Snacks #003: 6 Foundational Factors to Optimise Your Muscle Growth

Welcome to issue #003 of my series of snack-sized newsletters

Each weekend I'll be bringing succinct practical advice and takeaways for you to apply to your training and nutrition for the upcoming week.

In today’s Saturday snack, we’re going to cover how you can optimise your muscle growth in a nutshell.

Unfortunately, most people look past the foundations of body composition optimisation to chase the latest shiny object, fancy methods, ice baths and supplements (the 1%-ers) and they neglect the things that provide 99% of results, but you can do better than this.

When we strip back all of the noise and look at what all of the greatest physiques and programs have in common, we end up with these two principles:

1. You need to optimise your training sessions (exercise)

2. You need to optimise your recovery (nutrition)

I've simplified the methods of doing this below with brief explanations, but you can skip to the end for a summary list if you prefer:

Training principles:

1. Progressive overload: Gradually increase the workload to continuously challenge your muscles. This is done most easily from increasing the weights, however you can also increase sets and reps across the duration of your program.
2. You need to train with intensity. Utilise your reps and then embrace the rest break. If you think you don’t need the full rest break, you’re simply not lifting heavy enough. For context, if your reps are in the 8-12 range, you need around 1-1.5m rest. If you’re lifting even heavier, in the 5-8 rep range, you need around 2-2.5m rest.
3. Exercise selection: Prioritise big exercises that target multiple muscle groups first in your session as these give you the most bang for your buck. Think squats, dealifts, hip thrusts, pull ups, chest press… more muscles used→ more metabolic stress→ more muscle growth. You can add specific, isolation exercises after if time permits.

Nutrition principles:

1. Meet your protein targets. Overall protein consumption through the day needs to be high enough to provide the building blocks for muscle tissue. Aiming for 1.6-2.5g/kg of ideal body weight is a great goal and seems to be the sweet spot for muscle growth.
2. Eat enough carbohydrate and calories to fuel training. You can’t lift heavy weights if you’re running on empty. You also can’t build extra body tissue if you’re not giving the body the nutrients it needs. Eat regularly, and eat enough. For muscle building, being in a slight surplus (10-20% above your requirements) is beneficial.
3. Nutrient timing can give additional benefits when we’re looking to optimise muscle growth. Eat/drink a protein and carb-rich meal in the 3-4 hours prior to training if you train later in the day. If you train first thing in the morning, aim to replenish as close to exercise as you can.

TLDR:

1. Progressive overload
2. Train hard enough to need rest breaks
3. Pick compound exercises
4. Eat 1.6-2.5g/kg protein per day
5. Eat enough carbs and calories (+10-20% above maintenance)
6. Time your nutrients around training

Understand these foundations of training and nutrition for muscle building, implement, and reap the rewards.

Get cracking!

Yours in health,

Dom xx