At the time of this story, I was a naive skinny boy serving a sentence in a dirty basement gym. My training facility was a trash bin, but it gave me the chance to witness some rather grotesque events that shaped my lifting ideology. This was the place where I saw an obvious steroid user for the first […]
Broscience and bodybuilding love each other. One of the reasons for this strong union is the fact that many muscle warriors rely on anabolic steroids to build their muscles. Once the mass is acquired, they start to make up theories which the noobs buy without blinking. In other words, the drugs catalyze broscience. Today, I […]
My first rendezvous with a kettlebell took place a decade ago in a dirty store for sporting goods. The place was a metal shack one blow away from total destruction. I bought a dumbbell handle and two 1.25kg plates that I use to this very day. The total was something like 5 kilograms. “Heavy.” I […]
When I first started reading about lifting weights and muscle construction, I made a classic rookie mistake – I fell into the trap of the fitness gurus. I thought that they were really trying to help me and didn’t see their actual goal – to make me subscribe to their ideology and profit from me. […]
Surprisingly, or not, the deadlift works the whole back from top to bottom. “But, what about the lats? Do they work during deadlifts,” asked the muscle nerds. Yes, brahs. The latissimus dorsi works incredibly hard when you deadlift. The lats are the biggest muscle in the upper body. When you deadlift, they have the following […]
The biceps and triceps stabilize the elbow joint during deadlifts, but you don’t need monster guns to pull heavy weights because the arms aren’t the primary movers. Below I analyze the functions of the biceps and triceps in a deadlift. THE TRICEPS When you deadlift heavy weights, the bar has to be kept as close as […]
What is Western periodization? Western periodization is a linear progression from high to low reps. Every week the lifter is adding weight to the bar while reducing the number of reps per set. Over the course of 8-12 weeks, the lifter builds up to a single. This is one of the most generic forms of […]
Isolation exercises attract massive hate from the “functional” crowd, but in most cases, single joint movements are simply misunderstood. What are the benefits of isolation exercises? The value of isolation exercises is contained in the term – “isolation“. The main goal of single joint movements is to work on a specific muscle directly. This is […]
Do you need a ton of calories to build bigger arms? Every hypertrophy expert says that being in a “caloric surplus” is fundamental to muscle growth. This has been one of the main reasons for the rise of the natty fatsos – a group of people who underestimate their body fat percentage and think that their […]
Over the last few years, the weightlifting movement has shifted towards powerlifting. Many people are trying hard to improve their squat, bench press and deadlift. I used to be one of those guys. Once I asked a random guy to spot me during a bench PR. He said that my grip is too narrow. “The […]
What is “metabolic damage” according to Dr. Layne Norton? According to the video log of Dr. Layne Norton, he believes that low-calorie diets can slow down your metabolism to the point where you are actually gaining weight on diets under 1000 calories. Cool, but in what universe? Nature says it’s not possible. There are natural laws which […]
There are two main reasons why people start lifting weights – to improve their physique and to hack life by joining the strength forces. Like little kids, we often look up to the muscle monsters lifting heavy barbells. We identify them as Gods among men and see a savior in their actions and accomplishments. Little by little, […]