Over 200,000 copies sold!
Learn how to build and tailor nutrition and training plans to break through plateaus and achieve your physique and strength goals.
The internet is overflowing with nutrition and training advice — much of it contradictory, oversimplified, or presented as the “one secret” to success. Even good information is useless without context.
The Muscle and Strength Pyramid: Nutrition and Training books address this by presenting a clear hierarchy of priorities that highlights what truly matters. Instead of chasing fads, you’ll learn how to organize your diet and training to drive consistent progress — whether your goal is fat loss, muscle gain, strength, or excelling as a physique or strength athlete.
If you’re serious about your training and nutrition, these books belong on your shelf.
Our fully customizable sample programs for bodybuilding and strength-focused athletes will bring the principles to life.
With our full progression guidelines and examples, you’ll never be left frustrated and wondering what to do next.
Our quick-start programming guide will show you how to apply all the principles that go into program design.
The structured order of importance is what makes this book different. Learn what matters and when.
Whether you’re headed for the bodybuilding stage, cutting pounds for a weight class, or about to go on a bulk, we’ve got you covered.
Learn how to balance adherence, consistency, and flexibility so you can live your life while progressing toward your goals.
I wish I had a resource like this during my initial foray into the fitness field! This a must-have for anyone looking to take their training to the next level. It’s a true evidence-based approach that combines the latest research and years of in-the-trenches experience to formulate a blueprint for program design.
Few people know how to strike the right balance when they talk about training. Some people make it overly technical, which makes it easy for the reader to miss the forest for the trees. Others dumb it down way too much, and miss critical nuance. Eric, Andy, and Andrea have struck the perfect balance. I guarantee you’ll learn something from it, and walk away with a much better overall understanding of the training process.
There is no gimmick by the authors to make more money and the training principles here are not mired in confusion. Rather, the work on the Internet that we wish existed previously is now available; and if you are a novice or intermediate this book will help you bypass the stage of confusion.
Distills what REALLY matters for nutrition and training. Eric Helms represents the next generation of exercise scientist. Not content to take other expert’s word for it, Eric desired answers so voraciously, that he did what any good scientist does… he became obsessed and crazy enough to do his own original real research. I can’t recommend these books highly enough.
Highly recommend this for anyone looking to change their body composition. Whether you’re looking to get big or get ripped, Eric shows you, in an evidence-based yet easy to understand fashion, the hierarchy of importance of the things you need to consider. There’s no B.S. or huge promises; just a straightforward, no-nonsense, practical guide to nutrition and training for transforming your body.
I would have saved myself years of confusion. It’s difficult for me to write a sufficiently accurate appraisal of the content within these books without sounding like I’m overplaying the quality and net benefit to be gained from them. The quality of content is astounding. The delivery is masterfully crafted and paced. And the net result for the reader is one that will be truly impactful on their approach and practice, whether they be a fitness enthusiast or a seasoned coach.
I don’t question myself. I don’t wonder, “How many sets of this should I do? High reps or Low Reps? Am I on the correct workout split?” No, I am confident in myself. This knowledge comes from an accumulation of experience and by humbling myself and listening to the experts in this industry, not just the guys with the best physiques or highest follower count. This is your chance. End your Wheel Spinning. Buy these books.
Finally, a comprehensive source to send people to who are interested in bodybuilding. I was coached by Eric’s partner Jeff Alberts for my bodybuilding competition, the results you can see in the photo, the principles in this book were applied. I would recommend to anyone looking into doing a bodybuilding show or if you are coaching bodybuilders.
Eric Helms is an active researcher at the Auckland University of Technology’s SPRINZ sport science institute in New Zealand, where he did his PhD in Sport and Exercise and a second masters, and where he now studies strength and physique sport and nutrition science. He publishes extensively in peer-reviewed journals and is a sought-after educator in evidence-based bodybuilding and powerlifting, having co-founded the MASS Research Review. Alongside his academic work and writing, Eric is a part-time coach and the science officer for Team 3DMJ, having helped novices all the way to multiple open-world champion powerlifters and pro natural physique champions.
He’s an actively competing natural pro bodybuilder and strength athlete whose ability to bridge research with real-world practice has made him a leading voice in the fitness, nutrition, and strength communities.
Andy Morgan is a nutrition and training coach, author, and founder of two leading online coaching businesses: RippedBody.com, serving an international English-speaking audience, and AthleteBody.jp, widely regarded as Japan’s most trusted evidence-based fitness resource.
Andy’s mission across both platforms remains the same: to cut through the noise of the fitness industry and prove that with real food, serious lifting, and consistency, transformative results are possible.
Andrea Valdez is a lifelong athlete, coach, and content creator. She competed in gymnastics, strength, and physique sports and trained athletes in multiple disciplines for over a decade.
She has a M.S. in Exercise Physiology from the University of Oklahoma and was a coach, podcast host, and operations director with 3D Muscle Journey since 2015, where she currently leads the content team. In this role, she helps to produce actionable, evidence-based yet real-world, applied courses for the drug-free lifting community.
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These books have been written with physique athletes, strength athletes, and those that coach them, primarily in mind.
However, the majority of our readers are just regular people, but serious recreational trainees.
If you are a novice looking for a comprehensive approach to muscle gain and or fat loss and have some basic information to start, you’ll be good with these. But if you don’t know how to perform basic exercises, and aren’t totally clear on what macros are or have any idea of how to match them to foods, then this won’t be for you just yet.
Yes. There are 20 sample programs.
We don’t have a specific athlete’s example of a full prep (for privacy), but we have example calculations based on real people that we’ve worked with.
Yes. There are 272 references in the training book and 377 references in the nutrition book.
The books are of a similar length (258 and 282 pages for the training and nutrition books, respectively), but have been completely rewritten.
For a detailed list of all the content changes, see here.
For those who purchased the PDF bundle of the first or second editions, we made a crazy offer: get free updates forever.
We sent an email with a download link on Christmas day (2025), but if you missed it, click the "redownload your copies" button in the menu under "Support and FAQ" and be sure to check your spam folder.
Note: This offer does not apply to those who purchased physical copies, other-language editions, or single books.
We originally made the books available as "fixed-format" Kindle books. This locks the design (like a PDF), which was a deliberate choice made to preserve the complex layout of our images, tables, and design.
However, we had two people leave 1 star reviews complaining that they were not Kindle books, and while this is not technically correct, due to the overwhelming popularity of the "reflowable" Kindle format, it is what most people are used to and expect.
(This happened despite a note in book description that they are fixed format Kindle books.)
So, to prevent disappointing further readers, we removed them from sale shortly after release.
The books are available digitally only as PDFs.
