One of the telltale signs of drug abuse among bodybuilders and fitness models would be the ultra-thin skin. To understand what I mean by that pinch the skin at the back of your hand. It will be very thin even if you are obese. Many steroids users have skin that thin all over their bodies. […]
The Russian Bear protocol is a relatively popular hypertrophy routine designed by Pavel Tsatsouline. It requires you to perform only 2 exercises. In the original program, the movements of choice are the deadlift and the overhead press. The first major flaw of this routine is the high deadlift volume. I’ve heard of people doing deadlifts for […]
One of the many dogmas that the functional training community has installed in our brains is that lifting straps are pure evil and only low-life moronic wannabe bodybuilders use them. This is one of the reasons why people are afraid to rely on straps for exercises like the deadlift. FOREARMS vs. HIPS & BACK Your forearm […]
According to my observations, the muscle groups with long muscle bellies and short tendons grow the fastest when trained frequently and intensely. Those, however, vary for different people. As I wrote in the article about calves, some lifters will never develop that muscle group to something impressive regardless of training, food intake or drug use because […]
Right after my permabulking period, I jumped on the bodybuilding train which I had previously ridiculed consistently. You have to remember that I am a child of the functional training community. They told me that high reps are for morons and little bitches afraid to train like real men. The Internet introduced me to Dorian Yates’s […]
Believe it or not, the front lever and its counterpart the planche will not cause significant if any hypertrophy. Why? The number of reasons is longer than you may think. 1.Skill-based movements are not optimal for hypertrophy and basic strength development. When a movement is complex and demands too much skill, it immediately becomes less […]
One of the first observations I made when I joined a gym was that on chest days many muscle constructors do all three bench press variations – flat for the ego, incline for the upper chest and decline for the lower chest. I thought that those guys were total idiots who didn’t know how to train. […]
Yesterday I watched a video meant to explain why modern natural bodybuilders are breaking the size limits. The idea was that there are people with incredibly good genetics who can build an enormous amount of muscle mass compared to the rest. The maker of the clip is the popular bodybuilder Marc Lobliner. He used the following example […]
As most ectomorphs, I have calf muscles with extremely high insertions (long Achilles tendons). As a result, my lower legs and ankles have always been skinny looking. Naturally, my awareness of this fact increased when I joined the muscle game. Sadly, high calves just can’t grow in the cases I have observed. There’s overwhelming evidence suggesting […]
The online muscle consciousness needed a long time to realize that the popular training program Starting Strength does not promote as much muscle growth as it was originally believed. You are certainly not gaining 60lbs of red meat during your first year of training even if you drink your milk and do squats with plenty of hip drive. I am […]
WHAT IS BACK THICKNESS? Back thickness is essentially a synonym for back density. The main muscles that need to be developed to acquire a thicker back are the trapezius and the spinal erectors. Those are the muscle groups which create the dense back look. The trapezius is a big and very rigid muscle that runs from […]
Intermittent fasting has gained a tremendous popularity in the lifting community as one of the fastest ways to get shredded. There are hundreds of photos showing successful journeys to status “RIPPED” achieved with help of daily meal skipping. While I don’t believe that intermittent fasting is magical, it does promote weight loss when applied with […]