Fast ways to gain muscle mass

By PCYC QLD’s State Sport & Recreation Manager, Jay 

So how do we build up our muscles? Muscle hypertrophy, or muscle building, 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 (like the ‘Little Tricks’ below), which then results in an increase in our muscle fibre size, both in length and diameter.

But there are many principles that aid building muscle. Putting some of the below tips into play will help you on your muscle growth journey.

Protein

To increase muscle mass in combination with physical activity, it is recommended that a person that lifts weights regularly eat a range of 1.2‒1.7 grams of protein per kg of body weight per day. For example, someone who is 65kg should be eating between 78‒111 grams of protein a day.

Eat More

In addition to adequate protein, you need more calories. A macro calculator can be used to help you with how many calories are needed each day and will also split it up into the correct Macros (Fats, Carbohydrate, Protein) you need to consume daily.

More Compound

Isolation exercises are fun, but to maximise muscle growth, you want to be doing more compound lifts or multi joint movements. Squats, Deadlifts and Bench will all help you to grow faster.

Little Tricks

Progressive overload, time under tension and lifting heavier weights are all tricks to maximize muscle growth. Progressive overload means doing more over time. You could be adding weight, doing more reps or increasing the tempo. Time under tension means lifting a weight within a certain tempo each rep. With a bicep curl, for example, come up for 2 seconds and down for 3. Lifiting heavier is looking to increase the weight each week on certain exercises.

Recovery

IMPORTANT: Do not look to break your body every day with your workouts. Your body needs recovery to grow so listen to your body and go hard 2‒3 times a week with plenty of rest and at least 8‒10 hours of sleep a night.