Jul 17When is strength training at long muscle lengths beneficial?If you enjoy this article, you will like my second book (see on Amazon). Strength coaches and bodybuilders often make use of exercises with peak forces in stretched positions and/or full ranges of motion (ROMs) with the goal of maximizing hypertrophy for a muscle that works at a specific joint…Muscle11 min read
Jun 24Why is longitudinal hypertrophy after strength training more limited than transverse hypertrophy?If you enjoy this article, you will like my second book (see on Amazon). Strength coaches and bodybuilders often make use of strength training exercises with peak forces in stretched positions and/or full ranges of motion with the goal of maximizing hypertrophy. But does this apply equally in all populations…Bodybuilding5 min read
Jun 17Why does the number of sarcomeres in series differ between muscles (and why does this matter)?If you enjoy this article, you will like my second book (see on Amazon). Hypertrophy is produced when muscle fibers experience mechanical tension and their mechanoreceptors detect this tension and commence signaling processes that cause an increase in muscle protein synthesis (MPS) rates. When the mechanoreceptors detect passive tension, they…Bodybuilding7 min read
Jun 5Why is there passive tension during the concentric phase of normal strength training exercises?If you enjoy this article, you will like my second book (see on Amazon). Hypertrophy is produced when muscle fibers experience mechanical tension and their mechanoreceptors detect this tension and commence signaling processes that cause an increase in muscle protein synthesis rates. This then causes either an increase in the…Hypertrophy7 min read
Jan 30Why do individual athletes display different responses to the same training program?If you like this article, you will also like my first book (see on Amazon). Why do individual athletes display different improvements in measures of athletic performance (such as sprinting speed, vertical jump height, or throwing distance) after the exact same training program involving a combination of both heavy strength…Athlete12 min read
Jan 23Why do individual bodybuilders display different responses to the exact same training program?If you like this article, you will like my second book (see on Amazon). Why might individual lifters display different responses to the same strength training program? The principle of individuality has been less well-described in the literature in comparison with the principle of specificity. Even so, we can draw inferences from basic physiology about how the principle of individuality might be applied…Hypertrophy15 min read
Jan 9How does muscle glycogen influence recovery after a workout?If you like this article, you will enjoy my second book (see on Amazon). What is fatigue? Introduction Fatigue is a temporary and reversible reduction in exercise performance (often measured as a reduction in maximum strength, but it can alternatively involve reductions in endurance capacity or maximum velocity) as a result of a previous…Strength Training11 min read
Jan 2How might cluster set training work for hypertrophy?If you enjoy this article, you will like my second book (see on Amazon). What are cluster sets? Cluster sets are strength training sets that involve intra-set rest periods. Curiously, the use of intra-set rest periods has been extensively researched in the literature, with many long-term training studies being available (as well as several…Hypertrophy15 min read
Aug 19, 2021Why does eccentric overload training not cause more hypertrophy than normal strength training?This post was first published at my blog. If you enjoy this article, you will like my second book (see on Amazon). Eccentric overload training tends to produce similar hypertrophy to normal strength training. This is strange, because we might expect the combination of eccentric training and concentric training within…Strength Training8 min read
Sep 28, 2020Why are strength gains velocity-specific after fast movement training?If you enjoy this article, you will like my first book (see on Amazon). We can calculate a force-velocity profile for an athlete in a lift by measuring the bar speed and the force produced at a range of loads. Measuring this force-velocity profile at varying times during a training…Athlete6 min read
