#455 The Optimal Plan to Build Muscle & Lose Fat - Menno Henselmans

Menno Henselmans (0:00)

It's simply the total amount of hard sets you do per week. That's gonna be the number one driver of muscle growth. The average gym goer trains some 7 to 10 reps away from failure. That is simply the number one reason that they still look the same when you get to the gym. Two years later, you see the same person, they look exactly the same.

Siim Land (0:16)

Menno, welcome back to the show. Pleasure. Yeah, I'm glad to have you, and we're gonna do like an overview of the latest strategies and most optimal strategies to build muscle, lose fat and improve body composition. But I want to start with, is there anything surprising or very like interesting that has been discovered recently over the last few years, maybe about body composition and muscle growth that we didn't know before?

Menno Henselmans (0:44)

I would say that for muscle growth, some of the most important findings have been the emphasis on length mediated hypertrophy or stretch mediated hypertrophy, that the long-length exercises generally seem to be better than most other exercises. And this largely explains the findings of full range of motion generally being superior. So we used to say full range of motion is best, and you want the extra range of motion. And we knew, or experts knew, that it's not the actual joint range of motion that matters. It's the functional excursion. It's the change in muscle length. But it seems that it's specifically going to longer muscle lengths that is important for muscle growth. So if you increase the range of motion by going to a shorter muscle length, that doesn't actually seem to be beneficial. So that explains why, if you squat deeper, if you lower the bar more during a bench pass, that's just generally advantageous. But it means that locking out, for example, at the top may not be necessary. So that's one trend of research that we have a lot of studies on. We're still gathering a lot more information because the initial studies seem to be extremely positive. But then, as more research came out, as often there's some regression towards the mean, and we see that the effect is much smaller than believed, and maybe context dependent as well.

Siim Land (2:00)

Gotcha. So one example of that would be like the lat pull down, right? If you go to the top, then you can really stretch it out, then pull it down, so that's a longer range of motion, and it would result in greater hypertrophy.

Menno Henselmans (2:10)

Exactly. And so it appears that that's beneficial, but it may not be so beneficial or necessary to really lower it all the way down to your chest. So if you would consistently lower it to just below the chin, that's probably equally good. Now, I do still like lowering it to the chest for some purposes, because you cannot fake it. Like the bar either touches your chest or it doesn't. And what you often see if people, they lower it kind of to below the chin, then it starts going here, and then they start moving up the head instead of pulling the bar down. And then it's a bit of a slippery slope when it comes to cheating and technique.

Siim Land (2:43)

Yeah. And I do remember like pro bodybuilders, when or if you look at pro bodybuilders doing like a chest press, then they don't lock their elbows out at the top completely. They kind of go a few degrees off, and then the biggest stimulus comes at the bottom anyway. Yeah.

Menno Henselmans (3:02)

I would say that pro bodybuilders, some of them do things right intuitively, but there are also a lot that don't use floor and smudge at the bottom either. So they just kind of stay in mid-range, which is probably also not ideal.

Siim Land (3:15)

Yeah. Anything in the diet world surprising?

Menno Henselmans (3:20)

Most research has come down to the conclusion of energy balance being the main determinant. Protein intake is debated again, with some research indicating higher intakes than previously believed may be beneficial. The support for that is quite weak though. Less research or more research has found that carbohydrates are not as important as many people thought. I've long been skeptical of carbohydrates being necessary for strength sports. But now research has been, I mean, I wouldn't say completely conclusive, but quite strong that carbohydrates have a very small role, if any, for muscle growth and strength development.

Siim Land (3:57)

Yeah. And that's because you utilize glycogen for, you know, these are strength-based movements. But if you do, let's say, five, even 10 reps, then you're not using that much glycogen that you would need to consume carbohydrates for, like your body would replenish the glycogen even without carbs. But, you know, consuming carbs would do it like a little bit faster, right?