The Two Keys to Building Muscle 

1. Higher Volume of Weight Lifted
2. Lower Rest time Between Sets

Volume of Weight Lifted
I’m a big proponent of total volume of weight lifted when it comes to building muscle.   An added benefit is that the higher the volume of training, generally speaking, the greater the health benefits.

Total Volume Formula
Weight x Reps x Sets 
Example
Bench press
100 pounds x 10 reps x 4 sets= 4000 pounds of volume 
More volume = more muscle 
(Versus dumbell flys, 40 pounds x 10 x 4 = 1600 pounds lifted) 
In this example, it’s easy to see why bench press is so much better for building muscle than flys.

If you pick exercise like squats which you can do more weight on, then your volume will be higher and you’ll build more muscle.

Focus on:
3-5 sets of 8-12 reps per exercise for building muscle, using compound (multi -joint) lifts.
If you do less than 5 reps, you’ll lift lesser volumes. If you do more than 15, the same thing occurs.


Rest Time Between Sets
Lactic acid accumulates and thus growth stimulation occurs when muscles are fatigued, which means lowering the rest time between sets to 15-60 seconds.  Never rest longer than 60 seconds between sets when you're trying to focus primarily on building muscle.

So to build muscle:
Focus on high volume training (a lot of sets) and short rest between sets. 

The type of training needed to focus primarily on building strength (versus mass) is different, involving longer rest times and heavier weights with fewer sets. For endurance focus, 15-20 reps or more is appropriate.

Application:
Alternate compound (multi-joint) exercises with little or no rest and do multiple sets:


Squats / bench press
Rows / deadlifts
Leg press / pull up
Lunge / overhead press
Dips / bar curls

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I enjoy writing and helping people, and write on all sorts of health, wellness, nutrition, and fitness topics.   

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Hey Happy New Year Everyone ! I took a breather after finishing The Quest for Community. Wow what a project that was. It drained me but it was worth it. I hope you had a wonderful 2021, and are going to have an even better 2022.

What I'm seeing based on 2021 amongst the disintegration, and nihilism (and there's plenty of that) is green shoots of community, new foundings, and new traditions. A good-size chunk of the populace in my corner of the universe is turning off the fake arguments and propaganda and getting down to living, by building better friendships and small groups of community.

One trend I'm particularly excited about is the increasing number of groups of male friendships that are forming amongst younger men. I'm personally involved in this in 2 or 3 separate groups. This is something that the oligarchs and powers that be are vehemently opposed to, and so to see it happen, outside of our dying and decaying institutions in so many ways is really exciting. They want us atomized and powerless, but the opposite is happening.

We live in an age of disintegration, and most of us who are paying attention know this, and are preparing as such. It's not all bad news, disintegration means reorganization. It means regrouping and founding. It's exciting really.

I'm working on several big projects this year so stay tuned!

The Best Books I Read in 2021

I used to do book reviews at the end of the year, but it was taking too much time. Instead, I'm sharing the best books I read in 2021. The top ones have an asterisk and are listed first.

I enjoy reading for sheer enjoyment, but I also read because of my passion for truth, health, and because I love my country and community. It is also helpful in my speaking engagements to have a wide and vast array of knowledge on a broad number of topics. As GK Chesterton said "There's only one subject" which I've adopted as my unofficial motto. Personally, I get bored with speakers that are over-specialized. Specialization is for ants.

My book of the year is from a Law Professor at Georgetown called *American Awakening: Identity Politics and Other Afflictions of Our Time by Joshua Mitchell. Dr. Mitchell has assimilated thinking from many different fields into the most comprehensive explanation I've yet read about the dire state of American culture. If you're in a position of leadership you need to read this book.

Secondarily, and it's really no second place, is Richard Weaver's The Ethics of Rhetoric. It's an older book but should be required reading in all ethics courses and in law schools. I would even say in order to be a judge or politician, or the leader of an organization you should be required to pass a test on it. Since I've read it, I constantly notice the unintelligent and / or unethical nonsense spewing out of the mouths of people in important places who have no idea what they're saying.

The Best Books I Read in 2021

*The Ethics of Rhetoric by Richard Weaver

*The Unbroken Thread: Discovering the Wisdom of Tradition in an Age of Chaos by Sohrab Ahmari

*The Quest for Community: A Study in the Ethics of Order and Freedom by Robert Nisbet

*Boomers: The Men And Women Who Promised Freedom And Delivered Disaster by Helen Andrews

*New Functional Training for Sports by Michael Boyle

*From Bauhaus to Our House by Tom Wolfe

*Fighting for Life: Contest, Sexuality, and Consciousness by Walter J. Ong

*Meditations Before Mass by Romano Guardini

*Why We Drive: Towards a Philosophy of the Open Road by Mathew Crawford

*Shop Class as Soulcraft by Mathew Crawford

*American Awakening: Identity Politics and Other Afflictions of Our Time by Joshua Mitchell
- Book of the Year

*Pandemics by Sunetra Gupta

A Handbook Of Traditional Living: Theory & Practice by Raido

A Handbook Of Traditional Living: Style & Ascesis by Raido

The Man Who Would be King and Other Stories by Rudyard Kipling

Bulldog Drummond by Sapper

The Lord’s Prayer by Romana Guardini

A History of France by John Julius Norwich

The Conservative Mind: From Elliot to Burke by Russel Kirk

Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students
By Allan Bloom

American Secession: The Looming Threat of a National Breakup by FH Buckley

Heretics and Believers - A History of the English Reformation by Peter Marshall

The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare

A Conflict Of Visions: Ideological Origins Of Political Struggles by Thomas Sowell