[0:00] For the last two years, I've been
[0:01] secretly building the most scientific
[0:03] gym on the planet.
[0:05] >> It's It's really a blank slate, bro.
[0:06] This ceiling light is going to look so
[0:08] sick. I think it's really unique. I
[0:09] think it gives a like industrial like
[0:12] techy type vibe. This is where I'll be
[0:14] training myself, but it's not just for
[0:16] lifting. It's actually a full-blown
[0:18] muscle research facility. So, that now
[0:21] in here, I'll be able to do my own
[0:23] scientific experiments. I'm calling the
[0:25] entire place the Jeff Nippard Muscle
[0:27] Lab. And there are four rooms, plus a
[0:30] lobby in the middle. There's a dark gym
[0:31] with more of the bodybuilding machines,
[0:33] a light gym with more of the strength
[0:35] stuff. Room three is a new podcast room,
[0:38] and then there's my personal favorite
[0:40] room. This is where all the real science
[0:42] will go down. And what's behind that
[0:43] door cost me over $300,000.
[0:47] And since it's the best part by far, I'm
[0:49] going to save it for last. So, this is
[0:51] the lobby. Got this custom art piece up
[0:54] here on the wall. We got the custom JN
[0:56] logo mat down here. And behind this door
[1:00] is the dark side. Behind this door is
[1:03] the light side. Let's check out the
[1:05] light side first before we go in. This
[1:07] is what it used to look like before.
[1:09] This is gym gym side one. So, this is
[1:12] going to be more of like a light toned
[1:14] gym. So, it'll be a little bit brighter,
[1:16] a little more white. And this is what it
[1:18] looks like now.
[1:21] [Music]
[1:25] Before we start the tour, I just want to
[1:26] make it clear that nothing in here was
[1:28] gifted or sponsored. I just picked out
[1:30] my favorite pieces from brands like
[1:32] Alco, Atlantis, Prime, even an old
[1:35] school precore machine. So, the first
[1:36] thing you see when you walk in is the
[1:38] deadlift platform. And now that I have
[1:40] this gym, I have been getting back into
[1:41] deadlifting more, but my main exercise
[1:44] for my legs right now is right over here
[1:46] around the corner, the pendulum squat.
[1:49] So, if you guys have been watching me at
[1:50] all, you know that I'm a huge fan of
[1:51] pendulum squats and it's a really good
[1:54] quad dominant squat because it is super
[1:57] hard in that bottom part of the range of
[1:59] motion. I have been using this flat out.
[2:01] And also, check this out. I got my very
[2:03] own Jeff Nipper Muscle Lab plates.
[2:05] They're not all in yet, but uh I don't
[2:07] know. I just love the look of these.
[2:08] Speaking of the quads, this is a very,
[2:11] very close second. So, this is a prime
[2:13] leg extension machine. And the thing I
[2:15] love about this one is that depending on
[2:17] where you load these plates, you can
[2:19] emphasize different aspects of the range
[2:20] of motion. So if I load the plate down
[2:24] here, okay, on the bottom, it's going to
[2:27] feel really hard in the squeeze. So it's
[2:30] going to get harder as you get to the
[2:32] lockout. If you load it in the middle,
[2:34] it's going to feel harder in the middle.
[2:35] And then if you load it on the top, it's
[2:38] going to feel hardest in the stretch.
[2:40] So, when I do this, I normally load two
[2:42] plates on top, two plates in the middle,
[2:44] and that'll usually do me for around 10
[2:46] reps. And not only that, this is the
[2:49] only machine, the only leg extension
[2:51] machine that I've seen that has this
[2:54] deep of a knee angle. So, you can get
[2:56] way deeper here than you can on any
[2:59] other leg extension I've ever seen,
[3:00] especially if you set the seat back.
[3:02] This is hip abduction, hip adduction
[3:04] machines. I actually had Jesse James
[3:06] Weston here yesterday and I was telling
[3:08] him that you can set the seat forward if
[3:11] you want to get a little bit more of a
[3:12] stretch. You can set the seat back if
[3:15] you want to improve the angle of the
[3:16] glute medius fibers a little bit better.
[3:18] It's also super versatile. So, if you
[3:20] set it in here, you can do your hip
[3:22] abductions for the glutes. If you set it
[3:24] out here, you can do your hip adductions
[3:27] for the inner thighs. All right,
[3:29] hamstrings. This is by far my favorite
[3:33] lying leg curl machine on the planet.
[3:35] And the reason for that is this angle
[3:38] right here. This is pretty much the
[3:40] closest to a seated leg curl that you
[3:42] can get in a line leg curl. So it's
[3:44] like, oh, why didn't you just get a
[3:45] seated leg curl? Well, I did get a
[3:47] seated leg curl, too. But there's
[3:49] something about lying down, honestly, at
[3:51] the start of a workout that just feels
[3:52] better to me. And you get so deep on
[3:57] this that it almost feels like your leg
[3:59] is going to snap in half. And I mean
[4:01] that in the best possible way. It is
[4:04] just it is just an awesome machine. And
[4:06] like with all Prime machines, depending
[4:07] on where you set the cam, you can
[4:09] overload different aspects of the range
[4:10] of motion. I usually set it here in
[4:12] between the max stretch setting and the
[4:14] mid-range setting. All right, leg press.
[4:17] So this is actually a fancy leg press.
[4:19] So most leg presses are just linear. So,
[4:22] you have this 45° angle and the weight
[4:24] moves up and down in a straight line.
[4:26] This one actually moves in an arc. It
[4:29] just feels a lot more natural and uh I
[4:31] can get nice and deep on this one. Super
[4:33] smooth machine. Oh, I forgot to show
[4:35] you. This is one of my favorite pieces,
[4:40] donkey calf raise. This, I think, is an
[4:42] underrated machine. It is a nostalgia
[4:44] piece. This is famous in part because of
[4:47] uh Arnold and his donkey calf raises.
[4:49] But I was showing Jesse a few calf tips
[4:51] on this yesterday. When you have that
[4:53] bent hip position, you can take some of
[4:55] the stress off your back, but yet you
[4:57] still have a straight leg. And so you
[4:58] can still get a super big stretch on the
[5:00] gastro nemas. So yeah, absolutely love
[5:02] the donkey calf. And then just to be
[5:04] safe, you know, to be sure, I do also
[5:07] have a standing calf raise machine. And
[5:09] this one's really nice because this pad
[5:11] is so grippy. And so you can just rotate
[5:13] up and down on the balls of your feet
[5:15] and you'll be super secure, super
[5:17] stable, and just direct all that tension
[5:18] into your calves. I was actually talking
[5:20] to Larry Wheels earlier, and we're going
[5:22] to get him in the actual lab that I'll
[5:24] show you in a minute and do a full-blown
[5:26] calf training study to see if we can
[5:28] finally get his stubborn calves to grow
[5:31] using science. Speaking of Larry Wheels,
[5:33] we've got a full squat rack over here.
[5:35] as a uh ex powerlifter. You know, I've
[5:38] got to got to have some free weights.
[5:40] But this
[5:42] this is probably my number one glute
[5:45] builder right now. I do like a 1 second
[5:47] squeeze at the top of each rep because
[5:49] the hip thrust is one of those rare
[5:51] exercises where you're not really trying
[5:53] to overload the stretch. You're really
[5:55] just trying to engage your glutes. And
[5:57] so, uh, yeah, squeeze at the top of all
[5:59] your hip thrusts. All right. Obviously,
[6:02] got to have a Smith machine in here. And
[6:04] with a Smith machine, I'm really just
[6:05] looking for two things. One is a
[6:08] straight up and down bar path. So, I
[6:10] personally am not a fan of the Smith
[6:11] machines that have a angled bar path.
[6:13] So, I wanted one that goes straight up
[6:15] and down. And then other than that, I
[6:16] just wanted one that was really smooth.
[6:18] There's nothing worse than a Smith
[6:19] machine that needs some oil. And I've
[6:22] been using this one pretty much every
[6:23] workout, too. You guys thought that was
[6:24] it? That's just half. We still got the
[6:27] dark side. So, come on over here.
[6:31] You guys ready for the dark side? Let's
[6:33] go.
[6:39] [Music]
[6:44] All right. So, like I said, this is the
[6:46] more bodybuilding focus side. So, we've
[6:49] got a little more dramatic down
[6:52] lighting. I'm going to show you guys
[6:53] something really sick with the lights in
[6:55] a minute. But first, I'm going to start
[6:57] with my favorite piece over here. So,
[6:59] this, if you don't know, is a seal row.
[7:02] This is one of those like old school
[7:04] movements, but I just think it's so good
[7:06] for smashing the midback. So, if you use
[7:09] this horizontal angle, you can get so
[7:13] much tension in your mid traps, in your
[7:15] rhomboids, and your rear delts. But then
[7:17] what I love about this machine in
[7:18] particular, you can actually change this
[7:21] angle. So, if I wanted to make it more
[7:23] of a lat focused row, I could just bring
[7:25] the bench up and focus on driving my
[7:28] elbows down and slightly back. And
[7:30] that's gonna absolutely light up my
[7:31] lats. Also, check it out. We've got
[7:35] custom dumbbells with Jeff Nipper Muscle
[7:37] Lab on them. I just love these. A very,
[7:40] very close runner up for back training
[7:42] in this gym would be the prime chest
[7:44] supported row. And so, just like with
[7:46] the leg extension, depending on where
[7:48] you load the plates, you can overload
[7:50] different aspects of the range of
[7:51] motion. Um, so if you load the plates on
[7:52] the bottom, you can overload the
[7:54] squeeze. Load them in the middle, load
[7:56] that mid part of the range, load them up
[7:57] on top, and you'll get more tension in
[7:59] the stretch. Absolutely love this one.
[8:02] Over here, we've got another uh tea bar
[8:05] row. I'm still trying to find a home for
[8:06] this one, but um I don't know, there's
[8:09] something about like the angle and the
[8:11] size of this. The way that the handles
[8:12] flare out, it just works super well for
[8:14] my body right here. So, most people
[8:16] think this is a lower back exercise,
[8:18] right? After all, it is called a uh 45°
[8:21] lower back extension, but I actually
[8:23] think this is much better as a glute
[8:25] exercise. And so, all you need to do to
[8:28] turn this into a fantastic glute builder
[8:30] is round your back. And that'll force
[8:32] your glutes to handle more of the hip
[8:34] extension. Like, I've been doing this
[8:36] every week on one of my leg days. And
[8:38] I'll just do 12 to 15 reps with a plate
[8:40] held to my chest. And you will feel the
[8:43] craziest mind muscle connection with
[8:44] your glutes doing this. So, if you're
[8:47] sleeping on the 45 degree back extension
[8:49] for glute growth, it's time to wake up.
[8:50] Let me show you guys some shoulder
[8:52] stuff. Let's go here first. So, this is
[8:54] a shoulder press machine. And some of
[8:57] you guys might be wondering, "Well,
[8:58] Jeff, why did you get a shoulder press
[9:00] machine? Doesn't that only hit your
[9:01] front delts? And don't your front delts
[9:03] get all the work they need from bench
[9:05] press? And shouldn't you focus more on
[9:07] your side delts?" Well, the other day I
[9:09] busted out one of the many new
[9:11] scientific tools from the research room
[9:13] with my friend Will, where we hooked
[9:14] electrodes up to his front delts, side
[9:17] delts, and rear delts, and measured
[9:19] muscle activation of all three heads on
[9:22] my new shoulder press machine. The
[9:23] results really surprised me. What we
[9:26] found was super high activation in the
[9:28] front delts, as you'd expect, super low
[9:30] activation in the rear delts, as you'd
[9:32] expect, but also super high activation
[9:36] in the side delts.
[9:37] >> You actually had more lateral than front
[9:39] on the shoulder press.
[9:40] >> What?
[9:41] >> That's insane cuz as soon as I stopped
[9:42] the set, I'm like my side delts pumped.
[9:44] >> Yeah.
[9:45] >> Then I hooked the left pros up to myself
[9:47] and got my own measurements and found
[9:49] the exact same thing. So, I'm not saying
[9:51] that that's conclusive by any means, but
[9:53] it seems that at least for Will and me,
[9:56] a shoulder press is not just a front
[9:57] delt exercise. It seems to also really
[10:00] activate the side delts at least more
[10:02] than what most people think. So, I'm
[10:04] actually a fan of including a vertical
[10:05] press. Also for shoulders, I've got this
[10:08] standing Atlantis lateral raise machine
[10:10] over here. This is one of my favorites.
[10:12] Super smooth, such a great range of
[10:14] motion, and just a really good
[10:15] alternative to cables or dumbbells. Will
[10:17] and I also did a little experiment for
[10:20] the rear delts. So, we came over here
[10:22] and we did reverse pec deck, but if you
[10:25] guys are regular viewers, you'll know
[10:27] that I don't love to do these facing the
[10:29] machine like this. I prefer to sit more
[10:32] to the side and that way I can get such
[10:35] a better range of motion for my rear
[10:37] delts. You know, if if you face the
[10:39] machine, you're really only able to do
[10:41] half reps because the full range of
[10:43] motion for your rear delts is from here
[10:46] all the way back to here. And so if
[10:48] you're facing the machine, you're only
[10:50] getting this aspect. It would be like
[10:51] doing bicep curls only in the top half
[10:53] and completely cutting out the bottom.
[10:55] So that's how I modify this. And when we
[10:58] did that and we measured muscle
[10:59] activation, we did see super high rear
[11:02] delt activation as you'd expect. But
[11:03] also, I found it interesting. There was
[11:05] very little side delt activation on this
[11:06] and basically no front delt activation.
[11:09] So, yeah, really good rear delt
[11:11] isolation exercise if you're looking to
[11:12] bring up your rear delts. Okay, we've
[11:14] got a lat pull down. Pretty standard
[11:17] here. Really smooth. Over here, we've
[11:20] got a seated cable row. And what I like
[11:23] about this one is this distance right
[11:26] here. What that allows me to do is get a
[11:28] super deep stretch on my lats. Over
[11:30] here, back to chest. So, this is my
[11:33] favorite chest press machine on the
[11:35] planet. Actually call this the Phil
[11:37] Heath machine because I remember when I
[11:39] was first getting into bodybuilding, I
[11:41] saw a video of Phil Heath using this
[11:42] machine. And ever since then, I've just
[11:44] been convinced that it's the best
[11:45] machine for the chest. And to make it a
[11:47] little bit more effective, I actually
[11:49] added these fat grips just so I can get
[11:51] a little extra range of motion at the
[11:53] bottom. But what I might do is uh
[11:55] actually modify this seat to bring it
[11:57] forward a little bit more because I feel
[11:59] like I could get just a little bit
[12:00] deeper. But when it comes to smoothness,
[12:04] you just Yeah, you just can't beat the
[12:05] hammer strength chest press, man. So
[12:07] good. All right, couple more things and
[12:10] then I'm going to show you guys
[12:12] something I'm also super excited about.
[12:14] Okay, over here we've got a treadmill.
[12:16] Whatever.
[12:18] This is I think honestly it's the best
[12:21] cable machine that I could find. Um,
[12:23] this is called the Nautilus Human Sport
[12:24] Freedom Trainer. And the reason I think
[12:27] it's so good is that it's just so
[12:28] versatile. So, you can set the cables to
[12:31] any height you want. You can move them
[12:33] in or out. Um, you can do any kind of
[12:36] exercise from low, from high. Um, and
[12:38] this one I use every single upper body
[12:40] workout. But, you know what? I didn't
[12:42] show you guys yet. The lighting in here.
[12:45] Check this out. We honestly put so much
[12:48] work into the lighting in here because I
[12:51] just want it to look as cool as possible
[12:52] on camera. And so we have a full panel
[12:55] in here where we can adjust all the
[12:58] lights individually and every single
[13:00] light has its own dimmer. Let's just say
[13:03] we wanted to create a spotlighting
[13:05] effect for just like maximum shadows on
[13:08] the muscle. We could turn off all the
[13:11] headlights and then every single
[13:13] spotlight in here is individually
[13:16] controlled. So I could turn them all off
[13:18] except for one. And this is what I'm
[13:21] going to call the thumbnail lighting.
[13:23] Check this out.
[13:29] I just got 5% body fat leaner.
[13:34] It's actually insane the difference that
[13:36] lighting can make. But that's not it. I
[13:38] still need to show you guys the real
[13:40] purpose behind this entire project. Um,
[13:43] this is going to be the lab. Probably
[13:46] like some kind of muscle mannequin right
[13:50] here. And then I think I'm going to put
[13:51] a sign
[13:54] that says Jeff Nippard Muscle Lab. This
[13:58] room over here is the Jeff Nippard
[14:00] Muscle Lab.
[14:10] There are so many fitness questions I
[14:12] want to answer here. Like, what if I
[14:13] took a set of twins and I had one twin
[14:16] eat a junk food only diet and the other
[14:18] twin eat a clean food only diet? What
[14:20] would happen to their body fat and their
[14:22] blood work? Or how about this? What if I
[14:23] took an enhanced bodybuilder and told
[14:25] them to stop taking steroids for 6
[14:27] months, but keep their training and diet
[14:30] exactly the same? How much muscle would
[14:32] they lose? I'm also excited to test
[14:33] things out on myself. Right now, I'm
[14:35] testing if I can get to single digits
[14:37] body fat and actually maintain it all
[14:39] year without going crazy. And I'm
[14:41] measuring my body fat, muscle, hormone
[14:43] levels, and everything else using the
[14:45] tools in this lab. This is a
[14:47] top-of-the-line DEXA machine for
[14:49] measuring body fat and lean mass. Some
[14:51] DEXAs are less precise, but this one has
[14:53] an error margin of around 0.5%.
[14:56] At my latest check-in for my fat loss
[14:58] experiment, my DEXA scan came back with
[15:00] a body fat percentage of 10.3%.
[15:04] So, if I lose anything more than 0.5%
[15:07] body fat from here, this DEXA will be
[15:09] able to accurately pick it up. And DEXA
[15:11] is great for tracking fat loss, but for
[15:13] the muscle building experiments I want
[15:14] to do, it's not quite accurate enough.
[15:17] So, I also got this brand new ultrasound
[15:19] machine, which can measure muscle
[15:21] thickness directly. I want to do an arm
[15:23] experiment where I train one bicep
[15:25] normally twice a week, but I train my
[15:27] other bicep every single day for 30
[15:30] days. Using the ultrasound, I'll be able
[15:32] to measure down to the millimeter which
[15:34] arm grows better. So, if you take this
[15:37] ultrasound probe, gel it up, and put it
[15:39] on the muscle, it'll show you exactly
[15:41] what's happening on the inside and how
[15:43] well it's growing over time. So, up here
[15:45] on top, there's a layer of skin and
[15:47] there's a thin layer of fat. And all of
[15:49] this is the actual biceps muscle tissue.
[15:52] And below that is the bone. We're going
[15:54] to be able to do really high quality
[15:55] studies that I definitely want to get
[15:57] peer-reviewed and published. This isn't
[15:58] just for experiments on YouTube. I think
[16:01] that there are so many gaps in the
[16:03] research and there are so many studies
[16:05] that have flaws with them that I just
[16:06] want to make my own. So now I can do
[16:09] that. I have the ultrasound. I have the
[16:10] DEXA machine. I can get however many
[16:12] subjects I can recruit to come in here.
[16:14] Bro, it's going to be it's going to be
[16:15] peer-reviewed. It's going to go in
[16:16] scientific journals. It's like it's it's
[16:18] going to be like doing a study but just
[16:20] like this is the university, you know.
[16:22] But if I'm being honest, pushing the
[16:23] scientific field forward wasn't my main
[16:25] motivation for building this facility.
[16:27] My main motivation is to make
[16:29] highquality science more accessible and
[16:32] entertaining. The range of motion study
[16:34] that I did last year in New York
[16:35] comparing full range of motion to
[16:36] lengthen partials was actually the first
[16:39] ever exercise science study where the
[16:41] researchers were allowed to film the
[16:43] subjects. And even with that permission,
[16:45] we still had to blur out their faces.
[16:47] And since I'm not formally affiliated
[16:49] with the university, I still wasn't able
[16:50] to film them myself. So that was a bit
[16:53] frustrating because I felt like I
[16:54] couldn't showcase exactly what the
[16:56] subjects were doing as well as I wanted
[16:58] to. Here, we're going to be able to film
[17:01] every single subject in every study that
[17:04] I do, show you exactly what they're
[17:06] doing, show you exactly the gains they
[17:08] make. Like just imagine how much more
[17:11] that's going to help people connect with
[17:13] the science when you can actually see
[17:15] the subjects going through the protocol.
[17:18] Like that's never been done in exercise
[17:20] science ever. And we're going to be able
[17:21] to do that here. I also want to do some
[17:23] really big studies in here with hundreds
[17:25] of subjects because a legitimate problem
[17:27] with a lot of training studies is that
[17:29] they have really small sample sizes.
[17:32] Like it's normal for studies to only
[17:33] have eight or 10 subjects. So, if we get
[17:36] a load of people in here and we just
[17:37] need to grab a quick and dirty snapshot,
[17:39] we can use this BIA machine. Yeah, I'll
[17:42] definitely use the DEXA more, but BIA
[17:45] can measure body comp in about 1 minute,
[17:47] whereas DEXA takes about 20 to 30
[17:49] minutes. And BIA is still pretty good at
[17:52] tracking changes. And I'm super excited
[17:54] about this EMG machine. I want to run an
[17:56] EMG validation study to see if higher
[17:58] electrical activity is actually
[18:00] predictive of hypertrophy over the long
[18:02] term because that's not something we
[18:04] really know yet. If it is, this will be
[18:06] really useful for comparing exercises.
[18:08] And at this point, you may be wondering
[18:10] how I'm funding all this. The DEXA
[18:12] machine alone costs $200,000. And it's
[18:15] honestly all possible because of you
[18:17] guys. Nothing in the lab or in the gym
[18:20] is sponsored or gifted. It was 100%
[18:23] funded through the training programs
[18:24] that you guys run on jeffnnipper.com and
[18:26] through any of you who use MacroFactor,
[18:28] which if you don't know is my smart
[18:30] nutrition app that uses science-based
[18:32] algorithms to adjust your diet to your
[18:34] specific metabolism, just like a coach
[18:37] would, but for a tiny fraction of the
[18:39] cost. All you need to do is log your
[18:41] weight and track what you eat, and the
[18:42] app will take care of the rest. I've
[18:44] been using it every day on my cut so
[18:46] far. And it's taken me from over 20%
[18:48] body fat down to just over 10% body fat
[18:51] now. And I'll be honest, it's made the
[18:53] entire dieting process super simple.
[18:56] When you track your macros, you can
[18:57] still be flexible and enjoy life without
[18:59] having to compromise your goals. We have
[19:01] over 350,000 users and an amazing online
[19:04] community that can help you out with
[19:06] recipes, answer any questions you might
[19:08] have, and keep you accountable. So, go
[19:10] to the App Store or Google Play,
[19:11] download a free trial, and input code
[19:13] Jeff to get two weeks for free. It's
[19:15] been so hard trying to keep this a
[19:17] secret for the last 2 years because it's
[19:19] been so much work and also so much
[19:21] excitement. And I almost forgot, the
[19:23] final room is the Jeff Nippard podcast.
[19:27] So, my podcast is officially live. I did
[19:30] my first episode with my brother Brad.
[19:32] You guys might remember him from the
[19:33] experiment that we did together where we
[19:35] both trained as perfectly as we possibly
[19:37] could for a full year. I'll put a link
[19:38] to that over here next to my head if you
[19:40] guys want to check it out. Don't forget
[19:41] to subscribe to this channel. Leave me a
[19:43] like if you enjoyed the video.