How Do I Build As Much Muscle As Possible?
Takeaway Points:
Building muscle is a lot simpler than you think, if you know how to focus your energy.
Here are the (shockingly simple) methods I’ve used to build elite levels of muscle mass, both for myself and my clients, over the past 20 years.
Muscle building is, despite what everyone will tell you, a very simple process.
Here is the method that it takes to build muscle:
Lift weights - ideally, training each major muscle group 2-3x/week, consistently increasing your reps, sets, or weight over time.
Many programs exist that will tell you how to do this. You could follow my free program, or pretty much any other mass-market program out there. Most of them work well enough. There’s no magic.
For most people, this means training something like 2-4 sessions per week, often for just 1hr at a time. If you think about it, this is a pretty incredible return on your time invested.
Ensure that you’re getting adequate rest and recovery between sessions. Manage your stress levels.
Eat enough protein - up to about 0.82g/lb of bodyweight per day, or something from around 100-200g/day for most people.
Do some (but not a ton) of cardio - 1-2 hard sessions per week, or maintain a decent step count.
Find community, coaching, or social support to keep you going and help resolve issues when you hit a roadblock.
Don’t get upset by small disruptions or short term setbacks and trust in the process.
Repeat this process consistently for 2+ years, ideally 5-10.
This may sound simple to the point of nonsense, but it’s the reality. There are no secret elite methods. Progress isn’t made by following fancy training programs, it’s about nailing the basics consistently for long periods of time.
You can make it SO complicated. You can try out every trick in the book. You can try dropsets, myoreps, supersets, conjugate, banded exercises, cables, dumbbells, barbells, plyometrics, etc. - you can try anything. All of it can and will work, if it happens in the context of the above rules. Some things will be a bit better or worse than others, or a bit better or worse of a fit for your situation than others. But that’s it.
I’m so tired of how much the fitness industry overcomplicates things. I got a hate mail response the other day on one of my emails, because a guy insisted that I wasn’t sharing the “real” information when I was talking about the “advanced” methods that I’ve used to get in better shape in my 30’s than I was in my 20’s - amusingly, these methods are the same as the “basic” methods, and he didn’t want to believe it.
I can’t tell you how many times I get emails from people asking what’s wrong with their training program, and when I look into it, there’s nothing wrong at all, they just haven’t been sticking with it long enough, or they’re not managing their diet, or similar.
I’ve worked as a coach for 12+ years at this point. A lot of my job involves assuring people that yes, they’re making progress even when they think they aren’t. A lot of my job involves telling people that no, they don’t need to try out a new exercise or a fancy supplement if they don’t want to. I’m so tired of how the industry has repeatedly confused and misled people to make money.
It’s a very simple, one-two punch system:
Confuse people into thinking that they aren’t making progress, or that their methods won’t work.
Sell them some fancy solution that supposedly solves their (non-existent) problem.
And the best part (for the fitness industry) is - you can just repeat this forever! People upset that the fake solution didn’t “work” will often just buy into another problem/solution combo until either they eventually trial-and-error their way to success, or burn out and move on.
I’m tired of it. So, I put together a free email course with 14 associated videos, which is designed to help the average person to unlearn fitness industry BS, and identify what actually matters for seeing long term fitness results. Check it out here if you’re interested.
About Adam Fisher
Adam is an experienced fitness coach and blogger who's been blogging and coaching since 2012, and lifting since 2006. He's written for numerous major health publications, including Personal Trainer Development Center, T-Nation, Bodybuilding.com, Fitocracy, and Juggernaut Training Systems.
During that time he has coached thousands of individuals of all levels of fitness, including competitive powerlifters and older exercisers regaining the strength to walk up a flight of stairs. His own training revolves around bodybuilding and powerlifting, in which he’s competed.
Adam writes about fitness, health, science, philosophy, personal finance, self-improvement, productivity, the good life, and everything else that interests him. When he's not writing or lifting, he's usually hanging out with his cats or feeding his video game addiction.
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