The New Science of Muscle, Per Fitness Experts https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a46030228/new...

Fitness

The New Science of Muscle

Pioneering research has altered our basic understanding of how you
build strength. With this game plan, you'll use all that new knowledge
to fuel faster gains.

BY EBENEZER SAMUEL, C.S.C.S. PUBLISHED: DEC 27, 2023

This is part of the Men's Health Body Bible, a collection of cutting-edge stories
focused on helping you build more muscle using the latest science and lessons
from some of the nest athletes and trainers on the planet.

ELCOME TO THE golden age of muscle building. Never have we

W had this many tools to measure our tness, from VO2-max trackers
to AI that assesses our form and speed to devices that calculate the efficiency
of every single jump and stride. And never have we had such a wealth of
research answering our questions, breaking down just how many sets we
need to do weekly to build muscle, how much we should rest between them,
and how often we should train.

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Even better, a new breed of tness practitioner, equally schooled in

kinesiology and IRL lifting, now interprets this data, often fusing lab science
with gym-proven methods to generate new training styles that help you push
your limits. And their insights are often free and easily available on social
media.

Such experts stand above the useless (and often dangerous) tness
inuencers who are all over your feeds. The ones you should follow cite
multiple studies in their videos and consistently explain the research and
science behind their ideas. Plus, they rarely present must-do workouts or
exercises, because they understand that every body is different. To help you
chase your goals, we teamed up with three next-gen professionals who live in
the epicenter of the true-science/bro-science revolution and deliver ideal
tness deep cuts on YouTube and social.

Our experts all spend hours poring over muscle research. They partnered
with MH to break down what you need to adjust in your workouts for max
muscle-building potential. Mike Israetel, Ph.D. (@drmikeisraetel on
Instagram) created the science-based RP Hypertrophy tness app. Jeff
Nippard (@JeffNippard) is a bodybuilding coach and competitor who has
spoken at seminars and lectured at universities. JP Gallardo (@jpgcoaching
on TikTok) distills cutting-edge research into accessible tips on TikTok.

The Fundamentals
The tactics you need to maximize your workouts.

CHOOSE YOUR SPLIT

The harder you train, the harder it gets to recover between sessions. Gym-
goers create a “split,” which organizes the muscle you train on any given day.
This allows you to train select muscles, then let them recover. Start with
these three options.

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Full Body
• FREQUENCY: 2 to 3 days per week

• HOW IT WORKS: You’ll train your lower body (legs) and your upper body
(back or chest—or both) in every session, often relying on compound moves
like squats and pullups.

• BEST FOR: Anyone tight on time. This is an effective way to build

everyday strength and general tness.

Push-Pull-Legs
• FREQUENCY: 3 to 6 days per week

• HOW IT WORKS: You’ll train your chest, triceps, and shoulders (pushing
muscles) one day, your back and biceps (pulling muscles) the day after, and
your legs the next.

• BEST FOR: Most gym-goers. This enables you to push your large muscle
groups to the limit in each session.

Bro Split
• FREQUENCY: 5 to 7 days per week

• HOW IT WORKS: You’ll dedicate a whole day to each major body part:
your back, legs, chest, arms, and shoulders.

• BEST FOR: Beginners. Israetel says this can help the mind-muscle
connection with just one body part.

THE PERFECT REP

For maximum muscle-building stimulus on every single rep of every single
exercise, do the following steps, says Israetel.

STEP 1: Streeeeeetch

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Aim to use the largest range of motion possible. Not sure what that is? Ask
yourself what you feel in that muscle as you lower the weight. “If you’re
getting a really powerful sensation of stretching the belly of the muscle,
you’re doing a great job,” Israetel says. “If you’re not, you could go deeper.”

STEP 2: Slow Down

As you lower the weight, do so slowly. Think of taking a full 2 to 3 seconds to
lower any weight toward the oor. The act of lowering a weight (and
lengthening a muscle) under control is called the eccentric part of a rep—and
doing this with control can help you avoid injuries and spark muscle gains.

STEP 3: Get Uncomfortable

To make the most of each set, the last few reps should be hard. Push through
at least 1 in every set where “the velocity slows down,” says Israetel, “or
where, to keep the velocity up, your ass has to push harder. You can quit
there [in each set] and get great results and never have to go further.”

THE LOWDOWN ON DOMS

A good workout should leave you sore, right? Wrong. The technical term for
the soreness you might feel a day or two after a workout is delayed onset
muscle soreness (DOMS). Here’s what you need to know about it.

The Upside
When you feel soreness the day after a workout, take note of the precise
muscle where you feel it. This feedback can indicate that you’re doing your
exercises properly. “If you do rope face pulls and your mid-back is super sore
but your rear delts are not sore at all,” Nippard says, “then next time, you
might want to modify your technique.”

The Downside
“Some workouts can get you very sore but won’t lead to much muscle
growth,” says Nippard. Imagine doing curls for weeks, adding weight each

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week. The soreness will decrease, but you’ll still build muscle. Struggling
with DOMS? Light activity the day after a workout that makes you sore can
help: Try 10 minutes of easy cardio to promote blood ow.

The Superior Strength Upgrade

Give Yourself a Rest
High-intensity interval training may be buzzy, but workouts with teeny-tiny
rest periods can kill your gains. Instead of resting 30 seconds between sets,
says Gallardo, you should rest 2 to 3 minutes. The added recovery between
sets will let you push harder in your next set. “Now you can actually perform
better on your working sets rather than getting burned out halfway into the
set,” he says. “Maybe scroll on Instagram for 30 seconds or a minute longer.”

Embrace Machines
The rise of CrossFit led many to ditch weight machines in favor of barbells
and kettlebells. Bad call, says Gallardo: “In a lot of cases, I would pick a
machine over a free-weight exercise, considering, you know, the stability.”
Machines let you push closer to true failure. A set of leg presses taken to
complete failure, for example, is much safer than a set of barbell squats done
the same way. Add machines to your training once or twice a week.

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Tone Down the Volume

Sure, you might think doing more sets and exercises will equal more muscle
growth. That’s not the case, says Nippard. “Five or six years ago, I might have
said, ‘Oh, more volume is better.’ But volume increases muscle gains up to a
point. Past that point, adding more doesn’t really seem to do a whole lot.”
Aim for 10 to 12 hard sets per muscle group each week.

RELATED STORIES

10 Muscle-Building Fundamentals You Need to Learn

How to Build a Push-Pull-Legs Workout Split

This story originally appears in the January/February 2024 issue of Men's

Health.

Want more muscle-building lessons from our Body

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EBENEZER SAMUEL, C.S.C.S.

Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S., is the tness director of Men's Health and a certied
trainer with more than 10 years of training experience. He's logged training time
with NFL athletes and track athletes and his current training regimen includes
weight training, HIIT conditioning, and yoga. Before joining Men's Health in 2017,
he served as a sports columnist and tech columnist for the New York Daily News.
Read full bio

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