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How to Boost Your Free T A lot of your natural testosterone is bound up in your body and can't be put to work. Here's how to free it. When you get your testosterone blood test back, one of the numbers is for "total testosterone." And you probably feel pretty good seeing a high number. But having...

The Ultimate Guide for the Banged-Up Lifter Joints hurt? Banged up from years of lifting? Keep training but add a few of these healing techniques to your workouts. Most training articles are all about getting strong, staying strong, and preventing injuries. That implies that most people are...

The Truth About CrossFit Workouts, If You Can Handle It Many CrossFit women can lift a ton of weight while sporting six-pack abs without dieting. Sound like you? Probably not. Here's why. Crossfit Women Saved Female Fitness Has anything advanced female fitness more than CrossFit? Nope. If you've...

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...

Build Your Biceps, Not Your Belly Here are 10 strategies to help you do what was once thought to be impossible: growing muscle without growing your belly. Building muscle without getting fat isn't complicated, but many lifters search endlessly for the best new method or secret. The truth is...

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...

If you're only going to do one mobility drill to improve your squat, this should be it. The Ass Was Far Away From the Grass As someone who struggled with attaining squat depth, I've spent years researching different methods, theories, and reasons why my ass just wouldn't hit the grass. It's not...

THE BASICS Just to make sure that we're on the same page here, the difference between a chin-up and a pull-up is the grip. Incidentally, the pull-up is a type of chin-up, technically. So when I talk about chins, I often mean pull-ups, too. Chins traditionally use a supinated grip (palms facing...

Hitting plateaus is part of strength training. It doesn't happen with newbies, but once you're more experienced you will hit sticking points. The need for variance must increase as your training age does. Below is a list of methods to help overcome these barriers, many right out of Siff and...

To continually make progress, you must develop a set of training principles that keep you moving forward. The number of principles that make up a sound training program are few. Here's what they are and how to apply them to your own goals in the gym. 1 Set the right goal to begin with. It needs...

WHAT'S A CUE? A cue is just a short prompt or phrase that quickly reminds you of good exercise form. If you're not thinking about following the right cues when lifting, you might not be getting the most out of your training. Here are 13 of the most bang-for-your-buck technical cues. 1 ▶️...

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW... Some people spend so much time doing fancy warm-ups they forget to lift something heavy and break a sweat. Start a program and finish it. Stop program hopping. The basics are going to get you there the fastest. Squat deep, bench without the butt leaving the...

Here are twelve things about building a great physique: 1. BIG WEIGHTS DON'T NECESSARILY EQUAL BIG MUSCLES One of the fundamental principles of resistance training is Gradual Progressive Overload (GPO), which means that for a muscle to get bigger and stronger it must be subjected, gradually, to...

What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you see a tall guy in the gym? Besides saying, "Damn, he's tall," you're probably thinking the guy either plays basketball or paints ceilings for a living. Or even worse, you say to yourself, "Man, he's skinny." For the most part, "skinny" is...

A TWO-PART PUSH-UP CHALLENGE If you're serious about building strong shoulders, pecs, and triceps, a solid foundation of push-ups sets you up for success. High-rep push-ups also strengthen connective tissues and help to bulletproof you against future injuries. Use this push-up challenge to make...

Experience and education are both important for lifting. But if you're a stubborn asshole, neither will make a big enough difference to help you progress. Ego and personal biases are man's biggest enemies when it comes to training. It's possible to overcome them, but a lot of guys would rather...

The squat is the king of lifts and my all-time favorite exercise. If you told me I could only perform squats for the rest of my days I'd be perfectly content, though I doubt I'd find many training partners willing to join me. However, if the scenario changed to picking just one exercise to...

You're going to make mistakes. There isn't a lifter on the planet who hasn't. You'll make mistakes with your form, your programming, and even your outlook. The key to getting better is to learn from your mistakes. Better yet, learn from those who have screwed up before you, so you don't have to...

PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD IS BULL Most lifters are familiar with the story of Milo, the father of progressive overload. If not, here's the elevator pitch: Milo was a wrestler wanna-be from some ancient Greek settlement in Southern Italy. He was on his way home one day when he walked by a newborn...

TRAINING AND YOUR METABOLIC STATE When I think "workout," I think of speeds. Your metabolic state is like an engine: It can be revving at full throttle and burning fast and furious – let's call this red. It can be set in cruise control and coasting down the highway – call this yellow. It can...