How many pounds of muscle can you gain in one year? Gaining muscle is different for everyone and varies from person to person, affected by many other factors like hormones, environment, diet, exercise, sex, age, and calorie intake. People who are fitness fanatics always want to gain muscles fat. Thus, it is always a curiosity for them how many pounds of muscle can you gain in one month or a year.
Gaining muscles through all-natural processes takes time and grueling programs. It takes commitment, patience, hard work, and consistency. There is an estimate that you can build 8 to 15 pounds of muscles in one year but it varies by person.
How Muscles Grow
Muscles grow as the result of hypertrophy. Muscle Injury happens when you exercise with heavyweights causing the fibers in your muscles to go through trauma. When resistance training injures your muscles it also activates the satellite cells outside the muscles. Satellite cells repair the damage by joining together and as the result the size of the muscle increases. You can add the most pounds of muscle in one year by repeating this process rapidly. Thus, recovery becomes as important as training and dieting.
Factors that Affect the Growth
Certain factors affect the growth of muscles including certain hormones, age, sex, exercise routine, diet, genetics, and environment.
Testosterone, human growth hormone, and insulin growth factor play a role in how many pounds of muscle you can gain in one year. These hormones improve how the body processes proteins, prevent muscle loss, and activate the satellite cells to initiate the repair of injured muscles. Also, they promote muscle growth and protein synthesis, and enhances tissue growth.
There are three body types Mesomorphic, Ectomorphic, and Endomorphic. Mesomorphic body types tend to be more muscular and build muscles quickly. Ectomorphic body type look lean and struggle to build muscle. Endomorphic body types look round and curvy and can use resistance training to build muscle but also need cardio to look their best. Each body type requires a different diet and workout program to maximize how many pounds of muscles you can grow in one year.
Other factors that can affect the speed of muscle growth include genetics, type of employment, environment, emotional health, diet, and exercise routine. A person who works in the office must workout harder than a person who does construction work. The type of employment not only affects the workout but it also affects recovery time and your diet. How many pounds of muscle you can gain in one year requires a big picture approach. Just focusing in on the workout and ignoring the other factors prevents you from maximizing how many pounds of muscle you can gain in one year.
The Best Approach
Diet: The overall diet and protein intake play an important role in how many pounds of muscle you can grow in a year. While calories store fat, protein builds muscle. Because protein builds muscle, when you break down your muscles you will need more protein to repair and grow bigger. Industry experts suggest that you eat more protein from sources that also contain amino acid leucine. Common sources of leucine include beef, lamb, pork, poultry, fish, eggs, milk, and cheese. Also, when maximizing how many pounds of muscle you can grow in one year, experts suggest eating a range of 1.2-1.7 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, or 0.5 to 0.8 grams per pound of body weight.
Exercise: If you want to maximize the pounds of muscle you can gain in one year, you must use the best workout program for your body type. Also, select a workout schedule that gives you the optimal recovery time. The recommended average training session duration to see results is 20 to 30 minutes two to three times a week for beginners. Intermediate and advanced fitness enthusiasts must adjust their workouts to account for progressive overload and targeting all the muscles during the week. Finally, just as calories increase fat, volume increases muscle. Bigger muscles lift more weights and perform more sets, and reps than smaller muscles.
Experts recommend that you increase volume regularly to surprise your muscles. Weight lifting principles state 8 to 12 reps causes muscle hypertrophy. This guarantees the maximum pounds of muscle you can gain in one year.
Rest: Finally, Rest is important to give muscles enough time to repair themselves and get stronger. According to experts not giving muscles enough time to recover from strength training can slow down the pounds of muscle you can gain in one year.
In conclusion:
How many pounds you can gain in one year varies for each person. You must consider many factors but the main three include your workout program, diet, and rest and recovery. All the factors such as hormones you can address with your workout, diet, and sleep. Technology can help you simplify the process. You can use fitness calculators to plan and track your results.
The best approach is to use scientifically proven methods to gain muscle and then adjust them according to how your body responds to them. For example, hypertrophy happens when you lift 70% of your one rep max for 10 repetitions. However, you may be above the average or beneath the average which will cause you to lift less or more than the average. Over time experience will give you the knowledge you need to get the results you are looking for. Of course you can always spend a few dollars on a fitness trainer to help you get their faster. Once they show you the ropes then you can do it yourself.
Written by: Talha Ahmad RDN
