{"id":159562,"date":"2025-09-15T23:43:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T23:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/159562\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T23:43:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T23:43:09","slug":"build-muscle-fast-4-tips-from-bodybuilder-scientist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/159562\/","title":{"rendered":"Build Muscle Fast: 4 Tips From Bodybuilder Scientist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Don’t let a busy schedule stop you from building muscle<\/a> \u2014 just four weekly sets of exercise per muscle group is enough to see gains, according to a bodybuilding researcher.<\/p>\n

Milo Wolf, a strength coach with a Ph.D. in sports science from Solent University, UK, studies how to get the most benefits from the least amount of exercise. As a competitive bodybuilder, he’s seen the results firsthand.<\/p>\n

Too often, people sabotage their progress with long, exhausting workouts, Wolf told Business Insider.<\/p>\n

More reps<\/a> can help you build more muscle, to a point. But for most people, there’s a sweet spot in the first few sets, which can prompt the majority of gains without wasting energy on increasingly smaller benefits.<\/p>\n

“For many people, trying to chase those incremental returns just leads to burnout,” Wolf said.<\/p>\n

He and another bodybuilding researcher, Patroklos Androulakis-Korakakis of Lehman College in New York, designed a fitness app called MyoAdapt, which customizes workouts to make the most out of a tight schedule.<\/p>\n

According to Wolf, simple strategies like picking the\u00a0right equipment<\/a>\u00a0and exercises can help you build muscle in as little as an hour per week.<\/p>\n

“It’s a really powerful way to make working out more satisfying because you still make progress even if you don’t have a perfect week,” he said.<\/p>\n

Use dumbbells for faster results<\/p>\n

One of the easiest ways to save time in the gym is to pick the right equipment.<\/p>\n

For instance, using a barbell can mean spending precious minutes to change plates, a waste of time unless you’re training for a specific competition.<\/p>\n

In contrast, dumbbells or stacked weight machines<\/a> quickly allow you to adjust the amount you’re lifting, instantly trimming down your gym time.<\/p>\n

“On a set for set basis, it gives you more in the same amount of time,” Wolf said.<\/p>\n

Prioritize compound exercises that stretch the muscle<\/p>\n

Next, choose exercises that give you the most bang for your buck by activating multiple muscle groups at once. These compound movements include deadlifts, push-ups, presses, and pull-ups.<\/p>\n

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Wolf said you can get more out of each rep by aiming for movements that lengthen the muscle under tension. Research suggests this increases hypertrophy, or muscle growth.<\/p>\n

“With no downside, you can see more hypertrophy by focusing on stretch-biased exercises,” he said.<\/p>\n

To feel the stretch, try movements like deficit deadlifts, deep Bulgarian split squats, good mornings, seated dumbbell overhead presses, dips, and T-bar rows.<\/p>\n

Working through a full range of motion<\/a> and stretch can also improve mobility to reduce injury risk and, anecdotally, lead to fewer aches and pains in the gym, according to Wolf.<\/p>\n

Lifting near failure builds more muscle<\/p>\n

The cardinal rule of building muscle is that you need to challenge your muscles to prompt them to grow. That means continually pushing yourself over time, known as progressive overload<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A simple way to know you’re working hard enough is when you hit muscle failure<\/a> and can’t complete another rep with good form.<\/p>\n

Getting to or near muscle failure can be ideal for gains. You might even be able to eke out a bit more benefit by doing partial reps at the end of your set, fighting through a shortened version of the movement when you’re too tired to complete the whole thing .<\/p>\n

“The more you push your set, the more muscle growth you see, and that’s even true past failure,” Wolf said.<\/p>\n

Drop sets: the ultimate workout to build muscle in less time<\/p>\n

Once you’ve picked your equipment and exercise, you can cut your workout time in half with a technique called drop sets<\/a>, Wolf said.<\/p>\n

A drop set involves completing reps of an exercise until you’re near failure, then decreasing the weight to do even more reps, and repeating the process.<\/p>\n

The end result is that you exhaust your muscles more quickly, optimizing your muscle-building within a few sets.<\/p>\n

Put all Wolf’s advice together, along with a good warmup, and you can get in and out of the gym in around 20 minutes. Do that 3 days a week, and you’ve got a muscle-building routine even with a busy schedule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Don’t let a busy schedule stop you from building muscle \u2014 just four weekly sets of exercise per…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[34525,97195,270,97192,32806,674,337,1100,97,97190,97191,1099,97194,97193,17163,2384,1975],"class_list":{"0":"post-159562","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-gain","9":"tag-bodybuilding-researcher","10":"tag-business-insider","11":"tag-compound-movement","12":"tag-deadlift","13":"tag-exercise","14":"tag-fitness","15":"tag-gym","16":"tag-health","17":"tag-milo-wolf","18":"tag-more-rep","19":"tag-muscle","20":"tag-muscle-failure","21":"tag-right-equipment","22":"tag-set","23":"tag-time","24":"tag-week"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}