How to Build Muscle Consistently

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Ever notice how some people can train in the gym for several months and pack on serious muscle while others train for months or even years yet still look the same as day one?

The Four Principles of Muscle Growth

There are four essential principles that must be applied in order to consistently achieve muscle growth:

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Beginners who workout for the first time may build some muscle in the first few weeks/months of training, regardless of what they do. Their body is placed under stress that it’s not familiar with and hence enough stimulus may be achieved for muscles to grow. This is commonly referred to as “newbie gains”. Once this phase passes, if the four essential principles aren’t applied, it’ll result in very little (if any) muscle growth.

1. Training Intensity

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In order to stimulate muscle growth, you need to be training with enough intensity. If you’re working out with a weight that’s so light you could do 30+ repetitions without breaking a sweat - you’re not training with enough intensity. To understand training intensity we first need to understand Reps in Reserve (RIR). Reps in Reserves are an estimate of how many repetitions you are away from failure. What Does Failure Mean? Reaching a point of failure is when your muscles are completely fatigued and unable to move the weight any further. Example: 2 Reps in Reserve 2 Reps in Reserve means that you could do 2 more reps before reaching failure. 0 reps in reserve (RIR) means you’ve reached the point of failure. The final 0 - 5 reps in reserve are where you’ll stimulate the most muscle growth, with 0 - 2 reps in reserve being the most effective.

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Tip for beginners:

The 6 - 12 rep range is an excellent starting point for beginners with every exercise. To train with enough intensity, pick a weight that’s heavy enough where you’ll reach failure within the 6 - 12 rep range. If you’re able to do more than 12 reps with a weight, it’s too light. If you struggle to reach 6 reps and the last few reps are not controlled (swinging, using momentum, only doing half reps, etc) - then the weight is too heavy. Other common rep ranges are: 5 - 10, 10 - 15, 15 - 20. Regardless of what rep range, exercise, or weight you choose, those final ~5 reps before failure are where the most stimulus for muscle growth happens, every rep before that is simply a means to an end.

2. Progressive Overload

Progressive overload means to gradually increase the demands on your muscles by increasing the weight or reps performed over time. Each week in the gym, you should be aiming to beat the previous weeks performance. Here’s what progressive overload looks like in practice: In this example, our chosen rep range for each set of bicep curls will be 6 - 12 reps.

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Purple: represents an increase in rep or weight from the previous session

In the example above, week 3 was where 12 reps were achieved for both sets. Once the end of your chosen rep range has been reached (12 in this example), it’s time to increase the weight in the next session. Each week, the goal is to improve upon the previous weeks performance by AT LEAST a one rep increase, on at least one set. As long as this has been achieved, you are progressively overloading. Training with a logbook is an essential part of progressive overload - what you measure you manage. Unless you’re one of the rare people who genuinely have super memory, it’s going to be near impossible to remember all the different weights and reps achieved each week for every exercise off of memory alone. Logbooks can be analog (paper, book, etc) or digital (apps such as Strong or Alpha Progression or excel, google docs, etc)

Alpha Progression app

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How many sets are ideal? Two to three sets per muscle is sufficient for muscle growth. Less sets, higher intensity > more sets, lower intensity When you train with enough intensity, you don’t need much volume to stimulate sufficient muscle growth.

3. Nutrition

In order to fuel muscle growth, you need to consume more calories than your body burns each day. Despite popular belief, muscles ARE NOT built in the gym. When you’re in the gym, you’re placing stress on your muscles which signals to your body the need to adapt and grow in order to better handle this stress in the future. In the gym, you’re simply creating the stimulus for muscle growth. Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE): When it comes to weight gain or weight loss, it all boils down to calories in vs calories out. Your body requires a certain amount of calories everyday from foods to keep you alive and process all your bodily functions:

Keeping you warm
Keeping your heart beating
Fueling movement like walking
Fueling your brain activity
etc.

You can work out your TDEE with this calculator: tdeecalculator.net In order to build muscle, you need to consume MORE calories than your TDEE everyday (adding an extra 200 - 300 calories on top of your maintenance levels is sufficient). Without the additional calories, your body doesn’t have enough fuel available to repair and build bigger muscles. There are multiple ways you can ensure you’re eating enough. This first and easiest way is to simply measure your weight first thing in the morning everyday. Keep track of it, and work out the average at the end of each week. If you’re gaining weight each week, then you’re eating enough. If you’re not gaining any weight, or if you’re losing weight, then you’re not eating enough - if this is the case then you need to increase the amount of foods you’re eating everyday. The second way which provides more accuracy is to log your foods in an app such as Cronometer (my recommendation) or My Fitness Pal to see how many calories you’re eating daily. Most people are surprised by the amount foods they actually need to eat in order to grow. I strongly believe it’s beneficial for every beginner to track their foods at least once in their life for ~one week to have an understanding of how much food their body really requires. When you’re running a business, it’s crucial to understand how much money is coming in, and how much money is being spent. If you’re just guessing, you may be spending more money than you make - leading to a loss. Consuming enough calories to build muscle works the same way. If you're burning more calories than you eat, you'll be in a loss and won't build any muscle.

4. Recovery

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In the gym you’re creating the stimulus for muscle growth.
In the kitchen you’re providing the fuel for muscle growth.
When you rest is when your muscles are being built.

If you’re not getting adequate sleep and rest between workouts, you’re not giving your muscles the environment they require to recover and repair. This also includes training the same muscles too frequently. Muscles require 48 - 72 hours to fully recover. If you’re going to the gym often, train different muscle groups. Example of an effective training split (there are many others):

Monday: Upper body
Tuesday: Lower body
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Upper Body
Friday: Lower Body
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Rest

Summary

Training Intensity
Progressive Overload
Nutrition
Recovery

These four principles will lead to consistent muscle growth. If you’re struggling to progressively overload each week, then either your training intensity, nutrition or rest isn’t in order. Where most people fall short with muscle growth is nutrition. There’s no way around it, your body requires sufficient fuel in order to build muscles. Without that fuel, muscle growth doesn’t happen.