[0:00]Hey there, my friend, welcome. I'm Dr. Anthony Balduzzi, founder here at the Fit Father Project. In today's special video, we're going to cover the six principles of muscle building. And how you can apply these principles into your workout routine, your eating routine to build muscle quickly and safely, and really see progress sustainably week after week. And before we get into this video, I want to tell you a little bit about, um, why you should even listen to me, because there's so much content online about muscle building and the best ways to do it. Well, first off, um, I'm a former national champion bodybuilder. I've spent 10 years studying what it takes to build muscle, and I've helped a lot of clients around the world do the same. Um, and the thing is, I was never like a big kid growing up. I was rail skinny, and I had to figure out from the research of what it would take to take my body as an ectomorphic skinny guy, um, and really just pack on some serious muscles. So, these principles work. They worked on me, they've worked on all my clients, and some of the pictures that you've already seen, um, and they're going to work for you too, because these are the foundational principles. They're not the, you know, whizbang, do this, gain 5 lbs overnight shit. If you're looking for that, this is not the video for you. If you're looking for the tried and true principles, this is the video you want to pay attention to, and I know you're going to learn a ton. So we're going to cover these principles right now. I want you get out of pen and paper and take some notes as we're going through, because there's some really, really important stuff that I want you to apply into your life, so you can actually see results. So let's dive on in and get into the six principles of muscle building. All right, so the first principle of building muscle, um, is a little counterintuitive for some people. Um, it's the fact that you need to focus on getting strong before you focus on getting big. And the reason I say this is because there are so many distracting things out there these days. If you look in the muscle magazines, you're going to see all these quote unquote bodybuilding hypertrophy specific routines that have a lot of small isolation exercises in them. They have things like bicep curls and shoulder lateral raises and leg extensions. And listen, those exercises do have their place in a routine, but they're not the foundation. The foundation is you need to focus on getting strong at the main motions: the squat, the deadlift, pull-ups, overhead press, bench press. The big five, you need to get strong at those. And strength is a prerequisite to size. It's really, really essential, because as you get strong, um, at these main motions, what you're going to be able to do is train at higher volumes, more sets, more reps, at a heavier weight, and that's really going to stimulate the muscle growth. And as we begin lifting weights, if you're a beginner, the first thing that changes in your body is not that your body starts packing on tons of muscle, but your nervous system gets more efficient, you get neurologically efficient. So you get more efficient at using the muscle that you do have. So a lot of the initial gains when you start training to build muscle and you're doing the deadlift for example, you get strong very rapidly, and it's not that your back is immediately super wide, it's the fact that your nervous system gets more efficient. So we need to focus on getting strong on those movements. There is not um a single person who started lifting and then put 200 lbs on their core lifts. So start off with a 100-lb squat and gets up to a 315-lb squat, let's say, who did not gain size through the process. So keep that in perspective. The first principle is strength is a prerequisite to size. You're going to be able to carry heavier weights for higher volume and that's going to really help you get big. But focus on getting strong first to those main motions. Do not get distracted by BS exercises that are really not nearly as effective as these big core motions. And that leads us immediately into number two. When it comes to building muscle, we need to prioritize compound movements, multi-joint movements, movements that are heavy that enable you to use a high load that involve multiple major muscle groups. So so things like the squat, things like the deadlift, like the pull-ups, like the rows, these are far superior exercises for building muscle than a single arm isolation exercise, like a single arm reverse preacher curl or any other crap you see people doing in the gym these days. Uh-uh, screw that stuff. You need to get strong in doing a military barbell military press or an overhead push press. Focus on the compound motions and getting stronger, because what the research actually shows is not only do compound motions, you know, involve more joints, so you can more muscle groups, you can work more muscle simultaneously to prioritize recovery, which we're going to talk about in a second, but they activate more fibers. The heavier you can lift, the deeper the motor unit recruitment of your muscle patterns is. So, um, when you can overhead press, um, there's a big difference in your shoulder recruitment from doing shoulder flies with 15-lb dumbbells versus throwing 135 lbs on the bar and doing overhead presses. It's going to work your shoulder a lot more. It's going to hit those deep lying fibers. So we need to prioritize compound movements, which is absolutely essential. The next principle for muscle building, um, is we need to prioritize recovery. Muscles grow outside the gym. You're probably aware of this, but I really need to have it sink in right now for you. Exercise, lifting weights, is the stimulus that your body uses to initiate protein synthesis and building new muscle. But that actual growth happens outside the gym when you've trained, you created that stimulus, now we need to recover. And our two main factors when it comes to recovery are one, sleep, and two, nutrition. So these are pit stops we're going to talk about these a little bit right now. When it comes to sleep right now, if you are not getting at least 7 1/2 quality hours of sleep, you're compromising your muscle gains. Look, is it possible to build muscle on less sleep? Yes, it is, but it's 100% sub-optimal. The more you can sleep, the better you're going to do. In fact, I remember this old school book I got when I first started bodybuilding like almost two decades ago now. The encyclopedia bodybuilding. There was a quote that stuck out to me, um, and it was, if you don't have to walk, stand. If you don't have to stand, lie down. If you don't have to lie down, sleep. And so the concept was, you're going to invest all of your precious energy into training your butt off. During that hour that you're training, you're kicking ass, and all the rest of the time, you're recovered, you're relaxed, you're allowing that parasympathetic rest and digest nervous system to take over, and you're feeding your body with good sleep and good nutrition.
[6:06]So get the sleep, if you're missing the sleep, then you're missing out on muscle. And when it comes to nutrition, um, one of the next principles we're going to talk about is you need to be in a calorie surplus. As a general rule of thumb, you need to be eating more calories than you burn every day to put on muscle. And you can see this happen all the time with young high school boys who are training for sports, um, and they're just not eating enough, and they're going to like two a day practices, and they just never seem to make any progress in the gym. They're still rail thin after training for a year or two years. Why does this happen? Well, our body needs to be in an anabolic state to build muscle. We need the extra calories. So, we got to make sure we're eating enough, and the way to do that is to actually figure out what are the number of calories that you burn every day, which is your total daily energy expenditure, your TDEE. Then we want to have a an idea of what that number is. Then we want to overshoot that by 250 to 500 calories on the safe side. Now, the thing is, uh first off, to calculate your TDEE, we have a free calculator. We have, we have a Google spreadsheet, um, you can make a copy of that. There's going to be link below in the description, where you can just punch in your data and it actually kicks out your TDEE. So I want you to check that out, it's below the video, nice resource we have for you. So check that out and then add 500 calories to that number, and that's going to give you a good starting point for your nutrition. And then how you break those calories up is basically up to you, but as a really good rule of thumb, I want you to set your protein, um, at 0.8 to 1 g per lb of body weight. So, if you are a 160-lb person, then you want to have 160 g of protein, roughly speaking, per day. And that's well research supported, you can get away with a little bit of a lower protein intake at that 0.8 g per lb body weight, but it's optimal for most people to hit that 1 g per lb body weight. So that's the amount of protein you have. And then the rest of those calories, we're going to fill that out from your carbs and your fats. And for most guys, because fat is actually essential, if you're a natural lifter, to keep your testosterone levels high, is to set that fat roughly, um, at a minimum of 70 g, but as you, as you get up higher, it may be even over 100 g of fat a day. It's going to be very good and supportive and it's easy to get your healthy calories in from lots of good fats. So including avocados, um, wild salmon, grass-fed beef, lots of pasture-raised eggs, um, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, putting these healthy fats in your food is going to be a great way to up your calories without feeling like you have to eat, um, tons of chicken every day.
[9:00]Um, and just a ton of food, because it can be hard putting on mass to feel like you're eating all the time, especially if you have a busy schedule. Healthy fats to the rescue. Adding some healthy fats to those meals is going to get your calorie count up without throwing a lot of digestive stress on your body. And then the other thing is the carbs. Carbs are so, um, essential for muscle building. They're great, and they get a bad wrap because we're in living in an age right now where so many people are doing these low carb ketogenic diets. But carbs are a key driver of muscle growth. Insulin, which gets spiked from carb intake is one of the most anabolic substances on the planet. It actually triggers the downstream cascade of muscle protein synthesis by acting on Mtor, um, this mammalian target of rapamycin, without getting into the science, basically, this is the cascade that builds muscle. Insulin is a direct signaler for that. So making sure we keep the carbs high, particularly in the pre-workout and post-workout phase, is a really brilliant idea. So whatever your carbs end up being for our 160-lb guy, what his macros might end up looking like, um, assuming he exercises three to four times a week is roughly, um, let's say it's 160 grams protein, 80 grams fat, and around 250 grams carbs. That might be a good macro starting point for this guy, um, and we'll see, he'll take his weight once every three, four days up to a week. And if the weight's not moving, we bump the calories on the carb side of the equation. Keep the protein the same, no need to bump that any higher. Keep the fat pretty much the same. We'll just creep up those carbs until we're gaining weight at the right rate. Now, a good way to see if you're on the right target on this nutrition front, is to make sure that you're not gaining more than 2, 3 lbs a month. 3 lbs of quality size a month, if it's actually muscle, is a ton of muscle, and that might not even be possible for you based on how far you are in your training age. When you're starting out, those kind of gains are possible, um, but as you get more advanced, those gains slow down. We have a totally separate video that's very popular here on YouTube, called how long does it take to build muscle, where we get into the science of the different rates that you can expect based on your training age. But point being, if you're finding that you're gaining more than 5 lbs a month, um, chances are that you're putting on fat, um, which may not be the best scenario for you, especially if you're putting on a lot of fat and then you have to go diet it off after the fact. So the muscle actually shows, you can end up losing a lot of muscle in the cut. So what I recommend is that you do a steady gradual approach. You creep up those calories, you stay patient, you gain around that 2 to 4 lbs per month. Um, and you focus on getting stronger, because if your body weight is staying roughly the same and it's increasing a little bit and you're getting stronger, there's a great chance that you're actually putting on muscle.
[12:03]So the next principle I have for you, um, here, has to do with volume, um, and intensity. So, when it comes to muscle building, we we've focusing on getting stronger, we're picking those compound movements, we're prioritizing our rest and our recovery, um, and we're setting our macros up properly, but the next thing is to keep our bodies adapting. Um, to make sure that we continuously get this muscle protein growth, um, is we need to increase our volume and intensity throughout a training cycle. So for example, in a good periodized training cycle, periodization is the process of changing the amount of volume, sets, and reps during a training cycle. What I like to say say to people is, look, if you're just getting started, set yourself up with a dedicated, um, 8 to 12 week training cycle, where you know that you have 12 weeks where you're focusing on a specific thing, um, and you have a training program for 12 weeks, and as the weeks go on, you're going to be increasing the number of sets and the volume to keep your body, you know, adapting and stimulating. So let's just say on your first workout and you're doing six sets of chest, maybe when it comes to week, uh, 8 or 9, um, of the program, later on, you might increase the number of sets, increase the volume. You might do 68 sets chest in the beginning, maybe you're up to 10 to 12 sets of chest throughout the week. So the point being, is that we want to gradually increase the volume, um, and increase the intensity, as your training cycle goes on, that's going to enable you to continuously make gains. Doing the same kinds of exercises week after week, um, is not, is typically will stagnate your progress. And that's why I recommend somewhere around the 4 to 6 week mark is a good idea to change up your exercises. Doesn't have to be dramatic, but let's say you've been doing your primary pressing motion as the flat barbell press. Then maybe at the 6 to 8 week mark you make that primary pressing motion, uh, an incline dumbbell press. Just change the angle a little bit. Same concept, same muscle groups work, but just changing the angle a little bit will be uh very beneficial. And a couple other key points here, um, is progressive resistance, meaning getting stronger and lifting heavier weights, is a foundational principle of muscle growth. Um, and and quite frankly, it shouldn't have taken me this long in this video to say that. If you are not lifting heavier weights consistently, and tracking your weights and hitting rep targets and continuously pressing the moving the weight in higher on those exercises, you're not going to make gains. You've seen the guys at the gym, if you go to a gym, with are lifting the same dumbbells every single time on the same exercise, they make no progress. Even adding 2 1/2 lbs or 5 lbs to the side of the bar is going to coax your body to continuously adapt. It's absolutely essential. Um, and to give you some story, like when I started out, skinny kid, and I love deadlifts, though, it was a total body exercise. I would add 2 1/2 to 5 lbs on the bar every single week, and then well into my competitive bodybuilding when I was at my strongest, I was doing high 500 lb, almost up to 600 lb deadlifts, because I added 2 1/2 lbs on the bar pretty much every week for almost a decade, right? So the little gains, incremental gains do not discount them. It's the Kaizen principle. Small incremental adjustments lead to big gains over time. So definitely make sure the progressive resistance is huge and increasing the volume and the intensity as a training second goes on. The final principle I want to leave you with today, um, is to do regular deload weeks. And that is a time when you have your training cycle, you train for 8 to 12 weeks hard, you take a week of deload. And deload is either a week you take completely off and you just do restorative stuff like yoga and stretching, or a week that you take your normal training weights and you cut them in half. And it's basically a really easy week to give your nervous system and your muscles a chance to relax. You know, why is this important and why will so many people listen to this and not do it? Well, because we don't want to take the time off. We want to continuously pressing harder, but our bodies sometimes need the time off. And you know, if you're watching your training weights, they're staying stagnant, you're feeling stressed, you can take your uh morning pulse in the morning and you're and you're noticing that your pulse is a lot higher than normal for a couple weeks, um, and your body's under a lot of stress and you're not making gains in the gym, it's time for a deload. Your body's saying, hey, dude, give me a break, let me catch up. If you don't do that, what's going to happen is you're going to stall on your weights and you're going to stall on your plateau. And even worse, those minor joint like niggles and pains that you might have in your elbows or knees or back, are going to start to become bigger issues. And eventually they'll lead to an injury and that's going to sidetrack you for weeks if not months, and you're going to lose your gains. So what I want to say is play the long game, take the strategic deload weeks. You know, elite lifters, elite powerlifters sometimes take, you know, small scheduled deloads is is frequently as every four weeks. So they build these things into the training plan to make sure that those injuries don't pile up, the nervous system can adapt and recover, um, and getting injured is one of the worst things you can do for your progress. So make sure that you're um, you're really taking these deload weeks, doing your foam rolling and the stretching before you exercise, and keeping your body nice and loose and limber when you do have pains, back off. Back off. Do not push through that little um elbow pain that you have on the tricep press down because it's only going to get worse. It's not going to go away if you don't treat it, address it and let the body catch up. So that's the long game of this lifting thing. You need to make sure that your body uh is prime to do this over the long term. So having those training cycles, those deload weeks are really good tip. So those are some big picture principles of muscle building. Um, I hope you found that valuable, and I'd love to continue to help you and we can uh deepen this discussion. We have other great videos here on our Fit Father Project YouTube channel, um, on muscle building where we deep dive into some more stuff on the nutrition, training and exercises. Um, if you'd like our form guide on the five best muscle building exercises, things like I told you, like the deadlift, overhead press, the bench, but how to modify those exercises to make them safer on your shoulders, your low back and your knees. Then we have a free video for that. We can send it straight to your email. It's a special thing that we reserve for people who subscribe to our Fit Father Project blog. So if you subscribe, we'll send that video straight to your email and you can check that out and I'll show you how to modify these exercises to keep them, um, healthy on your joints. So you can start lifting, um, and stay lifting long term and this is essential for you, especially if you're a guy watching this over 40 and you want to keep your joints right. These are the exercises you need to modify. So that video is free for you. Um, and if you'd like our completely done for you muscle building plan, we have a program called old school muscle that takes some of the best old school strength training principles that the old school giants used. You know, guys like Reg Park, Arnold, Frank Zane to build their amazing bodies, and then we layer on the new school science that we've learned, and we basically create the best hybrid program. It's an amazing strength training program, old school muscle. Guys are getting amazing results with it and again, that's available, um, for purchase. We have that below in the description as well as all over our blog. Highly recommend you check that out. If you basically like all these principles distilled down into a simple plan that you can read the next 30 minutes and get started on this week to see great gains, it actually gives you a full uh 12-week training cycle. So really great program. Check that out as well. And other than that, I'm really happy you found this video. I hope you got at least a couple tips that you can implement into your life. And if you like this, give us a thumbs up on YouTube. Let us know that you found this valuable and hit subscribe to join our Fit Father Project YouTube channel. We have hundreds of videos on the channel already right now on things like muscle building. But we also cover fat loss, how you should be eating, how to stay motivated, how to get your family on board with all these healthy changes. We have all that content on our channel. We'd love for you to subscribe and stick around and get new updates. Um, and other than that, check out those free resources, check out old school muscle. I'm happy you're here. Go forth, kick some ass. I can't wait to hear about your muscle building results. And comment below to let me know, uh, which one of these tips you found most valuable for you, and if you have any other ideas and tips that you'd like to suggest that have been important for you on your muscle building journey, I can't wait to hear from you and I'll talk to you very soon, my friend.
