Hi, everyone, real quick before we get into today's episode. This podcast is a labor of love,

and I do it for free. I spend hours each week researching to create these episodes, all with

the goal of spreading science-based fitness information. And I want to continue releasing episodes

one to two times per week, but I need your help to grow it. So if you could do me a huge favor

and leave me a rating and review, if you haven't already, share it with a friend. I would also love

if you send a message to your favorite podcast hosts to recommend me as a guest.

And I can thank this audience for the podcast that I've been able to go on thus far. And going on other podcasts also helps me spread these messages further and wider.

All right, that's it.

Let's get into today's episode.

I'm Dr. Shannon Ritchie.

I'm a doctor of physical therapy, fitness trainer, and founder of Ethelop Fitness.

In the Dr. Shannon show, you'll learn applicable tools to improve your health based on science.

Welcome to the show.

Hi, everyone.

Welcome.

I wanted to update you about my personal goals of building muscle this year, what's working, what's not working. And I also wanted to answer some questions. So if you're new around here, I did an episode that's number 197 about how to build five pounds of muscle in 2025. Highly recommend listening to that episode. It answers so many questions that I often

get about building muscle. So it's very comprehensive. And it will give you a plan for both

training and nutrition to build muscle this year in 2025. I love the idea of building five

pounds over the span of a year. I think it is very realistic, and yet it's tangible. It will force you to

train in the right ways, but not over-train. So I really, really like this goal. And I challenged

really anyone who wants to participate to come along with us. And my goal for this year is to

periodically drop some episodes, to give you some updates on

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