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Building muscle: the training, the eating and the timeline
Hypertrophy is not complicated, but it is specific. This page collects what we publish on training for size, in the order it becomes relevant.
Muscle grows in response to hard sets taken close to failure, repeated often enough per muscle and increased over time. Almost everything else — exercise choice, split, tempo — is a way of making that repeatable rather than a driver of its own.
Read how the split is chosen, then how volume and frequency are dosed, then how loads are progressed. The nutrition material sits here too, because a training block that is not fed does not grow.
Where to start
- 01
Pick a split you can repeat
How often each muscle is trained matters more than which day it lands on.
- 02
Dose the volume
How many hard sets a muscle needs per week, and when more stops helping.
- 03
Train the plan
Your coach builds the split, the volume and the progression around your gym, your days and your level.
What this looks like in the app
Every muscle-building article
- Training But Not Seeing Results? Why You're Not Getting Stronger (And What to Change)9 min read
- Which Flour for Fat Loss, Muscle Gain and Training?11 min read
- The HYROX Physique: Where the Hybrid Look Comes From, and How to Train For It10 min read
- Ultra-Processed Foods: NOVA 4, Hyper-Palatable Foods and the WHO10 min read
- Old-School Bodybuilding: What the Golden Era Still Gets Right10 min read
- 12-Week Muscle Building Nutrition: Lean Bulk, Protein & When to Cut7 min read
- How long does it really take? 5 physiques, and how to train and eat for each7 min read
- How muscle actually grows6 min read
Training guides that apply here
- Training Splits ExplainedA practical guide to training splits — full body, upper/lower, push/pull/legs, body-part and movement-based splits — how training frequency shapes the choice, and why splits apply to sports, not just bodybuilding.
- Progressive OverloadProgressive overload is the principle that training has to get gradually harder to keep driving adaptation — but that means far more than adding weight every week. Here is how to progress in the gym and in endurance sport.
- Training Volume, Intensity and FrequencyThe three dials every training plan turns — how much you do (volume), how hard you do it (intensity) and how often you train (frequency) — how they interact, and why more is not always better.
Calculators
- 1 Rep Max CalculatorEstimate your one-rep max from a weight you lifted for reps, get a percentage-based training-load table, and see where your lift sits from Beginner to Elite.
- Plate + Wilks CalculatorLoad any barbell without the mental math — see the plates per side, the closest weight you can actually make, and your Wilks relative-strength score.