The end of 2013 was quiet here on the blog, but just wanted to put up a quick message to wish everyone a happy (belated) new year, and to share two links to some content I released towards the end of 2013.

Drop set science

A little while back Eric and Chris Martinez of the Dynamic Duo Training approached me to do a guest post for the site, which over the last year has put out some comprehensive compilation posts from quite the collection of fitness pros.

Over the past year I’ve written about the role of training intensity in hypertrophy and this was the perfect shot to apply some of these concepts to one of the more popular hypertrophy training techniques, the drop set. In this post I take an in depth look at the science behind dropsets, which is definitely not as fleshed out as we tend to think. I review the few studies I could find on the topic, then take a look at some physiological research to provide a mechanism (read: guess) as to how this old-fashioned technique may be an effective way to promote muscle growth.

Iron Radio Podcast

Podcasts are new for me and when Dr Lonnie Lowery approached me to do one I jumped at the chance. I probably talked too fast, dropped some jargon and talked too loud, but on the bright side I managed to get some science out while not dropping the collection of unsavoury four and five letter words that seem to slip into my regular vernacular (I know I should know better). If you have a spare hour, or just want to use my voice to soothe yourself to sleep you can find the audio here.

No shortage of ideas

There’s no question that while I’m happy with the reception some of my 2013 posts received, I hit nowhere near the frequency of posts that I’d like to hit. Over the first few weeks of 2014 I’ve spent some time really refocusing my priorities which should lead to me putting the proverbial “pen to paper” more often and getting more posts up on the blog. I have no shortage of ideas right now, from an in depth analysis of what training to failure really is, to whether or not blood-flow really limits muscle recovery, it’s just a matter of freeing up the time to research and refine them and actually write them up.