SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

Beware, guys, training like these women may make your guns "bulky" ;-) No, this is by no means the first article about training to failure I've written. In fact, I've published an article as part of a two-part series on " Intensity Techniques " in February, this year.  The reason(s) the latest study from the  University of Brasilia  (Martorelli 2017 | SuppVersity veterans will notice that this is yet another example of excellent resistance training research from Brazil I can write about) still made it to the SuppVersity  News is that it is (a) one of the rare studies with young, healthy female subjects and (b) has both, a non-failure non-volume-equated and a volume-equated non-failure control group. Don't fool yourselves, there is no single best workout for the rest of 'us life --  periodize ! 30% More on the Big Three: Squat, DL, BP! Confusion? Mixin' Things Up Yields Extra-Gains Linear vs. Undulating Periodization Velocity T...

Squats, squats and, you guessed it squats - That's all the subjects did in this 8-week study W/ trained young men. Back in the early days of the SuppVersity , I reported the results of a resistance training study which showed that interrupting your sets, when you can no longer perform the exercise at maximal velocity yielded quite astonishing increases in muscle gains - despite stopping several reps away from failure. Spanish researchers have now attempted to gain further insight into the adaptations brought about by training close to muscle failure vs not to failure, and compared the effects of two RT programs that only differed in the magnitude of repetition velocity loss allowed in each set (20% vs 40%) on structural and functional adaptations. I would suggest you consider periodizing going to failure vs. shying away from it. 30% More on the Big Three: Squat, DL, BP! Mix Things Up to Make Extra-Gains Linear vs. Undulating Periodization 12% Body Fat in 12 We...

No deadlifts in Nóbrega's training to failure study and + there are other issues w/ the "one-legged leg extension, only"-design. Be honest, even though you may know that there's no convincing evidence of the superiority of training to failure, doing pyramid sets and/or drop-sets for increased size and strength your gut says: "Bro, that feels so damn challenging. It's got to work!" That's not you? Well, I guess you will nevertheless be interested, whether the latest studies by Nóbrega et al. (training to failure | this part of the article) and Angleri et al. (pyramid and drop-sets | read about it in part 2 of the article ) prove your gut feeling wrong, once and for all. Don't fool yourselves, there is no single best workout for the rest of 'us life --  periodize ! 30% More on the Big Three: Squat, DL, BP! Mix Things Up to Make Extra-Gains Linear vs. Undulating Periodization 12% Body Fat in 12 Weeks W/ Periodization Detr...

Do women have to complain that training makes them "bulky", because they're doing it right (high rep, low weight, short rest) while their boyfriends don't?... What? Don't worry, I am just kiddin'. As a loyal  SuppVersity  readers, you will remember my 2016 article: "Not Resting Long Enough May Ruin Your Gains! 1 vs. 5 min Cut Post-Workout Increase in Protein Synthesis by 50%!" ( read it ). Now, back in the day I already pointed out that "the study at hand only proves what we already knew - training volume is more important than metabolic stress when it comes to hypertrophy gains" ( SV. 2016 ) and still many people (mis-)interpreted the results in their black-and-white world as "final evidence" that you'd have to turn your workout into a coffee (or intra-workout) party to make the gains you feel you deserve. That's a mistake you should not repeat by taking the publication of a recent study from the  Nippon Sport Science...

This is what science looks like... Well, at least in the Hiscock study, where the subjects, 10 young men with at leas 12 months of training experience did regular and hammer dumbbell curls on the preacher bench - (photo | Hiscock. 2015). In today's SuppVersity  feature article, I am going to address not one, but two potentially highly relevant articles from the  Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research  (Looney. 2015) and the European Journal of Sport Science (Hiscock. 2015). What makes these papers interesting is the fact that both investigated the effect of commonly prescribed remedies to "bust a plateau" by providing novel growth triggers: (a) Training to failure and (b) modifying rep schemes and whether you fail or don't fail on every set. If you believe in what you can read in many articles on strength training, both, training to failure and decreasing rest times / drop sets should significantly increase the muscle activity and thus - this is the most...