🏋️‍♂️ 5 easy keys to build more muscle

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Here’s what’s on tap in this edition:

• What’s important (and not) for muscle growth

• Five key takeaways for a better lat pulldown workout

• Eddie Hall’s carnivore diet calorie breakdown

Training Tips

The Importance of Being Earnestly Muscular

There’s some wild advice on the internet about how to build muscle. With access to every bit of data ever collected on the subject, you’d think it would make the acquisition of valuable mass-building knowledge easier.

Unfortunately, the stacks and stacks of information can sometimes make it harder than ever to decipher what is of value and what needs to be chucked out. Bodybuilding coach Joe Bennett wants to clear up this untidy mess of knowledge with these five simple factors for muscle growth (along with five ignorable tidbits that just really aren’t that important at all).

An often-forgotten principle essential to success in any endeavor leads the way for Bennett: enjoyment. If you don’t like being in the gym, you’re probably not going to be there very often. The “unimportant” section includes 90% of the hand-wringing and arguing done on the internet, like finding the perfect volume load and body part split. 

It’s time to test how committed you really are to building muscle by checking in with your adherence to the essentials.

A Message From NativePath

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NativePath’s grass-fed collagen powder features a premium formula that absorbs rapidly, rebuilding strength and enhancing beauty from within. Simply add one or two scoops to your daily routine and witness the transformative effects.

Exercises

Lat Expansion

Misusing the lat pulldown is like hitting the drive-thru rather than going home to cook—it’s lazy and unproductive to your goals.

Bodybuilder and influencer Jeff Nippard uses his expert training knowledge to help coach up the general populace and pump your back muscles up the right way.

An essential key to the lat pulldown is deceptively difficult — actually feeling the lats. Getting a nice long stretch at the top can help turn on your proprioception, as can battling the weight back up with longer negatives. Since you know you’re going to be sauntering over to the lat pulldown to have a seat at some point during next week’s workouts, you might as well let Nippard help you get the most out of it.

Nutrition

Heaps of Meat

It’s a shame for Eddie Hall that the woolly mammoth died out thousands of years ago. One or two of those bad boys would fit into his extreme version of the carnivore diet perfectly.

Opting for a radical shift in his eating habits deep into his competitive retirement, Hall is committing to a diet consisting entirely of organic eggs and meat for the next three months in a bid to revamp his body composition. In his case, low carbs definitely don’t mean low calories. Check out the insane lengths Hall is going to in order to continue to fuel his body while staying on a strict carnivore diet.

Everything Else

All About Alani

• Check out our review of Alani Nu, a pre-workout targeting women that can (and should) be used by anyone needing a boost. (Pro tip: The “Rainbow Candy” flavor is the bee’s knees.)

• Sticking in hamstring curls before you squat can open up a world of weak-point development and activation you can’t get by always going in a traditional “big to small” exercise order.

• Chris Bumstead’s coach, Justin King, isn’t letting the five-time reigning champion just rest on his laurels. In this interview, the new wunderkind of hypertrophy shares his adventures in the land of bodybuilding.