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Fight Science Made Simple is for fighters and martial artists who want to train harder, recover faster, and stay on the mat for life.
Each week, we break down strength & conditioning, nutrition, recovery, and mindset into straightforward strategies you can actually use in training. Simple, practical, and backed by real fight science—so you can keep chasing your potential, performing at your peak, and becoming the fighter you’ve always wanted to be.
Welcome to episode 7 of the Fight Science made simple podcast. I'm your host, coach Adam Snyder. I'm a lifelong martial artist.I'm an active MMA fighter and I'm a performance and recovery coach. Today is a really cool episode because it's the first time I'm live streaming the recording of this episode, so I have my other phone right here. We're live on Instagram, Live streaming the entire episode. And I'm going to start live streaming every episode going forward on Instagram. And the reason I wanna do that is for, [...0.5s] for a couple reasons.First, I just want more ways to connect with you and build our community and build just the, the relationship and connection that we have.We have so many fighters, I think I don't know the exact number of countries, but there's a lot of countries that are watching and listening to this podcast, which is amazing. I'm super grateful. So I just want more ways to connect. That's one reason, uh, we're live streaming.The second reason is I just wanna give some behind the scenes [...0.5s] nuggets of information. So if you don't follow me on Instagram or you didn't even know I have an Instagram and you just found us through the podcast.Go follow me, Fight Science Collective. Because on the podcast when I go live, there's gonna be a little Q&A at the end. There's gonna be a little behind the scenes of the beginning, so you can get some more information out of it there.Um, the second, [...0.5s] say that it was the second, the third reason that I Wanna live Freeman is just, so I have a lot of followers on Instagram and I know a lot of them don't even know about the podcast, which is pretty cool. So this gives them another [...0.9s] way to consume the podcast.And if you want to see it early, you can jump on it early. So I'm be kind of looking back and forth, looking at Instagram, looking at the main camera here. And so, yeah, I'm really excited about it.So if you don't already [...0.8s] either way, you don't [...0.6s] follow me on Instagram, go follow me on Instagram, and if you don't follow or subscribe to the podcast, go and do that. I do these episodes every single Monday.We talk about training, conditioning, nutrition, recovery, mindset, and really just the lifestyle that it takes to be a professional athlete, to be a fighter, and to live a high [...0.5s] performance lifestyle.Whether you're trying to be a pro or your hobbyist, and want to live your life at an elite level, this podcast is going to be great for you.I'm really excited about today's episode. We're talking specifically about muscle growth or hypertrophy for fighters. You can think about this as [...0.5s] Hypertrophy 1:01 everything a fighter needs to know about growing muscle, and the reason I wanted to [...0.7s] do an episode specifically about this.First, who doesn't wanna have muscle and be jacked? I think every [...0.8s] specific of every guy really wants to have muscle and, and be jacked. Um, lot of chicks out there that want to also. But the other reason and the main reason is I recently no story time.I recently started working with a pro fighter, a high level pro fighter who [...0.4s] is going up away class.So he's done his entire career amateur and his entire pro career as a lightweight. And [...1.2s] he's at an interesting point where, where he is right now. He's a little too heavy for lightweight, and he's a little too [...0.7s] light for welter weight.And so [...1.3s] the last couple of cuts have been challenging for him and they're just not sustainable.It's not sustainable for him to [...0.5s] light at lightweight anymore. And so he needs to go up to welterweight. And so he joined the Fight Science Collective to help him with his transition from lightweight to welterweight.And so we need to put on some muscle so he can be the right size for the welterweight division. So he's not undersized.And so [...0.9s] I'm a big believer in a white belt mentality. I've been in the sport since I was 5 years old. I went to school for exercise science. I graduated in 2019. I've been working with fighters since 2019 doing stranding, conditioning and [...0.5s] all of it. So I have a lot of experience in doing this. But [...0.8s] it's pretty rare that you have a fighter come to you because they're looking to add on muscle and go up away class.So [...0.8s] a dedicated hypertrophy phase for [...0.4s] fighters is something that, [...0.6s] you know, [...0.6s] I don't typically do a lot. And so I want to brush up on my skills a little bit.So I was doing a little bit of research, really making sure that we could do it the right way. And I realized there isn't a lot of info about hypertrophy for fighting out there.And so that's why I wanted to make this episode to give you everything that you need to know if you're looking to gain muscle as a combat athlete, martial artist, [...0.4s] a fighter. Um, and that's what we're gonna be doing in this episode today, which I'm, I'm pretty excited about. Uh, so I have some notes here to make sure that we cover everything. I don't wanna forget everything. I wanna jam pack this thing with value.So [...0.8s] I think first and foremost, we need to talk about like, why would you even want to gain muscle as a fighter?I talked to a lot of fighters that [...0.6s] are afraid of even lifting weights because they think that lifting and gaining muscle will make them slow or make them immobile or [...0.6s] hurt them, they'll get injured, or it will take away from their performance and training.And I know a lot of fighters that think lifting will make it harder to cut weight. And obviously, if you're gaining muscle, you're gonna get heavier.And so [...0.9s] if you're at a good size for your weight class, it's probably not a good idea to focus on hypertrophy. But, you know, there are really three main reasons that as a fighter, I think you should focus on hypertrophy.The first is if you need to go up a weight class, like my client that I'm working with, if you're a little too heavy for your current weight class, but a little [...0.7s] light for the next weight class up, you need to gain some muscle to go up to the next weight class.Okay, the second reason that I would prioritize muscle growth and a hypertrophy phase is if you are undersized for your weight class.So maybe you're in the right weight class and [...0.6s] you're not heavy enough, or it just wouldn't be feasible for you to put on enough muscle, muscle to go up to the next weight class. It's too big of a jump, but you're a little too heavy to go down a weight class.You can go through hypertrophy phase, go through muscle growth phase to [...0.8s] fill the gaps and just be a better, better size for the weight class that you're in.And the third reason I would say to be in a really focused hypertrophy muscle growth phase is if [...1.1s] you struggling with a lot of nagging injuries. I see this with a lot of guys that are not consistent in the weight room or have little to no weight room experience.And they're just dealing with injuries all the time. Typically, typically because a, they don't have a lot of muscle, and B, they're not very strong. And so if this is you, we need to add some muscle, we gotta get you more jacked, and then we gotta get you stronger, and this might help with your injuries. Um, it probably will help a lot actually.And so that's the three reasons that I would focus on muscle growth and hypertrophy if you were a fighter. Okay, really, really important.So, [...0.7s] you know, some common myths and misconceptions about [...0.4s] adding muscle as a fighter. You hear it all the time. We touched on some of these, right, like, if I get jacked, if I add more muscle, it's going to slow me down, I'm, I'm going to lose mobility, I'm [...0.5s] going to gas out.You hear these things all the time and [...0.8s] a lot of the evidence that people might present for this is, well, look at bodybuilders, right?Bodybuilders are slow, bodybuilders are not explosive body build, builders lack mobility, bodybuilders [...0.5s] have no cardio, right? They're jacked, but they don't have the right kind of conditioning for fighting.And look, the reality is, is that correlation does not equal causation, right? Just because bodybuilders lack these qualities that MMA fighters need or any fighters need, really, it doesn't mean it's the muscles fault.It's just they don't train speed or power or strength, maybe a little bit or cardio, right?I think a good example I heard this was that, and I liked it a lot [...0.5s] from another strength coach was that, you know, if you stopped [...0.8s] training a striking sport like Muay Thai to focus solely on jiu jitsu, your striking is going to get worse, [...0.5s] but it's not the jiu jitsu's fault that you're striking is getting worse. You're just not training striking anymore.And it's the same thing, right? Like if you lose power or speed or mobility or cardio because you're putting on muscle, it's not the muscles fault. It's you're just not training those other athletic qualities.And so it's important to understand that when you're going into a muscle growth or a hypertrophy phase, there might be a little bit of a trade off. You might lose a little bit of conditioning, you might lose a little bit of strength, you might lose a little bit of speed and power.You can maintain some of it if you still have power strength conditioning exercises throughout your program while you're in [...0.6s] your hypertrophy phase.But then you also have to have the foresight and know like, once my [...0.6s] hypertrophy block is over, I'm gonna go into a strength phase, I'm gonna go into a power phase, I'm gonna invest more time into conditioning and I'm going to fill those gaps once the main goal that we're trying to accomplish has been achieved.And that's where [...1.0s] the structure and the periodization and the timing and the intent of your muscle growth phase comes into play and why it's so important, right?If you're [...0.5s] eight weeks out for a fight and you're like, okay, cool, I'm gonna pack on some muscle, this is the wrong time to focus on muscle growth.This is the wrong time. It will 100% negatively impact your performance on fight night. So we have to make sure that we do not have a fight planned, we have [...0.4s] enough of an off camp where we can invest all of our time and energy into building muscle the right way.And then we have enough time to build other athletic qualities like speed or power or strength or conditioning after the hypertrophy phase has been completed. So with my pro that I'm working with right now, we're in a dedicated hypertrophy block.So these next three months our sole focus is on hypertrophy adding muscle. That means he's not fighting until like [...1.1s] April or March, maybe even may is when we get him into the cage again because we are taking the time.We're gonna take November, we're gonna take December, we're gonna take January to add the muscle on in this off camp. Then we're going to go into a pre camp.We start transitioning him more into fight speed mode and then we can have a good eight, six, 10 week camp to really peak for fight, so for a fight.So how we structure and periodize [...0.5s] his different phases and training focuses [...0.5s] around his schedule, around his skill training, around the different speeds of the fight cycle that he's in [...0.8s] are so so so, so important.So that's the first thing you have to know. Okay? When are we strategically introducing hypertrophy training? When are we focusing on muscle growth?That's the first [...0.5s] box that we need to check. Alright, once you have that box checked, we have to figure out, alright, how many days a week do we need to lift in order to adequate, adequately build muscle without it taking away from our other skills training too much.Because the reality is you are not a bodybuilder, especially if you're an MMA fighter. You have to lift and you have to do [...0.7s] striking, maybe Muay Thai end boxing, you have to wrestle. If you do jiu jitsu, you have to spar.You have to train MMA on its own. There are so many skill demands that are required to be a successful fighter. You cannot lift every single day. It's probably going to wreck you for your mat training, and you're not gonna be able to recover for it.So when we decide our frequency, how many days a week we're going to lift for [...0.5s] great gaining muscle, we have to make sure that it doesn't take away from your skills training. Too much is gonna be a little bit of, of a dip, but we'll talk about that in a little bit.And we have to make sure that we can adequately recover because if we're just wrecked all the time and going at 100 all the time and sore and tired all the time, well, you're not actually going to recover or build any muscle. Because the, the growth and the building happens in the recovery phase.So [...0.8s] knowing your frequency is really important. I typically recommend in the off camp for fighters that are trying to build muscle doing anywhere from three to four days a week.Four days a week might be pushing it, but [...0.4s] if your [...0.6s] skills training and intensity and volume [...0.6s] is low enough, or you just have a crazy recovery curve, and you can probably squeeze in 4 days.Grapplers could probably do really well with 4 days. And the may fighter specifically like this pro that I'm working with, where opting for a 3 day option that's gonna be perfect. He's gonna be able to gain the muscle that he's needs.He's gonna be able to [...0.4s] be a good size for the next week class up, and it's not going to take away too much from his [...0.6s] on mat training. Okay, there is gonna be a little bit [...0.5s] of a, of a drop in performance on the mat. And we had [...0.6s] a really clear and honest conversation about this.Because [...0.6s] the truth is, like, in order to gain muscle, [...0.8s] you have to damage the muscle. And you have to create heat in the muscle, which means you're going to failure, which means you're [...0.6s] leaving sessions pretty sore. There's going to be fatigue and soreness from hypertrophy training.This is just a byproduct of building muscle, right? You need to damage the muscle in order to build muscle by damaging the muscle, then your body will repair it, your muscle fibers will get thicker, and this is what having more muscle is.We're not adding muscle. We're just making the muscle that you currently have thicker. And this requires fatigue. It's just the reality of it. Like you need heat and you need damage and that's what is going to build muscle. And so [...0.6s] as a byproduct of that, you're going to be sore. And that is probably going to show up on the mat.You're probably going to be a little bit more sore when you're grappling or sparring or hitting the pads. You might feel a little bit slower.You might feel like you're conditioning. I take a hit a little bit because you're putting more energy and investing more time into building muscle, not some of the other qualities that you're used to.And so [...0.7s] anytime I work with an athlete, a fighter, a client that's going to build muscle, I always tell them, like, for a couple months you're going to be sore for a couple months. You're not going to perform at the same level that you're used to performing at. And that's okay. This is intentional.It's called a peak for a reason, right? Like you can't be peaking all the time. You need to peak leading up to a fight.So we have to accept that for the next two to three months, our off mat training, our skills training, our tactical training might take a little bit less of a priority, a priority to really prioritize the growth of your muscle.So having the right mindset going into this is really important. So, you know, we understand when we're focusing on muscle growth, how many days a week, your frequency are we going to invest into actually building muscle that we need. The mindset that's necessary when it comes to building muscle is really important. Um.The other thing that's super important is exercise [...0.4s] selection. Let's see best nutrition for Muscle Recovery. We're gonna talk about, we're gonna talk about nutrition. Don't worry, I got you. It's on the notes, not at all, right here with my third grade handwriting.All right. We're gonna talk nutrition. Don't worry. Um. So [...0.5s] exercise selection is the next thing that is really important for building muscle.Because [...2.2s] when it comes to bodybuilding training for fighting, we wanna use the same principles that bodybuilders might use to build muscle and get larger, but we don't want to train our body in the same way a bodybuilder might up.You know, bodybuilders gonna focus on specific muscle groups or specific body parts like a bicep day, a chest day, a back day, a push day, a pull day.And this is because, [...0.6s] you know, eight, they're trying to work on symmetry here. So they need to put all of their energy into focusing on one muscle group to [...0.5s] get the maximum return in that muscle group and be there lifting 5, 6 days a week. And so they can afford to focus on individual muscle groups and individual patterns of movement because they just have the frequency. They don't have other sports that they need to put their time into. Their sport is bodybuilding.So we have to get a little bit more creative with, [...0.8s] you know, how do we build muscle? What muscles do we build [...0.5s] without it taking too much away from our skill training?And so [...0.6s] when I'm designing a program for a fighter, that's, I mean, really any, not just a muscle building phase but any fighter, any strengthenishing program that I'm designing, I need to make sure that I'm getting a squat pattern in there.We need to make sure that there's a horizontal push a horizontal pull a vertical push, a vertical pull. We need to make sure that there's some kind of hinging moving pattern in there.We have to make sure that there's a single leg movement pattern in there. We have to make sure that we have some level of rotation and some level of trunk work, carry work in there as well.I also like to maintain some kind of power movement, whether it's a pliometric, an Olympic variation, ballistic exercise, even when we're doing an eye pertrophy phase because we're still athletes. We're still fighters.I don't wanna take away all of our explosiveness and power. So we still sneak some kind of dynamic movement in there as well.And so [...0.8s] my job as a straining conditioning coach is to figure out the best way to structure a program to design and incorporate all of these exercises in enough volume and frequency that your muscle will actually grow in a way that's not going to trash you for the rest of your training sessions. And so this is why I like full body training sessions.So like with this pro, we're doing three [...0.6s] full body training sessions a week. And typically I like to [...0.6s] in my session design, choose exercises that [...0.5s] do not cross over or interfere [...0.4s] with each other.So I try to select exercises from different movement patterns and different muscle groups so we're not creating too much fatigue in [...0.4s] one muscle or one movement pattern in a session. So this will help us reduce injury and maximize recovery.So a session could look like, you know, I'm gonna start with some kind of warm up. I typically like to do [...0.5s] two to three exercises of high volume movements that are preparing us for compound movements in the lift today.So if my primary movement is gonna be squat and my secondary movement is gonna be like a vertical pull, then I'll probably do some accessory work to warm up my shoulders, warm up my hips, warm up my knees. It could be band pull aparts. It could be goblet squats. Uh, it could be lunges.Just high, high volume, really, really low intensity to get the body warmed up. So that's what my warm up might look like. Then I might go into some kind of power movement. This could be a, [...0.4s] uh, [...0.7s] no, this is not pre recorded, this is live [...0.6s] the Q&A I'm getting it.So this could be some kind of power movement like a ballistic exercise. Um, that's a medball throw Pliometric, we're jumping Olympic variation, cleans, poles, snatches, things like that really important. Uh, then we'll go into our primary compound movement.So in this session, let's say it's a Zirker squat, right? We're gonna do a Zirker squat.That's gonna be our main [...0.7s] primary compound movement. Then I like to choose a secondary compound movement. Something like, you know, maybe a vertical pull like a pull up or a horizontal pull, like a row could be a great option.Then we could work a single leg movement in there, maybe a Bulgarian split squat we could throw in there. We could throw some kind of trunk work in, maybe a carry, maybe we're gonna do our rotational work. I like, me like a plate Halo, something like that. Um.And most of my sessions are going to be designed using compound movements. Um, but then I always like to sneak some accessory movements in there, um, specifically areas that are going to target where you're at risk for injury in your sport.So for Anime Fighter specifically, uh, you might struggle with neck injuries or shoulder injuries or elbow injuries or knee injuries. And so the accessory work that we're going to do is going to build resilience around these injury prone areas.Ideally I like to put more emphasis on our posterior chain or the back of our body. Because spend all of our time in the front of a body, like especially as a fighter, we're here when we're striking, we're here when we're grappling.So we need to really counter that and open up a little bit. And usually if we're getting injuries in our shoulders, our knees, our ankles, our elbows, it's because we have some kind of weakness in our posterior chain. So we could be targeting the neck directly.Training our traps, training our lats, lower back, triceps, hamstrings, glutes are all really important. I also use [...0.6s] some anterior chain exercises. So quads for your knees, biceps for your elbows are really important as well as someone that has torn my bicep tendon and my ACL.Super super, super important that you have bicep work and quad work in your program as well. So I'll do one or two exercises of accessory work around key injury areas and we'll just get pumps in those areas.And then when it comes to designing the other sessions, I'll just [...0.5s] design them in a way where I'm not repeating exercises or movement patterns. Um, and making sure that the design of the program compliments each day and compliments the skill training.So like I said earlier, we're maximizing our muscle growth without [...0.9s] negatively impacting the skill training, which is so important.All right, so we've talked about a lot of things so far. We're gonna keep it rolling. Okay? We've talked about why you might want to [...1.0s] add some muscle, when to prioritize it, how to structure around your training [...0.5s] and your fighting.We talked about the frequency, how many days a week you want to lift and train. We talked about exercise selection, which is really, really important. Now let's talk about reps, sets, weight that you want to use in order to build muscle. Building muscle. Like I said earlier that the main two things that are going to help you to build muscle is damage and heat in the muscle.Okay, that's what we need. We need to be working too close to failure in order to [...0.6s] create the damage needed for your body to be like, oh shit, like this is a level of stress that we're not used to. We need to get bigger and thicker for this to happen.Okay, we're gonna question one second. Sorry for the interpretation, but if I'm going through an injury such as a knee injury, is it okay to keep the same training pattern or should I stop? Um, that's a great question.We're jumping all over the place. I don't think I'll typically do this while answer questions in the middle. We'll see them for the end. I'll answer it right now because, [...0.5s] um, I read it. It really depends if most likely we should change it.You know, most likely we should run you through a system diagnostics to identify what is causing the actual injury itself.And if what you're doing is making the injury worse and then we need to adjust the plan to focus on [...0.4s] building other areas of your body while also rehabing and making the injury better. I hope that helps.Okay, [...0.5s] back to the topics, I'm not gonna do that anymore. Reps, sets, weights, volume, and intensity. Okay, these are the different variables that we are going to manipulate in order to cause the damage and heat that's needed for your muscle to grow.And so when it comes to designing a straining conditioning play program for muscle growth, I use two methods in order to deliver the volume [...1.1s] and intensity.And honestly the time under tension, how long your muscle is sustaining damage that will create the heat [...0.5s] and damage that will elicit muscle growth.And so the first method is called the repetition method. Um, this is high [...0.6s] volume training. So we're probably working anywhere from like three to 10 sets of like eight to 20 reps. Okay? High volume, high reps, the idea here, the way it's gonna be moderate to low. And the ideas were working close to failure.Okay? We're working close to failure, getting to the point where we can no longer do a rep with good technique and then we need to stop.This is so necessary because if you are not working close or at failure, if you're not going to failure, your muscles not gonna grow. It's just not gonna happen. You're not gonna have enough damage in there. And so we need to work as close to failure as possible.Not necessarily like mechanical failure where like you can't do another rap, we might get there sometimes, but more technical failure where your technique starts to break down, you're not doing reps well anymore. That's where we need to stop. Okay. And so we use the repetition method for that.The second method that we use, which I love is called the tempo method. With the tempo method, we are [...0.8s] doing our reps, the concentric and eccentric portions of the movement.So the lowering and the raising portions of the movement for a prescribed time. So for [...0.5s] this pro that I'm working with, uh, the, let's say it's a bicep curl, right? He might be lowering the concentric point of the movement for three seconds, he has no pause at the bottom and he's contracting or raising a dumbbell for three seconds and then no pause at the top.And so we're using the temple movement is tempo method to have constant tension on the muscle for a really slow and controlled time. And, [...0.5s] you know, tempo isn't necessary, it's not required in order to build muscle.But I love using the tempo method to build muscle specifically with fighters because [...1.0s] it allows you to maximize muscle growth while minimizing total workload, right?By really focusing on the temple and going slow and controlled, I can accomplish what I could have done with by doing, I don't know, four sets of 20 by maybe just doing three sets of twelve.Okay, and so I'm reducing the total volume on the body, less reps, less sets, so it's gonna save time. Chances are you're not gonna be in the gym as long. Um, and then also it's gonna reduce the overall stress on the body.And so you can [...0.6s] maximize muscle growth while limiting its impact that it has on the mat. So you can maximize recovery as well, really important, which is why I love the tempo method.So repetition method, tempo method, this is the, [...0.8s] the rep scheme that I'm gonna use with my clients when I create a hypertrophy program for them. Okay, so we've talked a lot about the training aspect of it, right, how to [...0.4s] design a specific program built around muscle growth.You can have the best training in the world, you can be the hardest worker in the world, you can have [...0.4s] the most perfectly designed program for building muscle as a fighter, but if you are not recovering from that shit, you are not going to grow, you are not going to build muscle, you are not going to get better.Your muscle grows, not even just your muscle, like any, any growth that you're trying to make, any improvements that you're trying to make. It happens in your recovery, not from [...0.5s] the work that you do.We need to work hard, but then we need to recover even harder, which is why I'm a big believer in having one day off complete rest day. I like to have an active recovery day in there as well. We have a whole podcast on recovery.I think it's episode three, so you can go check that out. We dive into that a little bit more, but you wanna make sure that you're sleeping seven, eight, nine hours a night. You wanna make sure that your program is intelligently designed.You wanna make sure that you're managing your stress levels as much as possible, probably tracking some kind of heart rate data, resting heart rate, heart rate variability.So, you know, it's, kind of like your body's check engine light, right, like you know, when you can push the pace, and, you know, we need to pull back a little bit.And so optimizing your recovery [...0.6s] while also following an intelligently designed plan that's backed by science is going to be the best way for you to build muscle as a fighter.Alright, super important to maximize recovery. Um, the other aspect of this is nutrition. Okay um, nutrition is so important for the recovery side of it, but you also need to have enough materials for your muscle to grow.You be following a really, really great hypertrophy plan, but if you're not eating enough food for not eating enough calories, doesn't matter how hard you work. You're just not going to grow.And that's why it always makes me laugh when fighters are, like, oh, I don't wanna lift, because it's gonna bulk me up, and then I'm not gonna be able to make weight.Well, no, that's not how it works. Like, if you're eating in a deficit, and you're lifting weights, you're not going to magically gain muscle.It's not going to [...0.6s] wreck your weight cut. If you are lifting weights, and you're eating in a surplus, then, yeah, you're gonna bulk up, and, yeah, it's gonna be harder to cut weight. But if you're not lifting weights, and then you're in a surplus, you're going to bulk up and gain weight.It's not gonna be the weight that you want, but that's gonna hurt your weight cut too. So lifting weights isn't going to hurt your weight cut.I just wanna throw that out there now to gain muscle and gain mass. You need to lift weights following the right kind of, plan, [...0.7s] and you need to be in a calorie surplus. You need to eat more calories than you burn in a day. And there's lots of equations to, to calculate this, and we can talk about that another time. That's not what this podcast is about today.Ideally, you know, anywhere from, like, 250 to 500 calories, maybe even like, 600, 700 calories of a surplus above our total daily energy expenditure. How many calories you burn a day is a sweet spot of where you want to be to build muscle.I always like to start on the lower end, and then add calories versus as going as big as possible, especially [...0.4s] in muscle growth for fighters. We don't want any kind of, like, dirty bulk, bullshit. We wanna make sure we are [...0.5s] minimizing the body fat that we're adding on as well.So bulking as lean as possible, adding lean mass as much as we can is so important, because especially from a weight cut perspective. It's much easier to pull muscle, pull water from a muscle to cut weight than it is to burn fat in order to make weight.So we wanna be [...0.5s] as lean as possible in our muscle growth phase now. Obviously, there's going to be a little bit of fat added onto the body. That's inevitable. But when we manipulate our calories and our macros, which is your protein, your carbs, and fat in the right way, then we can limit our fat growth and maximize our muscle growth, which is gonna be great for your weight cutting process as well. Okay um, [...0.6s] typically a gram of protein per pound of body weight is what we shoot for.And then we just fill the rest in with carbs and fats. Um, I typically like to talk to time carbs close to training. So, [...0.6s] you know, four hours before you train have a big meal, [...0.5s] two hours before you train have a high carb snack.One hour before you train get 30, 60 grams of simple carbohydrates in. We could cycle carbs, so, like, higher carbs on higher intensity training days, lower carbs on lower intensity or rest days. But for for this, for, like, muscle growth, I don't think carb cycling is as important.I think just getting the calories in is the most important thing for this muscle growth phase that we're in. And then we're getting into cutting weight or optimizing performance or, or really peaking for a fight.Then timing our carbs can be a little bit more beneficial, but for muscle growth, I don't think it's as necessary, like, with my pro. We're not doing that.He just has his calories and his macros, his protein goals, the most important thing and hitting his calorie goals really important. And that's what's allowing him to build. And he's [...0.4s] Fucking Monster.He's fucking huge right now, um, and which only been a couple, uh, couple phases, well, not even a full phase.He's, like, on his third week, which is, which is awesome. He's seeing great progress gonna crush it [...0.4s] at welterweight, which I'm really excited for.How's your nutrition is really important. You can throw some supplements, supplements in there as well, like a whey proteins, a great option. If you have a hard time getting your protein in through Whole Foods away proteins gonna be a great option. Um, creatine is an awesome supplement. That's going to help anything, that's going to [...0.4s] maximize your recovery.So things are gonna help with sleep things that are going to help with reducing stress, can be really important. Um, the key with muscle growth is, you know we, we want to have some inflammation in our body.This is what's going to [...0.6s] signal your body to grow the muscle. And so [...0.7s] a lot of fighters will take anti inflammatories, just because of how [...0.4s] intense training is. Something like a Kirk human supplement or even like ibuprofen.And typically I'm [...0.5s] pro like Kirk human or anti inflammatory supplementation to help increase recovery for training.But in the sake of in the in the example of muscle growth, I probably would [...0.8s] be more strategic about when I introduce, like, a Kirk human supplement, if I even do it at all. Because that might [...0.4s] interfere and reduce some of the gains that you make with hypertrophies.Like, if you're taking kirkhuman or another anti inflammatory supplement, either take it on days when you're not lifting, or you're not focusing on your muscle growth, or you just pause until that phase or block is over, and then can reintroduce it when you're skill training.Intensity and volume increases, frequency increases, and you switch your straining conditioning to, to a different focus. Okay, um again, most supplements are bullshit. Those are a handful of them that actually do things.Okay, [...0.8s] balancing in condition is the last note that I have on here, balancing in conditioning.So [...1.2s] typically I like to keep the conditioning a little bit lower when we're in a hypertrophy phase, especially if it's, like, aerobic work. Because if we're doing long duration cardio aerobic work, this could have some crossover and interference with our hypertrophy training.So if we're going to condition, cause I think it's, there should be one or two sessions just to kind of maintain your conditioning at a good level.I like explosive bursts. I like high intensity burst where we're doing shorter work intervals, maybe 20 seconds, maybe 30 seconds, maybe 15 seconds [...0.4s] and then we're resting another 20, 30, 15 seconds in between.So I like interval training and not a ton of volume. Like we're not doing three, three minute rounds, five, five minute rounds are not simulating the fight.Maybe we're doing five minutes just to [...0.6s] maintain your conditioning. It doesn't take a whole lot of volume to maintain the conditioning that we have.And the reason I wanna do this is just so we're not [...0.5s] building too much of a conditioning deficit. And then when the hypertrophy phases over, [...0.6s] we can [...0.5s] switch focuses, change the program up, increase the volume, intensity, frequency, specificity of conditioning that we're doing.Um, but once the hypertrophy phase is over, all right, I think that's everything [...0.5s] that I wanted to talk about today. Um, when it comes to hypertrophy, I know there was a lot in this episode. I wanted to cram as much into it [...0.5s] as I possibly can.So we'll do a quick little summary and then we'll wrap things up and I'll, I'll send you on your way for today. Um, [...0.7s] so [...0.4s] lifting weights every fighter should do it. Gaining muscle specifically for fighting though is something that needs to be strategic and intentional and planned.Maybe you're going up a weight class, maybe you are [...0.5s] trying to fill out in your current weight class, or maybe you have some injury issues and you need to prevent, need to be more resilient against injury. That's when you would add, [...0.4s] uh, some hypertrophy in there.It's really important that, you know when you're going to prioritize your hypertrophy phase. No fights planned far out away from a camps.You have the time to really pack on muscle the right way, and then build some other qualities. Once you finish your hypertrophy phase, then we can focus on strength or power or speed or explosiveness or cardio.But we're gonna put all of our energy into, uh, the, the actual hypertrophy, which is really important. Um, we talked about [...0.8s] how many days a week you should be lifting for hypertrophy. We talked about what exercises select the reps and sets and weights and tempo to be doing. We talked about recovery, we talked about conditioning, we talked about nutrition, we talked about supplementation, we jam packed this episode. Um, and so I hope you got a lot out of it, I hope you loved it. Uh, I've been loving doing these. They've been really, really fun.I actually didn't think I would like [...0.7s] doing the podcast as much as I've liked doing it. But we've been pretty consistent here seven podcast, which is badass. We're gonna keep pumping them out every single Monday, and we're gonna keep going live, um, every single Monday doing these as well. We didn't get a ton of live viewers, and that's okay.Uh, it's the first time that we're doing this. I don't really go live a lot through. This live number is gonna keep going up and up and up I'm just grateful for the opportunity to have the skill set, have this experience, have this knowledge, um, [...0.8s] and, and share with you and help a little bit. So thanks, I can't do this without you. Um, I love what I do.I've been training my whole life. I've been coaching for as long as I can remember. I get to work with fighters and people that I love every single day. So thank you so much. Um, if you're watching or listening to the podcast, and you don't follow me on Instagram, go follow me on Instagram at Fight Science Collective.If you're watching live, and you didn't even know that we do a podcast. Um, [...0.5s] keep an eye out. Honestly, stories are gonna be the place to watch when I when I drop new episodes. Um, but you can shoot me a DM if you want me to send you the link.We're on all major podcasting platforms. Um, if there are any [...0.7s] specific topics that you want me to cover about straining initiative, nutrition, recovery, mindset, lifestyle, just fighting and training martial arts in general.I have no memories of my life of not training like kickboxing or jiu jitsu and doing this shit. So I have [...0.5s] a really, really just a large bank of memory and experience doing this, and I can talk about it all day.So if there's anything specifically that you want me to cover, um, let me know either in the comments of this podcast or comments of this live, or you can shoot me a DM, [...0.5s] you shoot me an email, whatever. You can fucking send me a raven, however you wanna get it to me, um, let me know.I guess I'll leave, like, 30 seconds, are there any questions on Instagram? Uh, I know that I was just doing the outro, but any specific quick Instagram questions that we can cover.I'll open up for, like, 30 seconds. I know there's not a lot of people here, but just in case I wanna make sure [...0.5s] very generous, [...0.4s] you know no, [...0.4s] no questions.A lot of people seem to have got a lot out of it, Learned a lot, so that's amazing. I appreciate the support, thanks for listening, thanks for watching, and until next time, [...0.7s] I'll catch you later, [...0.5s] peace.