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4 Changes I Made to Build More Muscle
How to gain the right kind of weight.
I have the benefit of an InBody machine at my local supplement shop to routinely estimate my body fat and skeletal muscle mass. It’s probably not perfect, but it’s a fairly reliable way to track progress over time.
As you can see from the readings above, between 2022 and 2023 I made precisely zero gains in skeletal muscle mass or overall weight in general. This was the impetus for me to begin making some substantial changes.
Five months later, I was up seven pounds at the exact same body fat percentage as before.
So it’s safe to say that something worked.
It’s also worth noting that calories were roughly the same all throughout this period of time, so the progress I made was more than likely the result of making changes to my training as opposed to simply eating more food.
With that said, these are four of the key changes I made to my training between August of ’23 and January of ’24 that I believe made the biggest impact on my progress.
1. Avoided lifting too heavy 99% of the time
I love lifting heavy. But from a purely muscle-building standpoint, the fatigue generated from training in the 1-to-4 rep range might outweigh the benefits.
Example: Back in December, I wanted to test my one rep max on the deadlift before the end of the year. I went into the gym, did my warmup sets, tested my one rep max, and then… promptly walked out of the gym. Because I was exhausted. Exhausted from putting all of my energy into testing my strength instead of building.
My recommendation: If building muscle is your priority, spend the majority of your time in the 5-to-30 rep range; you’ll get roughly the same result from training anywhere on that spectrum as long as the set is heavy enough to get you within 1-to-3 reps shy of…
