The secret sauce of muscle growth is mechanical tension.[Read More ..read more

Podcast with Dr. Mike Israetel from RenaissancePeriodization[Read More ..read more

Caffeine is the most commonly (ab)used drug in existence. Creatine is likely the most effective legal performance supplement you’ll ever come across. It was only a matter of time before people started taking both at the exact same time.  But that might not be the best idea. Before you start panicking, I’m referring to acute creatine and caffeine co-ingestion probably being a bad idea; literally taking the two at the same time. Chronic use of both supplements is actually often advisable, provided you time and dose either substance appropriately. But the increasingly popular “all-in-one su ..read more

New podcast with Bret Contreras [Read More ..read more

You are not too tough for pushups. Pushups are a great exercise for the chest, the front delts and the lateral and medial head of the triceps.[Read More ..read more

Chapters 00:00 Introduction 00:49 Anabolic resistance 01:23 Mitochondrial dysfunction 01:46 Inflammation 02:31 Impaired recovery capacity 03:56 Lower testosterone and GH levels 05:15 The hard data 06:06 New Ribeiro et al. study 08:10 Practical application Transcript What is the optimal body fat percentage range for muscle growth? In other words, when should you stop bulking? For some people, this is of course, a matter of preference. Some people don’t like to lose visual contact with Johnson and the twins. Some people don’t like not being able to squeeze into their favorite jeans. But from a ..read more

Stretch-mediated hypertrophy (SMH) is the biggest research revolution from the last years according to many exercise scientists. Stretch-mediated hypertrophy is often defined as the additional muscle growth gained from training muscles at long lengths, such as deep squats, lengthened partials and resisted static stretching protocols, versus shorter-length training. I’ll use that definition here, though as you’ll see, it’s not really clear yet that this growth is directly caused by any stretching effect. Passive tension is a leading candidate growth pathway. In fact, there is a school of thoug ..read more

Strength training isn’t often the first thing people think of when they’re trying to lose fat. But should it be? We’re all probably familiar with the common assumption that cardio “gets you lean” and strength training “gets you big”, which sounds like the exact opposite of the fat loss. But can you actually lose weight by lifting? Is cardio or weights better for fat loss? Let’s explore the age-old battle of cardio vs strength training. Not All Movement is Created Equal One of the (if not the) primary considerations for losing fat is maintaining an energy deficit over time, which...[Read More ..read more

Progressive overload is one of the most seemingly simple, yet widely misunderstood concepts in strength training. Chapters 00:00 Introduction 00:20 Misconceptions 00:52 What is Progressive Overload? 02:31 Is progressive overload the cause of our gains? 04:07 What about adding sets, decreasing rest interval, and increasing repetition duration? 09:30 Conclusion: 3 practical take-home messages Transcript Progressive overload is one of the most seemingly simple, yet widely misunderstood concepts in strength training. The following two misconceptions appear on many websites, even in academic textb ..read more

Current generations have lower testosterone levels in their twenties and thirties than previous generations used to have in their fifties. Researchers concluded that: it is alarming that changes of this magnitude can be detected over such a relatively short time. Why are testosterone levels decreasing so fast across generations? Is this why so many people have difficulty building muscle? And what can we do about this?[Read More ..read more