Your abdominal muscles, or abs, sit at the core of your body. They are involved in almost every movement you do, either powering the movement themselves or stabilizing your body so that your arms and legs can transmit force efficiently. Visually, the abs have been the focal point of physical culture for decades, and much … Read more
Today, a brand new premium program is waiting for you in the StrengthLog workout tracker app : Zero to Hero! Download it for free with the buttons below: Zero to Hero is a 10-week long upper / lower body training program, centered around classic compound lifts. Initially, you focus more on hypertrophy-style training, and towards … Read more
Creating tension in the muscle is one of the main factors that build muscle. In the gym, you can do this in two ways. The first is to lift heavier and heavier weights, what we call progressive overload. The second is TUT, or time under tension. This means that you maintain the tension in the … Read more
Two weeks ago, we posted a news article about a new study showing that postexercise cooling can harm your gains. Today, let’s take a look at another study, this one examining the other side of the temperature scale, heat. Heat applied to the muscles, more precisely, and the fact that this procedure seems to be … Read more
How much muscle mass and strength can an untrained female expect to gain upon entering the world of strength training? Quite a substantial amount, as it turns out. Most strength-training research is still performed using male subjects. That being said, by now there is enough data to examine to get an idea of the effects … Read more
Systemic concentrations of anabolic hormones like testosterone do not predict the muscle growth strength training produces. However, local factors inside your muscles, like androgen receptor content, do. The results from a recent study show that overtraining leads to lower muscle androgen receptor content. This suggests that you don’t want to cross the fine line between … Read more
A cluster set is a set that includes intermittent rest between repetitions or groups – “clusters” of repetitions. By taking a 10–30 second rest in between repetitions, you can delay fatigue and keep intensity high during a training session. By utilizing cluster sets, you can increase your training volume and the amount of intense work … Read more
If you train for athletic performance, you should focus on full range of motion. That’s the take-away from a recent study comparing the effects of 15 weeks of training with either partial of full ROM on muscle architecture and mechanical properties. Untrained males trained their legs using an isokinetic dynamometer. It’s a contraption that works … Read more
Most serious athletes have at some time or another had training sessions or longer periods of training plagued by pains and aches. Some have even accepted the pain as a constant training partner. These pains can be the result of chronic inflammation, acute injury or the remains of past injuries, often the result of training … Read more
Resistance training is the primary form of exercise to promote muscular strength and hypertrophy. One of the main methods to increase the hypertrophic potential of resistance training is to manipulate various training variables. These include adapting training volume to match the recovery ability of an athlete, and tailor set- and repetition schemes to suit individual … Read more