Building Muscle Without the Horseshit
A Method that Works Like a Charm
When I was 50 years old, I had a dad bod: a fat belly and very little muscle. I’m not exactly jacked now, at age 61, but I’m pretty strong and have a good physique (look at my profile photo). Better yet, I actually enjoy exercising. It’s not work; it’s fun.
I learned how to pull off this transformation through listening to experts (usually not social media influencers), trial & error, reading some of the scientific literature, and carefully applying logic to the good advice I’ve read.
One of the surprising facts is that there are many totally great ways to build muscle mass & strength. For the most part, the details just don’t matter, assuming you’re an ordinary person and not an athlete. Social media influencers need to produce tons of content in order to make a living, so they exaggerate the amount of information you need. For instance, I’ve heard of a zillion exercises for building triceps, but almost all of them are unnecessary. Frankly, getting big triceps is just about the simplest thing there is.
As for the good reasons for building strength & muscle mass, there are plenty:
It helps increase the number of physically healthy years you live. Not the shitty years.
It helps with preventing illnesses.
It helps with preventing injuries. It can cause some too, but probably not if you follow my advice below.
It helps with doing certain chores and other activities that require strength.
It helps with sex (seriously: don’t underestimate this one).
It helps increase your feelings of self-worth.
It helps increase your attractiveness with people you want to attract.
It helps with your vanity, which isn’t always a bad thing.
It helps with preventing or perhaps lessening depression, stress, and/or anxiety. Not always of course.
It helps you get out of the fucking house, away from your shitty spouse or roommates (just a joke . . . sort of).
It helps you do things with the people you like, who can be your occasional gym partners.
Some people have suggested that weightlifting is a politically right-wing activity. Those people are bad at critical thinking about politics. Ignore them.
Of course, like everything else there are significant costs to building muscle & strength. It takes a lot of time, for sure. And a gym membership. But if you do it right, it does NOT take much discipline. See below.
After these introductory remarks, I’ll go over 31 keys to building lots of strength & muscle mass for ORDINARY people, not athletes. They fall into three categories: AT THE GYM, NUTRITION, and RECOVERY.
There are alternative methods that work, for sure, but this one works for a great many people. We don’t need to fuss to find the absolute best method. Lord knows, the BEST method will vary quite a bit from person to person, or even from week to week for a single person. Don’t waste time and effort chasing the very best methods. You’re not a professional athlete.
“That’s all fine and everything, but it’s really difficult to get myself to actually go and work hard at the gym”.
By my lights, the right response to this common predicament is to never think about your workout schedule. Never allow yourself to even consider it. The less thinking the better.
I learned this from Arnold Schwarzenegger. In a relatively recent interview he was talking about his bodybuilding days. The interviewer wanted to know about the discipline Schwarzenegger must have had to go to the gym virtually every day and work so incredibly hard there. If I remember right, in his response Schwarzenegger made it relatively clear that it had little to do with discipline. Not nothing but little. The interviewer was just plain mistaken. Neither did it have much to do with psyching himself up. And there was almost no reward system if he went to the gym (although there were rewards for massive progress, like bodybuilding titles). None of those bits of advice were any good.
Instead, the GREAT SCHWARZENEGGER SECRET was to shut the hell up and just go the gym automatically.
Don’t think about it. Going to the gym should require about the amount of planning and thought that you expend to regularly take a shower, piss, and put your clothes on. You don’t plan your damn shower. You just do it. You don’t think about it. You don’t reward yourself for doing it. You do it on autopilot. It’s the same for going to the gym first thing in the morning or whenever. Never allow yourself the luxury of even thinking about going to the gym. You do it with the same automatic behavior as putting your clothes on.
If you permit yourself to think about it, then you’ll eventually think of excuses to not go. You’ll fool yourself. I suspect that the smarter and more creative you are, the more prone you are to doing this self-sabotage.
Okay, here we go with our three categories: AT THE GYM, NUTRITION, and RECOVERY.
AT THE GYM
Mainly choose weightlifting exercises you enjoy. Minimize ones you don’t like. If you grit your teeth and insist on doing ones you don’t like but you think are the best for your body, then eventually you’ll use your intelligence & creativity to find excuses to quit going to the gym, unless you’re a lunatic. Honestly, this is probably the most important bit of advice. It’s much better to consistently go to the gym, for many years, and do good but suboptimal workouts than to not go to the gym because you don’t like it. So, if you hate working on your glutes or side delts or calves or whatever, forget those exercises. Do you detest “leg day”? Fine: don’t do it, or do it only occasionally. Don’t worry about the possibility that you’re going to get so huge, like a bodybuilder, that having small glutes/side delts/calves/quads will make you look funny. Ain’t gonna happen. The same holds for particular exercises. If you’re afraid of injuries from deadlifts, for instance, that’s perfectly fine: do other stuff.
This doesn’t mean that you should avoid all exercises you don’t immediately find attractive. The good news is that after you’ve done an exercise for about a month, you’ll probably like it more than when you started. For one thing, the exercise movements will grow more natural over time. They will feel smooth, not awkward. For another thing, you’ll make big gains in the first month, so you’ll get a dopamine hit of “I’m improving so much!!” You have that pleasant experience to look forward to. Progress really is a great motivator.
Hit each muscle group you want to develop about twice a week. Some muscle groups can take training episodes every other day, but two per week is fine as a general rule. You’re not a bodybuilder trying to maximize everything, so chill out.
Do plenty of easy warm-up sets, especially if you’re over 40. For instance, if you usually do heavy dumbbell curls (for the biceps) with 20 lbs, then do something like four warm-up sets with 5-15 lbs, starting with the lower weight and gradually making things harder on your muscles as you go heavier. Don’t be embarrassed by starting with a ridiculously light weight. You’re not working out yet; you’re just preparing the muscles. By going through this warm up process, you’re significantly reducing the odds of injury once you hit the heavy sets and work your muscles hard.
Always use excellent if not perfect form. Don’t listen to the influencers who insist that you must do the exercise this exact way if you want to build muscle. In almost all cases, there are multiple ways of doing an exercise that are highly profitable.
However, you don’t want to consistently use really bad form. Doing an exercise with bad form will significantly increase the probability of injury, which is incredibly annoying because it means stopping most of your program entirely for long periods of time. I got tennis elbow from weightlifting (not tennis), and it took something like 18 months to fully heal. Not kidding. Be careful. The older you are, the longer recovery from injury takes.
After your warm-up sets, do roughly 4-8 sets per muscle group per workout, getting close to failure for the last few sets. If you go to the gym and do just 3 sets for a particular muscle group, well, it wasn’t fantastic but it wasn’t nothing either! 3 sets is still a win; 8 sets and you’re a freakin’ star.
Be careful when interpreting “getting near or at failure”. If you can do just two reps with a super heavy weight, then after failing to do the third rep you’re at failure, by definition. But you haven’t really done much, right? You spent very few seconds near or at failure. I don’t know of any relevant literature, but I suspect that going to failure on the 12th rep is different, and generates more strength & muscle building, than going to failure on the 3rd rep, at least in most cases. With 12 reps instead of 3 reps, you were near or at failure for more seconds. Aim for higher reps most but not all of the time. See #15 & 16 below.
It’s not terribly important to switch exercises often. You’re not a bodybuilder. If you love doing single-arm overhead tricep extensions with a dumbbell, as I do, then just stick with that. It’s a great exercise and switching around just isn’t necessary for normal people. Remember that you are allowed to enjoy your exercises.
Try to work the muscle hard when it’s stretched near to its maximum length, instead of contracted. Muscle growth is particularly good in the stretched position.
Try to use the full range of motion for the exercises.
If you’re getting near failure, there’s nothing wrong with doing a few partial reps when you can no longer do full reps. In fact, those partial ones are good, as you’re increasing the number of seconds you’re near failure (see #16 below). Doing partial reps is generally better than just ending the set after the full reps.
Relatedly, if you’re getting near failure, there’s nothing wrong with “using momentum” to finish some reps. It’s better than stopping the set entirely. The important thing is to get near failure; whether you use momentum isn’t terribly important as long as you’re not fooling yourself about getting near failure. Schwarzenegger used momentum all the time, and he turned out pretty good.
If you really, really want to have a great workout for a particular muscle group, finish the workout for that muscle group with two drop sets during which you literally go all the way to failure for three or even four different weights, with no rest periods in between the weights. If you do it right—really to failure—then you’ll want an ambulance afterwards. It’s really that insanely hard to do. I almost never see anyone in a gym go that far. I manage it only occasionally. But your improvement will be extreme if you can manage these killer sets consistently over a few weeks. But be prepared to rest a great deal after a workout like that. I wouldn’t do it right before a full day at work. Yes, doing these killer drop sets will cause great gains in muscle, but you pay for it pretty much all day in terms of general fatigue. Costs & benefits!
The number of repetitions per set isn’t terribly important. Sets with anywhere from about 5 to 20 reps are fine, as long as you’re really pushing yourself at the end. It’s probably best to do a variety of sets, from the 5-rep ones all the way to the 20-rep ones. Again, the details aren’t terribly important for ordinary folks.
Roughly put, the key to building muscle mass seems to be the number of seconds the muscle is near failure, per workout, assuming 2-3 workouts per week per muscle group (assuming you’re doing nutrition & recovery right). You don’t have to hit absolute failure. You want to increase the number of seconds you spend near that point.
Rest very roughly a minute between sets. For most people, it doesn’t matter that much (as I keep saying: you’re not a professional athlete who needs to maximize everything). It depends on whether you feel ready. For instance, when I do heavy shoulder shrugs with dumbbells, I need plenty of rest between sets (like 2 or even 3 minutes), because that exercise is super taxing for me and I’m doing well over my body weight. Other exercises don’t need nearly as much time for rest; 30 seconds might be fine. Relatedly, avoid excessive chitchat with other gymgoers, as it interferes with the timing of your workout.
If you feel some weird pain while doing some reps, stop everything. Go the fuck home. Even if the pain seems minor, if it also seems weird you need to just stop. Live to exercise another day. An injury can keep you out of the gym for weeks or even months—especially if you’re older. At worst, the weird pain wasn’t indicative of any blossoming injury and you didn’t really need to stop. But so what? All you’ve lost is part of one day’s workout. That’s a small price to pay for avoiding injuries.
NUTRITION
Eat a shitload of fruits and veggies. Go for variety too, so don’t just eat blueberries and bananas for months on end for instance.
Eat a shitload of protein from fish, chicken, eggs, nuts & legumes, and veggies. Roughly 0.6-0.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight is great, every day. Details aren’t too important for us ordinary people. If you’re a vegetarian, this is harder to do but you can get good advice on it elsewhere. Just ask an LLM for the most protein-rich veggies per ounce.
Pay no attention to the carnivore diet lunatics or almost any other social media influencers who talk endlessly about nutrition. They almost never know how to interpret scientific research papers. Virtually no one without a Master’s or PhD does, quite frankly. I’ve got a Master’s in physics and I can’t understand physics papers. The primary defect in weightlifting influencers is needless advice; the primary defect in nutrition influencers is unintentional incompetence.
Really cut back on junk food: food that is (i) high in calories, (ii) low in nutrition, and (iii) super tasty. The main reason why sugary foods & drinks are bad is that they fit that trifecta of doom (there’s nothing magically bad about sugar per se). Don’t eliminate junk food entirely though, as you’ll be miserable and will probably end up quitting your program. “Perfection is the enemy of progress” and all that.
Cut back a lot on alcohol, smoking, heroin, cocaine, etc.
Having a protein-powder drink with milk is excellent after a workout. Do one every day, even on rest days. There are lots of reasonably good choices for protein drinks. Don’t sweat the task of finding the very best option. Getting something that has third-party testing is a good idea, since the industry is not regulated. Again, ask an LLM for particular advice on 3rd party tested protein powders.
There are good protein bars too: ones with (i) little saturated fat, (ii) few calories, and (iii) lots of protein. Find ones that you like. For me, they’re a substitute for junk food. I had to experiment a lot before I found the ones that were not only healthy but tasty for me.
Take creatine monohydrate every day. You can buy it in ordinary grocery stores now. Skip other supplements, as they probably don’t do much if anything and you’ll be fine with just creatine.
Don’t do PEDs, since you’re not an athlete or someone who needs to be totally jacked for their job. In addition, they can be expensive, and you would need a lot of careful guidance to do it right to minimize harms, which are significant.
The harder you work out, the more frequent meals you need. Don’t bother with intermittent fasting during this period of your life. The muscles need fuel every few hours for growing significantly. After a big workout, make sure you get plenty of protein within the next 90 or so minutes, roughly put. Don’t wait 3 hours. A protein drink should be fine if you can’t get real food.
RECOVERY
Sleep as much as possible. Seriously. Without plenty of sleep, you won’t build muscle. If you’ve got a spouse, a bunch of kids, a house, and a high-pressure job, all of which put significant demands on your non-sleeping time, then abandon all of them to live on a small island in Southeast Asia, working remotely for the small amount of money you need to live there. More realistically, perhaps, is the option of simplifying your life without leaving your loved ones. I’ve found that to be just about the most useful advice there is.
Take naps if you can. Even a half hour is good. Your body builds muscle mainly while you’re sleeping or otherwise completely at rest, not while you’re working out, walking, and so on.
Don’t do cardio that much. Certainly not right before or after weightlifting. Again, you’re not an athlete, dipshit. Most of us over 30, say, simply can’t handle both weight training and cardio, if they are both intense. Aim for realistic goals, not ones that take over your life.
I feel like you're a big Mike Israetel fan (which is a good thing!)