If you want to take time off of training (or you’re forced to take time off of training) what should you expect? How long does it take to lose muscle and strength? How long will it take to regain muscle and strength once you return to training? What can you do to mitigate your losses? This article will tackle all of these questions and more.
Weight loss is a common goal for people who wish to improve their health, compete in a physique sport, or make weight for a strength sport with weight classes. However, weight gain is an equally valid and important diet goal, and should be approached just as strategically. This article discusses how to construct an optimized bulking diet.
In this article, we’ll examine three commonly neglected movements that train muscles that may otherwise not be effectively targeted in many programs. Then, we’ll show you the exact exercises you can add to your routine to address weak links, improve muscle mass, and enhance resiliency.
An oft-cited 2014 study found that females account for approximately 40% of the total subject pool in exercise science research. However, female lifters seem considerably more under-represented in many of the areas of research that lifters care the most about. So, we decided to investigate the matter for ourselves.
A recent study examined the effects of oral contraceptives on strength gains, hypertrophy, and anabolic signaling. Do female lifters need to worry about hormonal contraceptives affecting their gains? Read on to find out.
Short answer: I think so. Longer answer: probably, but there’s less direct evidence supporting this idea than you’d likely expect.
The reverse Nordic curl is a great bodyweight exercise for building both strength and hypertrophy in the quads. Read the article to learn the benefits of this exercise, as well as how to progress to more difficult variations.
Higher volumes tend to lead to more muscle growth and larger strength gains, but not everyone responds to higher volumes in the same way. A recent study found that people who respond better to higher volumes may do so due to an increase in ribosomal content of their muscle fibers.
Some fitness professionals have questioned the importance of dietary carbohydrate, given that resistance training only depletes 24-40% of muscle glycogen. New data suggest that small reductions in muscle glycogen might have bigger performance impacts than once thought. Read on to learn about some very important carbohydrate research.
We published articles that questioned the popular belief that high body-fat levels impair p-ratios. Menno Henselmans published a rebuttal on his site shortly thereafter. We responded to his rebuttal, and shortly after our rebuttal was posted, Menno added to his article to respond to it. Unfortunately we feel the need to respond yet again, as his response lacked substance and was pretty misleading.
We recently published an article on how body-fat levels affect your p-ratio. After a rebuttal to that article was published, we want to respond to some of the claims and counter-evidence presented and to reiterate the general lack of evidence to substantiate the popular p-ratio hypothesis.
Many people believe that if you get lean before you start a bulk, you’ll gain muscle more efficiently. Their reasoning often relates to concerns about insulin sensitivity: if you have more body fat, your insulin sensitivity will be lower, so you’ll gain more fat and less muscle in a calorie surplus. However, the evidence for this concept is surprisingly thin and shaky. In this article, we delve into what the science really says on the topic.
