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Stronger By Science publishes articles on topics like lifting technique (squatbench, and deadlift), body composition and hypertrophyprogrammingnutritionprehab and rehab, and cardio.

Don’t know where to start? Check out our Complete Strength Training Guide or the How to SquatHow to Bench, and How to Deadlift guides.

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Zoe Smith finishes a lift

The Menstrual Cycle and Contraceptives: A Complete Guide for Athletes

What You’re Getting Yourself Into: ~6,100 words, 15-25 minute read time.  However, it’s arranged topically, so if there are topics that don’t interest you, feel free to skip over them. Key Points: 1. Performance varies across the menstrual cycle in some women, related to severity of premenstrual and menstrual symptoms, while purely physiological variables are largely unaffected. 2. Contraceptives largely don’t impact performance or trainability, but can affect emotional and sexual well-being in some women

The Belt Bible

What you’re getting yourself into: ~4700 words, 15-18 minute read time This is almost certainly the most thorough article on the web about the effects, benefits, and drawbacks of training with a belt. Key Points 1) Wearing a belt improves your performance in the gym 2) These performance increases likely mean increased size and strength in the long run 3) There are still instances that it’s better to train beltless, but you should probably use

Sex Differences in Training and Metabolism

What you’re getting yourself into: 2700 words, 8-12 minute read time Key Points Most of the major differences in performance and metabolism between sexes can be explained by size and body composition, not biological sex itself. Of the true sex differences, the most important ones have to do with differences in sex hormones and fiber types. Additionally, females’ fat and muscle tissue is better equipped than males’ for handling both carbs and fat. All of

Chubby Muscles? What You Need to Know About Intramuscular Adipose Tissue

What you’re getting yourself into: ~4000 words 12-15 minute read time Key Points 1) the same satellite cells that can repair muscle can be turned into fat cells within the muscle sheath given the right environment 2) the main factor in the creation of intramuscular adipose tissue is inactivity 3) intramuscular adipose tissue can decrease insulin sensitivity, increase inflammation, reduce recovery from training, and decrease strength 4) it can be reduced via diet and exercise

Benefits of Static Stretching Stretched out of Proportion?

When a single kilo on the bar or a hundredth of a second on the clock can mean the difference between first and second place, we want to be able to tease out the effects of every aspect of preparation. Of particular interest is stretching and whether or not it should be a part of athletes’ warm-up routines. For ages, we’ve been told to start our training sessions off with some light aerobic activity followed

More is More

The most reliable way to get stronger is simply to do more. Stop worrying about overtraining, and you may surprise yourself.

Understanding Nutrition Research

Staying on top of the research in any particular field is difficult. I do my best to stay on top of exercise/sports science research, and that can be exhausting by itself.  It takes a lot more than a casual glance at an abstract to know what a study is REALLY saying, and if the findings are really applicable.  Another big problem is that a single study needs to be placed in the context of the

Unleash Your Inner Superhero

What you’re getting yourself into: -3,200 words.  8-12 minute read time.  If you’re in a hurry, you can skip to the last section for the takeaways, but they may not make as much sense unless you actually read this one all the way through. Key points: Your beliefs influence your physiology directly, and the choices you make.  In these ways, they strongly influence your training success. These effects have been noted in almost every area

Everything You Think Is Wrong With Your Deadlift Is Probably Right

What you’re getting yourself into: -1750 words.  5-8 minute read time.  If you’re in a hurry, don’t fret.  There are a lot of pictures that will help you get the concepts, even if you need to skim the text. Key Points: If you’re afraid you deadlift with your hips too high or too low, it’s probably just a matter of how you’re built. Rounding your back when you deadlift “works,” primarily, by decreasing how hard

Squats are not Hip Dominant or Knee Dominant. Some Biomechanical Black Magic.

What you’re getting yourself into: -2,200 words.  8-10 minute read time.  If you’re in a hurry, you can skip on down to the “Practical Takeaways” and save the dense stuff for later. Key Points: The origins and insertions of the hamstrings and rectus femoris allow them to extend the hip and knee simultaneously, even though their actions oppose each other. Two joint muscles allow force from single joint muscles to be transmitted to joints they

In Defense of Program Hoppers; DUP Revisited

Ever since I wrote my article on Daily Undulating Periodization (DUP) a couple months ago, I’ve had a nagging feeling that something wasn’t quite right, like something was a little bit off.  (If you haven’t read the first article, or if you don’t know what DUP is, I’d suggest you check it out first) Physiologically, I’m not sure the rationale behind DUP totally makes sense of the situation.  Not that it is entirely nonsensical, but

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