50 Fitness Facts Nobody Tells You About Building Muscle

Did you know that you can actually build muscle with just your mind? Or that there’s a food that burns calories when you eat it? What about the fact that there’s a relationship between your grip strength and life expectancy? Well, these are just a few of the 50 facts nobody tells you about fitness and building muscle. So pay attention since we’re about to go over some awesome tips for real muscle gains, including our favorite of all time. See if you can guess which one! So let’s get right into it.

Fact 1: Building Muscle Size is Not the Same as Building Strength

For fact number one, we’re going to start with a big misconception: building muscle size is not the same as building strength. While a bigger muscle has more potential to be a stronger muscle, these two adaptations occur from completely different physiological processes. Muscle size is an actual change to the architecture of the muscle, while building strength is from an improvement in the neurological system of the existing muscle. Of course, there’s crossover, but if you want to optimize both, you should train for both specifically.

Fact 2: Increasing Training Volume is Key to Muscle Size

Why strength? Because of fact number two: increasing training volume, or the total amount of weight a muscle lifts, is the primary training variable to increase muscle size, with most recommending moderate loads of 70-80% of a one-rep max for around 8 to 12 reps. But you can use even heavier loads, 85% of a one-rep max or even higher, and studies show that using heavier loads is vastly superior. So if you want to get big, get strong first. But muscles aren’t the only thing that gets stronger with resistance training.

Fact 3: Lifting Weights Increases Bone Strength

Fact three: lifting weights can also increase your bone strength. When a heavy load is placed on the bone, the excessive weight causes it to bend slightly, causing minor fractures. These fractures are then filled with what are called osteoblasts that trigger new bone growth. To optimize this adaptation, you need to perform heavy load-bearing exercises such as squats and deadlifts.

Fact 4: Lifting Weights Can Increase Flexibility

Now, fact number four might really surprise you. Did you know that lifting weights can actually increase your flexibility too? Well, as long as you use a full range of motion. From a flexibility perspective, look at the movements you perform under load: deep squats, overhead pressing, lunges. These movements require mobility in the hips, ankles, and shoulders. This doesn’t mean you don’t need any other flexibility or mobility training, but you can rest assured that resistance training with a full range of motion isn’t going to impede your flexibility and will likely improve it.

Fact 5: Too Much Flexibility Can Decrease Performance

However, you need to be careful about your flexibility because of fact number five: too much flexibility can actually decrease performance and be just as dangerous as not being flexible enough. Increasing flexibility too much will actually decrease the stability of a joint. It sounds crazy based on what we just looked at, but stay with us. If involved in impact sports or situations in which the joint experiences a high amount of force, the lack of stability in the joint may result in injury. So what to do? Well, simply keep your flexibility in line with your lifestyle.

Fact 6: Building Muscle Gets Harder Over Time

Now let’s get back to building muscle with number six. Unfortunately, we need to tell you that building muscle gets progressively harder the longer you train. Everyone loves beginner gains, which refers to when a person first starts lifting and gains muscle fast and easy. That’s the fun period, but the bad thing is that if gaining muscle is easy when you first start, that means it gets harder later on. While you may put on 20 lbs your first year, you’ll be happy to get 5 pounds in your 3rd and 4th year.

Fact 7: Maintaining Muscle is Relatively Easy

But here’s the good news with fact number seven: once you gain muscle, keeping it on is relatively easy. A big review from 2021 found that the minimum threshold to maintain muscle mass is surprisingly small. Training each muscle group once a week with one set to failure will maintain your muscle mass for a total of 32 weeks. To be clear, that means you can perform one set of bench presses, one set of bent-over rows, one set of military presses, one set of squats, and one set of deadlifts once a week and be good for 32 weeks.

Fact 8: Principle of Progressive Overload

Now, in order to get this muscle, you need to pay attention to this next one. It’s literally the most important principle in lifting. Fact number eight: you must apply the principle of progressive overload. The simple explanation is, you need to do more work than the week before. Sounds easy, but many lifters mess this up and think that simply training hard is all they need to do. Absolutely, you need to train hard, but this must include more weight or more reps and sets. You are basically convincing your body it needs more muscle to survive. This is why tracking your program is so important. And later on, we’ll tell you the absolute easiest variable to apply progressive overload.

Fact 9: Program Jumping Will Hinder Progress

But first, we have fact number nine, which is that program jumping will be your demise. As you begin your lifting journey, you will come across dozens and dozens of programs all claiming to be the best. You’ll have to wait until later to learn which program really is the best one, but for now, what you need to know is that you don’t want to jump programs. This refers to following a program for a couple of weeks, then seeing a cooler one and jumping on it. To see progress, you must follow a plan and apply progressive overload for muscle growth, not hop from routine to routine. Your body simply cannot adapt overnight.

Fact 10: Muscle Doesn’t Grow Evenly

Now, in order to optimize muscle growth, you need to understand fact number ten, which is that your muscle doesn’t grow evenly. Your muscle is not one solid piece of tissue. In reality, it’s composed of individual fibers. Further, a muscle can have several heads. This is when different attachment points merge together to form one muscle belly. So here’s the thing: recent research has shown if you perform a single exercise, your muscle will experience different amounts of growth in different areas. This can happen throughout the muscle, even on the same head and even a single muscle fiber. This uneven growth brings us to number eleven, which is that you need to implement a variety of exercises that use different biomechanics and angles to train the same muscle group. While this has been a common practice in the gym for quite some time, we now have studies to back up the practice. For example, to hit the chest, use flat barbell bench press, incline dumbbell press, dips, and cable chest fly. Four chest exercises with four different movement patterns mean optimal growth.

Fact 11: Variety of Exercises is Key

On the other hand, fact number twelve tells us that bro-splits are likely suboptimal for muscle growth. Now, of course, they will work, at least if you can apply progressive overload. However, studies have shown that instead of training a muscle once a week, training it twice a week may lead to better results. For example, instead of using six exercises to train a muscle in a single session, you should train a muscle two times a week using three exercises in each session. This results in more accumulation of higher quality volume.

Fact 12: Bro-Splits Are Suboptimal

While we all want more muscle for aesthetics, there’s another even more important reason to accumulate muscle mass. Fact number thirteen: your muscle mass index (MMI) can determine your longevity. Your Muscle Mass Index is the relationship between your height and the total amount of muscle mass you hold. Long-term studies have been conducted, which tracked the health of older populations for 15-16 years. A direct relationship was found between their MMI and longevity. In other words, those who held more muscle mass lived longer. This is why it’s important to have a lifelong habit of resistance training to always have adequate amounts of muscle mass. Still, even if you’re older and have never trained, it’s not too late to start. That’s because of our 14th fact, which is that the elderly can also gain muscle. There’s a common misconception that we can only build muscle during our younger years and our only hope, as we age, is to hold on to as much as possible. Now, there is a ton of nuance in this belief, but it’s wrong. While it may be easier to grow muscle during your younger years, the truth is, you can put on muscle mass at just about any age. Depending on your current fitness level, research has shown it’s possible to gain muscle well into your older years. How old? Well, this review saw greater increases in muscle mass from 1.5% to a staggering 15.6% in individuals who were 75 years old and older. So it’s truly never too old to start.

Fact 13: Muscle Mass Index (MMI) and Longevity

But regardless of your age, you need to be aware of fact 15: drinking alcohol is doing you no favors. Sorry for being a buzzkill (pun intended). In fact, it’s hurting your progress from multiple angles. For one, it activates your Agrp neurons. These are your starvation neurons, which trigger a strong appetite. Secondly, it disturbs your sleep, which decreases recovery, decreases testosterone, and promotes a catabolic environment. And third and fourth, it disrupts muscle protein synthesis and delays recovery. You can still build muscle by drinking moderately, BUT it’s going to be blunted. It’s up to you to weigh if it’s worth it.

Fact 14: Elderly Can Gain Muscle

Now, even if you do choose to partake once in a while, you still need to practice fact number 16: warm-ups are vital to optimize performance. We can often brush off warm-ups as if they’re just a mere formality, something we do because we’re supposed to. Other people see warm-ups as just a means to prevent injury. In reality, one of the primary benefits of a proper warm-up is improved performance in the gym. This is especially true with warm-up sets, which were found to increase the amount that could be lifted during the working sets. So spend the extra 10-15 minutes to properly warm up.

Fact 15: Alcohol Hinders Progress

Some other ideas that are outdated. How about number 17: taking ice baths after workouts? Ice baths have made a huge impact on the fitness industry in the past few years. Everywhere you look on social media, you see it. However, while it does have some benefits for recovery and muscle soreness, it gets sketchy when it comes to muscle growth, and research has shown it can actually inhibit both muscle growth and strength gains. This may be confusing, but you must understand that, while related, recovery and muscle growth are two separate processes. While researchers aren’t positive why this occurs, they believe it has something to do with an ice bath decreasing inflammation, which would usually trigger an anabolic response.

Fact 16: Warm-Ups Optimize Performance

We hope we’re not bursting your bubble with these last couple, but we have another one you need to know. Fact number 18: the keto diet is not good for muscle growth. The keto diet is another practice that has gained a lot of popularity as of late. However, studies show it seems to hinder your ability to build muscle. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible to gain muscle on a keto diet, but studies show it’s significantly more difficult. Now, to be clear, as the keto diet enhances your body’s ability to utilize fat for energy, it might actually hold extra benefits to preserve muscle while in a caloric deficit. However, if building muscle is an important goal, you may want to save keto until you reach your desired amount of muscle mass.

Fact 17: Ice Baths Inhibit Muscle Growth

For number 19, while we’re talking about misconceptions, let’s talk about how muscle confusion isn’t a thing. Muscle confusion became popular years ago with the training program P90X. The idea is that, in order to optimize muscle growth, you must trick your muscles and train them with random exercises on a daily basis. Well, remember fact eight about progressive overload? In order to apply progressive overload, there needs to be structure to your program so that you can utilize an exercise for a minimal amount of time, which is generally for four weeks. However, that doesn’t mean you never switch exercises, just don’t do it every session. Instead, follow fact number 20 and swap exercises every 4-8 weeks. That is as long as muscle hypertrophy is your primary goal. After you train for a period, you’ll find these exercises become stagnant and your progress will start to slow. At this time, you can swap out your exercise with ones that have similar biomechanics. Swap the barbell bench press for flat bench dumbbell press or the bent-over row with the T-bar row.

Fact 18: Keto Diet and Muscle Growth

For number 21, we’re going to get psychic, well, kind of. Because you can build muscle with your mind. Now, you can’t merely wish muscles into existence. However, you can actively contract your muscles with intentional focus, which is able to induce muscle growth. For example, a study had participants perform a movement while also visualizing in their minds that they were performing the same movement. The twist? They didn’t actually have anything in their hands; they were pretending. However, they found that even with no weight, just visualizing caused an increase in muscle growth. This is also one of the mechanisms behind our next fact.

Fact 19: Muscle Confusion is a Myth

Fact number 22 is that building a mind-muscle connection actually works. Emerging studies have shown that focusing on the intended muscle while training can lead to higher activation and muscle growth. It’s basically an easy hack that lets you build more muscle without actually doing more work.

Fact 20: Swap Exercises Every 4-8 Weeks

Here’s another useful tip for fact 23: training with a partner will likely lead to better gains. That’s right. If you’re like most people, you will probably see better results lifting with someone. Studies show that supervised training likely results in more muscle growth and strength gains. Inexperienced lifters may just need the guidance of a trainer, as they don’t understand how much they can lift. On the other hand, experienced lifters may just push more due to the competition aspect or the extra motivation from a friend being present.

Fact 21: Build Muscle with Your Mind

With that said, you and your lifting partner may see different results due to the next fact. Fact number 24 is that genetics will play a role in your progress. Sure, some people will use genetics as an excuse to not try and get into shape. And while for many that’s all it is, an excuse, the truth is that genetics do play a role in your ability to progress and even dictate your top physique that can be reached. For example, your bone structure can determine how much muscle you can carry. The insertion of a muscle can alter the shape and perceived size of a muscle. There are even certain genes that make it easier to gain muscle compared to other people. The point being that two people who put in the same effort in the gym can have different results. This just means to focus on yourself and don’t always compare yourself to others.

Fact 22: Mind-Muscle Connection Works

Another example of how genetics play a role in lifting is found in fact number 25: your limbs can dictate what exercises you perform. For example, individuals with long legs and short torsos are better suited for the sumo deadlift. On the contrary, those with short legs generally do better with conventional ones. This is also why your perfect form for certain exercises will look different from another person’s.

Fact 23: Training with a Partner Leads to Better Gains

Fact number 26 is very important, at least if you want to have a functional core. And it’s that your core’s primary job is NOT to perform crunches. The best way to train a muscle is to look at its function. With that in mind, how often do you walk around while crunching over repeatedly? The answer is that you don’t. Rather, you stand straight and tall. This is because your abs are built to stiffen the core in an isometric fashion to prevent movement in the spine. For example, if you are suddenly jerked, your abs stiffen to prevent shock to the spine. Performance-wise, they stiffen so that you can generate power by rotating at the hips, such as when swinging a baseball bat. With that said, include anti-rotation exercises in your program, such as Pallof press, wood chops, and suitcase carries.

Fact 24: Genetics Play a Role in Progress

Speaking about your abs, we need to talk about number 27: your core includes your abs, but not only your abs. When people hear core, they think abs. The core does include the abs, but it also includes your erector spinae or the lower back. Some go as far as to say the core even includes the entire torso. Regardless, when you do core training, be sure you’re training your lower back as well, or you may suffer from a muscle imbalance. The good thing is anti-rotation exercises work well also, but include some movements, such as back extensions.

Fact 25: Limbs Dictate Exercises

For fact number 28, we’re going to talk about grip, specifically the fact that it’s another great indicator of mortality. Out of all training goals,

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