The good news about hypertrophy is that it’s kind of simple for a lot of athletes: train hard, eat in a slight caloric surplus, and get enough sleep. Here’s the bad news about building muscle: it doesn’t happen overnight. 

But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do to speed up muscle growth. Here are our top tips to build muscle fast, including the best exercises to do and foods to eat. 

Key Takeaways

• The process of muscle growth, known as muscle hypertrophy, typically takes 10-12 weeks, but can be made faster with the proper exercises, rest, and protein intake. (1)
• To optimize muscle growth, try consuming at least 0.7 grams of protein per pound of body weight per meal. You can reach this by eating high-protein foods like salmon, eggs, Greek yogurt, and chicken.
• Get plenty of sleep. Human growth hormone (HGH), which promotes muscle growth and repair, is produced in the body while sleeping. 
• Compound exercises like the back squat, bench press, deadlift, and overhead press are good for muscle building.

8 Science-Backed Tips to Build Muscle Fast

When hypertrophy is the goal, you need a solid weight training program that hits all of your major muscle groups, includes rest days, and features a meal plan with plenty of calories, protein, and carbohydrates. Sounds simple enough. But if you want to see more muscle mass sooner, here is how to tweak each of these areas to your benefit.

1. Do Eccentric Training

When you set out to lift weights, you know that you’re basically going to pick something up, and then put it back down. The fancy way to refer to these parts of the lift are the eccentric and concentric phases. 

Technically speaking, your muscles are forced to contract while stretched due to an external load’s force. When comparing concentric and eccentric training, research suggests eccentric training is slightly more effective at stimulating hypertrophy. (1)(2)

There are a few potential reasons why. Eccentric training is a way of increasing intensity without necessarily lifting heavier weights. Your muscles spend more time under tension, especially if you move slower, which adds more stress to your muscle fibers. (That stress is great for building muscle mass.)

Research also suggests that focusing on the eccentric portion increases muscle protein synthesis and releases more IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1, a growth hormone). (3)

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You can do eccentric-only exercises, which are a bit more limited, or various exercises using slow-tempo training. In tempo training, slowing down the eccentric phase lets you do fewer reps but increases time under tension, which is associated with potentially faster hypertrophy. Irradiating tension while focusing on proper form also helps. (1)

Research suggests a general tempo recommendation for hypertrophy training: two to four seconds for the eccentric phase and one to three seconds for the concentric phase. But you can play with that even further for an eccentric focus. (3)

Eccentric-Only Exercises

• Eccentric Pull-Up
• Eccentric Push-Up
• Eccentric Lunge

Focus on the Eccentric Phase with Tempo Training

2. Emphasize Compound Movements for Major Muscle Groups

Some research suggests that one effective hypertrophy program that maximizes muscle growth follows the following formula: three to six sets of six to 12 reps with 60-second rest breaks at a moderate intensity (60 to 80 percent of your one-rep max or 1RM). Aim for 12 to 20 sets per muscle group per week. (1)(5)

Which exercises should you choose to reach those numbers? Both multi-joint and single-joint exercises are important, so don’t throw out your biceps curls yet; just save them for later in your session.

Still, you’ll likely want to emphasize compound, multi-joint exercises. Compound movements help with hypertrophy because they recruit more of muscle mass to get the job done. Research shows greater anabolic hormonal response after training multi-joint exercises, and higher levels of testosterone and growth hormone get released than when using single-joint exercises. (3)

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Additionally, compound movements require other muscles in your body to contract and stabilize, even if they are not the ones working. Though a squat may not seem like an ab workout, over 200 smaller muscles work to stabilize your core and spine while you move your hips and legs. (3)

Single-joint exercises still have their place because they allow you to focus more on individual muscles, particularly smaller, neglected muscles. These may even out imbalances in size, appearance, and function. (3)

Best Compound Exercises in Strength Training

3. Do Higher Training Volume

There is some controversy around training volume and hypertrophy. Is more always better? 

Other research also finds a positive relationship between higher training volume and more hypertrophy, especially in already trained lifters for whom it becomes more difficult to continue gaining muscle fast. (6)(7)

The trouble is that aiming for a super high volume can make training sessions too long. Some research shows that training for more than one hour decreases the quality of work. You may not be able to exert the same level of effort, and your good form could suffer. That’s why playing with tempo and focusing on major muscle groups can help maximize your hour (or so). (3)

[Read More: How to Do 100 Push-ups a Day, Advice and Programming from a CPT]

Other studies find that a lower load (30 to 60 percent of your 1RM) yields similar hypertrophy to a higher load (greater than 60 percent of your 1RM) if you can reach failure in the lower load. But, it also adds that you don’t have to go to failure for hypertrophy. (1)

Ways to Play With Volume

• Vary your load: lift a little lighter for more reps or heavier for fewer reps.
• Vary your sets: do supersets with agonist and antagonist muscles, upper and lower body supersets, drop sets, and cluster sets. (1)
• Mix volume with intensity — if you’re on a strict program to increase volume, play with adding one day where you go for high intensity at a lower volume.

4. Use Progressive Overload

Progressive overload is key to making gains. Of course, it takes time, so it might not be your first thought when trying to build muscle fast. Still, it can help over two to three months. 

When you start a resistance training program, the gains you see in the first four weeks may mainly be due to muscle damage and muscle cell swelling. Real muscle growth may occur after six to 10 weeks—so you can use progressive overload to your advantage in this time frame. And if you’re a seasoned lifter struggling to gain muscle, use it to help bust through a physique plateau. (1)

Here are some examples of variables.

Training Variables

• Volume (sets and reps)
• Load
• Intensity
• Rest Periods
• Exercise Angle
• Range of Motion
• Unilateral Training
• Tempo Training
• DUP Training (Daily Undulating Periodization)

5. Eat Enough Calories

You know what to do in the gym — now you need to tackle your meal plan. When you train, muscle protein breakdown occurs. When you eat enough of the right stuff, muscle protein synthesis occurs. When muscle protein synthesis exceeds muscle protein breakdown, hypertrophy happens. (1)

You need to be in an energy surplus, meaning you take in more calories than you burn. (8)

Exactly how many calories you need depends on multiple factors. Start with BarBend’s calorie calculator.