What is the typical rate of muscle gain? Every body responds a little differently to strength training, so the short answer is “it depends.” A review of research on the impact of resistance training on muscle growth found a range of amounts of muscle gained over time.
But in general, the average athlete can expect to gain between half a pound and 2 pounds of muscle in a month of training, according to the American Council on Exercise.
How does muscle growth occur?
If you’ve chosen muscle building as your fitness priority, it’s helpful to understand how your body uses those extra muscles, otherwise you might find yourself doing things that are actually counterproductive to your goals.
In summary, according to research, intense exercise like resistance training activates satellite cells outside your muscle fibers which then multiply and fuse, forming new muscle fibers and repairing old ones.
But this doesn’t happen during your workout: research points out that it happens during the rest period that follows. This is why the mindset that “more is always better” can be counterproductive when it comes to bodybuilding.
The truth is that more stimulus generally causes more results, but only if you also give your muscles enough rest and recovery time between bouts. Otherwise, you’re not giving your muscles time to rebuild.
How to track your muscle gain
Individual strength and hypertrophy – muscle growth – responses can vary greatly, even under the same stimuli. According to research, your age, gender, and training status can all affect your personal muscle gain rate.
So what’s the best way to estimate how much muscle you’ve gained, especially in the face of sometimes conflicting studies on which methods generate the most muscle growth?
The bathroom scale probably isn’t. Water retention, hormonal changes, changes in body fat and even what you ate for breakfast can cause frequent weight fluctuations, notes the Cleveland Clinic, so weighing yourself isn’t always the best way to measure your muscle growth.
Tracking how much weight you can lift is a simple, although less accurate, way to gauge your muscle gains. Although the relationship between muscle strength and muscle size varies from person to person, increasing muscle strength is somewhat correlated with increasing muscle size.
Keep in mind that additional research supports the relationship between muscle density and size, but most people cannot measure muscle density at home.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, a pound of muscle takes up less space on your body than a pound of fat. So even if the scale isn’t moving, tracking the fit of your clothes can also give you an idea of how your body composition is shifting from adipose (fat) tissue to muscle.
If you’re serious about tracking your rate of muscle gain, a flexible tape measure might be just the tool you need. Measure the circumference of the muscles you want to track – for example your upper arms or thighs – at defined points relative to markers such as the crest of your hip or the point of your elbow and the bump at the top of your shoulder.
Write down these measurements and recheck them periodically, making sure you always measure at the same point relative to these markers.
Tips to Encourage Muscle Growth
One way to build more muscle is to add sets: A study comparing the impact of personalized and standard approaches to strength training on muscle growth found not only were tailored programs more effective, but that a moderate increase in the number of sets you perform — by about 20 percent — could promote the most muscle growth.
Other research supports the idea that the number of sets you perform is a good way to track your training volume, or the overall amount of weight you lift, in an effort to build muscle.
Adding workouts for the week might also help. Research suggests that the effects of strength training two or four times a week aren’t much different when overall volume is the same, but adding a workout that increases your volume could promote strength and muscle gains.
Research published in 2018 highlights the importance of allowing each muscle group to rest for at least 48 hours between intense workouts.
Any increase in training frequency or intensity should be gradual so that your body has a chance to adapt. Doing too much, too quickly often results in injury, which will definitely set back your muscle building journey.
Nutrition to Fuel Muscle Gains
It’s not enough to go to the gym to build bigger muscles. Your body also needs the right nutrients, especially protein, to create new muscle tissue.
There’s some debate over how much protein you actually need, as research notes. A systematic review and meta-analysis on the amount of protein needed to maintain muscle mass found that consuming 1.6 grams (g) per kilogram (kg) of body weight was sufficient to maintain and build muscle mass.
Other research highlights that protein recommendations and intake for athletes generally range from 1.2 to 1.7 g per kg – or 2.2 pounds – of body weight. The exact amount you need can depend on factors including whether your workouts are geared toward endurance or strength training.
For most people, the calculation is much easier if you simply convert your body weight to kilograms. For an approximate conversion, divide your weight in pounds by 2.2 to get your weight in kilograms.
For example, if you weigh 150 pounds, that equals 150 ÷ 2.2 = 68.2 kilograms. Your ideal protein intake would therefore be between 1.2 × 68.2 = 81.8 g per day (a lower limit) and 1.7 × 68.2 = 115.9 g per day (an upper limit).
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