How To Regain Muscle Mass: 6 Everyday Habits To Do After 60

6 Everyday Habits To Regain Muscle Mass After 60, Fitness Expert Says

Your independence and overall well-being depend on them!

By Alexa Mellardo/ Published on November 10, 2022 | 6:00 AM

This article is a repost which originally appeared on Eat This, Not That!

Edited for content. The opinions expressed in this article may not reflect the opinions of this site’s editors, staff or members.

Key Points

‧ Sarcopenia (muscle loss) is a common ailment in the elderly.

‧ Performing and tracking regular weight training efforts can help to prevent and even reverse muscle loss.

‧ Include stretching in your weight training program for faster recovery and to avoid injuries.

Growing older doesn’t only mean pesky gray hairs and sneaky wrinkles shocking the heck out of you when you look in the mirror. There are a lot of changes your body endures underneath the surface—one of them being the loss of lean muscle mass, also known as sarcopenia. Staying on top of your muscle mass is the name of the game as you age. In fact, your independence and overall well-being depend on it! That’s why we’re here to share exactly how to regain muscle mass after 60 with expert-backed tips.

According to Harvard Health Publishing, you can lose anywhere from 3% to 5% of your muscle mass every decade after your 30th birthday. If you don’t do anything to build up and maintain your lean muscle mass, sarcopenia could cause a decline in mobility. It can also make you feel weak, heightening your risk of suffering from falls, fractures, or other injuries. Needless to say, there’s no better time than the present to take action and give your daily routine a much-needed facelift.

We chatted with Maggie Priore, a personal trainer on Fyt, the biggest personal training service in the nation that offers in-person or virtual expert training, who walks us through the top daily habits to regain muscle mass after 60. It’s time to listen up and take some notes!

1. Start strength training ASAP.

Let’s get real: Strength training is king—especially when it comes to building and preserving your muscle mass. Priore dubs it “the most important habit you can develop to increase muscle mass at any age.”

Performing exercises that have “progressive overload,” which means bumping up the intensity of the movement by slowly increasing the time, number of reps, or weights, helps you build back muscle mass. According to Priore, “Other benefits include having more energy throughout the day, added prevention of arthritis (and other ailments we are more at risk for when we get older), improved posture, and better flexibility.”

If you’re a newbie to strength training, work it into your fitness routine two to three times a week for 30 to 45 minutes.

2. Set strength training goals.

Now that we’ve established just how necessary strength training is, let’s talk about setting goals. When kicking off any health and fitness regimen, it’s essential to provide yourself with small goals. Another key tidbit? Be patient, because it’s all a process!

According to Priore, “Setting too large a goal or expecting to make huge muscle gains after only a couple of weeks can lead to discouragement. It takes time to regain muscle.” She suggests writing down the goals you’d like to achieve in one month, three months, and six months. Once each period comes to a close, note what you succeeded at and what you can work on. Every time you reevaluate your progress, tweak your goals as you see fit.

3. Stretch it out.

Stretching helps you avoid sore muscles and injuries. It’s a necessity—not a question—to perform a solid warm-up and cool-down routine for every workout you do. In addition, Priore explains, “On days when you aren’t strength training, spending a little time stretching will help improve posture, eliminate back pain, and improve flexibility.”

4. Focus on low-impact cardio.

Okay, we can’t say enough good things about strength training, but let’s not forget to show low-impact cardio some love, too. Carving out time for low-impact cardio workouts like walking, using the elliptical, swimming laps, or hiking your favorite trails is incredibly beneficial. How so? Priore says this form of exercise can aid in fat loss and toning your entire body. Low-impact cardio is a stellar choice to incorporate into any regular fitness rotation, so get started pronto.

5. Increase your protein intake.

Bumping up the amount of protein you consume comes with a number of health benefits. Priore tells us, “Not only [will it] help you regain muscle mass, but [it will] also help promote weight loss. A person trying to increase muscle mass should have .5 to .8 grams of protein per pound of body weight a day.”

6. Make rest a top priority.

You may not know this, but getting enough solid sleep is just as important as staying on track with a healthy diet and workout routine. “Active adults should get at least seven hours of sleep a night,” Priore explains, adding, “A good night’s sleep gives your muscles time to recover from workouts and other activities. When you sleep, your muscles can rebuild, and you will have better energy for your next workout.”

 

 

 

 

What Happens To Our Muscles As We Age?

By Beth Bradford/Sept. 25, 2022 9:00 pm EDT

This article is a repost which originally appeared on Health Digest.

Edited for content. The opinions expressed in this article may not reflect the opinions of this site’s editors, staff or members.

Our Takeaways:

· Adults over 65 should engage in resistance training at least twice a week to stave off the effects of sarcopenia (age related muscle loss).

· Age related muscle loss is more pronounced in men.

· Increased inactivity combined with hormonal decline accelerates sarcopenia.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends adults over 65 devote at least two days a week to strength training. That’s because our muscles lose both size and strength over the years, according to Better Health. The muscle fibers themselves get smaller and we have less of them. It takes longer for us to replace muscle tissue, and it’s often replaced with tougher tissue. Our nervous system also changes with age, which means that we lose muscle tone and the muscles themselves can’t contract as well. This can put us in a vicious cycle where our muscles get weak, we’re too tired to exercise, then we don’t want to exercise (via Healthline).

According to Cleveland Clinic, we begin losing muscle mass in our 30s, but muscle loss accelerates after the age of 65. In fact, this age-related decline in muscle mass is more pronounced in men, according to a 2014 article in Sports Health.

The consequences of muscle loss

We need to keep muscle as we age to limit the risk of sarcopenia, which is the medical term for this age-related muscle decline, according to Cleveland Clinic. Sarcopenia is the main contributor to older adults falling and losing their quality of life. It prevents seniors from performing daily activities and living comfortably on their own. People who have sarcopenia have poor balance, walk slowly, and have problems climbing stairs.

Not only does sarcopenia reduce the quality of life, but it also reduces life span (via Healthline). Much of the muscle decline in older adults comes from reduced physical activity, less protein in the diet, inflammation from injury or illness, or stress from chronic diseases. As we age, we also have lower levels of hormones that maintain muscle mass and bone, such as testosterone and estrogen (via 2014 article in Sports Health). The good news is that we can make changes to slow and even reverse this muscle decline, according to Better Health.

How to prevent age-related muscle decline

Even if someone is already experiencing muscle loss, muscles can still respond well to strength training, according to a 2014 article in Sports Health. Adults up to 90 years old have even improved their strength. A 2022 review in Frontiers in Sports and Active Living found that strength training is best to combat sarcopenia. The researchers recommended methods like suspension training to activate core muscles. They also suggested low weights with low reps and short breaks for seniors.

Because poor nutrition can contribute to age-related muscle decline, Cleveland Clinic suggests adding 20 to 35 grams of protein to each meal to maintain muscle mass. However, the 2014 article said more research was needed on how nutrition affects sarcopenia specifically. Therefore, experts suggest for seniors to add vitamin D and long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids to their diets in order to retain muscle.

 

Sleep Health Is Associated With Physical Frailty in Older Adults

July 11, 2022

Julia Bonavitacola

This article is a repost which originally appeared on AJMC

Edited for content. The opinions expressed in this article may not reflect the opinions of this site’s editors, staff or members.

Our Takeaways:

· Better sleep will reduce the chance of becoming more frail in advanced age.

· Men and women appear to have different risk factors concerning bone and muscle loss.

· Those with more consistent sleep profiles also reported functioning better during the day in areas of alertness and cognitive function.

A study found that having a better sleep health composite score was associated with a lower risk of physical frailty, with men and women possessing different risk factors.

A study published in Sleep Health found that there was an association between healthy sleep in multiple dimensions and the risk of becoming physically frail. The risk was different in men and women.

The study took place in Taiwan and data were obtained from the Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Aging (TLSA), which includes patients 60 years and older. Patients who were younger than 65 years and/or were living in a long-term care facility were excluded from this study. Patients with missing information or other covariates were also excluded.

Modified definitions of frailty under the Fried criteria were used for this study. Sleep measures were self-reported using the 5 sleep health dimensions in the SATED model: sleep satisfaction, daytime alertness, sleep timing, sleep efficiency, and sleep duration. Physical activity was assessed by frequency of engaging in gardening, walks, bicycling, jogging, hiking, and other outdoor physical exercise.

There were 2015 participants for this study, of whom 9% were considered frail. The mean sleep health composite score was 2.51; the most prevalent good sleep health dimension was daytime alertness (91%) and least prevalent was sleep efficiency (11%).

Participants who were frail scored significantly lower on the sleep health composite compared with participants who were not frail, and significantly fewer frail participants indicated satisfaction with sleep, being alert during the daytime, and having adequate sleep duration.

The adjusted logistic regression analysis demonstrated a significant association between frailty and the multidimensional sleep health composite (odds ratio [OR], 0.57; 95% CI, 0.49-0.68). The effect remained significant after adding comorbidity, cognitive function, pain, depressive symptoms, drinking, smoking, and exercise to the model (OR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.64-0.94). Individuals who scored 1 point higher on the sleep health measure were approximately 22% less likely to be frail.

The multidimensional sleep health composite effect on frailty was significant in both female (OR, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.48-0.72) and male (OR, 0.54; 95% CI, 0.39-0.75) participants. A significant effect was only observed in women (OR, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.63-0.98) after adjusting for comorbidities.

The adjusted logistic regression analysis found that sleep satisfaction (OR, 0.34; 95% Ci, 0.24-0.48), daytime alertness (OR, 0.21; 95% CI, 0.14-0.31), and sleep duration (OR, 0.50; 95% CI, 0.34-0.74) were associated with frailty. When considering individuals’ health, only daytime alertness remained as a significant association (OR, 0.46; 95% CI, 0.29-0.75).

Sleep satisfaction (OR, 0.29; 95% CI, 0.19-0.44), daytime alertness (OR, 0.29; 95% CI, 0.18-0.47), and sleep duration (OR, 0.48; 95% CI, 0.30-0.78) were associated with frailty in women but were no longer significant when adding health and risk behaviors to the model. Sleep satisfaction (OR, 0.47; 95% CI, 0.24-0.94) and daytime alertness (OR, 0.10; 95% CI, 0.05-0.21) were associated with frailty in men, although only daytime alertness remained significant after adding health and risk behaviors to the model.

There were some limitations to the study. The cross-sectional design of this study could cause reverse causality. The investigators used self-reported responses to construct an adopted frailty index due to constraints of archival data. Napping, which is often associated with frailty, was not found in the TLSA data set, and therefore couldn’t be tested. Sleep disorders can also increase the risks of frailty but were not available in the TLSA data set.

The researchers concluded that the first empirical evidence of sleep health being an early risk factor of frailty was demonstrated in the study.

Reference

Chen TY, Lee S, Buxton OM. Multidimensional sleep health is associated with physical frailty in a national sample of Taiwanese community-dwelling older adults: sex matters. Sleep Health. Published online July 3, 2022. doi:10.1016/j.sleh.2022.05.003

How it works: The protein that stimulates muscle growth

Research findings may help identify drug targets for neuromuscular disorders

Date:  April 27, 2022
Source:  University of Houston
Summary:  Using genetic approaches, researchers have demonstrated how a certain protein is involved in skeletal muscle growth. The findings open new avenues to develop drug targets for neuromuscular diseases and other pathological conditions.

This article is a repost which originally appeared on ScienceDaily

Edited for content.

Our Takeaways:

· Consuming specific proteins can accelerate muscle growth

· Protein TAK1 (Transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β)-activated kinase 1) helps with immunity and recovery

· Current research in TAK1 focuses on preventing muscle wasting from disease or sarcopenia

In the gym, you are not just pumping iron, you are oxygenating muscle cells which keeps those muscles healthy, strong and growing — a process called hypertrophy, or an increase in muscle mass due to an increase in muscle cell size. Conversely, under the covers, lounging, your muscles may begin to atrophy, or shrink.

Scientists understand that a few signaling proteins are activated in various conditions of muscle atrophy and hypertrophy, but they have been stumped about the role and mechanisms by which TAK1, a protein that regulates innate immunity and the proinflammatory signaling pathways, regulates skeletal muscle mass, until University of Houston researchers began exploring.

“We demonstrate that supraphysiological activation of TAK1 in skeletal muscle stimulates translational machinery, protein synthesis and myofiber growth,” reports Ashok Kumar, UH College of Pharmacy Else and Philip Hargrove Endowed Professor and chair, Department of Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences, in Nature Communications.

Using genetic approaches, Kumar and research assistant professor Anirban Roy demonstrated that TAK1 is indispensable for maintaining healthy neuromuscular junctions, which are involved in transmitting nerve impulses to skeletal muscle and allow muscle contractions.

“Our findings demonstrate that targeted inactivation of TAK1 causes derangement of neuromuscular junctions and severe muscle wasting, very similar to muscle wasting observed during nerve damage, aging and cancer cachexia. We have also identified a novel interplay between TAK1 and BMP (Bone Morphogenetic Protein) signaling pathway that promotes muscle growth,” said Roy.

Nutrients, growth hormones and weight training all result in an increase in skeletal muscle mass in healthy individuals. Conversely, many disease conditions often lead to a loss in lean muscle mass. Understanding the mechanisms regulating protein and organelle content is highly important to identify drug targets for various muscle wasting conditions and neuromuscular disorders.

The team also reports that activation of TAK1 in skeletal muscle beyond normal levels can prevent excessive muscle loss due to nerve damage. Loss of muscle mass has a devastating impact on standard-of-care treatment during aging and terminal illnesses, such as cancer, COPD, kidney failure and in many genetic neuromuscular diseases.

“Recognizing the impact of TAK1 signaling in supporting muscle growth, our research opens up new avenues to develop therapies for these and many other pathological conditions and improve quality of life,” said Roy.

Future studies will investigate whether the activation of TAK1 using small molecules is sufficient to promote muscle growth and prevent atrophy in the elderly and various disease states.

Story Source:

Materials provided by University of Houston. Original written by Laurie Fickman. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:

Anirban Roy, Ashok Kumar. Supraphysiological activation of TAK1 promotes skeletal muscle growth and mitigates neurogenic atrophy. Nature Communications, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-29752-0

The High-Level Athletic Workout Program for All Levels | Muscle & Fitness

Workout Routines

This High-Level Athletic Program Is Built for Athletes of All Levels

Don’t shy away from intimidating-sounding, polysyllabic exercises and just do curls.

This article is a repost which originally appeared on Muscle & Fitness

Edited for content.

Our Takeaways:

· There’s a workout for every level of fitness and goal

· Training four days a week allows for optimal rest and recuperation

· Age related muscle wasting (sarcopenia) can be prevented with resistance training

What’s your reason for training? Are you active with multiple sports looking to improve performance? Or are you the weekend beer league warrior who doesn’t want to lose a step to the younger guys but also doesn’t want to be dragging himself out of bed in DOMS-induced agony for the following week? Or maybe you just don’t want to be winded climbing a flight of stairs.

Whether Hardcore bodybuilding or powerlifting programs aren’t your thing or Eastern European sounding exercises intimidate more than they entice you to try, there’s a workout for you that’s advanced but not impossible, and can still provide the necessary gains to your training goals.

One worth checking out is this four-day a week training program for someone of any level of experience or ability that will help you feel strong and more athletic. This high-level athletic workout program will help you build muscle without feeling like a bodybuilder, give you better energy, and have you moving better through whatever life brings.

High-Level Athletic Workout Program Principles

Your program consists of two pairs of alternating upper- and lower-body workouts. Your upper-body muscles train while your lower body recovers, and vice versa. Four training days allows for plenty of rest, plus room for your other athletic or recreational pursuits. Any good program should deliver results, allowing you to get more out of life, without missing life by spending all your time in the gym. And that’s what aim to accomplish with this routing. We start our workouts with the more challenging exercises and work our way through a deliberate progression of priorities.

Each workout starts out with a power movement. You might hear words like power or explosiveness and think you’re in the wrong place with the wrong program, but hear me out. Power isn’t reserved for Sunday Night Football linebackers and 20-year-old athletes. As we get older we progressively lose muscle mass, strength, and the ability to express strength quickly, aka power.

We don’t lose these qualities as much due to getting older as we do through disuse. Use it or lose it. We’re misled to think training strength and power increases injury risk, but by not training for these qualities, we grow weaker and less powerful, potentially leading to greater injury risk over the long run. We want to be able to retain our strength and our ability to express power as we get older. Whether to enjoy our favorite sports or protect ourselves from harm.

We focus on building strength with exercises like squats and deadlifts. We gain strength by focusing on heavier weight and lower reps. We focus on using weight we can control with good form though safe range of motion. Sets of lower reps help us train our nervous system to recruit more muscle fibers efficiently, making us stronger. Being strong has limitless practical uses in life.

Next we use exercises and rep ranges focused on building muscle. Age-related muscle loss — called sarcopenia — has a strong relationship with early mortality. You’re more likely to sustain a serious fall injury with less muscle. More muscle feels good, even for women who won’t be able to gain so much muscle they resemble bulky bodybuilders. Having more muscle can enhance confidence, sense of well being, and the process of strength training has a strong relationship with better physical and mental health. You’ll focus on sets of 8-12 reps. While it’s true you can build muscle with a wider range of reps, 8-12 is most time efficient.

We finish your workout with a stamina building, low-impact exercise. This enhances your work capacity for your training, sports, and life. Pushing a sled, while challenging, can be a fun way to complete a workout, while providing joint-friendly training that supports your cardiovascular health.

High-Level Athletic Workout Program Q and A

How long should I do this program for?

Program hopping is one of the surest ways you won’t see the gains you expect when you start a routine. Think of it like trying to chase a bunch of cats at the same time — you’ll quickly realize you have no idea which direction you should go next. Commit to a minimum of 12 weeks on this program, but you can progress for significantly longer if you find you’re consistent, progressively getting stronger, and most of all, you’re actually enjoying the program. You don’t “adapt” to strength training in the way we once believed and the results don’t diminish over time. What does happen, however, is that those major gains you made early on as a “newbie,” begin to level off over time and experience and repetition — you can’t expect to make the same muscle and strength improvements at the same rate forever — you’re now getting closer to your genetic potential ceiling.

How do I progress this program?

We can add sets, reps, or weight. We can shorten rest breaks between sets. We will certainly see you improve technique and range of motion. Always adding sets becomes time prohibitive and always increasing reps starts to get out of the target rep ranges for our key goals. If you find you’re easily performing the top reps in the assigned rep range with a lot of gas in the tank, add a little more weight to the bar. Don’t add so much you can’t reach the assigned reps at the bottom of the rep range. Every time it again gets easy to do the top number of reps, add more weight.

What should I do for recovery?

Massage guns, cryotherapy, and biohacking might sound enticing, but good old nutrition, sleep, and hydration are the keys to recovery and maximizing program results. Focus on getting 1 gram of protein per day per pound of lean body mass. This means taking a rough estimate of your body fat percentage(no you don’t need to pay money to test it) subtract that from your weight, and eat this number in grams of protein each day. Overall calories needs will vary by individual but aim to fuel yourself to perform. You’ll see your best performance results if you aren’t concurrently trying to diet aggressively. The increase in metabolic rate from the training and recovery may lead to some fat loss anyway. If you’re otherwise pretty active, you’ll want to ensure you have carbs in your diet. Carbs are a better fuel for athletic performance and active lifestyles. Low carb diets don’t optimize athletic programs and lifestyles. You’re probably ok on hydration, but it never hurts to drink a little more water each day. Clean urine is a good sign. Cloudy dark yellow urine means your probably dehydrated.

Can I substitute exercises?

Sure. Especially if your gym doesn’t have the specific equipment. Try to switch to something similar and not just switch because you’re avoiding something you don’t like. If chinups are way outside your current capability and there’s no assisted machine, it’s OK to do cable pulldowns. If there’s no sled and turf, go do sprint intervals on a treadmill or air bike. Try to retain as much of the challenge and spirit of the program as possible and not remove the challenges that will lead you to your best progress.

Should I do cardio?

You can only recover from so much training volume. If you’re also actively involved in sports, hiking, endurance activities like long distance running, or have a highly physical job, extra cardio might be overkill. Use your best judgement on how much added training volume you can manage, but with the strength and performance focus of this program, it isn’t optimal for chasing both these goals and serious fat loss. This program would serve as an excellent basis for staying strong while losing body fat, but you’re not focused on making significant improvements to strength.

For more on the routine, please visit The High-Level Athletic Workout

How Much Muscle Can You Gain in a Month?

How Much Muscle Can You Gain in a Month?

Written by Daniel Preiato, RD, CSCS on February 2, 2021 — Medically reviewed by Daniel Bubnis, M.S., NASM-CPT, NASE Level II-CSS

This article is a repost which originally appeared on Healthline

Edited for content.

When looking to gain muscle, it’s no secret that exercise and proper nutrition are key.

Additionally, numerous factors contribute to the rate of muscle gain, including your training experience, sex, age, and the type of exercise you do. As such, you may wonder how much muscle you can really gain in a month.

This article covers how much muscle you can gain in a month, including how to get started and supplements that may be worth taking.

How much muscle can you gain?

In most cases, gaining muscle is a slow, gradual process, and it can take years rather than months to see sizeable results.

That said, beginners and some intermediate lifters may be able to see small changes after just a few months of intense training.

Though it’s nearly impossible to determine exactly how much muscle you can gain in a month, some studies can give you a good idea.

One study in 30 college-aged men with previous training experience observed a 23% increase in vastus lateralis size — one of the leg muscles — after 6 weeks of purposeful resistance training.

However, it’s important to note that this muscle growth was largely attributed to increases in water and glycogen stores, which is the stored form of carbs.

Similarly, one small older study observed a 5.6% increase in muscle size after 21 weeks of strength training in 8 non-strength-trained athletes, while 8 strength-trained athletes experienced less growth.

This suggests that trainees without prior strength training experience have a greater potential for muscle gains than athletes with training experience. What’s more, your genetic makeup may also mean you respond better to muscle growth stimulus.

While data is limited on exactly how much muscle you can gain in a month, these studies suggest that short-term muscle growth is modest in natural athletes.

Summary

Though data on the specific amount of muscle you can gain in a month is limited, select studies suggest that new trainees can yield noticeable muscle gains in less time than those with resistance training experience.

How to get started

When looking to gain muscle quickly, there are a few factors you can focus on to get the most efficient results for your efforts.

High intensity resistance exercise

Arguably, the most important factor is to focus on high intensity resistance exercises in the 8–12 rep range.

These include compound movements like variations of the squat, bench press, deadlift, overhead press, snatch, and clean and jerk. These work multiple muscle groups at once, thus improving exercise efficiency and stimulating muscle growth.

In addition to compound exercises, include various isolation exercises to target specific muscle groups. Unlike compound exercises, isolation exercised target one muscle group at a time, providing maximal stimulation and growth potential.

While cardiovascular exercise is important for overall health, it does not play a major role in muscle gain.

Ultimately, it may be helpful to consult a certified trainer to help you put together a suitable exercise program.

Proper nutrition

Another significant component of gaining muscle quickly is proper nutrition.

For the best results, it’s recommended that you eat 10–20% more calories than your metabolic rate, which is also known as your total daily energy expenditure. This means consuming slightly more calories than you burn, as gaining muscle is an energy-expensive process.

This is often referred to as bulking and sometimes accomplished using a “clean” or “dirty” approach depending on your dietary choices and dedicated time for the process.

In addition to a calorie surplus, it’s important that you ensure a sufficient protein intake of 0.7–1 gram per pound (1.6–2.2 grams per kg) of body weight, as protein serves as the major building block of muscle.

You may want to seek advice from a registered dietitian for further nutritional guidance.

Summary

Two important factors when looking to maximize short-term muscle gains include high intensity resistance exercise and proper nutrition that prioritizes a calorie surplus and adequate protein.

Different populations

One of the main factors in the rate of muscle gain is your training age, or how long you’ve been training.

Two other important factors to consider are age and sex, which can also greatly affect muscle building.

Beginners

When just getting started with strength and hypertrophy (muscle building) training, you have great potential for muscle growth.

This is because training is a new stimulus, and as your muscles are worked, growth occurs to prepare them for future training.

That said, muscle growth is still limited during the initial stages of resistance training, while most of your strength gains are due to neural adaptions. This means that as you train, your brain gets better at recruiting muscle fibers to contract during a particular exercise.

Therefore, if you’re a beginner to resistance training, you’re unlikely to see any sizeable muscle gains in your first month of training, even if you’re gaining strength.

Intermediates

After training consistently for at least 1 year and grasping the fundamental movements, you move toward the intermediate phase of training.

This tends to be where trainees spend the most time, with some never progressing onto the advanced phase.

During the late–beginner and early–intermediate training phase, you have the most potential for muscular growth, as you have moved past the neural adaptation phase.

At this point, you can proficiently perform most movements and stimulate significant muscle growth.

Advanced trainees

The advanced phase of training takes a significant amount of time and effort to reach, usually at least 2 years for even the most gifted athletes.

At this point, most trainees have achieved most of their muscle and strength gains, and new muscle mass is hard to come by.

Progressing as an advanced trainee often requires advanced training techniques that provide maximal muscle stimulation.

Even in the best-case scenario, natural advanced trainees may not see more than a few pounds of muscle gain per year.

Men

In general, men have a few advantages over women when it comes to gaining muscle.

According to both older and new research, men tend to have larger, more numerous muscle fibers, allowing for overall bigger muscles and increased strength potential.

What’s more, men have higher levels of testosterone, the major circulating male sex hormone that’s responsible for male characteristics like muscle development, body hair, and deepening of the voice.

Considering these factors, men tend to gain more muscle than women over a month’s time.

Women

Women are at a slight disadvantage when it comes to quick muscle and strength building due to genetic and hormonal differences.

That said, women have an advantage over men when it comes to exercise fatigue and recovery, as they’re often able to handle more exercise volume and recover quicker.

This is mainly due to higher levels of estrogen, one of the primary female sex hormones, which is thought to have a protective effect on skeletal muscle.

Thus, although men may gain muscle at a faster rate than women, women appear to recover from exercise more efficiently, potentially allowing them to handle more training volume over time.

Older adults

Muscle and strength loss, also called sarcopenia, is one of several factors associated with the aging process in both men and women.

Fortunately, resistance training has been shown to slow, or even slightly reverse, this effect in older individuals.

While the rate of muscle gain tends to be slower in the aging population, improvements in muscle strength and functional mobility are still seen. This stresses the importance of following a regular exercise regimen that includes resistance training as you age.

Summary

The rate at which you can gain muscle varies greatly between populations, with beginners and intermediates seeing significantly more progress than advanced trainees.

Do supplements help?

During your quest for muscle gains, various supplements may enhance your results.

While many supplement companies claim their products can help you pack on muscle quickly, only a few types of supplements boast extensive scientific backing.

Here are the muscle-building supplements with the most scientific support.

Protein powder

Protein powders are the isolated form of various types of protein, including milk proteins like whey or casein or plant proteins like pea or brown rice.

When looking to promote muscle gain, getting enough protein is essential, as it provides the building blocks of skeletal muscle.

Experts recommend getting 20–40 grams of a high quality protein, meaning protein that contains all essential amino acids and is easily digested, within 2 hours of resistance exercise to maximize muscle gains.

While protein powders are not necessary, they can serve as an excellent tool to help you meet your daily protein needs, especially if you have trouble reaching them through your regular diet.

Creatine

Creatine is another highly researched supplement shown to promote muscle gains by increasing exercise capacity during high intensity training.

It plays a vital role in the phosphocreatine system. This system provides energy for muscle contractions that last less than 15 seconds, such as when you start sprinting or complete a heavy lift.

Creatine is found in foods like salmon and beef, but supplementing with it is an easy way to maximize its stores in your skeletal muscle and may be a worthwhile strategy when you’re looking to promote muscle gains.

HMB

Beta-hydroxy beta-methylbutyrate (HMB) is a metabolite — an end product of metabolism — of an essential amino acid called leucine. It has shown some promise in promoting muscle and strength gains when combined with resistance training.

Supplementing with HMB appears to increase muscle protein synthesis and reduce muscle protein breakdown, leading to gains in muscle mass. However, these benefits have mainly been observed in new trainees and the elderly.

This means that HMB may be worth trying for those who are new to resistance training, as well as older adults looking to retain muscle mass, but not for those with resistance training experience.

Summary

While numerous supplements claim to boost muscle mass, only a few are backed by research. The main ones include protein powders, creatine, and HMB.

The bottom line

How much muscle you can gain in a month varies greatly depending on factors like your sex, age, and training experience.

While select populations can see noticeable muscle gains in just 1 month, achieving significant changes in your body’s musculature takes effort and time — often several years rather than months.

To maximize your muscle gains, follow a consistent, high intensity resistance training program, stick to a proper diet that includes sufficient calories and protein, and consider taking select supplements.

It’s best to consult a qualified healthcare professional before starting an intense resistance training regimen, especially if you have any underlying ailments or injuries.