The first common “bro science” fact is that we must  Increase calories to create surplus by 10% on training days for 1-2 weeks. Once weight plateaus or drops, we must increase again…always 10% increments so that it’s more manageable. But more manageable for what, the body? 

I’m not sure this is necessary from all of the research I have looked at, other than to provide enough fuel to workout hard enough, and allow you to mentally and physically push yourself.

The key component to gaining muscle from a nutrition standpoint is protein, and primarily the amino acid leucine that’s found in whey and other dairy products. As far as I’m aware the carbs don’t add to mass specifically, but they do give you the energy (stored glycogen) to train hard. 

I nicked this table off Jo Agu, it shows the muscle protein synthesis at different protein amounts, up to 40g after training is perhaps optimal before we then cease to utilise it 

The second is that we must reduce calories on non-training days to the BMR maintenance level and consume carbs with all meals to replace glycogen levels and prepare for a hard session the next day.

http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/52/6/376

Protein is Key

The current best practice would be 30-40 g of protein 4x a day. Total of about 120-160. If needing to keep weight under control the more the better. The no absorption theory doesn’t hold either; we do use (in some form) all that we consume.

The 3rd statement which is used by Bro’s and sports scientists for gaining mass is: Compounds every session – progressive overload up to a working weight of 5 rep max 3 – 5 reps. All other exercises can be considered supplementary if body part training, and use supersets and drop sets in the main and create 45-70 reps per exercise.

From a purely muscle growing hypertrophy perspective, reaching near failure, and doing it regularly are the keys. Weight is more related to the strength increase, so you can achieve muscle gain on 15-20 reps as long as you fail at the end of the last set. 

Commonly it is accepted that compounds recruit large muscle groups, the motor units recruited to lift heavy are massive therefore fatiguing ad failing quickly and the overload will then come from your supplementary work or supersets. This is why people use drop sets and supersets when building because simply, you overload the muscle and work to fatigue.

The next statement comes from the average trainer: The reps and weight you track are on the compounds and must increase to beat previous weeks weight.

I like this BUT I think it is a way of holding yourself, the client or a group of people accountable and allows a psychological jump off point to be able to push your own limits; and guest what…work to failure both as the skill of the lift, experience of the lift, comfort of working in the energy system and strength all increase. The same principles from statement 3 apply.

Rest and recovery is important but we use common statements such as: Sleep well and rest when your body says rest. This will increase GH release and encourage repair.

Particularly in reference to sleep this is considered correct (more sleep less cortisol and counterproductive/negative hormone response), but the growth hormone hypothesis has now been debunked. Systemic hormones don’t have any role in growth. They’re present but the levels don’t affect gains. If someone is taking supplemental, it’s so far above norms that it does work and aids repair recovery and growth.

The last is an adaptation of several methodologies trying to train the muscles at least 48 hours apart or 72 hours dependant how experienced you are, and is again related to volume and failure: If training at least 5 days a week use 1 week of double body parts, training them twice and then one week of body parts broken down each day

 We could agree with this as research suggests for more mass, and in fact hypertrophy, train at least twice a week, if you can manage 3 times even more gains. However, volume over time is key here.

Summary

I hope this helps add some value and dispel various myths and statements that you might see on Insta etc and allows you to question why someone may state certain training techniques in a programme. Think about the energy system, shear volume and question everything. S and C gurus and the science boys are still trying to fully understand hypertrophy but genetics, lifestyle, talent, skill, stress, hormones and lots of other factors are too hard to measure fully and indeed control