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How to gain 10kg of muscle (it won’t be overnight)
“When it comes to gaining muscle, the biggest mistake I see people making is simply not training hard enough.”
They are the words of Bodyscan customer Nathan, 35, (pictured above) who since 2020 has gained a massive 10kg of muscle mass, one of the biggest natural gains we have seen.
For most people, building muscle does not come easily. Bodyscan customers, especially men, regularly show unrealistically high expectations, assuming they will develop a solid, muscular physique in a few short weeks or months. Think again – Nathan’s average monthly muscle gain was 189g, about a kilo every five months.
Nathan, too, once had those same eager expectations and, after ten years in the gym, his muscle mass was just average, as recorded by the DEXA scan metric known as lean mass index (or LMI, total lean mass normalised for height).
“After all that time I was still naïve about resistance training and what it took to reliably increase muscle mass,” he says.
Like many Bodyscan customers, Nathan often tried to achieve the nirvana of simultaneous fat loss and muscle gain but, again like so many others, found that “trying to do both meant doing neither very well.” Which means a lot of time and effort getting nowhere.
Today, Nathan is in no doubt about (and is walking proof of) what works: “Hard work, consistency and sticking to the basics,” he says.
In August 2020 (left), Nathan was at his lowest fat but with 8.6kg less muscle than he is today. Since his first scan in February 2020 he has gained 10kg of muscle mass.
Hard work means a combination of volume (reps, sets, visits) and intensity (heavy weight, going to failure or near failure, and progressive overload (increasing the weight gradually over time)).
Typically, Nathan trains six days a week, about 80 minutes each time, rotating through Push, Squat, Cardio, Pull, Deadlift, Cardio, Rest.
Rep ranges are four sets of 4-6 reps for squats and deadlifts; four sets of 6-8 reps for heavy compound exercises (bench press, overhead press, rows) and three sets of 8-12 reps for isolation movements, such as single arm and leg.
“I eat a balanced diet of mostly whole foods, high protein and training hard consistently for a long time,” he says.
“The DEXA scans at Bodyscan have been one of the best investments in my training to date, I can’t recommend them enough.”
Muscle gains do not appear overnight and at Bodyscan we encourage customers to approach resistance training as a long term (lifetime) endeavour. As Nathan puts it: “I just enjoy training, taking it slowly and seeing the progress over time.”
So where do the DEXA scans come in? How do they help?
“The DEXA scans at Bodyscan have been one of the best investments in my training to date,” says Nathan, “I can’t recommend them enough.
“They have enabled me to set realistic, achievable goals for the next 6 to 12 months and then confirm if I’m on track with my goal of gradually gaining lean mass without excessive body fat.”
Nathan’s results are very good indeed – since his Baseline scan showing 57.8kg of lean mass, he has gained muscle in all but one of the seven follow-ups. He now stands at 67.9kg, putting his lean mass index (which started at average, in the 50th percentile) above the 90th percentile for men his age.
Nathan’s latest DEXA result (19 July 2024, at the top) shows 67.8kg of lean mass, versus 57.8kg at his first scan on 14 February 2020. The orange box shows the average monthly lean gain over the entire period to be 189g per month and as low as 105g per month. This demonstrates the gram-by-gram nature of consistent muscle gain. Nathan has had eight DEXA scans in total, though the report can show a maximum of six. In all but one of the seven follow-up scans (five follow-ups shown here), Nathan increased lean mass every time (the green ticks).
The latest DEXA scan shows that fat mass has increased by just under 2kg, for which Nathan will now make adjustments, though net fat gain since 2020 has been just 2.5kg for the 10kg increase in muscle. Bodyscan typically sees ratios as high as one-for-one.
“The consistency of the DEXA scan data keeps me accountable and means I can tweak my programme methodically and confidently, instead of just guessing,” he says.
Nathan doesn’t count calories: “I know what and how much to eat based on my DEXA scan results.”
“Through regular scans and consultations with Bodyscan, I came to realise that after more than a decade of competing in weight class combat sports, I simply was not eating enough to gain muscle weight, so have focused on increasing my intake and supplementing with whey protein and creatine.”
It may surprise many that Nathan doesn’t count calories: “I counted calories for several years but now I know what and how much to eat based on my DEXA scan results. Of course, calories are critical to fat loss and muscle gain, but I track my weight daily to establish the weekly trend and easily see if I am in a surplus or deficit.”
To keep him fit, alert, flexible and strong, Nathan also enjoys powerlifting, as well as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) and Muay Thai, which are more technically exacting.
But when it comes to pure resistance training for muscle growth and strength, he returns to the mantra of working hard and keeping it simple.
“People ask for advice and give me a lot of reasons why they think they’re not building muscle, only for it to become clear that they are barely training at all.”
“As well as not training hard or consistently enough, I see many people distracted by the latest fads, such as ice baths, or overly restrictive diets (like keto, carnivore or low carb) that leave them low on energy or motivation.”
“Many people are not building muscle because they are barely training at all.“
So there it is, from someone who has done it. Be consistent, work hard, eat well, stick to the basics, don’t get distracted by fads and measure your progress with DEXA so you know for sure if it’s working.
Compiled and edited by Philip Chant
Bodyscan Director
Editor’s note: Many thanks indeed to Nathan for agreeing to share his achievements. Uncannily, his latest scan was performed days after I wrote this opinion piece about ‘Why you are not seeing results in the gym’. In it I said, “…building muscle mass takes hard work … Month after month [people in my gym] are not building any lean mass at all because they simply are not working hard enough.” (!)
