How to build muscle – regardless of age and starting position
Building muscle isn't reserved for the young, bodybuilders, or people who can spend half their lives in the gym. Most people can get stronger and increase their muscle mass – but it requires the right training, enough nutrition, and most of all, patience.
Many people make building muscle more complicated than it needs to be. They change their workout routines every week, chase the perfect exercise, and buy supplements before they've even gotten the basics down.
The truth is much simpler:
Load your muscles regularly, increase the demands gradually, eat enough protein and give your body time to recover.
If you do it consistently, your body will adapt.
What happens when a muscle grows?
Muscles are made up of fibers that can contract and create force. When you strength train, you expose your muscles to a load that your body needs to adapt to.
At the same time, there is a constant turnover of muscle protein. The body breaks down old proteins and builds up new ones. If the build-up over time is greater than the breakdown, the muscles can grow. This process is usually called muscle hypertrophy .
Strength training sends the signal. Protein and energy give the body the building blocks. Recovery gives it the opportunity to do the work. If any of the parts are missing, the results are often worse.
You have to challenge your muscles.
Walking, cycling, and other cardio exercises have many health benefits. But if your goal is to build muscle, you need to train against a resistance that really challenges them.
It could be:
Dumbbells or barbell
Exercise machines
Rubber band
Bodyweight exercises
Cable machines
A combination of several options
The muscle doesn't know if the resistance comes from an expensive machine or your own body weight. It responds to how hard it needs to work.
A bodyweight squat can therefore be perfectly adequate for a beginner. However, when the exercise becomes too easy, you need to make it heavier, perform more repetitions, or choose a more demanding variation.
How many repetitions should you do?
The old simplistic view often says:
Few repetitions build strength
Moderate repetitions build muscle
Many repetitions build endurance
There is some truth to this, but the boundaries are not as precise as they are sometimes portrayed.
Muscles can grow over a fairly wide range of reps, provided the load is challenging enough. For most people, about 6–15 reps per set is a practical range. Both heavier and lighter sets can contribute to muscle growth.
The crucial thing is that the set doesn't feel like a warm-up.
When you finish, you should usually feel like you've only managed a few more controlled reps. You don't need to train to total exhaustion in every set, but if you always stop well before the muscle is tired, the stimulus will often be too little.
A good guideline is to usually finish with about one to three repetitions left in the tank .
Choose exercises that cover the whole body
You don't need to use twenty different exercises during the same workout. A smaller number of well-chosen movements will go a long way.
Good basic exercises train several muscle groups at the same time:
Squat or leg press
Outcome or rise
Hip lift or deadlift variant
Push-ups or chest press
Rowing
Lat pull-ups or chin-ups
Shoulder press
These can be supplemented with more targeted exercises for, for example, biceps, triceps, calves, shoulders or abs.
The basic exercises make the workout effective. The more isolated exercises allow you to give extra attention to a particular muscle. There is no contradiction between the two. A well-thought-out program can include both.
Progression is the engine itself
If you train with the same load, the same number of repetitions and the same effort month after month, your body will have less and less reason to change.
Therefore, training needs to gradually become more demanding.
You can create progression by:
Increase weight
Do more repetitions
Perform another set
Improve technology
Increase range of motion
Switch to a more difficult variant
Perform the movement slower and more controlled
It doesn't have to happen with every workout. Small improvements over several weeks are more than enough.
Feel free to write down what you do. It's hard to know if you're getting stronger if you don't remember what weight or how many reps you did last time.
How much do you need to exercise?
More training does not automatically mean better training. For someone who is new, two or three strength training sessions a week can give very good results. Someone who has been training for a longer time may need a higher training volume, but even then the amount needs to be adjusted according to sleep, stress, age and recovery ability. For example, a session can contain five or six exercises with two to four working sets per exercise.
The important thing is that you are able to:
Train with good technique.
Recover between workouts.
Increase the load over time.
Continue week after week.
An advanced program that you get tired of after three weeks is worse than a simpler plan that you follow for an entire year.
Protein provides the body with building materials
You can train as hard as you want, but your body still needs nutrition to build new muscle tissue. Protein is especially important because it provides the amino acids that are used as building blocks in muscles.
For a healthy person who is strength training, approximately 1.4–2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day is a useful range. This does not mean that everyone has to be in the upper range.
The need is influenced by, among other things, the amount of training, age, energy intake and goals. For example, a person who weighs 80 kilograms can aim for approximately 110–160 grams of protein per day.
Good sources of protein include:
Fish and seafood
Chicken and turkey
Egg
Lean meat
Quark, cottage cheese and yogurt
Tofu and tempeh
Beans, lentils and peas
Protein powder if needed
Protein powder is not a requirement. It is just a practical food for those who have difficulty meeting their needs through regular food.
It's a good idea to spread the protein over the day's meals instead of trying to eat almost everything in the evening.
If you have impaired kidney function or kidney disease, the amount of protein should be adjusted together with a doctor or dietitian.
Do you need to eat more to build muscle?
The body needs energy to create new tissue. But that doesn't mean you have to eat huge amounts of food.
A small calorie surplus can facilitate muscle building, especially for those who are already relatively fit. However, if you eat far more than your body needs, a large part of the excess will be stored as fat.
For many people, a moderate surplus of around 200–300 calories per day is sufficient. Monitor your progress and adjust accordingly.
If you are a beginner or have some body fat to lose, it can sometimes be possible to build muscle while reducing fat mass. In this case, strength training, sufficient protein and a moderate energy deficit become especially important.
Carbohydrates help you perform during exercise, while fat is needed for cell function and hormone production, among other things. So don't try to build your entire diet around a single nutrient.
Recovery is part of the program
Muscles are stimulated when you exercise, but the recovery occurs between workouts. Poor sleep, prolonged stress, and too little food can impair both performance and recovery. You don't have to live perfectly, but you do need to give your body reasonable working conditions.
Try to:
Get enough sleep
Have rest days or easier days
Don't train the same muscles hard every day
Eat regularly and nutritiously
Adjust your training volume when life is extra stressful
Training pain is not a requirement for a session to have worked. The goal is to create sufficient stimulation – not to make it difficult to climb stairs for the rest of the week.
How fast can muscles grow?
We need to be realistic here. Muscle building is slower than before and after pictures on social media sometimes lead us to believe. Beginners can often make rapid progress at first, while progress slows down as you become more trained.
Age, gender, genes, training background, diet and recovery also affect results. Strength can increase in the first few weeks, partly because your nervous system gets better at using the muscles you already have. Visible changes usually take longer. Think in months and years, not days.
Can you build muscle after 50?
Yes. The ability doesn't disappear just because you pass a certain birthday. With As you age, it becomes more important to actively defend your muscle mass. Reduced activity, insufficient protein, and lack of strength training can all combine to cause muscle and strength to gradually disappear.
After 50, strength training shouldn't just be about looks. Muscles help you:
Get up and carry things
Walk up stairs
Maintain balance and stability
Protect bones and joints
Continue to live an active and independent life
Start at a level that suits you and increase the load gradually. If you have illnesses, injuries or long-term pain, the program may need to be adapted together with a healthcare professional or physiotherapist.
Stop looking for the shortcut
You don't have to find the perfect training split, eat every two hours, or buy a cabinet full of supplements.
Concentrate on what actually makes a difference:
Strength train regularly. Challenge your muscles. Increase demands gradually. Eat enough protein and energy. Sleep and recover.
Then you repeat this – not for two weeks, but for a long time. It may not be the most sensational advice. But that's how muscle is built.
Results don't come from the perfect workout. They come from all the good workouts you do as weeks turn into months and months turn into years.
All the best,
Kennet Båth Founder, Bodyweight Diet
The text contains general information about training and nutrition. Adapt your training to your level and seek professional help in case of illness, injury or persistent pain.
