Jim Stoppani has been lifting weights for longer than most fitness influencers have been alive.
“I’v been training since I was a young kid, probably 7 or 8,” he told Business Insider. “My father built an amazing gym in our basement and I wanted to hang out with my dad, so I was down there learning the principles of weightlifting.”
Now at 58, with a PhD in exercise physiology, his own supplement brand, and a renowned research career, Stoppani has learned from decades of scientific study and first-hand experience what it takes to pack on lean muscle.
He recommends three strategies everyone should know to make the most of every workout for optimal gains.
Diversify your fitness portfolio
One thing Stoppani has learned over his years in fitness is that progress will plateau — unless you make smart training decisions and plan ahead.
The human body has natural limits in how much strength or muscle mass we can achieve. As you work out and get stronger, you’ll get closer to those limits, but additional gains become increasingly more difficult to earn.
Instead of fighting for diminishing returns, diversify your fitness with different elements like power, agility, mobility, and stamina to get the most bang for your buck in the gym.
“I’m not going to put on 20 pounds of muscle at my age and with so many years under my training belt,” Stoppani said. “So why should I come in here and train like a bodybuilder every day?”
To free up time to work on different skills without losing gains, Stoppani often uses a technique called a superset. A superset involves alternating between two exercises that recruit different muscles, with little to no break in between. Doing so allows one muscle group to rest while the other is working, cutting out your downtime in the gym (and potentially burning more fat in the process).
Stoppani uses the extra time to work on yoga, stretching, and cardio, to avoid any weak points in his fitness.
“The thing that I recommend as you get older is to be less singular in your goals and more well-rounded,” he said.
Hit the right intensity
A concept called “reps in reserve” can help make sure you’re pushing hard enough to make the most of your workouts, according to Stoppani.
At the end of each set, think about how many more reps you could do, if you really had to.
Too many reps in reserve, and you’re leaving gains on the table. For instance, if you finish a set of 10 reps, and feel like you could easily do 10 more, you should increase your weight or reps until it feels challenging.
However, you don’t have to push to your absolute limit with every set. Working to total muscle failure, the most you can possibly lift, comes with a risk of injury, and isn’t necessary if you aren’t a competitive athlete.
For average gym-goers, the sweet spot for building muscle is one to three reps in reserve, said Stoppani.
He recommends waiting until the last set to push closer to failure, and ending the set when you’re too tired to complete the exercise with proper form.
“The key to turning on muscle growth is getting closer to muscle failure,” he said.
Change your rep range
Forget what you’ve seen from fitness influencers. There’s no magic number when it comes to making your muscles bigger or “toning” them.
Building muscle is all about challenging your body, whether you’re lifting heavy weights for a few reps, or light weights for a lot of reps, according to Stoppani.
But your choice of weights can lead to slightly different results over time: heavier weights are ideal for getting stronger, while lighter weights help to maximize the signal for muscle tissue to grow.
As a result, using a variety of strategies can help you make better progress in the long run.
“The biggest misconception is that you can just use one rep range and stick to that forever,” Stoppani said. “You’re eventually going to stop getting the same results because you’re providing the body the same stress over and over and over again.”
Prevent your gains from stalling with a periodization plan, breaking up your training into sections of 6 to 12 weeks each. For instance, you might start with sets of six to eight reps, focusing on building strength, and after two months, switch to sets of 10 to 12 reps help boost muscle growth.
“The best way to build muscle is with change,” Stoppani said.
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