In no other field save politics do people proclaim expertise about so many things with so little evidence or experience. “Free weights are better than machines. Why? Because I heard someone say that and I’m repeating it to make myself feel superior.” The fitness space is filled with more misconceptions, oversimplifications, and ways to waste your time at the gym than you could count. And that’s why you should pick up this book.
I’ve been following Jeff Nippard for a while now. Jeff is a drug-free natural competitive bodybuilder, holds a degree in biochemistry, and creates informative content through his website and YouTube channel that cuts through the BS to offer science-backed advice. If something truly doesn’t make a difference, and studies show it (the effectiveness of free weights versus machines, for example), Jeff will tell you. And in the strength training field, sometimes knowing what to ignore is just as important as what to focus on.
So how can you develop an effective and efficient strength training program for your goals? What does the latest science tell us about building a program that works, yet doesn’t require dozens of wasted hours in the gym every week? Jeff’s book The Muscle Ladder provides the answers, broken down into a ladder system progressing from basic to advanced concepts and techniques. As you ascend the ladder, you will learn everything you need to start intelligently constructing a workout plan—one based on sound principles.
The “muscle ladder” includes ten rungs and two side rails. The side rails consist of tips and info on sustainability, mindset, and safety; if you’re new to the field, this section is critical, but if you have some experience, it’s probably safe to skip. The key takeaways here are 1) if you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, the best program in the world will mean nothing because you’ll abandon it, and 2) injuries cause major setbacks, so it's not worth overtraining or doing ridiculous things at the gym for marginally better gains.
Next come the ten rungs of the ladder, each with a dedicated chapter. Here are some of my key takeaways from each chapter (there’s plenty more useful information in each chapter than I could summarize here):
1. Technique - This section describes general tips for performing exercises. In general, you want to perform each exercise over its full range of motion, taking special care to control the negative phase. Studies don’t show much benefit from performing very fast or very slow reps, partial reps, or other modifications to the basic movements. It’s probably best to not worry about these things and just move the weight in a controlled manner.
2. Exercise selection - The manner in which you subject your muscles to tension is less important than you probably think. Machines can be just as effective as free weights if used properly, and there are several exercises for each muscle group that are equally effective. The most important criterion for selecting exercises is probably whatever you enjoy (assuming effort is high!). You should use a combination of compound and isolation exercises, beginning the workout with compound movements, and make sure to build your program around the “big six” movements: squat-type, hip hinge, vertical push, horizontal push, vertical pull, and horizontal pull.
3. Effort - The number one driver of hypertrophy is mechanical tension, and you maximize mechanical tension by taking your sets to failure or close to failure. The number of reps matter less (within reason) than training intensely. So, if you’re able to hold a full conversation with someone or send text messages while working out, you’re probably not building muscle.
4. Progressive overload - This is probably the most important concept in strength training. Your body adapts to the stressors you place on it. If you’re not progressively challenging yourself (primarily by increasing weight, reps, sets, etc.), then your body has nothing to adapt to. You’ll spend hours at the gym and no one will be able to tell.
5. Volume - As long as you’re training with sufficient intensity (close to failure), optimal muscle growth occurs between around 10-20 sets per muscle group per week, varying by muscle group and fitness level. A key part of this section is the concept of “junk volume”—beyond a certain number of sets, you start to see diminishing returns. This will be highly relevant to the section on training splits.
6. Training splits and frequency - Any body split can work, depending on your goals and how much time you’re willing to dedicate. Your options are full body, upper/lower, push/pull/legs, etc. Jeff leans towards a modified push/pull/legs split. The key points, regardless of the split you use, are to train with sufficient effort and volume and to allow enough time for recovery.
7. Load and rep ranges - Rep ranges may not be as important as you think. The key, once again, is intensity and mechanical tension. As long as you’re training close to failure and progressively increasing weight or reps, you should see results. I personally like to stay within the lower rep ranges, because if you can achieve similar results, why perform all the extra reps?
8. Rest periods - The amount of rest you require depends on your fitness level and the exercise under consideration. Heavy compound lifts require more rest than isolation exercises, and advanced-level bodybuilders require less rest than novices.
9. Advanced techniques - As Jeff notes, this is where the science gets hazy. Most studies are conducted on beginner and intermediate lifters, so there is a lack of data on effective techniques for advanced lifters. Once you reach this stage, you kind of have to experiment on yourself, and, in any case, the gains will be slow as you near your genetic potential. Nevertheless, it seems highly likely that the only way to keep achieving gains is to make your workouts more intense, in some cases going “beyond failure” by performing partial reps, drop sets, myo-reps, etc. This chapter describes those techniques.
10. Periodization - The final rung on the ladder describes how to build a workout plan over the course of an entire year based on cycles. Periodically changing up your routine can reduce monotony and stimulate new muscle growth.
The penultimate chapter includes information on nutrition and cardio, and the final chapter provides several workout plans for each body split and fitness level.
The only criticism I can think of is that the ladder system can at times feel a bit contrived. For example, why is the topic of rest periods placed on the eighth rung instead of lower down, and why are load and rep ranges presented after training splits and not after or before volume and effort? Wouldn’t it make more sense to group all of the training variables together first before discussing training splits?
Also, there’s no chapter explaining the science of hypertrophy or establishing key terminology, nor is there a concluding chapter putting it all together. In fact, for readers that want a book with a little more scientific depth and what I consider to be slightly better organization, I would suggest Brad J. Schoenfeld’s book Science and Development of Muscle Hypertrophy.
Honestly, though, Schoenfeld’s book may be a little more detailed than most people are looking for. If you simply want science-backed recommendations presented in easy-to-grasp terms, this book will be perfect for you to quickly get started on your strength training journey.