Mike Israetel

you get maybe something like 30% of what you could have gotten with five sets because your body has very good sensing mechanisms for tension and metabolites and all these other things that cause muscle growth. And when it detects that you're pushing on the pedal, it'll give you a real good wallop of result.

you keep pushing on the same pedal over and over, and the systems are greatly desensitized to giving you more muscle growth. The biggest reason that is is probably because the human body is attuned and evolved almost entirely in hundreds of millions of years before we were even human of what is in the modern context called food insecurity.

you keep pushing on the same pedal over and over, and the systems are greatly desensitized to giving you more muscle growth. The biggest reason that is is probably because the human body is attuned and evolved almost entirely in hundreds of millions of years before we were even human of what is in the modern context called food insecurity.

And so in order to make a real good case for allocating that much to muscle growth, you're going to have to have a real distinct signal to ask your body to put more and more into that process. So it kind of auto caps itself. If you are myostatin deficient, then actually just existing, you just grow muscle all the time.

And so in order to make a real good case for allocating that much to muscle growth, you're going to have to have a real distinct signal to ask your body to put more and more into that process. So it kind of auto caps itself. If you are myostatin deficient, then actually just existing, you just grow muscle all the time.

So it seems to be that for a variety of reasons, including that one, that if you do one set close to failure, you get a lot of gains. You do three sets close to failure, you get substantially more gains, but not three times as many gains. You do five sets close to failure and you do just a little bit better than three.

So it seems to be that for a variety of reasons, including that one, that if you do one set close to failure, you get a lot of gains. You do three sets close to failure, you get substantially more gains, but not three times as many gains. You do five sets close to failure and you do just a little bit better than three.

You do seven or eight sets close to failure in one workout, and it's statistically undifferentiable from five. So that's kind of how that chart looks. So Dorian, from what I understand, did roughly 14 sets per week per muscle group-ish. And that gets into that territory of a very robust signal of growth to the muscle. It's not the highest signal of growth.

You do seven or eight sets close to failure in one workout, and it's statistically undifferentiable from five. So that's kind of how that chart looks. So Dorian, from what I understand, did roughly 14 sets per week per muscle group-ish. And that gets into that territory of a very robust signal of growth to the muscle. It's not the highest signal of growth.

If you decided not to train your legs very hard or your back very hard, and the amount of systemic fatigue that's imparted to you week by week is much lower, because fatigue isn't just local, it spills over into everything else, you could push your arms, shoulders, and chest not to 14 or 15 or 20 sets per week, but in many cases 25-30.

If you decided not to train your legs very hard or your back very hard, and the amount of systemic fatigue that's imparted to you week by week is much lower, because fatigue isn't just local, it spills over into everything else, you could push your arms, shoulders, and chest not to 14 or 15 or 20 sets per week, but in many cases 25-30.

30, 35 sets per week and experience very meaningful growth enhancements that you would never have seen only ever training those 15 sets a week. But 15 sets a week might bring you to 70 or 85% of what all of those muscles could eventually have hypertrophied if you only ever specialized in them.

30, 35 sets per week and experience very meaningful growth enhancements that you would never have seen only ever training those 15 sets a week. But 15 sets a week might bring you to 70 or 85% of what all of those muscles could eventually have hypertrophied if you only ever specialized in them.

And so Dorian was insanely jacked, but he was jacked all over and probably could have in retrospect benefited from more specialization phases on various weak points that he had. His back was startling. His arms were excellent. Now, by immortal standards, they were the biggest arms you've ever seen in your life.

And so Dorian was insanely jacked, but he was jacked all over and probably could have in retrospect benefited from more specialization phases on various weak points that he had. His back was startling. His arms were excellent. Now, by immortal standards, they were the biggest arms you've ever seen in your life.

By competitive bodybuilders of his era standards, relative to the rest of his physique, he could have had bigger arms, could have bigger shoulders. And so he could have poured much more volume into those muscle groups and lessened everything else.

By competitive bodybuilders of his era standards, relative to the rest of his physique, he could have had bigger arms, could have bigger shoulders. And so he could have poured much more volume into those muscle groups and lessened everything else.

But Dorian seemed to have an all-around approach, which up until about a year ago, so did I. And so I had never looked very aesthetic, but boy, were my legs super big because they could just eat up the growth all the time. So if you want to do not a ton of volume for any one muscle...

But Dorian seemed to have an all-around approach, which up until about a year ago, so did I. And so I had never looked very aesthetic, but boy, were my legs super big because they could just eat up the growth all the time. So if you want to do not a ton of volume for any one muscle...

If you work really hard and bring yourself very close to failure, you can already do super, super well just with that alone. If you get a really good cook, someone who really knows how to make food, and you give them an hour in the kitchen with a variety of menu items versus three hours, within an hour, they can wow you with what you're eating.