A few quick thoughts on building muscle.
At least in terms of your TRAINING.
Because as I say all the time, "Everything matters, so you have to look at everything."
But just for now, we'll assume your nutrition, recovery, and lifestyle are not a complete mess.
TENSION
The science is clear on this point. Unless you're trying to get as strong as humanly possible, nothing builds more muscle than maximizing tension through a full range of motion. Bonus points for milking that end-range tension with a pause at peak stretch.
TECHNIQUE
The keys here are two-fold. First, select exercises that match your anthropometry and respect any physical limitations with mobility, range of motion, and injury status. Second, QUALITY OVER QUANTITY—8 clean reps are better than 13 where the last five bear no resemblance to the first.
EFFORT
Technically, effort is about "proximity to failure" and how many reps you leave in the tank—and way too many of us are playing in the extremes. Stopping when "the burn" starts won't get you the results you want—but neither will having your buddy curl you through 8 more reps of bench press you'd never make on your own. Train HARD. Stop 1-2 reps short of failure MOST of the time. OWN your reps.
PROGRESSION
You won't build muscle by showing up to the gym and doing the same damn thing every time—your body needs a REASON to grow. When things are good, that means chasing the logbook and finding one more rep or one more pound. Sometimes, it looks like doing the same work BETTER. Not every workout, mind—but the progress has to show up over time.
CONSISTENCY
Heroic one-off efforts don't get results—it's showing up, week after week, and putting in the work. And I'm not talking about perfection either—everyone has to skip a workout here and there. But the person making progress is the one playing the long game.
Honestly, it's weaving these fundamental tenets of training into our clients' programs that make high-level coaching both fun AND challenging.
Especially when you factor in nutrition, recovery, and lifestyle that we so elegantly skipped over earlier. 😏
