Ten Rules For Maximizing Muscular Strength And Size

If your goal is to maximize your muscular strength and size there are certain rules you must follow. If you compare all of the most effective training programs you will find a lot of differences in details like exercise selection, repetition methods, sets, and reps, but they will all have these ten basic rules in common:

1. Train hard

Your results from exercise have more to do with your intensity of effort — how hard you work relative to your momentary ability — than the amount of weight you lift, the number of  repetitions you perform, or the specific repetition method you use. To stimulate your body to produce the greatest possible increases in muscular strength and size you should perform every exercise to the point of momentary muscular failure (MMF), completing as many repetitions as possible in good form.

When you perform an exercise to MMF you send a message to your body that your current strength is inadequate to handle some demand your environment is placing on you and it must get stronger so the next time you are able to handle it more easily and with less fatigue. If you do not train to MMF, if you hold back your effort even a little, you are not asking your body to do anything it isn’t already capable of and not sending as strong a message to improve. Instead, the message your send to your body is “we’re strong enough, no need to devote energy and resources to building more muscle”.

The recommendation to hold back effort or “leave a few reps in the tank” so you can train more frequently or with heavier weight is wrong, because although load and frequency are important, you can’t make up for a lack of effort by working less intensely with a heavier weight or by simply doing more.

Some of you may be scratching your heads wondering about this last part, so I’ll break it down. Intensity of effort is how hard you are working relative to your momentary ability, so at the start of an exercise using seventy percent of your one rep maximum your intensity of effort is only seventy percent. As you fatigue over the course of the exercise the weight becomes an increasing percentage of your decreasing momentary strength, and more effort is required to continue. When fatigue has reduced your strength to the point where the force your muscles are capable of producing matches the resistance provided by the weight your intensity of effort will be one hundred percent and you will have achieved MMF.

If you use a heavier weight, eighty percent of your one rep max, your intensity of effort will be a higher eighty percent at the start of the exercise, but if you stop short of momentary muscular failure you will never reach one hundred percent. For example, if you stop when your starting strength has only been reduced by around ten percent, your intensity of effort will only be eighty eight percent.

This was demonstrated in a recent study (Giessing J, Fisher J, Steele J, Rothe F, Raubold K, Eichmann B. The effects of low-volume resistance training with and without advanced techniques in trained subjects. J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 2016;56(3):249-58.) which compared one group training to MMF with two groups not training to failure (NTF) one of which performed rest-pause repetitions to allow for the use of a much heavier weight (RP-NTF). Each of the three groups increased their muscular strength and size, but the MMF group had much better results than both NTF groups including the RP-NTF group which trained with heavier loads. The RP-NTF group had better results than the NTF group, though, showing that all else being equal, heavier loads produce better results (and that resting between reps doesn’t hurt strength or size increases despite reducing the efficiency of inroad).

Holding back effort for the sake of being able to do more volume is also a mistake, because even at the same intensity of effort multiple sets do not stimulate greater increases in muscular strength and size than a single set, so putting forth less effort so you are able to do more work won’t give you better results and will probably give you worse.

German bodybuilder and HIT trainer Marcos Majewski

German bodybuilder and HIT trainer Marcos Majewski

2. Train progressively

As you get stronger you must progressively increase the demand you place on your body during exercise to stimulate continued improvement by attempting to perform more repetitions or use a heavier weight. If you don’t, you stop challenging your body and stop sending it the message it needs to improve.

If you’ve ever worked out at the same gym for more than a few years you’ve seen examples of people who look exactly the same, month after month, year after year, never improving. If you observe their workouts there’s a strong chance they’ve been doing the same number of repetitions with the same weight on all of their exercises every time they train, never attempting to increase. Don’t be one of them.

This is one of the reasons keeping accurate records of your workouts is so important. If you are not keeping track of the weight you use and number of reps you are able to complete for each exercise every time you work out you can’t know exactly how much you are improving, or objectively evaluate the effects changes in your training has on your progress.

3. Train consistently

To train consistently has two meanings:

The first is you must work out on a regular basis to make continued progress. If you only train sporadically a few weeks or months at a time a few times a year, you’re not going to maximize your muscular strength and size.

The second is your workouts should remain relatively consistent over time to avoid constantly repeating the skill acquisition and neural adaptation period which precedes improvements coming primarily from hypertrophy.

During the first six to eight weeks of performing a new or unfamiliar exercise, sequence, or workout the majority of improvements in exercise performance are due to improved skill and neural adaptations. Over this period of time the percentage of improvement from skill and neural adaptations gradually decreases while the percentage from hypertrophy increases. At this point, progress can appear to slow down on paper since strength increases from hypertrophy will be slower than performance improvements from skill and neural adaptation. This has led many people to wrongly conclude you must change your program every six to eight weeks to keep your body adapting, when it actually does the exact opposite, slowing down your muscular strength and size gains.

It is important for complete and well-balanced muscular development to have some variety in your workouts, and to occasionally perform different exercises for some muscles or muscle groups capable of more varied movement, however this variation should be relatively infrequent. I recommend sticking with the same program for at least three to four months before making any major changes to it. If you want to perform a greater variety of exercises, instead of changing your program entirely, alternate your existing workout with two or more workouts which substitute different exercises.

I suspect a big part of the reason many people change their workouts too frequently is bodybuilding magazines, books, and web sites have given them unrealistic expectations of how quickly they can build muscle, and they become frustrated when they have not gained twenty pounds of muscle after six weeks and assume the problem is their workout. While there are a few people with the rare combination of genes which allows them to gain a large amount of muscle rapidly without drugs, most people can only realistically expect to gain between a half and one pound of muscle per week during their first half year of training, about half that much during their second half year, and less than half that afterwards. I’ve had a few clients gain faster and a few gain slower, and you might do better or worse, but these numbers are realistic for most people.

There are cases where people have gained muscle much more quickly, but these almost always involve people regaining muscle that was lost due to detraining or illness, regaining muscular size by rehydrating and replenishing muscle glycogen stores after dehydration and carb depletion either intentional or due to illness, or using steroids or other growth drugs. Unless you are a genetic freak or happen to fall in one or more of these categories you shouldn’t despair if you’re not gaining several pounds of muscle a week, much less if you don’t look like Arnold Schwarzenegger after your first few months of training. If you’re following all the rules listed here you’re going to gain muscle about as quickly as your genetics allow.

4. Keep your workouts brief

If you are training with a high intensity of effort very little exercise is required to maximize muscular strength and size. In most cases, just one hard set per exercise of one or two exercises for each muscle group done one to three times per week is all you need (either as part of a full-body workout or divided over two or more body part splits) and more will not produce better results, and can even be counterproductive.

A high intensity workout should not last for more than around forty five minutes if you are using free weights, or last more than thirty minutes if you have a training partner to load bars ahead of you or you are using selectorized machines or bodyweight. If your workout lasts a lot longer than this your body will start to decrease testosterone and increase levels of catabolic hormones like cortisol, hindering rather than helping your attempt to get bigger and stronger.

You can only maintain a very high intensity of effort for a limited number of exercises without extending your rest between sets to more than one or two minutes, which increases the duration of the workout and reduces the acute increase in testosterone and growth hormone. You’re better off dividing all the exercises you want to include in your program over two or more workouts than doing them with less effort.

5. Give your body adequate time to recover and grow between workouts

Exercise does not directly produce improvements in muscular strength and size or any other factor of fitness. The only thing exercise can directly produce is an injury if you use poor form or fail to use appropriate safety equipment or spotters when needed. What exercise does is stimulate your body to produce those improvements. First, however, it has to recover from the negative effects of training, including muscle damage and the inflammation it causes, and this takes time. If you don’t allow your body enough time to recover between workouts, if over time the volume and frequency of your training causes more damage and inflammation than your body can recover from and adapt to, you’ll become overtrained and stop progressing or even lose strength and size.

The most frequently a genetically-average, drug-free trainee should train is three non-consecutive days per week. If you are training with a high level of intensity this is all you need. More does not produce better results, can actually make things worse, and advanced trainees and some people with poor recovery ability may find they make better progress training less, working out only twice a week or three times over a two week period.

As you become bigger and stronger and learn to push yourself harder during your workouts you may find you require additional rest days to fully recover. If you fail to go up in either weight or reps on most of your exercises for more than a few weeks and there are no other factors which may be causing it like poor diet or sleep or other physical demands, skip a week or two of training to allow your body time to fully recover, then resume working out at a slightly reduced frequency to determine whether you need more recovery time between workouts.

6. Build your workouts around basic, compound exercises

While it is certainly possible to build strength and size with simple (rotary, single-joint) exercises, compound exercises make it possible to train multiple muscle groups more efficiently. Compound exercises are also usually less complex, making them easier to learn to perform correctly and allowing you to focus more on effort and less on technique.

Minimally, this should include upper body pushing and pulling exercises in both horizontal and vertical planes, and both quadriceps dominant and glute/hamstring dominant lower body exercises, like squats and stiff-leg deadlifts, or leg press and hip extension or trunk extension.

7. Use strict form

The goal of an exercise is not to see how much weight you can lift, for how many reps or seconds, but to place as much of a demand as you can on the muscles you are working without wrecking your body in the process. The better your form, the more effective the exercise will be for this purpose. Using loose form or cheating for the sake of using more weight or completing more repetitions does not make an exercise more effective, and can increase your risk of sustaining injuries which can interfere with or even prevent you from training depending on the type and severity, or developing joint, spine, or connective tissue problems over time.

  • Move in a slow and controlled manner
  • Lift the weight, don’t swing or throw it
  • Lower the weight under strict control, don’t drop it
  • Do not set the weight down or unload between repetitions (unless you are performing rest-pause repetitions)
  • Do not lock out and rest at the end point during pushing movements
  • Do not alter your body position or movement to reduce the resistance or shift it to other muscles
  • Do not avoid or rush through harder portions of the range of motion, “mine” them
  • Do not pause or move too slowly through easier portions of the range of motion, or avoid them altogether
  • Maintain continuous, even tension on the working muscles, do not back off then heave at the weight

Don’t externalize and think of exercise as using your muscles to do something to the weight. Internalize and think of exercise as using the weight to do something to your muscles.

8. Keep accurate records of your workouts and measurements

To follow the second rule about training progressively and the fifth rule about getting enough recovery you need to keep accurate records of your workouts, writing down the weight used and repetitions completed or time under load for each exercise, as well as other relevant information like the exercise order, whether any advanced repetition methods or techniques were used, and the total time of the workout. This is necessary to ensure you are training progressively and to be able to objectively evaluate the effects of changes in your program on your progress and determine whether you need to modify your program in any way.

While your mirror and an honest trainer or training partner can be a pretty good gauge of your progress, taking regular measurements of your body weight, body composition, and body part circumferences also helps to objectively evaluate your results and adjust your workouts accordingly.

You can use a workout chart, journal, a loose leaf binder, a notepad, a spreadsheet app on your smart phone or table, or anything you can take to the gym and write or type on.

9. Eat enough high quality food and protein

You have to eat enough high quality food and protein to provide your body with the energy and materials needed to build new muscle or much of your effort in the gym will be wasted. Assuming average to low body fat and normal daily activity levels in addition to training, for most people this means eating at least a few hundred calories over maintenance levels and a gram of protein per day for every pound of goal body weight. The rest of your calories should come from a mix of healthy fats, from primarily animal sources (coconut and olive oils are also good), and nutrient-dense  plant foods, mainly vegetables and fruit.

If you’re overfat either focus on leaning down first or determine what you would weigh at around thirteen or fourteen percent body fat and use that number instead. For example, if you’re two hundred pounds and have twenty five percent body fat you would have to get down to around one hundred seventy five pounds to get your body fat percentage in the low teens, and you should base your calorie and protein intake on that.

Since energy expenditure varies significantly between individuals and with different activity levels, it is important that you weigh yourself and measure your body composition regularly so you can adjust your calorie intake accordingly. If you’re not gaining any muscle, you need to eat more. If you’re gaining more fat than muscle, you need to eat less.

It isn’t necessary to divide your food into six to eight meals per day and eat every two hours as some recommend. Going for longer than two or three hours without eating is not going to interfere with your gains. Three meals spaced four to six hours apart with a few snacks between and after works well and is more practical for most people than carrying a cooler around with them all day and scheduling their work and social life around food like some bodybuilders do.

If you haven’t eaten for more than two or three hours have a snack with some protein and carbs about half an hour before your workout, and another snack or meal afterwards. Also eat some protein just before going to sleep at night so your body to help with recovery and growth during sleep.

Drew Baye performing stiff-leg deadlifts during a negative emphasized workout

10. Get enough sleep

Getting enough sleep at night is necessary for your general health and well-being, and an absolute requirement for maximizing muscular strength and size gains. Sleep deprivation undermines your attempts to get bigger and stronger by reducing anabolic hormones like testosterone and growth hormone and increasing the catabolic hormone cortisol. While the amount needed varies between individuals, most people should try to get eight to nine hours of sleep at night.

You’ll sleep better at night if you stick to a regular sleep schedule, keep your sleeping area dark and cool, avoid or limit the use of stimulants like caffeine in the evening, and keep pets out of your room at night if they crowd your bed or disrupt your sleep.

11. Work out with a partner

This isn’t a rule, but a strong recommendation (or this would be called The Eleven Rules… instead). A good training partner will push you to train harder and get more out of your workouts than you would on your own, as well as help keep your form in check and spot you when you need it. Having a training partner also makes it possible or easier to use many advanced repetition methods and techniques like forced-reps, forced-negatives, drop sets, negative-only, and pre-exhaustion (by setting up equipment in advance and holding it for you) which can be helpful in breaking plateaus or bringing up lagging muscle groups.

Also, a good training partner may be more objective in evaluating your performance, progress, and physique and can provide valuable feedback on how you’re improving, where you’re doing well, and what you need to work on.

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  • Lifter Jul 1, 2014 @ 8:56

    Very comprehensive piece, mimics many of my findings during my journey. If I had this type of article to direct my efforts when i started out, it would have saved me wasted time and effort.

    Keep up the great work!

    • Drew Baye Jul 1, 2014 @ 10:12

      Thanks Lifter,

      There are a lot of things a person can do to improve their results from training, but these are the ones that make the biggest difference, the ones you need to get right before you worry about the details.

  • Chief Jul 1, 2014 @ 16:37

    Hi Drew!

    How much should I eat daily? I weigh around 187-188, and I’ve been losing weight for a while (taking about 1800-1900kcal on resting days and +2000kcal on workout days), and it’s been going really well, but I have this feeling – especially after reading the section about food&protein – that I’m going too low with the calories. What do you think?

    I want to burn fat and exercise hard.

    • Drew Baye Jul 2, 2014 @ 0:28

      Chief,

      If fat loss is your primary goal you should continue to restrict your calorie intake enough that you are consistently losing fat, but not so much you lose strength or size. Too small of a calorie deficit and your fat loss will be very slow. Too much of a calorie deficit and you’ll lose a lot of muscle along with the fat. Keep track of your food intake, your weight, your body composition, and your workouts and adjust accordingly.

  • Blain Jul 1, 2014 @ 17:24

    Drew,
    Number 4 and 6 for sure. My workouts are down to nine minutes flat and I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been at 35 years old. I’ll have to send you a pic sometime.

    • Drew Baye Jul 1, 2014 @ 21:06

      Blain,

      Unfortunately, most people you see in the gym are completely oblivious to number four, often spending upwards of two hours doing set after half-assed set.

      If you train with a very high level of intensity you don’t need much, nor can you tolerate long workouts.

  • Steven Jul 1, 2014 @ 20:25

    Hey Drew, I do agree with most of your top 10 list. Training to failure is the one that I tend to differ with you. Gymnast have some of the best bodies around and are strong as hell, but they never train to failure. Static holds, eccentrics and full training ? Yes ! Failure ? No ! Can you explain this to me ? Thanks and great work as always. Steven

    • Drew Baye Jul 1, 2014 @ 21:05

      Steven,

      The fact that gymnasts are strong and well developed is irrelevant. First, the fact that some method produced some result is not proof the same or better results could not have been achieved otherwise, and research has shown relative effort to be one of the most important factors in stimulating muscular strength and size increases. Second, gymnasts tend to be muscular for the same reason basketball players tend to be tall. Playing basketball does not make you grow taller, but people who are naturally tall will have an advantage at basketball and tend to rise to higher levels. Gymastics can make you stronger, but the reason you see so many muscular gymnasts is the same reason you see so many tall basketball players, people who are naturally stronger and more muscular have an advantage at gymnastics and will tend to rise to higher levels as well.

      If you selected one hundred people at random and assigned them to either a gymnastics group or a high intensity training group, after a few months of training all of them would have increased their strength and size but the high intensity training group would have much larger strength and size increases, even if the HIT group was also only doing body weight exercises, but in a manner conducive to improving strength and size rather than in a manner geared towards improving skill in gymnastics.

  • Steven Jul 2, 2014 @ 11:29

    “The fact that gymnasts are strong and well developed is irrelevant”. Wow ! Lost a little respect for you with that comment. They are just all genetic freaks ? Again, you have much more expertise than myself, but I don’t think training to failure is a must to achieve hypertrophy.

    • Drew Baye Jul 2, 2014 @ 13:18

      Steven,

      I thought I explained this pretty clearly. Selection bias plays a very large role in the physiques of different athletes, which is why at higher levels of competition the body types become more similar, and in sports and activities where a high level of muscular strength is an advantage competition will weed out those without it. The fact that gymnasts tend to be muscular despite gymnastics skills not typically being performed to the point of momentary muscular failure is irrelevant to a discussion of what is most effective for maximizing muscular strength and size.

      Any sport or activity that is physically challenging will improve muscular strength and size, but if you want to maximize your muscular strength and size you need to strength train with maximum intensity of effort. The research is pretty clear on this, and I have seen it confirmed again and again with the hundreds of people I’ve trained over the past twenty years. Your results have more to do with intensity of effort than any other factor. While training to failure is not necessary to stimulate strength and size increases it is necessary if you want to do so as effectively as possible.

      • Darin Jul 21, 2014 @ 17:02

        Fess up Drew. You use photo shop to airbrush out the palm marks on your face.

        I’d love to hear you as a guest on the Paleo Solution podcast. Any chance of that happening?

        • Drew Baye Jul 22, 2014 @ 12:57

          Hey Darin,

          I’d be glad to if they invite me.

  • Rita Jul 2, 2014 @ 14:40

    Love the blog, Drew. Do you think the 10 rules are the same for men and women? Thanks!

    • Drew Baye Jul 2, 2014 @ 15:01

      Thanks Rita,

      Absolutely. There are a few slight differences in how women should perform certain exercises due to biomechanical differences, such as the degree of elbow and knee valgus, and menstruation needs to be considered when monitoring weight and body composition, but otherwise the rules are the same.

  • Jose Manuel Jul 3, 2014 @ 2:24

    Training must be progressive, but always hit a plateau. Assuming that all external factors like food, sleep, work, family, other problems have remained constant, the solution to the impasse must be found in the manipulation of training variables.

    In this regard, what is your opinion about the decrease in the intensity vs volume manipulation or frequency?. Usually the load is reduced and perhaps keeping the repetitions increases in each successive session to return to the earlier marks. It is normally used by strength athletes.

    • Drew Baye Jul 3, 2014 @ 12:14

      Jose,

      Plateaus are common, but not guaranteed. It is possible for a person to make consistent progress up to the point of maximizing their genetic potential for strength and size if they follow these rules and adjust their training volume and frequency based on their body’s response.

      Reducing the intensity will make exercise less effective for strength and size increases, regardless of an increase in volume. This is similar to periodized approaches which involve lower load/higher rep phases, and have not been shown to produce better results than non-periodized training programs.

      • Alan Apr 1, 2017 @ 15:01

        Hi Drew

        Re: plateaus, your comment – “It is possible for a person to make consistent progress up to the point of maximizing their genetic potential for strength and size”.

        Questions that enter my thoughts every time I enter the gym:
        1) how does one know they’ve reached their genetic potential?
        2) what happens after that?
        3) wouldn’t a different label (maintenance?) applied to post-genetic-potential training philosophy bring a new level of sanity to a largely nonsensical “industry”?

        The principle of continued (infinite?) progression seems unrealistic/illogical and is therefore frustrating/discouraging to me. My experience after 15 years of serious/sustained effort was noticeable hypertrophy in the beginning, then continual minor ups and downs of strength and appearance. I have no idea if I’ve reached “genetic potential”, but I neither expect nor need more than maintenance at this point. Barring injury or downtime-for-other-reasons, is there another real-world scenario?

        I study the subject looking for inspiration, to continue my efforts, but I’m harassed to progress-forever-progress. Other than reminders about alternative exercises and form, I find only cognitive-dissonance inducing concepts. I often become discouraged in this limbo state – nobody is talking to me.

        After 15 years, the heaviest dumbells in my gym are still 120s and I’ve never seen two dumbells in one hand.

        Thanks for your generosity.

        Alan

        • Drew Baye Apr 4, 2017 @ 10:00

          Hey Alan,

          There is no way to know for sure but with proper exercise, nutrition, and rest most people appear to be able to get close to their (drug-free) potential for muscular strength and size increases within their first two to three years of training.

          If someone continues to make relatively consistent muscular strength and size gains beyond the beginner stage their training and diet is effective. Even if they continue following the same program (making adjustments to volume and frequency as intensity increases and adjustments to diet as muscle mass increases) their progress will quickly level off as they approach the limits of their potential (following an asymptotic curve). All else being about the same an effective program doesn’t just stop working, so it is a pretty good indication a person is pretty close to their limits.

          The problem with this is that although some people are capable of muscular strength and size increases that would surprise them, some people are not, and most of us want to believe the promises of the muscle magazines that we can all look like Arnold (and the training secrets and supplements we need are all contained in this months issue).

          You never really know how much more you might be able to improve so you should never stop trying, but once progress has slowed significantly the goal is to at least maintain what you have developed for as long as possible. This question is a common one and deserves to be covered in more detail, so I will cover it in an article soon.

  • Ken Jul 3, 2014 @ 3:29

    Great read Drew.
    On point 9, what’s the best or an easy way to measure your body composition?

    • Drew Baye Jul 3, 2014 @ 12:11

      Ken,

      I recommend using skin fold calipers, since they can be purchased relatively inexpensively and are reasonably accurate when used correctly, although you’ll need another person to take some of the measurements. Another option which doesn’t require another person is bioelectrical impedance scales, although I only recommend using ones with electrodes for both the hands and feet, like the Omron HBF-510W Full Body Composition Monitor with ScaleOmron HBF-510W.

  • Bradley Jul 3, 2014 @ 8:33

    Hi Drew, in regards to your statement- ‘Holding back effort for the sake of being able to do more volume is also a mistake and The recommendation to hold back effort or “leave a few reps in the tank” so you can train more frequently or with heavier weight is wrong
    Then why-‘resting between reps doesn’t hurt strength or size increases despite reducing the efficiency of inroad’ ?
    If I am holding back to use more weight doing RPT , then this is the same as multiple sets?

    • Drew Baye Jul 3, 2014 @ 10:58

      Hey Bradley,

      Resting between reps to increase the load you can use does increase stress on the body, but not as much as performing additional exercises or sets at a similar level of effort. This is why a reduction in volume is some times necessary when using high intensity training methods like rest-pause and negative only.

      • Taylor Jul 27, 2014 @ 23:01

        Hi Drew,

        Why would one use RP-NTF if it is not as effective (according to the study) as MMF? Also, why do you consider it a high intensity method when you define intensity as level of effort? If it is not to failure, it is of lower intensity. Thanks.

        • Drew Baye Jul 28, 2014 @ 10:20

          Hey Taylor,

          I do recommend performing rest-pause to the point of momentary muscular failure. In the case of rest-pause this would be the point where you are unable to continue the exercise in strict form after the prescribed rest-pause interval. To keep the rest interval consistent I recommend using a metronome or having your training partner count seconds.

          • Taylor Aug 1, 2014 @ 13:58

            Very good-we are on the same page then. RP to technical failure is one of my favorite methods and under utilized IMO. Thanks for the quick reply.

  • Bradley Jul 11, 2014 @ 11:41

    Thank you Drew. Would the quality of the stimulus be affected by incorporating rest pause? I mean quality in terms of constancy of repetition speed and maintaining continuous tension; instead of on-loading off-loading the muscle?

    • Drew Baye Jul 15, 2014 @ 14:03

      Hey Bradley,

      All else being equal, adding the rest-pause appears to improve muscular strength and size increases, however you have to balance your training volume and frequency against the increase in intensity. Pay close attention to how your body responds, and adjust your workouts accordingly.

  • HITornoHIT Jul 13, 2014 @ 12:23

    Regarding point number one, where you mention that to gain strength and muscle you “must” lift to MMF….then what about all those powerlifters, olympic lifters, and even bodybuilders who dont always lift to MMF and have a great built?

    am not knocking training to MMF because it definitely works, but working very close to failure (but not really failing) works too. I would say that the difference between the two is not that big and can differ from individual to individual, and would prefer stopping short of failure (i.e. leave a rep or two in the tank) to spare my joints, recover faster, and avoid getting overuse injuries when am older.

    my 2 cents

  • Ken Jul 23, 2014 @ 9:37

    Hi Drew, nice article.
    What are your thoughts on stretching for flexibility? I read body by science and from what I can tell they are not huge fans of it. I surf and do martial arts and am not very flexible. I feel being more flexible would benefit my ability in both these sports.

    • Drew Baye Aug 21, 2014 @ 13:44

      Ken,

      A proper strength training program will provide all the flexibility a person requires for most activities, however if you practice a martial art which requires above average flexibility additional stretching may be beneficial.

  • Scott James Tyler Jul 25, 2014 @ 4:28

    Hi Drew.
    I have been lead to believe that the three variables for training are volume, frequency and intensity. You address intensity in point 1 but can you explain this with regards to the other two? :”one hard set per exercise of one or two exercises for each muscle group done one to three times per week”. This is suggesting that I could do ONE working set of squats a WEEK (up to a maximum of 6 sets a week) and be maximising my muscle growth. Even if I absolutely go crazy on this one set, it still seems like an extremely low level of stimulation.
    Thanks
    Scott

    • Drew Baye Jul 25, 2014 @ 10:45

      Hey Scott,

      Exercise effectiveness has far more to do with intensity of effort than any other factor, and if you are doing each exercise correctly and if you are training intensely enough very little exercise is required for best results, because there is an inverse relationship between how hard you train and how much volume and frequency your body can handle without overtraining. The three biggest mistakes people make in their workouts is doing too much, too often, and not nearly hard enough.

      I have written several articles covering this, which you can find by entering “volume” in the search field to the right.

      I recommend starting with Less is More and The Sun Tan Analogy.

      • Scott James Tyler Jul 26, 2014 @ 4:36

        Thanks for the reply Drew and I apologise for my ignorance of the principles of the HIT protocol.
        I now understand that intensity is an important stimulant for muscle growth. However, your theory relies on the assertion that the body takes a long time to recover. Again, excuse my ignorance, but do you have the study which proves the body can take over a week to recover from one set? Also, do you not think it’s possible that an increase in volume or frequency over time (stimulus) can lead to faster recovery (adaptation)?
        You said that training a muscle before it has fully recovered can hinder or even reverse its growth, in your words “stop progressing or even lose strength and size”. How do you explain the fact that it’s possible to make size and strength gains using high frequency routines? If high frequency and volume leads to overtraining, training a muscle every day would lead to complete atrophy. Whereas is reality it can actually produce results.
        This video is Layne Norton’s look at the HIT routine, cortisol and overtraining.
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K1GStV46Ck
        What would be your response to his assertions?
        It’s difficult when two or more people you consider to be learned and honest to have such differing interpretations of data!
        Thanks again for your patience,
        Scott

        • Drew Baye Jul 28, 2014 @ 12:59

          Scott,

          I’ve covered all of these topics elsewhere on the site, including Layne’s assertions, which are way off. I suggest reading the recent research review Evidence Based Resistance Training Recommendations and my series of articles discussing it.

          Although it is possible for some people to make size and strength gains training with more volume and frequency, this is not proof the same or better results can not be achieved with a lower volume and frequency, and even if a lower volume and frequency only produced the same results it would still be superior due to the greater return relative to time invested and reduced wear and tear on the body.

  • Gyu Oct 18, 2014 @ 9:25

    Hi Drew,

    I really can’t thank you more.

    Thank you so much for all the information you have shared with us.

    God bless.

    • Drew Baye Oct 20, 2014 @ 12:49

      Hey Gyu,

      You’re welcome, and thank you. I’m glad people find the information helpful.

  • Brett Oct 20, 2015 @ 14:02

    Open questions:
    I dropped 50lbs of fat to reach 148.4 lbs. 129.3 lean mass, 19.1lbs fat @ 13% body fat. I need to make a decision to lean out to 9% or less body fat first, or work out to increase strength and muscle size. I have this nagging thought, that over time fat will drop, while building muscle and strength.

    Second from the Formula’s on this blog, I’ve calculated (370+(9.82×129.1)) x 1.55= 2600 kcals. With 193g protein a day. Does those averages sound right?

    Anyone in N. Austin TX, or know of a trainer/ee? Hoping to get some reassurance on form for proper lifting.

    • Drew Baye Oct 26, 2015 @ 16:13

      Hey Brett,

      If you’re already that lean I recommend shifting gears and focusing on size instead. Just be careful to increase gradually and not let your bodyfat get back too high. Any formula for estimating calorie expenditure should be considered a starting point from which to make adjustments based on changes in body composition, but at your current weight and body comp that sounds reasonable. You don’t need that much protein, around 0.8 to 1.0 grams per pound of lean body mass daily is plenty if you’re not restricting calories, but you’re better erring a little high with protein than too low.

      If you can provide a list of the equipment you’re using and video of you performing the exercises I can help you with your form via video consultation.

  • Lawrence Neal May 26, 2016 @ 17:59

    This is a great article Drew. I’ve got down to 10.5% body fat and now I’m looking at slap on a bit more muscle for a holiday to warm cruise in Croatia in a few months, ha! Vain, I know. If it works to motivate me then who cares what the goal is.

    I weigh 160lbs, so at 20 cals per pound of body weight, that works out to 3,200 calories. My BMR x1.2 for a small amount of activity is 2,138 calories burned per day. Do I really need an excess of 1,062 calores (3,200-2,138) to stimulate a gain in lean muscle. I have heard other HIT experts on my podcast recommend just an excess of 2-300 calories?

    Cheers,
    Lawrence

    • Drew Baye Jun 11, 2016 @ 23:10

      Hey Lawrence,

      At 160 pounds and 10.5% bodyfat unless you are very inactive you’re probably burning closer to 2,400 to 2,600 calories per day, in which case 3,200 isn’t that much extra. While it doesn’t take a lot of extra calories to support the training and muscle growth, empirically a calorie surplus appears to make it easier to gain muscle faster.

  • riyaz Jun 16, 2016 @ 7:32

    You’ve told that rep speed should be low. But activities like sprints, plyometrics, throws always require greater speeds. And what about RFD, power, motor learning, muscle activation and studies that show “faster reps are better than slower ones (including journal of strength and conditioning research….)?

  • Gustavo Jul 6, 2016 @ 16:25

    Thanks for sharing this. This is the most comprehensive article that I’ve ever read online on HIT Tips & Practices.

  • markus Feb 12, 2017 @ 15:25

    I understand the concept of training to failure but I can’t quite get my head around the difference of training with a heavy weight vs a relatively lighter one. I can move the lighter weight for longer…towards the end of the set my muscle is on fire but I can still do several more reps and thus achieve very deep inroad. However when I use a heavier weight the set will obviously be shorter with faster and more sudden drop off in strength, say on the the 5th rep’s negative I already feel that I won’t be able to complete a full 6th rep. I still try as hard as possible and obviously achieve MMF but the inroad does not feel as deep as with the lighter weight. So is one better than the other or should one cycle both protocols? Cheers.
    PS Hope you make a live Q&A again soon – I very much enjoyed the two you did a while ago,

    • Drew Baye Feb 15, 2017 @ 15:50

      Hey Markus,

      Increases in muscular strength and size are stimulated by several factors, including tension, microtrauma, and metabolic stress. You’ll have a different balance of these when using lower or higher reps, but it doesn’t appear to make any difference in the long run. Unless you are specifically training to be able to move a very heavy weight in a particular exercise I recommend using a moderate to high rep range to increase metabolic and cardiovascular conditioning benefits and safety.

  • Dylan Aug 5, 2017 @ 5:44

    This was helpful I am 15 and am looking to get more muscle I had no idea about needing certain amounts of food or sleep. Pushups were not mentioned alot, my primary goal is 50 pushups in a month I went from being able to do 12 to 42. And im noticing changes. What is the best workout for building upper body strength ?

    • Drew Baye Nov 1, 2017 @ 12:56

      There is no best workout. The principles of exercise are the same for everyone but the best way to apply those principles will vary between individuals depending on their genetics, goals, and other factors. Apply the rules in this article consistently and you’ll eventually get as big and strong as your genetics will allow.

      Worry less about how many push ups you can do and more about how well you do them.

  • Raymond Mar 18, 2020 @ 11:56

    How about deload and periodization Sir? Do I need to do that once in a while or continue training heavy and to failure every workout? Thanks.

    • Drew Baye Mar 20, 2020 @ 18:55

      No. Neither of these are necessary.