A very underappreciated and often forgotten aspect of training is recovery. Most of the benefits from exercise come from the recovery process and therefore it might be the most important aspect of training. Remember, strength training forces adaptation and that’s where the benefit lies. Recovery allows this adaptation to occur and as such must be a priority. So let’s talk about some aspects of recovery and how to optimize them.  Rest and active recovery: The most obvious part of recovery is taking days off from training and making sure some of those days are restful. Remember that muscle ..read more

Now that we’ve discussed muscle hypertrophy, we’ll move on to muscle protein synthesis, which is exactly what it sounds like. It is the process of building muscle from protein. Muscle fibers are made up of long strands of proteins along with some other cellular components and these fibers are stimulated to grow after a strength training session. They are even further stimulated if protein is consumed post training. This protein consumption ideally occurs 30 to 60 minutes after training as this is when cells are most receptive to nutrients that help build muscle. This elevated state usually las ..read more

How many times have you gone on a trip and told yourself you’d workout? Maybe you thought you’d get a short term gym pass or do some bodyweight workouts in the park. Maybe you get one or two in at the park. Maybe you hit the gym…once. Ok, it wasn’t ideal, but you were enjoying the new sites, sounds, and tastes. I totally get it. I’ve been in the same boat many times. A gym sounds like an inconvenience when you’re trying to get the most out of your time somewhere, plus most gyms look the same no matter where you are. Do you really want to spend your time there? Getting some bodyweight workouts ..read more

Bear with me here, we’re laying the foundations for some future topics and it’ll be worthwhile to have this groundwork covered when we talk about those more tangible strength training subjects. As discussed in the previous post, you need progressive overload to increase demand and progress in strength, hypertrophy, or muscular endurance. Let’s discuss some different types of progressive overload. Weight: The most obvious way to increase demand is by adding weight. It’s smart to do this in small increments - remember PROGRESSIVE overload - to let the body adapt gradually. I suggest adding 2 to ..read more

Strength vs. Hypertrophy vs. Muscle Endurance Even within strength training there are different ways you can train depending on your goals. If you’re trying to improve your 1 rep max, i.e. - the most weight you can lift a single time (think powerlifting), then you will train with strength as the primary goal. This means training in rep ranges of 1 to 5 per set. If you’re trying to grow your muscles as big as you can (think bodybuilding) then you’ll focus on rep ranges that are between 6 and 15 or so. And if you’re trying to increase your muscular endurance (think crossfit, rowing, mid distance ..read more

Strength Training 101 It’s pretty cool that your body can adapt. If you overload it with a stimulus, it will make physiological changes to better handle that stimulus. I think that’s neat. What’s also neat is that if this stimulus is mechanical tension, it increases muscle mass, bone density, joint stability, improves heart health, cognition, mood, quality of life, longevity, and makes you less fragile. Mechanical tension, aka resistance training, aka strength training, can include weight lifting, calisthenics, resistance bands, weight machines, or a bunch of other types of equipment that resi ..read more