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Hypertrophy Principles
I know it’s been quiet on the site the last little while, and no, I haven’t just been slacking off and enjoying those last few days of summer. I’ve been wrestling with what I feel are some larger concepts relevant to the development of strength and hypertrophy, and hope to push some big posts out […]
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On my mind #1
I’ve received some good feedback on the Strong Science series, but wanted to create some posts that aren’t necessarily tied to a theme or filled with science. My thought process is best described as anything but organized so I thought I’d throw together a random thoughts style of post as a good way to put […]
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There’s more to science than a title
I never thought I’d find so many people who passionately believe that bodybuilders are all universally weak, over-inflated sacs of sarcoplasm. After writing a few articles discussing my thoughts on strength differentials between bodybuilders and powerlifters and that the scientific evidence for the theory of preferential sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is weak at best, I’ve had more than […]
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Strong Science #5
No complaint about commercial gyms is as pervasive as gripes about the sub-par music selection. I can remember my early days cleaning up the weights at a local commercial gym, I was constantly hearing from members who couldn’t stand the generic, top-40 music that softly serenaded them while they trained. It was a co-ed facility […]
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Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy revisited
I’ve made it no secret that I think we’ve put the cart way too far in front of the horse when it comes to training for sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. What started out as a theory to explain increased muscle hypertrophy in the absence of strength gains in some early training texts (1,2) has morphed into complete […]
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Strong Science #4
After reading a recent study on some potent effects of emphasizing bar speed during the bench press (1), I thought I’d take a look at two classic studies looking at the importance of rapid contractions during training. The first of these studies (2) is definitely a classic that is often missed, but it’s such an […]
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Does cheating pay?
You don’t need to spend too long on youtube to find a clip of a bodybuilder (or anyone really) performing an exercise with what the official internet exercise police deem illegal technique. The comments degrade to the usual back and forth, those talking of potential injury, how he’d be so much bigger if he just […]
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Is light the new heavy?
The recent study that training at 30%-1RM promoted hypertrophy to a similar extent as 80%-1RM (1) has definitely generated some discussion, and I’ve written some of my initial thoughts on it in another post. If you haven’t read the original article, or my thoughts on it, definitely set aside some time if you’re interested in […]
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What’s more important?
My family always had dogs, so the concept of dog training wasn’t foreign to me when I got my own, however being a kid at the time I don’t think I was nearly as involved in the process as I should’ve been. Only as an adult have I realized the amount of behind-the-scenes work with […]
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30 percent
The large, hypertrophied feathers of the bodybuilding world have certainly been ruffled over the past few weeks. The fitness blogosphere has slowly been set ablaze with news that training at 30% of 1RM produced similar hypertrophy over ten weeks as training at 80% 1RM (1). The idea that such a light training load can be […]
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