The 5 Principles of Muscle Growth

We all ned to grow muscle. At a younger age we don't have the muscle to help our metabolism and make everyday living easier, at an older age we start losing muscle.

They say muscle growth is simple, just not easy. It simply requires a lot of good old-fashioned hard work.

But, if you just focus on completing 3 sets of 10 reps on a variety of exercises, the odds are you won’t have much muscle to show for all your hours in the gym.

Muscle growth requires checking several boxes — with both nutrition and training — to help your body break down muscle tissue and build it back. It’s the main reason most people don’t see dramatic changes. They do some of the work, but not all of it.

If you’re looking to add more muscles, here are the principles you must master.

Principle 1: Muscle Growth Requires Calories

The quest for more muscle starts with nutrition. Gaining muscle fast requires being in a calorie surplus (eating more calories than you burn).

This means eating is a priority, but you don’t need to go overboard. You can only gain muscle so fast, and a modest calorie surplus works just as well as “eating everything in sight” and leaves you with a lot less fat to lose later.

So, how do you determine the caloric “sweet spot” where you maximize muscle and minimize fat gain?

To start, you need to figure out your average daily calorie intake, or maintenance calories. https://www.calculator.net and https://www.mydr.com.au are free online calculators that will help.

Once you know your maintenance calories, it’s just a matter of adding the right amount of extra calories to get your body weight to increase gradually.

An extra 500 calories a day is a good starting point, but the real question is if you’re gaining weight. If you want to minimize fat gain, a good rule of thumb is keeping weight gain around 500 grams per month.

Why 800 grams a month? Considering muscle gain is a slow process, any more than that and you’re probably adding too much fat. However, any slower and you’re not gaining muscle as fast as you could be either.

If you find that you’ve gained 1 kg in a week. Cut your calorie intake by about around 200-300 calories per day.

On the other hand, if the scale says you’re barely gaining at all, then increase your calorie intake by 200- 300 calories per day and continue to track your progress.

The calorie game plan is simple: assess, adjust, and repeat.

Principle 2: Optimize For Protein

On top of dialling in your calorie intake, you need to make sure you’re eating enough protein. Research suggests that the perfect range for building muscle is anywhere from 0.6- to 1-gram of protein per pound of your goal body weight.

That’s most of the dietary battle. If you’re consistently hitting your calorie and protein goals, then you’ve got your nutritional bases covered for gaining muscle.

Whether you’re building muscle or losing fat, it’s important to think about eating for the body you want, not the body you have.

Principle 3: Train each muscle 2-3 times per week

You can gain muscle only hitting each muscle once per week, or by working each muscle even more frequently. But, if you’re trying to maximize muscle gain, 2-3 times per week seems to be your best bet.

The cellular processes of building muscle are only humming away at high speed for about 24-48 hours after you finish a workout.

So, if you only train a muscle once per week, your muscles are only spending about 1/7-2/7 of their time in “growth mode.”

Remember, more isn’t always more with muscle gain. If all it took to gain muscle was tons of reps, there’d be a lot of people w