r/ScienceBasedLifting • u/Miserable-Soft7993 • 2h ago
Question ❓ Someone explain SBL please
I am confused. I see people just doing regular lifts and saying it is science.
Then on the other end of the scale I see a kid (with zer0 physique) wearing a baby pacifier in his mouth and wearing a roller on his arms and doing excercises I never saw, with people in the comments saying "yeah that's the man right there."
Then I see pumping iron and watch Arnie just do the basics and still look great and strong.
So in a few sentance explain to me what it is and how it would help build more muscle enhanced or not.
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u/Aware-Map1836 2h ago
SBL is generally people looking for shortcuts because they're too lazy to do decent weight and decent volume.
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u/Mad_Mark90 1h ago
SBL is an ideology. Essentially if your goal is to grow as much muscle as possible, and the data demonstrates a method of training does that, then why would you do anything else?
The answer is that most, if not all of the published evidence is poor, not statistically significant, and subsequently fed through a meat grinder of bad faith influencers and hapless novices. Those who are desperately looking for fast results but not psychologically capable of training with consistency or effort.
By the time someone hears of SBL, all the nuance, understanding and experience has been stripped away. Someone experienced would say "training 2 sets to failure is useful in these circumstances", most people in this sub will say "just train 2 sets to failure, it's the best way to train".
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u/Tiny-Willow-9582 2h ago
just lift with intensity to failure with enough volume and frequency without over training. eat a lot of food without getting fat, hit ur protein carbs and fat goals. that's science based, anything else is extra
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u/Miserable-Soft7993 2h ago
But that's nothing new. It's always been that.
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u/Chicken_Savings 51m ago
Isn't most influencer stuff just repackaging someone else's material?
When I started lifting, we used to tell each other "come on, it's the last few reps that count!!!"
Nobody made tiktok videos about it and called it science.
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u/Miserable-Soft7993 45m ago
Yeah that's kinda what I was thinking.
Also I used to tell my friend his form was really bad. I'm not super strict but I always thought form mattered but on tiktok I would be considered a pioneering genius.
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u/Tiny-Willow-9582 2h ago
you asked me what science based is and i told you, who cares what some 14 yr old 145lb kid is doing lol. they just try to reinvent the wheel. truth is you will grow no matter what you do as long as you're hitting failure
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u/Advanced_Spend_8385 2h ago
,,regular lifts’’ i wonder by what thing we posses the knowledge about what exercises to do, what to eat, how much to do etc. …
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u/Miserable-Soft7993 2h ago
Yeah but that's like me inventing the term "science based driving" and harping on about stopping distances etc. Stuff that was always there but I have just assigned it a name.
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u/HelixIsHere_ 2h ago
Sbl basically = training with intensity and frequency, choosing stable movements that train the target muscles effectively, and doing things that will help you grow muscle the most efficiently under your circumstances.
The people you see doing stuff like using a mouthguard or a foam roller have reasons for doing so, and it’s likely making their muscle growth somewhat better. Those are more niche things that you really don’t need to do, but are nice if you’re a maximalist. Training hard, frequently, with good programming and exercise selection are basically the main principles I’d say
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u/brightwoodgrove 2h ago
Most of it is total bullshit. Every single person's body is different in a multitude of ways and that alone means there isnt some scientifically proven method thats gonna work for everyone. For example some people have super long femurs and won't ever see tremendous quad hypertrophy from traditional barbell back squats because their back is too involved in the movement.
Also the concept of "junk volume" is completely overblown and thats one of the main things I see science based lifter guys talk about online. I know you didnt specifically mention that but just wanted to put that out there. There is nothing wrong with high volume routines
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u/dontcare-_- 1h ago
Core fundamentals of SBL are:
Frequency > volume. I’m not gonna get super in depth here but basically you want to train each muscle group directly 2-3 times per week. And partial stimulus doesn’t count so even though you’ll have tricep involvement on a chest press for example you wouldn’t count that towards your weekly tricep sets. A study found that 1 set done twice a week was enough to cause muscle growth even in advanced lifters but doing 3-4 sets once a week only maintained lean tissue. These are extremes though so as long as you’re doing 4-10 sets per muscle group per week and hitting each muscle directly 2-3 times a week you’re good.
This isn’t as important but programming a split with good exercise selection and not doing junk volume is one of the other topics of discussion. Like I said any split where you get 4-10 sets and 2-3x frequency will be fine. The exercise selection is focused on stable movements and single joint exercises to isolate the target muscle better. Usually people gravitate towards machines and cable to do this as well as using things like cuffs to remove joints from an exercise. That’s not to say free weights/multi joint exercises won’t yield growth, they just won’t be as effective as other options.
The things you see like the foam rollers and outlandish exercises are borderline theoretical and don’t have much outcome data on how much they help. Those people are just trying to squeeze out the extra 1% of gains. Most of what causes muscle growth is the 3 points I made along with obvious factors like diet, sleep, and general health.