Training for Lean Muscle Growth
December’s Theme: MUSCLE BUILDING 💪
Today’s topic: Training for lean muscle
I say “lean muscle” here because most folks want to build a nice body shape, get some muscle tone, and feel like a powerful jungle cat—but they don’t want to put on extra fluff doing it, or they want to lose some of the fluff they already have.
I’m on board with this.
But I have good news and bad news: Lean muscle growth requires a slow rate of gain, which means you, gentle reader, must develop some friggin’ patience.
(This is one of the many reasons I made my program 12 months long!).
A good training program paired with a nice steady nutrition pace means your hungry muscles gobble up those extra calories and use them to build lean tissue instead of storing them as fat.
So let’s talk TRAINING.
There are many types of exercise out there, and pretty much all of them are good and healthy.
BUT most of them are not designed to build muscle. They move you around, but they don’t make your muscles hungry enough.
To build muscle leanly, you should train for muscle growth. This is called hypertrophy training.
Here’s what that looks like:
💥Choose good exercises: You want a foundation of big, compound lifts that teach your body how to coordinate its strength (squats, deadlifts, chins, presses, etc). Then we want to add smaller lifts that bring up under-stimulated muscles and correct imbalances.
💥Do enough sets per week: Research shows that 9-18 sets per muscle per week is ideal for building muscle.
💥Do enough reps per set: You can build muscle at high rep ranges, but that’s mentally, physically, and spiritually exhausting. Stick to the 6-20 rep range and you’re golden. Compound lifts are worked in the lower range, isolation lifts in the higher range.
💥Rest long enough between sets: We usually need to rest somewhere between 1-5 mins between sets in order to be recovered enough to do the next set without gassing out. A good rule of thumb is to let your breathing return to normal.
💥Train often enough: 2-4 training sessions per week is the sweet spot. My programs are 3x/week and full body, which leaves time and energy to do stuff out in the world, or drop down to 2x/week and still make great progress.
💥Train hard enough: My programs instruct you to bring each set to within 0-2 reps of failure (meaning you can’t do any more!), but there is also space to dial down the intensity as needed when life kicks you in the throat.
💥Focus on progressive overload: As you get older, your muscle mass trends downward—unless you DO something about it. Fight to get stronger every workout. You won’t get stronger every workout, and at a certain point getting stronger isn’t even possible, but you gotta fight for it or watch it leave you. My programs are designed to progress you, not just move you around for an hour.
If this feels overwhelming, that’s normal! That’s why trainers have whole degrees and certifications in this stuff. My advice is to follow a program designed to make you stronger, and that also aligns with your preferences and time constraints.
After years of spinning my wheels working out 5-6 days per week, I realized my body responded better to less (but better!) training, and that I actually preferred 3x/week training schedule so I could spend my free time doing, well, anything!
Find what works for you, and remember: More is definitely not better.
Next week we’re diving a bit deeper into body recomposition—building muscle while losing fat!
December Theme Schedule:
Week 1: We went over what bulking season is, why it exists, and what “winter” can mean
Last week we covered nutrition for muscle building
This week we covered hypertrophy training for lean muscle
Week 4: Mitigating fat gain while building, and body recomposition
Love & muscles,
Coach Mac
Muscle Sherpa
Today I covered the essentials. Trainees in the Academy will have exclusive access to the in-depth Guide To Building Muscle, along with Physique Mode support for the nutritional angle.
*Shameless pitch* —If you want those resources and guidance, consider applying 😉
