--- title: "Hypertrophy Principles" date: 2023-01-18 --- Thank you, Dr. Mike Israetel and Renaissance Periodization, for teaching me most of what I know about muscle growth. The concepts in this post give a good idea of how people can grow muscle according to sports science. While the data and evidence are likely to be correct, there is a chance it could be wrong, as with everything in science. After reading this article, you will notice most people do not follow these principles, yet some have muscle. Building muscle can be as simple as training consistently, progressing by adding volume, and eating in a caloric surplus with plenty of protein. The nuances do matter though! As you advance, more of the training variables will need to be correct for you to grow. The hypertrophy principles show how to build muscle *optimally and safely* over the long-term. ## Exercise Selection ### Stimulus How do you know you are growing muscle? The stimulus proxies listed below are signs that muscle growth will occur. Target muscle experiences: - Tension - Burn - Pump - Fatigue and soreness Pick exercises that cause most or all the stimulus proxies. Avoid exercises that hurt your joints or cause high systemic fatigue. The exercise should fatigue the target muscle without fatiguing the nervous or cardiovascular systems. Lots of systemic fatigue will hinder the rest of the session and could hinder future sessions. Maximize the stimulus-to-fatigue ratio. Aim for the most stimulus proxies with the least systemic fatigue. ### Movement Patterns The six primary movement patterns have the most stimulus since they are compound exercises targeting more than 1 muscle. Most of your time in the gym should be spent performing primary movement patterns. Primary Movement Patterns: - Horizontal Push (flat press) - Vertical Push (incline press) - Horizontal Pull (row) - Vertical Pull (pull-up) - Squat - Hip Hinge (deadlift) Secondary movement patterns and isolation exercises target muscles only slightly used during primary movement patterns. For example, the triceps are used during a horizontal push like the bench press, but if you want to grow your triceps, you should also do an elbow extension like the pushdown. I will go into detail about when and how many secondary movement patterns you need in the volume section. Secondary Movement Patterns: - Shoulder Adduction (chest flye) - Shoulder Abduction (rear delt flye) - Elbow Flexion (curl) - Elbow Extension (pushdown) - Knee Flexion (leg curl) - Knee Extension (leg extension) - Lateral Raise - Calf Raise - Spinal Flexion (abs) ## Technique Proper exercise technique is essential to muscle growth. Before adding weight, ensure proper technique to stimulate the target muscle and reduce the risk of injury. The target muscle should be the limiting factor. In other words, as you near the end of a set, the target muscle should be close to failure and the factor preventing you from continuing. Remember that every repetition should look the same, so you can keep a log and continue to progress every week. Fundamentals: - Full and standard range of motion - Controlled eccentric (negative) - Don't cheat (using non-target muscles or momentum) - Limiting tension and burn in the target muscle - Joints feel good ## Warm Up Warming up decreases the risk of injury, makes your technique more efficient and targeted to the muscle you want to grow, and primes your nervous system so you can produce the most force. 1. Optional: Easy cardio for 5-10 minutes 2. Starting Weight: begin with a weight you can do for at least 20 reps and perform 10-12 3. Intermediate Sets: do at least 1 weight halfway between your starting and working weights (the heavier the working weight, the more warm up sets) 4. Potentiation (primes nervous system): do your working weight for 2-3 reps For every exercise after the first, only do the intermediate and potentiation sets. ## Loading and Rep Ranges Anything between 30 and 85% of your 1 rep max is good for muscle growth. This converts to roughly 5-30 reps where you get close to failure. Heavy compound movements like squats and rows are best in the 5-15 rep range. Isolation and machine movements are best in the 10-25 rep range. ## Rest Check all 4 before beginning the next set: 1. Target muscle can perform at least 5 reps 2. Cardio will not limit you 3. Nervous system will not limit you 4. Non-target muscles will not limit you ## Intensity Reps in reserve (RIR) is how many reps you have left in the tank at the end of a set. 5 RIR and above is suboptimal for muscle growth. Decreasing RIR linearly increases muscle growth. But, decreasing RIR exponentially increases fatigue. 0 RIR (failure) grows more muscle than 4 RIR, but at the cost of much more fatigue. The best approach is to start at 3-4 RIR and, 4-8 weeks later, end at 0-1 RIR. Add weight and/or reps each week to keep RIR the same or decrease it by 1. This way, you will work through an RIR range to manage fatigue and maximize muscle growth. At the beginning of a program, muscles are more sensitive to training, so you can start at a higher RIR than you would need towards the end of a program. Starting at 0 RIR would leave you no room to grow and would take longer to recover from. When you reach failure and/or are no longer progressing, enough fatigue accumulated that you need a deload to clear it. ## Frequency The number of weekly sessions depends on the intensity and volume of each session. A recovered muscle can perform normally or better and is not sore. A good rule of thumb is to train each muscle group 2-4 times per week. The larger the muscle group, the longer it will take to recover and the fewer times you can train it. For example, hamstrings take much longer to recover than side delts. So, train hamstrings about twice per week and side delts closer to 3-4 times. ## Volume The amount of work you do is defined as volume (force * distance). In the gym, this is weight * range of motion (ignore this since it should always be the same). Simply put, weight * number of reps. Add all your sets for the same muscle group together to get the total volume for that session. Volume drives muscle growth but comes with fatigue. Maintenance Volume (MV): the least volume that maintains muscle size - Gives muscles a break and allows them to recover completely - Useful for situations like vacations or injuries where sessions are shorter and less often Minimum Effective Volume (MEV): the least volume that grows muscle - Gives a mild pump, fatigue, and soreness - Where you should start during the first week of a program Maximum Recoverable Volume (MRV): the most volume a muscle can recover from before training it again - Can still match or beat your last performance - Where you should end during the last week of a program Key Takeaway: spend most of your time progressing from MEV to MRV week to week and drop to MV occasionally to resensitize your muscles to training ### Estimates *Note: these are weekly volumes in terms of sets per week and should be broken into 2-4 weekly sessions*
Chest
MEV: 8
MRV: 20-25
Triceps
MEV: 6
MRV: 16-20
Side and Rear Delts
MEV: 8
MRV: 25-30
Back
MEV: 10
MRV: 20-25
Biceps
MEV: 8
MRV: 20-25
Quadriceps
MEV: 8
MRV: 18-22
Hamstrings
MEV: 4
MRV: 12-16
Calves
MEV: 8
MRV: 16-25
Abs
MEV: 0-6
MRV: 25
Most programs use compound exercises that already involve the triceps, delts, and biceps. Triceps, delts, and biceps volumes take that into account and only include isolation exercise sets. For example, pull-ups target the back but also involve the biceps. Since the biceps were already hit, fewer sets of curls are needed. I did not include front delts, glutes, and traps volumes because these muscles get stimulated during other compound exercises. Their MEV is 0, like ab's. ## Periodization Time Periods: - Set: 5-30 reps - Exercise: 1-5 sets - Session: 2-6 exercises (1-3 per muscle) - Microcycle: 1 week of training - Mesocycle: 3-12 weeks - Block: 1-4 mesocycles - Macrocycle: 1-4 blocks A mesocycle has an accumulation phase and a deload phase. The accumulation phase (increasing performance) should last between 4 and 8 weeks. Begin your first week of accumulation with 3-4 RIR and start at your MEV. For MEV, use the volume estimates as a guideline but autoregulate based on the stimulus proxies. Do enough sets to get the target muscle slightly pumped and fatigued, and then stop. Write down the weight, sets, and reps for each exercise. When you do the same session next week, add some combination of weight, sets, and reps to keep RIR the same or decrease it by 1. The goal is to beat your performance from last week. Add Sets From Last Week: - 1-2 if you had very little pump and soreness last time and recovered ahead of time - 0-1 if you had a good pump and soreness last time and recovered on time - 0 if you were still sore when you planned to train that muscle again Progression: Heavy compounds and easily loadable machines (can add 5 lbs) are better for load increases. Because the jumps in weight are too large, heavy dumbbells and not easily loadable machines are better for rep and set increases. - If sets and weight stay then add 1 rep each set - If sets stay and weight increases then rep match last week - If sets increase and weight stays then rep match last week and perform a new set at the new RIR - If sets and weight increase then rep match last week and perform a new set at the new RIR ### Deload In the last week of your accumulation phase, you will reach failure and/or no longer progress. Plan a deload for next week. In the first half of the week, do half the sets and reps with the same weight as the last week of your accumulation phase. In the second half of the week, do half the sets, reps, and weight. ### Block After the deload, you have completed your first mesocycle! Repeat this process for another 0-3 mesocycles to make up a block. Each mesocycle, consider swapping in new exercises that did not result in any personal records, gave you little pump, or caused joint pain. ### Maintenance After a block, your body will be extremely fatigued. Your muscles need a break to heal and resensitize to training. One option is a low volume maintenance phase of 3-4 weeks where you do a third of your usual weekly sets in the 5-10 rep range. Only train muscles 1-2 times per week. The alternative is to take a 2-3 week active rest phase with almost no lifting. ## Nutrition Track your calorie intake and weight regularly. After a week or two, you will know your maintenance calories (calories to maintain bodyweight). You can use 15 calories per pound of bodyweight for a starting estimate. - Protein builds muscle (4 calories per gram) - Carbs provide mental and physical energy and potentiate muscle growth with insulin and glycogen (4 calories per gram) - Fats keep hormones and health metrics up (9 calories per gram) Protein intake should be roughly 1 gram per pound of bodyweight per day. Fat intake should be 0.3-0.5 grams per pound of bodyweight per day. Carb intake should fill the remaining calories. ### Bulk Gain 0.25-0.5% bodyweight per week over 8-16 weeks. Add 250 calories to your maintenance calories to gain about half a pound per week. Add 500 calories to your maintenance calories to gain about 1 pound per week. ### Maintenance Your body will want to go back to its old weight after you finish bulking. This phase allows you to stay at your current weight and solidify the muscle you gained. Remove half of your surplus (whatever you added to your maintenance calories). Your maintenance calorie intake is higher now because you are heavier. You will lose some water weight by removing half of your surplus. But, it should not exceed 2% of your bodyweight. If you continue to lose weight, add 250 calories. ### Mini Cut This phase is to cut the fat you gained during bulking and to potentiate muscle growth. For 4-6 weeks, lose 0.75-1.25% bodyweight per week. Remove 750 calories from your maintenance calories to lose 1.5 pounds per week. Remove 1000 calories from your maintenance calories to lose 2 pounds per week.