Teretana

Key Insight

● Muscles are the currency of longevity and health. Gym (resistance training) best activates positive hormonal responses of the body for muscle growth (increase in muscle mass) and provides the most evident ROI on time and effort.

● We already said there are two ways to train with weights: hypertrophy (increase in muscle size) and strength (increase in strength with the same muscle mass). Both are useful and somewhat work in synergy, so it’s advisable to do one method for 1–3 months, then the other for the same duration and cycle back.

● How do hypertrophy and strength trainings differ? By the number of repetitions and load. First determine the maximal load you can use to perform one correct repetition of a given exercise (“One Rep Max”). ○ For hypertrophy we work with weights that are 30–80% of that load so that we perform between 10 and 20 repetitions and with the last repetition we can’t do another. It’s not necessary to lift crazy weights to stimulate muscle growth. ○ For strength we work with weights around 85% of that load so we perform up to 5 repetitions (and even if we could do a sixth one, we don’t). ○ In both cases we perform a few warm‑up sets with lighter weights than those we plan to use for the work sets.

● In the gym we should perform 10–20 sets of exercises (one set is between 5 and 20 repetitions) per muscle group weekly (5 sets minimum to maintain muscle mass) with 2–6 minute rests between sets and total workout time under 60 minutes. Muscle soreness is not required for progress, and excessive soreness is not desirable (goal around 3 out of 10). Compound and free‑weight exercises are better than isolation exercises (e.g., squat is better than leg press).

● Exposure to cold, massage and sauna aid recovery. For massage you can use a Theragun (a bit pricey but the best on the market) or another massager. Since I bought a Theragun my recovery is about 20% faster, and I’ve even managed to heal some long‑standing tendon issues.

● “I don’t want to look too bulky, so I don’t want to train a lot or take a lot of protein” - It’s important to understand that people who look bulky use very large amounts of anabolic steroids, which is why they look that way (and many deny that look came from steroids). Unless you have exceptionally rare genetics you won’t look that way no matter how much you train or how much protein you take, so give your maximum in every workout and every meal.