Least resistance
- Reduce transaction costs to engaging in productive behavior
- Erect transaction cost to engaging counter-productive behavior
- Minimize opportunity cost. Do what you’re best doing, and partner with specialists when you need to do something else
Growing muscles
- To gain weight, you must eat more calories than you burn.
- When you gain weight, some will be fat and some will be muscle.
- To gain muscle, you must eat protein.
- To boost the ratio of muscle to fat gain, you must exercise.
- To gain muscle and strength, you must engage in resistance exercise.
- To prioritize strength over size gains, aim for 2-6 repetitions per exercise, where failure occurs on the last repetition.
- To prioritize size over strength gains, aim for 8-12 repetitions per exercise, where failure occurs on the last repetition.
- To maximize gains per unit of exercise, do not work the same muscle group two days in a row.
Basic Rules
- To continue gaining strength, you must increase resistance.
- To optimize strength and size gains, vary repetitions over time.
- To improve bodyfat percentage and gain weight, you must cycle through phases of gaining muscle and losing fat.
- Rest thoroughly.
Form the habit first
- Developing an exercise habit is more important than the specific exercise you do.
- Do it on three non-consecutive days a week for about half an hour.
- Eat protein every meal, and before and after exercise
- 0.8 – 2 grams per kilogram of bodyweight per day
- Hydrolized whey, “pre-digested.”
- While gaining weight, I aim for about 20 sets of 8-12 reps to failure.
- While cutting fat, I aim for about 15 sets of 4-8 reps to failure.
- If it can handle more sets, do more sets. If you’re sore days later, do less.
Supplements
- Creatine
- Whey Protein
- Vitamin D
Measuring progress
- Keep a spreadsheet to track 1, 5, 8, 10 and 12 rep maximums.
- Record the weight at which the muscle fails for the given number of reps.
- Track maximums to ensure progressive overload.
If you hit 12 reps, it’s time to increase the weight.