welcome back to my channel my friends so
today we're going to go into the science
of how to build skeletal muscle now we
could go into the biochemical pathways
and i would i would love that i've got
textbooks all about it i'm ready to take
a freaking exam on it but i feel like
that's not really that helpful for 99.9
of us what we really want to know is
how we're gonna build that muscle baby
so we're gonna have a look at how to
effectively build muscle we're gonna be
covering the drivers of muscle growth
picking the right weight for the perfect
number of reps per set training to
failure exercise volume which is the
number of sets per week frequency rest
times progressive overload exercise
selection and tempo this video is going
to specifically look at the training
optimizations for building muscle and in
the future i'll do a video about
nutrition and other elements that also
help with building muscle now that's a
pretty serious list of training
variables by the end of this you guys
are going to be experts you're going to
be like all right natasha i'll take it
from here honestly building muscle is
such an incredible thing to do for
yourself
there's no better feeling than feeling
strong i mean for me when i feel strong
physically i feel strong mentally and it
also allowed me to shape my body and did
so much for increasing my metabolism
which then makes fat loss so much easier
i have covered the science of metabolism
in the past but i am going to cover it
again soon so if you guys like these
types of videos make sure to give me a
big thumbs up hit the subscribe button
to join our incredible family because
you are incredible i will always say
that yeah let's build some muscle let's
get to know
how to build some muscle before we get
into it i do just want to cover two
little caveats the first is that i
wouldn't
worry about trying to perfect every
single training variable compliance is
the key think of these as suggestions if
any of these suggestions are going to
compromise your enjoyment of working out
then
get out of here i mean get them out of
here and the second caveat is that the
science here is still quite limited
muscle hypertrophy doesn't get the same
kind of funding and attention that other
topics in human biology do we can't be
overly confident in any conclusions that
we can't yet draw so there is still a
lot of grey and we're just learning
together so let's start off with what is
muscle hypertrophy muscle hypertrophy is
the enlargement of total muscle mass and
cross-sectional area and it happens when
the rate of muscle protein synthesis is
greater than muscle protein breakdown
which leaves you in a positive net
protein balance so how does muscle
actually grow and i want to touch on
this quickly because it will help us
understand the training optimizations
later but over the last 15 years
scientists have hypothesized three main
drivers of muscle growth mechanical
tension muscle damage and metabolic
stress so mechanical tension is when
there's a stretching force on the muscle
so when a muscle is contracting and
elongating under load mechanical tension
actually increases as we approach
failure increasing the stress on the
muscle fibers as they start to fatigue
the second hypothesis was that muscle
damage was also a driver of muscular
growth and i feel like i hear this one
all the time and i think it's because
researchers kept noticing that
resistance training causes damage in a
number of muscle tissue components like
the myofibrils and the sarcolemma but
with further research a bunch of
systematic reviews which basically look
at all of the literature in that topic
found that muscle damage is not
necessary for muscle hypertrophy in fact
one review suggested that when there's a
high level of muscle damage
most of that protein synthesis which is
the creation of new protein molecules
goes into repairing that damage rather
than muscle hypertrophy the third
potential driver is metabolic stress
which is the accumulation of metabolites
like inorganic phosphates lactate
hydrogen ions and the deprivation of
oxygen in the muscles that happens when
we do resistance training it's believed
that metabolic stress is the driver of
cell swelling now you guys already know
cell swelling very well we call it the
pump
now reviewing all of the research in
2019 a team of researchers including
some of the biggest names in the area
concluded that muscle damage and
metabolic stress are not necessary for
muscle hypertrophy so what does that
mean that means that mechanical tension
is actually really freaking important
and it also means that things like
muscle soreness that we believe come
from muscle damage or a juicy pump that
we believe comes from metabolic stress
might not be the best indicators that
you've had a good muscle building
workout so now we're going to look at
the training variables that you guys can
tweak to have amazing muscle building
workouts and the first is the number of
reps per set so obviously for any given
exercise the weight you choose will
determine how many reps you can do per
set before you need to take a break and
this is what researchers call intensity
so when you increase the weight you're
lowering the reps but that's what
researchers call increasing the
intensity now for years the popular
belief amongst weightlifters was that
8-12 rep range was the sweet spot for
building muscle
going lower than that was for strength
going higher than that was for muscular
endurance but they weren't great for
building muscle but in 2021 a review of
the research found that that's probably
not the case and actually the effective
rep range is probably a lot wider than
just 8 to 12 reps as long as you're
pushing close to failure in each set so
dropping the weight and going for sets
of 15 to 30 or increasing the weight and
going for sets of below eight seem just
as good but for managing risks of
overtraining and injury rep ranges of
six to thirty seem to be an effective
safe way of training for the general
population but there is a limit though
that doesn't mean we can just
see you later to the weights because
they found that if you're lifting
weights less than 30 of your one rep max
which would mean that you're probably
doing sets of 30 plus reps then it was
less effective for building muscle so
this is actually really important i feel
like i get asked about
this all the time let's say you're brand
new to an exercise you don't know which
weight to pick or you've picked away
your mid-set and you're like ah i think
i've gone too heavy or too light the
thing is it doesn't matter as long as
you're pushing close to failure we've
got such a wide effective rep range that
as long as you're going close to failure
it's okay stay focused and locked in and
complete that set properly it will still
be contributing to muscle hypertrophy i
still like to keep the bulk of my sets
in the six to 15 rep range just so that
i keep it nice and tight you know nice
and time efficient we got to do you
know people to see things to do now
talking about going close to failure
brings up the obvious question
should we go to failure going to failure
is where
you want to
do that last rep
but you have to back out of it
you just can't you trying you really are
that's failure now there are two
systematic reviews which compiled all
the best research in this area and they
were published really recently which can
help us out and they concluded that when
training volume was equalized both agree
that there seems to be similar muscle
building results amongst groups training
to failure and those training just short
of failure so like one to three reps
away from failure now it's possible that
there may be some advantage to training
to failure if you're training with
really low weight and high rep ranges
but on balance there doesn't seem to be
any evidence that is any more beneficial
so i like to train within one to three
reps from failure i actually think that
regularly training to failure adds a
level of fatigue and mental intimidation
i feel like the most important thing is
compliance if you're if you're telling
me that we're going to go to failure
every workout i'm busy that day
like
working out should be something you look
forward to i don't look forward to
failing at every set one to three reps
away i can do that but failure every set
i already feel like i can hear your next
question great question by the way how
many sets should we be doing aka
volume we touched on this already in my
how to build the perfect training
routine video but researchers like to
measure volume in terms of sets per
muscle per week so for example the
number of sets targeting your glutes per
week for optimal muscle growth now a
2016 systematic review found that
increasing the number of sets per muscle
per week was a significant driver of
muscle growth but the vast majority of
studies only test subjects up to 12 sets
per muscle per week and what happens
beyond that point is still really
unclear the authors of that paper in
2016 concluded that it remains unclear
as to where the upper threshold lies as
to the dose response relationship
between resistance training volume and
muscular growth and my view is that the
research since 2016
hasn't convincingly cleared that up i
mean there are tests that have gone to
15 20 30 plus sets per muscle per week
but they don't agree on if there's a
plateau and where that plateau is so my
advice here is to aim for at least 12
sets per muscle per week for your high
priority muscles and that might look
like four exercises completed for three
sets each per week now if you feel like
you can sustainably add extra high
quality well-rested sets then that's
great but most coaches and researchers
agree that there are diminishing returns
somewhere in that ballpark of 10 to 25
sets per muscle per week so that means
that the value of each extra set is
slowly going down if you feel like
you've hit a plateau for a particular
muscle group and you're below that 12 to
15 sets per week ballpark then it might
be worth adding some extra sets assuming
that you're well rested and eating
enough and to try and overcome that
plateau so next up is frequency
frequency is how often you hit a muscle
now the way to think about frequency
without getting it confused with volume
is let's say i want to train my triceps
for
12 to 15 sets per week do i do all of
those sets in one session or should i
spread those sets over three separate
days the simple answer here is that
it doesn't really matter the research
doesn't find a statistically significant
effect of frequency on muscle gain and
the effect size seems to be pretty small
so any possible influence is probably
really insignificant anyway now the
slightly more complicated answer
because there are there's always got to
be one is that frequency might make a
difference if it allows you to increase
the volume so let's say for example
quads is a really important muscle group
for you and you want to train them 15 to
20 sets per week
let's say you have one leg day that
means you're going to be trying to do
your 20 sets of quads in that one
workout
it doesn't leave you much time for your
hamstrings and calves in reality unless
you're in the gym all day so increasing
the frequency by adding an extra leg day
you have time to do your 10 sets of
quads on that day plus hamstrings and
calves and you can actually hit the
volume that you intended for your quads
so the next thing i want to talk about
is rest intervals how long should you be
resting between sets now there isn't a
huge amount of science or credible
science that we can really draw from
right now and there are a lot of
methodological issues but this is what
we know so far when reviewing studies
comparing workouts with short rest
periods up to 60 seconds versus long
rest periods so 80 to 240 seconds poor
analysis showed a non-significant
advantage to the long intercept rest
condition
we can't be sure yet but the consensus
amongst researchers is that longer rest
periods being optimal fits with our
understanding of muscle hypertrophy
volume load is the total weight lifted
during a workout so think of it as reps
times sets times weight lifted during
rest periods our strength capacity
recovers that's what allows us to hit 12
fresh reps even though a minute ago we
were just one to three reps away from
failure longer rest periods allow you to
keep hitting those sets at the same
number of reps keeping that weight high
and just generally keeping the volume
load high
that's why i love my rests you know but
this might just be one of those times
where what's optimal isn't necessarily
practical if you're increasing your rest
time from one minute to three minutes
you might have added 30 minutes of rest
in your session and it might be that by
increasing the rest time that you give
yourself you're actually decreasing your
total volume load by reducing the amount
of sets you have time for so balance of
the two seems to be a smart way to go
here i like to have a minimum of 60
seconds of rest to allow my strength
capacity to return so that i can hit
that next set without compromising my
form without dropping the weight and
doing the same number of reps but i
expect there are diminishing returns on
the longer i take rest so i just go as
soon as i feel like i can hit that next
set properly that might take a bit of
time to develop so a good ballpark is
one to two minutes rest and as you get
more experienced
you'll know okay so the next thing i'm
going to talk about is progressive
overload progressive overload or
progressive resistance is key to keep in
mind when trying to drive muscle growth
progressive overload is essentially
increasing the mechanical tension that
you're putting your muscles under over
time so that could look like increasing
the weight over time it could look like
increasing the volume load over time so
either increasing the number of reps
you're doing per set or increasing the
number of sets you're doing or it could
just be
improving your form so making sure that
your form
is really targeting the muscles that you
want to target
and that's also progressive overload 2.5
to 5 changes in progressive overload
week on week
in either of those three categories is
perfect and that can be really easy to
miss so give yourself a bit of time to
look for changes and don't expect all of
that change to be coming from a single
category of progressive overload
like the weight that you're lifting
now i want to move on to exercise
selection are you going to be choosing
compound movements or isolation
movements compound movements are
multiple joint movements so you've got
lots of different muscles all engaging
all at once the humble squat's your
perfect example you've got primary joint
action at the knees hips and ankles the
main muscles contracting being your
quads and glutes and then you've got
supporting talent from your hamstrings
core and calves isolation exercises are
single joint movements if you're doing
isolation movements just right
everything else is just
locked in
you got it all on lockdown compound
movements engage far more muscle mass
making them a way more efficient driver
of total body hypertrophy i feel like my
face lights up when i say compound i
just love compound movements why because
they transfer to real life and to sport
like that is just how your body moves as
a whole i feel like it's really hard to
find
a sport where tricep push down
or where you're going to be doing a
tricep push down where everything else
is on lock
i'm genuinely what would that
oh that's basically darts isn't it
all right darts i take it back eyes
laser focused core engaged everything on
lockdown
tricep engagement now i'm really not
bashing isolation movements i think
they're amazing for tidying up
asymmetries and imbalances say you've
got one quad stronger than the other
isolating
your weaker quad and really working on
it could really help balance out that
asymmetry and if you do go for
unilateral movements where you're
targeting each side individually
start with your weaker side because if
you start with your stronger side
there's a chance you'll pick a weight
that's too heavy for your weak side so
you're going to compromise your form so
start with your weak side isolation is
also amazing for adding muscle in
particular areas that you really want to
work on so it's like that fine tune
like chisel like that michelangelo
eye i always think it makes sense to
start your workouts off with those heavy
compound free weighted movements like
squats deadlifts and bench press because
that's where the risk of injury is at is
highest from form breakdown i think it's
really important to go into those moves
feeling physically and mentally
fresh so that you can focus on your
technique cues i also feel like these
moves are perfect for tracking
progressive overload because they're
more full body measures of progress and
you're keeping them at the start so it's
more consistent you're not fatigued some
weeks and some weeks not and it's just a
really it's much more accurate to
measure your progressive overload now i
want to talk about exercise repetition
versus variation because traditionally
there's a real emphasis on exercise
repetition so repeating the same core
movement patterns over and over and over
again and the idea is that it's easy for
you to track your progressive overload
and i do agree that those fundamental
movement patterns like squat deadlift
lunges
pull ups and press-ups are an incredible
base to build your training around but i
also think there are two massive things
that make training with variety really
valuable the first is enjoyment and
motivation in reality the best programs
think about compliance just as much as
they think about optimizations and it's
honestly
so rare to see research shows that
people prefer their workouts when their
workouts have more variation in them i
guess a nice way to think about it is if
you go to the gym and you see people
there that have been going for years
they're regularly coming and they push
themselves and you might ask yourself
the question why don't i have that why
don't i have that motivation why do i
feel like i'm just out of discipline
showing up maybe the question to ask is
am i excited by going to the gym do i
look forward to my workouts and variety
might be the answer to that it might be
just what you need to keep your program
exciting and something that you look
forward to for me if there was no
variety and are sticking to the same
moves every day
there would be no channel
i'm telling you that for free the second
thing is functionality being functional
allows you to move in ways that carry
over to real life and in sport so you
can move like a badass as on top of
looking like one and those classic
controlled movements that are great for
hypertrophy remove a lot of the
variables that make a successful athlete
like engaging multiple planes of
movement coordination a powerful core
for dynamic stabilization and
anti-rotation power and just being
comfortable with a wide range of
movement patterns by centering your
workouts around those fundamental muscle
building movements and blending in those
functional compound movement patterns
you can get that sweet spot where you're
building muscle you're moving
functionally and you just enjoy your
workouts it's basically the basis for my
build reload program and it's available
on natashawscm.com
and whatever routine you're doing i hope
that it's making you love how you feel
love how you're moving and that you're
getting results because it'll make it 10
times if not 100 times easier to stick
to that routine the last thing i want to
talk about is tempo that classic tip
that always makes its way around the gym
is that you gotta go slow
get that time under tension the idea is
that you get more rep for your buck in
reality it's not that simple there are
factors at play here like how motor unit
activation and volume seem to be
affected when we slow the tempo down and
that means that it's not necessarily
optimal for muscle hypertrophy and that
could be why systematic reviews don't
find a relationship between rep tempo
and hypertrophy it seems that using a
mix of tempos right now is a great place
to start whilst we try and figure out
what's going on i like it because it can
be transferred to sport better to be
prepared for slow and fast movement and
also just because you're spreading that
attention and love across the fast and
slow twitch muscle fibers now obviously
i'm assuming that if you're doing
something fast it's with good form if
it's not with good form
got to slow it down take it down a notch
until your form is good and then you can
speed back up again and interestingly
and this is just preliminary like i'm
just sharing it it's just across the
coffee table just as friends
early researchers suggested that when
you perform the move slowly in the
eccentric phase and fast in the
concentric phase
it seems to be favorable to hypertrophy
and if you guys remember when i trained
with nevin harrison who was an olympic
champion at 19 a world champion at 17
she did a lot of this kind of training
slow on the eccentric fast on the
concentric but again it's just friends
with friends across the coffee table
across the screen i'm just sharing some
preliminary
early research and that is everything i
wanted to cover you guys are set you're
good now if you are on your journey to
building muscle i believe in you it
takes time it really does take time keep
showing up keep making sure that you're
enjoying your workouts because it makes
the process so much easier but i believe
in you every step of the way i can't
wait for you to be a badass be a badass
be a strong badass i love you guys so
much thank you so much for watching
please give me a big thumbs up hit the
subscribe button to make sure that you
don't miss any more videos around muscle
building around fat loss around training
around anything and i love you so much
and i'll see you guys very soon
bye
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