Hypertrophy 101: How to Build Muscle in the Gym

In the simplest terms, to build muscle, you need to consistently and progressively challenge your muscles to overcome resistance, but success lies in your approach. Building muscle doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does have to be strategic.

Muscle growth, also known as “hypertrophy,” differs from muscular strength in that it’s an increase in muscle size rather than output. For example, striving for bigger glutes is a hypertrophic goal, whereas improvements in the amount of weight your glutes can move is strength-based. They can go hand-in-hand and often do, but here I want to focus specifically on hypertrophy and how to effectively structure a training program to build muscle.

The science of hypertrophy

Your body’s in a constant state of protein turnover. At any given moment, protein is getting broken down and built up within your cells. Muscle protein synthesis (MPS) is the “building up” component of protein turnover, wherein amino acids—the molecules that make protein—bind to the existing protein in your muscle tissue to form new protein (Witard et al., 2022). When MPS exceeds MPB (muscle protein breakdown), or your body builds more protein than it degrades, aggregate muscle protein increases, causing the muscle to grow in size. This is an oversimplification, but it’s important to have a basic understanding of how your body builds muscle so you can do the right things to support that process.

Resistance training stimulates muscle protein synthesis and, ultimately, brings about hypertrophy when done strategically. While we’re going to focus predominantly on resistance training here, keep in mind that there are other elements of the hypertrophy equation—things like nutrition and proper rest and recovery techniques are also needed for optimal muscle growth.

How often should you train?

The number of days per week that you train doesn’t really matter as long as you’re getting enough volume, or reps and sets, on a weekly basis (Schoenfeld et al., 2019). Aim for a minimum of 10 sets per muscle group per week, with each set consisting of 8-12 reps, but ideally not all at once (Bernárdez-Vázquez et al., 2022; Schoenfeld et al., 2021). Doing too many sets of one muscle group in the same training session puts you at risk of overtraining or injury. Further, research has shown hypertrophic benefits of hitting each muscle group twice per week, so it’s best to divide your 10+ sets across two or more sessions (Schoenfeld et al., 2016).

It’s also important to note that while 10 sets is considered the minimum for optimal hypertrophy, progress isn’t proportional to the number of sets you do—in other words, five sets won’t be half as effective as 10, and 20 sets won’t give you double the gains. However, anything below 10 has demonstrated compromised hypertrophic potential, so 10 sets is considered the minimum weekly threshold for optimal muscle growth (Schoenfeld et al., 2017).

With all that said, whether you train two, three, four, five, or six times per week, you can still achieve comparable muscle growth if training volume is sufficient; it’s up to you to decide how many days you want to commit to lifting. Also keep in mind that the more often you train, the more you can isolate in each session. For instance, if you train twice per week, both sessions will likely be full body, but if you train four or five days per week, you have the flexibility to dedicate certain days to certain muscle groups.

If you’re new to resistance training, I’d recommend you start with two or three days and work your way up from there. Start at a pace you can maintain and know that there’s always room for growth.

Structuring your training sessions

You can go to the gym, pick up a pair of dumbbells, move them around, and you might see some minimal progress (at least initially), but you won’t be maximizing your time and effort if you train this way. There needs to be a method to the madness, because how you train matters.

Warm up

While evidence is inconclusive on whether warm ups prevent injuries, they’re important to get your blood flowing, your body temperature up, maximize your range of motion, promote mobility, and put your mind in the right state to train. Do not skip your warm up—if you have time to workout, you have time to warm up, even if that means your actual training time gets cut a few minutes short to allow for 5-10 minutes of warm up activities.

Your warm up should consist of dynamic stretches that mimic the movement patterns you’ll be doing in your workout, and static stretches should be avoided before exercise (incorporate those after or later in the day) (Opplert & Babault, 2018). For example, you could do bodyweight squats, inchworms, arm circles, walking lunges, etc. Just make sure you stay moving throughout your warm up and that you’re not holding positions.

Training time

I’m not going to prescribe any specific training routine because you need to work with a personal trainer for that, but I am going to cover the general principles of effective resistance training for hypertrophy so you can apply them to your own personalized regimen.

Exercise selection

You’ll sometimes see fitness influencers doing complex exercise variations akin to Cirque du Soleil, but you really don’t need to overcomplicate basic movements. As you progress, you’ll advance those basic movements, but there’s nothing wrong with your run-of-the-mill squat, shoulder press, lunge, etc.

You also don’t need to do a ton of different exercises in a single workout; the number of unique exercises you do is less relevant to hypertrophic outcomes than the number of reps and sets you do of those exercises on a weekly basis (and how you perform them). Generally, 3-8 different exercises per session is sufficient, with the exact number varying depending on your training split and personal preferences. For example, you’ll probably do fewer total exercises on a shoulder day than you would on a full body day given the diversity of muscle groups in the latter. Similarly, you’d likely perform fewer exercises in a 30-minute session than you would in a 60-minute one, but both workouts can still be extremely effective.

Of each exercise, aim for 2-6 sets, as multiple sets are superior to single sets for hypertrophy (Krieger, 2010). I personally like doing 3-4 sets of each exercise—I find this is a good amount for me to “feel the burn” without getting bored.

Training variables

There are tons of different ways to perform an exercise and structure your workout in the interest of hypertrophy, but before you concern yourself with the diverse range of training variables, you first need to master your form. If you don’t know how to do a certain exercise or you’re not confident in your execution, look up a video from a reputable source, or ask a personal trainer if you can. Proper form is crucial to prevent injury and optimize your results, and it’s the foundation of any resistance training program. You can’t pick up heavier weights or play around with rest periods and tempo if you’re not performing the basic movement properly.

Once your form is mastered, you can manipulate other training variables in support of muscle growth.

Weight selection

Ah, the age-old debate between heavy weights and lower reps or lighter weights and higher reps. As mentioned, the ideal rep range for hypertrophy is 8-12 reps per set—anything lower tends to be more strength-focused and anything higher is muscular endurance-focused (Schoenfeld et al., 2021). It’s possible to achieve hypertrophy outside of that 8-12 rep range, but research suggests that’s the hypertrophic sweet spot.

With that in mind, your weights should be challenging enough that you near failure—but you don’t necessarily need to reach it—within 8-12 reps. More specifically, resistance for hypertrophy should be 30% or greater of your 1RM (one rep max, or the weight you can move for only one rep of a given exercise) (Schoenfeld et al., 2021). For example, if you can do one goblet squat with 100 pounds, you should use a minimum of 30 pounds for your goblet squat sets.

If you’re not super mathematical in the gym, much like myself, you can qualitatively judge whether you’re using the right weight based on how you feel at the end of your set. Ideally, you want to finish with about 3-4 reps left in the tank, so if you felt like you could’ve kept going for more than that, increase your weight (Krzysztofik et al., 2019). Conversely, if you couldn’t reach a minimum of 8 reps with perfect form, drop down.

Rest periods

Rest periods between sets are another variable that can be tailored to support hypertrophy. Generally, 30-90 seconds between each set is an adequate amount of rest if your goal is muscle growth (Edwards, 2021). Longer rest periods tend to be more beneficial for strength-related goals and shorter ones for endurance, so we want to stay in the moderate zone for hypertrophy (Suchomel et al., 2018).

With that said, if you’re new to resistance training, you may want to allow up to two minutes of rest between sets to ensure you adequately recover and don’t compromise on form (Edwards, 2021). Over time, you can reduce those rest periods into the ideal 30-90 second range, but your form matters more than the length of your rest.

Tempo

Tempo, or the pace at which you complete your reps, can play a significant role in muscle growth. The eccentric component of a movement is when you lengthen the muscle—for example, when you lower the weight down towards the ground in a bicep curl, stretching your bicep muscles; or, when you sit down into a squat, stretching your quads. The concentric phase is when you shorten the muscle, or when you pull the bicep curl back to the top or stand up from a squat. Finally, the isometric phase is when there’s no change in muscle length, or when you transition from eccentric to concentric (and vice versa)—this happens at both the bottom and top of a rep.

Research has demonstrated that a 2-4 second eccentric (lengthening) phase in particular is beneficial for hypertrophy, while the concentric (shortening) phase should be one second, and the isometric (transition) phase should be immediate, or zero seconds (Azvedo et al., 2022). Using our bicep curl example, you would lower the weight for 2-4 seconds and without pause, bring it back up in a one-second movement, then immediately repeat that sequence until the end of your set.

Focusing on tempo can also help with mind/muscle connection, making sure you’re feeling the exercise in the right places and not rushing through it—slow and steady wins the resistance training race.

Progressive overload

As mentioned, hypertrophy is the result of consistently and progressively challenging your muscles to overcome resistance. Emphasis on progressively—doing an identical workout week over week with the same weights, reps, sets, rest, tempo, etc., will not only become outrageously boring, but it won’t give your muscles any incentive to grow. Our muscles get comfortable when they do the same thing over and over again, so we need to regularly switch it up to avoid a plateau.

Progressive overload is the concept of gradually increasing the difficulty of one or more training variables over time, and it’s the key to hypertrophy. This often looks like going up in weight every week or two, but it can also be the manipulation of other variables. For example, reducing rest periods from 90 seconds to 60, incorporating supersets (two exercises back-to-back with little to no rest in between), slowing down the eccentric component, adding a pulse to the movement, doing an extra rep, or really anything that makes the exercise slightly more challenging than before.

It’s important to keep these increases gradual week over week—if upping the weight is your chosen method of overload, aim for no more than a 10% increase in weight from one week to the next (Adams, n.d.). For other variables, use your judgement—your training should be challenging but not agonizing.

There are endless possibilities of how you can progressively overload, but the gist is to not let your muscles get comfortable in your routine. Stick to similar movements week over week, continuously challenging yourself in new ways within those movement patterns.

Post-workout recovery

The effort you put in during your workout is only half the battle—your recovery is just as important as your training itself. Things like static stretching, foam rolling, nutrition, sleep, and hydration allow your body to repair the damage done during your workouts and ultimately build muscle.

Recovery techniques warrant their own post, so I won’t get into detail here, but keep in mind that hypertrophy begins once your workout is done. Resistance training creates microtears in your muscles, and in the recovery stage, your body repairs those microtears. It’s that reparation that elicits muscle growth, but how well you recover depends on how much you put into it.

Static stretch and foam roll at least 2-3 times per week, get 7-9 hours of sleep, eat adequate protein and carbs (see my posts Let’s Talk Protein and Let’s Talk Carbs for more specific guidelines), drink your water, and stay mindful of your electrolytes. Remember that compromising on rest, recovery, and nutrition is compromising on gains.

Stay consistent

Hypertrophy doesn’t happen overnight, and it can take weeks, or even months, to notice muscle growth. Because of this, a lot of people get discouraged and give up before allowing themselves a fighting chance. Don’t f*ck yourself over by getting impatient—good things take time, and reaching your fitness goals is no different. The time will pass anyway, whether you put in the work or not, so do yourself the favour of staying consistent. You will get there, but quitting won’t get you there any faster.

The only way to stay consistent is to build a routine that’s sustainable. Intensity and consistency have an inverse relationship; too much intensity doesn’t allow for long-term consistency—you can’t sprint for as long as you can jog. The only routine that yields results is the one you can maintain, so you need to find a balance between an effective routine and a realistic one.

And last, but certainly not least, be your own biggest fan. Go on this journey in the interest of self-love, not self-loathing, and know that you’re beautiful now and you’ll be beautiful on the other side of your goals.

Key takeaways

We just went through a lot, so let’s highlight some key points.

Training frequency:

• Aim for a minimum of two resistance training sessions per week (the number of training days doesn’t matter as much as overall training volume).

Training volume:

• Aim for at least 10 sets per muscle group per week (ideally across two or more sessions).

• Perform 8-12 reps per set and 2-6 sets of each exercise, with a minimum weight of 30% of your 1RM. The weight should bring you about 3-4 reps away from failure by the end of your set (or to failure within your 8-12 reps—whether you train to failure or just shy of it is personal preference).

Training progression:

• Repeat similar movement patterns week over week, with increasing difficulty over time (progressive overload).

• You can increase the difficulty by upping your weight (to a maximum of 10% each week) or by increasing time under tension (slow down the eccentric component, incorporate pulsing, add a rep, shorten your rest periods, utilize supersets, etc.). There are so many ways to progressively overload.

Outside the gym:

• Prioritize proper rest, recovery, and nutrition—your training sessions are only one part of the hypertrophy equation.

• Be patient and kind to yourself—building muscle, like any goal, takes time and consistency.

Now, let’s go make some gains.

References

Adams, A. (n.d.) Progressive Overload Explained: Grow Muscle & Strength Today. NASM. https://blog.nasm.org/progressive-overload-explained

Azevedo, P.H.S.M., Oliveira, M.G.D., & Schoenfeld, B.J. (2022). Effect of different eccentric tempos on hypertrophy and strength of the lower limbs. Biology of Sport, 39(2), 443-449. https://doi.org/10.5114/biolsport.2022.105335

Bernárdez-Vázquez, R., Raya-González, J., Castillo, D., & Beato, M. (2022). Resistance Training Variables for Optimization of Muscle Hypertrophy: An Umbrella Review. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 4. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2022.949021

Edwards, T. (2021, June 11). Rest Between Sets: What’s Right for Me? Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness/rest-between-sets

Krieger, J. (2010). Single vs. Multiple Sets of Resistance Exercise for Muscle Hypertrophy: A Meta-Analysis. The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 24(4), 1150-1159. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181d4d436

Krzysztofik, M., Wilk, M., Wojdała, G., & Gołaś, A. (2019). Maximizing Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review of Advanced Resistance Training Techniques and Methods. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(24), 4897. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16244897

Opplert, J. & Babault, N. (2018). Acute Effects of Dynamic Stretching on Muscle Flexibility and Performance: An Analysis of the Current Literature. Sports Medicine, 48(2), 299-325. doi: 10.1007/s40279-017-0797-9

Schoenfeld, B.J., Grgic, J., & Krieger, J. (2019). How many times per week should a muscle be trained to maximize muscle hypertrophy? A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies examining the effects of resistance training frequency. Journal of Sports Sciences, 37(11), 1286-1295. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2018.1555906

Schoenfeld, B. J., Grgic, J., Van Every, D. W., & Plotkin, D. L. (2021). Loading Recommendations for Muscle Strength, Hypertrophy, and Local Endurance: A Re-Examination of the Repetition Continuum. Sports, 9(2), 32. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports9020032

Schoenfeld, B. J., Ogborn, D., & Krieger, J. W. (2016). Effects of Resistance Training Frequency on Measures of Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Medicine, 46(11), 1689-1697. doi: 10.1007/s40279-016-0543-8

Schoenfeld, B. J., Ogborn, D., & Krieger, J. W. (2017). Dose-response relationship between weekly resistance training volume and increases in muscle mass: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Sports Sciences, 35(11), 1073-1082. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2016.1210197

Suchomel, T. J., Nimphius, S., Bellon, C. R., & Stone, M. H. (2018). The Importance of Muscular Strength: Training Considerations. Sports Medicine, 48, 765-785. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-018-0862-z

Witard O. C., Bannock, L., & Tipton, K. D. (2021). Making Sense of Muscle Protein Synthesis: A Focus on Muscle Growth During Resistance Training. International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 32(1), 49-61. https://doi.org/10.1123/ijsnem.2021-0139