We now have access to more information than at any other time. Fitness content is easily accessible to all, and social media influencers have hundreds of thousands or even millions of followers. This can be a double-edged sword, especially for beginners who are just starting their fitness journey. There is undoubtedly good information out there, and much of it is free. There is also bad information out there. You could even class some of this content as misleading and some of the paid content outright scams. Influencers who sell poorly designed and ineffective programs which promise unrealistic and even unattainable outcomes for many.

An individual coming across good information and following the right people can make fantastic progress, and the information they learn can set them up well for their fitness journey ahead. An individual coming across poor information can end up wasting months or even years following poor advice or focusing on the things that are of lesser importance. Worst of all, this may lead to them giving up on their fitness journey before it has even begun due to lack of progress and results.

After decades of experience from coaches around the world as well as research on the mechanisms behind building muscle, we now have a pretty good understanding of what it takes to build muscle. Some of these mechanisms are not fully understood at this time; however, the big picture fundamentals are understood. We know that if these principles are applied consistently, the outcome is muscle growth. Understanding and applying the fundamentals will result in 90% or more of the muscle growth an individual is likely to build over their lifetime.

Here is our guide to training to build muscle, also known as hypertrophy training. Click on the links to learn more about any subject.

Here is some basic lifting terminology for you to familiarise yourself with:

repetition (Reps)

Repetitions or reps is simply the amount 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.

sets

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

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 a muscle group.

intensity

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.

repetitions in reserve (rIR)

Repetitions in reserve (RIR) is a scale used to measure the intensity of a set. It is the amount of repetitions you have left in a set before you reach muscular failure. The point at which you are unable to move a weight due to muscular fatigue.

frequency

Frequency is the number of time you train or work a muscle group per week. It is not the amount of times you train or use the gym per week.

Although the size and strength of a muscle are highly correlated, we can train to either maximise muscle growth (hypertrophy) or strength. One of the main differences between training to build muscle and training to maximize strength is the number of repetitions we perform in a set. Pure strength training involves using lower repetition ranges, typically between 1-3 reps. As we are performing fewer repetitions, the weight is heavier. Much of the strength gained through lifting heavier weights is due to the nervous system becoming more efficient in a specific movement or exercise, as it learns to send a stronger signal to the muscles to contract.

When training to build muscle, we are still focusing on strength progression; however, we are mostly aiming to gain strength in the medium repetition ranges, typically between 5-15 reps. Although performing some lower repetition sets below 5 and some higher repetition sets above 15 can also be used. Performing the majority of our sets in the medium repetition range allows us to accumulate more volume, which is more important when training to build muscle, and is also more practical in terms of how long our training sessions are, as well as the effect on things such as joint and connective tissue health.

Pure strength training is more specific compared to hypertrophy training, meaning we have to perform a specific movement often to get strong at it. We will also lose strength quicker if we stop performing a specific exercise as the nervous system becomes less efficient. Hypertrophy training is less specific, meaning we can use more variety in the exercises we are performing, as strength is not the primary goal, although we will get stronger as we build more muscle in the medium repetition range. We can also perform our sets working in a larger range of repetitions.

Progressive overload is a principle in strength training that, as the name suggests, involves making your training progressively more challenging over time. In the case of building muscle, this means gradually increasing the stress or stimulus we place on a muscle group so that it is forced to adapt and become stronger. To do this, the muscle will increase in size (hypertrophy). Although there are a number of different ways to implement progressive overload, the two main ways we do this when our goal is building muscle are to increase the weight we are using and increase the number of repetitions at a given weight.

Progressive overload is often described as adding weight or trying to perform an extra rep from your previous workout. Although this should be the goal, there may be a better way to think about progressive overload. Being able to lift more weight or perform an extra rep is the result of progressive overload. The stimulus you placed on the muscle group the last time you trained it, working at a close proximity to muscular failure with a new weight or extra rep, forced your muscles to adapt allowing you to increase weight or perform an extra rep in your current training session.

This can be a useful way to think about hypertrophy training. You will not always be able to increase weight or add an extra rep on an exercise each week. A trap many people fall into is believing they have to add weight or perform more reps each session to ensure progressive overload is achieved. This can often result in changes to exercise form just so they can gain that extra rep they believe is necessary for an effective training session. As long as you are performing your sets at the correct intensity, a set will still be stimulating for hypertrophy even if you repeated the same weight and reps as in the previous workout.

Over the weeks, this will result in an adaptation, allowing you to get that extra rep or add weight, which is an indication progressive overload was being achieved, even though it may have seemed like you did not progress on some exercises every week. This can take some of the stress out of believing we need to add weight and reps every single week to progress.

A simple example of progressive overload in action is using the double progression model. For example, when working in a repetition range, we gradually add reps until we reach the upper end of our repetition range. We then increase the weight a little so that we lose a few reps, while still being able to hit the bottom of our repetition range. We then repeat the process. This allows us to work at the correct intensity, taking our sets to a close proximity to muscular failure while staying in the medium repetition ranges, which is where we want to be when training to build muscle.

Volume, Intensity, and frequency are 3 principles used in strength training. These 3 variables are used to design training programs, whether the goal is building muscle (hypertrophy) or more strength-based. Having a basic understanding of these important principles will help you better understand how to build muscle effectively and whether your current training program is set up well.

volume

When our main goal is building muscle, a simple and effective way to quantify training volume is to count the number of working sets we perform 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 reccomendation 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.

Most coaches working with real people in the real world find a lower 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.

intensity

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 for most exercises. This will depend on the type of exercise you are performing as well as the equipment you are using. 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

Frequency is the amount 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 when our goal is 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 of a 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.

We can build muscle using a fairly wide range of repetition ranges. This is well known by coaches and is also supported by the latest research. The main factor behind whether a set is stimulative for hypertrophy is the proximity to muscular failure it is taken to, as mentioned previously. Heavier sets using lower reps can be stimulative for hypertrophy when staying a little further away from muscular failure. A set of 4-6 reps performed at a 1-2 RIR will still be an effective set since full muscle fibre recruitment is required even from the first repetition. Lighter sets using less weight will need to be taken closer to muscular failure to be maximally stimulative for hypertrophy.

The sweet spot for hypertrophy is the medium repetition range, around the 5-15 rep range. This repetition range allows us to perform our sets at a high level of intensity without accumulating excessive fatigue, and our sets are also long enough in duration to be stimulative for hypertrophy. It is also beneficial for joint and connective tissue health, compared to performing multiple sets with heavier weights throughout the week. This repetition range is also practical to use in the real world, from a time efficiency standpoint. We can get a sufficient amount of work done in a short amount of time.

You can perform some sets lower than 4 reps and some higher than 15; however, it is a good idea to perform the majority of your sets in the 5-15 repetition range. Higher repetition ranges, such as 20 and above, can be effective; however, they are extremely challenging to perform both physically and physiologically, especially since we need to perform these much closer to muscular failure since we are using lighter weights. They are also harder to recover from and will cause more soreness, which can affect when you are able to train that muscle group again. This is especially true for lower body training.

The exercise you are performing will also dictate the repetition range you use to some degree. Some exercises are more appropriate for certain repetition ranges, and some may simply feel better in a certain repetition range. The equipment you are using can also make some repetition ranges more or less appropriate, for example, using free weights vs machines. Personal preference and enjoyment should also be taken into consideration. If you enjoy performing an exercise in a certain repetition range, you will likely get more out of it.

One simple way to think about training to build muscle is the following sentence: Progressive poundages in the medium repetition range are the key to building muscle. I did not come up with this sentence; the credit goes to Fazlifts for this. This one sentence simplifies the process of building muscle. If you are lifting more weight over time, working in the medium repetition range, around 5-15 reps, you will have built muscle.

Of course, this is easier said than done, and the more advanced your goals are, the more difficult things become. Things such as volume, intensity, and frequency, and how we manipulate these over time, are the levers we pull to allow this to happen. Of course, other things such as eating enough, the overall quality of our diet, and our recovery are also important. The other main factors are consistency and patience. Building muscle is a long-term game.

One key factor in building muscle is exercise selection. Choosing the most effective exercises for each muscle group, and choosing the ones which fit your unique body structure and work well for you is vital. The best exercises for hypertrophy need to train the target muscle effectively, without causing any joint discomfort or pain. Since building muscle is a long-term game, they should be able to be loaded incrementally for years. If we cannot continue to load an exercise long-term, then we cannot progressively overload a muscle group.

hitting the target muscle effectively

Training the muscle group we are trying to grow is vital. We need to place as much tension on the target muscle as possible, rather than feeling it on the joints or supporting muscle groups we are not targeting. The muscle group we are targeting should be the limiting factor. This means when we are performing the exercise, the target muscle group is the one that fatigues as we get closer to muscular failure, rather than a supporting muscle group failing before the muscle we are trying to target is fatigued, causing us to stop the set.

compound lifts

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 in men.

isolation exercises

Isolation exercises or single-joint exercises are useful when our goal is building muscle (hypertrophy), 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 exercise to complement compound lifts is vital when training for muscle growth.

machines vs Free weights

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 us to perform more volume when used in combination with free weight exercises. They are also great to use with intensity techniques such as myo 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.

Lifting The Weight

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.

Lowering the weight

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

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 may even want to pause for a split second.

Resting sufficient time between sets for the same muscle group is important because it allows for adequate recovery and ensures the next set will be a high-quality set which is maximally stimulative for hypertrophy. If we do not rest long enough between sets, the number of repetitions we can perform in the following sets will be reduced too much, affecting the amount of volume we can accumulate. Overtime, this may be detrimental for hypertrophy as we will be performing less work and therefore placing less stress on a muscle group in our training sessions.

When performing multiple sets of an exercise for the same muscle group, a drop in the number of repetitions you can perform in each set is normal. This means your previous set was performed at an adequate level of intensity to be stimulative for hypertrophy. The muscle is fatigued, resulting in you being able to perform fewer reps on the subsequent set. Loosing 1-2 reps from the previous set is normal, and it may even be 3 on certain exercises, especially if you are past the beginner stage and are fairly strong. Loosing 3 or more reps on all of your exercises consistently could be a sign you are not resting long enough.

A typical rep drop of over multiple sets may look something like the following:

As far as rest times are concerned, you have two options. Some people prefer to time their rest periods to ensure they are resting the same amount of time between sets and the same amount of time they were in their last training session. The benefit of this is that we are removing a variable, meaning that if we performed an extra repetition this week from the previous week, we did so because we got stronger, rather than we rested a little longer than last time.

Another option is to simply perform your next set when you feel you are ready. This is probably best used by more experienced lifters who know their bodies and know when they are ready to perform their next set. As long as there is not a large drop in the number of repetitions they performed compared to the previous set, they have rested long enough.

Here are some general guidelines for rest times:

As a beginner, it is fairly easy to make progress as long as our training is set up at least somewhat sensibly, and our exercise selection and form are at least okay. It will not be perfect at this stage. As long as we are getting some stimulus on the muscle we are trying to target and we are working at an adequate intensity, we should be able to add repetitions or weight onto an exercise on a session-by-session basis. This is because a beginner is untrained and the novelty of beginning to lifts weights sends a strong stimulus for the body to adapt.

Much of the initial progress made by beginners is also neurological, the nervous system learning to be more efficient when performing an exercise and adapting to send a stronger signal to the muscles to contract. Beginners can and probably should stay a little further away from muscular failure when they perform their sets. Using a 1-3 RIR depending on the exercise is recommended. This is because there is a greater risk of form breakdown when beginners push their sets closer to muscular failure, and it is important for beginners to focus on technique and learn good form from the beginning.

As a beginner is getting that novel stimulus, the intensity of their sets can be a little lower, and they are still getting enough of a stimulus to ensure progressive overload is achieved. Intermediate lifters will need to perform their sets closer to muscular failure to ensure they are maximally stimulative for hypertrophy.

Beginner training in general should be simple. As long as a beginner is doing most things right most of the time, they will make good progress. As we move past the beginner stage into the early intermediate, intermediate, and beyond, training complexity will need to increase if we are looking to maximise our results. As an intermediate, the fundamentals will still produce 80% of a lifter’s results; however, smaller details will likely matter more, and customising a training program to the individual is more important.

As far as training volume is concerned, there appears to be a general pattern for what is required to build muscle at different stages of progression. As a beginner, almost any training volume will work because they are in an untrained state and highly receptive to any training stimulus. However, as a lifter transitions from the beginner stage to the early intermediate stage, they may need to increase their training volume to maximize progress. Similarly, an intermediate lifter will often need to increase training volume once more to progress from the intermediate stage to the late intermediate stage as they approach the advanced stage.

The intermediate stage might be the time when a lifter uses the highest training volume in their entire lifting journey. As a lifter progresses to the advanced stage, their volume tends to decrease. This is because advanced lifters possess greater strength, better technique, and the ability to get more from each set. They can generate sufficient stimulus to stimulate growth even with fewer sets. Additionally, as they lift heavier weights, they require more recovery. If they were to continue to perform the same amount of sets as they did in their intermediate stage, they may run into recovery issues, as well as joint and connective tissue problems.

Now that you have learnt a little about volume, intensity, and frequency, you should be able to understand why popular training splits are effective at building muscle. Training splits are simply a way to distribute your weekly volume and manage recovery between different muscle groups. There is no ‘best’ training split, assuming a training split is set up at least somewhat well, with adequate volume, intensity, and frequency. With that said, there are training splits that may be more or less appropriate depending on the training age of an individual, as well as their goals and current lifestyle.

A good way to decide which training split might be a good fit for you is to first decide on how many days you want to train, or more importantly, are realistically able to train each week. There is no point choosing a training split that has you training 5 or 6 times per week if you have a busy and possibly stressful work life and also have family commitments. Any training split you choose needs to be sustainable as adherence to a training program is vital in order to make consistent long-term progress.

With this in mind, we can see why popular training splits are used. These training splits will have you training with an effective training frequency, usually 2-3 times per week, and also allow you to distribute your training volume over the week. This will also allow you to train using a high level of intensity.

These are by no means the only way to organise your training; they are simply a few of the most popular and effective training splits.

Here is a simple 3 day full body beginner program:

Workout A (Monday)

Workout B (Wednesday)

Workout C (Friday)

Here is a simple 4 day upper body lower body program, suitable for an early intermediate lifter. You could also use this if you are a beginner who wants to train 4 times per week:

Upper Body A (Monday)

Lower Body A (Tuesday)

Upper Body B (Thursday)

Lower Body B (Friday)

It is important to have a progression model when training to build muscle. A progression model is a method or strategy we use to increase the stress we are placing on a muscle group over time in order to achieve progressive overload. When our goal is building muscle, it is vital to increase the amount of weight we are lifting within the medium repetition range, as mentioned previously. To do this, we can slowly increase the number of repetitions we perform for a particular exercise until we reach a target number of repetitions. When this is achieved, we can increase the weight.

This allows us to stay within our target repetition range, while performing our sets at a close proximity to muscular failure, maintaining the correct intensity so that our sets are stimulative for hypertrophy. A simple and effective way to do this is to use the progression model known as double progression. With double progression, we use 2 variables to progress with: these are weight and repetitions. We add weight until we reach the top of our chosen repetition range, before increasing the weight. The amount of weight we add should allow us to hit at least the bottom of our repetition range. We then repeat the process.

You can also use single progression. As the name suggests, this progression model uses only 1 variable to progress with. With single progression, we perform a set number of repetitions for an exercise and increase the weight by a small amount each week so that we are able to hit the same number of repetitions we did the previous time we performed the exercise. This can work well for beginners as they are able to progress quickly enough to be able to perform the same exercise again without losing repetitions each week. An example of this can be seen in beginner programs such as 3 x 5 or 5 x 5.

Single progression is best used with compound barbell lifts where we can add a small amount of weight to the bar each week. Usually 2.5kg or 5 lbs. You can even use fractional plates which will allow you to add even less weight to the bar each week, ensuring you can always hit your repetition target while increasing the weight a little each week. Single progression will not work with dumbbells as you cannot move up to the next set of dumbbells as regularly as the weight increase is too large to be able to maintain a single repetition target.

As you can see from our example programs, we use the double progression model. If you are a beginner who would like to try the single progression model, you can use this on some of your compound barbell exercises. We recommend it for the barbell squat, barbell or trap bar deadlift, barbell bench press, and barbell overhead shoulder press. You can use 5 repetitions for all of these exercises. As you can see, we can use double progression and single progression in the same training session, depending on the exercise we are performing.

It goes without saying that nutrition is extremely important when our goal is building muscle. You can think of nutrition or diet as the other side of the equation in terms of hypertrophy. The training we perform in the gym is the stimulus, the signal we send to our muscles that an adaptation is required so that we can handle the stress we have placed on the body better next time. Nutrition is what permits that adaptation to take place, providing the body with the resources it needs to build new muscle tissue and recover from our training sessions.

A diet that is set up well for our goals will also allow us to train hard with the correct intensity so that we are able to send a strong signal to the body to adapt. If we do not have energy to train hard and perform our sets at a high level of intensity, then our training sessions will not be effective at stimulating muscle growth.

Eating enough to gain weight

To maximize the potential for our 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 if we want to maximise the amount of muscle we can potentially build. This means consuming around 200-300 calories above your maintenance calories. This would be considered a lean bulk or gaining phase. Eating enough to ensure we are maximizing muscle growth without overeating, which will 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 you will need to enter a calorie deficit sooner in order to lose body fat. This means you are spending less time in an optimum nutritional state to maximize muscle growth.

Estimating your starting calories

Determining your exact maintenance calories and therefore the amount of calories you need to consume for a lean bulk is fairly difficult. Your metabolic rate is determined by many things and will also change over time. Your day-to-day energy expenditure will also fluctuate and can also be affected by many things. Luckily, we do not need to know the exact amount of calories we should be consuming and can instead go by our rate of weight gain over a period of time.

With this in mind, we can use a simple TDEE calculator to estimate our starting calories. This may or may not be accurate for you; however, it will get most people in the ballpark for where they need to be. As you will be adjusting your calories based on the rate of weight gain, it does not matter if they are not 100% accurate at first. TDEE is the number of calories you need to maintain your body weight taking into account your daily activity and the amount of exercise you perform. This is also known as maintenance calories. Once you know this number, you can add 200-300 calories to this number to establish your lean bulk numbers.

Can you gain muscle without gaining body fat?

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.

How fast should You gain weight?

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 1 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 gaining a little more body fat or not. Male and female athletes should also gain at different rates. 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.

As a general rule, if you are skinny with low levels of body fat, you can aim for the higher end of the recommended rates of weight gain. You may even need to go higher. If you have more body fat, you can aim for the lower end of the recommendations. If you are skinny fat, meaning you have a fairly high body fat level with not much muscle, you may want to aim for a recomp rather than gaining more body fat.

protein

Along with consuming enough calories to build muscle, one of the most important things to maximize our potential to build muscle is consuming enough protein. Protein is used to build new muscle tissue and will also help us recover from our training sessions. It is the building block of new muscle. 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 bodyweight is adequate to maximize 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 little higher protein intake of around 1 gram per lb of bodyweight. A slight higher protein intake has no negative effects so it may be a good idea to consume a little more.

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 maximize 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.

Carbohydrates and fats

As we have set our protein by bodyweight, the rest of our calories will be allocated to carbohydrates and fats. 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 maximize 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 health in general. 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 in men. They are also beneficial for hormonal health in general, so they are also important for women.

Dietary fat is also important for hormonal health and, along with protein, will also slow the digestion of a meal, allowing us 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 and Protein servings

Meal frequency is the number of meals you eat per day. We can use meal frequency to distribute our 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, shows we do not have to eat multiple meals throughout the day, such as 5-6 or even more.

Where a higher meal frequency is useful is 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 vital 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 give us 3-4 protein servings throughout the day, assuming our 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 maximized.

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 maximize 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.

Food Quality

The foods that make up our calories and macronutrients are important, especially when we are performing high-intensity activities such as strength training and are purposely stressing our bodies in order that they adapt, become stronger, and build new muscle. We also want to have energy and focus to push ourselves hard in the gym and maximize our ability to 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 any 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 will be best.

We find that following some of the principles of the bioenergetic model of health works well for many people. These are choosing easy-to-digest carbohydrates such as fruit and fruit juices, well-cooked 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 and prioritising healthy saturated and monounsaturated fats is also recommended.

Do you need to track calories and Macronutrients?

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 maximize 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.

How to track progress and make adjustments based on your results

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 some of the natural fluctuations in daily body weight. Some weeks the scale may not move or barely move at all, and on 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:

Now you have some real world data you can make adjustments to your calorie and macronutrient intake based on your results:

The training we perform in the gym each week is the signal we send to the body to force an adaptation; however, this is only a small amount of time compared to the rest of the hours in the week. The things we do outside of the gym will play a huge role in determining the results we achieve from a training program. Although some things may not seem that important, when we zoom out and look at the big picture over years and years of training, these things matter and will help you maximize the amount of muscle you can potentially build.

Certain lifestyle habits and strategies will compound over time and can be the difference between achieving okay results and truly outstanding results, and will allow you to reach your true genetic muscle-building potential. If you do a really bad job at managing some of these important lifestyle factors, your results may even be poor or, in the worst-case scenario, nonexistent, at least past the beginner stage.

sleep

For recovery from our training sessions, sleep is going to be hands down the most impactful thing we can focus on and try to optimize 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 maximise hormonal and metabolic health for men and women. Sleep quality and duration are also positively correlated with increasing and maintaining healthy testosterone levels in men. The bottom line is that getting consistent, good-quality sleep will help men and women achieve body composition goals such as building muscle and losing body fat far easier.

Here are some strategies for improving sleep quality:

stress

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:

Daily Activity

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 will be required to reach this target.

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

The bottom line with daily activity and walking is to just fit as much as you can into your daily lifestyle in a way that is convenient to you and sustainable.

Cardio

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:

The recommendations above do not mean you should do 4 sessions of steady-state cardio and 3 sessions of high-intensity cardio per week. This may be too much for many people. You might perform 4 sessions of steady-state cardio if you were not performing any high-intensity cardio, or you might perform 3 high-intensity sessions if you were not performing any low-intensity cardio. A mixed approach might look something like 2 sessions of high-intensity cardio and 2 sessions of low-intensity cardio per week. Use common sense and pay attention to your recovery and how cardio impacts your strength training performance over multiple weeks.

Healthy Lifestyle Habits

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 maximize 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 probably remove if we are looking to maximize our potential to build muscle and improve our overall fitness are smoking, including cannabis, as well as other recreational drugs.

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.