Simple program for doing 20 pull-ups at 100 kg bodyweight 👇 What's beautiful about this program is that it builds momentum (and thus your belief that you can do it) in a subtle way.

As we age, we tend to lose muscle and strength.

In part, this seems to happen because of a condition called "anabolic resistance".

In a new review, @TheAlanAragon, @BradSchoenfeld, and the late (and great) Kevin Tipton outline ways to counteract this condition.

A 🧵. First some background:

In general, without any training or other interventions, our muscle mass and strength typically peak somewhere around ~30 years of age.

How to build big and strong arms.

A short 🧵. So, I’ve fallen out of my arm training routine for the last few months.

But, here’s what I always like to do to make the guns blow up quickly, while still being time-effective:

How to build a muscular upper body:

The quick and dirty guide.

1) Exercise selection,

Should you be doing isolation exercises like bicep curls and triceps extensions, or multi-joint lifts like the bench press or barbell row? 🤔

Well ... I suggest you do both, but prioritize multi-joint lifts such as:

• bench press
• overhead shoulder press
• barbell/cable row
• lat pulldown

Why? 👇

How to Get Stronger: From Beginner to Advanced 🔥

AKA

”What to do when adding 2.5 kg per week no longer works.”

👇👇

Do you know what is GREAT about being a beginner?

It is the fact that… You get stronger EVERY workout.

You work out, rest a few days, and that is enough for you to go through a full cycle of:

1. Stimulus
2. Recovery
3. Adaptation

You simply train, rest, and then train again, adding a few kg’s or one rep to what you did last workout.

Strengthlog.com just jumped up to Domain Rating 11.

A small step for mankind, one giant leap for a new blog. 😉

I’m currently on parental leave, but man how I long to build the traffic up for this new site over the coming years. 🔥

Goal: 1 million monthly visitors. Ahrefs traffic numbers are slightly off; StrengthLog is currently at about 2k daily visitors.

85% of which comes through organic search.

Still small potatoes, though.

In comparison…

I often increase weight/reps in a see-saw pattern.

1. Work up to a rep goal (i.e., 5, 10, 20 reps or whatever)
2. Increase weight by 2.5 kg / 5 lbs.
3. Work back up to rep goal.

https://twitter.com/tuff_beat/status/1409691528574902272

For set volume, ideally I like to see the number climb from low, to moderate, and finally high levels over the course of a training block (~6–8 weeks).

In the beginning you are very sensitive to new stimuli and don’t need many sets at all. Perhaps 2–3 per workout.

CHEST TRAINING 301

A broad and powerful chest is more than just a filler of your shirt.

Strong chest muscles increase your physical performance in every athletic endeavor where you project force forward, whether you’re throwing a ball, a punch, or pushing an opponent away.

👇 Your chest muscles are made up almost entirely of one, large muscle on each side: pectoralis major.

The pectoralis major has a wide, fan-shaped origin, and is generally divided into two parts:

Are you “rep strong” or “max strong”? 🏋️

If you’re leaning towards one or the other, part of the explanation might lie in your muscle fiber type ratio.

A new study tested if the # of reps one could complete at 80% of 1RM in the squat correlated with muscle fiber type ratio.

⬇️ Here's what they did:

1. 30 participants warmed up and did a 1RM test in the squat.
2. After 15 minutes of rest, they did a max rep set at 80% of that 1RM.
3. They took muscle biopsies of the participants' quadriceps and analyzed the muscle fiber type ratio.

Results?

Let's talk about building muscle! 💪

Specifically ...

How FAST can you build muscle? ⏳ TYPICAL muscle gains in training studies lasting 2–3 months are:

Beginners

+5–15% muscle thickness
+10–30% muscle area
+2–3 kg fat-free mass

Trained

+3–10% muscle thickness
+6–20% muscle area
+1–2 kg fat-free mass

Lifting heavier weights or doing more reps than last workout is the basis for getting bigger and stronger. 📈

Here are four ways to do that using the StrengthLog app 👇 1. The training log

- Go to the training log,
- Scroll down and select the last similar workout
- Hit "Train again"
- Choose if you want to train an identical workout, or modify weight/reps