(*I share the ‘muscle’ program we used at Dare Strength in 2024, read until the end!)
Building muscle is one of the greatest prevention and aids for chronic disease like arthritis, obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.
While also reducing symptoms of mental and emotional disorders like depression and anxiety.
Dr. Gabrielle Lyon coined the phrase “Muscle in the organ of longevity”.
But the most common reason people build muscle is for status:
- Attract that romantic partner or be more attractive to your current partner
- Appear more fit to get you that higher salary and promotion
- Get more respect from your peers and strangers
- Build self respect and confidence
- Be part of the fit top 10%
This is why so many people try to take shortcuts like supplements, crash diets and worse.
But building muscle is a simple process.
This article explains common misconceptions and gives you simple steps to start building muscle today.
What’s the Difference? Building Muscle vs. Getting Toned
Most people hear building muscle and think, bodybuilders.
When they hear getting toned and think, someone with visible ‘lean muscle’.
What most people describe as ‘lean muscle’ is basically having smaller muscles.
And the only reason they’re visible is from having lower body fat.
*Spoiler alert*
Getting toned is just building some muscle and having low body fat.
Unless you’re genetically gifted or spend years training hard...
Most people will build just enough muscle to be considered “toned”.
So you don’t have to worry about looking like athletes, bodybuilders or fitness models with huge muscles.
On the other hand, if you’re looking to gain muscle like the pros, get ready to commit years to the process.
With that cleared up, let’s help you understand how to actually build muscle.
How Do You Build Muscle
Your body needs these 4 things to build muscle:
- Naturally occurring hormones like Testosterone, growth hormone (GH), and insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1)
- The right balance of macro and micro nutrients like (protein, carbs, fat, vitamins and minerals)
- Mechanical tension - strength training
- Recovery - sleep and time off from exercise so your body can use the nutrients and hormones to repair and build muscle
(* For a deeper dive into the science of muscle building, refer to experts like Brad Schoenfeld PhD, Dr. Andy Galpin, Layne Norton PhD, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, to name a few )
Strength training(mechanical tension) is the most popular aspect of muscle building.
The body needs a higher level of mechanical tension than it’s used to, in order to grow.
Another word for this is intensity.
In other words, your body needs a new challenges, because it adapts to previous challenges.
And these are the 3 ways you can do that:
- Increase load (resistance or weight)
- Increase volumes (sets, reps, or number of times you lift the weight)
- Increase time under tension (amount of time the muscle is resisting the weight)
For example..
If you lift 10 pounds one time today, you can..
- Increase load - lift 15 pounds one time tomorrow
- Increase volume - lift 10 pounds two times tomorrow
- Increase time under tension - lift 10 pounds one time but more slowly tomorrow
Yes, it’s that simple.
You’ll see this play out in the Programming section below.
But people overcomplicate this process and believe these common misconceptions.
Common Misconceptions about Building Muscle
Genetics: Believing Your Body Can’t Build Muscle
99.9% of people look the same under a microscope. (Don’t worry you’re still unique)
Of course there are genetic mutations that can lead to disorders and illnesses..
But the average person’s body works the same way:
- eat too much - you gain weight
- eat in a calorie deficit - you lose weight
- sit all day - your body get’s stiff like a chair
- sleep poorly - you’ll be tired and health declines
- lift weights(with progressive overload) - you gain muscle and strength
Disclaimer: if you make unhealthy choices long enough..
You can develop chronic disease and seeing results will take more time and effort.
If you’re in relatively good health, building muscle isn’t limited by your genetics.
But the time and energy you commit to it.
Marketing - Misleading Ads
Ads online and on social media have twisted expectations of how quickly you can build muscle.
They usually show a "before and after" photo to make prospects believe absurd claims...
Just to sell their program or service.
And ads like these have been around for decades.
Then you have products like this that promise six pack abs for $39.99!
“Stick it on your belly, flip on the switch, sit on your couch watching tv while building sculpted abs!”
And you have fitness models with phenomenal physiques holding supplements implying…
“See how great I look?! You can look great too if you just buy this supplement!”
Again, building muscle takes time and effort.
Marketers, ads and companies are partly to blame for unrealistic expectations.
But your brain isn’t always helpful either.
Shortcuts
Easy Path
Humans are wired to look for the easiest path.
Your brain would rather save energy by going the easy route versus the hard one.
This could be the result of evolution or learned behavior of our ‘instant gratification’ culture.
You might waste some money and time with gimmicky products or programs…
But there are more harmful, even deadly, “easy routes” people look to, for fast results.
Drugs.
There’s a time and place for medically recommended and supervised treatments, like drugs.
But for most of us…
There are simpler, safer and scientific ways to build muscle without putting your health at risk.
And these ways are the fastest ways to build muscle and maintain it.
All-in-One Programs
This one isn’t as obvious but this shortcut is trying to combine strength and cardio training.
If your goal is to:
- be active
- gain SOME strength and muscle
- include SOME form of cardio or stamina training
You can combine strength and cardio with programs like bootcamps, CrossFit, OrangeTheory, and F45.
As long as you practice caution with exercise technique and gradually increasing intensity.
Even then... your progress will slow down and you'll hit a plateau.
That's because specific goals require specific programs.
If you want to build endurance(cardio), an endurance program is best.
If you want to build muscle(hypertrophy), a hypertrophy program is best.
If you want to build strength, a strength program is best.
These programs are superior to mixed programs because they use progressive overload.
- Specific goal
- Track specific measurement
- Specifically and incrementally increase intensity
Just like the specific process you use to improve nutrition.
Nutrition and Recovery to Build Muscle
Nutrition to Build Muscle
PROTEIN
Most people know protein is important to build muscle, but why?
Protein breaks down into the molecules that become muscle tissue, along with all other cells in your body.
Protein is broken into amino acids that play important roles:
- Immune system
- Digestive system
- Hormone and brain chemicals
- Healthy skin, hair, nails
- Energy source
You need plenty of protein for your body to fulfill these rolls, maintain and then build muscle.
But carbohydrates and fat also play important roles in building muscle.
CARBOHYDRATES
1. Prevent amino acid break down
Carbs are quick sources of energy and they’re stored in the body as glycogen.
When glycogen is low, your body will break down amino acids and fat as energy.
‘Burn fat as energy, good!
Breaking down amino acids, from your muscle, as energy, not so good..’
Remember, we want amino acids to be available to build muscle.
2. Source of energy for training
Glycogen is the primary source of energy for high intensity training when building muscle.
Less glycogen = you get tired quicker = less intensity = less muscle building
3. Glycogen and water is stored in muscle
Muscle is 70-80% water.
One gram of glycogen is stored with 3-4 grams of water meaning..
They are part of what makes your muscles visible and bigger.
FAT
Dietary fat can easily be stored as body fat so don't over consume them..
But eat too little and you’re compromising hormone production, which you need to build muscle.
Hormones like Testosterone, growth hormone (GH), and insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1).
Despite the fear of saturated fat and cholesterol, they are needed to build steroid hormones like testosterone.
There are conflicting studies about saturated vs. unsaturated fats…
So we like to play it safe and follow Layne Norton’s recommendation of keeping saturated fat to 30% of total fat intake.
Nutrition summary
We like the balanced recommendation of 25-35% Protein, 20-30% Fat, 30-40% Carbs.
You can read more about food sources in this article about 5-steps-to-calorie-count-for-precise-weight-loss
Recovery to Build Muscle
Sleep is THE BEST free and natural recovery tool when building muscle.
1. These studies show disrupted or deprived sleep make it hard to just maintain muscle.
- fiber-type shifts, altered sarcomeric structure, reduced mitochondrial respiration, and impaired muscle function (Harfmann et al., 2015)
- compromise glucose metabolism, reduce insulin sensitivity, and impair muscle function (Bescos et al., 2018; Buxton et al., 2010)
2. If muscular performance decreases, you can’t train with intensity to build muscle.
3. Certain hormones are released during sleep that help repair and build muscle after your workout.
So sleep is important for maintaining, training, and repairing muscle.
Before going out and buying recovery tools like protein and creatine supplements...
Or methods like hot/cold exposure, massage, compression gear or electrical muscle stimulators..
Add the second free and effective tool.
Movement.
Go for a walk or do easy cardio on your rest days and/or after your workout.
This increases blood and nutrient flow to your muscles and joints to speed up the recovery process.
Work hard, rest harder.
Programming: Which Exercises to Choose and How Many Times to Lift Them
*Disclaimer - There’s a lot of explanation below because a program is much more effective if you know the objective of the program and how to properly apply it.
But, if you’re only interested in the workouts themselves, look for the tables below.
Exercise Selection
There are thousands of exercises to choose from and even more combinations you can create.
So I’ve narrowed it down to these categories.
For beginners, the major 7 categories of movements, The Starting Seven, is a great place to start.. explained in this article:
- Squat
- Hip Hinge
- Single leg
- Upper body Push
- Upper body Pull
- Core
- Cardio
Then you can expand it to The Basic 15 to cover all major movement patterns:
- Squat
- Hip Hinge
- Single leg
- Upper body Push (Upward, Forward, Downward)
- Upper body Pull (Downward, Backward, Upward)
- Core (Torso raise, Leg Raise, Lateral, Rotation, Posterior)
- Cardio
These categories provide a balance of all the major and useful movements for the average adult.
Let’s look at how to put these movements into a program.
The Program
Basic terms to understand:
- Splits - meaning how you divide your exercises throughout the week
- Exercise Selections - what movement or muscle group to train each day
- Volume - how many sets and reps to complete for each exercise
Split - you want a balance of exercises or you might overuse certain muscle groups and joints leading to injury
Exercise Selection - certain exercises are better for specific muscle groups and more appropriate for your fitness level
Volume - how many times you lift a weight and how heavy you lift shows you the goal of the program
As a client, you’d think you don’t need to know this...
But this knowledge keeps you aware if your trainer, coach or program follows THE BASICS of exercise science and programming.
Let’s dive in!
So far in 2024 at Dare Strength we’ve had 3 main splits
1. Push / Pull / Legs
2. Upper / Lower
3. Push / Pull
These splits were divided into three days per week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)
Each split lasted 5 weeks with one relatively easy transition week.
1. Push / Pull / Legs
SPLIT - This split divides your pushing, pulling, and lower body muscle groups into three balanced days a week.
- Push - Upper body pushing movements
- Pull - Upper body pulling movements
- Legs - Lower body movements
We rearranged our workouts to Pull/Legs/Push because…
- Pulling muscles tend to be weaker for most people so we put them first day of the week
- Legs tend to be overlooked, so we kept it in the middle of the week
- Push on the last day of the week because many people like these exercises and it encourages them to show up on a Friday!
EXERCISE SELECTION
The letters next to each exercise means, “Finish all sets for A, before moving onto B”.
*The goal for this phase was BUILDING MUSCULAR ENDURANCE
VOLUME
In this phase, each movement started with one warm up set with 10-30 reps.
- Week 1
- 2-3 working sets x 15-25 reps (*light weight)
- Week 2
- 3 working sets x 20-30 reps (*same weight or slightly heavier than last week)
- Week 3
- 3 working sets x 20-25 reps (*heavier weight than last week)
- Week 4
- 3 working sets x 15-20 reps (*heavier weight than last week)
- Week 5
- 3-4 working sets x 12-20 reps (*heavier weight than last week)
- Week 6
- 4-5 working sets x 10-15 reps (*heavier weight than last week)
*Rest was 1-2 minutes between sets
The exercise selections stayed the same each week and the reps changed to accommodate heavier weights.
We increased the sets on the last two weeks as we transitioned into the muscle building phase (hypertrophy)
2. Upper / Lower
SPLIT - This split balances your upper body and lower body muscles every other training session.
But it also lets you train these muscles more frequently than the Push/Pull/Leg split.
There were two versions of each Upper and Lower.
Upper A, Lower A, Upper B, Lower B
Upper A had slightly different exercise focuses than Upper B, and same with Lower A/B.
EXERCISE SELECTION
*A1 and A2 means they’re a superset.
Do one set of A1 exercise, immediately do one set of A2 exercise, then rest.
The goal for this phase was BUILDING MUSCLE(HYPERTROPHY)
For this phase, the exercises in the A and B categories were the primary exercise.
- We did 1-2 warmup sets x 10-20 reps; Rest 1:00 between sets
- Followed by 4-5 working sets x 8-12 reps; Rest 1-2 minutes between sets
These sets and reps range stayed the same for 6 weeks (4-5 sets x 8-12 reps)
And we applied the progressive overload principle to build muscle.
VOLUME
- Week 1
- 4 sets x 12 reps
- Week 2
- 4 sets x 12 reps (*same weight as last week but slower reps)
- Week 3
- 4-5 sets x 10 reps (*heavier weight than last week)
- Week 4
- 4-5 sets x 10 reps (*same weight as last week but slower reps)
- Week 5
- 5 sets x 8 reps (*heavier weight than last week)
- Week 6
- 5 sets x 8 reps (*same weight as last week but slower reps)
The exercises stayed the same for each Upper/Lower A/B.
The last two weeks with lower reps were in preparation for Strength in the following split.
3. Push / Pull
SPLIT - This split balances your Push and Pull muscles for your upper and lower body every other training session.
There were two versions of each Push and Pull.
Push A, Pull A, Push B, Pull B
Push A had slightly different exercise focuses than Push B, and same with Pull A/B.
EXERCISE SELECTION
*Exercises in A and B were completed on their own
*Exercises C1 & C2, D1 & D2 were supersets
*E1, E2, E3 were a triset (three exercises performed back to back with a rest at the very end)
One main difference with this phase was that we introduced a strength focus.
The goal for the ‘A’ category for each day was STRENGTH
The goal for the remaining movements was BUILDING MUSCLE(HYPERTROPHY)
VOLUME
The sets and reps was different ONLY for the ‘A’ Category
Warmup 1-2 sets x 10-20 reps; Rest 1:00
Working 4-8 sets x 6-12 reps; Rest 2:00-3:00 between sets
*Rest is longer for strength focused lifts so the body can replenish the limited amount of energy needed for higher effort.
Experienced lifters could stay at 5-8 sets x 6-8 reps
But most average lifters followed the guidelines below:
- Week 1
- 4-5 sets x 12 reps
- Week 2
- 4-5 sets x 10 reps (*increase weight)
- Week 3
- 5-6 sets x 8 reps (*increase weight)
- Week 4
- 5-6 sets x 6-8 reps (*increase weight)
- Week 5
- 6-8 sets x 6 reps (*increase weight)
The sets and reps for the remaining movements was:
Warmup 1 set x 10-20
Working 3 sets x 10-20 reps: Rest 0 - 1:00
There were two ways to progressive overload for this section
- Start at 20 reps - then each week add weight + lower reps (20, 18, 16, 14)
- Start at 10 reps - then each week increase reps with the same weight (10, 12, 14, 16)
RECAP
Building muscle has benefits for your health, self confidence, status and longevity.
1. These 4 categories all play important roles in building and maintaining muscle:
- Naturally occurring hormones
- Nutrients
- Strength Exercise (Mechanical tension)
- Recovery
2. You need the right nutrients to form hormones
You need good recovery to release these hormones
You need the right nutrients, hormones and recovery to repair and build muscle
You need strength exercise as a reason for your body to build muscle
3. Strength exercise needs progressive overload…
You can’t lift the same weight everyday and expect to keep building muscle.
The goal as an average working adult is to build muscle safely and maintain it.
It’s ok to take it easy if you don’t get enough sleep, eat or drink enough, feel extra sore or have some aches.
Adjust exercises to your capability and enjoy the process of building muscle and getting lean!
