You owe muscle mass to the adaptation process of your body: If you challenge it beyond its previous performance limits, it reacts by building muscle. The right intensity of exertion is therefore crucial for a fast muscle gain. You can find out here what you should pay attention to.

Muscle gain: How long does it take to achieve initial success?

The right combination of strength training and recovery phases is essential for fast muscle gain. Because if you train sufficiently, micro cracks will appear in the muscle, which you will often feel as sore muscles afterwards. In the recovery phase after strength training, your body repairs the damaged fibres and thickens them to strengthen them for similar stresses in the future. For beginners, even a low level of stress leads to this adjustment reaction. So with strength training you can make significant progress relatively quickly: The first successes are already visible after about six weeks.

Build muscle fast with the right training plan

The first step to building muscle is to create a training plan. As a beginner, it’s best to train twice a week; advanced exercisers can train up to five times a week. In between are rest days. Ideally, you should train for 30 to 60 minutes per session. In a training diary you can record the muscle groups trained, the type of exercise, the weights, the number of repetitions and sets as well as the duration of the training. Repetitive, regular and varied training is the quickest way to visibly build muscle. You should therefore change your training plan every six to eight weeks. Different training equipment, grip techniques or a different tempo provide variation: this gives the muscles new stimuli

Accelerate muscle building and train correctly

High training intensities are required for significant muscle growth. After a training session, the strained muscles should be given a rest period of 24 to 48 hours. During this time the stressed muscle regenerates, its nutrient depots are replenished and it grows. After about two to three days it can be trained again. Tip: Regeneration can be accelerated with a cool-down of light endurance training as well as a circulation-enhancing shower after weight training. Sufficient relaxation and at least seven hours of sleep per night also help to gain muscles fast.

Fast muscle gain for beginners: whole body training

If you train twice a week as a beginner, you should use all muscle groups equally during each training session. If you train three times a week or more, you can use other muscle groups with each training session: So each muscle can regenerate sufficiently until it is used again.

Training with your own body weight does not require muscles in isolation, but always whole muscle groups. Examples of simple and effective exercises with your own body weight are:

1. Push-ups
2. Lunges
3. Squats
4. Sit-ups

For the movement tempo you can use the following guidelines for push-ups: Take two to four seconds for the downward movement, one to two seconds for the holding position and two to four seconds for the upward movement. An intensive set with a maximum of 15 repetitions is enough to stimulate muscle growth; over time you can increase to three to six sets per exercise. Between the sets, there is a break of one to three minutes.

For advanced athletes: Gain muscles fast with free weights

Advanced users can also choose free weights after professional guidance, which stimulate several muscles at the same time: Dumbbell training and cable pulls are also suitable for regular training at home. All movements should always be performed slowly, completely and with strength instead of swing. The optimal weight is important: it should provide an effective stimulus to the muscles without increasing the risk of injury. You determine the appropriate weight by the number of possible repetitions: If you do less than eight repetitions, the weight is too high for you. If you can do more than 12 repetitions, you can choose a heavier weight.

Promote muscle building: With the right nutrition

The nutrition is also important for muscle building. The basic nutrients for muscle growth are proteins. Especially beginners who want to build muscles quickly are dependent on a sufficient protein supply: Recommended is between 1.3 and 1.5 grams of protein daily per kilogram body weight (for advanced strength athletes up to 2 grams of protein per kilogram body weight). Optimal is a combination of animal proteins from fish or low-fat dairy products and vegetable proteins from soya, cereals, legumes and nuts.

Complex carbohydrates provide you with energy and increase your performance for strength training. Make sure you eat wholesome, preferably unprocessed food that provides your body with sufficient fibre, vitamins and minerals. These nutrients are mainly found in whole grain products and fresh fruit and vegetables.

With the INTEST.pro from BIOMES you can easily obtain a comprehensive overview of your current nutrient supply. Simply send a small stool sample to our laboratory: the analysis of your sample provides a detailed insight into your individual calorie utilization, vitamin synthesis, immune strength and the general distribution of bacteria in your intestine. Based on this analysis you will receive individual recommendations.