Top 3 Muscle-Building Tips for Optimal Growth

First of all, let’s understand that ‘building muscle’ doesn’t necessarily mean we want to be a jacked bodybuilder (or maybe it does). A lot of time and dedication is needed to achieve the bulky physique some people associate with weight training. That being said, if your goal is to build a more muscular physique, continue reading, because in this post we are going to discuss the 3 most important elements of your training you NEED to get right to achieve your goals.

Lets jump straight in…

How do I build muscle?

Undoubtedly, weight training is the best way to build muscle. Resistance training directly works and tests the muscular system, and elicits direct hypertrophic (muscle building) responses. Several important elements of your resistance training should be continuously optimised to ensure muscle growth, and this can get quite confusing when programming your workouts. In this post we will discuss what science backs as the 3 most important elements of exercise for muscle growth.

Number 1 - Volume

The most common question that everyone asks with any fitness goals, is how much do I need to do? How many sets and reps do I need to complete? and how heavy do I need to lift? These questions all relate to volume. The volume of a session is the amount of sets, reps and weight you do. More sets doesn’t necessarily mean more volume. For example, 10 reps of 10kg squats has the same ‘volume’ as 1 rep at 100kg. Clearly there is a difference between the tow, and now we are going to discuss what volume is most optimal for muscle growth.

We can break down volume into 2 sub-categories. Reps and load.

How many reps do I need to do?

A rep is one full motion of an exercise, so for example doing 1 bicep curl is 1 rep. Rep targets can vary between different fitness goals and it is important to recognise the recommended rep ranges for your goal.

For muscle growth, 6-20 reps is considered the most ‘optimal’ range. This is not to say that if you do 5 reps or 21 reps that you will not grow muscle, but studies have shown that this range is the best for maximising muscle growth.

Generally, sticking to the 8-12 rep range for most exercises will elicit a good response in muscle growth, however, to take rep ranges to the next level, we need to discuss, ‘compound’ exercises vs ‘isolation’ exercises.

A compound exercise is an exercise that uses more than one large muscle group. For example, a squat requires contraction from the quadriceps, glutes and adductors. Generally speaking, you are likely to lift more weight in a compound movement (because you have more muscle to move more weight). You may want to consider aiming for the lower end of the rep range on compound exercises (6-12), as this will allow you to push heavier loads (compared to if you aimed for 12-20 reps).

An isolation exercise is a movement that requires contraction from only one muscle (group). So for example, a bicep curl only works the biceps. For these type of exercises, you should consider aiming for the higher end of the muscle building rep range (12-20). As you will not be able to push as heavy with isolation exercises, focusing on slightly lighter weight but higher reps can result in a better hypertrophic response.

How heavy do I need to lift?

Load is a completely subjective factor of exercise, and it directly correlates to the rep ranges which we have already discussed. The important thing to remember during resistance training, is the closer you can push yourself to failure, the better response your body will have to take to exercise (we will discuss this in more detail later in the post). What this means, is if you do 10 reps of an exercise, but you could have done 5 more reps, then the response you will get from your training will be quite mild. However, if you do 10 reps and another rep would have been impossible, then your bodies response to exercise will be intense, and you will get the most out of your training.

So in terms of load, choose a weight that challenges you between the 6-20 rep range. If you cant quite manage 6 reps, drop the load. If you can do over 20 reps, increase the load. This takes us onto our next important element of muscle growth…

Number 2 - Effort

Effort relates to how hard you push yourself in a set of an exercise. We have just briefly mentioned how effort can affect a hypertrophic response. But how important is it, and how hard do you need to push yourself?

You may have heard the term ‘pushing to failure’ before. There are two types of failure and it is important to understand the difference between the two. Muscle failure and mechanical failure. Muscle failure is when you cannot physically perform another rep. This is generally more important for power based exercises, where your muscles become so fatigued, that no matter how hard you push, you cannot complete another rep. Mechanical failure is what we consider important for building muscle mass. Mechanical failure is a state at which you could not physically perform another rep while maintaining correct form! The key difference between the two being ‘maintaining correct form’.

Let’s use a barbell shoulder press as an example. To complete a shoulder press to a point of muscular failure, you might see some thrusting and jolting in the last few reps to shift the weight over your head. But to complete a set to mechanical failure, you would need to focus on keeping your reps strict, with no thrusting to move the weight, just strict movement from the shoulder joint. This would be failure while maintaining correct form.

How important is mechanical failure for muscle growth?

You do not need to push to failure on every single set. Studies show that muscle growth occurs up to as much as 10 reps in reserve. This means 10 reps away from failure. However, the closer you get to failure, the more muscle growth occurs. And the progression isn’t linear. Pushing to mechanical failure can have up to 2.5x more effect on hypertrophy than leaving 3 reps in reserve.

So to answer the question, how hard do you need to push yourself to grow muscle… as hard as you can. Remember to maintain correct form and understand that pushing to failure isn’t necessary for every set, but to maximise your muscle growth, try to achieve at least one set to failure for every exercise.

Number 3 - ‘Localisation’ / tension

The third key element of muscle hypertrophy is muscular tension/localisation. This idea relates similarly to the idea of mechanical failure, where the focus is on maintaining correct form during an exercise.

Localisation means directly training a muscle (to failure). This is similar to compound vs isolation exercises. As a general rule you should try to include isolation exercises for each muscle group within your programme, as they are great at localising tension onto specific muscles. Lets consider a squat vs a leg extension for training the quads. Both exercises effectively work the quads, but the leg extension is better at localising tension on the muscle group we are focusing on. This is going to help generate more tension in the muscle, resulting in a better hypertrophic response.

However, do not only include isolation exercises into your workout. Compound movements still have benefits for muscle growth. The point here is to make sure you include an isolation exercise for every muscle group at least once in your exercise programme.

So, what’s the best way to build muscle?

Muscle hypertrophy is a challenging goal to achieve. It requires learning from experience, perfecting form, pushing yourself with high intensity and building a fully equipped exercise programme.

Begin by perfecting these 3 elements first. Making sure you get these 3 essential aspects correct first, you will already see some big improvements. Remember that growth and progress take time. A tip I recommend to anyone with a goal related to looks/physique, is don’t obsess over how you look every day. Instead set yourself goals you can achieve week by week in the gym. This could be as simple as coming to the gym 3 times a week, or it could be more specific like squat 100kg for 10 reps. With consistency and discipline, you will achieve your results.