What you need to know

This page prepares you for the gym. The next page shows you how to work out.

To build muscle, you need to eat enough, sleep enough, and lift heavy weights. 

Working hard in the gym accomplishes nothing if you don’t eat and sleep enough on the day of a workout. That's how important the non-bodybuilding part of muscle development is: After exercising, your body builds new muscle using energy from that day's food. Later when you're sleeping, your body repairs your muscles.

To ease you into these lifestyle changes, this program begins with a prep week. When you’re done prep week, you have fewer surprises and excuses when committing to the workouts. You'll be much less likely to quit on your physique goals.

In other words, this handbook is more than the science of working out. It's also focused on holding you accountable so that this isn't just a throwaway blog post you read.

Prep week has only one hour's worth of tasks for you to perform. You will:

• Take your starting photos so you can compare your progress over time.
• Buy workout items.
• Get into the gym to prepare.

Before we begin, I want to stress that the easy reading portion of this handbook is over. What remains is a long-form walkthrough. So set aside 30 minutes to read this. While building muscle is very straightforward, there's a lot to know to avoid wasting your time. Do you want to gain 20lbs (9kg) in 2 years or 3 months? Then learn it properly.

At the end of this phase, I will provide you with an exhaustive cheat sheet. So there’s no need to take notes whatsoever. On the next page, we'll finally dive into the most efficient workout plan on the web. Just hold tight.

Task 1: Take photos

This takes 5 minutes.

If you don’t have a reference for what your body looked like before you started working out, it's surprisingly difficult to appreciate how much your body has changed over time. We humans are not wired to notice our own bodies' gradual changes.

Weekly, your muscle size gains will not be noticeable — you're only gaining a few millimeters. But, when gains are consistent, like they are on this program, adults can add 2.5” (6.35cm) of circumference to each arm after ~3 months. That’s significant.

Pictured below is just a 2” (5cm) gain. (If you’re a woman who’d like to stay smaller than this size, you can stop this program whenever you’re happy with your results.)

In the next phase of this handbook, we learn how to precisely measure our weekly muscle size gains to make sure we're always training correctly.

So here's what you need to do for your first task in prep week: Beginning today, take one set of body photos every 6 weeks. This is the interval at which physique changes are noticeable. For each set of photos, stand in front of a mirror and follow this:

• You will take your first set of photos with your muscles relaxed. Keep your arms by your sides. Take one photo from the front, one from the side, and one from the back (hold the camera behind your head).
• Now take the final set of photos with the same three angles but this time with your muscles flexed. Raise your arms so they're parallel to the floor — not on a weird angle.

Task 2: Build grip strength

This takes 15 minutes.

A weak grip makes it increasingly difficult to perform exercises as you progress to heavier weights. It results in prematurely reaching strength plateaus on up to half your exercises. The importance of building grip strength is well known in the sport of powerlifting but it is oddly missing from almost all beginning bodybuilding advice.

Specifically, an underdeveloped grip makes it hard to perform heavy upper back, trapezius, and forearm exercises. A weak grip forces tension into your forearms (study), which consequently have difficulty sustaining the stress of a full workout. This makes it hard to finish all your exercises with proper form. If you've had difficulty progressing on back exercises in the past, this likely played a part.

Gyms rarely have grip training equipment, so you must buy your own grippers. Each gripper you buy will have a fixed force. Over 3 months, you will buy three force levels as your grip strengthens: Men with average-sized hands should start with the trainer level. Women with average-sized hands grips should start with the guide level. Work your way through to the next two levels.

You’re welcome to keep going to higher levels, but it will have diminishing returns for our intermediate lifting objectives. Unless this is the lifestyle you want for yourself 😂:

By the way, the man who popularized kettlebell exercises points out a neat grip trick: If you have difficulty completing your last few lifts, tightly gripping the weight while lifting gives you a strength boost due to the way the human nervous system works. So, if we strengthen our grip, we can better take advantage of this!

Before I explain how to perform grip exercises, let’s define two bodybuilding terms:

• A rep is the combined lifting and lowering of a weight. For example, raising a dumbbell (a handheld weight) to your chest then back down constitutes one rep of that exercise.
• A set is when multiple reps are done back-to-back without rest. Most sets consist of 5–10 reps. (We’ll talk more about reps and sets in the next page of this handbook.)

One rep of the grip exercise entails squeezing the gripper's bars together then slowly releasing them:

So here's your task: Using your current force resistance level, do 3 sets of 10 reps for each hand every other day. (If you can’t complete 10 reps, work your way up to it over the coming weeks.) Take a 3 to 4 minute break between each set. 

Be sure to always start with your non-dominant hand. You want this hand to set the limit for how many sets you do on your dominant hand so that it doesn’t get disproportionately stronger over time.

Whenever a resistance level starts getting easy to do all 3 sets of 10 reps with, buy the next grip resistance level and start using that instead. 

Remember there’s no need to take notes on anything I'm saying here. I wrote a comprehensive cheat sheet at the end of this page.

Task 3: Buy workout items

Building muscle costs you 70 bucks a month in protein. You can buy protein on Amazon, at a grocery store, or at a local gym.

You also must spend a one-time 30 bucks on workout accessories.

Pro tip: Sign up for an Amazon Prime trial (USA, UK, Canada, Germany, France) to get free two-day shipping on everything. If you don't want to keep your trial, you can cancel within 30 days and you still get the fast shipping for free.

The five required items

1. Either whey or rice protein

• Take whey protein if you’re not lactose intolerant or vegan. (The brand I'm linking to is rated A-, which is very good.) Otherwise, take rice protein. Rice is as effective as whey thanks to its balanced amino acid profile (study, study). 
• We'll talk a lot more about protein shortly. Hold tight.

2. Hand grippers

• Buy one to start. Men, start with the “trainer” level. Women, start with the “guide” level.

3. Body tape measure

• On the next page, you’ll learn how to use body tape to detect if you are failing to gain muscle after each workout.

4. Creatine

• Only men need this; research shows women don't benefit much from it. The product linked to lasts two months and is for purity and label accuracy by Labdoor. 
• We'll talk more about creatine shortly.

5. Citrulline malate

• ‍This container lasts one month. We'll talk more about citrulline malate shortly.

Scale

You'll need to know your body weight to calculate the calories you should eat per day.

• Basic scale, or
  
• High-end scale: It measures body fat and graphs your weight change over time.

Blender

Either hand-mix your protein into oatmeal or make protein smoothies with a blender:

• Shaker bottle, or
• Entry-level blender, or
• High quality blender

Magnet weights

Magnet weights help you when you have a hard time lifting heavy weights.

• On most gym equipment, weights increase in 5lbs (2.2kg) increments. This is arbitrary; just because you lifted 20lbs in a previous workout, it doesn’t mean that the next level your muscles naturally expect is 25lbs. Sometimes we can only increment by 2.5lbs, and that's fine! This is where 2.5lbs magnet weights come in: They are small magnets that attach to weights to increase their heaviness by 2.5lbs or 1.25lbs. Keep one on you at the gym so you can slap it onto a dumbbell, barbell, or rack when a 5lbs increment is too heavy.
• If you're using a dumbbell, you can slap a 1.25lbs magnet weight on each side to increase by a total of 2.5lbs. 2.5lbs is an important number — it's how much we want to increment on an exercise each time we go back to the gym.
• The muscle groups that most commonly require smaller weight increments week-to-week are biceps, shoulders, and abs. If you’ve had difficulty growing these muscles in the past, magnet weights might be the solution to breaking through your plateaus.

If you have the money to spare, working out from home instead of the gym is incredible for maintaining your motivation and consistency. It’s what I did for my first month of working out so that I didn't have any excuses whatsoever. All I had to do was roll out of bed to begin lifting my weights for the day. I didn't miss a single workout.

If you think you’ll give yourself a bunch of excuses around traveling to the gym three times per week, then consider saving up the cash to buy the equipment below before you start this program. This program’s first two months are purposefully designed so you can work out either at the gym or at home (using the equipment below):

• Adjustable dumbbells
  
  No assembly required. Adjustable dumbbells can have their weight changed simply by turning a dial. This saves us from buying a dozen fixed-weights. Adjustable dumbbells work just as well as fixed-weights. After all, it’s just a matter of how heavy they are — there’s no magic behind dumbbells. So, no, these aren't “sissy” weights. I know that Bowflex has an infomercial reputation, but their products are fantastic.
• Dumbbell stand
  
  Assembly is easy and can be quickly done by one person. You buy this so you can rest your dumbbells on a waist-height stand instead of the floor. Otherwise, you’ll eventually injure your back from raising heavy weights from below your knees. Trust me.
• Exercise bench
  
  Assembly is easy (just tighten two screws) and can be done by one person. This bench is the only remaining product you need since a barbell and rack aren't required for maximally building muscle in your first 2 months of working out.

The total equipment cost for working out at home is around 500 bucks.

Believe it or not, this equipment doesn’t take up much space. (The workout bench is very narrow and low to the ground.) It can easily fit into any small space in your living room or garage. Because I'm a bachelor, I put mine in my bedroom for a month 💯

I should probably be using the 😞 emoji instead...

At the 2 month mark on this program, you will need to begin going to the gym now since you'll require more heavy duty equipment. (Alternatively, you could choose to stop gaining muscle at the 2 month mark if you're not looking to get very big. You could then maintain the muscle you've already built just using your home equipment.)

Task 4: Take workout supplements

I always cite research when possible, but I don't blindly follow a study’s conclusions. (Not all studies are well designed.) For each topic, I try locating numerous studies then I read each with a skeptical eye. I experiment with the findings and compare them against alternative methods I test for several weeks. Throughout, I take muscle measurements to identify when something’s working for an extended period.

The next page of this handbook fully explains your nutritional requirements for gaining muscle. For now, let's just focus on the supplements. Both men and women should take supplements during prep week in order to get used to their taste and to develop the habit of taking them regularly.

There are only three safe supplements that I can conclude are worth taking for gaining muscle. I don’t recommend taking supplements other than the three listed below (unless recommended by a doctor) as they are unlikely to have a significant impact on your gym performance. Worse yet, they are probably not backed by sound research or their usefulness has been misinterpreted.

Avoiding other supplements applies to multivitamins too! Research concludes they aren’t worth it (article, article, study, study, study, study, study, study) — unless you have a specific deficiency identified by your doctor.

Supplement 1: Protein

Your body needs a particular amount of protein to operate nominally and to build new muscle. You are unlikely to get enough protein from the meals you eat.

Powders

Weightlifters take protein powder instead of protein bars (and other related products) because (1) bulk powder is much cheaper per-serving than pre-made snacks and (2) you can buy plain powder without sugar and other unnecessary additives. 

Choose one of the two protein powders listed below. In either case, you'll be averaging around 1-1.5 containers per month:

• Whey protein: The most popular protein source. It's a byproduct of cheese production. If you are lactose intolerant or vegan, choose rice protein instead.
• Rice protein: This works just about as well as whey (study, study).
• Skip the alternatives: Pea protein is high in sodium, so I suggest avoiding it. Egg protein is expensive and offers no benefit over other protein sources. Next, casein, which is a cow-derived protein related to whey, has not been proven to be more effective than whey for size gains, so I’m leaving it out as well. As for vegetable-derived, “all natural” proteins, avoid them because they may not contain enough of the amino acid leucine, which is needed for muscle gain (study). They're also needlessly expensive.

While some research shows that whey has a very slight benefit over the other sources of protein (study, study), this advantage is negligible over the long-term. So don’t get caught up in the differences. I've been using rice protein for a year now to great effect.

How much protein you need

You need much less protein than most bodybuilding advice would have you think.

Here’s how to calculate your daily requirement: Multiply your current weight in pounds (measured when you wake up — before eating breakfast) by 0.8 to get how many grams of protein you should eat daily (study, study, study). If you weigh 150 lbs, that’s 120g of protein. (In kg, multiply your weight by 1.8. So, 68kg is 120g of protein.)

You already get protein from the meals you eat. Look at the nutrition labels on your foods to see how many grams of protein you’re getting per serving (or type
"[food_name_here] nutrition" into Google for an overview.) 

Here are some reference points:

• An average sized ~7oz piece of steak or ~7oz half salmon fillet contains ~40g of protein.
• One skinless chicken breast has 30g of protein.
• A can of lentils or black beans has 30g of protein. 

Since you’re already eating at least 30% (likely more) of your daily protein target from your meals, you only need to make up for the remaining 70% through powder.

Geek note: Even if you do reach your full daily target exclusively through meals, you still need powder because proteins in everyday foods might not have a complete ratio of amino acids, which is a requirement we won't get into here.

Let’s now adjust our calculations to take meal protein into account: We only need to multiply 0.60 times our bodyweight in lbs (or 1.32 times our bodyweight in kg) to determine how much daily protein we must get from powder. If you weigh 150lbs (68kg), that’s 90 grams (3.17oz), which is just a few scoops of whey or rice protein.

Protein easily mixes into smoothies, cereals, and oatmeal.

There’s no need to write any of this down. There's a cheat sheet coming up.

Servings and timing

Here is the science on protein timing and serving sizes:

• It can be beneficial to take protein with a snack, e.g. oatmeal or a smoothie (study).
• What time of day you take protein barely matters according to meta-analyses (study, study). (Personally, I make myself a protein smoothie with breakfast. Later, in the evening, I mix protein into a bowl of oatmeal as a dessert.)
• I suggest taking protein in two daily servings instead of one big one, but there is otherwise no advantage to breaking it into small servings throughout the day (study).

If you’re surprised by anything here, you can read more about protein myths in the FAQ. There are a ton of misconceptions about the best way to take protein.

By the way, here's the shake I make every morning:

Supplement 2: Creatine

Women, you can skip this section. Research has shown that you benefit less from the supplementation of creatine, so you might as well avoid it (study, study).

Creatine (click for Amazon link) is a flavorless powder that you can mix into anything. Your body produces creatine naturally, and when supplemented with more, it can build muscle faster. Second only to protein, creatine is the most thoroughly researched workout supplement in the world. No adverse side effects have been reported so long as you don’t have existing renal issues (study, study, study). 

For third-party validation, search Amazon for "creatine" to read thousands of reviews. Or, read more at the University of Maryland Medical Center and Examine.

Effectiveness

Research is inconclusive about how creatine actually improves muscle size gains. But it is conclusive that it does — to the tune of up to doubling the speed of strength gains (study, study, study, study, meta-analysis, research overview). This program emphasizes lifting heavier weights every single week, so creatine’s benefits are very valuable to us.

Creatine doesn’t work for everyone (study), but it’s inexpensive and it has been widely deemed safe. To test its efficacy, stop taking creatine one month into this program then watch for a decrease in weightlifting performance over the next 2 weeks. If there isn't a decrease, you can permanently stop taking creatine. 

This program only requires you to take creatine while building muscle — not while maintaining it thereafter — so you won’t be taking creatine forever.

How to take it

There’s no research concluding that it substantially matters what time of day you take creatine — so take it at the same time you take protein in order to keep your supplement regimen simple. As with protein, take creatine every day, and try to take it with a bit of food (study). You can mix it into the same food or drink as your protein.

Note that nearly all creatine studies are designed with a “loading week” in which 4x the typical daily dose is taken for your first week in order for the creatine to saturate throughout your body. So, whereas the typical daily dose of creatine is 5g, you’ll be taking 5g four separate times a day for the duration of this prep week (study, study). 

All this is recapped for you in the cheat sheet found at the end of this section.

Supplement 3: Citrulline malate

If you’re not looking to get very muscular and don't plan to continue past the 2 month mark of this program, you can skip this since you won’t need the endurance boost.

Citrulline malate (click for Amazon link) is the third and final supplement worth taking. Citrulline malate (CM) has been demonstrated to significantly increase the volume of sets (we’re talking an extra 50%) you can perform in a workout session (study, study). We’re going to need the muscle endurance boosts CM provides when we hit the third month of this program.

CM is an amino acid found in several foods including musk melons, squashes, gourds, cucumbers, and pumpkins. There are no known side effects when it's taken at the recommended doses. (You can dive into the CM research over at Examine. You can also peruse the reviews left for citrulline malate products on Amazon.)

The recommended dose for CM is 8 grams (0.28oz), which is 4 scoops of the product linked above. Take this 60 minutes before your workout. (The timing is important; you won't feel the endurance enhancing effects until 60 minutes have passed.)

There is no benefit to taking CM post-workout or on non-workout days. Just take it before workouts.

A heads up that CM is incredibly sour 😬 Mixing it with other drinks will completely ruin them. So take it with a tiny bit of water and drink it in one shot!

Other supplements

Of the remaining supplements that don't affect your hormones, they are either a) backed by research with dubious results, b) negligibly effective, c) filler ingredients combined with CM, creatine, or protein, or d) a scam. So save your money and stick to the three supplements I’ve listed above.

Yes, you can skip "NO boosters," multivitamins, and BCAA’s (study).

Task 5: Go to the gym

This takes around an hour.

Find a gym close to you. All gyms should have the necessary equipment for completing the exercises in this handbook, which don't require anything uncommon.

During prep week, you’ll need to get yourself into a gym for three reasons: to learn proper form, to find your starting weights, and to reduce mental friction.

To learn proper form

Learning proper form is critical to avoiding injury and understanding how to properly exercise your muscles so that the workouts are maximally effective.

Below are the exercises you’ll be performing for the first two months of this program. Clicking on an exercise name will load a demonstration video underneath.

(This exercise list is repeated in the cheat sheet at the bottom of this page.)

If you can afford it, it’s helpful to hire a trainer at your local gym for a couple sessions so he or she can walk you through the exercises. Take the list with you (or just have this page loaded on your phone) and insist that you're taught each one.

The next page in this handbook also has advice for how to lift with proper form.

To find your starting weights

You need to discover your starting heaviness for each of the exercises you’ll be doing.

When you get to the gym, perform each exercise in the list above with a heaviness that isn’t overly challenging but also isn’t so light that you can barely feel it. Once you've found a weight that satisfies this criteria, do 7 reps with it. Then take a 3 minute break and increase the weight to the next heaviness level to see if you can do 7 reps again. 

Keep incrementing the weight and taking 3 minute breaks until you get to a heaviness you cannot lift the full 7 reps with. When you get to this level, make a note of the level that came before it. This second-to-last level will be your starting weight when you begin working out next week. 

(You can save these numbers in the free mobile app (iOS, Android) I decided to make the app genuinely free — there are no paid gimmicks — in the hope that people who use it would share this handbook in return.)

If you’re working with a trainer, ask them to walk you through this weight-finding process. If you don't have a trainer, don't be be overwhelmed. It's straightforward.

To reduce mental friction

You’re also using this first gym visit to get used to the transportation and parking situation you’ll be dealing with three times a week. (And don’t forget to sign up for a membership while you're there!)

Your goal is to minimize any and all annoyances that stand between you and the gym. The less of a hassle you perceive going to the gym to be, the less likely you are to use it as an excuse to quit this program partway through.

Go figure out what your process is going to be. Start with a small step.

Cheat sheet

Okay, so we're now done with page two! Below is the cheat sheet. 

When you enter your email below, the cheat sheet is immediately emailed to you so you can more easily reference it. You'll also get notified when I release my next guide. (Future handbook topics include how to speak Chinese, play piano, and write fiction.)

Continue to workout plans

Of friends I've polled, most people who complete prep week go on to gain at least 10 of their 20 possible beginner pounds of muscle.

P.S. My other handbook shows you how to Grow a Startup.