Jeff Nippard’s Fundamentals Program is perfect for beginner to intermediate lifters looking to build lean muscle while gaining strength.
BACK TO THE BASICS! In the Instagram age of fitness, many beginner-intermediate lifters are tricked into thinking that they need to do fancy exercises, ridiculous amounts of volume and tons of advanced intensity techniques to build muscle or gain strength. This is misleading because the workout routines many fitness influencers are doing might be appropriate for themselves, but not for beginner-intermediate lifters. The reality is that most fitness influencers have already been training for 5-10+ years, often have incredible genetics and may have built their physiques using different methods than those they are currently showcasing. As such, many popular routines are not likely to be optimal for someone with significantly less lifting experience and without a strength and muscle foundation.
I wrote the Fundamentals Program so you can get back to the basics – the fundamentals – of what really works for muscle growth. This way you can be much more efficient with your efforts in the gym and stop wasting your time with pointless party-trick exercises.
The first time I tried to really get into weight-lifting, I used material and videos from Jeff Cavaliere. This was back in China, with home work-out equipment, and putting in a lot of running -- too much running, I now realize, to add serious muscle. I don't exactly blame Jeff, but I think the concept of "Athlean" helped me build endurance and maybe some functional strength, but not "gains."
Nippard is much less about full athleticism and comes at it with a pure bodybuilding perspective, albeit one that accumulates data from scientific papers, and seems to make pretty balanced judgments using that data. It's useful to imagine, for example, that I could aim for ten pounds of weight gain over eight weeks by going to caloric surplus and keeping up with this program. And that's exactly what happened over the course of my first eight weeks.
Another great concept that Nippard is popularizing is rate of perceived exertion, or RPE. Basically, where Athlean X and many programs have you work to failure, Nippard uses data on strength gains with RPE reported to recommend that it might be more effective to reach 'failure' less, and spend more time reaching near-failure. It helps you get through one-hour-plus workouts sustainably. And it has helped me make progress on bench press, in particular, where imagining RPE 8 and 9 levels has me improving without failing, a big plus since I don't use a spotter. (My old work out partner refuses to join me for 6am gains -- for now, anyway.)
Nippard's exercises are less variable and overall more boring and basic than Athlean X. That's been a good thing for me. For seven of the first eight weeks, I simply hit the YMCA and did these few exercises, keeping careful account of the reps and weights and RPE, and really got in a groove. The ten pounds of weight gain seem at least partly lean muscle mass, and not just fat.
In week eight, I started up the Arm Hypertrophy Program : Workouts For Bigger And Stronger Arms, which works as an arms supplement to these routines. Following that, I have started a new 8-week sequence, this time with the Upper/Lower splits, on 4-day sequence, and keeping the arm supplement in place. It's been 3 weeks of that now, and I'm still quite engaged, and not ready to abandon the whole thing -- previously a big problem when it came to weight-training. So my hope is to keep working out with this sequence for at least 5 more weeks. After that, I'll decide whether to try to hit one of Nippard's more intermediate routines, or do something else. Maybe I can add upwards of 20 pounds of muscle over the winter, and consider a return to calorie-deficit "cutting" as winter turns to spring and summer in 2023.
Having been a not so consistent trainee for about a couple of years. Some of the concepts were not very new to me.
But, nonetheless the part where Jeff discusses various muscles and their functions, helped me better understand the science behind the exercises.
Overall it is a good program, understanding the science behind the muscles, movements and getting the fundamentals right is vital for anyone looking to build muscle.
Jeff is my go-to for information on resistance and strength training. This book is great for those with some experience in the gym looking for a solid program to stay with consistently and make progress. The variety and sequencing of exercises is very reasonable (doing the upper/lower 4 day per week split) and with sufficient variation, not allowing for too much fluff or anything to fancy. It is called 'fundamentals' after all. You can watch Jeff on Youtube interview experts like Brad Shoenfeld or Mike Israetel for hours to discuss advanced aspects of strength training, but nobody said this was it. Criticisms I have seen include that there isn't enough volume, which is simply not true, given the plan I'm working on takes over an hour to complete and is 4days/week. Additionally, its meant to entail progressive overload, so you do more as you go. I'm familiar with anatomy but think its great that this is included for those spending the time to do the work. No, its nothing breathtakingly new, because the formula for hypertrophy that the book targets (i.e. up to intermediate) really isn't rocket science at all; the trick is to carry it out consistently in a way that is backed by research/science and is sustainable. If that's what you're here for, look no further.
Clear and concise, although I did feel like it could've been a little more in order. I did appreciate the technical breakdowns, I found a few problems getting the references to work also but we got there in the end. I think having a bit more visual cues on the desired form and/or corrections would've gone a long way, but this might've been difficult to compile considering how much there was to cover.
Cool, some anatomy, a bit of science behind progression, and the ultimate guide about what exercises to do and how if you are a rookie. I don't need anything else, let's try it!