The Utmost Basics of How to Get Stronger and Build Muscle

Lets simplify the process

In my prior article on progressive overload, I covered the scientific origins and philosophy of the Concept

In this article, I want to keep it simple though.

Lets assume the following

• You are working out, you are lifting weights.

• You want bigger muscles.

• You want to lift more weight and get stronger.

So how do we do that on a workout to workout basis? There are 3 primary methods.

1. We can add WEIGHT, and the reps stay largely the same

Reg Park, the man who created and popularized the 5x5 routine

Imagine you are doing 5x5 training. You do 5 sets of 5 reps for the squat and bench press. You do 3 sets of 5 reps for the deadlift.

Each week, you try to increase the weight by 5-10lbs.

This is basic linear progression. You are adding weight until you cannot reasonably add weight.

While a novice might be able to add 5-10lbs every week, after about 3-6 months that will slow down, and you might add weight every other week. And then eventually you might add weight once a month.

This kind of linear progression can be used with any rep range, but it works particularly well with sets of 5 on the barbell lifts. Provided you do enough sets and the sets are hard, you will get stronger and build some muscle for quite a few months. Many people can get results from this for up to 1 year.

The issue with adding weight in this manner is that

A) it slows down, and then people get upset and think something is wrong that the weights arent increasing, not realizing that novice gains dont last

B) it does NOT work for isolation exercises and movements that are not well suited for low reps. You’re not going to be adding 10lbs a month to lateral raises, for example.

C) Specific to barbell only programs, doing only the barbell lifts and only doing sets of 5 is NOT that effective for muscle hypertrophy, and eventually you will need to do a larger variety of exercises and use some higher reps if you want to fill in the muscular gaps and grow tissue

All this said, the basic premise of adding weight over time is NOT something you “outgrow”, but you will need to get more sophisticated in how you do it after the first 6-12 months of training, which takes us to

2. We can add REPS, and the weight stays the same (in the short term)

This is why rep ranges exist.
5-8
6-10
6-12
8-12
10-15
The premise of the rep range is simple: you pick a heavy weight at the bottom of the rep range, and then over the course of multiple workouts, you add reps, until you reach the top of the rep range.

And then you add weight again.

This is called “Double Progression”. Why its called Double progression I dont know, its not a technical term, but it simply means “add reps, then add weight, repeat”.

This method will apply to almost any exercise you do. You can follow this for years before you truly plateau on MOST lifts (not all lifts, but most lifts).

Eventually as you get stronger though, you will find that you cannot add weight to some exercises though, and that takes us to the last two method, which I’ll include together

3. You add reps, and maybe sets, and the weight stays the Same

The human body has limits. On most isolation movements, such as lateral raises, its impossible to continuously add weight. Imagine you are a 200lb man trying to lateral raise a 150lb DB. You CANT do it. The counter balancing demands to lift the weight are greater than your own bodyweight, and the lever arm is so long that it would be impossible for the deltoids to move the weight in the first place.

This also applies for bicep curls, tricep pushdowns, and many other exercises. No matter how strong you get, the free weight you are attempting to lift starts moving you. Your own bodyweight is not sufficien to stabilize you, the heavier weights exceed the biomechanical strength of the target muscle.

So what do you do? You ADD reps. 10 reps, 15 reps, 20 reps.

Your rep ranges get higher over time.

This is why many bodybuilders do higher reps on certain movements the longer they have been training. Or they find ways to increase volume in novel ways in order to further stimulate hypertrophy (drop sets, pyramids, mega sets, etc0

This does not only apply to isolation exercises though. It also applies to compound movements.

Imagine you can squat 500lbs, deadlift 600, bench press 400, and you can shoulder press and chest press 120lb DBs for reps.

You are at an elite level of strength, but weights that heavy are immense stress on your skeleton. Again, advanced bodybuilders will tell you that past a certain point of weight, many free weight compound movements start to feel risky, highly compressive on the spine, and attempting to move even heavier weights has diminished benefits.

So what do you do?

Simple, again you…ADD REPS.

For someone like Tom Platz, with the most muscular legs of all time, he did not train for a 1 rep max, his mantra was heavy weights, for REPS

And he was not incorrect in his approach. Platz had exceptional strength, but he realized the building muscle at an advanced stage would require more intensity in the form of increased reps, rather than training for maximal strength

and finally, the last way to make continual progress

USE MACHINES

Machines can be used at any stage of training. Machines are ultra stable, lock you into position, and they especially allow you to selectively target muscles that are difficult to train with free weights when you are at an advanced level of strength. On a “per muscle” basis, machines are superior to free weights for targeted hypertrophy.

This does not mean that you MUST train with machines. Many bodybuilders do without machines their whole career. But machines have extreme utility.

For example, imagine you can squat 405lbs. Thats an impressive squat. Imagine too that at that strength level, the limiting factor is your spinal strength. You are strong, but squats are a back workout as much they are a leg workout.

So certainly you could keep squatting. But your goal is BIGGER QUADS, not necessarily a bigger squat.

So instead, you switch to machine Hack squats, and leg extensions.

Less spinal stress, more quadriceps stress, and you can keep making progress.

Again, training with machines is not mutually exclusive with training with the barbell or dumbbells. But you understand the reason now as to why machines can be so effective for muscle building. They remove the biomechanical limits that free weight movements typically have. And you can use them at any level of training.

Overall, progression in muscle and strength will come from heavier weights and more reps over time, but there are multiple ways to accomplish this goal

Any question on the above? Feel Free to leave comment