Training to Build Muscle (Build Your Plan!)

At first glance, training to build muscle would seem quite simple. You go to the gym, lift weights, and try to lift heavier weights each time you go. You can probably get a decent chunk of your gains out of that one sentence. But, there's probably a little more to it. 

Training theory causes a lot of confusion, and by the end of this article, a lot of that confusion will have evaporated.

First up: basic training principles.

Volume, Intensity, Frequency.

Volume: How many sets should I do?

While there are some low volume proponents (e.g. 1 set to failure per exercise), most of the available evidence currently convenes on there being a dose-response relationship between training volume and muscle-building. This means that, up to a certain point, doing more sets likely leads to more muscle-building. 

The range for most people is 10-20 sets per muscle per week. While further gains may occur beyond this range, this is unlikely to be required for those in their first few years of training, and it's certainly not the best choice if you have never even tracked your response to a given number of sets. 

Using very-high-volume approaches (e.g. 30, 40, even 50 sets) may be appropriate in specific cases, but are probably best reserved for the advanced trainee with technical mastery and specific goals (e.g. bringing up a stubborn muscle group that never gets sore and can handle a lot of volume).

For most trainees, we suggest starting off your programme in the 10-15 sets per muscle range (less for beginners). You can then creep this up over time if required, particularly if you're not getting any muscle soreness, you feel you have more to give, and you have already nailed both effort and technique.

Intensity: How many reps should I do?

Over the last decade or so, there have been repeated studies on the question of rep-count and muscle-building. The results have been very positive, as we now know that a broad range of rep targets can be used with similar muscle-building outcomes.

In most cases, anywhere from 5-30 reps can work well. For the most part, we plan training with 8-15 reps, and deviate from this for a smaller portion of training volume. 

Practical considerations are quite important in determining your target. Doing sets of 20 on an exercise like dumbbell lateral raises can work really well, but try doing sets of 20 on deadlifts. You will quickly learn that not all reps are the same, and thus rep targets need to be prescribed with practical considerations. 

For heavy compound movements that involve more total muscle and generate more systemic fatigue (e.g. deadlifts, squats, overhead presses, etc.), we generally stay closer to 5-12 reps.

For lighter movements involving less total muscle and lower fatigue (e.g. bicep curls, lateral raises, calf raises), we are far more comfortable climbing to 20 reps and beyond. With that said, most sets tend to still be in the 10-20 rep range. 

The key equalising variable between rep ranges is that you are taking sets close to failure. Your reps should be slowing, and especially on those high rep sets, your muscles should be burning. Most of the time, you should have no more than 1-3 reps left in the tank at the end of your set.

Frequency: How many times per week should I train each muscle?

Training frequency is a very useful tool to enhance your gains. We discussed volume above, and even if you keep your volume for a given muscle the same in a given session, repeating that 2-3x per week can give you much greater total volume. 

For example, 6 sets for chest in a given session can be performed with focus and excellent quality. But, 6 sets per week probably isn't the optimal level of volume, especially for most advanced trainees. What if you did that on Monday and Thursday? Well, now you have doubled your training volume, and because you had 3 days between, you can probably have a session of equal quality once again. 

For this reason, we tend to view frequency as a vehicle for volume. I would much rather see someone spread 18 sets for a given muscle across 2-3 sessions, versus doing all 18 sets in one session. You've probably experienced the drop-off in quality that tends to occur later in a high-volume training session, which makes me skeptical that those second 9 sets are going to be as effective as doing them when you are fresh again. 

Frequency isn't a magic bullet, but for me, it's an excellent tool to improve your volume distribution and thus training quality. As a bonus, higher frequencies also enable more opportunities to improve your skill and technique, which is advantageous for those looking to focus on specific movements (e.g. squat strength) on top of muscle-building.

With all of that said, we haven't even mentioned what exercises you should do?!

Next up: how to choose exercises.

Choosing Exercises: The Best Muscle-Building Movements

Exercise selection is another area of confusion for many trainees. As a result of being unsure, many trainees in their early years just do every exercise for a given muscle. When I first started in the gym, my chest workouts looked something like this:

Flat Barbell Bench Press

Incline Barbell Bench Press

Flat Chest Press Machine

Incline Dumbbell Fly

Cable Chest Flyes

Push-Ups

Dips

And whatever else I had come across on bodybuilding.com that week. The point being, I was just doing everything, as I was unsure of what I really needed to prioritise.

Ultimately, what you need are exercises that stimulate the target muscle through a large range of motion, cause that target muscle to be the limiting factor (i.e. if training quads, are your quads actually limiting your squats, or is it your lower back?), and provide subjective indicators of stimulus (e.g. muscle pump, soreness the day(s) after).

Don't fall into redundant binaries like "free weights vs machines". Some people are dogmatically attached to free weight exercises and believe they have special muscle-building properties, but this just isn't the case. If you do a leg press or hack squat and that feels far better on your quads than a barbell back squat, then they are probably better exercises for you.

2-3 exercises per muscle is generally enough to have in a given workout. Assuming you are doing somewhere in the region of 2-4 sets per exercise, this then enables you to hit a reasonable volume target for that session.

When choosing 2-3 exercises, think about how exercises for that muscle or group of muscles might change the stimulus. For example, if you have a flat and incline press variation, then you get some complementarity via slightly adjusting the muscle fibres doing most of the work. Similarly, if you do a row and a pulldown, you will train your 'upper back' (e.g. traps and rhomboids) more in the row, and your lats more in the pulldown, while still having crossover. 

You don't have to overcomplicate it, and honestly, asking "how does this exercise feel?" is actually a very informative question, even if subjective. Feeling isn't always reliable, but it's a starting point. 

Once you're this far, the question then turns to progression...

Next up: how to progress your training.

Progression: How to Progress Your Training

Progression would seem remarkably simple. Add more weight?

It is simple, but unfortunately, focusing solely on adding weight to the bar (or machine etc.) each week can incentivise poor training practices. Many trainees with this myopic focus will begin to sacrifice technique, risk injury, and even programme-hop every time they can't add more weight. 

As you advance, you need to think about progression as more than just more weight each week. This works well as a beginner, but the time-course of progression follows the time-course of adaptation, which inevitably protracts as you advance. I like to use the following example to illustrate this:

You're in a gym where the smallest plate is 5kg. You've reached 100kg on your deadlift, and you add 5kg. You fail to hit your rep target, so now you think "I haven't progressed". In reality, you may have progressed by 1, 2, 3, 4, or even 4.9kg. But, that simply hasn't manifested in your training as you are solely focused on +5kg as being your metric of progress. 

This becomes even more of a problem on exercises with smaller absolute loads. Let's take a 5kg lateral raise. To increase to the next weight increment (e.g. 7.5kg), that is a 50% increase. You wouldn't dream of increasing your deadlift from 100-150kg in a week, but that's your expectation on your lateral raise. 

Instead of maintaining this myopic weight-based progression model, I recommend some alternative practices:

Technique & Control - If you improve your technique, that is progress, as you have progressed the stimulus, even with the same external load. For example, if you were previously bouncing up and down with 1 second of muscular tension per rep, but you slow down and focus for 3 seconds on the way down and 1 second on the way up, now you've got 4x the exposure to that load per-rep. 

Reps & Double-Progression - Adding one extra rep is progress. This can be integrated into a double-progression model that works really well. What you do here is use a rep range (e.g. 8-12 reps) instead of a fixed rep target, and your intent is to climb the rep range before adding more weight. For example, week 1 - 100kg x 8, week 2 - 100kg x 9, etc. to 100kg x 12. Once you hit 100kg x 12, now you increase the weight to 105kg. If you hit 105kg x 8, now you climb the rep range again. This obviously doesn't have to be so rigid week-to-week, but you hopefully get the concept.

Understand Variability - Training performance will simply not be the same each week. Your strength could easily vary by 5-10% because of sleep, stress, nutrition, and other known and unknown variables. This requires acceptance. If you can't hit the weight you hit last week, this does not mean you've had a true regression in strength, as there is a normal level of variability experienced by every trainee. Not understanding this can really mess with your head, especially if you are maintaining the weight-based focus each week. 

Now, it's time to put it into action...

At the end of the day, there's no escaping hard work. You can have the perfect programming, but without hard work, you are going nowhere. Some people like to spend all their time fine-tuning their programming, when their time would be better spent focusing their efforts in the gym.

If you have any further programming questions, you can always feel free to respond to this email and ask!

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This Week's Triage Content

This is a sample of the content we produced this week. For more, make sure you are following us on YouTube, Instagram, and www.triagemethod.com.

1.) Instagram: Free Weights vs Machines for Muscle-Building

2.) Instagram: Protein Bars - The Good, Bad, Ugly

3.) Instagram: Key Ingredient for Muscle-Building

4.) Instagram: Templates for Gaining Strength

5.) Instagram: Overeating & How to Respond Best

6.) Instagram: The Best Time to Lose Fat

7.) Triage Article: Blue Light Glasses for Sleep?!

8.) Triage Article: How to Socialise & Eat Healthy