This instructional YouTube video (Jeremy Ethier, June 2019) explains three daily habits to accelerate muscle and strength gains: (1) log every workout (weights, reps, optionally rest times and set difficulty) so you can track progressive overload, (2) time rest periods—prefer ~2–3 minutes for compound lifts based on a cited 2016 study showing greater hypertrophy and strength with longer rest, and (3) perform a proper warm-up including 5 minutes light cardio/dynamic stretching and graduated weight-acclimation sets (≈50%×10, 70%×6–8, 90%×1–2). The video closes with a brief promotion for builtwithscience.com and social media/engagement requests.
You've probably noticed at your gym that most of the people working out regularly just don't have much to show for it, and their bodies seem to remain the same year after year. Well, the truth is, the reason why so few people are able to build a muscular, lean body and actually improve their physiques year after year just comes down to a few key things that they're not properly doing both in and outside of the gym. In this video, we'll discuss the training side of the equation and go through some of what successful gym goers do every single time they step in the gym for a workout. More specifically, we'll cover three crucial things that you need to be doing every single workout in order to progress and build muscle much faster. The first thing you need to do is log every single one of your workouts when you're in the gym. I remember back in the day, I never bothered logging what I did in my workouts and just went with what I felt like doing at the time. And the major problem that this causes is, well, let's use an example. This is Paul, aka your average gym bro. He's about to do 135 for 5 reps for what he believes is the first first time in his life. Little does Paul know though, is that last week he was able to do 10 pounds heavier for 5 reps, but doesn't remember since he never kept track of it. Meaning that in this workout, despite Paul's enthusiasm, no gains were made. So, long story short, don't be a Paul, be a Jeremy and start tracking your workouts. So as you can see, failing to record what it is you're doing every workout means that you'll never be able to tell if you're actually progressing or not. And this is detrimental when it comes to muscle growth, since we know based on research that mechanical tension is the main driver of growth, which is best stimulated by progressively getting stronger and lifting more weight and reps over time. And not only that, but research also indicates that as you gain more experience in the gym, the correlation between muscle size and strength becomes much stronger. Simply meaning that the importance of tracking your workouts becomes more and more crucial over time in order to continue progressing and building muscle. But it's important that you do so properly first. You'll want to choose what you'll be tracking with for a very long time. I personally just used notes on my phone as it was convenient, but there's also more organized free apps out there that you can play around with next. Although it's ideal to Take as many notes as possible during your workout. The two main things you'll want to jot down are the weight you lifted and the number of reps you performed for each set of each exercise. You should also consider jotting down rest times, how difficult the sets were to perform, and if you switched up anything from the previous workout, such as an exercise swap or changing the exercise order. So, for example, let's say you just finished with a bench press. What you jot down is the following and then next week you'll be able to look back at this log and you'll have a plan of attack as to the numbers you'll want to hit to beat last week's workout. Over time, these small weekly and monthly progressions will not only serve as motivation for you along your journey, but will also manifest into big physical changes as well. Another thing you need to be doing every workout is timing your rest periods, as this will play a significant role in how quickly you'll be able to build muscle and strength over time. Illustrating the importance of this is a 2016 paper that compared the effects of resting 1 minute between sets versus resting 3 minutes between sets and as shown here, after 8 weeks they found that the 3 minute group not only experienced significantly greater muscle growth, but they also got significantly stronger than the one minute rest group, meaning that for you, you'll want to ensure that you're resting long enough between sets, more specifically for at least 23 minutes when doing compound exercises. Unfortunately though, what most people do instead is simply perform their next set set when they subjectively feel ready, which is often only after a minute or so. But the problem with this is that although you may feel ready to go cardiovascular wise, your muscles still need the extra minute or two of rest to push more weight and or reps during your next set, resulting in better growth and strength over time. Therefore, by timing your rest periods, you'll hold yourself accountable to this and ensure that you're giving your muscles the rest they need in order to perform better in the following set. And if you find that these rest periods are too long, I'd suggest either incorporating super sets into them, which I did make a past video on, or doing some prehab and mobility work in between, or just watch some cat videos so you're not sitting there bored the whole time. Lastly, you'll want to ensure that you're incorporating a proper warm up routine for each of your workouts, as doing so has been shown to significantly boost range of motion and performance in the following workout. However, most people just don't do so properly by either not doing enough warm up or on the other hand, overdoing it. Although I have made a past video with a full warmup routine included, which I'll link below, the basics of your warmup should look something like the one. Start with five minutes of light intensity, cardio and or dynamic stretching specific to the upper or lower body depending on what you're going to train, which just helps increase the body temperature of the muscles you'll be working and two before your first main exercise you want to use what are called weight acclimation sets in order to enhance your neuromuscular activation, which is just going to improve your exercise technique during your working sets. A good way to do this is to do one set of 50% of your working weight for 10 reps, then one set of 70% of your working weight for six to eight reps, and then one more set of 90% or so of your working weight for another one to two reps. Then when you proceed into your main working sets, you'll be better warmed up and more proficient with the movement without being excessively fatigued.
Although these three tips may not seem like much, if you're serious about maximizing your progress, then it's absolutely vital that you implement them into every single one of your workouts. I remember back in the day I would basically just go with how I felt in the gym, which I think a lot of people still mistakenly do. But it wasn't until I started implementing implementing crucial tips like these into every single one of my workouts that I started to see my body drastically change. And for an all in one step by step evidence based program that shows you exactly how to implement tips like these into both your training and nutrition such that you can burn fat and build muscle as effectively as possible. Then what you can do is simply head over to builtwithscience.com and take this starting point analysis quiz to determine what program and what approach is best for you. Anyways, if you haven't already, please do give me a follow on Instagram. I post a lot more informative videos and content on there on a regular basis, which I think a lot of you will find useful. And if you enjoyed this video then please don't forget to give it a like leave a comment down below as to what other topics you'd like to see me cover. Subscribe and turn on notifications for the channel as well as this all truly does help me out. Thank you so much everyone for your overwhelming support. I really do appreciate it. Hope you enjoyed the content and I'll see you next time.
