10 Things Every High School Lifter Must Know

 If you are in high school and have already started hitting the gym, that’s fantastic! Training can improve your health, increase your performance, and transform your body. However, if you make the mistakes most high school guys make, you will at best waste your time (and likely get hurt). If you are serious about getting the best possible training results, here are 10 things you must know (10 things I wish someone told me when I was lifting in high school). 

The Truth About Push Pull Legs

What is the best training split? If you know your iron game history, you will know that different splits have been popular at different times. Whole-body, Arnold, 3 days on, 1 day off, push-pull-legs, body part, upper-lower, and movement splits, have all had a turn in the popularity spotlight. Today the old push-pull-legs split has resurged in popularity. Regardless of who is using it, the real question is, should YOU use push-pull-legs? To help you answer this question, Let’s look at the pros, cons, and programming tips for push-pull-legs.

5 New Years’ Training Mistakes You Can't Afford to Make

Happy New Year! At the start of a new year, most people hit the gym with gusto. Those starting for the first time, those getting back into it, and those who train regularly are all on the same mission – to make this new year their best year. Why is it that gyms are packed in January yet back to normal by mid-February? Why is it that most people start the year in the exact same shape they started last January? If you want to make this your best year of training, you must avoid these 5 New Year’s training mistakes.

Does this feel like your gym in January?
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash

Bands Are as Good as Barbells???

We all know that barbells are the ultimate training tool! Right? Are you sure? A systematic review and meta-analysis and some influencers might suggest otherwise. Let’s have a look at this research and more importantly – what this means for you and your training! 

10 Things People Don’t Understand About Weight Loss

Stop trying to lose weight! If you follow the typical diet & fitness industry approach you will at best get temporary weight loss. However, you will likely gain fat, lose muscle, and harm your healthy in the long run. Let's look at 10 things people just don’t understand about weight loss. It’s time to stop being a repeat customer of the diet industry. It’s time you learn what really works to improve your long-term health and well-being. 

Photo by i yunmai on Unsplash

Natural Muscle Building: Bulking and Cutting

Generations of bodybuilders have followed the same practice: bulk up in the offseason to pack on muscle, then move to a cutting phase to get ripped before stepping on stage. This approach works great if you are on drugs. Steroids and other bodybuilding drugs are great not only for building muscle but also holding onto muscle during a cut. So, what does this mean for those of us who are not on drugs? Do we follow the same pattern as the drug-assisted or take a different approach? Let’s dive in!

The HUGE TRT (Testosterone Replacement Therapy) Mistake

Healthy levels of testosterone is important for your health and quality of life. As a result, many guys rightfully desire to optimize this important hormone. Today, countless men are doing TRT (testosterone replacement therapy). However, most of them are making a HUGE mistake you don’t want to make. 

Photo by Raghavendra V. Konkathi on Unsplash

Does Core Training Really Improve Athletic Performance?

Everyone knows that to be a better athlete, you need to strengthen your core – right? Are you sure? This assumption has now been passed down from one generation of athletes to the next. Let’s look at the latest research and real-world experience to see if core training will really make a difference in your performance. 

How to Find YOUR Top 10 Muscle Building Exercises

Stop using someone else’s top-10 muscle-building exercises! The popular trend is to have bodybuilders and fitness influencers share their top-10 exercises. As with most things fitness, this is interesting, but rarely helpful. Instead of trying to use someone else’s best exercises, here is how you can find YOUR top-10 exercises for building more muscle.

Machines Are as Good as Free Weights to Improve Performance???

Everyone knows that to improve performance, you have to use free weights! Right? Are you sure? The latest research might suggest otherwise. Let’s dive in and see what’s going on and what you need to do as a coach or athlete to improve your sport, work, or life performance.

The Best Preacher Curl for Building Bigger Biceps

If you want to build bigger biceps, preacher curls might be your ticket to the gun show. Preacher curls were popularized by the first Mr. Olympia Larry Scott back in the 1960s. Scott's hard work at the preacher bench built him an amazing set of arms. They were also a favorite of the late strength coach Charles Poliquin who also had great biceps. Early EMG research by Tudor O. Bompa and Lorenzo Cornacchia in their book “Serious Strength Training” showed that preacher curls caused the most electrical activity in the biceps. Now, recent research shows how to get the most out of this powerful biceps builder. 

Body Transformation: Fast Results or Lasting Results?

At the start of each New Year, gyms are full of highly motivated people looking to transform their bodies. They demand fast, dramatic results. If you want to make the fastest results you possibly can, I will show you how to do it. However, few understand that rapid body transformation comes at a price that you might not want to pay. 

Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash

How to Tell if a Lifter or Bodybuilder is Drug-Free

Is He Natty or Not? The internet is full of these arguments and debates. Can you tell if someone is on steroids? While there is hard to say with 100% certainty, there are clues. Let's have a look at how real-world experience and science can help us answer this question. Then, let's look at what approach you should take to build your best body. 

Volume Load vs. Rest Intervals for Maximizing Muscle Gain

What is the best way to maximize your muscle growth? Should you follow bodybuilding tradition and use short rest intervals? This approach is thought to improve testosterone and growth hormone secretion, increase metabolic fatigue, and give you a great pump! Alternatively, you could take longer rest times. This approach would let you lift more weight (or get more reps with the same weight), thus increasing your overall volume load (i.e. total reps x weight). Which approach should you choose? Let’s see how the latest science (and some practical training wisdom) can help you build more muscle. 

Photo by Alora Griffiths on Unsplash

Are New Exercises Are Killing Your Gains?

“6 New Exercises for Big Biceps!” “5 Never Before Seen Chest Exercises You Need to Build a Massive Chest!” “10 Shoulder Exercises You Have Never Tried to Build Capped Deltoids!” The internet is infested with these click-bait titles. Yes, I know we live in a world where everyone wants infotainment training advice. However, you need to decide what you want the most – entertainment, or bigger, stronger muscles. If you want the former, that’s fine. YouTube is full of entertaining videos (including videos by those who are professional entertainers). However, if you actually want bigger, stronger muscles, a quest for exciting new exercises, may take you farther, not closer to your goal. Let’s look at what the latest research and practical experience have to offer you.

10 Training Lessons from the World’s Greatest Bodybuilders

“Don’t follow the training of bodybuilding champions! Those guys are all genetic freaks on boatloads of drugs!” This is the common advice given to your average drug-free lifter. Is it good advice? While it is wise not to blindly follow the routines of elite bodybuilders, you would be foolish to ignore everything they do and say. At the top, it is a level playing field. Everyone follows similar pharmaceutical practices and everyone has great genetics. However, in the last 57 years, only six men have dominated Mr. Olympia (the Super Bowl/world championships of bodybuilding) winning this prestigious title four or more times. Success leaves clues! Here are 10 training lessons from the greatest bodybuilders of all time that can help every drug-free, genetically average lifter build more muscle. 

The "New" Science of Muscle Building

Many lifters think that the more scientific-sounding an article or program is, the more muscle it will build. This causes them to get distracted by the wrong type of research. If you are serious about your results, stop using "old" science to build new muscle!

Photo by Damir Spanic on Unsplash

Training Splits for Drug-Free Lifters

As a drug-free lifter, you walk a fine line between training often enough to stimulate growth, but not too often that you exceed your recovery and growth capabilities. A training variable you have to get right is your weekly layout or training split. Now, I wish I could tell you there was one magical training split that worked perfectly for every drug-free lifter. However, this fairytale only exists in the world of sleazy fitness marketing. The truth is there are many options – each with pros and cons. Let’s dive in and look at some of the options so you can find the best option for you!

Multi vs. Single Joint Exercises for Building Bigger Biceps

So, you want bigger biceps. What is the best way to get bigger arms? Should you do multi-joint or single-joint exercises? While the internet is full of “The top 3 exercises for to build bigger biceps” clickbait, let’s look at how the latest science and real-world experience can help you increase the size of your arms. 

How to Build Rock-Solid Shoulder Stability

What do building muscle, athletic domination, or enjoying vibrant fitness for a lifetime have in common? They all require strong, stable shoulders. However, the shoulder is a tricky joint that causes many problems for athletes and lifters. In addition, there is a lot of confusion and misconceptions surrounding shoulder stability training. Here is your guide to building strong, stable shoulders.