nuckols Archives • Page 2 of 4 • Stronger by Science

YOUR Drug-Free Muscle and Strength Potential: Part 1

What you’re getting yourself into: 3,300 words, 11-22 minute read time Key Points: 1) Drug-free muscular potential is influenced by the size of your frame. 2) Strength is a function of neural factors and muscular factors. Once you’ve hit a point of diminishing returns for the neural factors, your strength potential will be determined by how much muscle you can build. 3) Based on a few simple calculations, you can get a pretty good idea of your muscular […]

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Who’s The Most Impressive Powerlifter?

What you’re getting yourself into 5300 words, 17-35 minute read time Key Points 1) The most common method people use to compare relative strength is strength/bodyweight ratios. However, this standard is horribly flawed. 2) The formulas used to compare relative strength in powerlifting (most notably the Wilks formula) have their own issues. The two biggest problems with the Wilks formula are that it’s not regularly updated, and it’s notably biased against middleweight lifters. 3) Allometric scaling is an

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Steroids for Strength Sports: The Disappointing Truth

What you’re getting yourself into: ~5,600 words, 18-37 minute read time Key Points: Many people think steroids make a massive (several-fold) difference in terms of competitiveness in strength sports. They are wrong. Other people (somehow) think that steroids don’t make much of a difference. They are also wrong. Steroids DO help people gain muscle mass and absolute strength at a much faster rate, but the increase in muscle mass generally means you’re forced to move

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Marine Corps lightweight powerlifter completes a squat.

Hamstrings: The Most Overrated Muscle for the Squat 2.0

What you’re getting yourself into 2,100 words 7-14 minute read time. If you’d rather watch than read, there are both a video and a graphic covering the same information at the end of the article. Key Points 1. In general, the body utilizes single-joint muscles before two-joint muscles really kick in. This makes movement more efficient. 2. At the bottom of the squat, overactive hamstrings make the movement unnecessarily difficult, so squatting in a manner

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Stress: Why Obsessing About The Stuff That Doesn’t Matter Can Mess You Up

The following is an excerpt from my new book “The Art of Lifting.” To see how “Science of Lifting” takes this topic in more depth, you can check out my article on rippedbody.jp which is essentially another except. This breakdown – general introduction to a topic in “Art,” and delving deeper in “Science” – is what this ebook bundle is all about. Stress is a very huge, very important topic. If you’re interested in it, I’d

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Avoiding Cardio Could Be Holding You Back

What you’re getting yourself into ~3100 words 8-12 minute read time Key Points Lifting heavy things is more metabolically taxing than most people realize. Most people think of weight training as a purely anaerobic enterprise, but the majority of the energy you use to train is produced by your aerobic energy system. Cardiovascular training can improve your recovery between sets and workouts, and won’t interfere with strength or muscle gains if you do it correctly.

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Matthias Steiner drops weight on his back after a failed lift.

You’ve Been Set Up To Fail

I started writing about two and a half years ago. I never really expected things to go the way they have. I didn’t plan on a career in fitness – at the time, I was still planning on getting a degree in history. I’d always loved lifting and coaching, but I didn’t really see myself making a career of it. All I ever wanted to do with this site was create a resource that would

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Tucking the Elbows for Bench – You’re Probably Doing it Wrong

Proper elbow position: A quick fix and the secret to a bigger bench press.

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The Bulgarian Method

The Bulgarian Method. Just the mention of it is apt to get a rise out of people. Some people argue that it’s the best training system ever devised (how else could a country as small as Bulgaria become a world powerhouse in weightlifting, they argue). Others say it’s a surefire way to bring about overtraining, injury, and death — unless you’re using a copious amount of drugs. In the summer of 2012, I wanted to

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Squat Mechanics – The Red Pill

What you’re getting yourself into ~2,400 words. 6-10 minute read time. Key points: 1) When you miss a squat, it’s not because one muscle or muscle group failed – they all failed sequentially; what you perceive as your limiting factor is just the last thing that failed. 2) The quads are “maxed out” earlier in the movement than the hip extensors. 3) When you don’t purposefully rely on your quad strength and don’t try to

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High Bar and Low Bar Squatting 2.0

What you’re getting yourself into: ~4200 words, 10-15 minute read time There’s a graphic and video at the end with the bulk of the information if you’ve given up on reading like the youths these days (*shakes cane*) Key Points If you assume similar mechanics, bar position makes little difference in the challenge presented to the quads and hip extensors. The major mechanical differences arise because the quads are most challenged at the bottom of

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Powerlifters Should Train More Like Bodybuilders

For a MUCH more in-depth overview of training, check out this article instead. It includes all the essential information contained in this article, while going more in-depth and placing that information it its proper context. What You’re Getting Yourself Into: ~4200 words, 10-15 minute read time. Key Points 1. There are six key factors that largely determine how much you can lift. 2. Of these, muscle size is the only one that’s impacted strongly by

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