How do I build muscle fast? This is one of the most common questions among gym-goers across the globe and there seems to be a different answer everywhere you look. The goal of today’s article is to explain scientifically the ideal way to pack muscle onto your body in the most efficient way possible. Read on to find out how to optimize your workouts to build muscle mass faster.

When dealing with the question of how to build muscle quickly, there are a few major topics that should come to mind and today we’ll tackle two of them. These topics are the process of protein synthesis and the frequency of your workouts. Let’s take a closer look at each one.

Protein Synthesis

If you’re new to the health and fitness industry or you haven’t done a whole lot of research, the term protein synthesis might sound very foreign. Simply put, protein synthesis is the process by which your body builds muscle. Similar to the way your metabolism controls the rate at which you burn calories, protein synthesis controls the construction of muscle in your body. Without the process of protein synthesis, muscle building would be impossible.

For the average individual who isn’t supplementing with steroids, the process of protein synthesis begins the moment your body recognizes strain on its muscle fibers. Protein synthesis can last anywhere from 24 to 48 hours, typically peaking around 24 hours and then slowly diminishing until the next time that particular muscle is worked out again. Once protein synthesis in a muscle ceases, your muscle will no longer grow bigger or stronger.

To take advantage of the protein synthesis process and build muscle quickly, you will want to work out your target muscle group once every 24 to 48 hours to keep your muscles in a constant state of PS. This is where the very common idea of rest days every other day comes from. This takes us right into the next topic.

Workout Frequency

Now that you have a basic understanding of protein synthesis, it’s important to time your workouts to keep the process of protein synthesis going indefinitely. Many people tend to split their workouts up by muscle group. Eg. Legs on Monday, Chest on Tuesday, Shoulders on Wednesday, etc. However, taking protein synthesis into account, following that workout split is actually quite inefficient. If you perform leg day on Monday, your legs would be ready to workout again on Wednesday but wouldn’t be targeted until a week later, 5 days after protein synthesis has stopped working in your legs.

The most efficient way to manage workouts to maximize muscle and strength gains is to either do a push-pull split, or a full-body split where you’re hitting each muscle group every other day. By adopting one of these two types of splits you will keep your body in a constant state of protein synthesis and will always be building muscle.

There are more ways to help your body build muscle faster and we’ll tackle those in our next post. However, if you’re optimizing your workout frequency to take advantage of the process of protein synthesis, you’re well on your way to building a lot of muscle mass.

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