How Much Muscle Mass Can You Gain In A Month?

To gain muscle mass, you need to build muscle strength through long, intense workouts. Plus, you must eat a balanced diet designed to support your goals of building muscle tissue, according to the University of California at Los Angeles. Even so, bulking up likely will take longer than you'd like it to, for the simple reason that your body has limits on how much muscle it can build. It's possible to gain up to 3 lbs. of muscle mass in one month, but you may not see that kind of result.

Weight-Lifting Program

In order to build the maximum amount of muscle possible in one month, you'll need to design -- and follow -- a fairly arduous strength-training program, according to the University of California at Berkeley. Focus on all the muscle groups in your body, not just a few specific muscles, or you risk over-training some areas of your body while under-training others while increasing your risk of injury. If you build more muscle in all areas of your body, you'll naturally release hormones that make it easier for you to make more muscle by your one-month goal.

Program Intensity

To build muscle mass, you need to use heavy weights with only a few repetitions. In addition, your strength-building program should get more difficult over the course of a month, according to the University of California at Berkeley. You'll need to rest your muscles periodically so they recover and maximize your gains, but you can design your program to work different muscle groups on different days and avoid rest-related downtime for your overall workouts.

Nutrition

It's a myth that you need to bulk up on protein in order to bulk up your muscles, according to UCLA. To reach your goal of the maximum muscle mass you can gain in a month, you should shoot to eat about 0.8 g of protein per pound of body weight each day. Therefore, if you weigh 200 pounds, you only need around 5.6 oz. of pure protein each day.

Considerations

If you're just starting out on your campaign to build your muscle mass, you may add as much as 3 lbs. the first month, according to UCLA. However, that represents a best-case scenario -- genetics, not desire, unfortunately will dictate how much you ultimately gain. In addition, your gains will begin to decelerate after a few months of your program. In the first year of weight-training and eating specifically to gain muscle weight, you can gain up to 20 lbs. of muscle.