When it comes to muscle growth there’s a lot of myths that do the rounds. From the type of workout routines to follow, the amount of weight you need to lift, the reps you to need to hit, the days of the week you train.

The reality is, there’s not a one-size-fits all answer.

You can build muscle a whole load of different ways, using different exercises, different weights and different workouts. One thing remains important though - the amount of training you do. If you train too little, you’re absolutely not going to build any muscle at all.

If you train too much, you’re likely to overtrain and not be able to recover in time. That will also impact your muscle growth.

In today’s article we’re going to look at how to optimise training order to grow muscle. We’ll look at the research and try to establish an optimal approach to training for muscle growth. Any recommendations we make are going to be evidence-based and not opinion-based.

Maximising hypertrophy - what we know

When it comes to maximising hypertrophy (muscle growth), there’s a few things we know for sure. For a start, we know that we need to create a mechanical tension and metabolic stress.

In English, this means we have to get the muscles to work hard - this is mechanical tension element. When the muscles have worked sufficiently hard enough, it creates a metabolic stress. This is the chemical response by the muscles to dwindling energy levels. It sets into motion the physiological processes we need to build muscle.

Put simply - to create metabolic stress, you need to work hard by creating mechanical tension (lifting weights). Metabolic stress then forces the muscles to grow and adapt to these challenges, making them bigger and stronger.

The longer this process goes on for, the bigger the effects. That’s why you can’t just do a couple of workouts and turn into the hulk.

We also know that the mass of the weights lifted aren’t as important for muscle hypertrophy as first thought. It was once believed that in order to grow muscle we needed to lift weights that fatigued us in the 8-12 rep mark. Whilst research suggests that might be optimal for muscle growth, it’s not the only way.

Grgic performed a meta analysis on 2020 titled ‘The Effects of Low-Load Vs. High-Load Resistance Training on Muscle Fiber Hypertrophy’.

He concluded…

‘In this meta-analysis, there were no significant differences between low-load and high-load resistance training on hypertrophy of type I or type II muscle fibers.’

How much training do we need to do for muscle growth?

When this topic was studied by Schoenfeld et al in 2016, they concluded that there was a definite relationship between volume and muscle growth. Their research suggested…

‘Outcomes for weekly sets as a continuous variable showed a significant effect of volume on changes in muscle size. Each additional set was associated with an increase in effect size of 0.023 corresponding to an increase in the percentage gain by 0.37%.’

This means that you always benefit from more sets. Volume appears to trump weight, exercises, joint angles etc when it comes to hypertrophy. As long is the volume is appropriate to the load lifted (lighter weights need longer sets etc), it’s the most important variable of the muscle building game.

The caveat here though is that you’ve got to be able to recover from them. If you’re not recovered, you’re not able to give your all in the session.

If we go back to the rules we established at the start of the article - that mechanical tension and metabolic stress need to be present to build muscle - our ability to create mechanical tension and metabolic stress is severely impacted when we’re fatigued.

Optimising training for muscle growth… Our Suggestions

Based on the lessons we’ve learned from the research, here’s a few points on how we can optimise training for muscle growth…

Always prioritise volume

The research is clear - when it comes to building muscle, volume matters more than weight. You can build muscle with any level of weight, as long as you are hitting the correct amount of volume. If you were shooting for muscle building, I’d be hitting 5 sets of 8-12 per body part in a workout.

All-body workouts

Following on from the last point, if you’re trying to build serious muscle, you can’t rely on hitting. body part once per week. Forget a body-part split, especially if you’re a beginner. Instead, hit whole-body workouts, or an upper-lower split.

Get plenty of protein

The metabolic stress puts the physiological processes of muscle building in place, but they need the raw materials to build muscle. If you don’t have enough protein in your diet, it’s going to be very difficult to add muscle. Hit at least 1g of protein per pound of body weight.

If you need help building muscle, AdMac Fitness is the place to go!

We help people using tried and tested fitness approaches. Our expert team of personal trainers, based in both Bow and South Woodford can help you get a grip of your health and fitness. With our guidance you can see your health and fitness reach new levels!

For more information on who we are, what we do and how we can help you achieve your health and fitness goals, contact us on… 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Our locations are…

AdMac Fitness Bow: Arch 457 Robeson St, London E3 4JA

AdMac Fitness South Woodford: Unit 4 Marlborough Business Centre, 96 George Lane, South Woodford, London, E18 1AD.