WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.685 Welcome to Huberman Lab Essentials, where we revisit past episodes for the most 00:00:04.768 --> 00:00:09.333 potent and actionable science-based tools for mental health, physical health, 00:00:09.416 --> 00:00:13.739 and performance. I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology 00:00:13.822 --> 00:00:16.780 and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. 00:00:17.130 --> 00:00:19.970 And now for my discussion with Dr. Andy Galpin. 00:00:20.430 --> 00:00:24.538 Today we're talking about strength and hypertrophy. And so right out the gate, 00:00:24.622 --> 00:00:27.247 I just wanna ask you, Why should people... 00:00:27.330 --> 00:00:30.665 think about and train for strength in hypertrophy. 00:00:30.748 --> 00:00:34.850 Not just for people that wanna get bigger biceps, et cetera, 00:00:35.250 --> 00:00:39.895 that have other goals, longevity goals and health goals unrelated to what most people 00:00:39.978 --> 00:00:44.178 associate with hypertrophy. So what are the benefits of training for strength 00:00:44.262 --> 00:00:47.349 and hypertrophy for the everyday person, for the athlete, 00:00:47.432 --> 00:00:48.990 for the recreational person, 00:00:49.170 --> 00:00:53.791 exerciser, and so on. One of the major disservices we've done in this field 00:00:53.875 --> 00:00:57.450 is convince people that things like strength training are 00:00:57.630 --> 00:01:00.110 are for athletes or for growing bigger muscles. 00:01:00.840 --> 00:01:04.740 and cardiovascular training are for things like fat loss and heart health. 00:01:04.890 --> 00:01:09.133 And that is a tremendous disservice because it puts a lot of unnecessary 00:01:09.216 --> 00:01:13.699 barriers and leads to a lot of false assumptions and therefore poor actions. 00:01:13.783 --> 00:01:18.566 We could do 100 episodes on the benefits of exercise and we could run all the way 00:01:18.650 --> 00:01:21.250 from. mood and focus 00:01:21.390 --> 00:01:25.177 cognitive tasks, to a better immune function. You'll get less colds. 00:01:25.260 --> 00:01:28.592 You'll fight them off more effectively, to mortality, right? 00:01:28.675 --> 00:01:32.804 So some of the strongest predictors of how long and how well you will live 00:01:32.887 --> 00:01:34.840 or exercise. However, 00:01:35.400 --> 00:01:38.482 There are independent benefits that come from just endurance training, 00:01:38.565 --> 00:01:41.587 and there are independent benefits that come from strength training. 00:01:41.670 --> 00:01:43.981 And so to just give you one categorically, 00:01:44.065 --> 00:01:48.372 the way that you want to think about this is resistance exercise and strength 00:01:48.455 --> 00:01:51.990 training is the number one tool to combat neuromuscular aging. 00:01:52.830 --> 00:01:57.334 You cannot get that through any other form of exercise besides heavy overload 00:01:57.418 --> 00:02:01.547 strength training. If you want to be alive and you want to live by yourself, 00:02:01.631 --> 00:02:04.090 you have to be able to engage in human movement. 00:02:06.240 --> 00:02:08.411 any dysfunction in the neuromuscular system there, 00:02:08.494 --> 00:02:11.612 then you're not going to be able to do that. And again, as I mentioned, 00:02:11.695 --> 00:02:14.647 the only way to preserve that or fight that loss of aging is 00:02:14.730 --> 00:02:19.952 is to strength train. So people will tend to hear numbers like you lose about 1% 00:02:20.035 --> 00:02:23.400 of muscle size, per year after age about 40. 00:02:23.670 --> 00:02:24.570 And that's true. 00:02:24.660 --> 00:02:28.680 However, what they don't realize is you lose about 2% to 4% of your strength. 00:02:29.340 --> 00:02:33.060 So the loss of strength is almost double that. 00:02:33.900 --> 00:02:39.660 the loss of muscle mass with aging. Muscle power is more like 8% to 10% per year. 00:02:39.840 --> 00:02:43.988 And so we can very clearly see the problem you're going to have with aging is not 00:02:44.072 --> 00:02:45.900 going to be preservation of muscle. 00:02:45.990 --> 00:02:49.411 although that is incredibly important. It's going to be very specifically 00:02:49.494 --> 00:02:51.577 preservation of muscle power and strength. 00:02:51.660 --> 00:02:56.100 And why that really matters? is your ability to, again, stand up and move. 00:02:56.340 --> 00:02:58.408 your ability to catch yourself from a fall, 00:02:58.492 --> 00:03:00.810 your ability to feel confident doing a movement. 00:03:00.893 --> 00:03:03.962 That is a function of muscle power more than it is muscle size. 00:03:04.045 --> 00:03:06.814 And so functionality is really what we want to be, right? 00:03:06.897 --> 00:03:10.500 You want to be able to do whatever you want to do physically physically, 00:03:10.710 --> 00:03:15.337 and feel confident in doing that, as you age. That's going to only be obtained 00:03:15.420 --> 00:03:18.981 Through strength training. So is it appropriate to say that training 00:03:19.064 --> 00:03:23.161 for strength and hypertrophy is also a way to keep your nervous system healthy 00:03:23.244 --> 00:03:28.088 and young? Yeah, absolutely. It is the only exercise route we have for that. 00:03:28.171 --> 00:03:31.177 The wonderful thing about strength training is... 00:03:31.260 --> 00:03:34.272 you don't actually have to start at a young age. In fact, 00:03:34.355 --> 00:03:38.182 I was reading a paper this morning because of our previous conversation. 00:03:38.265 --> 00:03:39.460 It was in over age 90. 00:03:39.990 --> 00:03:45.050 So these are folks 90 plus, and they saw improvements like 30 to 170 percent. 00:03:45.420 --> 00:03:48.814 in things like muscle size and hypertrophy over a very short period of time. 00:03:48.897 --> 00:03:52.474 I think it was 12 weeks. The reason I like to mention that is because if you are 00:03:52.557 --> 00:03:54.807 listening and you are 50 and you're like, oh, shit, 00:03:54.890 --> 00:03:57.600 I haven't been strength training, You're not toast. 00:03:57.960 --> 00:04:01.653 Like you should absolutely start now. You're going to be able to get to 00:04:01.736 --> 00:04:02.640 a fantastic spot. 00:04:03.420 --> 00:04:08.900 Very quickly. If you would, please remind us what strength and hypertrophy are. 00:04:09.390 --> 00:04:13.860 in terms of the specific adaptation they represent what i mean by that is when 00:04:13.944 --> 00:04:17.910 somebody is training for strength What are they really training for? 00:04:18.120 --> 00:04:20.977 Obviously, it means the ability to move more weight, 00:04:21.060 --> 00:04:24.426 but I know that it includes a number of other things as well. 00:04:24.509 --> 00:04:26.917 And when one is training for hypertrophy... 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:31.900 for the growth of muscle fibers. What does that represent? Because I think, 00:04:32.460 --> 00:04:35.880 If people understand that, they will far better understand the methods 00:04:35.963 --> 00:04:39.333 and protocols that are going to be best for strength and hypertrophy. 00:04:39.416 --> 00:04:42.936 At its core, you've basically described it. When we talk about strength, 00:04:43.019 --> 00:04:47.140 we're talking about an actual function. So can you create more force across a muscle 00:04:47.223 --> 00:04:50.693 or muscle groups or total movement? And when we talk about hypertrophy, 00:04:50.776 --> 00:04:53.745 now we're specifically referring to just an increase in size. 00:04:53.829 --> 00:04:55.380 There's no actual mention of... 00:04:55.680 --> 00:05:00.629 of function. So a muscle can grow larger without actually technically being 00:05:00.712 --> 00:05:01.920 stronger. However, 00:05:02.230 --> 00:05:05.179 There is a strong relationship between strength and hypertrophy. 00:05:05.262 --> 00:05:08.162 So a lot of the times in the general public, in the lay... 00:05:09.020 --> 00:05:12.193 we sort of lump those two things in as the same thing. 00:05:12.276 --> 00:05:17.040 And so we have to recognize people who are new to training or people even are a 00:05:17.220 --> 00:05:20.060 intermediately trained. There is a huge overlap. 00:05:20.190 --> 00:05:23.711 Between strength and hypertrophy. Once you get past that, though, 00:05:23.795 --> 00:05:27.038 they become disentangled. There's a lot of confusion, right? 00:05:27.122 --> 00:05:31.364 Because people think, man, either these are the same thing or if I want to get 00:05:31.447 --> 00:05:34.830 stronger, I have to get bigger, which is not the case at all. 00:05:34.950 --> 00:05:36.510 If you want to get stronger... 00:05:36.780 --> 00:05:39.180 and you don't want to add muscle for any reason. 00:05:39.450 --> 00:05:43.712 personal preference on aesthetics, it is quite easy to get stronger and not add 00:05:43.795 --> 00:05:47.617 much muscle math either. And so differentiating these two things is one 00:05:47.700 --> 00:05:52.084 of them is simply a measure of size, and the other one is a measure of force. 00:05:52.167 --> 00:05:56.233 So those are really the similarities and distinctions between strength 00:05:56.317 --> 00:06:00.739 and hypertrophy. I'd like to take a quick break and acknowledge our sponsor, 00:06:00.822 --> 00:06:04.474 AG1. AG1 just launched their newest formulation called AG1 Pro, 00:06:04.557 --> 00:06:08.446 and right now you can get an extra 20% off your first subscription. 00:06:08.529 --> 00:06:11.054 AG1 takes the clinically backed AG1 formula, 00:06:11.137 --> 00:06:15.026 which is a blend of vitamins, minerals, probiotics, and adaptogens, 00:06:15.109 --> 00:06:17.540 and adds three important new ingredients, 00:06:19.440 --> 00:06:23.199 calcium HMB and zinc carnosine. It has five grams of creatine monohydrate 00:06:23.283 --> 00:06:26.726 to support muscle strength and performance along with brain health, 00:06:26.810 --> 00:06:30.253 calcium HMB to support muscle recovery and reduce muscle breakdown, 00:06:30.337 --> 00:06:33.675 and zinc carnosine to support and improve the lining of your gut. 00:06:33.758 --> 00:06:37.834 Some of these ingredients I personally was already taking separate from the AG1 00:06:37.917 --> 00:06:41.571 formula, so it's great to see all three of them now in the new AG1 Pro. 00:06:41.654 --> 00:06:45.677 As you may know, I've been taking AG1 every single day for about 14 years now. 00:06:45.760 --> 00:06:49.340 That means I discovered it and started taking it daily long before I 00:06:49.440 --> 00:06:54.131 knew what a podcast was. I continue to take it and back it here on the podcast 00:06:54.214 --> 00:06:58.783 because it is an excellent formula and it's now even better with the AG1 Pro 00:06:58.866 --> 00:07:03.740 formula. For a limited time, you can get an extra 20% off your first subscription 00:07:03.824 --> 00:07:08.270 to AG1 Pro by going to drinkag1.com slash Huberman and using the code back 00:07:08.353 --> 00:07:12.310 to routine. So that's with a numeral two back numeral two routine. 00:07:12.393 --> 00:07:14.780 Just go to drinkag1.com slash Huberman. 00:07:15.390 --> 00:07:19.255 So what are the essential components of an effective strength and hypertrophy 00:07:19.339 --> 00:07:23.153 protocol? Okay, so what I would like to actually do is walk you through both 00:07:23.236 --> 00:07:25.973 of those, because as we mentioned before, they overlap. 00:07:26.057 --> 00:07:29.512 And so I want to hit those concepts right now. These are, as you say, 00:07:29.595 --> 00:07:33.390 these are the non-negotiables that have to happen in any training program. 00:07:33.930 --> 00:07:37.236 And I'm referring to these... in the strength and hypertrophy conversation, 00:07:37.319 --> 00:07:41.257 but these are true of power development, speed development, muscular endurance. 00:07:41.340 --> 00:07:44.563 endurance, any other thing. These are things that just have to happen for any 00:07:44.646 --> 00:07:45.896 training program to work. 00:07:46.050 --> 00:07:49.410 My frequent collaborator, Dan Garner, will constantly say, 00:07:49.530 --> 00:07:52.883 consistency beats intensity. The literature will show you very clearly 00:07:52.966 --> 00:07:56.172 adherence is the number one predictor of physical fitness outcomes. 00:07:56.255 --> 00:07:59.854 So we want to do something that you will engage in, you'll put effort into, 00:07:59.937 --> 00:08:03.637 and you'll be able to repeat consistently over time. So that's number one. 00:08:03.930 --> 00:08:08.707 The second one is, and this is a major reason that people don't hit their fitness 00:08:08.790 --> 00:08:12.030 goals. In fact, I would argue outside of not doing it. 00:08:12.270 --> 00:08:15.817 the number one mistake they make is progressive behavior. 00:08:15.900 --> 00:08:21.065 overload. So I'm going to walk you through exactly how much you should be increasing 00:08:21.149 --> 00:08:25.087 your sets and reps and weight, et cetera, per week, per month, etc. 00:08:25.170 --> 00:08:28.843 later. But that's the biggest thing. You have got to have some sort of overload. 00:08:28.927 --> 00:08:32.037 That's what's going to cause adaptation to continue to cause stress. 00:08:32.120 --> 00:08:36.070 If you want to see these gains in strength and hypertrophy, you really need to. 00:08:36.420 --> 00:08:38.977 progressively overload. So that's concept number two. 00:08:39.060 --> 00:08:41.676 The third one here is going to be individualization. 00:08:41.760 --> 00:08:45.103 And this is where we can get into things like personal preference, 00:08:45.186 --> 00:08:46.327 equipment availability, 00:08:46.410 --> 00:08:50.517 You have kettlebells or dumbbells or you only have bands or you have none of that. 00:08:50.600 --> 00:08:53.838 These are all smaller details, but that's an important component. 00:08:53.922 --> 00:08:56.170 The last one I really want to get into is... 00:08:56.430 --> 00:08:59.847 picking the appropriate target, and you run some testing and figure out where 00:08:59.930 --> 00:09:03.710 your biggest limitations are, that's going to help you identify where you need to go. 00:09:03.794 --> 00:09:05.377 So if you can do all those things... 00:09:05.460 --> 00:09:07.117 You're going to be in a good spot. 00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:09.220 to balance specificity. 00:09:09.870 --> 00:09:15.217 and variation. So if you want to make sure you grow your biceps, 00:09:15.300 --> 00:09:18.617 you better make sure your biceps are working. Having said that, 00:09:18.701 --> 00:09:22.504 if you over-rely on specificity, you're going to increase the likelihood 00:09:22.587 --> 00:09:26.420 of overuse injuries, which is going to come back and actually hamper... 00:09:26.550 --> 00:09:30.233 consistency over time. So this is when hedging towards specificity is important, 00:09:30.317 --> 00:09:33.427 but too much can cause a problem. If you go the other direction, 00:09:33.510 --> 00:09:35.370 and you go too much variation. 00:09:35.520 --> 00:09:39.015 So imagine you're just sort of doing all kinds of different exercises every time 00:09:39.098 --> 00:09:39.847 you work out. 00:09:39.930 --> 00:09:43.013 That's actually not enough stimuli directly on the muscle or muscle groups 00:09:43.097 --> 00:09:46.197 or movement pattern if you're wanting to learn a new movement. 00:09:46.560 --> 00:09:50.690 to get you very far. And so this is a classic problem of I'm doing a lot of work 00:09:50.773 --> 00:09:52.880 but I don't have a very clear direction. 00:09:53.130 --> 00:09:57.250 I lack specificity, so I'm working, but I'm not seeing a lot of improvements. 00:09:58.320 --> 00:09:59.927 in the business world, etc. 00:10:00.010 --> 00:10:02.897 Like doing a whole bunch of different things means you get nothing really. 00:10:02.980 --> 00:10:07.409 done those the concepts we absolutely have to hit the methods that we choose run 00:10:07.493 --> 00:10:12.092 across a handful of variables and we call these things modifiable variables because 00:10:12.175 --> 00:10:16.180 as you modify them or you make different choices within these variables 00:10:16.510 --> 00:10:19.102 you get different outcomes or adaptations. 00:10:19.185 --> 00:10:22.370 So the way that I like to say this is exercises... 00:10:22.570 --> 00:10:24.370 do not determine adaptation. 00:10:25.270 --> 00:10:28.284 So you can't simply go, I want to get stronger. Therefore, 00:10:28.367 --> 00:10:30.290 I'm going to choose these exercises. 00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:35.260 That's not how it works. What determines adaptation is the execution. 00:10:36.190 --> 00:10:38.969 of the exercises. So a deadlift is my favorite example. 00:10:39.052 --> 00:10:43.339 A deadlift is a common example that people think of when they want to choose a lower 00:10:43.423 --> 00:10:47.346 body strength exercise. But a deadlift will not increase your strength unless 00:10:47.429 --> 00:10:48.470 you're executing it. 00:10:49.000 --> 00:10:52.067 in the proper fashion. I'm not only talking about technique here. 00:10:52.150 --> 00:10:54.400 I'm talking about these modifiable variables. 00:10:54.520 --> 00:10:59.316 The same thing for power exercises. We'll commonly see mistakes of doing activities 00:10:59.399 --> 00:11:03.936 like a box jump. which is great. People think, oh, I'm going to improve my power, 00:11:04.020 --> 00:11:07.740 which we know is extremely highly correlated to activities of daily living 00:11:07.823 --> 00:11:11.730 and particularly living unassisted as you age, right, is reduction in power. 00:11:12.340 --> 00:11:14.193 So they'll do an activity like a box jump. 00:11:14.276 --> 00:11:17.098 What they're failing to realize is unless you do it powerfully, 00:11:17.181 --> 00:11:20.786 you won't actually increase power. So the way that we manipulate these variables 00:11:20.869 --> 00:11:22.450 is... everything 00:11:22.750 --> 00:11:27.281 to determining the adaptation you get or again don't get. So that being said, 00:11:27.364 --> 00:11:30.397 let's jump right into speed and power. At the onset, 00:11:30.480 --> 00:11:34.651 there's this three to five concept. I didn't develop the three to five. 00:11:34.734 --> 00:11:38.030 It's just an easy way to help you remember one concept. 00:11:38.470 --> 00:11:41.990 that will run true across all these things. So three to five refers to 00:11:42.100 --> 00:11:45.360 three to five days per week pick three to five exercises 00:11:45.610 --> 00:11:48.510 and you're going to do three to five repetitions per set. 00:11:48.910 --> 00:11:54.770 You'll do three to five sets, and you'll rest three to five minutes between each 00:11:54.853 --> 00:11:57.750 set. If you do that, and you execute... 00:11:57.970 --> 00:12:01.570 any of the exercises that you choose at a high intent. 00:12:01.930 --> 00:12:03.437 And that part is critical. 00:12:03.520 --> 00:12:08.242 So if you land on that that allows you to run the gamut from as little as three days 00:12:08.325 --> 00:12:12.400 a week to You're doing three exercises. You can do three sets of three. 00:12:12.550 --> 00:12:17.570 which is a very, very low volume. It's a very low amount of days. 00:12:17.980 --> 00:12:22.219 Easy to handle. All the way to five sets of five of five exercises five days 00:12:22.302 --> 00:12:23.135 a week. 00:12:24.370 --> 00:12:28.493 Again, it's just one sample that's something easy to remember and is quite 00:12:28.577 --> 00:12:33.155 effective for a very long time. And this has been tested quite extensively in both 00:12:33.238 --> 00:12:37.418 the coaching realms as well as the scientific realms to be quite productive 00:12:37.501 --> 00:12:39.150 and easy to follow and grasp. 00:12:39.400 --> 00:12:43.260 If you do that, all you need to do is slightly increase the load. 00:12:43.990 --> 00:12:46.599 or the volume, but mostly the load over time. 00:12:46.683 --> 00:12:51.410 And the number we want to look for there is something like a 3% to 5% increase. 00:12:52.030 --> 00:12:55.450 per week. When you say three to five, 00:12:56.170 --> 00:12:58.593 That's three to five work sets, correct? - Yep. 00:12:58.677 --> 00:13:01.130 - Is there a way that you could lay out for us 00:13:02.040 --> 00:13:05.500 repetition cadences for people. 00:13:05.950 --> 00:13:07.397 strengths specifically. 00:13:07.480 --> 00:13:12.146 versus hypertrophy specifically, and then migrate toward the middle in terms of rep 00:13:12.229 --> 00:13:15.720 cadences that would satisfy the desire to have a bit of both. 00:13:17.260 --> 00:13:18.947 When you're talking about strength, 00:13:19.030 --> 00:13:21.970 Versus hypertrophy. Remember, strength is movement. 00:13:22.600 --> 00:13:24.100 Hypertrophy is muscle size. 00:13:24.880 --> 00:13:28.423 That's the key to your answer here. So when you're trying to get stronger, 00:13:28.507 --> 00:13:32.344 what you're effectively trying to do is get better at producing a certain amount 00:13:32.428 --> 00:13:33.828 of force through a movement. 00:13:36.280 --> 00:13:38.100 is mass times acceleration. 00:13:38.560 --> 00:13:42.880 So what's the mass in the bar multiplied by how well I can accelerate it? 00:13:43.060 --> 00:13:45.240 intentionally going slower. 00:13:46.390 --> 00:13:48.430 is only reducing acceleration. 00:13:49.690 --> 00:13:54.330 Right? So, It's hard to argue that going slower... 00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:56.800 is going to improve strength. 00:13:57.040 --> 00:14:01.060 because you're simply reducing acceleration. So you need to practice... 00:14:01.390 --> 00:14:05.970 lifting heavier at a faster rate. Hypertrophy is not that. 00:14:06.520 --> 00:14:08.834 The goal here is not a functional outcome. 00:14:08.918 --> 00:14:12.400 It is what is needed to cause the most amount of hypertrophy. 00:14:13.030 --> 00:14:17.430 and when you get to hypertrophy then your optimal cadence is up to you. 00:14:18.010 --> 00:14:21.661 You can do any combination. In fact, you could do it the same exact cadence 00:14:21.744 --> 00:14:25.244 that you did your strength training with and get the same adaptations. 00:14:25.930 --> 00:14:29.290 as a tree if you modify the other variables appropriately. 00:14:29.380 --> 00:14:32.184 As long as you hit the concepts I talked about earlier, 00:14:32.268 --> 00:14:35.019 whether you want to do 3-1-1, 3-2-3, 3-3-3, triphasic, 00:14:35.103 --> 00:14:38.620 this is just a method choice. That doesn't mean they're irrelevant. 00:14:39.460 --> 00:14:43.001 there are subtle changes within them. It's just 80-20 rule, right? 00:14:43.084 --> 00:14:47.339 So 80% of the benefit is going to be from the concept. 20% is this small thing. 00:14:47.423 --> 00:14:51.429 If you're super into this field, or you actually want to work with a qualified, 00:14:51.512 --> 00:14:54.750 certified coach or something, there's lots of reasons to play with this. 00:14:54.833 --> 00:14:57.583 If you're just on your own here and running this thing, 00:14:58.090 --> 00:15:01.621 311 is fine. 312, totally fine. Anything like that. 00:15:01.704 --> 00:15:07.090 You really just want to make sure that in the strength side of the equation, 00:15:07.960 --> 00:15:11.140 You're under control and you can add enough load... 00:15:11.230 --> 00:15:14.950 to stimulate strength and not get hurt with an acute trauma. 00:15:15.100 --> 00:15:18.965 On the hypertrophy side, you're just wanting to load enough to where you can 00:15:19.049 --> 00:15:19.847 hit volume. 00:15:19.930 --> 00:15:23.850 Because you've got to put a lot on there. So if you want to go lighter, 00:15:23.934 --> 00:15:27.685 if you want to go slower, fine. If you go slower in your repetition, 00:15:27.768 --> 00:15:31.237 so maybe even like a five-second eccentric, a two-second pause, 00:15:31.320 --> 00:15:35.861 a three-second rise, that's great. You can actually then stimulate the same amount 00:15:35.944 --> 00:15:38.690 of hypertrophy. and either do it with less weight, 00:15:39.220 --> 00:15:43.449 or do it with less repetitions. So it's a variable you can play with if you're like, 00:15:43.532 --> 00:15:44.365 hey... 00:15:44.500 --> 00:15:50.087 I don't have enough weights at my house or I only have a kettlebell or a dumbbell. 00:15:50.170 --> 00:15:52.007 How am I going to stimulate hypertrophy? 00:15:52.090 --> 00:15:54.403 Your only option is really doing more reps. Well, 00:15:54.486 --> 00:15:56.751 eventually that train runs pretty shallow. Okay, 00:15:56.834 --> 00:16:00.810 here's the thing you can play with. Maybe just add time under tension is what we're 00:16:00.893 --> 00:16:03.597 calling it, right? Just, you know, do slower repetitions, 00:16:03.681 --> 00:16:07.265 go longer ones and hold it. So it's a variable that we use to individualize 00:16:07.349 --> 00:16:11.276 programs rather than something that you should really be focused on as like a core 00:16:11.359 --> 00:16:14.601 aspect that's going to be driving whether or not your program works. 00:16:14.685 --> 00:16:17.635 It's just a tool we can play with in the what-if scenarios. 00:16:17.950 --> 00:16:19.750 So for the person starting out, 00:16:20.710 --> 00:16:24.789 Would you recommend they pick three to five exercises and stick with those so 00:16:24.873 --> 00:16:28.736 that they can get their skill and movement and positioning and breathing, 00:16:28.819 --> 00:16:32.899 all that really dialed in, and then start to experiment by varying one or two 00:16:32.982 --> 00:16:37.127 of those exercises over time? That's great. If you look at the conjugate model, 00:16:37.211 --> 00:16:39.737 so these are the strongest power lifters in the world. 00:16:39.820 --> 00:16:42.856 as a collective group that ever existed. What they're very good at is they keep 00:16:42.940 --> 00:16:44.890 almost the exact same weekly structure. 00:16:45.130 --> 00:16:49.339 but they make a very small change in exercise variation. So, for example, 00:16:49.422 --> 00:16:53.195 say Wednesday is bench day. They're going to always bench on Wednesdays, 00:16:53.278 --> 00:16:55.697 but maybe this week they're going to do close grip bench. 00:16:55.780 --> 00:16:58.907 And then maybe next week it's going to be maybe a special type of barbell. 00:16:58.990 --> 00:17:01.386 And then maybe the week after that, they'll change the range of motion 00:17:01.470 --> 00:17:02.027 a little bit. 00:17:02.110 --> 00:17:05.429 So, it's actually the exact same exercise where they're making a very small 00:17:05.513 --> 00:17:09.063 variation. And that change alone, allows them to do enough specificity. 00:17:09.490 --> 00:17:12.853 but also gives them enough variation to where it's not the exact same stimuli 00:17:12.937 --> 00:17:14.337 in the exact same spot over. 00:17:14.500 --> 00:17:19.280 and over and over and that's what allows that group to train very very very heavy 00:17:19.690 --> 00:17:23.760 very consistently and not have to worry about too much planning for periodization 00:17:23.843 --> 00:17:27.707 and other stuff like that. They get their back off by making small variations 00:17:27.791 --> 00:17:28.970 in exercise. I will say 00:17:29.710 --> 00:17:33.664 A major mistake folks do make is they change your exercises entirely way too 00:17:33.748 --> 00:17:36.320 often. If I were to have to pick one or the other, 00:17:36.404 --> 00:17:39.910 I would say don't change anything in your exercises for six weeks. 00:17:40.420 --> 00:17:42.347 probably realistic, maybe even 10. 00:17:42.430 --> 00:17:44.797 the 12 weeks. And then you can make some changes. 00:17:44.880 --> 00:17:46.630 It's going to take you three weeks. 00:17:46.840 --> 00:17:48.844 generally to figure out the groove of the exercise, 00:17:48.928 --> 00:17:51.955 to figure out how well you can load it. What's too much to where you woke up 00:17:52.039 --> 00:17:54.739 unbelievably sore? That was a train wreck. How much do I load it at? 00:17:54.822 --> 00:17:56.622 What position? How long is this going to take? 00:17:56.705 --> 00:18:00.227 It's going to take you three or so weeks. And then you can really start pushing. 00:18:00.310 --> 00:18:02.528 there. So changing it before that or in that timeframe is, 00:18:02.611 --> 00:18:05.543 is you're not going to be able to progressively overload because you're just 00:18:05.626 --> 00:18:08.043 not going to know exactly where you're at on all the exercises. 00:18:08.126 --> 00:18:10.487 So it's very important to create standardization. 00:18:10.570 --> 00:18:13.940 within them, and then see some progress in a movement or a muscle group, 00:18:14.023 --> 00:18:15.323 whatever you're going for. 00:18:15.940 --> 00:18:17.290 and then make some changes. 00:18:17.410 --> 00:18:21.370 So before we dive into our discussion about hypertrophy, 00:18:21.700 --> 00:18:26.860 Can we just get a brief recap of the general parameters for an excellent 00:18:27.190 --> 00:18:30.887 power and strength training program. Okay, let me hit you with these rapid fire. 00:18:30.970 --> 00:18:33.531 And then you can maybe come ask questions along that. 00:18:33.614 --> 00:18:35.357 Remember those modifiable variables. 00:18:35.440 --> 00:18:39.249 So let's go through them in order and then what they mean specifically for power 00:18:39.332 --> 00:18:42.732 versus strength. So modifiable variable number one is called choice. 00:18:42.910 --> 00:18:47.190 So which exercises do I select for strength? In general for power, 00:18:47.290 --> 00:18:50.271 or speed, or strength. We want to select compound movements. 00:18:50.355 --> 00:18:53.796 What I mean by that is when we think about, again, strength training, 00:18:53.879 --> 00:18:57.250 we tend to think about bodybuilding concepts. We go to the gym and 00:18:57.460 --> 00:18:59.921 Things like, I gotta make sure I get my chest today, 00:19:00.005 --> 00:19:01.997 and I gotta make sure I get my hamstrings, 00:19:02.080 --> 00:19:05.403 Now you're selecting exercises based on a muscle you want to work. 00:19:05.486 --> 00:19:09.531 For strength development and power, we want to think about movements rather than 00:19:09.614 --> 00:19:12.472 individual muscle groups. So there should be things like, 00:19:12.556 --> 00:19:14.620 I need to train explosive hip extension. 00:19:15.100 --> 00:19:18.199 which is like a vertical jump or something like that. 00:19:18.283 --> 00:19:22.463 I want to train pushing or pulling movements. I want to train rotation, 00:19:22.547 --> 00:19:25.166 which is a whole area we haven't gotten into, 00:19:25.249 --> 00:19:29.129 which is very important for overall health and wellness longevity. 00:19:29.212 --> 00:19:32.072 So we want to select big movements by the muscle, 00:19:32.155 --> 00:19:34.954 the movement patterns that we want to introduce. 00:19:35.037 --> 00:19:37.920 And we just want to select a reasonable balance. 00:19:38.410 --> 00:19:41.193 between these. I don't care what the exact ratio is. 00:19:41.276 --> 00:19:45.161 You just don't want to go an entire six months without doing anything in 00:19:45.245 --> 00:19:47.586 this rotational area or an entire, you know, 00:19:47.670 --> 00:19:51.720 eight to 10 weeks without doing something that's a lower body hinge, right? 00:19:51.804 --> 00:19:56.185 So any number of examples there. So just think about the rough movement patterns, 00:19:56.268 --> 00:19:59.937 upper and lower. and then some sort of a 00:20:00.020 --> 00:20:03.657 rotation that puts you in a pretty good spot if you're using three by five 00:20:03.740 --> 00:20:06.403 method and you're going to pick as little as three exercises, 00:20:06.487 --> 00:20:09.600 just pick one from each one of those groups. So that's exercise choice, 00:20:09.684 --> 00:20:12.234 our first variable. The next one is exercise order. 00:20:12.510 --> 00:20:16.070 So because that everything driving power and strength... 00:20:16.160 --> 00:20:20.616 is quality-based. You want to do these at the beginning of your workout. 00:20:20.699 --> 00:20:22.880 You would not want to do anything fatiguing 00:20:23.120 --> 00:20:28.839 before this so no cardiovascular training no other repetition of failure stuff if 00:20:28.923 --> 00:20:31.860 you do those before and now you're slower 00:20:32.210 --> 00:20:33.932 All you've done is practice getting slower. 00:20:34.015 --> 00:20:36.997 You also need to do them when you're very fresh because they are the most 00:20:37.080 --> 00:20:38.307 neurologically demanding. 00:20:38.390 --> 00:20:41.437 they're complicated. They tend to have multiple steps and they're often 00:20:41.520 --> 00:20:43.950 in multiple planes and coordination is a difficult thing. 00:20:44.033 --> 00:20:46.437 And if you're trying to do all that at maximum speed, 00:20:46.520 --> 00:20:48.722 your nervous system needs to be tremendously fresh. 00:20:48.805 --> 00:20:51.858 And so any amount of fatigue here is only going to compromise results. 00:20:51.942 --> 00:20:55.488 The next one after that is volume. The general number we're going to look at here 00:20:55.571 --> 00:20:57.117 is something like 3 to 20 sets. 00:20:57.200 --> 00:20:59.020 Total per workout. Per workout. 00:20:59.420 --> 00:21:01.557 But that would be, like 20 would be... 00:21:01.640 --> 00:21:04.186 a little bit of a special case. The last one is frequency. 00:21:04.269 --> 00:21:07.677 And we've already sort of indirectly talked about that where frequency can be 00:21:07.760 --> 00:21:10.895 as high as you'd like in this area. It really depends on your recovery. 00:21:10.979 --> 00:21:13.429 If you're really, truly pushing maximum strength, 00:21:13.610 --> 00:21:15.820 you probably do need a few days to recover. 00:21:15.903 --> 00:21:17.930 Last little piece here is progression. 00:21:18.050 --> 00:21:19.650 How do I progress over time? 00:21:20.150 --> 00:21:23.188 So I mentioned this earlier, but just wanted to fill this gap right back 00:21:23.272 --> 00:21:26.097 in before we head over to hypertrophy, which is 3% to 5% percent. 00:21:26.180 --> 00:21:28.779 increase per week of intensity in general. 00:21:28.862 --> 00:21:33.441 And you can do upwards of about 5% increase in volume per week over time. 00:21:33.525 --> 00:21:37.740 And I generally recommend running that for at longest eight weeks. 00:21:38.270 --> 00:21:42.799 But probably most realistically, you want to go about five weeks or so and then have 00:21:42.882 --> 00:21:44.090 some sort of a deload. 00:21:44.540 --> 00:21:48.613 or back off week. If you do that, you're generally going to be in a pretty good 00:21:48.697 --> 00:21:52.380 spot. One last little thing I don't think we did justice is intention. 00:21:53.000 --> 00:21:56.667 And the reason I want to go back to this now is because... 00:21:56.750 --> 00:21:59.690 We've talked a lot about specific loads you have to hit. 00:22:00.410 --> 00:22:01.970 And that's generally the case. 00:22:02.060 --> 00:22:06.118 But if intention is there, you can fudge those numbers in terms of how much load 00:22:06.201 --> 00:22:09.100 goes on the bar. In fact, you can get as low as no load. 00:22:09.560 --> 00:22:13.107 on the bar. A great example here is like a plank exercise. 00:22:13.190 --> 00:22:17.007 So you can do a plank in which you get in a position and you simply contract. 00:22:17.090 --> 00:22:18.510 The least amount necessary. 00:22:19.220 --> 00:22:20.270 to hold the position. 00:22:20.870 --> 00:22:23.939 Thank you. Also, you could contract as hard as possible, 00:22:24.022 --> 00:22:27.078 pulling your scapula down and back, squeezing your core, 00:22:27.161 --> 00:22:29.544 squeezing your quads, squeezing your glutes. 00:22:29.628 --> 00:22:33.524 That is actually going to still help strength production because you're 00:22:33.607 --> 00:22:37.280 attempting to contract very, very hard, even though, quote unquote, 00:22:37.363 --> 00:22:38.540 the load is the same. 00:22:38.840 --> 00:22:44.147 That thing extends to weight on the bar. So you could theoretically see large 00:22:44.230 --> 00:22:46.400 improvements in strength at the 00:22:46.730 --> 00:22:51.350 50% of your one at max if you're contracting as hard as possible. 00:22:51.620 --> 00:22:54.566 I'd like to take a quick break and acknowledge our sponsor, 00:22:54.649 --> 00:22:58.879 BetterHelp. BetterHelp offers professional therapy with a licensed therapist carried 00:22:58.962 --> 00:23:02.011 out entirely online. I've been doing therapy for a long time. 00:23:02.094 --> 00:23:05.400 And while it's not always easy, every time I do a therapy session, 00:23:05.483 --> 00:23:08.891 I come away feeling better and knowing that the time was well spent. 00:23:08.975 --> 00:23:11.715 And that's because whenever I finish a therapy session, 00:23:11.799 --> 00:23:15.771 I come away with a valuable insight or new perspective on something I'm working 00:23:15.855 --> 00:23:19.571 through. Whether that's with work, with relationships in my personal life, 00:23:19.654 --> 00:23:21.400 or with my relationship to myself. 00:23:21.620 --> 00:23:25.993 I've just consistently found that there's so much benefit that comes through 00:23:26.076 --> 00:23:30.742 effective therapy. With BetterHelp, they make it extremely easy to find an expert 00:23:30.825 --> 00:23:34.905 therapist who can help provide the benefits that come through effective 00:23:34.988 --> 00:23:39.537 therapy. BetterHelp has an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 for its live sessions 00:23:39.620 --> 00:23:44.110 based on over 1.7 million client reviews. If you would like to try BetterHelp, 00:23:44.193 --> 00:23:48.507 go to betterhelp.com slash Huberman to get 10% off your first month. Again, 00:23:48.591 --> 00:23:50.760 that's betterhelp.com slash Huberman. 00:23:51.560 --> 00:23:56.156 Okay, let's talk about hypertrophy. What are the ways that people can induce 00:23:56.239 --> 00:24:00.712 hypertrophy? Probably a better way to think about that question is really, 00:24:00.796 --> 00:24:03.320 what stimuli do I need to give the muscle 00:24:03.410 --> 00:24:07.504 to induce hypertrophy. Now, there are hormonal factors that are important. 00:24:07.587 --> 00:24:11.990 There are nutritional factors. But just to stick with the context of training. 00:24:12.380 --> 00:24:16.267 This is really going to frame a lot of our answers, and as you'll see, 00:24:16.350 --> 00:24:20.660 it's one of the reasons why I call hypertrophy training kind of idiot-proof. 00:24:20.870 --> 00:24:23.530 In terms of programming. Now, the work is hard. 00:24:24.080 --> 00:24:30.460 Difficult and all that. But the precision needed is a lot less than what we saw 00:24:30.544 --> 00:24:31.257 in power. 00:24:31.340 --> 00:24:35.075 and strength. And so if you note there, like it's very important that you do it 00:24:35.158 --> 00:24:38.942 in this style with this intent and within these parameters and if you're outside 00:24:39.025 --> 00:24:41.727 of these parameters, it's not going to be it. Hypertrophy 00:24:41.810 --> 00:24:45.853 has a very broad range in terms of your actual applications. 00:24:45.937 --> 00:24:51.370 And this is why you have and will continue to see countless styles of training. 00:24:51.830 --> 00:24:52.737 That'll work. 00:24:52.820 --> 00:24:57.500 So if we look at like the classic dogma, we have to basically challenge the muscle 00:24:57.583 --> 00:25:00.753 to need to come back, in this case, specifically bigger, 00:25:00.837 --> 00:25:04.123 and the nutrients need to be there to support that growth. 00:25:04.206 --> 00:25:06.820 So all you have to do there to not fail is... 00:25:07.010 --> 00:25:09.027 is to make sure the training is hard enough. 00:25:09.110 --> 00:25:12.831 And it's going to work. The only wrong combination here is infrequent and low 00:25:12.915 --> 00:25:14.165 intensity and low volume. 00:25:14.420 --> 00:25:17.498 That's it. As long as one of those three variables is high, 00:25:17.581 --> 00:25:20.819 you're going to get there, which is why crafting your program, 00:25:20.903 --> 00:25:24.998 which is best for you, is actually fairly simple when it comes to hypertrophy. 00:25:25.082 --> 00:25:27.302 You just have to make sure you do the work. 00:25:27.385 --> 00:25:31.749 I actually think that it's important that you do some number of combination of what 00:25:31.832 --> 00:25:33.600 we call bilateral and unilateral. 00:25:35.230 --> 00:25:39.762 So bilateral being, think about it like a squat, where bi meaning two, lateral, 00:25:39.845 --> 00:25:44.143 you have two feet on the ground moving in sequence here. Unilateral is one. 00:25:44.227 --> 00:25:48.408 So this could be something as simple as a rear foot elevated split squat. 00:25:48.491 --> 00:25:51.563 It could be a single leg leg press or single leg curl. 00:25:51.646 --> 00:25:56.061 It could be a pistol squat, something where the individual limb is moving one 00:25:56.144 --> 00:25:58.890 at a time. Also very important for making sure, 00:25:59.450 --> 00:26:03.236 For hypertrophy's sake, you're not getting any imbalances as you progress, 00:26:03.320 --> 00:26:05.746 especially through months and years of training. 00:26:05.830 --> 00:26:08.675 So make sure you're doing a little bit of a combination. 00:26:08.758 --> 00:26:11.028 Whether you want to pick specific implements, 00:26:11.111 --> 00:26:14.113 that's really a methods question and a preference question, 00:26:14.196 --> 00:26:17.826 and then it is concepts. So dumbbell, great. Kettlebell, fine. Barbell, 00:26:17.909 --> 00:26:20.074 awesome. Band, doesn't matter. Body weight. 00:26:20.158 --> 00:26:24.206 None of these things are as important because all you're trying to do is create 00:26:24.289 --> 00:26:25.910 a certain insult in the tissue, 00:26:29.450 --> 00:26:31.490 because of the way that 00:26:31.580 --> 00:26:35.738 people move differently, their anthropometrics and their biomechanics 00:26:35.822 --> 00:26:41.050 and even their technique. The same exact exercise is, will not necessarily... 00:26:41.270 --> 00:26:43.799 work the same exact muscle groups for multiple people. 00:26:43.882 --> 00:26:46.073 So if you and I both went and did a back squat, 00:26:46.156 --> 00:26:49.106 if you did it a little bit more of what we call a high bar, 00:26:49.430 --> 00:26:52.505 Squat, so this is the bar is literally sitting up higher up on your neck. 00:26:52.589 --> 00:26:53.877 You're keeping your back tight. 00:26:53.960 --> 00:26:58.633 more vertical and because in order to do that you shift your knees much further 00:26:58.717 --> 00:27:03.450 past your toes keeping of course your whole foot on the ground in good position. 00:27:03.533 --> 00:27:07.680 Okay, that's going to generally put more of an emphasis on the knee joint. 00:27:08.180 --> 00:27:12.569 And so that's not a bad thing. You tend to see a little bit more work in the quads 00:27:12.652 --> 00:27:16.714 there, a little bit less work in the spinal erectors and back because you're 00:27:16.797 --> 00:27:19.332 actually not supporting the weight horizontally, 00:27:19.415 --> 00:27:22.960 which is a much more difficult position. It's vertically stacked. 00:27:38.180 --> 00:27:41.788 if you take the midline of your body, the thing that moves the farthest away 00:27:41.871 --> 00:27:45.421 from that midline is likely to be the thing that's activating the most. 00:27:45.980 --> 00:27:50.039 So in the case of the front squat, you're not generally going to be using 00:27:50.122 --> 00:27:52.860 your glutes as much If you're in that, or not even front squat, 00:27:52.944 --> 00:27:54.889 just that high bar squat where you're very, very vertical, 00:27:54.972 --> 00:27:58.317 your knees are going to be moving very far over your toes, which is fantastic. 00:27:58.400 --> 00:28:01.345 Therefore, it's a little bit more knee dominant, that's how we say it. 00:28:01.428 --> 00:28:04.502 The other version here, you can keep your shins really close to vertical. 00:28:04.586 --> 00:28:06.036 You move your butt backwards. 00:28:06.170 --> 00:28:09.106 You're going to have to then lean forward with your torso, 00:28:09.190 --> 00:28:13.063 which means it'll be more low back, more glutes, and a little bit less knee. 00:28:13.147 --> 00:28:16.500 Now, that's a general statement. It's not necessarily always true. 00:28:16.583 --> 00:28:20.457 But as a guideline there, that is one exact exercise where you may be going, 00:28:20.540 --> 00:28:23.893 man, I'm trying to improve this clear weakness I have in my quads. 00:28:23.976 --> 00:28:27.954 I can't even leg extension my body weight. I have a significant problem there. 00:28:28.037 --> 00:28:28.587 So maybe... 00:28:28.670 --> 00:28:31.971 In your particular case, if I'm hammering you or you're hammering yourself in 00:28:32.055 --> 00:28:35.488 a squat exercise and you're wondering why your quads aren't getting any stronger 00:28:35.571 --> 00:28:37.071 or aren't growing in any size, 00:28:37.400 --> 00:28:40.638 It may be because of the style of the movement. So I may need to go, Andrew, 00:28:40.721 --> 00:28:42.860 all right, look. squats 00:28:43.190 --> 00:28:46.512 in general, if you look at the research, are an excellent exercise for quad 00:28:46.595 --> 00:28:49.916 development. But for you, they're not. Because of the way you stand or just 00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:50.833 because of... 00:28:50.930 --> 00:28:54.838 neural activation, it doesn't matter. So I need to take you to a machine and isolate 00:28:54.921 --> 00:28:58.171 that muscle group so we can make sure we see development in that. 00:28:58.280 --> 00:29:02.251 So if you're trying to grow a specific body part, area, individual muscle, 00:29:02.334 --> 00:29:05.702 it's very important that you're actually seeing progress there. 00:29:05.785 --> 00:29:07.100 And don't worry about... 00:29:07.370 --> 00:29:10.797 Well, in the textbook, the bench press is supposed to be good for your pec. 00:29:10.880 --> 00:29:14.513 Because if you're not actually moving in the right position or it depends on 00:29:14.597 --> 00:29:17.398 the angle in which your sternum actually sits in your body, 00:29:17.482 --> 00:29:20.382 a bench press may actually be doing very little for your pec. 00:29:20.465 --> 00:29:24.294 And you may need to adjust to, say, an incline bench or a decline bench or a pec 00:29:24.377 --> 00:29:27.766 fly. So machines can be fantastic at letting you isolate without having 00:29:27.849 --> 00:29:31.433 to worry about things like stability, your low back position, getting hurt, 00:29:31.517 --> 00:29:34.887 where's your neck at? You can really concentrate on just the movement. 00:29:34.970 --> 00:29:38.923 concentrate on the muscle and let everything else kind of go away and ensure 00:29:39.007 --> 00:29:41.450 you're getting training in that specific area. 00:29:41.840 --> 00:29:45.275 What about exercise order? You get to play a couple of games here. 00:29:45.358 --> 00:29:49.806 When we talked about strength and power, I basically said stick to the big movements, 00:29:49.889 --> 00:29:53.780 most complicated and compound movements first. You don't have to do that. 00:29:54.200 --> 00:29:56.716 with hypertrophy. You can do this in a couple of ways. 00:29:56.800 --> 00:29:59.750 You can do the thing you're just simply most interested in, 00:30:00.360 --> 00:30:04.273 You can do this thing called pre-fatigue. So say you're going to do a back day. 00:30:04.357 --> 00:30:07.764 You could go in and do nothing but isolated biceps as your very first 00:30:07.848 --> 00:30:11.508 exercise and then roll into your pulling movements because what you'll see 00:30:11.591 --> 00:30:15.556 is during most pulling activities, the biceps are a secondary or tertiary muscle 00:30:15.639 --> 00:30:19.299 group. But you've pre-fatigued them. You've guaranteed that muscle of most 00:30:19.383 --> 00:30:22.790 interest, got its most training in, and everything else is secondary. 00:30:22.874 --> 00:30:25.674 So you can start if you want with single joint movements. 00:30:25.757 --> 00:30:29.400 You can start with isolation stuff or you can start with compound stuff. 00:30:30.360 --> 00:30:32.947 comes down to preference and what you're specifically looking 00:30:33.030 --> 00:30:36.844 trying to develop. Now, this also goes back to the exercise choice question, 00:30:36.927 --> 00:30:39.716 right? Because it's sort of the same thing, right? Like, 00:30:39.799 --> 00:30:41.030 which one am I choosing? 00:30:41.940 --> 00:30:45.660 And where I wanted it to cap this was the exercise splits. 00:30:46.290 --> 00:30:49.093 And so we just sort of talked about, am I doing body part splits? 00:30:49.176 --> 00:30:51.224 And I know a question I get a lot here is, well, 00:30:51.307 --> 00:30:52.957 which ones should I package together? 00:30:53.040 --> 00:30:54.967 I'm not really concerned with it. 00:30:55.050 --> 00:30:58.877 All you should worry about is how many times per week and, in fact, 00:30:58.960 --> 00:31:01.470 total volume you achieve on a muscle group. 00:31:01.950 --> 00:31:06.137 And it doesn't really matter how those things are folded in. 00:31:06.221 --> 00:31:11.689 It's really a personal preference issue. One mistake that we see here commonly 00:31:11.772 --> 00:31:16.470 is grossly underappreciating that the legs are not a muscle group. 00:31:17.040 --> 00:31:20.867 So the legs have a whole bunch of muscle groups in them. 00:31:20.951 --> 00:31:25.560 So we see a classic split like I'll do shoulders and chest Monday. 00:31:25.920 --> 00:31:32.240 and then I'll do, you know, Biceps and forearms Tuesday. And then legs Wednesday. 00:31:33.060 --> 00:31:36.372 or whatever, and then back to upper body. And you're like, wait a minute. 00:31:36.455 --> 00:31:39.999 You have four days dedicated to the upper body and one for quote-unquote legs. 00:31:40.083 --> 00:31:43.906 Hopefully you can see the imbalance that's going to happen over time is you're going 00:31:43.989 --> 00:31:47.534 to do far more upper body than you are lower body, and that's not appropriate. 00:31:47.617 --> 00:31:50.617 So you just want to think about your lower body like you would do 00:31:50.700 --> 00:31:54.085 If you're going to do body part splits, then include those things as well, 00:31:54.169 --> 00:31:56.664 and don't just chunk everything in as legs once a week. 00:31:56.747 --> 00:32:00.132 If you want to do that, that's actually okay, but that day has to be very, 00:32:00.216 --> 00:32:03.882 very challenging, and you probably should do quite a bit of volume there because 00:32:03.966 --> 00:32:07.297 you're almost surely not going to hit the total weekly volume needed. 00:32:07.380 --> 00:32:10.831 to optimize muscle growth if you're literally only doing once a week of 00:32:10.914 --> 00:32:15.878 your quote-unquote. Legs. Along those lines, let's talk volume. Yep. 00:32:15.961 --> 00:32:22.177 How much volume does each muscle group need per week in order to generate volume? 00:32:22.260 --> 00:32:24.723 and for that matter, maintain hypertrophy. Right. 00:32:24.806 --> 00:32:28.860 So the kind of minimum number we're going to look for here is 10 working sets. 00:32:29.370 --> 00:32:33.336 per week correct per muscle group correct so 10 would be sort of the minimum number 00:32:33.419 --> 00:32:36.995 you want to get to the more realistic number that most people especially if 00:32:37.078 --> 00:32:41.180 you're advanced or even intermediate, is more like 15 to 20 00:32:41.370 --> 00:32:45.658 working sets per week. Now if you're very well trained you probably want to even 00:32:45.742 --> 00:32:48.277 push more towards like 25 and in fact past that 00:32:48.360 --> 00:32:52.500 There's not a lot of research. If you went in and you did three sets of ten, 00:32:53.010 --> 00:32:55.190 Three sets of ten repetitions. Correct. 00:32:56.130 --> 00:32:58.830 You already got three. You did that three days a week. 00:32:59.040 --> 00:33:02.662 you're at your nine. That's almost ten. If you also just went to the gym one day 00:33:02.745 --> 00:33:05.930 a week, you did three sets of ten, and you did three exercises. 00:33:07.080 --> 00:33:09.734 You're at nine working sets. You're basically done. 00:33:09.817 --> 00:33:12.257 So achieving 10 sets per week per muscle group, 00:33:12.340 --> 00:33:16.121 and now we're not even talking about indirect activation of a secondary. 00:33:16.204 --> 00:33:17.600 So you're going to hit 10. 00:33:18.060 --> 00:33:22.200 fairly easy. Extension to that, hitting 20 is actually still not that hard. 00:33:22.290 --> 00:33:24.810 However, if you're not seeing adaptations... 00:33:25.020 --> 00:33:27.157 then I'd say maybe the repetitions aren't enough. 00:33:27.240 --> 00:33:30.590 So if you're gonna do a set of 25 and you finish it and you're like 00:33:30.870 --> 00:33:33.487 Ooh, yeah, like that was kind of starting to get hard at the end. 00:33:33.570 --> 00:33:36.678 That's not going to be enough. If you're going to do a set of five or six and 00:33:36.762 --> 00:33:38.834 the same sort of expression comes out of your mouth, 00:33:38.917 --> 00:33:42.117 it's not going to be enough. So in that case, it doesn't matter. 00:33:42.330 --> 00:33:45.691 your uprange if you're not getting somewhat close to failure. Again, 00:33:45.774 --> 00:33:49.844 it doesn't need to be complete failure. A good number to think about is like minus 00:33:49.927 --> 00:33:50.467 two. 00:33:50.550 --> 00:33:54.541 which is what we call reps and reserve, which is sort of like I got within two 00:33:54.625 --> 00:33:58.616 or so reps of failure and then I stopped. You have a lot of room to play here. 00:33:58.699 --> 00:34:02.273 You also have a lot of room to adapt based on your circumstances. God, 00:34:02.356 --> 00:34:03.610 I'm short on time today. 00:34:04.110 --> 00:34:07.235 Typically, my workout takes me 60 minutes for this plan I have. 00:34:07.319 --> 00:34:11.404 I've only got 35 today. What do I do? If you're training for hypertrophy, 00:34:11.487 --> 00:34:15.215 you need to make sure you hit that total volume. So in this particular case, 00:34:15.298 --> 00:34:18.337 lower the load. lower the rest intervals and just 00:34:18.420 --> 00:34:20.712 get to the burn and get going as much as you can. 00:34:20.796 --> 00:34:24.596 If you're training for strength, I would rather you cut your volume in half. 00:34:25.260 --> 00:34:29.110 Get those few repetitions done at that high load and just don't do very many. 00:34:29.340 --> 00:34:34.018 sets today. That's a better result. So the goal that you're going after is going 00:34:34.101 --> 00:34:36.660 to determine what we call chaos management. 00:34:36.960 --> 00:34:40.575 which is that thing like that, running out of time today, my time is short, 00:34:40.659 --> 00:34:43.830 or you didn't even think my time was short, something got cut off, 00:34:43.914 --> 00:34:47.480 I'm not feeling it today, I'm in a hotel, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, 00:34:47.563 --> 00:34:51.524 which is life, right? That's going to be 10 to 50% of your workouts is going to be 00:34:51.607 --> 00:34:53.607 chaos management. I'd like to ask about, 00:34:54.180 --> 00:34:59.520 frequency, but I'd like to frame it a little bit differently than that. 00:35:00.120 --> 00:35:03.075 I'd like to ask about total workout duration, 00:35:03.159 --> 00:35:05.860 which dovetails with frequency because – 00:35:06.150 --> 00:35:09.470 if one is hitting the appropriate number of sets per week, 00:35:10.500 --> 00:35:14.217 and one is combining different muscle groups on the same days, well, 00:35:14.300 --> 00:35:18.465 then workouts are going to be a very different duration than if one is doing 00:35:18.548 --> 00:35:20.979 a different body part each day, for instance. 00:35:21.063 --> 00:35:25.339 And so I feel like any discussion about frequency has to be within the context 00:35:25.422 --> 00:35:28.440 of workout duration and vice versa. Yeah. If you are a 00:35:29.160 --> 00:35:32.757 A lifting junkie. and you're very consistent in your schedule. 00:35:32.840 --> 00:35:35.490 I'm actually okay with body parts, but most people... 00:35:35.790 --> 00:35:40.315 Or not that. And so the concern there is if you say are isolating and waiting to do 00:35:40.399 --> 00:35:44.230 your glutes on one day of the week and something happens on that day. 00:35:45.180 --> 00:35:47.460 You might go another 13 days now. 00:35:47.700 --> 00:35:50.092 before training, you know, between workouts. 00:35:50.176 --> 00:35:54.706 And that's really difficult to maintain. The frequency won't be high enough unless 00:35:54.790 --> 00:35:58.026 the load and volume on that one day is astronomically high. 00:35:58.109 --> 00:36:01.852 It's just not going to happen. So while if you look at the research, 00:36:01.935 --> 00:36:06.185 frequency in terms of how many days per week doesn't matter that much as long 00:36:06.268 --> 00:36:08.800 as the total load and failure are equivalent. 00:36:09.300 --> 00:36:12.990 practically... It's a challenge. So 00:36:13.080 --> 00:36:16.500 It's hard because life gets in the way for most people. 00:36:16.830 --> 00:36:19.928 Especially if you have kids and a job and all these things. 00:36:20.011 --> 00:36:24.270 So I actually prefer doing something more like three days a week of total body. 00:36:24.510 --> 00:36:26.617 And if something happens, you've just missed a... 00:36:26.700 --> 00:36:31.338 that body part for 48 hours, 72 hours. I like that a little better for most people, 00:36:31.422 --> 00:36:34.380 not because it's more effective, but just because... 00:36:34.470 --> 00:36:37.423 it's a little bit more resilient to life, and you can get there. 00:36:37.506 --> 00:36:40.222 If you wanted to actually do a little bit of a combination, 00:36:40.305 --> 00:36:43.780 so if you wanted to do like two days a week of whole body and then two days 00:36:43.863 --> 00:36:45.868 a week of a little bit of a body part split, 00:36:45.951 --> 00:36:48.762 then you're actually sort of hedging against all risks there, 00:36:48.845 --> 00:36:51.181 as long as you get to that total number there. Now, 00:36:51.264 --> 00:36:52.914 there is actually some evidence – 00:36:53.100 --> 00:36:55.657 in a couple of ways that maybe a little bit more frequently. 00:36:55.740 --> 00:36:59.533 is a little bit better. But the difficulty is now going back to the practicality 00:36:59.617 --> 00:37:03.555 question of like, how many people really can train just their strength training six 00:37:03.639 --> 00:37:07.268 days a week? That doesn't count any of their long duration stuff. 00:37:07.352 --> 00:37:10.295 It doesn't have their high heart rate, their flexibility. 00:37:10.379 --> 00:37:13.641 It's just really, really, really hard to get all that stuff in. 00:37:13.724 --> 00:37:17.017 So it tends to be easier on folks in terms of execution, right? 00:37:17.100 --> 00:37:23.780 and long-term adherence, in my opinion, to get that volume accomplished and – 00:37:23.970 --> 00:37:27.003 A little bit more frequent patterns, but not once a week. 00:37:27.086 --> 00:37:30.502 So I like to kind of have it right there for most people. Again, 00:37:30.585 --> 00:37:33.837 not because it is technically, quote-unquote, more effective, 00:37:33.920 --> 00:37:35.670 but because you're less likely – 00:37:35.820 --> 00:37:40.020 to fail to progress because of skipping a workout, something popping up. 00:37:40.440 --> 00:37:43.427 Great. Well, thank you for that very informative answer. 00:37:43.510 --> 00:37:46.580 This was incredibly informative. Thank you so very much.