When you are trying to gain muscle, it can be a challenge to know whether or not your workout efforts are paying off or not – especially if you are a woman. For those ladies out there who enjoy weight lifting and are looking to reap the benefits of this exercise activity, staying on top of tracking whether or not you are building muscle is an essential part of your routine.

When you start a brand new workout or weight training program, it’s understandable that you are looking for results. So, how long will it take for women to build muscle then? There are a number of factors to consider when it comes to tracking muscle gains for women. ZOZOFIT breaks it all down for you here.

What Women Should Be Monitoring to See if They Are Gaining Muscle

For both men and women, testosterone is a huge factor in the development and maintenance of muscle mass, muscular strength, and bone density. But even though women traditionally have lower testosterone levels than men, that doesn’t mean that they should give up on weight training even before they start. The key is to monitor how your resistance training and weight lifting progresses over time so that you know for sure whether or not your body shape is gaining muscle. 

Other factors to keep in mind when starting off with your strength training protocols are keeping personal factors in mind when reviewing your results – things like age, diet, genetics, and your actual workouts themselves can make a huge impact on how you are gaining muscle. For example, if you’ve been working out for a while and you aren’t seeing much of a difference when you step on the scale, that’s normal. Your weight is making internal adjustments as your body composition transforms throughout your fitness journey. 

But if you are wondering whether or not you are gaining actual muscle to your physique, one of the best indicators is by regularly checking your waist measurements every week or two. As your body gains mass from developing your muscles, the most notable changes usually happen in your legs and arms. On the flip side of that, if your weight training exercises are working effectively, your torso will typically reduce in size over time since your abdominal muscles don’t take on mass like the other muscles in your body does. 

To track how your torso is changing, you could do it manually, but a body scanning app like ZOZOFIT can be extremely helpful in tracking these changes for you. The app completes a 360-degree body scan right from your smartphone in less than two minutes, and will help you see how your waist measurements are evolving after each completed body scan.

How Women Can Increase Their Muscle Gains

Regardless of gender, an increase in muscle size occurs when there is enough tension on your muscle fibers that their structural integrity is being compromised. This may initially sound like a bad thing, but it’s actually a positive scenario. Muscles undergo trauma – called muscle injury – every time that you work out. There are satellite cells on the outside of your muscle fibers which are then activated through this type of exercise that join together to repair the damage. These joint cells increase your muscle fiber, which results in muscular gains.

So essentially, as you continue your strength training, your body will react to this stress by adapting and undergoing a transformation in your muscles so that it can handle more stress in the future without incurring the same damage. As you workout more and more, you can gradually increase the amount of weight in your workouts so that you will continue to see muscle growth over time. If you want to continue to see muscle growth, you will need to constantly challenge your muscles so that you can see the transformational results you are looking for.

Something else that women can do to ensure that they are gaining muscle is to be more mindful of nutrition and calories. It may seem like a counterproductive idea, but you should be in a calorie surplus, especially on the days that you are weight training, as your body needs the proper fuel to build muscle. While eating more calories normally translates to potential fat gain in your body, a calorie surplus paired with proper weight training routine should garner women better results.

These efforts can help your body be better equipped to make muscular tissue if your strength training is consistent and the calorie surplus contains the proper percentage of macronutrients as well. 

Best Exercises to Help Women Gain Muscle

For women who are looking to gain muscle, there are a number of exercises that should be helpful in your body transformation goals. Here’s a look at some ideas to incorporate into your regular fitness routine:

With these muscle-focused exercises, you should try to aim for completing about eight to 15 repetitions in a row, which equals a set. Fitness professionals recommend taking a minute to rest after each set, and then completing another set of exercises. When you are lifting actual weights, take three seconds to complete your weight lift (or push your weight into place if you are on a machine), and then hold it for one-to-three seconds. Then, lower the weight to its starting position over another three seconds to complete the activity. This approach should help women start to see the muscle gains they are looking for in just a few weeks.

Don’t forget to give your body the muscle recovery time that it needs so that it can recover from your workout and be ready to take on new challenges in the future.

Use ZOZOFIT to Track Your Muscle Gains Over Time

For women who want to track how their muscles are growing, the ZOZOFIT app is like your very own personal digital tool box. Not only can ZOZOFIT help you track changes to your body composition by providing you with intuitive data, but it can also assist you in achieving your goals when it comes to seeing muscle gains.

By scanning with the ZOZOFIT app regularly, you can use the side-by-side scan comparison feature to see your muscle growth progress with relative ease.