Most bodybuilding advice is misleading

This handbook is the result of a year's research into what the latest science shows is the most efficient way to build muscle.

It's for both men and women. It's primarily for beginners, but there's plenty of science-backed advice for intermediates too.

I wrote this guide because much of the casual weightlifting advice is unsubstantiated or misleading. I can't blame bloggers for it, because some of the facts in this guide have not been broadly published outside of the scientific literature.

As a result, this handbook contradicts some popular bodybuilding recommendations, including the myth that women have a harder time gaining beginner's muscle, that exercise rest times should be kept to 1–3 minutes, that most bodyweight exercises are useful, that machine exercises are ineffective, and so on.

Throughout this handbook, I support my claims by citing studies and showing you how to measure your weekly gains so you can confirm you're growing.

Speaking of growth, if you're starting without muscle, you can grow it fast if you're diligent about eating, exercising, and sleeping. You can gain up to 12-15lbs (6.8kg) of muscle in 3 months when closely following a researched program such as this. (Afterward, muscle gains slow drastically.)

These results are achievable for every man and woman. Having “bad genetics” is not a thing preventing beginners from gaining muscle. That's another myth.

In addition to thoroughly citing research, this guide is also comprehensive. I dislike tutorials that provide 75% of what you need to know then leave you with questions.

We'll learn what the research says about:

How to eat to gain muscle mass.
The most effective exercise routines.
Measuring your weekly muscle gains.
Overcoming plateaus.

Inspired? Good. If you weren't willing to spend 1–2 years in the gym to get results before now, be excited because you can compress beginner gains into 4 months.

Oh, and I have nothing to sell you. This handbook is free. There's no promotion.

In a year from now, you'll wish you started today.
– Karen Lamb

Who's Julian Shapiro?

I spend thousands of hours deconstructing complex topics. I compile my insights into free handbooks (like the one you're reading). Over a million people read them annually. Insights that don't make it into handbooks get shared on my Twitter.

I'm also the founder of Demand Curve, a company that trains startups in growth marketing and helps them find great marketing contractors and agencies.

You can read more on my about page.

Bodybuilding advice for everyone

I'm covering the universal principles of how to build muscle.

If you're a beginning bodybuilder, you'll learn to add 15 lbs (6.8 kg) of muscle. If you're an intermediate, you'll learn how to break through plateaus. If you're looking to get stronger instead of bigger, most of this handbook also applies.

How much muscle can I gain?

Let’s develop a realistic expectation so you’re not disappointed with your results.

The total size you can naturally reach is relative to how large your skeleton is (study). Are you a broad-shouldered man with thick wrists and ankles? Expect to get way past a 3” (7.5cm) gain in arm size if you work out for a long time.

Are you a smaller 5’4” (1.65m) person with narrow hips? Even if you worked out for decades, you likely wouldn't get as muscular as a larger-framed person could.

To begin, select your gender to display the appropriate information:

Male physique examples

Take a look at the physique below. You can download the image and glance at it whenever you need motivation to continue working out:

Want to know how long it takes to build muscle? The image above is a realistic reference for the mass an average-sized male attains after 4 months of working out.

Charles looks healthy, he has the muscle mass most women prefer, and he didn’t need steroids to get there. (If you’re already much bigger than this model, I’ll help you overcome plateaus to continue getting bigger.)

To repeat: Every adult male can get to the above model’s size with only a few months of working out.

(If you are elderly or suffering from certain diseases, you may be at a disadvantage. Talk to a doctor before weightlifting if you're concerned about safety.)

If you’re instead starting from frailty, gaining muscle for 3 months gets you here:

That's 90 days away. Because you build muscle quickly when you're starting out.

Finally, if you’re already big, you can level up with enough hard work:

Note: Getting significantly bigger than the physique above requires years of work. It gets harder to continue growing after your first few months of bodybuilding. Your increasingly strong muscles require increasingly high stimulus. When you enter this stage, you gain muscle at a rate closer to just ~2 lbs (0.9kg) per year.

Recognize that all these guys have low body fat, which better reveals their muscle mass. (You won't lose fat by lifting, so weight loss is a separate goal altogether.)

If your motivation for getting huge is having women find you more attractive, here’s a reality check: Most women find the physiques shown above more attractive than the huge physiques found on the covers of muscle magazines.

Studies of women’s preferences are convincing:¹ ² Most compare men with huge physiques to “... girls wearing too much makeup. It's too much of a good thing."

In other words, the majority of women prefer the right side to the left side:

(Still don’t believe it? Just poll your female friends.)

So if your goal is to simply arrive at the optimal size for being attractive to women, you can get there in a few months on a decent workout program.

But, returning to the earlier note about body fat, know that many women prefer it to be as low as possible. Like the models above.

Steroids

Despite this reality check about women’s tastes, you're probably still curious how some people — like Hollywood superheroes — get huge. Well, some celebrities playing superheroes are or were at some point on steroids, insulin, or HGH — the abuse of which results in health problems. Plus, some have naturally broad frames.

It is otherwise unrealistic to go from average to Thor Size™ in under a year.

A discussion of what is natural to attain should discuss natural bodybuilding competitions. Their contestants are not permitted to use steroids. Here are some.

However, recognize that their muscle mass is accentuated by tans, vascularity, low body fat, and having done push-ups right before walking onto the stage. Also notice how they have thick torsos and broad shoulders — these men have big frames. And they've put in years of incredibly hard work.

But here's the tricky part: “Natural” doesn’t always mean you can’t take other substances like HGH and insulin, which benefit muscle growth. (You can read amateur breakdowns of cheating here, here, and here. While not investigative, these reports present evidence for how easy it is to game competitions.)

What exactly do the results of steroids look like? Well, the model below has chest and shoulder muscles that are abnormally large relative to his frame. If your goal is to look like him, you're unlikely to get there naturally.

Male maximum muscle size

We still haven’t answered the question of how big we can naturally get.

Here's your answer: Researcher Casey Butt performed a fascinating analysis on the muscle size of the world’s top male bodybuilders (source, study).

He used data from the pre-steroid bodybuilding era, which means it better reflects how muscular males can get naturally. We'll use his results to approximate the maximum size we can weigh at 10% body fat.

I’ve turned Casey's formula into a calculator below. This is applicable to men only:

Height — (move slider)

Ankle circumference — (move slider)

Wrist circumference — (move slider)

Maximum weight at 10% body fat
0.00

Maximum flexed arm size at 10% body fat
0.00

To measure the circumference of your ankle and wrist, wrap body tape around the parts indicated in the images below:

Enthusiasm is more important than skill because the critical element in developing expertise is the desire to practice.
– Gretchen Rubin

How long does it take to build muscle?

Beginners can gain a couple inches on their arms within 90 days. You'll see additional noticable gains for another 2–3 months.

After 6 months, you typically gain more slowly — about 2lbs (0.9kg) per year.

Workout inspiration

Before we get to the workout programs and how to eat to build muscle, let's tackle the excuses stopping you from starting in the first place:

Have a history of not following through? Identify the person you respect most in life — someone who you don't want to think of you as a quitter. Tell them about your 90 day fitness goal and ask them to hold you to it. Create a calendar event for 3 months from now and include them in it.
Too lazy to commute to the gym? I'll soon explain how to work out from home.
Concerned it’ll take too long? Men only have to get to this size to be optimally attractive to women. If that's your goal. You can build decent muscle in 90 days.
Have a hard time scheduling workouts? Wake up an hour earlier than normal and work out in the mornings before your day kicks off.
Don’t have the time? Getting bigger only requires ~1 hour three times a week.
Are you embarrassed to go to the gym? Pay for a couple training lessons at a local gym so you can learn proper form.
Afraid you don't have the talent? Bodybuilding requires zero talent. You don't have to be an athlete whatsoever. If you can put food in your mouth and lift your groceries, you can lift weights.
Don't like lifting weights? Wish you could just do body weight exercises? Nearly everyone who gets into the gym at least 6 times to build the habit and see early results winds up loving the feeling of lifting weights. Force yourself to start.

How nice would it be to wake up every morning, look in the mirror, and think, “I look pretty good.”? You're 90 days away from that. Mark it in your calendar. Surprise all your friends with a big three-month transformation.

So stop procrastinating. Let's get this done.

Oh, and here's a final piece of motivation: listen to the words spoken in this video.

Never drop the ball pursuing a goal just because of the long time horizon. That time will pass anyway.

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