The Essential Guide to Muscle Growth and Lasting Strength
I’ve been in the gym most of my life—first as an athlete, later as a coach and clinician, and now as a husband and dad. And one thing I can tell you without hesitation: building muscle has changed everything for me.
It’s not about looking good in a tank top (though that’s a bonus).
It’s about being strong enough to throw my daughter into the pool for hours.
It’s about being fit enough to protect my family.
It’s about voluntarily suffering to build a more resilient man.
It’s about walking into my 40s with energy, confidence, and the kind of strength that doesn’t fade when life gets heavy.
The research is clear on this: muscle mass and strength predict longevity better than your weight or BMI ever could (Newman et al., 2006; Ruiz et al., 2008). Yet after age 40, most men start losing about 1% of muscle mass and up to 3% of strength every year (Volpi et al., 2004; Goodpaster et al., 2006). That’s why I call muscle “the great insurance policy.” It protects you against weakness, decline, disease, and frankly, a softer version of yourself. Better yet, it makes life more enjoyable because you are—simply put—harder to kill.
And the best news? You can stop—and even reverse—the creep of muscle loss. Here’s how.
Progressive Overload: The Foundation
When I played college football and later competed in powerlifting, the strongest guys weren’t always the biggest—but they were the ones who kept showing up and adding a little more weight to the bar week after week. That’s progressive overload. More weight, more reps, or more sets over time = more muscle (as long as intensity is there to match).
If you’ve been lifting the same dumbbells for the last year, your body has no reason to change. It simply gets good at lifting that weight. You have to get out of your comfort zone if you want to grow.
Reference: Schoenfeld BJ, Grgic J, Ogborn D, Krieger JW. J Strength Cond Res. 2017.
2) Train with a Full Range of Motion
I’ll never forget the first time I ditched ego lifting and actually squatted all the way down. It was humbling—the weight dropped by 25%—but the results were night and day.
The data doesn’t lie: full range of motion builds more muscle than partial reps. Specifically, the most powerful portion is the end-range stretch—the bottom of the squat, the deepest part of a press, the full reach in a row. That’s where the muscle fibers are maximally stretched and forced to adapt, and that’s the sweet spot where real growth happens.
So if you want the most bang for your buck: lower the weight, own the full movement, and chase that deep stretch.
References: Pinto RS et al., J Strength Cond Res. 2012; Maia MF et al., J Sports Sci. 2020.
3) How Much Volume Is Optimal?
Here’s the rule of thumb I give men I coach:
10–20 sets per muscle per week
6–12 reps per set (but anywhere from 5–30 will build muscle if trained hard enough)
Push each set close to failure (leave 1–3 reps in the tank most of the time, but every so often, test yourself and see what you’ve got—intelligently).
Example for chest (12 weekly sets):
Day 1: Bench Press – 4x8
Day 1: Incline Dumbbell Press – 3x12–20
Day 2: Weighted Push-Ups – 3x12–20
Day 2: Cable Fly – 2x12–20
That’s it. Simple, effective, repeatable.
Reference: Schoenfeld BJ, Ogborn D, Krieger JW. J Sports Sci. 2017.
4) Frequency: How Many Days Do You Need?
This is where most men get it wrong. Let me make it simple: every muscle should be trained at least twice per week. Think of it as two reminders to your body: “Hey, this muscle matters—don’t shrink.”
Once a week = maintenance (and some growth if you’re brand new).
Twice a week = growth.
Three or more = extra benefit, but with diminishing returns. More stimulus requires more recovery.
Here’s why twice a week matters:
Muscle protein synthesis (the process that builds muscle) only stays elevated for 24–48 hours after training (MacDougall et al., 1995; Damas et al., 2016).
If you blast chest on Monday and wait until next Monday to hit it again, you’ve wasted several days of growth potential.
Split the same weekly workload into two sessions—say Monday and Thursday—and you’ll grow faster without adding sets.
Reference: Ralston GW et al., Sports Med Open. 2018.
5) Nutrition: Fuel Like a Man Who Trains
You can’t build a house without bricks. Protein is the bricks. Training is the workers. And carbs and fats are the fuel that keep the job site moving.
Protein: 0.7–1 g per pound of bodyweight daily
Carbs: Essential for energy and recovery—don’t cut them if you want to grow
Fats: 25–35% of your diet to keep hormones balanced
Reference: Morton RW et al., Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2018.
6) Supplements That Actually Work
Most of what’s marketed to men is junk. Here’s what actually delivers:
Creatine Monohydrate (5 g/day): Safest, most studied, builds strength and muscle. Bonus: strong evidence for brain health. (Kreider et al., 2017)
Caffeine (200–400 mg, ~3–6 mg/kg): Boosts strength and endurance. A strong coffee before training works fine. (Grgic et al., 2019)
Beta-Alanine (3–6 g/day): Helps with high-rep and conditioning work by delaying fatigue. (Hobson et al., 2012)
Citrulline Malate (6–8 g pre-workout): Improves blood flow and endurance for longer sets. (Chappell et al., 2018)
Supplements are the icing. Training, eating, and sleeping are the cake.
7) Recovery: Where the Growth Really Happens
I’ve had nights where my daughter kept me up at midnight and again at 3am. I felt it the next day in the gym. A little sleep loss won’t kill you—but chronic undersleeping will wreck your gains.
Sleep: 7–9 hours a night
Rest: Muscles don’t grow in the gym—they grow when you recover
Stress: Too much stress (from work, life, or training) will slow you down
Reference: Haun CT et al., Eur J Sport Sci. 2021.
The Brotherhood Checklist
Train each muscle at least twice a week
10–20 hard sets per muscle group weekly
Full range of motion—chase the stretch
Eat like a man who trains: protein, carbs, fats
Use creatine, caffeine, beta-alanine, and citrulline if you want the extra edge
Sleep and recovery matter just as much as training
Brothers, muscle is medicine. It will keep you strong for your family, resilient under pressure, and ready for whatever life throws at you. Don’t wait until you’re weaker to wish you started sooner.
Get under the bar. Put in the work. Build the muscle.
Dr. J.
