How Long Does It Take to Build Muscle

Most people work out to get fit and many people equate fitness with muscle gain.

Although we’re all willing to put in the effort to get fit, many of us would at least like an idea of how long we’ll need to work to start seeing results.

In this article, we’ll explain how long it takes to build muscle as well as the different factors that change that answer.

How Do Muscles Grow

Whenever you exert yourself sufficiently during a workout, your muscles experience some degree of trauma or damage. This triggers nearby cells, known as satellite cells, to signal to your brain that your muscles need resources so they can heal. Your body then sends amino acids, oxygen, and other nutrients to the damaged muscle so it can rebuild blood capillaries, restore muscle fibers, and strengthen the entire itself.

In other words, every time you damage your muscles by overexerting them, your body gives those muscles the resources they need to grow bigger and stronger in hopes that they won’t get damaged next time.

These are the basic principles behind muscle growth exertion, nutrition, and rest.

If you’re looking to develop big, strong muscles, you’ll have to balance these three factors.

What’s The Best Way To Build Muscle

When it comes to building muscle, there are many factors that come into plan. Four of the main ones though are as follows:

• Genetics
• Nutrition
• Exercise
• Rest

Some people have a natural ability to gain muscle faster than others, and some people have to work really hard to see any real results. You either have good genetics for muscle building or you don’t. Even if you have “bad genetics” all hope is not lost, you just must worry about the other factors you can control to pack on the muscle you want.

Since you can’t control your genetics, we suggest that you don’t worry about them too much. You have to deal with reality on reality’s terms and recognize that working out is work. Some have to work more than others to get gains but everybody has to work for them.

Instead, focus on what you can control.

The three things you can control are diet, exercise, and rest.

Diet is important because your diet controls the nutrients your body has to work with on the processes of healing and maintaining muscles. For good muscle growth, you’ll need to consume the right amount of protein and amino acids. In order to heal, you’ll also need the right amount of vitamins and minerals. If you’re not giving your body enough of these things, it will be hard for you to see any muscle growth at all.

Without the right nutrients, your body will be unable to heal or maintain any new muscle. There are a variety of health and fitness supplements that can help you get the nutrition you need from protein shakes to daily nutrient packs.

Exercise is also important, you can’t just eat and magically grow muscle. If you’re not doing enough exercise, then your body won’t need rest and recover. If it doesn’t need to recover, it won’t try to make your muscles bigger or stronger. It’s important to understand just smashing your body every day, all the time, and going to “failure” every set is not effective either… There’s a difference between the trauma caused by healthy exercise and the trauma caused by an injury.

Injuries will set you back.

Finally, there’s the need for rest. Rest is essential because you need to give your body time to heal. If you don’t give it enough time to recover, you’re just working out already-damaged muscle tissue.

This will cause the tissue to become further damaged as well as hurt your form and slow your progress. At times the hardest part for athletes and fitness enthusiasts is to have enough self-control and discipline to NOT workout and allow their body to properly recover… I know it is for me. 

It’s always best to give your body enough time to heal between workouts before stressing those muscle groups again.

How Long Does It Take To Build Muscle

So how long does it take to build muscle?

The answer is, “it depends.”

It depends on three very important variables:

1. what you’re eating
2. how long you’re resting
3. how intensely you’re training

Now, the biggest impact and the best results come from how consistent you’re doing all three of those things. It’s impossible to explain how fast everyone can expect to see muscle gains but many people see a “noticeable difference” after consistently doing these three things after four months.

Remember, what’s considered “noticeable” will change from person to person.

How long it will take you to reach your goals from that point forward is more of a matter of where you’re starting from, what your end goal is, how consistent you are, and how often you have to push through fitness plateaus.

As you start eating right, exercising right, and resting right, you’ll get a better sense for how long it takes you to build muscle mass.

No matter how long it takes you, there are a variety of supplements that can help optimize your nutrition, exercise, and recovery.

What Supplements Can Make Gaining Muscle Easier

Supplements exist to give your body more of what you need. Sometimes what you need is more protein, sometimes you need more energy, and sometimes you need specific amino acids. No matter what you need, 1st Phorm has it.

Here are a couple of types of workout supplements you should consider in order to optimize your muscle gains. But remember, not supplement is magic. 

Pre-workouts – Pre-workouts are a great source of energy and focus. You take pre-workouts so you can have the energy you need to start working out. Great pre-workouts like Project-1 help maximize your pumps, increase blood flow, improve endurance, and increase oxygen and nutrient delivery.

Intra-workouts – Intra-workouts likeIntra-Formance are helpful because they refuel your body mid-workout. That allows you to finish your workout just as strong as you started, maximizing the effectiveness of your time and effort.

Post-workouts – If you truly want to build muscle, from a supplement standpoint this is where you should start. Post-workout shakes are designed to give your body what it needs immediately after putting it through the stress of a hard workout. Phormula-1 and Ignitionwork synergistically to get your body into recovery faster than whole food and anything else on the market. The more time you are recovering and resting, the better your muscle growth you can achieve.

Protein shakes – Protein shakes likeLevel-1 give your body the raw materials it needs to start building and maintaining more muscle mass. If you’re looking to gain muscle mass, the one thing you cannot do is give your body too little protein. That will further slow down the recovery process.

Daily Nutrient Packs – As stated above, if you do not give your body the right nutrients or your body can’t break down and utilize your food effectively, you are severely limiting your results. Micro Factor gives your body all of the essential nutrients it needs every day while also helping to improve gut health and digestion to effectively use those nutrients.

1st Phorm Can Help You Maximize Your Muscle Growth

You will not see muscle growth if you do not eat, sleep, and exercise properly. But you also won’t optimize your muscle growth by doing those three things alone. 1st Phorm’s nutrition supplements can give you the energy, focus, and materials you need for optimal muscle gain.

If you need help with a game plan to stick to with your Training and your Nutrition, download the MyTransPHORMation App to have everything at your fingertips!

Come look at our1st Phorm product line and find which products you think will help you gain more muscle mass.

 

*This post was written by Will Grumke. He is a NASM Certified Personal Trainer, NASM Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist, NASM Certified Weight Loss Specialist, NASM Certified Behavioral Change Specialist, and CrossFit Level 1 Trainer

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