Other types include using medicine balls or resistance bands, or body weight-bearing exercises such as pushups, squats, or yoga. Resistance training requires our muscles to contract to lift a heavy object against the pull of gravity.

The more weight we contract against, the faster our bodies burn through reserves of adenosine triphosphate ATP , a molecule that carries energy to cells. As we lift weights or do other demanding exercises, our ATP reserves are replenished through a complex, coordinated metabolic and chemical response that cascades through the entire body, including sparking short-term chemical changes in the DNA of muscle tissue that make them more tuned to specific proteins supporting sugar and fat metabolism.

Fielding and his colleagues have found that the best recipe for improving physical function and avoiding disability is a combination of walking and resistance training.

In the NIA-supported research, older adult volunteers participate in small group exercise sessions led by a physical fitness trainer. Several of these studies were conducted at Tufts, but the program has since expanded to nearby Boston-area gyms and community senior centers.

Rather, participants use different types of ankle weights and dumbbells, or adapt exercises as needed to use their own body weight. When you do resistance or strength training, very important chains of molecules that relay signals between cells are affected, and these changes linger in the body for hours after exercise, building up a cumulative, positive effect.

Even a low-intensity strength and walking program has substantial benefits. The group sessions also encourage bonding and accountability among participants, which helps keep them motivated and sticking with it, according to Fielding and his colleagues. While strength training is great for otherwise healthy older adults, what about those who are overweight or living with obesity?

NIA supported scientist Dennis T. Villareal, M. Villareal and his colleagues work with older adults with obesity, including volunteers from a nearby Veterans Affairs hospital and others recruited from the surrounding community.

Their study participants are still functionally independent but are at risk of losing that ability. Villareal has been studying the nexus of muscle and metabolism for nearly 25 years.

Pepper Older Americans Independence Centers. He helped with an exercise training study in frail adults over age 75 and was impressed with how it was possible for people to get motivated to exercise even at an advanced age.

After losing about 20 pounds in recent years thanks to a lower calorie diet combined with exercise , he himself experienced the benefits of weight loss, including more energy and improved physical fitness. As people lose weight with diet and aerobic exercise, they have an increased risk of losing lean muscle mass and bone density, both of which are important for everyday activities and avoiding falls.

Combining the two types of exercise had additive effects so they were better together than separate. One of the big rewards for Villareal and his team is observing participants who make positive changes and stick with them. The weight losses combined with building muscle mean they feel better and become more independent and mobile.

Villareal notes that starting slow and attending regular group classes are important steps to building confidence and connections among participants. The value and joy from group exercises is that participants motivate and encourage each other.

Once the study is over, they are advised to continue to incorporate exercise into their regular routines. They often want to participate in other studies and become cheerleaders for the program. In the future, Villareal hopes to explore the possibility of larger, longer-term studies to see if the intervention can prolong physical independence and delay the need for nursing home admission.

To help overcome these types of barriers, a team of NIA-supported scientists from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is researching innovative ways to bring resistance training to the homes of older adults who are trying to lose weight.

Investigators Barb Nicklas, Ph. Just as bodyweight won't cut it forever, you'll need to keep challenging your muscles and switching things up to keep seeing progress. Aim to work a little harder each time you hit the gym and consider switching up your routine entirely every four to six weeks.

When it comes to gaining weight, the amount of food you eat is the most important thing to consider. Eating more calories than you burn will lead to weight gain. But the type of weight you gain—muscle vs. fat—can be heavily influenced by the quality of your calories.

With any weight gain , you can expect to add a combination of body fat and lean tissue. But with a strategic dietary approach, you can increase the amount of potential muscle gain and limit excess body fat where possible.

Gaining fat only requires calories, but gaining muscle requires more. To promote muscle growth you'll need:. Step one before heading into any goal around changing your body composition should involve assessing your starting body fat percentage.

This metric can also influence how successful you may be in gaining more muscle over fat. If you are lean from the start, you may be more likely to put on muscle than those who are less lean.

Also, if you have excess body fat, to begin with, it might be worth starting with a cut to lose some body fat before thinking about going on any bulking diet. For newbies, a higher starting body fat percentage might not be as detrimental, since they might be able to lose fat and gain mass at the same time.

However, this process would ultimately require a calorie deficit or weight loss diet and not a traditional muscle gain diet. The scale alone won't help you decipher between fat and muscle, so the best way to assess how much muscle you are gaining is through body composition testing.

This can be through an at-home device like a handheld reader or body fat scale, or through a paid service using skin-fold calipers, BodPod, hydrostatic weighing, or DXA scans.

Each method varies slightly in terms of accuracy, but the most important thing to remember is to use the same method of testing initially and when interpreting results.

This will ensure you have the most accurate assessment of any changes in your body over time. DXA scans are thought to be the most accurate measurement of body composition and many companies will provide multi-location testing options.

DXA scans provide detailed imaging for muscle and fat storage throughout your body, showing you exactly how much muscle and fat you have and where. They also assess bone density. You might have heard the common saying that it takes cutting 3, calories from your diet to lose a pound of fat.

Many see this and assume eating the same amount will result in one pound of muscle gain, but calorie control for weight gain is not the same as cutting calories for weight loss. While it is easy to simplify the calorie equation and assume excess calories automatically turn into weight gain, it's not a clear-cut as you'd think.

When you don't get enough calories from food, your body is able to release stored calories for energy typically in the form of body fat and this process does not require a ton of energy.

Weight gain on the other hand does require energy, and gaining muscle requires more energy than fat. Turning food into muscle requires more metabolic processes than just releasing body fat stores for fuel.

In addition, protein provides less than half as many calories per gram as fat - fat provides nine calories per gram, compared to protein which provides only four calories per gram. It has been documented in numerous research studies that somewhere between 2, to 2, excess calories are needed to produce one pound of lean mass.

However, this amount can vary depending on your fitness level, body composition, and diet. For most adding to calories per day is sufficient in promoting healthy weight gain, but others may require much higher intakes.

Learn more about how many calories you need each day to gain weight. In addition to higher calories and strength training, protein intake is also essential for muscle growth. Protein supplies the essential amino acids needed to create muscle through muscle protein synthesis MPS , and cannot be replaced by any other nutrient for this purpose.

Muscle growth occurs whenever the rate of MPS is greater than the rate of muscle protein breakdown. Muscle protein breakdown occurs during strength training and when protein intake is not high enough to support daily needs. MPS occurs during periods of rest when excess protein is available.

There is a lot of argument and misinformation in the diet and fitness world surrounding how much protein is necessary to support lean mass , but here is what we know so far:. Your protein needs are most closely related to how much lean mass you have and how much you use your muscles.

Protein is not just for building mass; it also helps maintain existing muscle, so the more muscle you have and the more you put wear and tear on them, the more protein you need. Common bodybuilder advice recommends you eat at least 1 gram of protein per pound of total body weight, but the research varies on this topic depending on age, fitness level, and overall body composition goals 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , This suggestion is supported by recent studies indicating at least 0.

Based on the existing research and nutrition practices, you need roughly one gram of protein per pound of lean mass for maintenance.

Excess protein is needed to support muscle protein synthesis. If there isn't enough protein available, muscle growth is severely limited.

Thus, additional protein intakes are needed to gain muscle. A narrative review of the research and some smaller studies suggest that higher protein intakes between 1 to 1. Based on cumulative research and expert recommendations, as high as 1 to 1. Good nutrition can support your muscle-building efforts in a number of ways.

By balancing your bulking macros correctly, you can limit the amount of body fat you gain and promote more muscle mass. In addition, many vitamins and minerals play a direct or supportive role in muscle gain. A dirty bulk typically involves eating a lot of extra calories from high-calorie foods to promote quick weight gain.

A clean bulk uses a more moderate increase in calories in addition to healthier food choices. A dirty bulk can seem more appealing to many because of the less restricted dietary choices and potential ability to gain weight more quickly. However, research suggests that a lean bulk may lead to better body composition, in the end, resulting in less body fat gain A lean bulk also supports more nutritious food choices which can benefit muscle growth in other ways.

Interestingly, lean individuals who are new to weight training may be able to grab the benefits of a dirty bulk without the potential fat gain. See the full comparison of dirty bulk vs. clean bulk diets. The best foods for muscle growth are not drastically different from the foods that make up a generally healthy diet, with the exception of higher calories and protein.

Thus any diet high in lean proteins, healthy fats, whole grains, and nutrient-dense fruits and veggies is a great start. However, some foods may offer unique muscle-building benefits like animal proteins and dairy. Animal sources of protein tend to be more protein-dense than plant-based proteins — providing more protein per calorie.

They also rank higher in terms of bioavailability and digestibility, meaning you absorb this type of protein more efficiently 51 , 52 , Also, all animal proteins are also complete proteins, supplying all the essential amino acids needed at once, and many plant proteins are considered incomplete or lacking in key amino acids.

While there is no research to suggest that plant-based diets are deficient in amino acids overall, consuming more complete proteins and adequate protein in the hours following a strength training workout may have positive muscle building benefits Dairy is also a great match for muscle growth since it is a natural source of the hormone, IGF-1 55 , So opting for protein-rich dairy options like cottage cheese, greek yogurt and milk might offer some advantages.

It is well established that higher protein intakes are needed to gain mass , but what about fat and carbs? Fat is a beneficial addition to higher calorie diets because it is the most energy-dense macro - providing more than twice as many calories per gram as the other macros.

This also means that fat provides calories for less volume of food, which can also benefit those who have a hard time eating enough healthy food in a bulking diet. In addition, fat plays a key role in hormone production. Fat is easily stored as body fat in a calorie surplus, and according to research, some individuals may be more prone to fat storage The type of fat you choose also matters, with some research suggesting unsaturated fat may be less likely to promote fat storage and offers health benefits Carbs, on the other hand, are slightly more difficult to convert to body fat than dietary fat and contribute to muscle gain in unique ways.

Higher carb intake promotes increases in glycogen storage, which supports your training and may also help with muscle recovery Moreover, carbs in addition to protein generate an insulin response which is beneficial to weight gain Keep up this great momentum and crush all your nutrition goals with our app.

Download the Trifecta App! Enter your email address to see your results. Want even more nutrition support? Get personalized muscle gain macros and daily macro tracking with the Trifecta app. When you eat and what you eat can also impact muscle gain.

Research doesn't show any major differences in metabolism or blood sugar control, whether you are eating three meals or six small meals a day, but getting enough calories can be a challenge for some and skipping meals creates a missed opportunity for calories and nutrients you need.

Also, some eating windows are more essential than others for gains—the most notable time period for this is pre-workout meals and post-workout meals. Pre and post-workout nutrition is dependent on when you are training. If you tend to workout first thing in the morning, not having anything before a workout means you are in a fairly fasted state—since the last meal you had was probably dinner the night before.

For some, this can negatively impact your output and endurance, for others, they have no issue. However, some research indicates pre-workout meals might also help curve some muscle damage by supplying additional protein So if you are training in the morning, consider playing with a couple of pre-workout meal options.

Most probably don't have a few hours to eat and digest a full meal, and the closer you consume something before training, the more quick-acting you'll want. Try a combination of simple carbs and protein and see if it impacts your training for the better.

Great options include a sports drink with protein powder, chocolate milk, peanut butter toast, and yogurt with honey. If you're finding eating too close to training causes nausea, try juice, sports gels and gummies, and other simple sugars.

If you choose to work out fasted, especially in the morning, your post-workout recovery becomes even more important. While the supposed "anabolic window" may not be as tight as we once assumed most can benefit from adequate recovery eating within a few hours of training and throughout the day , prolonging a fasted state even further likely won't do you any favors for muscle gains.

Aim to get about 30 grams of quality protein after a strength training workout to supply your muscles with the amino acids they need to promote MPS.

Great options include protein shakes and bars, greek yogurt, and full meals. If you aren't training in the morning, the timing of your last and next meal will help you determine pre and post-nutrition. What about protein absorption?

For years there has been much debate around how much protein you can absorb and utilize from one meal—with some research suggesting that no more than 25 to 30g of protein can be absorbed in one sitting 65 , However, this is dependent on the type of protein and individual factors.

Not to mention, they are numerous benefits of protein consumption beyond just MPS, so you should not feel limited to that amount. A more recent review suggests that to maximize anabolism, 0.

So a pound adult 91kg should eat 36 grams of protein per meal or at least grams of protein per day. What we can learn from this research, is that spreading out your protein intake throughout the day, and timing it around training needs, is likely an effective approach to supporting more MPS.

And if you are only eating a few times a day or less, you might be limiting yourself. Carb timing might also have advantages. Carb cycling is a fairly new concept that has limited but promising research. Simply put, carbohydrate cycling is the act of timing your carbs around the days and hours your body needs them most.

This nutrient timing approach is thought to better support training and recovery and optimize your nutrition intake 68 , Essentially, eating more carbs around the time you lift and fewer carbs when you're at rest.

How you manage stress also affects muscle building. According to Pearce, stress also affects your workouts. She recommends taking it easy on those high stress days and the days you have a hard time getting enough sleep. When it comes to maintaining muscle mass, you can follow a "use it or lose it" mentality.

Like muscle building, fitness and nutrition are vital to maintaining lean body mass. Regular strength training is key to maintaining muscle mass.

Like muscle building, you need to stress the muscle to maintain strength. Yoga and Pilates are also muscle building workouts that help maintain lean body mass and improve flexibility. I promise you will not bulk up in a short period of time. to name a few!

Good nutrition is also important for maintaining muscle, especially high-quality protein. The ISSN says you need 0. Eating balanced meals filled with nutrient-rich foods from all the food groups should help you get enough protein, as well as an adequate amount of carbohydrates and for energy and the other essential nutrients you need to maintain muscle and support overall health.

Finding healthy ways to manage stress is also important for maintaining muscle. A study published in the Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research found that stress decreases muscle strength.

How you manage stress right now may affect your muscle strength later on. You also need to create good sleeping habits. Like stress, accumulating sleep debt increases the release of the catabolic hormones that decrease muscle mass and strength. Aim for a minimum of 7 hours of sleep a night.

Many factors influence your body composition , including exercise, nutrition, genetics, sleep, stress, and medical history. Find a routine that works for you and stick with it. To grow muscles, you need to make more muscle proteins than your body breaks down. Though this sounds simple enough, the process of growing muscles is dependent on exercise, nutrition, and anabolic hormones.

The purpose of strength training is to damage muscle fibers, creating a type of injury. Your body responds by adding more protein fibers to repair the injury, which ultimately increases muscle mass and strength.

Though muscle repair happens quickly, muscle growth takes weeks or months. How long it takes for you to build muscle depends on many factors, including genetics, sex, workout, and nutrition.

More energy, flexibility, and strength are some of the early signs of muscle growth. Over time, your clothes may fit differently and you may see more muscle tone. Greenemeir L. Unnatural Selection: Muscles, Genes and Genetic Cheats. Scientific American. de Freitas MC, Gerosa-Neto J, Zanchi NE, Lira FS, Rossi FE.

Role of metabolic stress for enhancing muscle adaptations: Practical applications. World J Methodol. Published Jun American College of Sports Medicine. American College of Sports Medicine position stand. Progression models in resistance training for healthy adults.

Med Sci Sports Exerc. Schott N, Johnen B, Holfelder B. Effects of free weights and machine training on muscular strength in high-functioning older adults. Exp Gerontol. Jäger R, Kerksick CM, Campbell BI, et al. International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: protein and exercise.

J Int Soc Sports Nutr. Klemm S. Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Better Health Channel. Resistance training - health benefits. Dattilo M, Antunes HK, Medeiros A, et al.