training

The Very Best Workout Split For YOUR Goals Build muscle faster and get stupid strong by choosing the right workout split for your personal goals and schedule. Pick one of these. How do you organize your training? Pick the wrong workout split and you won’t get optimal results, regardless of the...

Why Deloading Is Often Not Enough There's a way to resensitize your muscles and make them more responsive to growth. Here's everything you need to know. The world of resistance training is full of irony: The bigger you get to impress girls, the more you have dudes telling you, “Nice arms...

How to Program for Constant Gains Stuck in a rut? Dig yourself out with a specialization plan. Here's how to do it with any goal. Advanced lifters face a catch-22 situation: Their body is so well adapted to the type of stress provided by strength training that they require a huge amount of it...

4 Simple, Proven Guidelines Why does training have to be so complicated? Well, it doesn't. Here are four workout tips that are easy to apply and always work. Figuring out this training thing can be confusing. It shouldn’t be. It’s the “experts” who make it confusing. They’re not trying to...

If your gains won't budge despite your best efforts, you may be making one of the four biggest muscle-building blunders. Fix them and grow. Here's what you need to know... Your gains will stagnate if you only weight train within the same rep ranges and loading patterns. Alternate by using more...

The 5 Exercises You Need Got angry knees? Here are the five best exercises to allow your legs to keep growing while keeping your knees happy. Sometimes our knees don’t feel 100 percent. Some of us deal with ongoing or intermittent pain. We don’t want this to shut down our leg training and force...

by Christian Thibaudeau Here's what you need to know about this tricky gene and its variants. The ACTN3 gene is in large part responsible for the type of muscle tissue that you have. Not only the muscle fiber dominance, but also the various qualities of the tissue itself – how well it handles...

Hardgainers, Freaks, and You Are you a hardgainer, a freak, or one of the other 5 types of muscle gainers? Find out here and learn how to lift if you're not gifted. There are seven different kinds of muscle gainers. The term “hardgainer” describes someone who has a poor genetic response to...

Effort vs. Volume vs. Load: Part 1 What's the best way to train for size gains? Effort, load, or volume-based training? Here's what you need to know. What works better for hypertrophy? High-volume training or low-volume/high-effort (intensity) training? What about “powerbuilding?” In short...

If you love to lift hard, then train every other day to make the most gains. Here's why and how to plan it. To maximize strength or muscle growth, get more awesome workouts than below-average workouts. Seems logical, right? Yet most lifters believe a bad workout is better than no workout. Their...

The tried and true workout program that builds muscle, burns fat, and busts plateaus. Training wise, I’ve tried it all: powerlifting style, Olympic style, and of course, bodybuilding style. All of them worked, for awhile, but the one that I keep coming back to, the one that never fails me, is...

If you don't manage inflammation properly, you'll never make any gains. Here's how to make this bogeyman bend to your will. Inflammation is fast becoming the bogeyman of the muscle-building world. In fact, it may even overtake cortisol as the frontrunner of known muscle killers. Is this...

Why Are Those Guys Bigger Than Me? Some guys build muscle easily. Others struggle. Here's why and what to do about it. You lift hard, eat right, and keep up with all the latest training info. You do everything to build muscle, but it's a slow slog. Frustratingly, some of your gym buddies don't...

by Clay Hyght, DC Want to design your own kick-ass training programs? All you need is the perfect template based on 20 years of trial and error. Or just read this. In my last two-part article series 138, I described my 11 principles for bodybuilding training. Now, I want to make things even...

How to Build Bigger, Stronger Calves Your genetics might stink, but there's still a way to gain size and look impressive in shorts. Follow these rules. Want big calves? There are six rules that'll help you get them. But first, let's look at a great exercise that illustrates many of the...

3 Strategies to Train Through Shoulder Pain Live with an icepack on your shoulder? These tactics for training through and around injuries (while also rehabbing) are mandatory. Shoulder injuries are common, but there's no need to miss workouts or forge ahead despite the pain. Here are three...

The Workout Stress Test Burnout is real and it's holding you back. Here's how to identify it, prevent it, and cure it. A must-read for hardcore lifters and athletes. We’ve all been there at least once. Training is going well. You’re making gains and can’t wait to get more. You’re on a roll. Then...

Effort vs. Volume vs. Load: What's the best way to build muscle? Effort, load, or volume-based training? Here's what you need to know. Note: I examined effort-based hypertrophy training 610 in Part 1 of this series. In the next installment, we’ll look at load-based training. But first, let’s dig...

Bodybuilding, powerlifting, CrossFit, running: Which one will mess you up the most and how can you prevent it? Which type of training causes the most physical damage? It's one of the most passionately battled debates in sports medicine. With the recent popularization of CrossFit, the fiery...

You may think you're training hard, but are you really selecting the right weight for the rep range you're working in? This study highlights the important differences in weight selection in people who train by themselves versus those who train under the supervision of a coach or personal...