building muscle effectively/optimally

[Tarzan]

@levani

what are your goals? lose weight? look good? How good? ripped? or just a healthy bw (health reasons).

What kind of diet/lifestyle/looks would you like?

How much are you willing to work towards these goals?

Ask specific questions and you get the best answers to them as far as your fitness goals and achieving them go for.

What might be effective or optimal might not be practical for you (if you dont enjoy your workouts or routines for example, even though they are optimal, or interference with other life factors like how much time you have in the week/day, injuries aswell). Also it depends on what your 'training age' and training proficiency is at. Have you done other sports or lifting (I'm guessing yeah since you love squats)?. What do you do right now in terms of training, and diet aswell.

but generally I agree with @The0Self

rep range doesnt matter as long as you are going near to failure with like 1-3 reps in reserve.

Key parametre to muscle building is volume, which can be broken down differently, but the simplest and prob most effective way is to measure how many hard sets (at or near to failure) per muscle group are you working each week? doing 10+ sets per major muscle group per week is a threshold. Training split, frequency, exercise selection stem more from how much time you have, and what exercises you prefer, also your training age (start slow and ramp up sustainably and when need to - have long term in mind)

[LfcCharlie4]

Coach Greg on YouTube is the best resource on this I've found. I'm following his 3 day hypertrophy split and loving it so far! I would also recommend a slow & 'MainGain' period instead of cycles of bulking & cutting which can be quite draining mentally and physically. 

Don't forget stretching & cardio, which is even more important than weight training for health!

[King Merk]

Just about any program works if you stick to it.
 

Here’s a simple plan I start most my clients on, do 3 full body resistance training days per week (with rest days or cardio/stretching days in between them). Progressively overload meaning increase weights/reps/intensity over time. Get around 1g per pound you weight. Sleep 7-9 hour per night and you’re golden. 

[Michael569]

Consistency - by having a clear plan on what you are doing. How many reps how many exercises, what body groups 

Caloric surplus - can't make muscle without eating extra so be prepared for that and try not to supplement those calories from junk but from natural whoelfoods. Making gains is not just about proteins, you need carbs, magnesium, b vitamins etc. So think less chicken & broccoli and more natural variety and wholefood diet 

Sleep - your greatest spike of growth hormone happens at night to make sure you don't cut it down. 

Junk food, alcohol, tobacco, sugar - all counterproductive, all destructive to your hard efforts. cut them out

Nuts & Seeds - been found to have boosting effects for testosterone and male fertility & libido so make sure to add them in

 

[fridjonk]

Resistance bands! and explosive movements. 

Most underrated way to build muscle. 

Just ask Adama Traoré.   

[levani]

@fridjonk gonna see him tomorrow, so i'll ask


@Michael569 topman thank you

[LfcCharlie4]

On 08/12/2020 at 0:25 PM, fridjonk said:

Resistance bands! and explosive movements. 

Most underrated way to build muscle. 

Just ask Adama Traoré.   

Lmao I remember when he claimed he’d never been gym, despite being a pro athlete (already indicating great physical genetics) and on top of that clearly has unreal weightlifting genetics. 
 

I saw someone say it’s gone from saying “I’m natty, just got great genetics”

to

”my genetics are so good. I don’t even work out” 

???

I watched him play against Liverpool at the weekend and he was dreadful, with such physical talents he has so much potential in the right team & system 

[fridjonk]

47 minutes ago, LfcCharlie4 said:

Lmao I remember when he claimed he’d never been gym

From what I saw, he claimed he doesn't lift weights, which is true. He only uses resistance type machines, and basically trains like an Olympic sprinter, which is why he looks like one. The pace on that dude is out of this world. 

I'd say the most vital thing for him would be to work on his left leg, he's so one dimensional but still very young and has great potential. 

[Danioover9000]

   So far for me, it has always been to master tension and time under tension, as tension is the only way the brain talks to the muscle. The better your mind and muscle connection, the better your muscles will develop as they need to develop.

and

 

[levani]

@Danioover9000 bro absolutely top post, thank you

[Striving for more]

Eat protein every 2 hours. 

Your body can only consume 30G of protein every 2 hours.

eat 4-5 meals per day.

Eat 30G protein both before and after exercise. 

Prioritize full body exercises : Squats, deadlift, bench press, press ups, Pull ups, Lat pull down machine. 

[Javfly33]

On 22/11/2020 at 6:00 AM, AdamDiC said:

Diet: Eat every 3 hours.

nonsense advice to hurt his body

[AdamDiC]

@Javfly33

Arnold would say otherwise

[Javfly33]

@AdamDiC but arnold was profesionallly dedicated to it.

 

[Danioover9000]

@levani

On 12/11/2020 at 4:48 PM, levani said:

@Danioover9000 bro absolutely top post, thank you

   Your welcome! Bruce Lee was known to do mostly isometric types of exercises that helped generate those fast movements and strength.

   Also, include cardio days as well, because some old school body builders do runs either after workout on on different days per week. The increase in blood circulation will help muscles recover slightly quicker.

[levani]

@Danioover9000 yes bro frank yang said the same

 

but befote your post and frank yang's video i found this to be minsteeously true

 

"don't do cardio" -  it's just a sales pitch

cardio is META and i'm running every day/night now

[CMacD]

I do lots of squats, deadlifts, bench & overhead presses, bent over & cable rows, chinups, dips, weighted chin ups & dips. Sometimes full body workouts, sometimes split. 5-15 reps like the first reply said is a good idea, I tend to loosely do 5 sets of 5 reps if I'm trying to get back into optimal shape, but once I'm getting pretty strong & lifting bigger weights I tone it down to 3 sets of 5... but also throwing in more reps when I get bored or sick of stuff.

 Full body is better for training more exercises per week with recovery time, but I like running and MMA training and stuff so I sometimes split it just to spend less time in the gym.. or running late, or whatever.   Or if there's  PR I want to hit that I know another exercise I just did is maybe going to throw off I use it as an excuse to do less that day... but yeah, full body is good.

30g at a time is BS, any bodybuilder or powerlifter over a lean 200lbs is probably eating more than 50g at a time lol. Kinobody Greg eats most of his day's protein in the first meal he breaks his fast with. I'm not advocating getting super big or saying you even need that much protein to build muscle, but you can absorb more than 30g at a time.

You don't need to eat every 2-3 hours, you just have to hit the proper amount of calories & right ratio of macros to slowly gain lean mass.  Looking back over the last month it's going to matter more that you hit your calories & macros every day more than what time of day you ate the food.

 

Edited December 28, 2020 by CMacD

[UDT]

Building muscle is easy.

You first need to get technique and know the exercise so you dont get injured.
Secondly, you need maximum stimulus but not cross the red line so to speak.
Thirdly, you need appropriate nutrition, especially amino acids before during and after, sleep, and time to let your body adapt to the stimulus.
Then repeat.