The New Science of Muscle
Length: • 5 mins
Annotated by Ralph
This is part of the Men's Health Body Bible, a collection of cutting-edge stories focused on helping you build more muscle using the latest science and lessons from some of the finest athletes and trainers on the planet.
WELCOME TO THE golden age of muscle building. Never have we had this many tools to measure our fitness, from VO2-max trackers to AI that assesses our form and speed to devices that calculate the efficiency of every single jump and stride. And never have we had such a wealth of research answering our questions, breaking down just how many sets we need to do weekly to build muscle, how much we should rest between them, and how often we should train.
Even better, a new breed of fitness practitioner, equally schooled in kinesiology and IRL lifting, now interprets this data, often fusing lab science with gym-proven methods to generate new training styles that help you push your limits. And their insights are often free and easily available on social media.
Such experts stand above the useless (and often dangerous) fitness influencers who are all over your feeds. The ones you should follow cite multiple studies in their videos and consistently explain the research and science behind their ideas. Plus, they rarely present must-do workouts or exercises, because they understand that every body is different. To help you chase your goals, we teamed up with three next-gen professionals who live in the epicenter of the true-science/bro-science revolution and deliver ideal fitness deep cuts on YouTube and social.
Our experts all spend hours poring over muscle research. They partnered with MH to break down what you need to adjust in your workouts for max muscle-building potential. Mike Israetel, Ph.D. (@drmikeisraetel on Instagram) created the science-based RP Hypertrophy fitness app. Jeff Nippard (@JeffNippard) is a bodybuilding coach and competitor who has spoken at seminars and lectured at universities. JP Gallardo (@jpgcoaching on TikTok) distills cutting-edge research into accessible tips on TikTok.
The Fundamentals
The tactics you need to maximize your workouts.
CHOOSE YOUR SPLIT
The harder you train, the harder it gets to recover between sessions. Gym-goers create a “split,” which organizes the muscle you train on any given day. This allows you to train select muscles, then let them recover. Start with these three options.
Full Body
• FREQUENCY: 2 to 3 days per week
• HOW IT WORKS: You’ll train your lower body (legs) and your upper body (back or chest—or both) in every session, often relying on compound moves like squats and pullups.
• BEST FOR: Anyone tight on time. This is an effective way to build everyday strength and general fitness.
Push-Pull-Legs
• FREQUENCY: 3 to 6 days per week
• HOW IT WORKS: You’ll train your chest, triceps, and shoulders (pushing muscles) one day, your back and biceps (pulling muscles) the day after, and your legs the next.
• BEST FOR: Most gym-goers. This enables you to push your large muscle groups to the limit in each session.
Bro Split
• FREQUENCY: 5 to 7 days per week
• HOW IT WORKS: You’ll dedicate a whole day to each major body part: your back, legs, chest, arms, and shoulders.
• BEST FOR: Beginners. Israetel says this can help the mind-muscle connection with just one body part.
THE PERFECT REP
For maximum muscle-building stimulus on every single rep of every single exercise, do the following steps, says Israetel.
STEP 1: Streeeeeetch
Aim to use the largest range of motion possible. Not sure what that is? Ask yourself what you feel in that muscle as you lower the weight. “If you’re getting a really powerful sensation of stretching the belly of the muscle, you’re doing a great job,” Israetel says. “If you’re not, you could go deeper.”
STEP 2: Slow Down
As you lower the weight, do so slowly. Think of taking a full 2 to 3 seconds to lower any weight toward the floor. The act of lowering a weight (and lengthening a muscle) under control is called the eccentric part of a rep—and doing this with control can help you avoid injuries and spark muscle gains.
STEP 3: Get Uncomfortable
To make the most of each set, the last few reps should be hard. Push through at least 1 in every set where “the velocity slows down,” says Israetel, “or where, to keep the velocity up, your ass has to push harder. You can quit there [in each set] and get great results and never have to go further.”
THE LOWDOWN ON DOMS
A good workout should leave you sore, right? Wrong. The technical term for the soreness you might feel a day or two after a workout is delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). Here’s what you need to know about it.
The Upside
When you feel soreness the day after a workout, take note of the precise muscle where you feel it. This feedback can indicate that you’re doing your exercises properly. “If you do rope face pulls and your mid-back is super sore but your rear delts are not sore at all,” Nippard says, “then next time, you might want to modify your technique.”
The Downside
“Some workouts can get you very sore but won’t lead to much muscle growth,” says Nippard. Imagine doing curls for weeks, adding weight each week. The soreness will decrease, but you’ll still build muscle. Struggling with DOMS? Light activity the day after a workout that makes you sore can help: Try 10 minutes of easy cardio to promote blood flow.
The Superior Strength Upgrade
Give Yourself a Rest
High-intensity interval training may be buzzy, but workouts with teeny-tiny rest periods can kill your gains. Instead of resting 30 seconds between sets, says Gallardo, you should rest 2 to 3 minutes. The added recovery between sets will let you push harder in your next set. “Now you can actually perform better on your working sets rather than getting burned out halfway into the set,” he says. “Maybe scroll on Instagram for 30 seconds or a minute longer.”
Embrace Machines
The rise of CrossFit led many to ditch weight machines in favor of barbells and kettlebells. Bad call, says Gallardo: “In a lot of cases, I would pick a machine over a free-weight exercise, considering, you know, the stability.” Machines let you push closer to true failure. A set of leg presses taken to complete failure, for example, is much safer than a set of barbell squats done the same way. Add machines to your training once or twice a week.
Tone Down the Volume
Sure, you might think doing more sets and exercises will equal more muscle growth. That’s not the case, says Nippard. “Five or six years ago, I might have said, ‘Oh, more volume is better.’ But volume increases muscle gains up to a point. Past that point, adding more doesn’t really seem to do a whole lot.” Aim for 10 to 12 hard sets per muscle group each week.
This story originally appears in the January/February 2024 issue of Men's Health.
Want more muscle-building lessons from our Body Bible? Click the link below to read all of the stories.
Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S., is the fitness director of Men's Health and a certified trainer with more than 10 years of training experience. He's logged training time with NFL athletes and track athletes and his current training regimen includes weight training, HIIT conditioning, and yoga. Before joining Men's Health in 2017, he served as a sports columnist and tech columnist for the New York Daily News.
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