Hypertrophy means “muscle growth” and I am going to be using that terms from here on out because 1) I am used to it, 2) it’s one word instead of two, 3) it’s a fancy science term, which makes me sound smart.
Strength vs Hypertrophy
There are two types of resistance training: strength training and hypertrophy training. Strength training is intended to increase the amount of weight you can move (e.g. you go from lifting a rock that’s 100lbs to lifting a rock that’s 120lbs). Hypertrophy training is intended to increase muscle size, regardless of whether strength increases or not. There are biological explanations behind why strength and hypertrophy are different and the specific biochemical processes involved, but they don’t matter because they don’t particularly impact learning about how to train.
Strength and hypertrophy are highly correlated, but not perfectly correlated. Broadly speaking, the larger a muscle is, the stronger it is. It’s tough to find a person who is really strong and also very small at the same time and vice versa. If a normal person started weightlifting consistently for a couple of months, they would see progress in both how much they can lift and how big their muscles are. But the correlation between the two starts to split as you go further down the experience axis.
Think about bodybuilders and strongmen. Bodybuilders and strongmen are both bigger and stronger than the average person, but a strongman’s muscles aren’t as large and developed as a bodybuilder’s. On the other hand, while a bodybuilder can lift very heavy weights, they will never out-lift a strongman. The difference between the two is in their specific training styles. A bodybuilder trains specifically for muscle growth and then cuts as much bodyweight (in fat and water weight) to maximally reveal their muscles. They never perform a single lift on stage in front of the judges because they are judged exclusively on esthetics. Strongmen are interested exclusively in lifting extremely heavy objects, that’s the only goal of their competition. They don’t care what they look like, so they carry extra bodyfat on them.
When training for strength, one should focus on lifting the heaviest weight they can. They’re not going to be able to lift that heavy weight many times, maybe just a couple times maximum, because they will be exhausted almost right away. They won’t do any kind of movement that isn’t the one or two specific lifts they want to improve. If they want to increase the amount of weight they deadlift, they won’t be doing much other than deadlifting maximally heavy weights until their strength improves.
When training for hypertrophy, the goal shifts entirely from the weight you lift to muscle size. The weight you use, to at least some extent, does not matter at all. If you were able to grow muscle using a very light weight, you would. After all, it doesn’t matter how much you lift as long as your muscle grows. This is where a lot of people get confused when looking at resistance training because typically people want to be both more muscular and stronger. Which is why I will remind you that strength and hypertrophy are highly correlated, but not perfectly correlated.
Until you start reaching the extreme levels of professional lifting that bodybuilders and strongmen are at, you will inevitably build both muscle size and muscle strength when lifting weights. The only true differentiator is dependent on your personal goals. Do you care more about how you look or how you perform? I will write separately about why I personally think that most people are interested in how they look more than how strong they are, but if you legitimately only want to train for strength, this is where we part ways, because everything following will be about training for esthetics.
Hypertrophy training
The following is a description of what to do in order to grow muscle, listed in ascending order from the absolute simplest explanation to the one that is relatively more complex.
Lift hard and eat.
Lift regularly and with intensity while consuming enough protein and calories.
Lift regularly and with intensity between 2 and 6 days per week while consuming a lot of protein, enough calories and while getting good sleep. Increase how much you lift over time.
Perform 10 - 12 sets per muscle group on a weekly basis while taking each set near failure while in a calorie surplus and consume ~1g of protein per pound of bodyweight. Sleep 7 - 8 hours every night. Focus on progressively increasing the reps or weight you lift weekly. Use any weights that challenge you between 5 and 30 reps.
Follow a basic program that works muscles and/or muscle groups that you want to improve for 10 - 12 sets per week, which is typically at least 2 days of working that muscle per week. Allow for days in between working a muscle so that it can recover and take at least one full rest day where you do not lift, meaning you lift at least 2 and at most 6 days per week. Take each set within 2 reps of failure while maintaining good form and slowing down the negatives of each movement. Focus on weights that take you close to failure anywhere between 5 and 30 reps. Track your reps, sets, and weights - try to increase either the number of reps you do with the same weight or the weight you lift for the same number of reps every week. Consume ~1g of protein per pound of lean body mass, and count your calories to ensure you are in a slight caloric surplus of around 200 to 300 calories per day. Get lots of quality sleep every day to allow your body to recover and build muscle.
Training gets more complicated the more you dig into it, but it doesn’t every really go too far from “lift hard and eat.” At the end of the day, lifting hard and eating is going to be the number one and number two most important factors that determine whether the work you put in will yield any results. There is a trick, however. At point number 3 above and in every point after, there is an emphasized sentence that is the real determining factor in whether you will see progress. The trick is called progressive overload.
Progressive overload
The trick is simple. If you increase the number of reps you perform for a given exercise every week without changing the weight or you increase the weight slightly while doing the same number of reps, you are guaranteed to grow muscle. It really is that simple.
I understand that I sound like that “doctors hate him for this one simple trick!” style ad you see online, but what I’m saying is completely accurate. Focusing on progressively overloading your muscles will inevitably force them to grow bigger, it’s a biological fact. It does not matter if you focus on increasing reps or weight, both will yield hypertrophic effects. I do not have access to a gym with lots of 1lb and 2.5lb weights that I can add to my lifts every week, so I focus on increasing my reps every week. Some weeks you may not be able to hit a new number, so focus on perfecting that rep range at that weight for the moment and you will be able to hit the next ceiling within a couple of weeks.
For example, if you want bigger biceps, you will probably do bicep curls. If you start by curling 15lbs for 10 reps for 3 sets twice a week, you should try to lift 15lbs for 11 reps for 3 sets twice the following week. The week after, you should try to increase your reps to 12 and so on until you reach a rep range that is too high within the recommended 5 to 30 reps or you feel like the 15lbs isn’t challenging enough. At that point, you will want to increase your weight to 17.5lbs or 20lbs, and your reps will most likely have to decrease from what you did with the 15lbs weights, which is OK, as long as it is still within the 5 - 30 rep range.
Alternatively, you are deadlifting 100lbs for 10 reps for 3 sets twice a week. You could increase the number of reps to 11 the following week, but you could also add some weight to achieve progressive overload. Next week you lift 105lbs for the same 10 reps for 3 sets twice that week. The following week you try 110lbs and so on until you hit a weight you cannot easily increase week-to-week and you again focus on perfecting that weight at that rep range until you can hit a new ceiling.
Either of the two methods described above will guarantee that the muscles you used in those movements will grow over time. In a separate post, I will go into more detail about progressive overload and why it’s the magic tool that makes muscles grow, but any further complexities aren’t required knowledge in order to go out and start training right now to see great results. That covers the “lift hard” part of “lift hard and eat.” Now let’s turn to eating.
Protein
Your body needs a daily intake of approximately 1g of protein per pound of lean bodyweight per day to grow muscle. The true number as determined by scientific experiments may be closer to 0.8g/lb or maybe even 0.78939g/lb or 0.827541g/lb, but those numbers are a lot harder to remember and calculate than to eat your bodyweight in grams of protein every day.
Protein is one of the 3 macronutrients, the other two being fats and carbs. It is used by your body all the time to allow the body to function. You skin, your intestines, all your organs need protein because your body is constantly maintaining them. The human body is made of a lot of protein and it breaks itself down and rebuilds itself, including your existing muscles, all the time. You need to eat extra protein to give your body the building blocks it needs to build extra muscles.
If you’re caught up on the “lean” in 1g/lb of lean bodyweight per day, don’t be. Basically, an overweight person does not necessarily need exactly 1g/lb to gain muscle. The extra bodyfat is skewing the math there, but not so much that it really matters. If you’re 50lbs overweight, you can easily subtract the 50 from your calculation or you can just eat your current bodyweight in protein. There are no side effects from eating too much protein. You body will convert extra protein into energy or excrete it. In general, it’s pretty hard to eat too much protein because protein is financially expensive and very filling, and there’s no toxic dose or anything like that to worry about. If anything, you should make sure you’re not wasting money by eating more than what you need.
Calories
You can gain muscle without eating more calories than you expend, but it will be significantly more difficult and will take a lot longer. At the end of the day, muscle is a luxury. Humans did not evolve to carry a large muscle mass around. The muscles our bodies have are the muscles bare minimum our bodies sense they need. So when we lift weights and signal our body that we need more muscle to survive, our body will build that muscle if it can. It will be really difficult for the body to build muscle if it doesn’t have the protein building blocks and energy (excess calories) to do so.
People with existing extra calories stored as bodyfat, may be able to build muscle without consuming more calories than they expend because their body will be able to burn bodyfat for calories. However, this will only be true for those who are legitimately overweight. At the end of the day, your body needs to make prioritization decisions. A certain store of bodyfat is required in case you potentially starve, so the body will prefer to not burn that fat to build muscle. It will always need to help other organs like your stomach or your brain over building muscle, so you need to provide the excess that it needs to do everything it prioritizes before it focuses on muscles.
You don’t need to get fat to gain muscle. It is entirely possible to eat in a slight caloric surplus, just enough to fuel the body to recover from your workouts and build the muscle you want. The typical caloric surplus that is recommended to maximize muscle growth while minimizing fat gain is around 200 to 300 calories per day. There are many online calculators you can use to find out approximately how many calories you burn on a daily basis. Use them to get an initial estimate and go from there. Weigh yourself regularly and track the calories your consume daily (the most recommended app is MyFitnessPal, which is what I use). If your weight decreases over the course of 2 to 3 weeks, you are in a calorie deficit and you will need to increase how many calories you eat per day to gain muscle. If your weight stays the same, your are in caloric maintenance. Again, it’s possible to build muscle and see it reflected visually and on the weight scale, but it will take a lot longer. If your weight increases, you are in a caloric surplus, just make sure you’re not gaining weight so fast that you are gaining unnecessary bodyfat.
Summary
Hypertrophy and strength are highly, but imperfectly correlated. The average person will gain muscle size and strength if they lift weights. The key to building muscle is progressive overload; increasing the number of reps or the weight you lift on a continuing basis. Extra muscle is a luxury, so you need to provide your body with enough protein and calories regularly to allow it to build muscle. Focus on 1g/lb of bodyweight of protein per day and consume about 200 - 300 calories more per day than you expend.
In future posts, I will be writing in more depths about the following subjects and many more:
What’s the catch with progressive overload? It can’t be that simple.
Reps don’t matter. Why doing 6 reps is the same as doing 36.
Be honest, you want big muscles, not strength.
The myth of “functional strength.”
Muscle is a luxury.
It’s not about motivation, it’s about scheduling.