Comment by senko
7 hours ago
This is a physiology research article published in a physiology journal, not a Tiktoken influencer peddling "get ripped fast" schemes.
In an ironic twist, you then proceed to peddle your own. In a single paragraph you added more contentious "advice" than in the entire article you're dismissing.
> Stop reading these studies thinking there is some optimal way! It's just hard work over time.
"Hard work" and "learning new things" are not mutually exclusive. Stop presuming you know what I think while I'm reading these studies.
To be charitable to both the article and the OP - his advice of “hard work over time” is still good advice.
I think many people tend to get stuck in premature optimization, which can take the fun away and thus you end up quitting. I did that a few times, so it might be a me-thing.
Nowadays I exercise 4x/week without really worrying about a strategy or about optimal protein intake etc.
But then again, nowadays my goal is just to live healthy rather than gain strength.
Going further, you don't even need to count your reps or track how much weight you're lifting. Literally just do any exercise with any weight per muscle group to near failure for 2-5 sets. Rest the muscle groups you targeted the next 1-3 days, and be consistent every week. Bodyweight, free weights, machines, bands, kettlebells, etc. are all fine. That gets you 80-90% of the benefit with no stress.
Still, a "given all else, this optimal thing giving +1% growth" is negligible percentage, when all the other mentioned factors are several orders of magnitude more important.
My point is, simply doing it consistently, even if slightly less optimally, will trivially surpass anything else in the long run and there are no "silver bullets" in training.
The only importance is safety, avoiding injuring oneself.
Also, the article also states this: "RET-induced hypertrophy is mediated to a far greater degree by inherent endogenous biological factors"