08/23/2025
Unlocking Hypertrophy: 6 Proven Strategies for Building Lean Muscle and Enhancing Health
It’s widely recognized that maintaining muscle mass is crucial for a long and healthy life. While some individuals express concerns about becoming too bulky, others find it challenging to build muscle in the first place. Research indicates that higher muscle mass correlates with optimal blood chemistry.
We would like to share our six key insights on promoting muscle growth (hypertrophy) based on what has proven effective with our clients over the past twenty years, many of whom have successfully achieved remarkable gains in lean mass.
1. Start by matching body weight with grams of protein per day. This number usually works, but some may need to go slightly higher. In order to achieve this, most people must prioritize eating some lean meat at breakfast. Eggs are fine; however, 1 full egg only contains 6 grams of protein.
2. When insulin resistance isn't an issue, it's crucial to include carbohydrates around your resistance training sessions. Insulin is the body's best natural anabolic hormone. The challenge lies in selecting carbs that your body can handle without triggering bloating or inflammation. In this regard, U.S. wheat is often problematic, so I typically suggest alternatives like rice, potatoes, quinoa, couscous, and various fruits. For post-workout meals or shakes, higher glycemic and fast-acting carbs are most effective, while lower glycemic options are better suited for pre-workout. Generally speaking, aiming for 100-200 grams of carbs works well, but some experimentation may be needed to find what suits you best.
3. Weekly training frequency: The minimal threshold to elicit a hypertrophy response is two sessions per week, while 4-5 sessions per week have been shown to be 70% more effective.
4. Ensuring mechanical tension is sufficient during the resistance training process is important. Novice trainers (those with under 2 years of lifting weights) typically do well initially, as loading the skeletal-muscular system provides a new stimulus; however, resistance training is very much like learning a second language—it takes a lot of exposure to develop the skill. Intermuscular coordination must be acquired first. Once this is accomplished, it's important to understand that the minimum level required to trigger a hypertrophy response has been identified as 70% of repetition maximum (RM), which equates to 12 repetitions.
5. Keeping a daily food log. We prefer using MyFitnessPal, but there’s new AI technology where you can take a picture of your meal, and it will calculate the nutritional information for you. This app is called Calai, and it works great! Many people struggle to do this because it forces daily self-accountability.
6. Monitoring Body Types and Training Approaches. We are deeply invested in tracking client progress and find that understanding bone structures can provide valuable insights into the most effective training methods for each individual.
Ectomorphs, often labeled as hard gainers in the weightlifting community, possess a fast metabolism and longer, slimmer limbs. This body type tends to be more insulin sensitive, allowing them to handle higher carbohydrate intake; however, most of these individuals struggle to consume enough protein necessary for muscle growth. Based on our experience rather than research, we have observed that clients with ectomorphic characteristics typically achieve better muscle gains through extended sets with 90-second rest intervals between sets. Techniques such as giant sets, tri-sets, mechanical advantage sets, and drop sets seem particularly effective. These methods can be demanding as they increase time under tension by targeting the same muscle group through various exercises—often leading to significant delayed onset muscle soreness.
On the other hand, endomorphs are often insulin resistant and may have metabolic syndrome (elevated blood sugar, triglycerides, and low HDL cholesterol). Therefore, they benefit from a high-protein and higher-fat diet while keeping carbohydrates low until their fasting blood sugar levels stabilize within a healthy range. For this body type, we recommend aiming for 3-4 resistance training sessions weekly focused on building new cells that enhance insulin sensitivity, while also prioritizing zone 2 cardio and conditioning workouts.
Mesomorphs are those fortunate individuals naturally blessed with fast twitch fiber makeup and muscular physiques. They seem to gain mass effortlessly just by looking at a pair of dumbbells. Due to their fast twitch muscle fiber makeup, these individuals generally perform best with lower repetition strength training routines alongside reps ranging from 6-8 aimed at developing absolute strength qualities. Unfortunately, due to their larger frames and specific body compositions, mesomorphs may have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease—an important factor to keep in mind when structuring their training programs.
We know the journey can be frustrating from time to time. Be sure to keep a food log, as variables will be needed to measure and manage when plateaus occur.
Keep pressing!
