Most of us want to gain muscle as fast as possible and get a ripped physique as we see in the movies.
But the reality is that it’s a challenging and slow process. And it becomes more slow as you gain more experience and do progress.
However, you can speed up the process up to some extent if you do the right things in the right way. Here are the 5 science-based training tips to gain muscle fast backed with researches.
How Fast Can You Gain Muscle?
It depends on various factors like age, genetics, testosterone levels, etc. But to get a sensible estimate of how fast you can build muscle, there’s a model proposed by the famous researcher Alan Aragon.
This model gives a rough estimate that as an average individual, how much muscle you can gain in a month:
| Years of proper training | Category | Muscle Gain per month |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beginner | 1.4-2.0 lbs |
| 2 | Intermediate | 0.8-1.6 lbs |
| 3+ | Advanced | 0.4-0.8 lbs |
In the beginning, you would be able to see fast results. But as you gain experience, the rate of gaining muscle mass will keep on reducing.
Make sure that you’ll get these results only if you’re doing proper training and nutrition, with discipline and consistency. Without that, you can go on for years without any noticeable results.
So, muscle building is a slow process, but you can see major changes if you stick to the process and work smartly. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to achieve maximum muscle-building results your body is capable of.
How To Speed-up The Muscle Building Process
Here are the 5 science-based tips you should apply in your training to gain muscles as fast as possible.
1. Progressive Overloading
To see the maximum muscle growth, this is the most important thing you have to do in the gym. You can’t accept progress by doing the same things over and over.
Your muscles won’t grow unless you force them to grow. And this is where the principle of progressive overloading comes into play.
What is progressive overloading: It’s a method in which you gradually increase the stress applied to your muscles.
No matter how disciplined you are with your training and nutrition, if you are not applying this principle properly, you won’t see better results.
How to incorporate this in your training?
Here are the 3 ways by which you can use this technique effectively.
INCREASE WEIGHT
Try to lift slightly heavier weight than you were lifting in the previous sessions. Don’t increase the load in every other workout as your muscles need some time to adapt to that stimulus.
A simple way to do this…
Let’s say you are able to do a 100 lb bench press for 10 reps easily. Now in the next session, try to lift 110 lb and see how many reps you can clear.
Obviously, your reps gonna be reduced. Now stick to the 110 lb bench press for some time. As you’ll get stronger and able to clear 10 reps with that weight, increase the weight again.
Make sure to lift that weight only with which you can do at least 5 reps with proper form.
DO MORE SETS
You can also increase the load on your muscles by increasing the total number of sets per workout. This can be done in two ways:
- Increase the number of sets for the existing exercise.
- Or by adding one more exercise to your routine.
Doing more sets is also an easy way to increase the overall training volume.
Read more: How Many Sets Should You Do For Maximum Muscle Gain
REDUCE REST BETWEEN SETS
One more way to do progressive overloading is by taking shorter rest in between the sets. This technique is especially good for endurance athletes or the people who want to get lean.
However, if your major goal is to build muscle and increase size, then I don’t recommend this technique for you.
Read More: How Much Rest Between Sets for Muscle Growth
2. Mind-Muscle Connection
You can’t train your muscles effectively if your mind is wandering somewhere else in the gym. For proper activation of the muscles, your mind must be focused on lifting the weights.
In simple words, mind-muscle connection means giving your full focus on the exercise and consciously contracting the muscle.
However, it is not easy to do especially for beginners. But here are the three steps by which you can apply mind to muscle connection during the workout.
Step1: Check your form
Correct form is a non-negotiable thing in weight training. It’s important for proper involvement of the target muscle and also for injury prevention. Though some people ignore it while lifting heavy.
When you lift weights, your body always chooses the easiest way to complete the rep. This may lead to cheating and you compromise with your form.
Let’s take leg press, for example, when you add more weight or try to more reps, you may reduce the range of motion or put extra stress on your lower back, or in the case of bicep curls, you’ll tend to use momentum to lift the weight.
So by doing this, you may be doing more reps or lifting heavier weight. But this is not putting any extra tension on your target muscle. Hence, you won’t experience the expected muscle growth.
Step2: Be mindful with your reps
Now after mastering the form, While completing a set, if you feel that you are not doing all the reps properly or compromising form in the last 2-3 reps, then just reduce some weight. There’s no point in lifting weight in this way.
Use lighter weights and execute all your sets and reps with optimal form. Instead of involving other muscles or joints, feel enough tension in your target muscle. In this way, you will hit the muscle intensely and experience faster muscle-building results.
Don’t just lift the weights, feel each n every rep in your target muscle.
Step3: Use internal focus
During exercise, internal focus means to concentrate on the specifics of that movement. Studies show that you can gain muscle faster with internal focus. This technique stimulates your muscles to a much greater extent and gives you faster muscle-building results.
In 2009, a team of US researchers did a study to analyze this. They divided the test subjects into two groups and measure the muscle activation during lat pulldown.
- Group 1 – They simply instructed to do lat pulldown by just “pulling the weight down”.
- Group 2 – They were strictly instructed to “pull the weight down using their back muscles and feel the tension in your lats”.
Result… There was 20% more muscle activation in the group with internal focus.
Read More: 5 Ways To Improve Mind-Muscle Connection
So, this simple shift in focus increases the target muscle activation and results in faster muscle growth.
3. Train With Enough Volume
Training volume is the product of the number of sets, reps, and the weight you are lifting.
Training volume = Sets x Reps x Weight
Several studies show that more sets mean more training volume which increases muscle hypertrophy and results in faster muscle growth.
A study was done by James Krieger to see how single vs multiple sets affect muscle gain. Results show that more sets per exercise lead to faster muscle gain.
Don’t give it all in single session
Rather than doing all your sets in a single session, train each muscle twice a week. Do about 6-10 main sets per muscle group per workout.
Start with the lower range, and keep increasing as you gain more experience. In this way, you’ll give enough volume to your muscles without any risk of overtraining.
Hence, train each muscle twice a week with roughly 10-20 hard sets per muscle group per week.
How To Gain Muscle Fast: The Takeaway
So this was the article explaining science-based tips to gain muscle at a faster rate. Here are the main points in a nutshell.
1. Don’t try to get strong overnight. Smartly apply the principle of progressive overloading and gradually increase your muscle mass. Increase weight or sets a little bit.. let your body adapt to that.. and just keep going like that.
2. Lift the weight with proper form and feel each n every rep in your muscle. Shift your mental focus to the target muscle.. this boosts muscle activation which leads to faster muscle gain.
3. Ensure you’re providing enough volume to your muscles. Train each muscle 2x a week with about 10-20 main sets/muscle/week.
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