TRAINING ARTICLES
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The 20-rep squat routine: Is this still the best way to build whole-body muscle?
Read more →If there were a simple but brutal training program that had the potential to help you gain 3 inches around the chest and 15 pounds of bodyweight in one month, would you be interested in learning about this program? Back in the 1930s, gains of 3 inches around the chest and 15 pounds of bodyweight in one month were not unusual with the so-called 20-rep squat routine.1 The development of the original 20-rep squat routine is ascribed to Joseph Curtis Hise in the early thirties.1 Inspired by Mark Berry, Olympic weightlifting head coach of the 1932 and 1936 Olympic teams,...
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Weighing In On Weight Belts
Read more →Is a weight belt right for you? The weight belt is one of the first pieces of lifting gear to which a lifter will ever be exposed. Unfortunately, the image of that one guy at the gym who walks around with his belt on throughout his whole workout is permanently etched in the mind of anyone who lifts. But have you ever stopped to ask why exactly you should wear a lifting belt? Here are the pros and cons of lifting belts, when you should wear one, and what you should look for in a lifting belt. A weight belt’s...
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Triple Threat – How to Build a Muscular Midsection with Hanging, Standing and Lying Exercises
Read more →Have you ever wondered what the best exercises are to build a muscular midsection? If your curiosity has led you to research books and articles, you might have discovered the amazingly high number of approaches to building a muscular midsection. Gymnasts or bodybuilders, with inspiration from gymnastics, focus on hanging exercises (and floor exercises). Powerlifters often focus on standing exercises.1 If a bodybuilder has learned from a Pilates practitioner, he or she will have learned floor exercises. Many athletes and bodybuilders have great and muscular midsections and have trained in many different ways. This fact tells us that many approaches...
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Day of Dropsets
Read more →Every now and then it’s critical to change up your lifting routine to stimulate new muscle growth and keep your muscle fibers growing. Drastically changing your routine forces your muscles to grow and keeps them from adapting to training. These workouts are designed to force your muscles to recruit every last fiber and test the limits of your nervous system. We all know that the nervous system is responsible for activating muscle fiber contraction and it’s important to force it to adapt just like our muscles do. Using drop sets, these workouts require you to perform a high volume of...
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Why a Strong Core Is the Foundation for Optimal Gains in All Other Body Parts
Read more →The legendary Russian weightlifter Vasiliy Alexejev supposedly said that your abdominals should be strong enough to stop a bullet. While Alexejev did not spot a six-pack – neither did he care – he was known for doing 1,000 leg lifts in waist-height water to strengthen his abdomen. Alexejev wasn’t seeking to look good; rather, he was seeking world-class strength and power, as evidenced by his 80 world records in Olympic weightlifting throughout the seventies. While most will find great satisfaction in being strong, ultimately, (competitive) bodybuilding is about the visual appearance of the various body parts, including the revered six-pack...
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3 Ways to Grow with Eccentric Overload
Read more →Muscle responds to resistance training by enlarging its cross-sectional area—i.e., getting bigger. The mechanisms underlying the hypertrophy response are complex and not yet completely understood by science. However, the primary stimulus for increased muscle mass seems to be mechanical stress (tension) on the muscle. An important secondary factor for increased muscle mass seems to be metabolic factors.1 Mechanical factors centre on eccentric muscle actions.2 In technical terms, an eccentric muscle action is a muscle action where the muscle gains (increases) tension, while it is forced to lengthen. In other words, the external resistive force created by the weight is greater...
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