You’re Probably Not Training Hard Enough to Build Muscle
Want that beach body? You have to train harder!
Many people never reach their potential. The same is true of reaching our genetic potential to build muscle.
A lot of us desire a beach body like our favourite celebrity or athlete.
But we probably won’t achieve it.
Why?
There could be a variety of reasons, but one of those might be that you don’t train hard enough.
In this article, I explore the findings of recent research that suggests most people aren’t training hard enough in the gym.
You’re probably not training hard enough in the gym
If you regular a gym, you’ve probably noticed that some people will turn up every day, but fail to ever make much progress in terms of building a noticeable amount of extra muscle.
Maybe that person is you?
Two recent studies have found that people are bad at estimating how much weight they should be lifting for the exercise to be at an intensity level high enough to build muscle.
Study 1
A 2017 study (republished in 2021) examined 160 males with at least 6 months of training experience, who all use the bench press regularly.
Participants were asked what weight they would usually use for 10 reps. Then, the researchers tested how many repetitions participants could do at that weight until failure.
The average number of repetitions that participants achieved was 16 and the median was 15.
- 10 to 12 reps — 22%
- 13 to 15 reps — 31%
- 16 to 18 reps — 21%
- 19–20 — 26%
- 20+ reps — 13%
Nobody did fewer than 10 reps, meaning everybody underestimated how much weight they could lift for 10 repetitions.
“… Most individuals can perform a number of repetitions well above the 10 repetitions predicted for the selected load. Therefore, the training routines are not compatible with maximum effort.” — Barbosa-Netto, d’Acelino-E-Porto, & Almeida (2021)
Only 22% of subjects were in the optimum effort range of 8–10 RPE for stimulating muscle growth (hypertrophy). 31% with 13–15 reps and an RPE of around 5–7 is sub-optimal for creating an adaptive response, and the other 47% are really going to struggle to build any muscle at that effort/intensity level.
In other words, over three-quarters of people aren’t training nearly hard enough to build muscle!
By the way, RPE is the rating of the perceived exertion scale.
“[RPE is] a subjective physical measurement designed to help track the intensity of your physical and mental capabilities during strenuous activity.” — Web MD
Study two
The second study was of 141 male and female participants who were members of a gym local to the university, with varying experience in the gym.
The research had a similar design, however, the research question was in reverse. Instead of being asked what the maximum weight they could lift for 10 reps, the participants were asked to “accurately predict the number of repetitions they could perform when training to MF (momentary failure)” at a set weight. In layman's terms, how many reps do you think you could do with that weight?
During the study, participants did exercises that they were already familiar with, in the same order, as their usual rest periods. This meant the ‘lab session’ very closely resembled their usual gym routine, meaning the results wouldn’t be strongly influenced by the study design.
The participants underestimated the maximum repetitions they could do for a set load by an average of just over 3 reps. The most experienced training group underpredicting by 1–2 repetitions, whilst the least experienced underpredicting by 4–5 repetitions.
“…(the) ability to predict repetitions to momentary failure is not perfectly accurate amongst most trainees.” — Steele et al., 2017
These findings suggest that beginners are bad at estimating their maximum effort and perhaps that they’re also not willing to push themselves past discomfort in the gym.
Discussion — Training Intensity Matters
Training close to failure is important as there is an intensity threshold that we have to pass to stimulate muscle hypertrophy (growth) effectively.
In layman’s terms — to grow bigger muscles, we have to our muscles hard enough to stimulate adaption. When we damage muscle tissue, it will grow back stronger. To damage muscle tissue, we need to continuously push harder.
We can do this by increasing how much we lift for the same repetitions or by lifting the same weight. But for more repetitions during a set. This process is called progressive overload. We can also increase the volume (total number of sets), but this isn’t an effective way to build muscle. There is a point of overtraining that our bodies cannot effectively recover from to grow. You can call this junk volume.
For example, in week 1 you might lift 20 kg for 6 repetitions. In week 3 or 4, increase that to 22.5 kg for 6 repetitions.
In reality, progress is very slow once you’re an experienced lifter, . It might take 3–6 months to increase 2.5kg on a lift.
“Progressive overload is when you gradually increase the weight, frequency, or number of repetitions in your strength training routine. This challenges your body and allows your musculoskeletal system to get stronger.” — Healthline
Final Thoughts
Maximise effort to maximise your results.
Perhaps that’s why so many people turn to steroids — they want to maximise results with minimal effort… (I’m not saying that everyone who uses steroids is lazy in the gym — many bodybuilders train very hard)
In this article, we've explored the findings of two recent studies, that found many of us underestimate how hard we should be working out, to be near our limits.
To build muscle, we must train consistently close to our limits and the stimulus required for our muscles to adapt and grow back stronger (bigger).
Next time you go to the gym, try estimating the maximum weight you can squat or bench press for 10 reps and then testing how many you can achieve before failure.
Thank you for reading.
If you enjoyed the content, you might be interested in this article about “maingaining” — building muscle without gaining fat.
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