{"id":46802,"date":"2025-07-30T05:36:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T05:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/46802\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T05:36:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T05:36:08","slug":"how-to-build-muscle-when-you-work-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/46802\/","title":{"rendered":"How to build muscle when you work out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether you\u2019ve been lifting for years or you\u2019re just getting started, if your goal is to build muscle, you need to first understand that gaining size and gaining strength are two distinctly different things. Yes, lifting for muscle growth \u2013 or hypertrophy, to use the scientific term \u2013 will yield some strength gains<\/a> along the way, and vice versa, but the way you work out will primarily move you closer towards one goal or the other.<\/p>\n

So, what is the best workout routine for gaining muscle? Contrary to the well-calloused bro science of yore, it\u2019s got nothing to do with four sets of 10, tempo reps, or even specific exercises. In fact, to build muscle<\/a>, it’s not so much about what you do, but rather how you do it. Put another way, the same exercise could be used to either pack on muscle or increase strength, depending on your approach.<\/p>\n

Consider the difference between bodybuilders and powerlifters \u2013 two groups that rely heavily on the bench press in their training. \u201cA powerlifter is trying to lift as much weight as possible, whereas bodybuilders are trying to increase the size of their muscles,\u201d says Mathew Welch, MS, CSCS, ATC, USAW-1, an exercise physiologist at HSS<\/a>. \u201cDon’t get me wrong, the bodybuilders are going to get strong, but they’re not necessarily going to have the same strength as a powerlifter, and that\u2019s because the qualities that they’re training are very different.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big take-home message here is that there’s no magical exercise for hypertrophy,\u201d says Luke Carlson, founder and CEO of Discover Strength<\/a>. Instead, what we do have is a handful of research-backed principles that you can use to optimise your existing workout for muscle growth.<\/p>\n

Hard reps equal hard muscle<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest scientific discovery in strength training of the last 15 years is that we sure don’t need very much of it if you want to add muscle,\u201d says Carlson. \u201cBut we\u2019ve got to do it harder than we ever thought.\u201d<\/p>\n

Research<\/a> shows us that muscle growth is driven by mechanical tension. Unlike time under tension \u2013 the amount of time a muscle spends under load, which actually does nothing for hypertrophy \u2013 mechanical tension kicks in the moment your reps begin to naturally slow down as you approach muscle failure. Trainers call these effective reps.<\/p>\n

\u201cEffective reps are defined as the last five or so repetitions in a set that bring the muscle to failure, and these reps are believed to provide the most stimulus for hypertrophy due to the mechanical tension being experienced by the active fibres,\u201d says Welch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe closer you get to failure, the more motor units and muscle fibres you recruit, and the greater chance you have to increase the size of your muscle,\u201d says Carlson. \u201cThe most important element is whether you\u2019re getting close to muscle failure \u2013 more important than how many sets you do or how many days a week you work out.\u201d<\/p>\n

This means that the weight you lift is essentially irrelevant<\/a>, as long as you push yourself towards muscle failure \u2013 useful knowledge for the next time you find yourself at a hotel gym with nothing more than a pair of 20-pound dumbbells<\/a>. (However, as we\u2019ll explain below, high-rep sets with lighter weights may not be the most efficient way to pack on size.)<\/p>\n

Critically, mechanical tension cannot be hacked by simply slowing down your reps. \u201cThat’s actually not really going to be doing a whole lot for you,\u201d says Welch. \u201cThe key thing is that the velocity is slow, but it’s not voluntarily slow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leave one or two reps in the tank<\/p>\n

\u201cEffective reps are the ones that truly lead to muscle growth,\u201d says Stan Kravchenko, celebrity trainer and founder of OneFit<\/a>. That means there\u2019s really no reason to slog through lengthy sets to make your muscles grow. \u201cPeople aren\u2019t really talking about this,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a new approach. If you would have asked me 10 years ago, I would have told you to do a lot of volume, like 15 reps.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whether you\u2019ve been lifting for years or you\u2019re just getting started, if your goal is to build muscle,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[337,1100,97,6543,18438],"class_list":{"0":"post-46802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-gym","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-workout","12":"tag-workout-advice"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46802","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=46802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}