Latest news with #MikeIsraetel
Yahoo
a day ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Exercise Scientist: This Simple Workout Plan Helps Maintain Muscle When You're Low on Time
Exercise Scientist: This Simple Workout Plan Helps Maintain Muscle When You're Low on Time originally appeared on Men's Fitness. When you've worked hard for your gains, you don't want to lose them—especially if life has gotten busy, making it difficult to get to the gym. But it's possible to work out with a busy schedule. It may take less time than you might think, too. Exercise scientist Mike Israetel appeared as a guest on The Diary of a CEO Podcast, explaining that staying in good shape doesn't require hours in the gym each day—or even each week. His take: Two hours a week is all it takes to maintain your gains, maybe even improve them. "People think the amount of training it takes to get into great shape is exactly the same exact amount of training you have to continuously do to stay in good shape," Israetel that's a myth. He explained that most of the body's complex systems operate in a way where it takes significantly more effort to create change than it does to maintain progress. That means once you've built a solid fitness foundation, upkeep is far easier than people assume. "Two hours total per week week can at the very least maintain what you have, essentially indefinitely," he says. If you're in a busy season of life struggling to find time to train, don't worry about hitting the gym every day. Focus on consistent, efficient workouts—even short sessions count. It's even worth considering switching your workout split to three full-body workouts a week, hitting every essential movement pattern. "You can actually train a lot less and keep all of your gains and maybe make some more," Israetel says. Consistency beats volume when you're busy. And with just a couple hours a week, you can stay strong, fit, and Scientist: This Simple Workout Plan Helps Maintain Muscle When You're Low on Time first appeared on Men's Fitness on Jun 18, 2025 This story was originally reported by Men's Fitness on Jun 18, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Health
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Exercise Scientist: I'm Begging Guys to Follow This One Rule For Muscle Growth
Exercise Scientist: I'm Begging Guys to Follow This One Rule For Muscle Growth originally appeared on Men's Fitness. Believe in the protein hype. Now more than ever before, folks are paying extra close attention to their protein intake. In fact, one study found that in 2024, 61 percent of consumers said they had increased their protein intake, compared to 48 percent in 2019. And there's a good reason for it—it's how you actually pack on muscle. According to exercise scientist Dr. Mike Israetel, the number one requirement for muscle growth is protein. This comes down to eating high-protein foods regularly throughout the day. "The number one requisite for muscle growth is protein," Israetel said on the Diary of a CEO recommends consuming protein three to five times daily at relatively even intervals. Following a classic schedule like breakfast, lunch, and dinner with an evening snack can boost results. As for how much protein, most people don't actually need the often-cited one gram per pound of bodyweight per day. "The average person needs a little bit less than a gram per pound of bodyweight per day of protein. Actually, considerably less—that's kind of the top limit and a cool, aspirational thing to shoot for," Israetel says. That breaks down to roughly 40 to 50 grams of protein per meal across four meals a day. Overshooting your protein target won't make you fat, either—as long as your total calories stay in check. "If you're doing a diet where you take a ton of protein, but you dropped your carbs and fats and your calories are at maintenance levels, you're not going to gain any fat," he says. If you want to see more muscle definition, consistent and strategic protein intake is Scientist: I'm Begging Guys to Follow This One Rule For Muscle Growth first appeared on Men's Fitness on Jun 18, 2025 This story was originally reported by Men's Fitness on Jun 18, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
5 days ago
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Personal Trainer Shares the 2-Day Workout Plan That Helps Beginner Lifters Make Big Gains
When you're just starting out in the gym, it can be tempting to jump into a six-days-a-week program like your favorite fitness influencers. But between learning how to train properly and giving your body enough time (and fuel) to recover, you probably need way less time in the gym than you think. While chasing that post-workout high might make you want to show up every day, it's not the most effective approach for a beginner. In an interview with longevity specialist Peter Attia, M.D., exercise scientist Mike Israetel, Ph.D., broke down the exact two-day workout plan he uses to help newbie lifters make big gains. 'If you're training twice a week—let's call it Monday and Thursday for simplicity—you do want some symmetry,' Israetel says. 'So you don't want a situation where you train with weights Monday and Tuesday, and then you take the rest of the week to do other stuff.'If you're only working out two days a week, you need to make every session count. Bro splits—where you target one or two muscle groups at a time—might work if you're training five or six days, but with limited time, they're not your friend. That's why full-body workouts are the move. They hit all your major muscle groups and give you the most bang for your buck. "If you push them hard, maybe at most half a week, you can train every major muscle group of your body in every single session that you do," Israetel says. "So both Monday and Thursday, we'll have every major muscle group being trained." Because you're only training twice a week, Israetel says you need exercises that hit more than one muscle at a time. So skip the calf raises and focus on compound lifts like barbell back squats, deadlifts, and bench press—they deliver way more return for your effort. "Then we're using muscles very efficiently because we're pushing multiple muscles to their limits in one exercise," he adds. "This is generally going to be compound movements, multi-joint movements—things like pullups, pull downs, barbell and dumbbell bent-over rows." Personal Trainer Shares the 2-Day Workout Plan That Helps Beginner Lifters Make Big Gains first appeared on Men's Journal on Jun 13, 2025
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Coach Begs Lifters to Stop Doing These 5 Popular, Ineffective Bodybuilding Exercises
If exercises like planks and tricep kickbacks are programmed into your weekly workouts, it's time to replace them for more effective muscle-building moves. Exercise scientist Mike Israetel revealed five of the worst—yet extremely common—exercises and offered better alternatives for each: planks, Supermans, rack pulls, tricep kickbacks, and single-arm dumbbell presses. Planks are the go-to ab exercise for many, but according to Israetel, it's just smoke and mirrors—giving you the illusion that you're doing something, while you're actually not doing much at all. Aside from an isometric contraction from your abs, planks don't harness a lot of muscle growth, he says. Instead of planks, swap in ab rollouts. They train your core through a full range of motion, giving you the highest tension at the bottom and almost zero at the top, which matches the force exposure needed for maximum hypertrophy. Though it's not an isometric movement, Supermans don't allow you to get much range of motion. Israetel suggests trading out Supermans for flexion rows (skip to 5:25 in his video below if you're not familiar), especially if you were using Supermans to target your back and posture. Israetel admits rack pulls can have a place in advanced powerlifting programs, but for most lifters, snatch-grip deficit deadlifts are a far better choice. "Typically muscles get bigger and stronger best when you train them through a big range of motion and challenging positions, and the rack pull literally obviates both of those conditions," he says. Tricep kickbacks load the muscle in its weakest, most shortened position and offer almost no tension when the triceps are lengthened, Israetel explains. It's a backwards setup for growth. Swap them for dumbbell skullcrushers instead. They let you hit peak tension at the bottom stretch, while the top is the easiest—flipping the force curve compared to tricep kickbacks. Last on the list is single-arm dumbbell presses, where one arm works while the other is stuck holding—either overhead or at shoulder level. If you're holding one dumbbell fully extended while pressing with the other, you're just wasting energy on something that doesn't lead to any real adaptation in that straightened arm, Israetel explains. By the time you switch sides, the arm that was holding is already fatigued, which means you'll likely lift less weight or do fewer reps. He says you're better off doing dumbbell presses with both arms, or training single-arm variations using a machine.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Exercise Scientist: This Is the Most Effective Shoulder Move for Huge Delts
Building big shoulders is the secret to looking jacked in a shirt—and even better without one. But to achieve that wide, powerful look, you've got to put in the work on your delts. In a recent YouTube video, Mike Israetel shared five delt-building exercises that'll help you get there. Israetel is an exercise scientist and co-founder of Renaissance Periodization, known for his expertise in muscle growth. He's coached athletes at all levels and regularly shares training advice, including detailed breakdowns of the S-tier exercises for different muscle groups. Spoiler alert: The video is dominated by lateral raise variations, including incline laterals, machine laterals, crossbody laterals, and freemotion laterals. Israetel also suggests front raises as solid delt builders. A 2020 study confirmed that lateral raises are top-tier for building bigger shoulders. Among 13 resistance-trained men, researchers found that lateral raises activated the medial delts more than any other exercise, outperforming the shoulder press and leaving the bench press and dumbbell fly far behind. You can't go wrong with any lateral raise variation, but Israetel makes a strong case for seated incline laterals. By going seated, you reduce systemic fatigue and minimize the need for stabilization, making the movement more focused and efficient than a standing variation. The angle of your incline plays a key role in targeting different parts of the delts. A higher incline emphasizes the side delts, while a lower incline shifts more focus to the front delts—though it still activates the side delts Keeping the incline anywhere between 45 to 90 degrees is fine—what matters most is that you're feeling the tension in your side delts. Israetel has a few cues to help. Think about lifting your pinkies up higher and pointing your thumbs down to angle more into your side delts. Keep the control all the way up and down, coming slightly above parallel and pausing briefly at the top. If you're adding incline laterals to your next shoulder day, Israetel recommends using Myorep sets or incorporating partials as you near failure to milk a little more effort out of your muscles.
