The Muscle Ladder

Key Takeaways

1. The Muscle Ladder: A Prioritized Approach to Physique Development

By the time you reach the top, you’ll be answering questions instead of asking them.

Scientific principles. The Muscle Ladder is a framework based on scientific principles, organized by importance, to guide physique development. It helps lifters focus on what matters most for muscle growth and avoid getting bogged down by irrelevant details. The ladder consists of side rails (sustainability and mindset) and ten rungs, each representing a key training variable.

Asking the right questions. Many lifters ask the wrong questions, focusing on advanced techniques before mastering the fundamentals. The Muscle Ladder helps prioritize training variables based on experience level, ensuring that lifters address the most relevant factors for their stage of development.

Climbing the ladder. Each rung of the ladder provides deeper insight into the fundamentals of training. By progressing through the rungs in order, lifters gain a comprehensive understanding of what drives muscle growth and how to optimize their training for maximum results.

2. Sustainability and Mindset: The Foundation of Long-Term Gains

You won’t make gains without the proper mindset, and there’s no point in making those gains if they aren’t sustainable.

Side rails of the ladder. Sustainability and mindset are the side rails of the Muscle Ladder, essential for holding the rungs together. Without these foundational elements, progress is unlikely to be sustained over the long term.

Sustainability components:

• Enjoyment: Training should be engaging and enjoyable to maintain motivation.
• Safety: Prioritize safety to avoid injuries that can derail progress.
• Proper pacing: Allow an appropriate rate of progress to avoid burnout or discouragement.

Mindset components:

• Realistic expectations: Understand how much muscle can be built and how long it will take.
• Positive self-talk: Cultivate a growth-oriented mindset that embraces challenges and setbacks.
• Self-trust and acceptance: Trust yourself to follow through with your program and accept your current reality without judgment.

3. Technique: Mastering the Fundamentals for Safe and Effective Lifting

Technique is what allows you to train long enough and hard enough to reach your goals.

First rung of the ladder. Technique is the first rung of the Muscle Ladder, providing the foundation for safe and effective lifting. It's not a one-time skill but requires continuous focus and refinement.

Key technique principles:

• Controlling the negative: Actively resist gravity during the eccentric phase of each exercise.
• Proper range of motion: Work the targeted muscles through a reasonable range of motion, feeling a stretch at the bottom and a squeeze at the top.
• Minimize momentum: Use strict form to maximize tension in the targeted muscles.
• Breathe properly: Inhale during the eccentric phase and exhale during the concentric phase.

Exercise-specific instructions. The book provides detailed instructions for performing a wide range of exercises, emphasizing proper form and technique.

4. Exercise Selection: Choosing the Right Tools for the Job

Once you’ve determined which exercises are roughly comparable—they work the same muscles through a similar range of motion—you can narrow them down according to how much you like doing them.

Second rung of the ladder. Exercise selection is the second rung of the Muscle Ladder, focusing on choosing the best exercises for achieving specific goals. It involves understanding the difference between compound and isolation exercises and selecting exercises that effectively target the desired muscles.

The Big Six:

• Squat-type movement
• Hip hinge
• Vertical push
• Horizontal push
• Vertical pull
• Horizontal pull

Muscle isolation. In addition to the Big Six, isolation exercises are used to target specific muscles that may not be fully stimulated by compound movements. The book provides guidance on selecting appropriate isolation exercises for each muscle group.

5. Effort: Pushing Hard Enough to Stimulate Growth

The next eight steps won’t matter without the appropriate effort.

Third rung of the ladder. Effort is the third rung of the Muscle Ladder, emphasizing the importance of pushing yourself hard enough to stimulate muscle growth. It involves understanding the concept of muscular failure and learning how to gauge your proximity to failure using RPE and RIR.

Mechanical tension. Muscle growth is primarily driven by mechanical tension, which is the force exerted on muscle fibers during resistance training. To maximize tension, sets must be pushed close to muscular failure.

RPE and RIR. Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) and Reps in Reserve (RIR) are subjective measures of effort that can be used to gauge proximity to failure. The book recommends training within a specific RPE/RIR range to optimize muscle growth.

6. Progressive Overload: Consistently Challenging Your Muscles

Results depend on progressively increasing your strength, skill, and capacity in the gym.

Fourth rung of the ladder. Progressive overload is the fourth rung of the Muscle Ladder, focusing on the need to consistently challenge your muscles to stimulate continued growth. It involves gradually increasing the stress placed on the body through various methods.

Overload strategies:

• Increasing load (linear progression)
• Increasing reps at the same load
• Double progression (increasing both reps and load)
• Adding sets
• Overloading via technique
• Overloading via velocity
• Overloading via mind-muscle connection
• Overloading via shorter rest periods
• Extending sets beyond failure

Avoiding muscle confusion. The book emphasizes the importance of systematic progression over random variation, cautioning against the "muscle confusion" approach.

7. Volume: Finding the Sweet Spot for Muscle Growth

Training volume is a moving target.

Fifth rung of the ladder. Training volume is the fifth rung of the Muscle Ladder, focusing on the amount of work performed during training. It involves understanding the relationship between volume and hypertrophy and finding the optimal volume range for each muscle group.

Defining volume. Volume can be quantified in various ways, including rep volume, volume load, and set volume. The book recommends using set volume (the number of hard sets) as the primary metric.

Volume recommendations:

• Beginner: Roughly 10 sets per muscle per week
• Intermediate: 10 to 20 sets per muscle per week
• Advanced: 10 to 20 sets for most body parts, with potential for higher volumes for stubborn muscles

Individualizing volume. The book emphasizes the importance of adjusting volume based on individual factors, such as training experience, recovery ability, and muscle-specific responses.

8. Training Splits & Frequency: Structuring Your Weekly Workouts

As long as you have those bases covered, you’re free to structure your training schedule to make it work for you.

Sixth rung of the ladder. Training splits and frequency are the sixth rung of the Muscle Ladder, focusing on how to structure your weekly workouts. It involves understanding the different types of training splits and selecting one that fits your schedule and goals.

Common training splits:

• Body-part split
• Upper/lower split
• Push/pull/legs (PPL) split
• Full-body split
• Hybrid splits

Training frequency. The book emphasizes that training frequency is a relatively minor factor in hypertrophy, as long as volume is equated. The best frequency is the one that allows you to train consistently and effectively.

9. Load & Rep Ranges: Optimizing for Hypertrophy and Strength

If you’re getting stronger, you’re almost certainly gaining muscle.

Seventh rung of the ladder. Load and rep ranges are the seventh rung of the Muscle Ladder, focusing on how heavy to lift and how many reps to perform. It involves understanding the relationship between load, reps, and hypertrophy and selecting appropriate rep ranges for different exercises and goals.

Rep range research. The book highlights research showing that a wide range of rep ranges (3 to 30) can stimulate muscle growth, as long as effort and volume are matched.

Practical rep range. The book recommends a practical hypertrophy rep range of 6 to 15 reps, with lower reps (6 to 10) for compound exercises and higher reps (10 to 15) for isolation exercises.

Strength training. The book also provides guidance on optimizing load and rep ranges for strength development, emphasizing the importance of training with heavier weights and lower reps.

10. Rest Periods: Balancing Recovery and Intensity

Your rest periods should be exactly as long as they need to be for you to get the most out of every set of every exercise in your program.

Eighth rung of the ladder. Rest periods are the eighth rung of the Muscle Ladder, focusing on the amount of rest taken between sets. It involves understanding the importance of rest for recovery and performance and selecting appropriate rest periods for different exercises and goals.

Rest period recommendations:

• Isolation exercises: 1 to 2 minutes
• Light compound exercises: 2 to 3 minutes
• Machine-based compound exercises: 2 to 3 minutes
• Heavy compound exercises: 3 to 5 minutes

Supersets. The book provides guidance on managing rest periods when performing supersets, emphasizing the importance of allowing adequate recovery for each muscle group.

Short rest periods. The book acknowledges that shorter rest periods can be used to increase workout efficiency but cautions against overdoing it, as it can compromise performance and recovery.

11. Advanced Techniques: Breaking Through Plateaus

When plateaus become frequent, you may need to spice up your training with selective use of long-length partial reps, myo-reps, drop sets, and other hypertrophy techniques to spark new growth.

Ninth rung of the ladder. Advanced techniques are the ninth rung of the Muscle Ladder, focusing on strategies for breaking through plateaus and stimulating new growth. It involves understanding various intensity techniques and using them selectively to enhance training.

Advanced techniques:

• Partial reps
• Drop sets
• Myo-reps
• Forced reps
• Cheat reps
• Loaded stretches
• Accentuated eccentric training

Cautions. The book emphasizes that advanced techniques are best used by experienced lifters who have already mastered the fundamentals and are close to their genetic potential.

12. Periodization: Organizing Training Over Time

As you step off this final rung, you’ll have all the knowledge you need to create a long-term training plan.

Tenth rung of the ladder. Periodization is the tenth and final rung of the Muscle Ladder, focusing on how to organize training over time. It involves understanding the different components of a periodized training plan and using them to maximize long-term progress.

Components of periodization:

• Macrocycle: The overall training plan, typically spanning a year or more
• Mesocycle: A phase of training within the macrocycle, typically lasting one to three months
• Microcycle: A week of training within the mesocycle

Periodization models:

• Linear periodization
• Reverse linear periodization
• Weekly undulating periodization (WUP)

Deloads. The book emphasizes the importance of incorporating deloads into your training plan to reduce fatigue and promote recovery.

13. Nutrition: Fueling Your Body for Success

Truly poor nutrition can derail your recovery.

Calories-in, calories-out (CICO). The book provides a brief primer on CICO, emphasizing the importance of energy balance for weight management.

Calculating maintenance calories. The book outlines several methods for estimating maintenance calories, including a quick formula, the Mifflin-St. Jeor equation, and the guess-and-check method.

Setting up calories. The book provides guidance on setting up caloric intake based on your primary goal: bulking, cutting, or body recomposition.

Macronutrient targets. The book recommends specific protein, fat, and carbohydrate targets for different goals.

Fiber. The book emphasizes the importance of fiber for satiety and health.

Flexibility. The book encourages a flexible approach to nutrition, emphasizing the importance of long-term trends over daily fluctuations.

14. Cardio & Lifestyle: Optimizing Health and Recovery

The best way to avoid getting hurt in the gym is to train with confidence rather than fear.

Cardio. The book discusses the role of cardio in a bodybuilding program, emphasizing its benefits for health and fat loss.

Cardio recommendations:

• Choose the type of cardio you enjoy most or hate least.
• Limit HIIT cardio to one to two sessions per week.
• Consider LISS cardio for recovery.

Lifestyle. The book emphasizes the importance of lifestyle factors, such as sleep and stress management, for optimizing training and recovery.

Sleep recommendations:

• Aim for seven to nine hours of sleep per night.
• Establish a consistent sleep schedule.
• Create a relaxing bedtime routine.

15. Supplements: Supporting Your Training and Diet

The information presented herein has not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and it is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Supplements as support. The book emphasizes that supplements are intended to support an intelligent diet and training plan, not replace them.

Tier 1 supplements:

• Protein powder: A convenient and affordable way to hit your daily protein target.
• Creatine: A well-researched supplement that enhances strength and power.
• Caffeine: A stimulant that can improve focus and performance.

Tier 2 supplements:

• Multivitamins: An insurance policy against potential nutrient deficiencies.
• Fish oil: A source of omega-3 fatty acids with numerous health benefits.

Tier 3 supplements:

• L-citrulline: A promising supplement for boosting nitric oxide and improving performance.
• Melatonin: A hormone that can improve sleep quality.

Last updated: April 18, 2025

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