The Gym Bros are Going to be Mad
New guidelines for strength training just dropped and they are completely reasonable
In case you didn’t know, I am a movement professional and have worked in the fitness/movement space for 20 years. I also write about perimenopause and aging, which requires me to do an enormous amount of research on the current data and science around fitness and aging, particularly as it intersects with gender. So this topic is solidly in my wheelhouse. Plus, it’s exciting when there’s big news in the fitness industry that isn’t driven by someone doing dry protein shots for funsies.
I opted to keep the entirety of this article available to read because I think it’s really important information about strength training that everyone should have access to. The only thing behind the paywall are the 2 strength training practices I shared this month in my online studio, MOVE with Naomi.
That said, this article required a lot of time and energy to research — simply to ensure that I have all of my facts straight about this new meta-analysis and Position Stand by the ACSM. If you are able to support my work with a paid subscription, I’d be grateful. It’s not easy to support my family as a movement educator and writer.
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Buckle up, buttercups! There are new guidelines for strength training in town and the good news is that they don’t encourage you to workout in jeans, do push-ups in a sauna, or follow up your lifts with a nice glass of raw milk while cold plunging.
While fitness is in the news more often than it used to be, we’re largely hearing about it from people who are not actually fitness experts but fitness enthusiasts. The vibes are fueled by testosterone, monster energy drinks, and creatine – which can be off-putting to a large percentage of the population.
Another place folks often turn to for fitness guidance is the American Heart Association (AHA), which is focused on preventing heart disease and public health strategies that happen to include fitness protocols. However, these tend to be fairly non-specific. They’re not telling you what fitness strategies work best for building strength vs building muscle or how to adapt fitness protocols to different populations. Plus, the AHA guidelines have stayed fairly consistent over the years.
However, there is another organization that offers fitness recommendations, although you probably don’t know about it unless you’re a fitness pro, and that’s the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM).
While the ACSM and the AHA have similar advice for general physical fitness, the ACSM is geared more toward exercise science and fitness programming – essentially the nitty-gritty of how to exercise in the most effective ways, across a wide range of needs.
So the fact that the ACSM released new guidelines for strength training for the first time in 17 years, is noteworthy.
These new guidelines are based on analyzing data from 137 systematic reviews with over 30,000 participants. What’s great about meta-analyses like this one is that because they’re pulling from a large group of scientific studies, it’s easier to see trends and patterns emerge in a way you simply can’t from a single study.
When I saw the first post about the findings from this meta-analysis, I didn’t think much of it, mostly because it all looked fairly familiar. The recommendations are basically the same as what I’ve been teaching for years.
It wasn’t until more posts about these guidelines showed up in my feed that I realized they were new and improved.
Most importantly, the findings are overwhelmingly positive in terms of viewing strength training as more manageable and realistic for more people.
Essentially what this meta-analysis indicates is that getting stronger is a lot more accessible than we once previously thought, which is good news for everyone (except the gym bros who’d prefer fitness be a members only club).
Here are some of the biggest general takeaways:
Consistency and effort matter more than pretty much everything else
Making a regular practice of moving your body will lead to greater health gains. Making resistance training a more consistent part of your regular movement practice will lead to increases in strength, hypertrophy (muscle growth), and overall fitness. Making the resistance training you do challenging enough that you feel fatigued at the end of a set (effort) will optimize your strength, hypertrophy, and power gains.
Turns out participation trophies are a real thing when it comes to strength training.
To make it even more clear: move your body regularly, lift weights consistently, and when you put in enough effort, you will get stronger, build muscle, and increase your power.
Short workouts have the same benefits as longer ones.
According to the old guidelines, in order to experience gains in strength, muscle, and general fitness, it was believed you needed to commit serious time to working out.
Not so, according to the 2026 recommendations.
A little bit everyday can make a huge difference (which, along with consistency, I have personally been screaming about from the rooftops for years now).
You can do a lot in 10 minutes. You can do a 2 exercise set, 3x in 10 minutes WITH a 60 second break in between sets. And as I’ll get into later, if you are consistently doing them, 2-3 sets is enough to build strength.
Working out at home, works!
Good news! You don’t need a gym membership and access to fancy equipment in order to get stronger, build muscle, or get fit.
You can use dumbbells, kettlebells, and resistance bands. Bodyweight exercises can work, too! Even less conventional resistance exercises can promote strength and hypertrophy.
If you want to use fancy machines at the gym, have at it. But there is no difference in terms of strength, hypertrophy, power, or general fitness, between working out at home or the gym.
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All 3 of those findings are so important for the democratization of fitness, which can often feel inaccessible for so many people. Yes, weights still cost money and yes, you still need some space to move your body, so depending on your circumstances, a gym membership might be more affordable.
But the overall point is this:
You can get stronger and build muscle in 5-10 minute chunks of movement everyday in your own home. That is HUGE.
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Here are some other key findings:
The idea of “progressive overload” has shifted slightly. If you’re unfamiliar, progressive overload refers to increasing the amount of weight you are lifting in a particular exercise as you progress over time. The definition has not changed, but whether or not everyone needs to constantly increase the heaviness of the weights they are lifting, depends on their fitness goals.
Progressive overload only matters if you are aiming for long-term growth with your lifts and building strength.
Additionally, there are specific, but not overly complicated ways to focus on increasing strength, muscle, and power.
For strength you should be lifting at least 2x per week and aiming for heavier loads if you can. Yes, you can build strength using light and moderate loads, but heavier is optimal simply because it is more efficient, time-wise.
You’re aiming for 2-3 sets – not going to failure, but leaving some reps in reserve (RIR). It turns out, going to failure is not an indicator of building strength, as discovered by this meta-analysis.
Anyway, keeping reps in reserve is more time-efficient and also better for your body, especially with heavier loads. Same amount of muscle activation as going to failure but with less drain on your system.
***If you want a comprehensive understanding of RIR, check out my friend Laurel Beversdorf’s new podcast, The Practical Fitness podcast — 2nd episode is all about RIR and it’s a great listen.
While you can increase strength by doing lots of different lifts, compound lifts (squats, deadlifts, rows, and presses, as examples), are great for building strength efficiently because they are multi-joint exercises and access more muscle groups. Ideally, you’re doing these lifts first because they require the most brain/body (neuromuscular) capacity.
Lastly, you’re always aiming for full range of motion on your lifts (this is where working with bands can be super helpful, by the way) and making sure you have adequate rest between sets.
For muscle it’s all about volume. You need to do 10+ sets per muscle group, per week. That might seem like a lot, but there are several ways to target the same muscle groups and typically we aim for 3 sets in a workout. So if you really want to build muscle, tack on a 4th set in one of your workouts.
Aa a reminder, the goal is consistency. So you could do 4 10-minute strength training sessions per week and build muscle, if you are consistently showing up and putting in the kind of effort that leads to fatigue (not failure).
Importantly, overworking out leads to diminishing gains. So being an overachiever and trying to hit more than 20 sets will actually impede your progress rather than muscle gains.
For power, something that most of us really ignore as we age, there’s a different approach than strength and hypertrophy. Moderate loads are most effective, with slightly lower volume in sets. In terms of action, it’s a big push up and a slow lower down with control.
Power is what we lose most and fastest as we age. so figuring out a way to add in some power moves into your movement practice can be enormously beneficial.
I will say, of all of the recommendations, this is the one that I think is the least positive in terms of access and ease, largely because it’s way out of the comfort zone of most folks who are not fitness pros.
There is one thing I want to add, which might be a slight bummer after all of this good news:
Certain forms of exercise that are often incorrectly associated with increasing bone density or building strength (like walking, swimming, pilates, and yoga) are still not going to build bone. Neither will wearing a weighted vest. BUT they can be valuable parts of a regular movement practice that absolutely will benefit your overall health and fitness.
While the meta-analysis itself doesn’t specifically state this, I am adding it here because I did mention how many different types of resistance training can actually build strength and muscle, not just fancy gym machines and barbells.
The thing is, those activities I mentioned are not resistance training. So they don’t actually fall into that category. Just so we’re clear.
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All in all, this is truly excellent news for health and fitness, generally, as well as resistance training, specifically. It’s also great news for folks who might struggle to get to the gym or simply don’t like going to the gym and are worried about whether or not their at-home workouts are as effective.
It’s great news for women like me, in perimenopause and squeezed by young kids and work and life — even though I am a fitness professional, most of my workouts are 25 minutes long, tops. I lift 4 days a week.
And it’s fantastic news for fitness and strength training overall. Rather than 1 protocol being the absolute best, you have lots of options and all of them are fairly simple. The rigidity of the past guidelines have been replaced with a more expansive, accessible approach to resistance training that makes room for everyone.
As many people have said, me included, the best workout program or movement practice is the one you are actually willing to do. It’s likely not the most complicated one or the most time consuming — it’s the one you’ll stick with and grow with over time.
And the findings of this review significantly lowers the barrier for entry and the barrier of success when it comes to strength training. That’s a positive thing, no matter what the gym bros think.
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