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Huberman 讨论了如何建立肌肉力量和尺寸（肥大），介绍了增强运动表现和抵消与年龄相关的肌肉衰退的关键训练原则。解释了神经系统如何驱动肌肉运动，增肌训练和力量训练之间的关键区别，以及用于增强运动表现和健康老龄化的阻力训练方案。讨论了评估恢复的工具以及肌酸和电解质等关键营养素在支持肌肉发育和运动表现中的作用。

增强运动能力，随着年龄增长保持力量，并提高能量水平。 神经系统通过上运动神经元、下运动神经元和中央模式发生器来控制肌肉。上运动神经元负责有意识的运动，下运动神经元将信号传递到肌肉，中央模式发生器负责有节奏的运动。 增肌（肥大）和增强力量的训练方法有所不同。

增肌的重点是隔离特定神经肌肉通路，以刺激肌肉中的化学和信号转导事件，从而使肌肉增大。增强力量的重点是将肌肉作为一个系统来使用，移动负重、阻力和身体。

三个主要刺激因素是压力、张力和损伤。在30%到80%的一重复最大重量范围内进行训练对肌肉肥大和力量增长最有效。每周每块肌肉至少进行5组训练可以维持肌肉，更多组数可以增强肌肉力量。快速移动中等重量的负重有助于提高爆发力和速度。 可以通过握力、心率变异性和二氧化碳耐受性测试来评估恢复情况。

冰浴可能会干扰肌肉修复和生长，非甾体类抗炎药也可能影响运动带来的益处。 足够的盐分、肌酸和亮氨酸对肌肉性能至关重要。肌酸可以提高力量输出并减少疲劳。每餐摄入700到3000毫克的亮氨酸很重要。

肌肉运动并非简单的收缩，而是由复杂的神经系统精密控制。这套系统主要由三个部分构成：

• 上运动神经元 (UMN): 位于大脑皮层运动区，负责我们有意识的、精确的肌肉运动。
• 下运动神经元 (LMN): 位于脊髓，将UMN的指令传递到肌肉纤维，通过释放乙酰胆碱引发肌肉收缩。
• 中央模式发生器 (CPG): 也位于脊髓，控制那些无需刻意思考的、有节奏的运动，例如行走。

很多人混淆了增肌（肥大）和力量训练。两者目标不同，训练方法也应有所区别：

• 增肌 (Hypertrophy): 目标是增加肌肉尺寸。训练重点在于隔离特定肌肉，使其承受最大程度的压力，刺激肌肉纤维生长。这需要精确控制肌肉收缩，甚至可以达到肌肉酸痛的程度。
• 力量训练 (Strength Training): 目标是增强肌肉力量。训练重点在于整体肌肉群的协调运作，移动更大重量的负重，提升整体力量水平。

肌肉的生长和强化，依赖于三个关键刺激因素：压力、张力、损伤。 并非所有因素都需要同时存在，但压力是必不可少的。

基于大量研究，推荐以下训练方案：

• 重量选择: 在30%到80%的一重复最大重量 (1RM) 范围内进行训练，效果最佳。这并非意味着必须使用超重重量，中等重量的训练同样有效。
• 训练量: 每周每块肌肉至少进行5组训练，以维持肌肉质量。想要增强肌肉力量和尺寸，则需要增加训练组数，范围可达10-15组甚至更多。训练组数的多少，也取决于训练的强度。建议10%的训练组数进行高强度训练，直至肌肉力竭。
• 训练速度: 快速移动中等重量的负重，有助于提高爆发力和速度。这需要在控制好的前提下，尽可能快速地完成动作。
• 肌肉隔离: 精准控制肌肉收缩，最大程度地刺激目标肌肉，对于增肌至关重要。

训练后的恢复，对于肌肉生长和力量提升至关重要。以下三个工具可以帮助评估恢复情况：

• 握力测试: 清晨醒来后，测试握力。握力下降显著，可能表明神经肌肉系统尚未完全恢复。
• 心率变异性 (HRV): 虽然测量HRV较为复杂，但能反映神经系统整体的恢复状态。
• 二氧化碳耐受性测试: 清晨醒来后，深吸一口气，然后尽可能缓慢地呼气，测量呼气时间。呼气时间越长，表明恢复越好。

• 冰浴: 冰浴虽然能减轻炎症和肌肉酸痛，但可能干扰肌肉修复和生长过程，建议谨慎使用。
• 非甾体类抗炎药 (NSAIDs): 这类药物可能影响运动带来的益处，建议在训练前后4小时内避免服用。
• 营养补充: 足够的盐分、肌酸和亮氨酸对肌肉性能至关重要。肌酸可以提高力量输出并减少疲劳，建议每天摄入5克左右。每餐摄入700到3000毫克的亮氨酸也很重要，这可以通过摄入富含蛋白质的食物来实现。

增肌、增强力量是一个循序渐进的过程，需要科学的训练方法和合理的恢复策略。通过理解神经肌肉系统的运作机制，选择合适的训练重量和组数，并定期评估恢复情况，你就能有效地提升运动表现，保持肌肉力量，延缓衰老。 记住，持续的努力和科学的训练方法，才是获得理想成果的关键。

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00:55 肌肉对于运动表现和长寿至关重要。

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01:11 神经系统通过神经元及其与肌肉的连接来控制肌肉运动，营养和恢复也至关重要。

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01:39 肌肉生长和柔韧性增强发生在训练后，而非训练期间。

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02:24 神经系统通过上运动神经元、下运动神经元和中央模式发生器控制肌肉运动。

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06:40 增强肌肉力量可以抵消与年龄相关的肌肉衰退。

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07:20 Henneman大小原则描述了我们如何以从低阈值到高阈值的方式募集运动单位。

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08:53 并非只有举重物才能募集高阈值运动单位，中等重量也能达到效果。

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10:23 肌肉变化的三个主要刺激因素是压力、张力和损伤。

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11:47 增肌（肥大）的目标是隔离特定神经肌肉通路，而增强的目标是将肌肉作为一个系统来使用。

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13:21 在30%到80%的一重复最大重量范围内进行训练对肌肉肥大和力量增长最有效。

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13:38 每周每块肌肉至少进行5组训练可以维持肌肉，更多组数可以增强肌肉力量。

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15:24 每周每块肌肉进行5到15组中等强度的阻力训练对大多数人来说最有效。

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19:38 快速移动中等重量的负重有助于提高爆发力和速度。

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21:04 组间休息时间约为两分钟，可促进肥大和力量增长。

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21:46 可以通过握力、心率变异性和二氧化碳耐受性测试来评估恢复情况。

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22:39 早晨醒来时进行握力测试可以评估整体恢复情况。

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26:45 二氧化碳耐受性测试可以客观地评估神经系统的恢复情况。

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29:32 冰浴可能会干扰肌肉修复和生长。

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30:23 非甾体类抗炎药可能会影响运动带来的益处。

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30:50 足够的盐分、肌酸和亮氨酸对肌肉性能至关重要。

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32:15 肌酸可以提高力量输出并减少疲劳。

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32:47 每餐摄入700到3000毫克的亮氨酸很重要。

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Edit:2025.04.11<markdown>

这一期节目中探讨了肌肉健康的重要性，不仅对运动员表现至关重要，还对整体生活和长寿有深远影响。节目强调神经系统与肌肉之间的复杂关系，解释了神经元如何控制肌肉的运动。节目将涉及一些营养学主题，特别是某种氨基酸在肌肉生长中的关键作用。此外，节目还讨论了恢复的重要性，因为肌肉的生长和灵活性提升实际上发生在训练之后，而非训练过程中。

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胡伯曼详细讲解了神经系统如何通过三种主要机制控制肌肉：

1. ​​上运动神经元​​：位于大脑的运动皮层，负责有意识的、刻意运动。
2. ​​下运动神经元​​：位于脊髓，通过轴突将信号传递到肌肉，导致肌肉收缩。这一过程依赖于化学物质乙酰胆碱。
3. ​​中枢模式发生器​​：负责调节节奏性运动，如步行或跑步，这些运动通常是反射性的，不需要刻意控制。

当进行刻意运动时，上运动神经元通过“自上而下”的控制方式主导系统。而在节奏性运动中，CPG和运动神经元协同工作，使运动自动化。

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肌肉不仅仅是力量的象征，在日常生活中无处不在。无论是说话、坐立、提起物体，还是呼吸和行走，肌肉都至关重要。当谈论肌肉时，不能仅仅关注其“肉质”部分，还要关注控制肌肉的神经系统。

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“亨内曼大小原则”（Henneman Size Principle），这是肌肉生理学的一个基础理论。该原则指出，肌肉通过募集运动单位（即神经与肌肉的连接）来控制力量和运动。募集的顺序是从低阈值到高阈值，这意味着在轻负荷运动时，系统会优先使用较少的神经肌肉连接，而在重负荷运动时，则会募集更多的连接。

有趣的是，研究表明，肌肉的生长和力量提升并不一定需要非常重的重量。重量在最大负荷的30%到80%之间都可以有效刺激肌肉生长。这一发现颠覆了许多人对“只有举大重量才能增肌”的误解。

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三个主要的肌肉刺激因素：​​压力、张力和损伤​​。训练的效果取决于如何有效地刺激这些因素。具体来说：

• ​​压力​​：通过逐渐增加负荷来刺激肌肉适应。
• ​​张力​​：通过肌肉收缩产生力量。
• ​​损伤​​：适度的肌肉损伤可以触发修复和生长。

训练的频率和体积同样重要。研究表明，每周进行5到15组训练（每组针对特定肌肉群）可以有效促进肌肉生长和力量提升。对于初学者来说，每周5组训练即可维持肌肉质量，而10到15组则可以显著提升肌肉力量和体积。

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恢复在肌肉生长中的关键作用。肌肉的生长和修复实际上发生在训练之后，而非训练过程中。恢复的关键在于确保神经系统有足够的时间重新连接和适应。

介绍了两种简单易行的恢复测试方法：

1. ​​握力测试​​：通过测量早晨的握力来评估神经系统的恢复情况。如果握力显著下降，可能表明恢复不足。
2. ​​二氧化碳耐受测试​​：通过测量呼出二氧化碳的速度来评估恢复状态。较长的呼出时间（65到120秒）通常表明神经系统已完全恢复。

此外，冷疗（如冰浴）和非甾体抗炎药（NSAIDs）可能会干扰肌肉修复和生长，因此应谨慎使用。

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几种对肌肉健康至关重要的营养素：

1. ​​盐分​​：钠是神经元和肌肉通信的关键离子。足够的盐分摄入对于维持神经肌肉功能至关重要。
2. ​​肌酸​​：研究表明，每天摄入5克肌酸可以显著提高力量输出（12%到20%），并改善肌肉的水合状态。
3. ​​亮氨酸​​：作为必需氨基酸之一，亮氨酸对肌肉修复和生长尤为重要。建议每餐摄入700到3000毫克亮氨酸，最好通过高质量蛋白质（如肉类、鱼类、鸡蛋）摄取。

植物性蛋白虽然可以支持肌肉生长，但其必需氨基酸密度较低，因此需要更仔细地规划饮食。

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* 肌肉健康不仅关乎力量，还涉及日常生活的方方面面。

• 神经系统通过上运动神经元、下运动神经元和CPG控制肌肉。
• 肌肉生长可以通过中等重量（30%到80%的最大负荷）和高频率训练实现。
• 恢复是肌肉生长的关键，需关注神经系统的恢复状态。
• 营养摄入（如盐分、肌酸和亮氨酸）对肌肉健康至关重要。

根据自身需求制定训练计划，并通过科学的恢复策略和营养补充来优化肌肉生长和整体健康。

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本期节目深入探讨了肌肉健康的科学基础，从神经系统的作用到营养和恢复策略，为听众提供了全面的知识框架。胡伯曼通过通俗易懂的语言和生动的案例，让复杂的科学原理变得易于理解。无论是健身爱好者还是普通听众，都能从中获得实用的建议和启发。

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Edit:2025.04.11<markdown>

00:00

Welcome to Huberman Lab Essentials, where we revisit past episodes for the most potent and actionable science-based tools for mental health, physical health, and performance. I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. This podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is, however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero-cost-to-consumer information about science and science-related tools to the general public.

00:29

Today, I want to talk about something that is vitally important for not just athletic performance, but for your entire life and indeed for your longevity, and that's muscle. And one of the things that's exquisite and fantastic about the human brain is that it can direct all sorts of different kinds of movement, different speeds of movement, movement of different durations, all of that.

00:55

is governed by the relationship between the nervous system, neurons, and their connections to muscle. So today, as always, we're going to talk a little bit of mechanism. I'm going to explain how neurons control muscle. We will touch on some nutritional themes.

01:11

and how that relates to muscle in particular, a specific amino acid that if it's available in your bloodstream frequently enough and at sufficient levels can help you build and improve the quality of muscle. We are also going to talk about recovery. That's when muscle grows, that's when muscle gets more flexible. None of that actually happens during training, it happens after training. Most people, when they hear the word muscle, they just think about strength.

01:39

But of course, muscles are involved in everything that we do. They are involved in speaking. They're involved in sitting and standing up. They're involved in lifting objects, including ourselves. They are absolutely essential for maintaining how we breathe. They're absolutely essential for ambulation, for moving and for skills of any kind. So

02:02

When we think about muscle, we don't just want to think about muscle, the meat that is muscle, but what controls that muscle. And no surprise, what controls muscle is the nervous system. The nervous system does that through three main nodes of control. Basically, we have upper motor neurons in our motor cortex. So those are in our skull.

02:24

and those are involved in deliberate movement. Those upper motor neurons send signals down to my spinal cord where there are two categories of neurons,

02:32

One are the lower motor neurons and those lower motor neurons send little wires that we call axons out to our muscles and cause those muscles to contract. They do that by dumping chemicals onto the muscle. In fact, the chemical is acetylcholine. Now there's another category of neurons in the spinal cord called central pattern generators or CPGs. And those are involved in rhythmic movements.

02:57

Anytime we're walking or doing something where we don't have to think about it to do it deliberately, it's just happening reflexively, that central pattern generators and motor neurons. Anytime we're doing something deliberately, the top-down control, as we call it, from the upper motor neurons comes in and takes control of that system. So it's really simple. You've only got three ingredients. You've got the upper motor neurons, the lower motor neurons, and for rhythmic movements that are reflexive, you've also got the central pattern generators.

03:23

I'd like to take a quick break and acknowledge our sponsor, Eight Sleep. Eight Sleep makes smart mattress covers with cooling, heating, and sleep tracking capacity. Now I've spoken before on this podcast about the critical need for us to get adequate amounts of quality sleep each and every night. Now, one of the best ways to ensure a great night's sleep is to ensure that the temperature of your sleeping environment is correct.

03:44

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04:07

even colder in the middle of the night, and warm as I wake up. That's what gives me the most slow-wave sleep and rapid eye movement sleep. And I know that because Eight Sleep has a great sleep tracker that tells me how well I've slept and the types of sleep that I'm getting throughout the night. Their latest model, the Pod 4 Ultra, also has snoring detection that will automatically lift your head a few degrees in order to improve your airflow and stop you from snoring. If you decide to try Eight Sleep, you have 30 days to try it at home, and you can return it if you don't like it. No questions asked.

04:35

but I'm sure that you'll love it. Go to 8sleep.com slash Huberman to save up to $350 off your Pod 4 Ultra. 8Sleep ships to many countries worldwide, including Mexico and the UAE. Again, that's 8sleep.com slash Huberman to save up to $350 off your Pod 4 Ultra. Today's episode is also brought to us by Element. Element is a company that's been

04:55

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05:12

It's also important that you get adequate electrolytes. The electrolytes, sodium, magnesium, and potassium, are vital for the functioning of all the cells in your body, especially your neurons, or your nerve cells. Drinking element dissolved in water makes it extremely easy to ensure that you're getting adequate hydration and adequate electrolytes.

05:29

To make sure that I'm getting proper amounts of hydration and electrolytes, I dissolve one packet of Element in about 16 to 32 ounces of water when I wake up in the morning and I drink that basically first thing in the morning. I also drink Element dissolved in water during any kind of physical exercise that I'm doing. They have a bunch of different great tasting flavors of Element.

05:46

They have watermelon, citrus, et cetera. Frankly, I love them all. If you'd like to try Element, you can go to drinkelement.com/huberman to claim an Element sample pack with the purchase of any Element drink mix. Again, that's drinkelement.com/huberman to claim a free sample pack. I'd now like to shift our attention to how to use specific aspects of muscular contraction to improve muscle hypertrophy, muscle growth, as well as improving muscle strength.

06:14

There are a lot of reasons to want to get stronger. And I should just mention that it's not always the case that getting stronger involves muscles getting bigger. There are ways for muscles to get stronger without getting bigger. However, increasing the size of a muscle almost inevitably increases the strength of that muscle, at least to some degree. Reasons why most everyone should want to get their muscles stronger is that

06:40

muscles are generally getting progressively weaker across the lifespan. So when I say getting stronger, it's not necessarily about being able to move increasing amounts of weight in the gym.

06:52

but rather to offset some of the normal decline in strength and posture and the ability to generate a large range of movement safely that occurs as we age. So there's an important principle of muscle physiology called the Henneman size principle. And the Henneman size principle essentially says that we recruit what are called motor units. Motor units are just the connections between nerve and muscle.

07:20

in a pattern that staircases from low threshold to high threshold. What this means is when you pick up something that is light, you're going to use the minimum amount of nerve to muscle energy in order to move that thing. Likewise, when you pick up an object that's heavy, you're going to use the minimum amount of nerve to muscle connectivity and energy in order to move that object.

07:46

So it's basically a conservation of energy principle. Now, if you continue to exert effort of movement, what will happen is you will tend to recruit more and more motor units with time. As you recruit more and more of these motor units, these connections between these lower motor neurons and muscle, that's when you start to get changes

08:09

in the muscle. That's when you open the gate for the potential for the muscles to get stronger and to get larger. And so the way this process works has been badly misunderstood in the kind of online literature of weight training and bodybuilding, and even in sports physiology.

08:28

The Henneman size principle is kind of a foundational principle within muscle physiology, but many people have come to interpret it by saying that the way to recruit high threshold motor units, the ones that are hard to get to is to just use heavy weights. And that's actually not the case. As we'll talk about the research supports that weights in a very large range

08:53

of sort of a percentage of your maximum, anywhere from 30 to 80%. So weights that are not very light, but are moderately light to heavy can cause changes in the connections between nerve and muscle that lead to muscle strength and muscle hypertrophy. Put differently, heavy weights can help build muscle and strength, but they are not required.

09:20

What one has to do is adhere to a certain number of parameters, just a couple of key variables that I'll spell out for you. And if you do that, you can greatly increase muscle hypertrophy, muscle size, and or muscle strength if that's what you want to do. And you don't necessarily have to use heavy weights in order to do that. Now, I'm sure the power lifters and the people that like to move heavy weights around

09:44

will say, no, if you want to get strong, you absolutely have to lift heavy weights. And that might be true if you want to get very strong, but for most people who are interested in supporting their muscular such that they offset any age-related decline in strength or in increasing hypertrophy and strength to some degree,

10:04

There really isn't a need to use the heaviest weights possible in order to build strength and muscle. So there are three major stimuli for changing the way that muscle works and making muscles stronger, larger, or better in some way. And those are stress, tension, and damage.

10:23

Those three things don't necessarily all have to be present, but stress of some kind has to exist. So this is very reminiscent of neuroplasticity in the brain. There is a good predictor of how well or how efficient you will be in building the strength and or if you like the size of a given muscle.

10:42

and it has everything to do with those upper motor neurons that are involved in deliberate control of muscle. You can actually do this test right now. You can just kind of march across your body mentally and see whether or not you can independently contract any or all of your muscles, because everything about muscle hypertrophy, about stimulating muscle growth,

11:05

is about generating isolated contractions, about challenging specific muscles in a very unnatural way. Whereas with strength, it's about using musculature as a system, moving weights, moving resistance, moving the body.

11:22

The specific goal of hypertrophy is to isolate specific nerve to muscle pathways so that you stimulate the chemical and signaling transduction events in muscles so that those muscles respond by getting larger. So there's a critical distinction in terms of getting stronger versus trying to get muscles to be larger hypertrophy per se. And it has to do with how much you isolate those muscles.

11:47

So you can nest this as a principle for yourself, which is if you want to get stronger, it's really about moving progressively greater loads or increasing the amount of weight that you move. Whereas if you're specifically interested in generating hypertrophy, it's all about trying to generate those really hard, almost painful localized contractions of muscle. If ever there was an area of practical science that was very confused, very controversial,

12:16

and almost combative at times, it would be this issue of how best to train. I suppose the only thing that's even more barbed wire of a conversation than that is how best to eat for health. Those seem to be the two most common areas of online battle. What's very clear now from all the literature is that

12:36

once you know roughly your one repetition maximum, the maximum amount of weight that you can perform an exercise with for one repetition in good form, full range of motion, that it's very clear that moving weights or using bands or using body weight, for instance,

12:59

in the 30 to 80% of one rep maximum, that is going to be the most beneficial range in terms of muscle hypertrophy and strength. So muscle growth and strength. So let's say you're somebody who's been doing some resistance exercise kind of on and off over the years, and you decide you want to get serious about that for sake of sport or offsetting age-related declines in strength.

13:21

The range of sets to do in order to improve strength ranges anywhere from two, believe it or not, to 20 per week. Again, these are sets per week and they don't necessarily all have to be performed in the same weight training session. It appears that five sets per week

13:38

in this 30% to 80% of the one repetition maximum range is what's required just to maintain your muscles. So think about that. If you're somebody who's kind of averse to resistance training, you are going to lose muscle size and strength. Your metabolism will drop, your posture will get worse. Everything in the context of nerve to muscle connectivity will get worse over time unless you are generating five sets

14:04

or more of this 30% to 80% of your one repetition maximum per week. Okay, so what this means is for the typical person who hasn't done a lot of weight training, you need to do at least five sets per muscle group. Now that's just to maintain. And then there's this huge range that goes all the way up to 15 and in some case, 20 sets per week. Now, how many sets you perform is going to depend on the intensity of the work that you perform.

14:31

This is where it gets a little bit controversial, but I think nowadays most people agree that 10% of the sets of a given workout or 10% of workouts overall should be of the high intensity sort where one is actually working to muscular failure. But the point being that most of your training, most of your sets should be not to failure.

14:57

And the reason for that is it allows you to do more volume of work. So we can make this simple, perform anywhere from five to 15 sets of resistance exercise per week, and that's per muscle, and that's in this 30 to 80% of what your one repetition maximum. That seems to be the most scientifically supported way of offsetting any decline in muscle strength

15:24

if you're working in the kind of five set range and in increasing muscle strength when you start to get up into the 10 and 15 set range. But it's pretty clear that performing this five to 15 sets per week, whether or not it's in one workout or whether that's divided up across multiple workouts is really what's going to be most beneficial. And please do keep in mind Henneman's

15:43

size principle and the recruitment of motor units. And remember, the better you are at contracting particular muscles and isolating those muscles, the fewer sets likely you need to do in order to get the desired effect. I'd like to take a quick break and acknowledge our sponsor, AG1.

15:58

AG1 is a vitamin mineral probiotic drink that also contains adaptogens. I started taking AG1 way back in 2012, long before I even knew what a podcast was. I started taking it and I still take it every single day because it ensures that I meet my quota for daily vitamins and minerals and it helps make sure that I get enough prebiotics and probiotics to support my gut health.

16:19

health. Over the past 10 years, gut health has emerged as something that we realize is important not only for the health of our digestion, but also for our immune system and for the production of neurotransmitters and neuromodulators, things like dopamine and serotonin. In other words, gut health is critical for proper brain function.

16:36

Now, of course, I strive to eat healthy whole foods from unprocessed sources for the majority of my nutritional intake, but there are a number of things in AG1, including specific micronutrients that are hard or impossible to get from whole foods. So by taking AG1 daily, I get the vitamins and minerals that I need, along with the probiotics and prebiotics for gut health,

16:54

and in turn brain and immune system health, and the adaptogens and critical micronutrients that are essential for all organs and tissues of the body. So anytime somebody asks me if they were to only take one supplement, what that supplement should be, I always say AG1 because AG1 supports so many different systems in the brain and body that relate to our mental health, physical health, and performance.

17:14

If you'd like to try AG1, you can go to drinkag1.com slash Huberman. For this month only, April 2025, AG1 is giving away a free one month supply of omega-3 fish oil, along with a bottle of vitamin D3 plus K2.

17:29

As I've highlighted before in this podcast, omega-3 fish oil and vitamin D3 plus K2 have been shown to help with everything from mood and brain health to heart health and healthy hormone production and much more. Again, that's drinkag1.com slash Huberman to get the free one month supply of omega-3 fish oil plus a bottle of vitamin D3 plus K2 with your subscription. What about people who have been training for a while? If you're somebody who's been doing weight training for a while,

17:55

The data point to the fact that more volume can be beneficial, even for muscles that you are very efficient at contracting. Now, the curve on this, the graph on this begins again at about five sets per week for maintaining a given muscle group and extends all the way out to 25 or 30 sets per week. However, there are,

18:17

who for whatever reason can generate so much force, they're so good at training muscles that they can generate so much force in just four or six or eight sets that doing this large volume of work is actually going to be counterproductive.

18:32

So everyone needs to figure out for themselves, first of all, how often you're willing to do resistance exercise of any kind. And then it does appear that somewhere between five and 15 sets per week is going to be what's the thing that's going to work for most people.

18:47

Now, this is based on a tremendous amount of work that was done by Andy Galpin and colleagues, Brad Schoenfield and colleagues, Mike Roberts. There's a huge group of people out there doing exercise physiology and a small subset of them that are linking them back to real world protocols that don't just pertain to athletes. So that's mainly what I'm focusing on today. And surely there will be exceptions. Now,

19:10

If you are going to divide the sets across the week, you're not going to do all 10 sets, for instance, for a given muscle group in one session, then of course it's imperative that the muscles recover in between sessions. You might ask, well, what about the speeds of movements? This is actually turns out to be a really interesting data set. For generating explosiveness and speed, it's very clear that learning to generate forces quickly and to move heavy or moderately heavy loads quickly

19:38

is going to be beneficial because of the way that you train the motor neurons. And of course, changes in the muscle. And so what this would involve is something like 60 to 75% of a one repetition maximum. And then in a controlled way, moving that as quickly as one can throughout the entire set. And certainly not going to failure because as you approach failure, the inability to move the weight with good form, the weight inevitably slows down. So as you're probably starting to realize, you need to customize a resistance mechanism

20:07

for your particular needs and goals. So we've talked about a few principles, the fact that you need to get sufficient volume, you need at least five sets to maintain, and you probably need about 10 sets per muscle group in order to improve muscle. That moving weights of moderate to moderately heavy weight quickly is going to be best for explosiveness. That isolating muscles and really contracting muscles hard, something that you can test by just when you're outside the training session, seeing whether or not you can cramp the muscle hard will really

20:34

will tell you your capacity to improve hypertrophy or to engage strength changes in that muscle.

20:42

your ability to contract a muscle hard is inversely related to the number of sets that you should do in order to isolate and stimulate that muscle. Now, how long to recover between sets? This is a question for the testosterone protocol. Duncan French and colleagues found that it was about two minutes, keeping that really on the clock, two minutes, not longer. For hypertrophy and for strength gains,

21:04

it does seem that resting anywhere from two minutes or even three or four, or even five or six minutes can be beneficial. So how do we know if we've recovered? How can we test recovery? And this is not just recovery from resistance training. This is recovery from running, recovery from swimming.

21:20

Up until now, I've been talking about resistance training more or less in a vacuum. I haven't even touched on the fact that many people are running and they're doing resistance training or they're swimming and they're doing resistance training. Well, you can assess systemic recovery, meaning your nervous system and your nervous system's ability to generate force, both distributed and isolated through three main tests. And fortunately, these tests are very simple.

21:46

And two of them are essentially zero cost require no equipment.

21:52

HRV, heart rate variability, has made its way finally into the forefront of exercise physiology and even into the popular discussion. I've talked about HRV before, how when we exhale, our heart rate slows down because of the way that our diaphragm is connected to our heart and to our brain and the way our brain is connected to our heart. When we inhale, our heart rate speeds up, and that is the basis of heart rate variability. Heart rate variability is good.

22:18

but heart rate variability is difficult for a lot of people to measure. There are two measures, however, whether or not you recovered that you can use first thing in the morning when you wake up in order to assess how well recovered you are and therefore whether or not you should train your whole system at all that day. The first one is grip strength. Grip strength,

22:39

the ability to generate force at the level of squeezing the fist or squeezing down on something might seem like kind of a trivial way to assess recovery, but it's not because it relates to your ability to use your upper motor neurons to control your lower motor neurons and to generate isolated force. And so that's really what you're assessing when you do that.

22:59

Some people will use one of these grip tools. If I've been working really hard, not sleeping very well, or I've been training a lot, any one or combination of those things, my grip suffers. I can't actually squeeze that thing down as much as I can. But on a good day, I can squeeze this thing so that I eliminate the hole in the donut, so to speak. You can also take a floor scale and squeeze the scale and see how much force you can generate.

23:20

I would do that as a baseline to establish what you can do when you're well rested. And then if you do that in the morning, you can see whether or not you're able to generate the same amount of force. A lot of this is very subjective with the scale. You're really trying to assess whether or not you can generate the same amount of force. If you start seeing a 10% or 20%, certainly reduction in that, that's concerning. It means that your system, that your nervous system as a whole, it's not necessarily fatigued. It's that the pathways from nerve to muscle

23:49

are still in the process of rewiring themselves in order to generate force. And you might think, well, I trained one muscle group one day, why am I having a hard time doing this for a completely different muscle group? It doesn't make any sense. But there's something about the upper motor neuron to lower motor neuron pathway generally that allows you to use something like grip strength as a kind of a thermometer, if you will,

24:10

of your ability to recover. So look for your ability to generate force in grip when you first wake up. It's not going to be as good as it is at 3:00 PM after a cup of coffee and a couple meals, but the point isn't performance overall. The point is to assess whether or not you're getting better, worse, or the same from day to day.

24:28

I'd like to take a quick break and acknowledge one of our sponsors, Function. Last year, I became a Function member after searching for the most comprehensive approach to lab testing. Function provides over 100 advanced lab tests that give you a key snapshot of your entire bodily health. This snapshot offers you with insights on your heart health, hormone health, immune functioning, nutrient levels, and much more.

24:50

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25:34

that approach worked. Comprehensive blood testing is vitally important. There's so many things related to your mental and physical health that can only be detected in a blood test. The problem is blood testing has always been very expensive and complicated. In contrast, I've been super impressed by function simplicity and at the level of cost. It is very affordable. As a consequence, I decided to join their scientific advisory board and I'm thrilled that they're sponsoring the podcast.

25:58

If you'd like to try Function, you can go to functionhealth.com slash Huberman. Function currently has a wait list of over 250,000 people, but they're offering early access to Huberman podcast listeners. Again, that's functionhealth.com slash Huberman to get early access to Function.

26:15

The other one that's really terrific and the Andy Galpin's group is using, and I'm delighted about this because it relates to something that my lab is very excited about as well, is carbon dioxide tolerance. So this is a really interesting tool that endurance athletes, strength athletes, I think can all benefit from. So here's how you do the carbon dioxide tolerance test. You wake up in the morning and what you're going to do is you're going to inhale through your nose as deeply as you can. You can do this lying down, sitting, whatever. Inhale through your nose.

26:45

and then exhale all the way. So that's one. You're going to repeat that four times. Then you take a fifth inhale as deep as you can through your nose, fill your lungs as much as you can. And if you can try and expand, make your stomach go out while you do that, that means that your diaphragm is really engaged. So you're inhaling as much as you possibly can. Then hit the timer. And your goal is to release that air as slowly as possible

27:14

through your mouth. So it looks like you have a tiny, tiny little straw in your mouth and you're letting it go as slowly as you possibly can. Measure what we call the carbon dioxide blow off time or discard rate.

27:31

I know you can all sit with lungs empty after you eliminate all that air, but don't lie to yourself. Don't stop the timer when you've been sitting with your lungs empty for a while. Stop the timer when you are finally no longer able to exhale any more air. Your carbon dioxide discard rate will be somewhere between one second and presumably two minutes. Two minutes would be a heroic carbon dioxide discard time.

28:00

30 seconds would be more typical. 20 seconds would be fast. If your carbon dioxide discard time is 20 or 25 seconds or less, you are not necessarily recovered from your previous day's activities. If your carbon dioxide discard time is somewhere between about 30 seconds and 60 seconds, you are in what we would call kind of the green zone where you are in

28:31

a position to do more physical work. And if your carbon dioxide discard time is somewhere between 65 and 120 seconds,

28:41

well then you have almost certainly recovered your nervous system. I'm not talking about the individual muscles, but your nervous system is prepared to do more work. I'm really keen on this tool because everybody has different recovery abilities. I realize people have varying levels of stress and demand in their life. It's just impossible to prescribe an entire protocol that says, okay, yes, you should train today. And this is exactly what you should do. No, you shouldn't. Use carbon dioxide discard rate because A, it's,

29:09

it's valuable, it's informative. B, it's zero cost. And C, it's something that you can track objectively over time. And that's really the key. So recovery is a complex process. It's got a lot of things, but the CO2 tolerance test should be a valuable tool. Now, another tool for recovery that people are very excited about is the use of cold and the ice bath. And this is important

29:32

Yes, it will reduce inflammation. Yes, it will reduce the amount of delayed onset muscle soreness, but it does seem to interfere with some of the things like mTOR pathways, the mammalian target of rapamycin pathway and other pathways related to inflammation that promote muscle repair, remember, and muscle growth. Remember, stress, tension, and damage are the stimulus for nerve to muscle connections to change and for muscles to get bigger, stronger, and better.

29:59

And so if you're getting into the ice bath after doing resistance training, you are likely short-circuiting the improvements that you're trying to create. The other thing are non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs. You know their trade names. These are painkillers that many people take. Those, as I've mentioned in a previous episode, seem to prevent a lot of the gains, the improvements in endurance, strength, and size that people are specifically using exercise for.

30:23

So be cautious about your use of non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs, especially within the four hours preceding or the four hours following exercise. Let's talk about some of the things that seem to work across the board to improve strength, improve hypertrophy and improve nerve to muscle communication and performance. The first thing that's absolutely key for nerve to muscle communication and physical performance of any kind

30:50

It might not sound that exciting to you, but it is very exciting. And that's salt. Nerves, nerve cells, neurons communicate with each other and communicate with muscle by electricity. But that electricity is generated by particular ions moving into and out of the neuron. And the rushing in of a particular ion, sodium, salt, is what allows nerve cells to fire. If you don't have enough salt in your system,

31:19

your neurons and your brain and your nerve to muscle communication will be terrible. If you have sufficient salt, it will be excellent. How much salt will depend on how much water you're drinking, how much caffeine you're drinking and how much food you're ingesting. So, and whether or not you're taking any diuretics, how hot it is, et cetera, how much you're sweating. So you want to make sure that you have enough salt, potassium and magnesium in your system if you want to perform well. The other thing that's been shown over and over again

31:46

and numerous well-controlled studies to improve muscle performance is creatine. How much creatine? Well, I asked the experts and they tell me that for somebody who's about 180 pounds, five grams a day should be sufficient or so. Creatine seems to have a performance enhancing effect. There are 66 studies, 66, showing that power output is greatly increased, anywhere from 12 to 20%.

32:15

And this is sprinting and running and jumping as well as weightlifting by creatine. The ability to hydrate your body is improved by creatine because of the way that it brings more water into cells of various kinds. It reduces fatigue when it comes to,

32:33

supporting muscle. It does seem that ingesting 700 to 3000 milligrams of the essential amino acid leucine with each meal is important. Now that does not necessarily mean from supplements. In fact,

32:47

Most people recommend that you get your protein, you get your amino acids, including your essential amino acids and your leucine from whole foods. High quality proteins are high density proteins. What do you mean by that? Well, it is true that a lot of sources of protein are found in things like beans and nuts and things like that, that all the essential amino acids can be found there, but per unit calorie,

33:13

if it's in your practice, if it's in your ethics to ingest animal proteins, it's true that for instance, 200 calories of steak or chicken or fish or eggs will have a higher density of essential amino acids than the equivalent amount of calories from nuts or plants. So I'm not, for the vegans and vegetarians, I'm certainly not saying there's no way that you can support muscle growth. You absolutely can. I encourage you to think about this protein density issue

33:41

and whether or not you're getting sufficient essential amino acids

33:45

especially leucine. But I think the simple takeaway from the literature that I was able to extract, eating two to four times a day, making sure you're getting sufficient amino acids in a way that's compatible with your ethics and with your nutritional regimen is going to support muscle repair, muscle growth, strength improvements, et cetera, just fine. Last but not least, I want to thank you for your time and attention today. And as always, thank you for your interest in science.

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