a specific tempo. They might curl up as fast as they can, for example, and then lower the weight for three focused seconds with good form on every rep.

Doing this leaves your muscles under tension for longer than a typical set, in which you might lift and lower the weight without any specific timing.

And that extra time under tension during a set can help spark muscle growth. Note that you can do this on almost any strength exercise.

It doesn't work for explosive exercises, like kettlebell swings, snatches, and cleans. But squats, deadlifts, curls, pullups and pushups and many other moves can be tweaked to add more time-under-tension, pushing your muscles farther on every rep.

Sleep is often the forgotten variable in the journey to muscle. You spend plenty of time training, but what you often don't realize is this: When you're asleep, your muscles are recovering and your body is growing.

It's also during this period that muscle-growing hormones are secreted. You know by now that, ideally, you want to get eight to 10 hours of sleep. That, of course, doesn't always happen, but you want to do what you can to maximize the quality of the hours you do get, if you can't hit 8 hours.

So think about your sleep setup if you're serious about muscle. Try to go to bed at the same time every day and try to rise at the same time every day.

And sleep in a fully dark, fully quiet cool room. All these little things optimize sleep quality and that can have an underrated effect on your ability to build muscle.

The answer depends largely on how much muscle you already have. Probably half that, if you're moderately trained," says Brad Schoenfeld, P.

Once you're experienced, you'll see those muscle gains slow down. Some high level natural bodybuilders can hope to gain one or two pounds a year. The key is to continue working to improve to build the strength and muscle to the best of your ability, and appreciating strength training for its other benefits as you enjoy the journey.

After all, they pack as many as 2, calories into one serving. And downing that much sugar can give you an upset stomach and diarrhea. And by using protein shakes.

Look for whey protein powders at nutrition stores. Combine one scoop of the powder with the following ingredients and blend for a homemade muscle-building pre-workout shake:.

Stats per shake: calories, 27 gram protein, 45 grams carbohydrates, 6 grams fat.