Engage in resistance training for both immediate and long-term health benefits, as scientific evidence strongly supports its necessity.
Continuously increase the tension placed on muscles over time by lifting more weight, performing more repetitions, or improving control, as this is the primary mechanism for muscle growth and adaptation.
Determine and adhere to the maximum amount of training volume from which you can fully recover, ensuring optimal muscle growth without leading to overtraining or injury.
Recognize the significant psychological component of training; prioritize enjoyment and motivation to ensure long-term consistency and better results, rather than dreading workouts.
Establish training goals that are realistic and sustainable within your lifestyle, avoiding guilt over not doing ‘more’ and focusing on consistent effort over time.
Optimize hypertrophy by integrating external progressive overload (increasing weight/reps) with internal mind-muscle connection (focused contraction), as these elements work synergistically.
Practice flexing and squeezing muscles without external load to enhance the mind-muscle connection, which is crucial for effectively targeting muscles during resistance training.
Utilize a logbook or app to meticulously track your training progress and set clear goals, ensuring consistent gains and preventing stagnation.
Focus on gaining strength over time for substantial muscle change, but never at the expense of proper form or full range of motion, to prevent injury and ensure quality.
If training a muscle frequently (e.g., three times a week), adjust variables like volume, effort, and exercise selection to ensure proper recovery and continued strength gains, especially as you age.
Achieve better results by training fewer days per week (e.g., two) when you are fully recovered and excited to lift, rather than overtraining frequently and going through the motions.
Learn to enjoy training hard, understanding that ‘hard’ is subjective and varies based on individual schedules, pain thresholds, and goals, with many effective paths to progress.
To improve a lagging muscle group, increase its training volume and frequency (e.g., adding a third training day), while simultaneously reducing volume for other well-developed muscle groups.
Once muscle size and strength are built, they are relatively easy to maintain with significantly less training volume, allowing for prioritization of lagging body parts.
Avoid repeating the exact same movements constantly; switch up exercises monthly or every few weeks to continually challenge muscles and prevent plateaus.
For efficient and effective training, consider performing one set to failure for 6-10 exercises per full-body workout, two to three times a week, as this can yield significant gains in less time.
You don’t need to train every set to failure; leaving a rep or two in the tank while increasing overall volume can yield similar hypertrophy and strength gains with less injury risk.
Approach each work set by making the final two to three repetitions as difficult as possible, focusing on form and muscle activation rather than just completing more reps, to maximize adaptation.
Incorporate more exercise variety to prevent nagging injuries and ensure continuous gains over the long term, rather than sticking to the exact same movements indefinitely.
Be aware that certain exercises or intensities can lead to excessive soreness or injury; learn to recognize these signals and adjust training to avoid overtraining.
Periodically incorporate deload weeks or short layoffs (e.g., one week every 14-16 weeks) to allow for physical and psychological recovery, heal nagging injuries, and maintain motivation.
If a specific exercise causes pain, substitute it with a suitable alternative for a period, rather than pushing through the pain, to prevent injury and allow for recovery.
Utilize a flexible approach to rep ranges (6-30 reps) for muscle growth, as both low and high reps can be effective; vary rep ranges to keep training interesting and spare joints.
While tempo doesn’t significantly impact hypertrophy, controlling the weight throughout the movement is crucial for longevity and preventing injuries.
You can absolutely grow muscle at any age, even starting in your 80s or 90s; while the rate of growth may be blunted compared to youth, significant gains are still achievable.
Focus on recomping (gaining muscle while losing fat) by training hard and ensuring adequate protein intake, as evidence suggests muscle can be gained in caloric maintenance or slight deficit, avoiding large bulks and cuts.
Maintain a healthy body fat range (e.g., 10-20% for men, 15-25% for women) to optimize hormone profiles; recomp within this range, or perform mini-bulks/cuts if necessary, rather than extreme bulking or cutting.
Understand that spot reduction of fat is a myth; fat loss occurs systemically through caloric deficit and increased activity, though site-specific muscle growth can improve body shape.
For strength training and muscle growth, prioritize lifting weights over Pilates, as lifting provides a more direct and effective stimulus for hypertrophy.
Focus on mastering and progressively overloading six foundational lifts: squats, bench press, deadlifts, military press, chin-ups, and hip thrusts, to develop all major muscle groups.
Aim for a minimum of two full-body resistance training sessions per week to see results, especially for beginners.
To maximize muscle gains, aim to train each muscle group twice a week, as this frequency is generally optimal for hypertrophy.
Perform two to three working sets per exercise after a sufficient warm-up, focusing on quality over excessive volume.
Consider training full body three times per week, or use a lower-upper-lower-upper-lower split, adjusting for recovery and specific goals.
Use loads, sets, and reps as your objective barometer for progress, ensuring increasing demands are placed on the muscles over time.
Focus on identifying and strengthening weak links in your physique, as this targeted approach can transfer to overall strength gains in other lifts.
Understand that the glutes primarily perform hip extension (moving leg backward), hip abduction (raising leg to the side), and hip external rotation (twisting leg outward).
For comprehensive glute development and optimal recovery, divide your glute exercises into three categories: one-third vertical (squats, deadlifts), one-third horizontal (hip thrusts, glute bridges), and one-third lateral/rotary (abduction movements).
When performing hip thrusts, ensure you reach full hip extension at the top of the movement, avoiding excessively heavy loads that compromise range of motion.
When achieving hip hyperextension during movements like hip thrusts, ensure the movement originates from the hips, not by arching the lower (lumbar) spine, to prevent injury.
Use reverse lunges for optimal lower glute max development, but limit them to once or twice a week due to their intensity and potential for soreness.
To make step-ups more glute-dominant, lean forward and step onto a box such that your working thigh is parallel to the ground, emphasizing the glutes over the quads.
Consider hip thrusts for upper gluteus maximus development, as EMG suggests strong activation in this area, though more research is needed to confirm direct growth.
For men seeking glute growth, if already performing squats and deadlifts, add hip thrusts and seated hip abduction to target glutes without compromising recovery or other upper body goals.
For significant glute growth, especially if squats and deadlifts alone aren’t sufficient, incorporate hip thrusts, starting light to master the mind-muscle connection and full range of motion, then progressively increasing strength.
Adjust barbell placement for hip thrusts based on individual hip anatomy; some can keep it over the pubic bone, while others may need to push it onto the upper thighs to avoid pain and ensure comfort.
Perform glute-dominant 45-degree hyperextensions by rounding the upper back and flaring feet slightly, which deactivates the spinal erectors and emphasizes glute activation for hip extension.
To grow glutes without significantly growing legs, minimize vertical movements like squats and lunges, and instead focus on hip thrusts, kickbacks, 45-degree hyperextensions, and abduction exercises, potentially with higher volume.
Understand that ‘hip dips’ are a natural anatomical feature (a hollow point between glute medius and glute maximus) that become more pronounced with leanness; they cannot be eliminated by targeted muscle growth, so embrace them as a sign of leanness and muscularity.
Incorporate proper neck training (e.g., using a plate with a towel, mouth closed, nasal breathing, tongue on roof of mouth) to improve posture, strengthen the upper spine, and enhance overall aesthetic.
To grow neck muscles, you must train them directly with specific neck flexion and extension exercises, as compound movements like deadlifts and shrugs primarily grow traps, not the neck.
Improve grip strength by incorporating static hangs (progressing to one-arm hangs if back is an issue), shrugs (holding the final rep for time), farmer’s walks, or holding the last rep of deadlifts for time.
To grow calves, focus on the stretched position by performing full-range standing calf raises, or incorporate lengthen partials and extended partials (bottom half of the movement) at the end of sets.
To improve chin-up performance, include dedicated bicep training, as stronger biceps can directly contribute to better pulling strength.
Incorporate chin-ups or supinated pull-downs up to three times a week, as these movements allow for quicker recovery.
If deadlifting hard, limit heavy deadlifts to once a week, especially when training frequently, as they can be very taxing and hinder recovery.
Perform a self-assessment by attempting to flex and contract individual muscles without weight, identifying those you struggle to activate and prioritizing them in training.
Actively incorporate glute activation exercises, as glutes often don’t activate highly during everyday movements and are prone to atrophy.
To reduce the appearance of ‘saggy’ lower glutes, focus on gaining strength in exercises like lunges, step-ups, squats, RDLs, and hip thrusts, combined with achieving an optimal body fat percentage through diet.
If experiencing bruising or pain from heavy barbell hip thrusts, switch to variations like single-leg hip thrusts or partner hip thrusts (with someone sitting on your lap) to allow the hips to heal while continuing to train glutes.
If you are an experienced lifter, continue strength training during pregnancy as it improves outcomes; however, if new to lifting, it’s generally not recommended to start during pregnancy.
When hip thrusting during pregnancy, use a Smith machine or barbell on the upper thighs to avoid pressure on the belly, and reduce depth as needed for comfort and safety.
Understand that strength and size lost during layoffs are quickly regained due to muscle memory, so periodic breaks do not negate long-term progress.