How to gain muscle mass quickly: 8 essential tips

Building muscle mass is a process that takes time, regular training, and a proper diet. That said, it's entirely possible to gain muscle mass quickly, as far as possible.

In this text, we will see how to do this, step by step.

Based on the latest scientific literature and the opinions of the most respected people in the field, here's an estimate of how much muscle mass you can realistically gain and how long it will take:

This means gaining up to 12kg in the first year if you are a man and 6kg if you are a woman, considering the best possible scenario , where you are training and eating correctly.

Also remember that gaining muscle mass is different from gaining body weight through fat or water retention. Most people trying to gain muscle mass will gain not only muscle tissue but also some fat and water retention, which increases the total body weight gain possible.

For some people, the above estimate may be a bucket of cold water that serves no purpose other than to demotivate them. However, it's quite the opposite. Having a healthy estimate serves two fundamental purposes:

1 – So that you have realistic expectations

You know what happens when someone tries to build muscle faster than they legitimately can? They fail and then wonder why it's not working as quickly as they thought it would.

Then they'll jump from workout to workout, diet to diet, and useless supplement to useless supplement, hoping to finally find the missing link that will make it happen. But they'll never find it. They'll just keep wasting their time, effort, and money searching for something that doesn't exist.

2 – So that you don’t accumulate fat unnecessarily

While gaining muscle mass is a slower process than most people would like, the same cannot be said about gaining fat.

In an attempt to gain muscle mass quickly, it's not uncommon to make dietary slip-ups that will cause you to gain fat quickly , which can cause you to gain weight on the scale, making you think you're making progress.

However, the more fat you gain, the harder it will be to lose it in the future without jeopardizing your own muscle mass. In other words, having a healthy estimate of how much muscle mass you can gain can prevent this kind of scenario.

Below are the 9 most fundamental rules on how to gain muscle mass quickly:

Gaining muscle mass without eating enough calories is extremely difficult (if not impossible) because the body needs additional calories to recover and build muscle mass.

In addition to the calories needed to keep the body functioning, the process of building muscle requires an energy surplus; an excess of calories that goes beyond what the body needs simply to survive.

When we train, we cause micro-tears in muscle fibers; to repair and make these fibers stronger and larger, in addition to protein intake, the body needs a constant flow of energy that comes from calories in the diet.

Without this caloric surplus, the body may not have the resources necessary to gain muscle mass, and may even use existing muscle tissue as an energy source, which goes against the goal of muscle gain.

To find out how many calories you need to consume, you can use the calorie calculator on our website.

It may seem obvious, but it's not: if you want to gain muscle mass quickly, then you should invest most of your energy in weight training, which is the activity with the greatest potential for this goal.

In other words, it will be quite difficult to build muscle mass if you dedicate most of your time to another physical activity (such as aerobics or highly aerobic in nature).

It's not that other physical activities are bad or that doing aerobics is bad, but our recovery capacity is finite. You need to choose your main goal and dedicate most of your energy to that activity.

Unfortunately, it's not possible to maximize muscle building while also running half marathons and competing in martial arts.

Training with maximum load is crucial for gaining muscle mass because applying an overload that exceeds the muscles' current capabilities is the key factor in stimulating adaptation. This is precisely why you're training with weights.

When muscles are exposed to loads that are heavier than they're used to, this causes microtears in the muscle fibers. The body responds to these microtears by repairing and strengthening the muscles, a process that not only repairs the damage but also increases muscle size and strength to better handle that load in the future.

This cycle of stress and recovery, when accompanied by adequate nutrition and rest, results in muscle hypertrophy, or muscle growth. Using maximal loads maximizes this mechanical stress on the muscles, which is one of the main stimuli for muscle growth.

Just remember that training with maximum load does not mean training with poor execution or putting yourself at risk, but simply using the maximum load you can use for a given number of repetitions, maintaining good execution and safety.

Focusing solely on gaining muscle mass is more effective than trying to gain muscle and lose fat simultaneously due to the conflicting energy demands of these goals.

As stated in the first item of the text, gaining muscle mass requires a caloric surplus, where you consume more calories than you burn, to support muscle growth and recovery.

On the other hand, fat loss requires a calorie deficit , where you consume fewer calories than your body needs, forcing it to burn stored fat for energy. Attempting to accomplish both processes simultaneously can result in limited progress on both fronts, as the body struggles to adapt to metabolically opposing goals.

There are situations where both objectives are possible, but this is a topic for another text and is still not the most efficient way to achieve progress in both objectives.

Training close to muscle failure, but without consistently reaching it, is considered more effective for hypertrophy than training to failureon every set because it allows for a higher training volume and more efficient recovery.

Training to total muscle failure can frequently lead to excessive fatigue, to the point of affecting recovery from future sets of the same workout, which can affect how much volume you can use with quality, which, in turn, will affect your results.

By working close to failure, the muscles still receive the necessary stimulus to grow, but without overloading the nervous system and without interfering with future training sets.

Simply put, training near failure means training until the last repetition of the exercise is too difficult, but you can still complete it. Training to failure means training until you can't perform any more repetitions.

Consuming protein is essential for anyone looking to gain muscle mass because proteins are the building blocks of muscle. Protein provides the amino acids necessary for muscle recovery and growth.

Protein intake recommendations can vary based on several factors. However, a common starting point suggested by many experts is to consume at least 1.6 to 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day for individuals engaged in regular resistance training aimed at gaining muscle mass.

This ensures that the body has an adequate supply of amino acids to optimize muscle recovery and growth.

Training each muscle group twice a week can be more effective than once a week due to better workload distribution and an optimized recovery and muscle growth window.

When a muscle is trained, it undergoes a repair and growth process that is most intense in the first 48 to 72 hours after exercise. By training each muscle twice a week, you maximize this critical period of protein synthesis more than once, which can lead to faster gains.

Progressive overload is essential for gaining muscle mass because it follows the principle that for muscles to grow, they need to be constantly challenged beyond their current limits.

This means always trying to progress in a training variable, that is, trying to increase the amount of weight lifted, the number of repetitions, or the number of sets over time.

Otherwise, without this progression in stimulation, the muscles become accustomed to the stress imposed on them, and growth is halted, as the body constantly seeks balance to conserve energy and avoid unnecessary wear and tear. Therefore, progressive overload ensures continued progress in hypertrophy by systematically increasing the challenge imposed on the muscles.