The Ins and Outs of Building Muscle
From Director of Health Alex Maples
TL;DR
Lift weights.
Do 5–20 reps per set; the last 2-3 reps should be challenging (with good form).
Train each muscle group with 3-10 sets, twice per week.
Don’t retrain a muscle until it’s no longer sore.
Eat enough protein: 0.6–1g per pound of desired body weight.
Get plenty of sleep.
Stay active with low-intensity movement to support recovery.
We’ve established how important adequate muscle mass is to overall health and performance. Here’s the nitty-gritty of how to actually build it.
The Three Pillars of Muscle Growth
1. Stimulus: Your body needs a reason to grow – a signal that it should prepare for greater demands. Enter resistance training. When you lift weights, tension is placed on your muscles, activating force receptors in the muscle cells. If the tension is high enough, those receptors signal your body to adapt by growing stronger and adding muscle tissue.
2. Substrate: Then, you need raw materials. Protein is essential (without it, your body can’t repair and build muscle efficiently). If you train hard but under-eat protein, your body will cannibalize existing muscle tissue to repair damaged areas – a robbing-Peter-to-pay-Paul scenario that stalls progress.
3. Rest: Lifting weights sends the signal, but growth happens during rest. After training, your body enters repair mode – especially during sleep. Without adequate recovery, you simply accumulate damage without adaptation.
Stimulus: Sending the Signal
Muscle growth is driven by mechanical tension.
Useful terms:
Rep (Repetition): One complete movement of an exercise. Each rep includes a concentric phase (muscle shortens, e.g., lifting a weight) and an eccentric phase (muscle lengthens, e.g., lowering a weight).
Set: A group of consecutive reps performed without resting.
Load: The amount of weight lifted.
Volume: Sets × reps × load = total work done.
Intensity: How close a set is to your maximum effort. Measured either as a % of your 1-rep max (1RM) or using:
RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion): Scale of 1-10 based on difficulty.
RIR (Reps in Reserve): How many more reps you could do before failure.
Frequency: How often you train a given muscle group per week.
Anatomy of a Set
Rep Range: 5-20 (scientific range extends to 30, but practicality and attention span matter)
Intensity: 65%-85% of your 1RM, or sets taken to within 1-3 reps of failure
Cue: Aim for the last 2-3 reps of each set to be heavy but manageable
The sweet spot:
To build muscle, you need all three ingredients in the training signal:
Tension (sufficient load)
Volume (enough total work)
Effort (training close enough to failure)
In practice:
Doing a single all-out rep with a very heavy load gives you plenty of tension and intensity – but it lacks volume, which is also crucial for hypertrophy.
Doing 1000 reps with next to no weight gives you volume, but it lacks sufficient tension. Plus, let’s be honest – you’d probably get so bored midway through that you'd abandon ship long before rep 1000.
Think Goldilocks: enough weight to produce tension with enough reps and sets to create volume. Practically, that looks like working in the 5-20 rep range, where the last few reps are difficult but doable and enough sets that you feel challenged but not so sore you can’t train the muscle again later in the week.
How Many Sets?
Studies suggest a very wide range (from as few as 3 sets up to as many as 52 sets per muscle group per week) can stimulate growth. But that 52-set number comes from studies focusing on a single muscle group in isolation. If you tried to apply that kind of volume across your entire body, you’d likely end up as a pile of mush by the end of the week.
For most people pursuing general health, performance, and aesthetics, a much more sustainable range is:
6-20 sets per muscle group per week
Spread across 2-3 training sessions
Adjust by outcomes. Increase when:
You’re not wrecked when it’s time to train again.
Strength/rep quality improves week over week.
You feel recovered and motivated.
Remember: Volume needs are individual. Some people grow well with fewer sets, while others may need more to see progress. Tinker and adjust.
A Simple Starting Point
When working with beginners, I often start with two full-body workouts per week. Each session includes 3 sets of 4 compound exercises:
Push (chest/triceps)
Pull (back/biceps)
Lower Body: Quad-dominant + Hip-dominant
To save time and boost efficiency, I recommend antagonist supersets: pairing two exercises that target opposing muscle groups (e.g., a push and a pull). While one group works, the other rests, cutting down on total gym time and adding a touch of cardio.
Sample Beginner Program
Day 1:
3x Superset:
Incline Dumbbell Press (chest/triceps) – 8-12 reps
Leg Curl (hamstrings) – 8-12 reps
3x Superset:
Walking Lunge (quads/glutes) – 8-12 reps
Lat Pulldown (back/biceps) – 8-12 reps
Day 2:
3x Superset:
Flat Dumbbell Press (chest/triceps) – 10-15 reps
Romanian Deadlift (glutes/hamstrings) – 8-12 reps
3x Superset:
Goblet Squat or Barbell Squat (quads) – 8-12 reps
Single Arm Dumbbell Row (back/biceps) – 10-15 reps
It’s simple, scalable, and covers all major muscle groups in 30-45 minutes. If you do just this consistently, gradually increase the weights over time, and eat well, you’ll get 80% of the benefits lifting has to offer.
There are endless training splits and exercise variations out there, but for general health, this is more than enough. Get strong. Stay consistent. Build muscle.
Substrate: Building Blocks for Growth
Muscle doesn’t materialize out of thin air. Once you send the signal with training, your body needs raw materials to build new tissue – and that starts with what’s on your plate.
The star of the show here is protein, which provides the amino acids your body uses to repair and build muscle fibers. Without enough of it, you can train perfectly and still get nowhere – your body will just recycle amino acids from other tissues.
How Much Protein Do You Need?
A good rule of thumb:
0.6-1 gram of protein per pound of your ideal body weight.
If you're overweight, use a goal weight to guide your intake.
If you're lean and trying to build, use your current weight or slightly above.
Most people fall in the 100-180g/day range depending on size and goals.
Pro tip: Spread protein evenly across 3-5 meals per day to optimize muscle protein synthesis.
Protein is king, but it's not a solo act.
To support recovery and growth, you also need:
Adequate calories overall – If you’re under-eating, your body won’t prioritize muscle building. But if you’re overweight and trying to lose fat, good news: you already have extra calories on board – in the form of stored body fat. Your body can tap into those reserves to fuel the muscle-building process.
Carbs – Fuel your muscles and your brain. They replenish glycogen stores, which is especially important if you’re training hard or frequently. Carbs have been demonized to death in fitness circles, but if performance is the goal, they’re not the enemy – they’re a powerful tool in a balanced diet.
Healthy fats – Support hormone production, joint health, and overall cellular function. A good baseline is 0.3 grams per pound of goal body weight per day. Dip too far below that, and you may not have enough raw materials for optimal hormone production – especially testosterone and other key anabolic hormones.
You can be flexible with carbs and fats based on your preferences. But, if you’re skipping the protein, you’re leaving gains on the table.
Practical Tips
Track protein intake at least for a week to get a sense of where you stand.
Front-load your day with a high-protein breakfast – don’t play catch-up at dinner.
Use snacks strategically (e.g., Greek yogurt, jerky, protein shakes) to hit your daily target.
Special Considerations: When You May Need a Caloric Surplus
If you're lean and undermuscled, or you’ve been training for a while and want to continue building muscle, there comes a point where a caloric surplus becomes necessary. Gaining muscle requires energy – not just protein, but total fuel.
Beginners can often build muscle without gaining weight (aka "newbie gains").
Overweight individuals can often gain muscle while losing fat, thanks to built-in energy reserves.
But for trained, lean individuals, further progress almost always requires eating more than you burn.
At this stage, you may benefit from a dedicated bulking phase, where you intentionally gain a modest amount of weight (e.g., 0.25-0.5 lbs per week). This gives your body the resources to build muscle efficiently, without excessive fat gain.
For more advanced lifters chasing their genetic potential (not just “enough” muscle for health, but the upper ceiling of performance) this may also mean cycling between bulking and cutting phases over time.
This level of planning isn’t necessary for everyone. But if you're serious about maximizing size and strength, it's something to consider.
Rest & Recovery: Where the Magic Actually Happens
You’ve lifted. You’ve fueled. Now it’s time to grow.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of constantly asking, “What else can I do?” More workouts, more supplements, more hacks. But when it comes to building muscle, sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is… nothing. Or more specifically: rest strategically.
Why Recovery Matters
Training sends the signal. Nutrition provides the building blocks. But recovery is where the actual construction happens.
Every time you lift, you create microscopic damage in your muscle fibers. That’s not a bad thing – it’s the stimulus your body needs to grow stronger. But without adequate recovery, you’re just piling stress on top of stress, and eventually your body stops adapting and starts breaking down.
When you rest, your body repairs that damage, making your muscles stronger, thicker, and more resilient than before. No recovery? No progress.
Sleep: The Underrated Linchpin
If you could bottle the effects of high-quality sleep and sell it, it would outsell protein powder and pre-workout combined.
Most muscle repair and growth happens during deep sleep, particularly during slow-wave sleep stages.
Growth hormone (A key signal for repair) is released in its highest concentrations during sleep.
Testosterone (a key contributor to anabolism) also rises during sleep.
Poor sleep increases cortisol (your stress hormone), which interferes with muscle repair, blunts testosterone, and increases the risk of fat gain.
Aim for 7-9 hours of quality sleep per night. If you’re training hard or under high life stress, lean toward the higher end.
Simple tips that go a long way:
Keep a consistent sleep schedule (yes, even on weekends).
Limit screens and bright lights 1-2 hours before bed.
Cool, dark, quiet room = sleep superpowers.
Active Recovery: Move Light, Recover Hard
Rest doesn’t mean becoming one with your couch. In fact, light movement can enhance recovery by increasing circulation, reducing soreness, and promoting lymphatic drainage.
Think:
Easy walks
Light cycling
Yoga or stretching
Mobility work
This type of movement increases blood flow without adding more fatigue, which can speed up the repair process and help you bounce back stronger.
Bonus: It also helps regulate your nervous system – especially important if you’re dealing with stress (and who isn’t?).
The Big Picture
Building muscle isn’t just about doing more. It’s about doing enough and then stepping back to let your body respond.
If you're constantly sore, dragging through workouts, or not making progress despite "doing everything right," it might be time to train less, sleep more, and move gently on your off days.
Strategic recovery isn’t laziness – it’s intelligent training.
