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World-leading muscle building expertise

Ultimate Performance are the world’s foremost experts in results-focused muscle building for ordinary men and women who do not want to look like professional bodybuilders. Our proven muscle building methodology and ‘maximum results, minimum time’ model have helped thousands of clients achieve life-changing body transformations across the globe.

Why is building muscle so difficult?

Muscle building is straightforward in principle, but it is challenging in practice.

Everybody has the potential to build muscle, but we see so many people waste years in the gym and get nowhere.

After the first flush of ‘beginner gains’ when they first start out weight training, progress stalls, results stagnate, and frustration sets in. As the world’s leading body transformation experts, we see people making the same mistakes in 3 key areas.

Training – People do not train hard enough, smart enough or consistently enough to build muscle. Without a progressive program that manages training volume, frequency and intensity intelligently, you will not push your body enough to stimulate muscle growth.

Nutrition – People do not support their training with the right nutrition to build muscle. Without taking a measured approach that focuses on the correct energy balance, macronutrient ratios, nutrient timing and food quality, you will not create the optimal conditions needed to gain muscle.

Lifestyle – People do not optimise the lifestyle factors needed to build muscle. Neglecting recovery protocols, sleep quality and effective stress management, will comprise your performance and inhibit your muscle growth potential.

Muscle building myths

Muscle building is a process, there is no magic to it.

Anyone has the ability to develop a muscular or ‘toned’ body, but many people fall prey to the many muscle building myths and misconceptions that muddy the waters.

‘I can’t build muscle because of my genetics.’

‘I need expensive supplements to grow muscle.’

‘I have to ‘bulk’ to gain size first.’

Ultimate Performance cuts through the noise with a science-backed, data-led approach that is proven to help anyone build significant muscle in remarkably short time frames.

A proven muscle building method

When it comes to muscle growth, our results are unparalleled. Our world-class trainers know exactly what it takes to optimise your muscle building potential and elicit the absolute maximum impact from every single rep.

Every metric of progress is tracked to give you quantifiable outcomes and noticeable muscle in all the right places. Our proven model and data are now part of a series of ground-breaking collaborative research projects with scientists at Cambridge University and the University of California.

Maximum results, minimum time

If you want to build serious muscle, no personal training business on the planet can demonstrate the depth and consistency of results with thousands of clients that we can.

Promises are easy to make, but for anyone who is prepared to work hard and follow our guidance to the letter, then these life-changing transformation results can be yours. Here are just some of the incredible results achieved by our clients across the globe.

Start your transformation journey with us today...

Simply enquire now to find the best option for you to achieve the results you want.

The facts about muscle building

Muscle means more than looking good. Whether you are a man or a woman, building muscle and losing fat will help you transform your body shape.   

But the benefits of improving your body composition go way beyond pure aesthetics. Science shows us that growing lean muscle can help to improve every measure of health imaginable as you age: 

Reduce your risk of age-related diseases

One of the most notable risks associated with ageing is sarcopenia, or age-related muscle loss.

Evidence indicates that sarcopenia predicts a 60% to 110% increase in the risk of all-cause mortality, even when accounting for comorbidities like obesity and diabetes.

And while this may not be a concern for everyone right now, the research shows that for every decade after 50 your risk of sarcopenia increases by 10%.

It’s not just a case of being weaker either – sarcopenia-related obesity is associated with insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease. However, sarcopenia can be mitigated by following a high-protein diet and resistance training, which signals to the body to retain lean body mass.

This is the cornerstone of our approach when setting up a nutrition and training plan for our clients to help them get stronger, build muscle and customise a diet that supports better long-term ageing.

Increase your strength and muscle mass

Progressive resistance training will help improve your strength and increase your muscle mass, when done correctly.

Increased strength and lean muscle mass improve a range of health outcomes that go way beyond simply looking good.

These include a reduced risk of osteoporosis in women, improved insulin sensitivity, improved hormonal function, and reduced risk of cardiovascular disease.

Enjoy improved bone health and reduced risk of osteoporosis and falls

Resistance training with weights has been shown in numerous studies to not only build muscle but also help protect bones and prevent osteoporosis-related fractures.

Pre- and post-menopausal women are particularly susceptible to decreased bone density and increased risk of fracture as the production of female sex hormone oestrogen drops. Weaker bones combined with less muscle mass can increase the risk of trips, falls and, ultimately, hospitalisations.

But training with weights has not only been shown to increase bone density, but it also helps slow down sarcopenia, preserving muscle mass, increasing strength and maintaining joint integrity which reduces the likelihood of trips and falls as we age.

Experience better cognitive function and brain health

Regular exercise and improved body composition are associated with improved mood, mental health, cognitive function and reduced risk of chronic disease.

The benefits of exercise as we age don’t stop at the physical – there are also numerous cognitive benefits too. Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are two neurodegenerative diseases strongly associated with age. Significant structural and functional changes occur in the ageing brain that can lead to mental and physical disability. Symptoms of this cognitive decline include regularly feeling confused, forgetful, having difficulty concentrating, and struggling with daily activities.

Among risk factors for both, physical inactivity ranks high. Evidence has shown that those who perform regular physical activity are less likely to be diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer’s.

Improve blood sugar control and nutrient sensitivity

One of the key ways we can improve insulin sensitivity is by resistance training. It improves the body’s ability to store and uptake glycogen from muscle cells.

A recent study investigated the effects of resistance training for six weeks. The participants completed one set of each exercise to failure and the researchers also compared this to adaptations in muscle size and strength. Resistance training resulted in a 16% increase in insulin sensitivity.

With fat loss also comes improved nutrient partitioning, which means that the body is able to utilise fuel more efficiently rather than storing it as fat. It also reduces systemic inflammation, which can disrupt numerous physiological processes.

Better regulate your body’s hormonal environment

Losing weight helps reduce systemic inflammation, which interferes with multiple physiological processes, including immune system response, mental and physical health.

Losing weight and getting to a healthy body fat percentage improves nearly all health markers, including blood sugar, blood pressure, blood lipid profile and resting heart rate.

Why our model works for muscle building

Our practical, real-world muscle building model is guided by experience and cutting-edge science. Simplicity is key to our success. We do the basics and we do them well, favouring careful planning, attention to detail and consistency.

Our results with countless clients who faithfully followed our methodology tell you everything you need to know. It will work for anyone. Our world-leading results are built on six key cornerstones:

What muscle building results can you expect?

Other products for muscle building

Our expertise in the science of muscle building, body transformation and results-focused personal training extends way beyond the doors of our private gyms. We have a whole range of products and services that help our clients enhance their health and improve their results.

Meal Prep

Our meal preparation partners provide delicious, macronutrient-calculated meals designed to support your transformation goals.

Supplements

Our premium supplements are backed by science, proven with clients, and designed to enhance your health, performance and results.

Online training

Our online training options give you the results-driven Ultimate Performance experience whatever your budget or location globally.

Books

Our range of books bring together world-leading expertise on personal training, nutrition and body transformation from our CEO Nick Mitchell.

Muscle Building FAQs

Why do I need to lose fat before I build muscle?

For the majority of people, we look to put them through a program of fat loss first. This is for three reasons:

1. You will look more muscular if you are leaner and therefore have more muscle definition.

2. Once you are lean, we can then increase calories for a focused muscle-building phase. This way we can minimise body fat increases while gaining lean muscle.

3. From a position of improved body composition, your body will be able to better partition nutrients, meaning that it will make the most use of the calories you eat.

Do I need to take supplements to build muscle?

It depends! For the majority of our clients, we recommend the Ultimate Performance essentials: UltraMag, U.P. Multi, D3 Replenish, Gut Flora, Digestive Enzymes. These ensure that your body is functioning optimally and can recover effectively from the stimulus we apply in the gym.

We also recommend performance supplements, such as our Amplify intraworkout, to make sure you can get the most out of every single minute in your training session.

However, the golden rule that we apply to all clients is that supplementation does not supersede effective training, nutrition and recovery.

I have tried everything to build muscle, why will this work?

Growth will happen if you put your body in the right conditions to do so. Most people make the mistake of hopping between programs, failing to record their workouts or progress and underestimate the importance of proper recovery and stress management.

People also get caught up in the latest fancy fad exercises on Instagram. But what we should focus on is doing the basics and doing them well. Most of the time, it is a rotation of key movement patterns that can come in a variety of forms and variations. We can tweak these to create an unlimited range of exercises to keep things interesting while still nailing the basics.

We go for effective, not fancy. The art is in the coaching of each exercise and unlocking your true physical potential.

Do I need to gain fat to build muscle?

No, you do not need to put on excessive amounts of body fat to increase your muscle mass. In fact, a common mistake is that people mistakenly believe they need to eat an enormous surplus of calories to gain muscle tissue.

However, this is likely to result in you gaining just as much muscle mass as if you were in a moderate surplus or maintenance, but with a lot more fat! When you then diet down to reveal the additional muscle, you’re likely to lose the marginal gains as a by-product of fat loss. Increasing body fat also makes you liable to be less metabolically healthy, which has zero advantages, whether from a health, training performance or nutritional perspective.

Do I need to do specific exercises to gain muscle?

You don’t need to squat, bench and deadlift to gain muscle. These are simply movement patterns, of which there is a multitude of different variations to suit each and every individual. There are no golden rules when it comes to exercise selection for muscle gain. What works is the exercise that allows you to be most stable and generate the most amount of force, safely and under control. The only variable we then need to control for is progressive overload over time, making sure the session volume (sets x reps x load) increases over time.

When you begin your training, you will go through a detailed movement assessment designed to test not only your current capabilities but your mobility and working ranges. We then select the exercises based on this information, rather than shoe-horning you into an exercise you can’t complete.

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