Muscle by Science

The fitness industry is dominated by bullshit that ranges from stupid weight training advice to bogus supplements. When you read an article that claims to be scientific, most of the time you just get vague scientific statements that aren’t backed up by any evidence. Sometimes you get confident references to physics.“You can’t build muscle if you are in a calorie deficit. It violates the laws of thermodynamics”. Okay… if that’s true how do people that have lost large amounts of weight end up stronger at the end of their weight loss journey than before? Sometimes you get contradiction “If you train to failure, you won’t grow” as well as “You should always train to failure. If you don’t work you won’t grow!” Sometimes you get exaggeration, “Eat as much protein as possible”. And my personal favorite, the false analogy: “Think of your body as a car…” No. I will not think of my body as a car. If you put gasoline in a car it can run for hundreds of miles. I cannot run for hundreds of miles, and if you put gasoline inside me I will die. My body is not a car, and neither is yours.

This short but to the point book is an attempt to get beyond all of that. We focus on weight training and supplements. We look at actual scientific papers and cite the ones we have space for. Even if we don’t cite it, we will tell you how to find the actual study yourself if you are interested. First, we will review the scientific literature for how you should actually weight train. Then we will talk about the diet you need to build muscle. Next, we tell you which supplements are effective for muscle building and weight loss. Afterwards, we tell you something interesting about hormones that is rarely discussed, and we fill you in on all of those random thermogenics you find at GNC. Hydroxycut, Xendarine, etc. Most importantly, we show you a scientifically designed weight training program using bicep curls as an example. The program can be followed exactly if you happen to be interested in bulging biceps (who isn’t?) but its structure can be easily replicated using any exercises. So are you up for the challenge?