Two Keys for Muscle Growth
Training, at its core, is simple: practice skills, do stuff that’s harder than normal life.
But you can also get really granular with it. This post is in between.
A lot of people come to us with goals around muscle growth: maybe they want to get “toned,” (which generally means both building muscle and losing bodyfat so that those muscles have visible definition); maybe they want to look “jacked,” (i.e. toned, but with big muscles); maybe they want to protect their joints more; maybe they’re concerned about longevity.
Any kind of general strength training will promote some element of hypertrophy (that is, muscle growth), though strength training and hypertrophy training are a little different.
There are all kinds of considerations for a broad hypertrophy training program, but two principles of muscle growth that you can tack on to any program you’re doing already are: take movements to end range, and make your final repetitions very, very hard.
Range of Motion
Trainers everywhere, forever, have stressed the importance of full range of motion. When training for hypertrophy, that is generally good (though there is data to suggest that partial range can also be effective), but what’s especially good is training ranges that involve long muscle length. That is to say, doing movements where you also feel a deep stretch in that muscle. The bottom position of a dip is a great example of this. Training at that lengthened muscle range is regularly and consistently shown to promote more muscle tissue growth than missing that range.
Intensity
Muscles can’t count. They don’t really know the difference between 8 reps and 12 reps. But they understand time under tension, they understand intensity of contraction, and they understand fatigue. In the simplest terms, if you want to maximize muscle gain, make sure your last 1-4 reps of your set are very, very, very hard. Now, this is psychological as much as it is physical. If you’ve ever tried to actually hit involuntary muscular failure, you know that those last few reps are a mind game of wondering if your muscles are quitting or if it’s just so uncomfortable that you want to stop. If you can regularly hit involuntary failure, you might need as little as one single set to get the hypertrophy stimulus you’re looking for. If you’re a mortal like most of us, it might take 3-5 sets that finish very hard. But regardless Hard reps = more muscle gain.
Is there more to it than that? Certainly. But if more muscle is your goal and you’re already training, this is a good place to start.
