Popular Topics
Hypertrophy · Strength Training · Program Design · Rehabilitation
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 […]
// read more
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 […]
// read more
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 […]
// read more
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 […]
// read more
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 […]
// read more
Strength before size? Here’s why
One thing that seems to frustrate people new to the training game is how strength increases occur rapidly early on with no detectable change in muscle size, which is usually their priority. While it certainly puzzles many a new trainee, the phenomenon has been studied for decades now, and while we still don’t have a […]
// read more