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So...we all want to know the best way to build muscle in the shortest time possible.
But there is a ton of info out there with a lot of conflicting opinions about how to go about it.
One article says that you should do 6-12 reps per set, while another says that you’re far better off doing 4-6 reps per set.
Expert A says you should work different muscles on different days, while expert B says you should work your whole body three times a week.
As it happens, some of the advice that’s been floating around for years has turned out to be right, while some of it has turned out to be completely wrong! So...let's take a closer look at the subject of muscle and how to build it.
1. HOW MANY TIMES A WEEK SHOULD YOU TRAIN A MUSCLE EACH WEEK?
Some say that the best way to build muscle is to bomb your muscles into submission once a week with lots of exercises, sets and reps. In fact, working a muscle more frequently has been shown in a number of studies to increase the rate of muscle growth. In one trial, subjects who trained a muscle three times a week built muscle more quickly than the ones training it once a week (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25932981). So, why is hitting a muscle group twice a week or more a better way to build muscle than hitting it just once a week? Protein synthesis – a key driving force behind muscle growth – is raised for a day or two after you train. But it’s back to normal a couple of days later. And simply creating more muscle damage doesn’t appear to make the rise in protein synthesis last any longer. What’s more, the rise in protein synthesis after training peaks earlier and returns to normal more quickly in trained versus untrained individuals. The upshot of which is that there’s a smaller overall change in muscle protein synthesis in advanced lifters.
In other words, when you train a muscle group directly only once per week, the muscles might spend a few days “growing” after the workout. But if you leave an entire week between training each muscle group, you’re missing several additional opportunities to stimulate growth.
2. HOW MANY SETS SHOULD YOU DO?
As far as sets go, there is a “dose-response” relationship between the number of sets you do for a muscle and the speed at which that muscle grows (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27433992). In other words, the more sets you do – up to a point at least – the faster your muscles will grow. However, there is a point at which doing more sets becomes counterproductive. In other words, there’s a theoretical “optimal” number of sets per muscle group, above and below which gains in size will be slower than they otherwise would be.
Training volume only counts when it is stimulating. If your overall training volume is too high, your muscles won’t respond to it and you’ll end up going backwards.
The precise location of this “sweet spot” will depend on your genetics, the length of time you’ve been training, your age, the type of exercises you’re doing, your diet, as well as other sources of stress, be they physical or psychological, that you have going on in your life.
3. HIGH OR LOW REPS FOR MUSCLE GROWTH>
When it comes to reps, conventional wisdom has it that training with light weights and high reps builds muscular endurance, but makes little contribution to gains in size.
Heavy weights and lower reps has long been the accepted “best way” to build muscle.
That’s because lifting heavy weights places tension on a large number of muscle fibers, which in turn sends the “make me bigger” signal to those fibers.
However, lifting heavy weights isn’t the only way to put a large number of muscle fibers under tension.
Training with lighter weights and higher reps – where you “go for the burn” and your muscles feel like they’re pumped up and about to explode – generates a large amount of metabolic stress, which has also been shown to increase the activation of muscle fibers
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28776271).
Remember, higher reps and lighter weights didn’t lead to superior gains in size or strength. But each set took twice as long to complete.
Training to failure in a higher rep range is also highly unpleasant and extremely painful – a lot harder than lower reps and heavier weights.
Plus, lower reps and heavier weights still win the day as far as gains in strength are concerned.
Just remember, as long as you train hard and push yourself, heavy weights, medium weights and light weights can all be used successfully to build muscle.
There are other factors to be considered as well. How fast (or slowly) should you perform each repetition? How long should you rest between sets? But the bottom line is to develop a decent training and nutrition program, and stick with it.
Forget about your body type or your genetics. You can’t change them, so there’s no point even thinking about them.
Gains in muscle size come slowly, so you’re not going to notice them on a daily or even a weekly basis. But they all add up. Train hard, stick to the plan, and in a few months time you will have more muscle than you have right now.
GD
But there is a ton of info out there with a lot of conflicting opinions about how to go about it.
One article says that you should do 6-12 reps per set, while another says that you’re far better off doing 4-6 reps per set.
Expert A says you should work different muscles on different days, while expert B says you should work your whole body three times a week.
As it happens, some of the advice that’s been floating around for years has turned out to be right, while some of it has turned out to be completely wrong! So...let's take a closer look at the subject of muscle and how to build it.
1. HOW MANY TIMES A WEEK SHOULD YOU TRAIN A MUSCLE EACH WEEK?
Some say that the best way to build muscle is to bomb your muscles into submission once a week with lots of exercises, sets and reps. In fact, working a muscle more frequently has been shown in a number of studies to increase the rate of muscle growth. In one trial, subjects who trained a muscle three times a week built muscle more quickly than the ones training it once a week (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25932981). So, why is hitting a muscle group twice a week or more a better way to build muscle than hitting it just once a week? Protein synthesis – a key driving force behind muscle growth – is raised for a day or two after you train. But it’s back to normal a couple of days later. And simply creating more muscle damage doesn’t appear to make the rise in protein synthesis last any longer. What’s more, the rise in protein synthesis after training peaks earlier and returns to normal more quickly in trained versus untrained individuals. The upshot of which is that there’s a smaller overall change in muscle protein synthesis in advanced lifters.
In other words, when you train a muscle group directly only once per week, the muscles might spend a few days “growing” after the workout. But if you leave an entire week between training each muscle group, you’re missing several additional opportunities to stimulate growth.
2. HOW MANY SETS SHOULD YOU DO?
As far as sets go, there is a “dose-response” relationship between the number of sets you do for a muscle and the speed at which that muscle grows (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27433992). In other words, the more sets you do – up to a point at least – the faster your muscles will grow. However, there is a point at which doing more sets becomes counterproductive. In other words, there’s a theoretical “optimal” number of sets per muscle group, above and below which gains in size will be slower than they otherwise would be.
Training volume only counts when it is stimulating. If your overall training volume is too high, your muscles won’t respond to it and you’ll end up going backwards.
The precise location of this “sweet spot” will depend on your genetics, the length of time you’ve been training, your age, the type of exercises you’re doing, your diet, as well as other sources of stress, be they physical or psychological, that you have going on in your life.
3. HIGH OR LOW REPS FOR MUSCLE GROWTH>
When it comes to reps, conventional wisdom has it that training with light weights and high reps builds muscular endurance, but makes little contribution to gains in size.
Heavy weights and lower reps has long been the accepted “best way” to build muscle.
That’s because lifting heavy weights places tension on a large number of muscle fibers, which in turn sends the “make me bigger” signal to those fibers.
However, lifting heavy weights isn’t the only way to put a large number of muscle fibers under tension.
Training with lighter weights and higher reps – where you “go for the burn” and your muscles feel like they’re pumped up and about to explode – generates a large amount of metabolic stress, which has also been shown to increase the activation of muscle fibers
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28776271).
Remember, higher reps and lighter weights didn’t lead to superior gains in size or strength. But each set took twice as long to complete.
Training to failure in a higher rep range is also highly unpleasant and extremely painful – a lot harder than lower reps and heavier weights.
Plus, lower reps and heavier weights still win the day as far as gains in strength are concerned.
Just remember, as long as you train hard and push yourself, heavy weights, medium weights and light weights can all be used successfully to build muscle.
There are other factors to be considered as well. How fast (or slowly) should you perform each repetition? How long should you rest between sets? But the bottom line is to develop a decent training and nutrition program, and stick with it.
Forget about your body type or your genetics. You can’t change them, so there’s no point even thinking about them.
Gains in muscle size come slowly, so you’re not going to notice them on a daily or even a weekly basis. But they all add up. Train hard, stick to the plan, and in a few months time you will have more muscle than you have right now.
GD
