Exercise

[julia]

Hello everyone,
In many interviews Ray Peat has said that just doing a couple of lifts and squats for a few minutes per day is enough to build muscle.Has anybody had any success doing this?Does it really work?I have sent him an email asking about some resources to read more about it but he hasn't answered.There are a lot of people who train really hard in this forum and have a lot of experience,can someone please tell me how just doing a few minutes per day works to build muscle and does it really work?

 

[powerlifter]

Zero work zero new muscle, a little work a little muscle. As far as I remember he recommends squatting with small dumbells. However, I believe if you do not progressively overload you will eventually hit a plateau. But context is very important when Ray Peat talks about having extra muscle he does not imply pro BodyBuilder level. So if you are only concerned with health benefits, you do not have to increase your load a lot.

 

[Runenight201]

If you eat a proper diet, a small amount of resistance training is enough to see results, especially if in an untrained state.

As the muscles adapt to the new load, more intensity will be required.

When I experienced what true strength felt like in my muscles, I had leg soreness and growth from something as simple as 60 body weight squats, 40 body weight lunges each side. This was in a very much untrained state. Now that I’m stronger I could not do something that simple as see further growth. I’d have to add some weight.

 

[Max23]

I think you can build muscle with 20 to 45 minutes. Depends on excercises, health and diet. My muscle health is gotten so bad that I can´t build muscles in more than an hour. I have to train muscles every other day or they´ll get very weak and painful.

 

[julia]

Thank you for replying!
I asked this because I want to put some muscle on.What would be the best place to start?Is it possible to add muscle with body weight exercises only?And what is the minimum amount of time that is effective?

 

[Tenacity]

I do one set of resistance training for each muscle group every other day, making sure to bump up the weight when the intensity becomes too low. I think Peat's comments on exercise are referring to the volume of exercise done, not necessarily the intensity. If you want to get really strong, you need to perform challenging movements, it's as simple as that.

 

[Hans]

For beginners, even one set is enough to build muscle. If your health is in a bad place, one set per exercise once per week will work, else you can increase it to twice a week. Your body will adapt quickly to bodyweight exercises, and it's always best to do more difficult exercises rather than doing more reps. For instance, progress for incline push-ups to regular to decline push-ups on to one arm push-ups or explosive push-ups. Limit each set to about 15 reps. If you can hit 15 reps progress to a more difficult variation of the exercise.

 

[opson123]

For beginners, even one set is enough to build muscle. If your health is in a bad place, one set per exercise once per week will work, else you can increase it to twice a week. Your body will adapt quickly to bodyweight exercises, and it's always best to do more difficult exercises rather than doing more reps. For instance, progress for incline push-ups to regular to decline push-ups on to one arm push-ups or explosive push-ups. Limit each set to about 15 reps. If you can hit 15 reps progress to a more difficult variation of the exercise.

Do you mean one set up to 15 reps all the way from incline to one arm push-up?

 

[Hans]

Do you mean one set up to 15 reps all the way from incline to one arm push-up?

Start with 15 reps on one progression. If you can do 15 reps with a certain veriation, progress to a more difficult variation new workout.

 

[opson123]

Start with 15 reps on one progression. If you can do 15 reps with a certain veriation, progress to a more difficult variation new workout.

How should I progress with reps? Add one per workout?

 

[Hans]

How should I progress with reps? Add one per workout?

I like to go by feel. Depending on how many sets I do or my state of health. For people who aren't in a good state of health, I'd recommend to stop 2-5 reps short of failure.
If you're only doing 1 set and your health is good, you can go to failure if you train a muscle only once a week. If you train a muscle more than once a week, it's best not to go to failure but to stop 1-2 reps short of failure.

Alternatively, you can do explosive exercises, where you do only 3-5 reps and then you can just increase the weight each session when you feel like it. This way you go no where close to failure.

So if you get 8 reps for the exercise and it wasn't too hard, aim for 9 reps the next workout. But if you feel you can do more, then do more, but don't go to failure.

 

[opson123]

Thanks!