Repetitions is the number of times you lift or move a weight on a machine. One repetition would be the lifting part of the movement, also known as the concentric phase of the lift, as well as the lowering part of the movement, which is known as the eccentric phase of the lift. For example, squatting down and then standing up again when performing a squat pattern would be 1 repetition or rep.

A set is a number of repetitions performed back-to-back, before stopping a set because you have reached a desired number of reps or you are too fatigued to complete any more reps. For example, if you performed 10 repetitions of a squat and then stopped, that would be 1 set. We typically perform multiple sets of a particular exercise, although this is not always the case.

Volume or training volume can be thought of as the amount of work we do in a particular training session or over a period of time, usually one week. In terms of training to build muscle, we will be defining volume as the number of sets you perform over the week for each muscle group.

Intensity refers to the proximity of a set to muscular failure. For example, if we complete a set without being able to perform another repetition, it would be considered a higher intensity set compared to if we had stopped the set one or two repetitions earlier. Intensity can also be defined by the amount of weight lifted. For example, a 5-rep set working to muscular failure would be considered a higher intensity set than a 10-rep set working close to muscular failure. We will be defining intensity as proximity to muscular failure, as this is most useful when we are performing hypertrophy-specific training (training to maximise muscle growth).

Frequency is the number of times you train or work a muscle group per week. It is not the number of times you train or use the gym each week. For example, if you followed a classic 4-day upper body, lower body split, the training frequency is twice per week for all major muscle groups because you are performing 2 upper body days and 2 lower body days over the course of one week.

Repetitions in reserve (RIR) is a scale used to measure the intensity of a set. It is the number of repetitions you are able to complete before you reach muscular failure. The point at which you are unable to move a weight due to muscular fatigue. RIR can therefore be used to define the intensity of a set we are performing.

When our main goal is building muscle, a simple and effective way to quantify training volume is to count the number of working sets performed for a muscle group throughout the week. This way, we can quantify the amount of stress we are placing on a muscle group and can then make adjustments based on our current progress and goals. A commonly stated volume recommendation based on research is 10-20 sets per muscle group per week. This can be a useful recommendation, although using the lower end of this volume range will be effective and will be more appropriate for the vast majority of individuals.

Training volume is also influenced by the intensity of the sets you perform. If you work closer to muscular failure, you will need to perform fewer sets, and if you are working further away from muscular failure, you may need to perform more sets. This is where much of the confusion about training volume comes from in terms of which is best, high volume or low volume training. Both approaches can work.

Most coaches working with real people in the real world find a lower to moderate volume approach is best. Training volume should be based on the individual, as there are many factors that affect the amount of volume an individual can perform and, more importantly, recover from. Things such as age, training age, stress levels, personality type, and even genetics should be taken into account. We should also make the distinction between the general population client who just wants to build some muscle to look and feel better and individuals who are more serious, such as those who compete in physique sports such as bodybuilding.

A useful way to think about training volume is to perform the minimal amount of volume you need to progress on. If you can progress on fewer sets, there is no need to do more as this will only impact recovery for minimal or no extra benefit. Adding extra sets only when you need to is a smart strategy. You will likely need to perform different amounts of volume at different times in your lifting career, depending on goals. We find the sweet spot for most people is around 8-14 sets per week for each muscle group. This would be considered a moderate training volume.

For hypertrophy training, the best way to define intensity is the proximity to muscular failure we take a set to. This simply means how close we take a set to the point where we are unable to move a weight any further due to the target muscle fatiguing. This is important because a set needs to be performed at a high enough intensity to be stimulative for hypertrophy or muscle growth. If we stop a set too soon, the set will be minimally effective or not effective at all for building muscle.

A useful way to quantify the intensity of a set is to use the reps in reserve scale (RIR). We recommend taking your sets to a 0-2 RIR with a 0 RIR being used for most exercises if safe. This is not a failure set, it is the rep before you reach failure. In simple terms, you are just able to complete the rep but would fail the next rep if you attempted it. This will depend on the type of exercise you are performing as well as the equipment you are using and your training age. Beginners will be less accurate at determining how close to muscular failure they are when performing a set, while more experienced lifters will be more accurate.

Frequency is the number of times we train or work a muscle group per week. Research shows that training a muscle group twice per week is a highly effective training frequency for hypertrophy (building muscle). For most individuals, a muscle group will be fully recovered at around the 48-72 hour mark, so it makes sense to train that muscle group again at this point, rather than waiting any longer. This is a general recommendation and will be dependent on the amount of in-session volume performed as well as the level of advancement of the lifter.

For example, more advanced lifters, lifting more weight, may need longer for a muscle group to recover. In simple terms, they are able to place more stress on the target muscle group, and in doing so, they are able to get more out of each set due to the amount of weight they are lifting as well as their execution of the lift. At the other end of the spectrum, beginners can easily recover within 24 hours and can train a muscle group or movement pattern more frequently. This can be helpful because it gives them more frequent practice for a movement pattern or exercise.

Frequency will also be determined somewhat by the amount of volume (sets per muscle group per week) you are performing. If you need to perform 10 sets per week, it is better to split this volume up rather than performing it all in one session. Performing 5 sets on one day and then performing 5 sets 2-3 days later will allow your sets to be higher quality. You will be able to perform more reps over the session, and your intensity will likely be better. This is why certain popular training splits work so well and have stood the test of time.

Compound lifts or multi-joint exercises are the foundation of any good hypertrophy program. Compound exercises train multiple muscle groups at the same time, which means we can lift more weight, therefore placing more tension on a muscle group. They can also be loaded safely and for a long time. There is also a significant hormonal response by the body when performing heavy compound exercises, which can assist in building muscle as well as hormonal health, such as increasing or maintaining healthy testosterone levels.

Isolation exercises or single-joint exercises are useful when the goal is building muscle, although they should not make up the majority of the exercises you perform. As the name suggests, isolation exercises allow us to isolate single muscle groups. Since they are not as fatiguing and do not cause as much systemic fatigue as heavy compound lifts, we can perform more volume without impacting our recovery. Compound exercises will not target specific smaller muscle groups as well as isolation exercises since the larger muscle group will perform more of the work, even though smaller muscle groups will assist in the movement. Adding isolation exercises to complement compound lifts is crucial when training to maximise muscle growth.

When our goal is hypertrophy, variety is key, and this involves using a combination of free weights and machines. Beginners should focus on learning compound free weight exercises using barbells and dumbbells, as well as bodyweight exercises. Movement patterns such as the squat, hip hinge, horizontal push and pull, vertical push and pull, and lunge pattern are important to learn, as these movement patterns will be the foundation of your training moving forward.

Machines can also be used, although they should not be the focus for a beginner. Machines are more useful as an individual becomes more advanced, as they allow for more variation and can allow us to work closer to muscular failure, safely. Another benefit of machines is that they are not as fatiguing, which allows for more volume to be performed when needed in combination with free-weight exercises. They are also great to use with intensity techniques such as mayo reps and drop sets, as the intensity can remain high and the likelihood of form breakdown is lower compared to using free weights.

When performing an exercise, you should use a full range of motion. Working the target muscle group through a full range of motion is generally more effective for hypertrophy, especially if the target muscle is under tension in the stretched position. It can also increase and maintain flexibility and is beneficial to joint health. It is important that you work to your current mobility level to reduce any potential risk of injury. You can then work on improving any limitations you may have over time.

The concentric phase (lifting) part of an exercise can be performed explosively. We recommend having the intent to move the weight as quickly as possible, even though the actual speed will likely be slow to moderate depending on the weight you are using. Another way to think about the lifting phase of a lift is effort. Lift the weight with 100% effort, even as you are fatiguing and your reps are slowing down.

The eccentric phase (lowering) part of an exercise should be controlled. We recommend anywhere from 1-3 seconds depending on the exercise you are performing. Lowering the weight much longer than 3 seconds is unnecessary and can even be counterproductive, as this will limit the number of reps you can perform for a given weight. A controlled descent is also safer and can help prevent injury. If you are learning an exercise, you may want to use a slightly longer descent initially, as this can allow you to control the weight better and can improve technique.

The transition between the eccentric phase (lowering) and the concentric phase (lifting) of an exercise can be instantaneous. We do recommend a slight slowing down of the eccentric phase (lowering) before moving into the concentric phase (lifting) on most exercises, as this can help prevent injury, especially when using heavier weights. For example, when performing a barbell bench press, you may lower the bar to your chest for 2 seconds, slowing the speed of the bar just slightly as you touch your chest, before squeezing the bar of your chest. As soon as the direction is reversed, you can move the bar explosively again. You can also pause for a split second.

To maximise the potential for the body to build new muscle, we must be eating enough. This means consuming enough calories so that our body has the resources to build new muscle, as well as recover from hard training sessions. Beginners will be able to build muscle eating at around maintenance calories, assuming they are not too lean. They are in an untrained state, and their muscles will be desensitised to the new stimulus which comes from lifting weights. They can even build muscle in a small calorie deficit, assuming their training is productive and other factors are in place, such as consuming adequate protein.

Once past the beginner stage, it is best to eat in a slight calorie surplus to maximise the amount of muscle we can potentially build. This means consuming around 200-300 calories above maintenance calories. This would be considered a lean bulk or lean gaining phase. Eating enough to ensure we are maximising muscle growth without overeating, which will only lead to a faster rate of body fat gain. It is important to note that an increase in body fat is to be expected in a gaining phase; the goal should be to minimise this as much as possible while still eating enough to maximise muscle growth.

Consuming more calories will only assist in building muscle up to a point, and consuming more will not result in more muscle growth; it will result in more body fat, however. Gaining too much body fat will be detrimental to muscle growth because an individual will need to enter a calorie deficit sooner in order to lose body fat. This means they are spending less time in an optimum nutritional state to maximise muscle growth throughout the year.

As mentioned previously, beginners can eat at around maintenance calories or even in a slight calorie deficit and still build muscle. In this situation, an individual may be building new muscle tissue and losing body fat at the same time, resulting in their weight staying fairly stable. This is known as a body recomposition or a recomp. It is more likely to happen in untrained individuals such as beginners, and it is also more likely to happen if the individual has a higher body fat level. This is because the body can use stored energy in the form of body fat to build muscle even though calories may be at maintenance or slightly lower.

If you are past the beginner stage, you may still be able to build some muscle without gaining body fat; however, it may come at a slower rate. If you want to maximise your potential to build muscle, it is recommended to aim for a small calorie surplus, which will result in some body fat gain. As long as the rate of body fat gained is not excessive, this is not a problem, as it can easily be reduced by using mini cuts and longer fat loss phases. The risk of trying to gain muscle without gaining body fat as an intermediate lifter is that you may waste months or even years with little or no progress in terms of building muscle.

Assuming you are not recomping, you should be looking for your bodyweight to increase slowly over time. If this is not happening and your body fat is not reducing, you can be fairly sure that you are not building muscle, even if you are getting stronger. As muscle growth is a fairly slow process, even for beginners, we should be looking at weight gain over a longer period of time compared to if we were looking at weight loss in a fat loss phase.

You may not be gaining weight on a weekly basis, so it is best to monitor over a larger timeframe such as one month. We recommend gaining around 0.5 to 1.5% of your body weight each month. This will depend on a few factors such as your training age, how lean you are, as well as whether you are okay with gaining a little more body fat or not.

Below are some recommendations for rates of weight gain. These are simply rough guidelines and are not set-in-stone recommendations. The individual should always be taken into consideration. The role of genetics will also be a factor; some people may be able to gain at a faster rate, and some people may need to gain at a slower rate to minimise fat gain.

Along with consuming enough calories to build muscle, one of the most important things to maximise our potential to build muscle is consuming enough protein. Protein is used to build new muscle tissue and is also crucial for recovery from hard training sessions. It is the building block of new muscle tissue. It is also essential for many other functions in the body; therefore, in order to cover this as well as the building and repair of muscle, those who strength train regularly with the goal of building muscle will need to consume more than the general population.

With that said, we do not want to over-consume protein. Similar to consuming more calories, consuming more protein will only be beneficial to muscle growth up to a point. Research has suggested that 0.7 grams of protein per lb of body weight is adequate to maximise muscle growth, although there has been criticism of how these studies have interpreted the data to come to this conclusion. Most coaches will recommend a slightly higher protein intake of around 1 gram per lb of body weight. A slightly higher protein intake has no negative effects, so it may be a good idea to consume a little extra.

Going higher than 1 gram per lb of body weight may be slightly more effective, although this is still unclear at this point. This would be more appropriate for advanced lifters who compete in physique sports such as bodybuilding and want to maximise everything they can in order to build the absolute most amount of muscle possible. For the general population and non-competitive individuals who still want to build muscle, 1 gram of protein per lb of body weight is likely plenty. Consuming more protein will also leave less room for carbohydrates and fats, which is another thing to be aware of.

For individuals who are holding an excessive amount of body fat, protein should be based on estimated body fat percentage to avoid the overconsumption of protein. There is some research that suggests eating too much protein can also be detrimental to hormonal health, including testosterone levels. For this reason, we prefer to keep protein as low as possible as long as we are still able to build muscle and recover well from training sessions.

As we have set protein by bodyweight, the rest of our calories will be allocated to carbohydrates and dietary fat. The balance of carbohydrates to fats can be fairly individual and can be based on personal preference as well as what the individual feels best on. In terms of building muscle, people have had success on high carb low fat, low carb high fat, as well as a mixed approach. What we see works best for most people is a moderate to high carb approach with moderate to low fat, although there are aways exceptions.

For most people, we recommend a balanced approach. We define balanced as a diet that includes all three macronutrient groups and does not exclude whole food groups such as carbohydrates. Nutritional philosophies such as the carnivore diet and ketogenic diet have become extremely popular in the last decade. These diets do have their merits, and we agree with many of the principles they promote; however, we believe removing carbohydrates, especially long-term, is not a good idea, especially when we are looking to maximise our performance in high-intensity activities such as strength training.

Carbohydrates are the body’s main fuel for high-intensity activity such as strength training, and many people will report a drop in performance if they remove carbohydrates from their diet. They are also extremely useful at keeping the stress hormone cortisol in check and are also important for metabolic and hormonal health. Most people will see a decrease in thyroid hormone production when they remove carbohydrates from their diet in the long term. Carbohydrates are also positively correlated with healthy testosterone levels.

Dietary fat is also important for hormonal health and, along with protein, will also slow the digestion of a meal, allowing you to stay full between meals and avoid blood sugar crashes from high-carbohydrate meals. Some people do better with a lower-fat approach, and some do better with more of a moderate-fat intake. In general, the amount of dietary fat we consume will depend on whether we have adopted a high-carb or more moderate-carb approach. As dietary fat goes up, carbohydrates will need to go down, and vice versa, to avoid calories becoming too high, which will lead to excessive body fat gain.

Meal frequency is the number of meals eaten per day. We can use meal frequency to distribute calories and macronutrients over the day, in a way that fits our lifestyle and personal preferences. In terms of building muscle, meal frequency is not as important as we once believed. Research, as well as experience from coaches and gym enthusiasts, including those who compete in physique sports at a high level, indicates we do not need to eat multiple meals throughout the day, such as five or six, or even more.

A higher meal frequency can be useful when an individual has to consume a large number of calories. In this situation, eating more meals throughout the day makes sense, and this is why some bodybuilders will use a higher meal frequency. We find 3-4 meals per day is the sweet spot for most people. If you prefer to eat smaller, more frequent meals throughout the day, you can experiment with a higher meal frequency. If you find eating 3 larger meals throughout the day is a better fit for your lifestyle, then you should probably do that.

As with the training side of building muscle, adherence and consistency over months and years are crucial for building muscle. Choose a meal frequency that allows you to hit your calorie and macronutrient targets consistently. Eating 3-4 meals spaced out at least somewhat regularly throughout the day is also important, because this will provide 3-4 protein servings throughout the day, assuming the meals are well balanced and based around protein. This is important because when we eat a meal with a certain amount of protein, muscle protein synthesis is maximised.

Some studies have shown that 20-30 grams of protein will maximize muscle protein synthesis, assuming the majority of the protein comes from high-quality sources such as animal proteins. This is because animal sources of protein contain higher amounts of the amino acid leucine, which has a powerful effect on stimulating muscle protein synthesis. It has been suggested that if a meal contains more plant-based protein, then the meal should contain more protein overall. The amount of protein required to maximally stimulate muscle protein synthesis will likely also depend on the size of the individual as well as their age. Older individuals may require more protein.

How much of a difference muscle protein synthesis of an individual meal makes to muscle growth, and whether we need to maximise this is not clear at this time. Most researchers agree that the overall amount of protein consumed throughout the day is likely more important, as well as sending a strong signal to the muscles to adapt through productive hypertrophy training. With that said, when we look at multiple meals per day over years, it may make a small or even significant difference to muscle growth.

Since most people will eat 3-4 meals per day anyway, it makes sense to aim for a minimum amount of protein in each meal. As a general guideline, we recommend 30-50 grams of protein in each meal spaced approximately 3-5 hours apart. This will depend on your protein target for the day, as well as your meal frequency. It may also be beneficial to have a protein serving 1-2 hours after a training session. If you have not eaten for 4-5 hours before your training session, it is probably a good idea to consume protein as soon as you can after a training session, even if this is just a protein shake.

The foods that make up our calories and macronutrients are important, especially when performing high-intensity activities such as strength training, as we are purposely stressing the body in order that it adapts, becomes stronger, and builds new muscle. We also want to have energy and focus to push ourselves hard in the gym to maximise our potential to build muscle and recover well. The majority of our foods should consist of nutrient-dense whole foods that are minimally processed or not at all. Whole foods contain higher amounts of micronutrients, the vitamins and minerals which are vital for performance and recovery as well as our general health.

It is important that you choose foods which work well for you, rather than eating foods just because you believe or have been told that they are must eat foods, or are the ‘best’ foods for building muscle. Foods that cause you digestive stress should be avoided, as gut health is extremely important, especially when we are looking to absorb the nutrients contained in the foods we eat well to help us build muscle. The foods that will help you hit your macronutrient targets consistently and the ones you enjoy eating will be best.

We find that following the principles promoted in the bioenergetic model of health work well for most people. These are choosing easy-to-digest carbohydrates such as fruit and fruit juices, well-cooked potatoes and other root vegetables and white rice, and avoiding starches that can be problematic to many people, such as grains, especially commercially bought ones. Consuming high-quality animal sources of protein, including high quality dairy, and prioritising healthy saturated and monounsaturated fats is also recommended.

You do not need to track your calories and macronutrients to build muscle; however, you will need to be in a small calorie surplus if you want to maximise your potential to build muscle. To ensure you are in a calorie surplus, you can track your bodyweight trend over time. If your bodyweight is increasing, you are likely in a calorie surplus even if you do not know the precise number of calories and macronutrients you are consuming each day.

It is probably a good idea to track your protein intake, at least now and again, to ensure you are around your daily target. As long as you have enough carbohydrates to train hard and recover, your carb to fat ratio can be somewhat flexible, and may even be different each day.

With that said, it may be useful for beginners to track their macronutrients, at least for a period of time. This can help them learn about the different food groups and establish if they feel and perform better on different ratios of carbohydrates to fats. Some people may feel better on a high-carb, low-fat diet, while others may feel better on a lower-carb, higher-fat diet. Many people do best on more of a mixed approach, consuming a decent amount of carbohydrates as well as a moderate amount of dietary fat.

Collecting real-world data, such as body weight and body part measurements, is crucial because it provides clear and objective information about our progress. This data helps us assess whether our current training is productive and allows us to make adjustments based on our current rate of progress and results. Training that produced a certain level of development may not be effective for making progress into the intermediate stage or beyond.

Although body weight alone does not tell the whole story behind whether we have gained muscle or not, it is still a reliable indicator of muscle growth if used the right way in combination with other data. If we are gaining body weight at the correct rate and we are getting stronger (lifting more weight over multiple sets in a medium repetition range), this is a good indication that we are building muscle, although some of the weight gained will be from body fat. Since muscle growth is a slow process, we’re looking for a monthly trend of bodyweight increase.

To improve accuracy, we recommend weighing yourself each day and then looking at your body weight average over a period of time, usually 2 weeks to a month. The main thing we are looking for is a monthly increase as a percentage of your body weight. This will smooth out the natural fluctuations in daily body weight. Some weeks the scale may not move or barely move at all, and some weeks, it may increase.

As long as your average weight from one month to the next month is increasing at around your target rate, you are heading in the right direction. You will also find that weight gain is not linear. Some months you will only gain a little, it may even be under your target rate, while other months you may see a larger increase in body weight. For the most accurate results we recommend you use the following strategy:

For recovery from our training sessions, sleep is going to be hands down the most impactful thing we can focus on and try to optimise as much as possible. The better our recovery, the harder we can train and the more volume we can perform and recover from, up to a point. It is also vital for our overall health and will help maintain good hormonal and metabolic health. Sleep quality and duration are positively correlated with increasing and maintaining healthy testosterone levels in men. The bottom line is that getting consistent, good-quality sleep will make body composition goals such as building muscle and losing body fat far easier.

Here are some strategies for improving sleep quality:

Stress is not inherently bad, it is a normal part of life and can not be avoided altogether. Acute stress can be beneficial, such as the short bouts of stress from a training session in the gym. This stress is the mechanism behind how we adapt and grow stronger over time. Stress only becomes a problem when it is too great and exceeds the ability of our body to recover from it.

The real problem, especially in the modern world, is chronic stress, which can be caused by things such as poor nutrition leading to nutritional deficiencies, as well as over-exercising and under-eating. Of course, psychological stress is also a big problem, especially in the modern world, where people have stressful jobs, financial and relationship stress, or they find themselves in a negative environment they feel they cannot escape from.

When stress is elevated all of the time, the body is in the ‘fight or flight’ mode. This is controlled by the sympathetic nervous system, which prepares the body for strenuous physical activity. This is a vital survival mechanism and helps us survive dangerous situations; however, it is not good for us to remain in this state, as over time the body will begin to break down. In this state, the stress hormone cortisol can be chronically elevated, which makes building muscle and losing body fat much more difficult or even impossible in certain cases. It is also extremely detrimental to our overall health.

Here are some strategies that can help mitigate stress:

Maintaining a degree of daily activity is important for our overall health and is also beneficial for fitness goals such as building muscle and maintaining a healthy body fat percentage. Structured exercise we perform in the gym will not completely negate the negative effects of living a sedentary lifestyle. As far as energy balance is concerned, traditional strength training such as the type we perform to build muscle will not burn a large number of calories. Cardio will burn a moderate number of calories depending on the intensity; however, the majority of calories we burn throughout the week will come from our daily activity. This is also referred to as Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT).

From an evolutionary perspective, our bodies are perfectly adapted to perform mostly low-intensity activity with the ability to perform high-intensity activity for short periods of time when needed. Moving into the modern world, we can see why combining low-intensity general activity with high-intensity activity such as strength training is so beneficial for our overall health. What is not good for our bodies is long periods of inactivity throughout the day, even if we are still performing structured exercise in the gym for 3-5 hours per week.

As humans, the activity we are perfectly adapted to is walking. We can walk for long distances even without food, and as walking is low intensity, it is not stressful on the body. For this reason, the easiest way to ensure we are maintaining a degree of daily activity is to simply walk more, and having a daily step target is an easy way to quantify this. The good news is that we can make walking a part of our everyday life, even when we are working jobs that are fairly sedentary in nature.

For body composition goals, walking more throughout the day will allow us to consume more calories while maintaining our body weight, and will also allow us to consume more calories in a lean gaining phase without gaining body fat too quickly. The more calories and therefore food we can consume, the more nutrients we can consume, which will be beneficial to our training, recovery, and general health. This is assuming we are eating nutrient-dense whole foods and are not in too large of a calorie surplus.

The commonly stated goal of 10K steps per day is a good target to aim for. We recommend anywhere from 8-12K steps per day. This range has been shown in studies to be extremely beneficial to our general health and is also realistic and achievable for most people. With that said, as many people are working in fairly sedentary jobs, some conscious effort and habit building may be required to reach this target.

Here are some useful strategies for including more walking into your daily lifestyle:

Although performing regular cardio is not required for building muscle, it is probably a good idea to maintain at least a baseline of cardiovascular conditioning. It may even be beneficial for muscle growth. Having a good level of cardiovascular fitness will improve your work capacity in the gym and will allow you to work at a high level of intensity when performing your sets. The benefit of this would be seen most clearly when performing extremely challenging exercises such as when training legs, especially using higher repetition sets.

When performing any exercise, we want the limiting factor to be the target muscle group, not our cardiovascular system. For example, if we have to stop a set of squats because of poor cardiovascular fitness, rather than the quads fatiguing, then the set will not be effective for building muscle. Having a decent base level of cardiovascular conditioning will likely also improve recovery from our strength training sessions. It has also been suggested that nutrient partitioning may be improved, meaning more of the calories and micronutrients we consume will go to building muscle rather than being stored as body fat.

It is interesting to note that some of the most well known natural bodybuilders/fitness influencers online with the most impressive physiques have come from a background of endurance sports such as running, and still continue to perform regular cardio, although at a reduced amount. It has been suggested that this may be the reason that they have been able to build such impressive physiques. They are able to perform more volume, push themselves harder, and recover better due to their high level of cardiovascular fitness. We cannot be sure that this is the reason for the amount of progress they have been able to make; however, it is likely a contributing factor at least.

What this does prove is that performing a moderate amount of cardio regularly will not hinder our ability to build muscle, as is sometimes believed, and it will likely be beneficial to muscle growth in the long term. It is also important for our health and longevity. Although low-intensity activity such as walking is great for cardiovascular/heart health, improving our cardiovascular fitness will require us to work at a higher intensity level.

With that said, the interference effect is a real thing, and the adaptations the body makes to endurance activities compared to strength training are at 2 opposite ends of the spectrum. We cannot be an endurance athlete and maximise the amount of muscle we can build at the same time. We only have so much recovery ability as well as days in the week to train, so we must use cardio wisely when our main goal is building muscle. Luckily, we can get the majority of the benefits and improve and maintain a good level of cardiovascular conditioning with a relatively low amount of weekly cardio.

As far as cardio is concerned, we have two main options. Steady-state cardio involves working at a low to moderate intensity for a specific duration, while high-intensity cardio involves working at a high intensity for a short period, followed by periods of low-intensity work for recovery.  Working at different intensities will result in different adaptations by the body, and will also have their own pros and cons. The one you choose can come down to personal preference as well as what best suits your current training split, your current goals, and your current lifestyle.

Lower intensity cardio is less stressful on the body and therefore does not impact recovery as much as performing high intensity cardio.  This can make it a good option for individuals whose main goal is building muscle and are pushing themselves hard in the gym.  Being able to get the benefits of improved cardiovascular fitness without impacting recovery from strength training sessions to any large degree is a smart idea.

Low to moderate-intensity steady-state cardio is an excellent way to build a solid foundation of cardiovascular fitness and endurance. The downside is that it does require a slightly longer time commitment each week compared to performing high-intensity cardio. If you want to truly maximise your performance and cardiovascular fitness, incorporating some higher-intensity cardio would be beneficial. This is another potential downside of relying solely on lower-intensity steady-state cardio.

High-intensity cardio will result in different adaptations compared to lower-intensity cardio and will develop things such as power, speed, and explosiveness.  These adaptations are similar to the adaptations caused by strength training, and therefore many strength-based athletes prefer to perform high-intensity cardio.  It is also more time-efficient, meaning we can get a lot of work done in a short amount of time. The downside to high-intensity cardio is that it will impact recovery significantly more than lower-intensity cardio, depending on how much you are performing. For this reason, more thought needs to be given to the amount of high-intensity cardio you perform each week and where you place your high-intensity cardio sessions in relation to your strength training sessions.

True high-intensity cardio involves nearly 100% or 100% efforts for a short duration, usually 10-15 seconds. This means sprinting or almost sprinting at maximum effort for 10-15 seconds. If you can sustain this level of effort for more than 10-15 seconds, you’re not performing true high-intensity cardio. Therefore, your overall health and fitness should be considered when deciding whether high-intensity cardio is appropriate for you, as well as the equipment you use. With that said, we can receive the benefits of high-intensity cardio with a surprisingly small amount each week. Performing just 2-3 sessions of 10-15 minutes each week can be beneficial, and this will not impact recovery to any large degree for most people.

The caveat here is that it is not causing any muscular/joint discomfort or pain or leading to regular injuries.  It is probably not a good idea to start sprinting if you have not run since you were in high school! Other machines such as an assault bike may be a better option. If you would like to increase or maintain your cardiovascular fitness without impacting your ability to build muscle, a smart strategy for most people is to use a combination of low-intensity steady-state cardio combined with some high-intensity cardio throughout the week.

Here are some general cardio recommendations:

Living a healthy lifestyle will make achieving your fitness goals easier. The healthier we are, the easier it will be to build muscle over time. We’ve already discussed crucial lifestyle factors like eating mostly nutrient-dense, minimally processed whole foods, getting sufficient quality sleep, managing stress as much as possible, creating a positive environment, and avoiding negativity. Daily activity and trying to get as much sunlight as possible are also important. The other side of living a healthy lifestyle is removing or limiting unhealthy habits.

The things we all know are detrimental to our health should also be addressed if we want to live a healthy lifestyle and maximise our potential to build muscle. Excessive alcohol consumption, for instance, severely impacts the results we can expect to achieve. Even having one or two drinks each night over the long term has a negative effect and will affect sleep quality as well. Avoiding alcohol during the week and drinking excessively at the weekend is also detrimental to our health and fitness goals. The other obvious things we should remove if we are looking to maximise our potential to build muscle and improve our overall fitness are smoking, including cannabis, as well as other recreational drugs.

Almost every man is carrying some excess body fat, some far more than others. Even those who would be defined as thin or lean by general population standards, which is not a high standard by any means, are still carrying more body fat than they think. Even experienced health-conscious fitness enthusiasts who may have been training for some time, have made decent progress, and are doing most things right, find out they have far more body fat than they think, when they commit to a proper and well-executed fat loss phase. As they start to approach decent levels of leanness, believing they are around 10-12 percent body fat, they are, in fact, usually just approaching 15 percent.

Before starting any building phase, where the goal is to maximise our ability to build muscle, we recommend a dedicated fat loss phase. We prefer to call it a body recomposition phase, as the goal is to build some muscle as we drop body fat, even though we are not placing the body in an optimal state to maximise muscle growth. This is phase one of building the Modern Fit Physique.

Getting lean first, around 10-12% body fat, has a number of benefits. Some of these include improved insulin sensitivity and nutrient partitioning, reducing inflammation, and improving metabolic and hormonal health. The healthier we are in general, the easier we will be able to build muscle in the future, as mentioned previously. The other huge benefit, and we would argue necessity, is that starting a building phase at a decent level of leanness provides a long runway ahead for building muscle without gaining excess body fat when maintaining a small calorie surplus to maximise muscle growth.

After a dedicated body recomposition phase, dedicated building phases are used to maximise muscle growth. This is when we place the body in an optimum nutritional environment to build muscle by consuming more calories. The goal is to maximise muscle growth while minimising the accumulation of body fat. Building muscle is a much slower process than losing body fat, and this is the reason we need to commit to long building phases, usually between nine to twelve months.

Building phases are what will eventually result in the Modern Fit Physique, and the majority of your time should be spent in these phases rather than fat loss phases. You need to be in a building phase for more time than you are in a fat loss phase throughout the year. With that said, strategically placed, short-duration fat loss phases, often referred to as mini cuts or clean-up phases, can be used during a building phase to keep body fat in check.

After you have spent a significant amount of time in a building phase, more traditional, longer-duration fat loss phases can be used, usually 8-12 weeks, assuming you have run your building phase well and have not gained too much body fat. This will prime your body for the next building phase, and can even help you reset physiologically if you are sick of having to eat a lot of food.

These dedicated building and clean-up phases are phase two of building the Modern Fit Physique, and you should be in this phase from anywhere from three to five years or even longer, until you are happy with the amount of muscle you have built, and you have decent size even when lean. This will be different for different people, depending on how much muscle they want to build, their genetics, age, and training age, and how productive or effective their training has been.

Although the goal is not to be a bodybuilder, we are still using bodybuilding-type training or hypertrophy-specific training, as this is the best way to build muscle. Although the ultimate goal is not to build the absolute most amount of muscle possible and spend our lives in the gym, we are still aiming for a significant amount of muscle, more than 95% of the population. This is a necessity because if we have not built a significant amount of muscle, we will look small at 10-12% body fat, and this is not the Modern Fit Physique.

The good news is that we can build this physique without placing excessive amounts of stress on the body and spending our lives in the gym when we understand principles of strength training such as training volume and how there is a diminishing return on doing more. In simple terms, the first few sets of an exercise will provide the most stimulus for building muscle, with each subsequent set providing less. This does not mean we are only performing two sets per exercise; however, it does allow us to focus on quality over quantity while still training effectively to build muscle.

Yes, we could potentially build muscle a little faster if we performed more training volume, but we need to ask the question of at what cost? Since we are not trying to be bodybuilders, we can set our training up in a way that is less stressful on the body, is arguably better for our overall health, gives us more time to pursue other areas of fitness and life, and fits into the modern lifestyle better. We will likely still reach 90% of our genetic potential, although it may take a little longer. Since we have years and years of training ahead of us, what is the rush?

With this I mind, here are some of the principles and strategies we focus on:

We have already discussed the benefits of cardiovascular training and how it can be beneficial to building muscle in the long term. Building a decent level of cardiovascular fitness is a major component of building the Modern Fit Physique, not simply an afterthought or a way to burn a few calories. We take it seriously, the goal is to improve it over time, just as we aim to improve our strength and muscular size through strength training.

Although we can improve our cardiovascular health and fitness using any type of cardio, we place an emphasis on running, and not just running on a treadmill in the gym. Being able to run at a decent pace, over a short to medium distance, outside, and pain free is a skill we believe is an integral component of The Modern Fit Physique. Being able to run, especially outside and over varied terrain, is a good indication that our biomechanics, or the way we move, are in a good place. It is the most natural movement and the movement that the body is designed to be able to do well, along with walking.

Being able to run on a treadmill or sit on a bike, even if you have developed a good level of conditioning, does not mean you have built The Modern Fit Physique. The goal is to be more of an all round athlete, and this means we should be able to run. That's not to say other forms of cardio can not be used, especially during fat loss phases, such as phase one of building the Modern Fit Physique, however, we believe including some running to be beneficial.

We are not looking to break any records here, and the volume and intensity of the running you perform must be based on your current level of fitness as well as the phase of training you are in. Running is best used during a building phase where the goal is to maximise muscle growth as well as build other areas of fitness such as our cardiovascular fitness. We are consuming more calories and carbohydrates during a building phase and our recovery is also greater. Performing higher intensity cardio as well as more fatiguing high impact cardio such as running is less of an issue and the increased hunger levels this type of cardio can cause is not a problem compared to when we are consuming fewer calories in a fat loss phase.

With that said, this type of training has to be limited to some extent as we do not want it to interfere with our strength training and our ability to build muscle and recover from hard training sessions. One to two or up to three, short to medium duration low to moderate intensity runs can be used depending on the individual, their current goals, and the training split they are currently following, as well as their current lifestyle and stress levels.

Living a healthy lifestyle will make achieving your fitness goals easier. The healthier we are, the easier it will be to build muscle over time. We’ve already discussed crucial lifestyle factors like eating mostly nutrient-dense, minimally processed whole foods, getting sufficient quality sleep, managing stress as much as possible, creating a positive environment, and avoiding negativity. Daily activity and trying to get as much sunlight as possible are also important. The other side of living a healthy lifestyle is removing or limiting unhealthy habits.

Decades of real-world experience from fitness coaches, bodybuilders, strength athletes, general fitness enthusiasts, as well as the latest hypertrophy research, means we now have a fairly comprehensive understanding of what it takes to build muscle. We know what principles need to be in place to build muscle. We also know what things are of greater importance and what things are of lesser importance or hardly matter at all. The process of building muscle is a relatively simple one; however, this does not mean it is easy. In fact, building muscle is harder than other fitness goals such as losing body fat.

Building muscle takes time, and consistent hard work over years is required. Repeating the same things week after week, month after month, and year after year is what builds muscle. The more advanced our goals are, the more details matter, and the more complex our training may need to become. We will also have to become our own coach and manage things like volume, frequency, fatigue, and recovery to continue to progress and build as much muscle as possible, as we get close to our genetic potential.