Summary
Highlights
Dr. Mike Israetel recommends 2-4 exercises per muscle per week. He provides specific exercise recommendations for each muscle group, including chest (flat/incline presses, flyes), back (pull-ups, rows, deadlifts, flexion rows), biceps (stretched position curls), triceps (overhead, isolation extensions, compound presses), shoulders (side delts focus with lateral raises, upright rows), calves (straight-leg raises with emphasis on deep stretch), quads (squats, leg presses, leg extensions), hamstrings (hip hinges, seated/lying leg curls), and glutes (lunges, hip thrusts, deep Sumo squats).
Changing exercises too frequently can hinder growth. Stick with exercises as long as you're progressing, feeling pumped/sore, your joints feel good, and you're not bored. Change when an exercise causes joint pain, frustration, or stops being effective, replacing it with another suitable option from your list.
Dr. Brad Schoenfeld suggests 10-20 sets per muscle group per week. Higher volumes can be used for stubborn muscle groups in specialization cycles. For beginners, the focus should be on learning movement patterns rather than high volume. Training each muscle group more than once a week shows a modest benefit, especially for higher volumes. An upper/lower split is a good starting point for training frequency.
Daniel Plin explains that a wide variety of rep ranges can lead to hypertrophy, but 5-15 reps (moderate load) is a sweet spot. He advises against going too heavy (more joint wear, more sets) or too light (harder to gauge failure). For progressive overload, he recommends 'double progression': stick to 8-12 reps, increase reps with the same weight until you can comfortably do 12, then increase weight and start over at 8 reps.
Josh from Data Driven Strength found that training closer to failure yields more growth, with each rep closer adding about 5% more relative growth. However, training to failure also generates more fatigue. For beginners, focus on good technique. For intermediate and advanced lifters, train 2-3 reps in reserve for most sets, taking the last set to failure (except for potentially unsafe exercises like back squats). The optimal level of training to failure may vary with volume and is still being researched.
Dr. Milo Wolf introduces lengthened partials, a technique consistently shown to provide 5-15% faster growth. This involves training in the lengthened part of the range of motion using about half reps, or extending a full range of motion set with partials. This technique is best applied to exercises that are safe to take to failure, such as lateral raises, bicep curls, tricep push-downs, most back exercises, and chest flyes. He suggests incorporating lengthened partials into at least 50% of relevant training sets. Even beginners can benefit after mastering full range of motion.
Dr. Eric Helms discusses calorie intake. For individuals with higher body fat, a calorie surplus might not be necessary, with maintenance or even a small deficit being effective for muscle growth. For relatively lean individuals, a surplus is beneficial. Large surpluses are most effective for untrained beginners, but for trained individuals, excessively large surpluses primarily lead to fat gain. He recommends scaling weight gain based on experience level: 2% of body weight per month for novices (300-500 calorie surplus), 1% for intermediates (200-300 calorie surplus), and 0.5-1% for advanced (100-200 calorie surplus).
Allan Aragon highlights the importance of protein intake. Aim for 1.6-2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight (0.7-1.0 grams per pound) daily. Distributing this protein evenly across at least three meals per day optimizes muscle growth. He recommends a mix of protein sources like flesh foods (beef, fish, poultry), dairy (Greek yogurt, milk, whey protein), and legume-based proteins. He also notes that consuming whole eggs, specifically three whole eggs post-exercise, significantly increased testosterone levels (by 239 ng/dL) in a study, potentially due to dietary cholesterol as a precursor to testosterone.