Index of articles
Introduction to hypertrophy
- What is muscle growth, and how does it happen?
- What causes muscle growth?
- What determines whether a muscle fiber increases in length or diameter?
- What is regional hypertrophy, and how does it happen?
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Mechanisms of hypertrophy
- What can jumping teach us about muscle growth?
- What determines mechanical tension during strength training?
- Does metabolic stress cause muscle growth?
- Does muscle damage cause hypertrophy?
- Can the mechanical tension, metabolic stress, and muscle damage model explain all of the ways in which hypertrophy could occur?
- How does hypertrophy really work?
- Why is it easy to believe that metabolic stress causes hypertrophy (even when it does not)?
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The role of fatigue in hypertrophy
- How do different types of fatigue affect hypertrophy and recovery?
- Why does central nervous system (CNS) fatigue happen during strength training?
- How does muscle damage lead to central nervous system fatigue?
- What are the different types of fatigue?
- How does mechanical tension cause muscle growth when bar speed is maximal on every rep in the set?
- Why does eccentric overload training not cause more hypertrophy than normal strength training?
- What causes CNS fatigue during exercise?
- What is fatigue (and why does it matter)?
- What are the key fatigue mechanisms?
- When is each fatigue mechanism present?
- How does fatigue change over a set?
- How does load affect how fatigue changes over a set?
- How does motor unit recruitment change over a set?
- How does fatigue dissipate after exercise?
- How does fatigue develop after exercise?
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Training variables and hypertrophy
TRAINING VOLUME
- What is training volume?
- How does training volume differ between training to failure, avoiding failure, and using advanced techniques?
- How does training volume affect muscle growth?
- When is “high volume” training not actually high in volume?
- What is the optimal training volume for hypertrophy?
- How many stimulating reps are there in each set to failure?
- Does maximum training volume differ between muscles?
- What is the minimum number of stimulating reps in a workout that will cause hypertrophy?
TEMPO
- What is time under tension?
- Why does lowering tempo affect muscle growth, but lifting tempo does not?
- Does keeping constant tension on a muscle increase hypertrophy?
RANGE OF MOTION
PROXIMITY TO FAILURE
RELATIVE LOAD
- How does the weight on the bar affect hypertrophy?
- Why do very light loads not produce as much muscle growth as light loads?
FREQUENCY
- What determines training frequency?
- How could high frequency strength training lead to greater gains?
- How can we select exercises to fit different training frequencies?
CONTRACTION MODE
REST PERIOD DURATION
EXERCISE ORDER
MIND-MUSCLE CONNECTION
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Programming and hypertrophy
- Why is progressive overload essential for hypertrophy?
- Why does progress not always happen from one workout to the next?
- How could periodization help enhance muscle growth?
- How might aerobic exercise reduce gains in muscle size?
- Why is technique important for hypertrophy?
- Why is it easier to maintain muscle mass than to gain it?
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Exercises and hypertrophy
- Which muscle groups do exercises stimulate (and which do they just work)?
- How can exercise strength curves affect hypertrophy?
- How can we identify the best way to train each muscle?
- How should we train the biceps?
- How should we train the triceps?
- How should we train the latissimus dorsi?
- How should we train the pectoralis major?
- How should we train the deltoids?
- How should we train the trapezius?
- How should we train the quadriceps?
- How should we train the hamstrings?
- How should we train the gluteus maximus?
- How should we train the calf muscles?
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Fundamentals of strength training
- What happens when we lift weights?
- What is strength?
- Can we get stronger in more than one way?
- How are gaining strength and size different?
- Why do we need research into strength training?
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Principle of specificity
- What does the “principle of specificity” mean?
- When are strength gains specific?
- When are strength gains *not* specific?
- What happens if you ignore the fact that strength is specific?
- What is the relationship between muscle growth and strength gains?
- Why are heavy weights best for increasing maximum strength?
- How can heavy strength training *fail* to make you faster?
- Why does strength training with high reps improve muscular endurance?
- Why does lowering and not lifting weights produce unique adaptations?
- Why does lifting and not lowering weights produce unique effects?
- What do you think you are achieving by “focusing on the eccentric phase”?
- Why do you need to lift weights quickly to get fast?
- Why do full range of motion exercises not increase strength at all muscle lengths?
- Why are strength gains greater at some joint angles than others?
- What do you think you are doing by adding bands and chains?
- Should you use free weights or machines for strength training?
- Does the weight on the bar change which muscles work hardest?
- How do force vectors affect the type of strength that we develop?
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Strength training for sport
- How do strength gains transfer to sport?
- Why is increasing strength relative to muscle size ideal for athletes?
- Does your mental model of “strength” affect how you train athletes?
- How do strength gains transfer to sprinting?
- Should strength coaches stop using the hip thrust to improve sprinting performance?
- How do strength gains transfer to agility?
- How do strength gains transfer to vertical jumping?
- How does heavy strength training transfer to fast sporting movements?
- What is “functional training” and is the best way to prepare athletes for sport?
- How often have you heard the idea that “great coaches just do the basics better”?
- Why is the hex bar deadlift valuable for training athletes?
- What is stiffness?
- Nordic curls enhance sprinting ability by increasing hamstrings active stiffness
- What does training to failure actually achieve?
- Why athletes should not train to failure
- Should we ever program heavy strength training for sprinting?
- Do we need to think about connective tissues when strength training?
- Does training with greater fatigue impair gains in speed?
- How do plyometrics improve stretch-shortening cycle function?
- How do external cues work?
- What coaching techniques increase strength immediately?
- How does fatigue develop during aerobic exercise?
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Powerlifting
- How does one repetition-maximum (1RM) increase after training?
- What is the best way to improve your one repetition-maximum (1RM)?
- Why does the dynamic effort method (sometimes) work for powerlifting?
- Using percentages of 1RM ignores the big differences between individuals and exercises
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Programming and periodization
- What is recovery?
- What causes delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS)?
- What is the fitness-fatigue model?
- What determines how often we can train?
- When is overreaching useful?
- What can the general adaptation syndrome tell us about periodization?
- What is this thing we call periodization?
- Why does research tell us that load periodization works?
- What does periodization do in practice?
- Do you really need a deload?
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