The Huberman Muscle-Building Protocol

written by JOSH GESSNER | The Curious Competitor

Most people are horrible at building muscle.

So I spent 10+ hours binging Andrew Huberman podcasts.

What I found?

The Huberman Muscle-Building Protocol:

We're taught that we need to lift to grow our muscles.

But most people don’t know what is actually required for a muscle to grow.

This is a problem, because most of us are training the wrong way.

Our muscles are controlled by our nervous system.

The nervous system is what tells our muscles to:

• Contract

• Relax

• And... Grow.

Muscles are slaves to the nervous system.

So how do we make the nervous system tell our muscles to grow?

Expose our muscles to 1 of these 3 stimuli:

1) Stress

2) Tension

3) Damage

You might think the best way to induce these stimuli is lifting heavy weight.

But what's most important:

The intensity of the contraction.

The harder the contraction, the more stimulus for the muscle.

This brings us to protocol #1)

Mind Muscle Connection.

For hypertrophy:

• Instead of lifting your max weight,

• Contract the muscle as hard as possible

• Almost like the muscle is about to cramp.

But you can't just lift with any weight.

Protocol #2) Use weights in between 30 - 80% of your 1 rep max.

The number of reps doesn't matter.

What matters: Performing these sets close to failure.

By the end of the set you should only be able to squeeze out 1-2 additional reps.

Protocol #3) Perform 5-15 sets per muscle group, per week.

Generally performing closer to 15 sets will yield better results.

But as long you're getting 5 near-failure sets per week, you will see results.

So now we know to maximize muscle growth:

1) Focus on contracting the muscle as hard as possible

2) Use 30-80% of your 1RM, and get close to failure

3) perform 5-15 sets per muscle group, per week.

Combining his knowledge, Huberman created a lifting program: ⬇️

Lower Body:

• Quadriceps: leg extension/hack squats

• Hamstrings: leg curls/glute-ham-raises

• Calves: standing raises/seated raises

Week 1: 3 sets of 8~15, 90 secs rest

Week 2: 3 sets of 4~8, 2~4 min rest

Upper Body:

• Chest: Incline press/cable crossover

• Back: Pull-up/seated row/DB row

• Shoulders: shoulder press/lateral raises,

rear deltoid flies

• Neck Exercises

Week 1: 3 sets of 8~15, 90 secs rest

Week 2: 3 sets of 4~8, 2~4 min rest

Accessory Day:

• Biceps: incline curl/dumbbell curls

• Triceps: overhead extensions/triceps dips

or regular dips

• Calves: standing calf raise/seated calf

raise, tibialis raises

• Neck Exercises

Week 1: 3 sets of 8~15, 90 secs rest

Week 2: 3 sets of 4~8, 2~4 min rest

Boom. That's it!

Source:

https://www.hubermanlab.com/newsletter/foundational-fitness-protocol