Hypertrophy Training: Rules to Live by When Muscle Hypertrophy is Your Goal

Hypertrophy training – in an untamed pursuit to build a better body, we’re rarely concerned about the long-term or how we plan to get from point A to point B; we simply want to experience a transformation.  We want maximal muscle growth in minimal time and we’ll do anything to appear how we believe we’re supposed to when gazing upon the reflection staring back at us.

The pursuit may seem vain to many, but to those who can relate – it goes much deeper.  The maximal muscle hypertrophy we desire is often a result of our competitive drive to reach new heights or the unconscious self-doubt (gasp) we impose upon ourselves.

Sure, for some it’s pure vanity and that’s fine too; there’s nothing wrong with a little textbook narcissism now and again.  However, to understand something fully, we sometimes must start at the end result and work backward.  Therefore, to better understand hypertrophy training, in this case, from an anecdotal standpoint, we’re going to look at a few trainees who’ve made major strides despite slightly different training philosophies and approaches. [Read more...]

Monday: National Bench Press Day

Photo Credit: jooanfossi

Mondays are the worst.  It’s not because it’s the beginning of the week or because it means you have to go back to work.  It’s because Monday is known as National Chest Day in gyms throughout US.  For all my international readers, if this seems to be universal, let me know in the comments.

It never fails.  Every Monday, no matter whether I attend the university gym or another facility, the bench presses and portable benches for dumbbell presses are always occupied by all of the bros.  It seems I can never get a bench on Mondays unless I go early in the morning.  But who likes to train early in the morning?

The Definition of a Bro

Before I go any further, we first must take a look at what a bro is in this context.

A bro is your typical dude who attends the gym anywhere from 4-7 times per week and who primarily focuses on his mirror muscles.

However, I’ve gathered some definitions from some of my friends on the internet in which a few I’ll be meeting with next month at the JP Fitness Summit. [Read more...]

Workout Partners – Do You Need One?

Photo Credit: April Greer

Chances are, if you’ve been working out for any extensive period of time, you’ve likely had a “workout partner” at one point.  Your experience with said partner could’ve been great, mediocre or it could’ve been so treacherous that you would rather eat dirt or light your shorts on fire.  I know about the latter from personal experiences.

I’ve had many friends and acquaintances over the years ask to work out with me, but something usually came up.  Many flaked out, our schedules changed or I just got sick and tired of doing more talking than lifting.  I guess the only time I’ve ever had a steady workout partner was during athletics when we all trained together -  we had no choice.  Then, after high school, my best friend lived with me for a summer and we continued to work out together.  He’s been the only workout partner I could actually stand and this was because we had similar goals and shared the same athletic background, plus he is practically my brother.  He then went off to school on a football scholarship and I was on my own again. [Read more...]

Thoughts On Intensity

Photo Credit: estarezarpadoo

Intensity; what does it mean?  If you are like me, you have heard that pesky word over and again in the realm of bodybuilding, strength training and athletics.  All the bodybuilders keep talking about how much of it they have and all I can recall from high school is my coaches screaming in our ears about how much of it we lacked.

In the realm of fitness and training, you have different variations of said intensity: high intensity interval training, low intensity cardio and dynamic effort days where you train sub-maximally to allow for recovery etc.  Lately I have been eavesdropping on the bros’ conversations and I am noticing the word thrown around fairly often.  I keep asking myself, “just what is intensity, really?” [Read more...]