How Long Does It Take to Build Muscle?
Everyone knows that bulking up and building strong muscles doesn’t happen overnight. But if after weeks of working hard in the weight room, you flex in the mirror and see only a little bump, you might get frustrated and lose motivation.
Earlier during your workout, you might have thought you were starting to see some muscle definition. “Called transient hypertrophy, or a muscle pump, this physiological phenomenon occurs when blood rushes to your muscles to supply them with workout-powering fuel and even jump-start the recovery process,” explains certified strength and conditioning specialist Samuel Simpson, co-owner and vice president of B-Fit Training Studio in Miami. He notes that this muscle pump often starts mid-workout and subsides within a few hours after leaving the gym. And as the muscle pump deflates, it’s easy to lose determination.
Muscle Results in Days, Weeks and Months: It’s important to keep in mind that building muscle is a process, not an event. Developing muscle begins the second that you challenge your muscles to do something demanding and unfamiliar, whether that’s picking up a dumbbell, performing a pushup or sprinting on a treadmill. “These actions all stress and, thus, create microscopic damage within your body’s muscle cells, also called muscle fibers,” Simpson says.
Excerpted from U.S. News
