Hypertrophy Archives • Stronger by Science

Protein Science Updated: Why It’s Time to Move Beyond the “1.6-2.2g/kg” Rule

The recommendation that lifters should aim to consume “1.6-2.2g/kg” of protein is almost universally taken to be an unquestionable truth. You probably don’t need to exceed 1.6g/kg in the first place, and if you do exceed 2.2g/kg, you’ll definitely just waste the extra protein you consume – it certainly won’t contribute to further muscle growth. However, a closer look at the meta-analysis that generated this recommendation suggests that we probably shouldn’t have been quite so confident that protein intakes within this range will maximize muscle growth. When you dive deep into the protein research, it looks like slightly higher intakes may be necessary to max out your gains.

Greg Nuckols December 18, 2024

Strength Data Don’t Tell You Much About Hypertrophy

The idea that you can make reliable inferences about hypertrophy from strength data is becoming increasingly common. Even worse, the idea that strength data is even better than hypertrophy data for making inferences about hypertrophy is becoming increasingly common. In this article, I explain why strength data is less informative about hypertrophy than hypertrophy data is.

Greg Nuckols December 4, 2024

Do Lengthened Partials Really Stimulate Stretch-Mediated Hypertrophy?

Many influencers have gotten excited about lengthened partials and stretch-mediated hypertrophy. However, the evidence isn’t as clear as you may think.

Milo Wolf April 29, 2024

How Does Stretching Induce Gains in Hypertrophy and Strength?

It’s recently been established that long-duration, high-frequency, high-intensity static stretching causes hypertrophy and strength gains in humans. But how? This review explores just that.

Eric Helms September 30, 2023

Increased Satellite Cell Number is Associated With Higher Responders to Resistance Training in Young, Untrained Women

The hypertrophic response to resistance training is highly variable between individuals, potentially due to the magnitude of the myofibrillar protein synthetic response, increase in ribosome content, and increase in satellite cell number. This is the first paper to examine these variables in relationship to hypertrophic outcomes in young, untrained women.

Lauren Colenso-Semple May 1, 2023

The Comprehensive Core Training Guide

Your core muscles serve a pivotal function, and targeting these muscles can transfer to enhanced performance in a variety of lifts. Read this article to deepen your understanding of the core’s function for performance and get programming recommendations for targeting your core musculature.

Cameron Gill February 13, 2023

Can You Drop (Set) Weight for Gains?

Drop sets are enjoyable, time efficient, and according to a new meta-analysis, lead to similar hypertrophy and strength gains as traditional sets. So, are drop sets all you need? This article tackles that question from every angle.

Michael Zourdos January 31, 2023

Is Regional Hypertrophy Predictable?

The idea that regional hypertrophy is normal and can be manipulated with exercise selection is now well established. However, the question remains, can we predict longitudinal regional hypertrophy outcomes with acute measures like EMG and muscle swelling?

Eric Helms December 31, 2022

Longer and Stronger: How Range of Motion and Muscle Lengths Affect Muscle Growth and Strength Gains

Learn how you can gain more strength and build more muscle by minding your range of motion, and the muscle lengths you train through. This article also explores the potential mechanisms that might explain why training at longer muscle lengths can help you build more muscle.

Milo Wolf and Greg Nuckols November 1, 2022

Neck Strength Training: Are Deadlifts and Shrugs Enough?

If you wish to increase neck strength for a particular sport or neck muscle size for an aesthetic goal, there’s no substitute for direct neck training.

Cameron Gill October 10, 2022

A Guide to Detraining: What to Expect, How to Mitigate Losses, and How to Get Back to Full Strength

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.

Greg Nuckols September 1, 2022

Optimizing Bulking Diets To Facilitate Hypertrophy

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.

Eric Trexler August 1, 2022

Hypertrophy archive