OMNIBUS DOCUMENT: WEIGHTLIFTING/ BODYBUILDING NOTES

Hi, and welcome!

Here are some notes that I’ve taken from research across multiple platforms from several sources. This document will be periodically updated with new notes/ research. Most of this information is geared towards things that I am specifically interested in (strength, hypertrophy, bodybuilding, powerbuilding, sports performance, nutrition, fat loss), so they may not be universally applicable but hopefully they may be of some use to others.

Hopefully, as this set of notes is really just a meta-analysis of a series of actual meta-analyses (so meta), this set of personal notes can be seen as at least somewhat useful but not specifically the best science available - as the farther away from the original research you get the less likely it is to be specific (or even 100% accurate for that point).

Any and all recommendations for other sources, videos, content creators, or content-specific research are gladly accepted! (Note: I may not include your suggested content - please do not take this as a personal slight, I just have only so much time in the day and will only take notes on the stuff that keeps my interest and I enjoy.)

Additionally, here is a curated playlist of YouTube videos that I think are valuable, that also represent a portion of the research that I’ve done below: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2wfYgvVucq8IDAya_hROBNvsdHPP-qYT 

All told, this document is just me organizing my thoughts in a way to help guide me towards dem glorious gainz.

- /u/ShouldBeWorking3 (BP: 255, SQ: 405, DL: 405, Bodyweight: 215)

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Table of Contents

TL;DR This Whole Goddamn Document Edition, Biggest Takeaways        3

TL;DR Summarized Information Chart        15

Rep Range/ Set Range For Hypertrophy, Notes        18

A Good Summary of Why I Chose to Do This        21

Dr. Mike Israetel/ Juggernaut Training System Notes        22

Jeff Nippard Notes        50

Mark Rippetoe Notes        70

Tyler English Notes        75

Arnold Schwarzenegger Notes        77

Dr. Brad Schoenfeld Notes        94

Dr. Ben Pollack Notes        140

Athlean-X/ Jeff Cavaliere Notes        152

Alan Aragon Notes        162

Dr. Austin Baraki Notes        172

Dr. Eric Helms Notes        176

Greg Nuckols Notes        180

James Krieger Notes        187

Jim Stoppani Notes        189

Dr. Jordan Feigenbaum Notes        191

Dr. Layne Norton Notes        196

Barbell Medicine Podcast Notes        217

Revive Stronger Notes        223

Renaissance Periodization Notes        224

Seth Feroce Notes        233

John Meadows Notes        245

Handy Resources from Other Redditors, and Shout-Outs        245

Upcoming Changes        247

TL;DR This Whole Goddamn Document Edition, Biggest Takeaways

I realized the irony, after some time, of writing a massive document combined of literally hundreds of sources under the guise of saving time for everyone involved (mostly me, but still) while distilling the knowledge that each of those sources provided down to what I deemed as helpful nuggets of information - that ended up being now over 246 (as of 12-23-19) pages long. After laughing for some time to myself in my office at the idea that I had literally created the kind of massive labyrinthian documentation of the exact same sort that I was sourcing and summarizing to help people save time reading massive labyrinthian documents, I figured that I would create a biggest takeaways TL;DR section. I’ll try to keep this section to fewer than 20 pages (he said jokingly but only sort of). So, here’s the summary of the summaries. -

/u/ShouldBeWorking3

Protein

        General suggestion is 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight per day. There is some
                debate as to whether more is better, but general maximum seems to be around
                250 grams per day. Get protein from sources with complete amino acid profiles,
                most preferably from animal protein sources as plant sources are not considered
                complete protein sources as their amino acid profiles require consumption of
                multiple different resources to achieve the same effect (can be done due to
                vegan/ vegetarian dietary preference, just considered to be less efficient).
                Preferably your protein choice should yield 3-4 grams of leucine per meal.

        Assorted notes: BCAA’s considered to be less useful so long as you’re consuming

adequate protein overall. See Nutrient Timing for additional details on pre- and
        post-workout nutrition. All protein consumed will be used, but to maximize Muscle
        Protein Synthesis (MPS) spacing, which is measured to be between 3-5 hours.
        That being said, eating enough protein per day is more important than the timing
        of the protein.

Frequently suggested sources: Whey protein, leucine rich protein sources like dairy, egg,
        meats and poultry. Complete protein sources: Tuna, salmon, cottage cheese,
        eggs, chicken breast, turkey breast, beef (flank steak, bison, sirloin, lean ground
        beef), low-fat pork.

Carbs

        General suggestion is somewhere between 1 and 3 grams of carbohydrate per pound of
                bodyweight per day.

        Assorted notes: Completely eliminating carbs, as found in diets like the Ketogenic diet, is
                at a minimum counterproductive to any person who seeks to make strength
                training or weightlifting a priority in their training. Carbohydrates are not required
                for the uptake of creatine, and can still be eaten later in the day/ before bed with
                minimal effects (so long as you are within your caloric needs. Trying to maintain
                the consumption of carbs near to your workout, either before or after, is probably
                best overall. It is also probably worth eating carbs less frequently and instead
                spending them in closer intervals together (e.g., 1-2 meals, not throughout the
                day) so your body doesn’t down regulate the gluconeogenesis process.

        Frequently suggested sources: sweet potatoes, oatmeal, oat bran, oat bran cereal,
                brown rice, wild rice, quinoa, whole wheat pasta (minimal), whole wheat tortillas
                (minimal), wheat bread (minimal), beans, fruits (two to three servings per day),
                maltodextrin (during or after workouts), vegetables.

Fat

General suggestion is somewhere between .25 and .5 grams of fat per pound
                of bodyweight per day. At least 20% of your overall calories should come from
                fats, 25% seems like a good number to shoot for based on several
                recommendations.
        Assorted notes: Fats are inversely related to carbohydrates - if one goes up, the other
                goes down. Ideally, the majority of your fats should come from unsaturated fats,
                and you should keep saturated fats to a minimum. Limit fats that you eat to a
                minimum prior to your workout, focus on protein and carbs instead.
        Frequently suggested sources: avocado, cheese (cheddar, mozzarella, parmesan,
                pepper jack, swiss), extra-virgin olive oil, flaxseed oil, fish oil, natural almond
                butter, natural cashew butter, natural peanut butter, nuts (almonds, brazil nuts,
                peanuts, pecans, walnuts), cold-water fish (salmon, mackerel, lake trout, tuna -
                both canned and fresh, anchovies and sardines).  

Calories

        General suggestion is to either base your calories around the macros stated above using
                calculated amounts via your current bodyweight, or to use a TDEE calculator and
                work backwards from there based on percentage (less simple/ uglier process).

        I personally use the TDEE calculator spreadsheet because that’s easier for me to track
                on and I’m a data nerd, but as long as you are following your macros first and
                foremost you should see success. Again, the best calories are nutrient dense
                from single ingredient foods.

Online TDEE calculator for the lazy: https://tdeecalculator.net/ 

Supplementation

As the name suggests, these are to supplement your training diet, not to be the sole
                source of nutrition while you eat like shit. Essentially, IIFYM but paying attention
                to eat whole food single ingredient sources of those macros.
        Assorted notes: Pay close attention to ensure that your ingredients are safe and of high
                efficacy (work the way they’re advertised and well), that they’re in the right form
                to be properly utilized by your body, that they’re being ingested in healthy and
                effective doses, that they work together or at least don’t cancel each other out,
                and that you’re timing their usage effectively (don’t take pre-workout within two
                hours of going to bed, use pre-workout/ post-workout supplementation to
                augment work, etc.).
        General recommendation supplements:

Whey + Milk - 0.7-1g/lb

Caffeine - 3-7 days off caffeine every 1-2 months

L-theanine - 4mg/kg per day

Citrulline - 1 hour before training 4-10g

One Multivitamin per day if desired

Creatine Monohydrate - 5g

                Fish Oil

Calcium/ Magnesium/ Zinc supplement

Sleep product - melatonin, valerian root, etc. as needed

Aleve for aches and pains as needed

Capsaicin/ Icy Hot for recovery as needed

See: Layne Norton book section on supplementation

Reps (Including Rep Speed)

        Reps per set are going to largely depend on your overall goals per muscle group, which
                training block you happen to be in, your desired effect on that muscle group, and
                a couple other factors. For a handy chart regarding suggested reps per muscle
                group for hypertrophy/ strength, see the chart below in the main portion of the
                notes labeled “TL;DR Summarized Information Chart.” For hypertrophy
                specifically, low to high (~3-15) repetitions can be utilized but most repetitions
                should occur in the 6-12 range using 70-80% of 1 repetition max. More great
                information on reps per set can be found in the “Recommendations for Natural
                Bodybuilding Contest Preparation: Resistance and Cardiovascular Training”
                notes under Alan Aragon, or throughout the Juggernaut Training System/ Dr.
                Mike Israetel’s notes.

Sets

        Sets per muscle group per day are going to largely depend on your overall goals per
                muscle group, which training block you happen to be in, your desired effect on
                that muscle group, and a couple other factors. For a handy chart regarding
                suggested sets per week per muscle group for hypertrophy/ strength, see the
                chart below in the main portion of the notes labeled “TL;DR Summarized
                Information Chart.” For hypertrophy specifically, roughly 40-70 reps per muscle
                group per session should be performed, however higher volume may be
                appropriate for advanced bodybuilders. This represents anywhere from 3-12 sets
                per session, and with 2+ sessions per week that gives a baseline of 6-24 sets per
                muscle group per week. More great information on sets per muscle group can be
                found in the “Recommendations for Natural Bodybuilding Contest Preparation:
                Resistance and Cardiovascular Training” notes under Alan Aragon, or throughout
                the Juggernaut Training System/ Dr. Mike Israetel’s notes.

Inter-Set Rest

        General recommendation: Depending on the lift’s intensity, your RPE, your goals, and a
                variety of other factors, traditional rest intervals of 1-3 minutes are adequate, but
                longer intervals can be used. Shorter rest periods, as short as 30 seconds, can
                be used during metabolite sets. The following comes from Dr. Brad Schoenfeld’s
                “MAX Muscle Plan” book under MAX Periodization section notes:

Short: 30 seconds or less, difficult to build substantial amounts of muscle
                due to muscle tension timing being compromised (despite
                metabolite accumulation being higher).

        Moderate: 1-2 minutes, “effective compromise,” maintains majority of
                        strength while promoting significant metabolic stress. “Best of both
                        worlds.”

        Long: 3 minutes or more, good for strength but not size.

Frequency (Times per Week)

        “Muscle groups should be training 2 times weekly or more, although high volume training
                may benefit from higher frequencies to keep volume at any one session from
                becoming excessive.” Overall, the trend regarding frequency is around 2-3
                times per week for most muscle groups, with exceptions regarding abs and
                calves which may benefit from increased frequency. Titrating in frequency of lifts
                to help increase overall volume for a specific muscle group is a strong tool, but
                must be carefully used.

Volume, Overall

        Hypertrophy is primarily driven by volume (strength, on the other hand, is more driven by
                intensity). Having blocks comprised of both within a single mesocycle is generally
                considered to be a good approach towards developing both size and strength.

Reps x Weight = Volume

                Warm Up Sets                        Working Sets

Weight                        x     x     x                        x     x     x

Reps                        x     x     x                        x     x     x

Volume Per Set        x2   x2   x2               +                x2   x2   x2    = Total Volume

        Ideally, only track working sets towards Total Volume.        

Splits

        Bro-splits (single body part/ muscle group once per week, 5-6 days per week) are
                considered by most of the resources that I’ve read to be sub-optimal for most
                people in most cases.

        General recommendation: Most muscle groups will develop with at least 2 sessions per
                week and some can handle as many as 4 times per week, with more rare cases
                (like abdominals and calves) of muscle groups that can be hit 5+ times per week.
                Hitting any single muscle group only once per week is likely insufficient for
                growth. Otherwise, based on the given information of volume/ intensity/ exercise
                selection/ specificity, you can guide your programs (AFTER you have completed
                the novice level programs and stopped seeing weekly gains on the big
                compound lifts) using these principles to modify existing good programs to your
                Needs as long as you’re hitting the general recommendation of 40-70 reps per
                muscle group per session.

Intensity/ Effort

Depending on your overall goals, you can use a variety of intensities and still progress
                and develop. Using intensity as one of your primary variables when adjusting
                your programming is key. Juggernaut Training Systems/ Dr. Mike Israetel’s notes
                have great recommendations involving the intensity that is best used for each
                muscle group, as does the “Recommendations for Natural Bodybuilding Contest
                Preparation: Resistance and Cardiovascular Training” notes section under Alan
                Aragon. A further breakdown of each sources’ recommendations can be found in
                the chart below this section called “TL;DR Summarized Information Chart.”

General recommendation guidelines: 

3-5 Reps: 85-90% of 1RM

5-8 Reps: 75-80% of 1RM

6-10 Reps: 70-75% of 1RM

8-12 Reps: 65-70% of 1RM

12-15 Reps: 60-65% of 1RM

15-20 Reps: 50-60% of 1RM
Dr. Brad Schoenfeld’s specific notes:
        Low, 1-5, 90-100% of 1RM, “best for increasing muscle strength.”

        Moderate, 6-12, 65-85% of 1RM, “optimal for building muscle.”

High, 15+, less than 60% of 1RM, “associated with adaptations specific to local
                muscular endurance.”

Progressive Overload

        Basically, at its core, progressive overload is all about making hard things harder over
                time to continue to drive adaptation and gains. The amount of progressive
                overload that you factor into your programming will depend on your goals, your
                training experience, your rest, your diet, and a host of other factors. “Progressive
                mechanical tension overload is the primary driver for growth.” - Dr. Eric Helms,
                Dr. Brad Schoenfeld, et al.

General recommendation: Try to add 5-10 pounds to the bar on your major compound
                lifts every week for as long as you can. After that, play with the variables of
                volume, intensity, frequency, variation, or different lifting methodologies in order
                to gain the desired adaptation, with the caveat that you should likely only adjust
                those infrequently. See Dr. Ben Pollack’s section of notes for more on this issues.

JTS specific notes:
                Hypertrophy:

Driven by increased volume (more sets, more reps, more weight)

60-75% of 1RM for sets of 6-12 reps

15-30 sets per week directed at each specific lift/ muscle group that are heavy/         disruptive

Strength:
                Driven by increased intensity (more weight)

70-85% of 1RM Intermediates/ Advanced lifters

75-90% of 1RM Females/ Beginning lifters

Sets of 3-6 reps

10-20 sets per week directed at each specific lift/ muscle group that are heavy/ disruptive

        Peaking:

Technical prowess and neural adaptations

85%+ of 1RM Intermediates/ Advanced lifters

90%+ of 1RM Females/ Beginning lifters

Sets of 1-3 reps

5-10 sets per week directed at each specific lift/ muscle group that are heavy/ Disruptive

Specificity

        “Specificity is the framework around which all other principles are built. It guides the
                decision making process for all training: exercise selection, total volume, and
                intensity.” Juggernaut Training Series/ Dr. Mike Israetel have a great video that
                completely changed the way that I thought about the formatting of programming
                in general.

        General recommendation: Decide exactly what your goals are (strength, hypertrophy,
                powerbuilding, cutting weight, gaining weight, certain bodyfat %, sports related
                goals, aesthetic related goals, getting healthy in general) and pick a program that
                works towards that specific goal. From there, work until you plateau, then work
                some more but in a directed and organized fashion that will help you achieve
                those goals.

Individual Differences

        The way that your body operates is generally similar but specifically different than almost
                everybody else. That is to say, your leverages are different, your adaptation rate,
                your metabolic rate, your recovery rate, your pain scale, you are different from
                everyone else. That being said, almost all of the given information should work
                for almost all lifters - obviously there are exceptions, but for the most part
                everyone can do the same lifts the same ways, eat the same things, and get
                similar results.

        Two different kinds of differences:

                Interpersonal differences: Person to person, largely genetic, lifestyle factors.

Intrapersonal differences: Same person at different times, lifestyle factors, time of
                year, stress, training age, proximity to career peak.

General recommendation: Run a novice program from one of the big notable sources,
        and run it until you plateau (in this case, meaning you’re no longer consistently
        upping the weight on the bar every week for your major compound lifts). From
        there, work within either that same program altered to fit your specific individual
        Needs. In programming, be sure to be cognisant of your development (track your
        results on a consistent basis) and implement variables slowly so you understand
        what is working for you best and what might not be working so well. These things
        will take time, so be sure that you aren’t program hopping constantly or changing
        variables so quickly that you can’t attribute the cause of adaptation to any
        specific thing.

Fatigue Management/ Recovery Adaptation

Breakdown of stages of fatigue:         

1: Normal Training, less than or equal to MRV

                2: Overreaching, planned or unplanned, functional overreaching in peaking is a
                        conscious decision to exceed normal MRV (more volume or higher
                        intensity).

                3: Overtraining

General recommendation: To avoid hitting overtraining/ excessive fatigue (which is
                unproductive), you should implement deloads and light sessions every once in a
                while. In addition to that, sleep 8+ hours a night, limit HIIT training to 2 sessions,
                limit cardiovascular training to 5 times per week maximum (even that may be too
                much, according to some of these sources), eat correctly with enough of each
                macronutrient, limit extreme exertion in other sports if weightlifting is your focus,
                and implementation of active recovery.

Deloads/ Light Sessions:
        - Every 3-7 weeks

                - 60-70% of overload volume

                - 80-90% of overload intensity

                - ex. Normal Hypertrophy: 5x8@70%, Deload/ Light 5x5@60% or 3x8@60%

                - Not doing anything during deload week is counterproductive.

Common Mistakes:

                Too much volume close to competition

                Chronically going too heavy is unsustainable

                Avoiding deloads/ light days -or- too frequent/ unearned deloads

                Overuse of passive/ active recovery modalities (sleep, nutrition most important
                recovery modalities): avoid overuse of temperature therapy,

        Use hydration, soft tissue therapy, massage, active relief.         

Variation

        “Manipulation of training variables to prevent injury and staleness to magnify long term
                adaptive response to training.”

General recommendation: Occasionally, meaning once a mesocycle or a
                couple times every macrocycle, strategic use of the variants of the major lifts can
                and should be used to address your body’s adaptive resistance mechanisms.

        In addition to the variants on the major lifts, you can vary up tempo of the lift to increase
                time under tension, variable loading strategies, volume variation, rest timing,
                RPE/ intensity, and the exercises you select to work specific muscle groups.
                These should be used to address your specific weaknesses or goals, and should
                not be overused just to add bells and whistles to programs that don’t need it.

        Variants can (and should) be tested on deload weeks, can be used to test out new
                techniques, and can implement extra work to help heal injuries.

Tempo of Lifts

        General recommendation: 1-2 second concentric and 2-3 second eccentric tempos are
                most commonly recommended. Other tempos may work for a variety of
                methodologies, but these are the most common. Ensure that the weight is under
                control throughout the movement.

Exercise Selection/ Order

        A big part of training specificity is exercise selection and ordering within you
                programming. Your exercise selection should work to enhance your athletic
                performance and get you closer to your specific goal. The choice of order should
                typically be based around completing either the big compound movements first or
                the specific muscle group that is your biggest weakness area first (on that
                groups’ corresponding training day within your split). This will all be highly
                individual based, once you’re out of the Novice stage of training.

        Pyramid of Strength - become more and more specific in training as time goes on,
                Beginners start simple and broad, become more and more focused as time goes
                on.

        “Bottom line: no single exercise can effectively maximize development of a muscle. You
                can achieve full development only by varying exercise selection so that muscles
                are worked from different angles in all planes of movement.” - Dr. Brad
                Schoenfeld

        Dr. Ben Pollack has a great section of notes on this concept:

                “1. Proportion: Using isolation to bring other muscles up to proportion of your big
                        muscles involved in the heavy compound lifts.

                2. Mind-Muscle Connection: Carry-over from focusing on the muscle as you use
                        it into all exercises can’t really be overstated. Working on activation/
                        feeling - developed by super high rep sets, use this as a tool for trial and
                        error to see what really hammers your muscles, then use that feeling to
                        guide your movements and squeeze on your other lifts.

                3. Risk-Reward: Focus on injury - you will get injured, a necessary part of getting
                        stronger. Don’t do dumb, high-risk injury prone lifts. If you’re a novice or
                        early lifter, you still need to do these heavy ass lifts (SQ, DL, BP) to build
                        that strength and size.

        General recommendation: “An approach of utilizing a core group of multi-joint
                movements for the majority of training with some adjunct single-joint movements
                to reach the target volume for any given muscle group is suggested.” - Alan
                Aragon section notes, “Recommendations for Natural Bodybuilding Contest
                Preparation: Resistance and Cardiovascular Training.”

Warm-Up/ Stretching

        For the most part, the Warm-Up should be taken literally - to raise the temperature of
                your body and the muscles, to get fresher oxygenated blood flowing throughout,
                and to prevent injury overall.

General recommendation: 5 minutes on a rower or an assault bike, followed up by 1-2
                empty bar versions of the exercise that you intend to do with perfect form, then
                your working sets. Repeat the process minus the cardio started for each lift until
                done with the session.

Regarding stretching, most sources argue to not do it before your workout, that if you
                choose to do so to do it afterwards. Some suggest that if it feels good and is a
                way to be mindful of your mind-muscle connections to stretch so long as it
                doesn’t injure or prevent your management of fatigue, but many argue that it isn’t
                necessary.

Cardiovascular Training (Timing, Types)

        At this point, in many weightlifting communities, cardio is pretty much a meme of its own.
                Many, if not all, of my sources cited a variety of opinions that frequently
                contradicted each other. Some said no cardio whatsoever, some said cardio is
                necessary. In my in-no-way-what-so-ever-professional opinion, it’s probably
                somewhere in-between those two stances. Also, fasted cardio doesn’t show
                significant enough results to be arguably better, and in some cases is as bad as
                just spinning your wheels. Not doing cardio is bad (“Can’t be jacked if you’re
                dead.”), doing too much cardio messes with your lifting gains.

        General recommendation: No more than 1-2 HITT sessions per week and a maximum of
                4-5 LISS sessions (only as needed for your specific calorie deficit/ needs). Do
                whatever cardiovascular activity you actually enjoy - it shouldn’t just be straight
                torture - and fits your lifestyle. Don’t do cardio on leg days, and only ever do
                cardio after lifting. Try to do something low impact.
        “It is recommended that bodybuilders perform the lowest number and duration of
                cardiovascular sessions possible (while still meeting their need to maximally
                reduce subcutaneous body fat) to reduce interference with strength training.” -
                Dr. Eric Helms

        Types of Cardio:

                Metabolic Resistance Training:

                        Lift weights in circuit, supersets, with short rest periods. Intensity is key.

                High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT):

                        Short bursts of high intensity effort followed by recovery segments at
                        low(er) intensities. 10 seconds Sprints > 30 seconds Jog/ Walk > Sprints
                        > Jog/ Walk, rinse and repeat.

                High-Intensity Aerobic Training:

                        Maintains a high level of effort sustained over time for a certain aerobic
                        exercise, for example 2 minutes high intensity biking followed by 2
                        minutes recovery biking. Not reported as good for promoting muscle
                        mass.

                Low-Intensity Aerobic Training (LISS):

                        Sustained low effort/ intensity aerobic exercise for a longer period of time.
                        “Running, walking, riding a bike at a steady pace for 30 minutes to an
                        hour.

        Intensity:

                60-70% of Maximal Heart Rate (MHR) or 6-7 RPE

                Maximal Heart Rate: subtract your age from 220. For a 30 year old, that would be
                190 MHR.

Duration:

30-45 minutes

Range of Motion

General recommendation: “For most purposes, bodybuilding exercises should take any
                muscle through its longest possible range of motion” with few exceptions. Full
                stretch, full contraction.

The weights you choose to work with should be controllable throughout the prescribed
                ROM, again with limited exceptions for specific metabolite work, variants, injury
                work, or specifically stated otherwise.

Training to Failure

        Another mixed bag category of opinions - some say do it rarely, if ever, some say do it
                every week, some say get close but never actually fail. Again, I think the answer
                lies in a combination of each or somewhere in-between.

        For some, failure means complete muscular failure - no longer completing the

movement at all (absolute failure), for some it means failing starts once you pause mid-rep or have to pause longer than 3 seconds between reps, for some it means once your reps begin to break down out of perfect form (technical failure).  

        General recommendation: Training to failure on heavy loads should be limited and
                strategically implemented in that form of overreach is desired within your specific
                personal goals, as it can be extremely fatiguing. General consensus seems to be
                training lifts within 2-4 reps from failure, and occasionally reaching to failure
                depending on the lift. Go absolute failure on 2-3 sets per muscle group per week
                in accessory work only, and overreach on your big compound lifts according to
                your plan occasionally while working within the mindset of technical failure.

Nutrient Timing

        Yet another contentious issue - no real consensus involved in specific timing of ALL of
                your macro- and micronutrients, but there are some general links between all of
                the sources’ arguments.

        General recommendation: All else measured and considered (meaning you are
                consuming your macros and specifically your protein to the exact-ish levels
                required by your body) consuming a combination of carbohydrates and caffeine
                prior to your workout and protein/ creatine after your workout seems to be like a
                good idea. Limiting your consumption of fats prior to your workout (2-3 hours)
                seems to also be a good recommendation.

        Not a ton of measured difference between protein consumption before or after a
                workout, most important factor is simply consuming enough protein overall
                throughout the day.

Mind-Muscle Connection

        This is a special focus on the feeling of the full ROM of exercise on specific muscles -
                can you feel it now, Mr. Krabs? “Bodybuilding is about training muscles, not lifting
                weights.”

        “Pre-activation” may help in the sense of doing low-weight full ROM warm-ups with those
                movements so you feel the full stretch and full contraction. Most of the
                mind-muscle connection will be guesswork as you “grease the groove” within
                your sets to get each muscle or muscle group working the load appropriately.

        Here is where the Pump comes into play, as you work with lower weights for higher reps
                to really feel all of the muscle fibers as they work throughout the movements.

General recommendation: Work within high reps low weight on a couple
                accessory work sets in each muscle group a couple times per mesocycle to \

continuously work on and improve your mind muscle connection. As it begins to click (“Ahh, that’s how that is supposed to feel when contracting/ flexing/ stretching”), remind yourself of that feeling as you move through your major compound lifts and other variants.

Injuries/ Aches/ Pains/ DOMS

        Prevention then recognition then recovery.

        For more specific information Dr. Ben Pollack has an awesome video on “How to Heal
                Any Injury Overnight” that I took notes on under his section, and Arnold
                Schwarzenegger has a great section in his book “The New Encyclopedia of
                Modern Bodybuilding: The Bible of Bodybuilding, Fully Updated and Revised.”

        General recommendation: Warm up before exercising (See: Warm-Up/ Stretching), work
                within proper ROM for the movements you intend on doing and do them with a
                weight that you can control. Assess your risk/ reward for your lifts and think about
                if the juice is worth the squeeze - could you do something safer for the same
                benefit? Rehabilitate your body using the Dr. Ben Pollack strategies, give
                yourself time to heal, complete movements with those muscle groups instead of
                entirely putting them on the back-burner and ignoring them, and be smart about
                your rest/ eating habits as you recover.

Diets

        The general consensus among most of these sources is that the large number of diets
                out there can be useful to some individuals because they are largely
                mechanisms for caloric deficit/ surplus/ maintenance and that they make you
                more aware of your eating habits. That being said, for those who intend on
                weightlifting/ bodybuilding seriously there were definite caveats.

The Ketogenic diet is frequently touted and discussed within these sources as it is
                currently the big buzz diet, but in many ways it falls flat when it comes to
                research as it cuts out carbs - a necessary fuel source - to prioritize fats, which
                your body will then get better at burning dietary fat (not bodily stored fat) while
                getting less good at burning carbohydrates which it will then store as fat more
                easily.

Intermittent fasting is also popular, and some of the research suggests that it may be
                useful because it is yet another caloric restriction method, and if it helps you stay
                within your range of macros because of the restrictive time window and you don’t
                find it fatiguing then it may be a good strategy for you.

        General recommendation: If It Fits Your Macros (IIFYM) seems to be the most overall
                general recommendation in the sense that counting calories should come second
                to your macro goals as a lifter (your macros will dictate your calories).

In order of importance of implementation:

1. Being smart about calculating your macros according to your needs with a priority effort to consume adequate protein. Find TDEE and macro levels required to meet your goals.  
2. Tracking your consumption of those macros.
3. Continue to train intelligently and lift heavy.
4. Sleep hard, rest hard.
5. Eating higher quality single ingredient whole foods with strong nutrient profiles. Find foods that you LIKE eating, so you know you will stick with it. That, or be a hardass and eat unseasoned chicken and rice forever because reasons.
6. Give yourself enough time - make a goal, make a plan, set a date to meet it by, be specific, but understand that there will be bumps in the road that may slow the plan and you may plateau, but to plan around those plateaus ahead of time.
7. Experiment with different levels of carbs vs. fats to see what works best for you on training days/ off days, prior to competitions, for daily life, etc. “Find out what works for you and stick with it.” If you’re not responding right away, slowly adjust - don’t make sweeping changes or you’ll fuck up your metabolism.

TL;DR Summarized Information Chart

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lLF-LS8Pd4_7ULHUoXiTyNVWWJSQ5oZKD-UnEASCBfA/edit?usp=sharing 

Rep Range/ Set Range For Hypertrophy, Notes

(This section is specific to my personal programming, and may not apply to everyone’s program needs. This organization is based off of the essential mode of all information in the prior chart, excepting outliers that I felt need not apply, like Arnie’s insane volume or Rip’s crazy low reps.)

Rep Ranges Suggested:                         Reps AVG        

Chest: 5-8 heavy, between 8-15 light                9 reps                 

Back: 5-8 heavy, between 8-15 light                11 reps                

Bicep: 8-15 reps per set                        9 reps                

Tricep: 6-10 heavy, between 8-20 light        11 reps                

Rear Delts: 6/8-10 heavy, 10-15 light                10 reps        

Side Delts: 6/8-10 heavy, 10-15 light                10 reps        

Front Delts: 6-10 heavy, 10-15 light                9 reps                

Traps: 5-8 heavy, 10-20 light                        10/11 reps        

Quads: 4-8 heavy, 8-15 light                        10 reps        

Hamstrings: 4-10 heavy, 10-20 light                10 reps        
Calves: 6-8 heavy, 12-15 light                10 reps        

Glutes: 4-8 heavy, 12-15 light                        9 reps                

Forearms: 8-12 reps per set                        5 reps                

Abdominals: 15-25 reps per set                15 reps        

Set Ranges Suggested:                         Set AVG        

Chest: 10-20 sets per week                        25 sets                

Back: 10-25 sets per week                        19 sets                

Bicep: 8-20 sets per week                        15 sets                

Tricep: 8-20 sets per week                        15 sets                

Rear Delts: 8-22 sets per week                21 sets                

Side Delts: 8-22 sets per week                21 sets                

Front Delts: 6-20 sets per week                17 sets                

Traps: 10-26 sets per week                        16 sets                

Quads: 8-20 sets per week                        16 sets                

Hamstrings: 6-20 sets per week                16.5 sets        
Calves: 6-20 sets per week                        16 sets                

Glutes: 4-18 sets per week                        22 sets                

Forearms: 8-27 sets per week                19 sets                

Abdominals: 10-25 sets per week                19 sets                

Intensity Suggested:

3-5 Reps: 85-90% of 1RM

5-8 Reps: 75-80% of 1RM

6-10 Reps: 70-75% of 1RM

8-12 Reps: 65-70% of 1RM

12-15 Reps: 60-65% of 1RM

15-20 Reps: 50-60% of 1RM

Recommended Exercises

** = Most often recommended

(...) = Variations recommended on original lift

Pull:

Biceps: Barbell curls** (close grip), dumbbell curls** (incline, dumbbell twist curls, hammer curl,
        spider curl, alternating curls, concentration), EZ curls**, preacher curls, rope curls, 21s,
        cable rope twist curls, cable curls, chin ups**, partner curls, cheat curls.

Forearms: Hammer curls, forearm curls, reverse curls**, dumbbell wrist curl, bench-braced
        dumbbell extension, standing wrist extension, plate pinches, farmer’s walks, heavy
        barbell holds, barbell wrist curls**, one-arm wrist curls, behind-the-back wrist curls,
        reverse wrist curls.

Vertical pull: Pull up** (parallel, underhand, wide grip, assisted overhand, assisted parallel,
        assisted underhand), chin up, lat pulldown** (normal grip, parallel pulldown, underhand
        pulldown, wide grip, narrow grip), upright rows, hanging serratus crunches.

Horizontal pull: Seated row, barbell row**, barbell bent over rows**, underhand EZ bar row, row
        to chest, one-arm dumbbell row, chest supported row, row machine, two-arm dumbbell
        row, cable rows, chest supported t-bar row, rope face pull**, rack pull, chest supported
        incline shrug, seated cable rear laterals, regular T-bar rows, seated wide-grip rows,
        one-arm cable row, seated rows with separate handles, cable crossovers, rope pulls,
        one-arm cable pulls, hanging dumbbell rows.

Traps: Barbell shrugs** (bent over, dumbbell, dumbbell bent over), heavy deadlifts, plate loaded
        extensions, rack pulls**, deadlifts double overhand, overhead dumbbell shrug, monkey
        shrug, upright rows, facepulls**, seated rows.

Rear Delts: Barbell facepulls** (dumbbell, cable facepull), rear delt flyes (and variations),
        rows**, upright rows, seated row, incline lat pulldown, reverse flyes, reverse cable
        crossovers.

Push:
Incline: Incline bench press** (medium grip, wide grip, close grip), incline dumbbell bench
        press**, incline machine bench press, behind-the-neck presses, lying incline laterals,
        incline flyes.

Horizontal: Bench press** (medium grip, wide grip, close grip), feet up bench press, dumbbell
        bench press**, flat machine bench press, push-up, close grip push-up, dumbbell
        pullovers, decline presses, decline flyes, cable flyes, dumbbell flyes.

Triceps: Skull crushers** (dumbbell), tricep rope pushdown, tricep bar pushdown, tricep cable
        single pushdown, close grip bench press, overhead dumbbell tricep extension, overhead
        rope extension, JM Press, dips** (assisted, behind-the-back, weighted), seated EZ bar
        overhead tricep extension, one-arm tricep extension, close-grip barbell presses,
        kickbacks.  

Side delts: Lateral raises**, cable side raises, barbell upright row** (dumbbell, cable upright
        row), thumbs down lateral raises, reverse pec dec, incline lat pulldown, reverse flyes,
        reverse cable crossovers, bent-over laterals, Arnold presses, clean and press**.

Front delts: Standing barbell shoulder press** (seated, dumbbell seated, dumbbell standing,
        high incline), front raises, overhead press, shoulder press machine.

Chest Isolation: Flat dumbbell flye**, incline dumbbell flyes, cable flyes, high cable flyes,
        machine chest flyes, cable incline flyes, pec dec flyes.  

Legs:
Quads: Squats** (high bar, low bar, front squat, hack squat, front squat alternate grip), lunges**,
        sumo deadlifts, leg press**, quad extensions, close stance feet forward squats, step-ups,
        leg curls, sissy squats.

Hamstrings: Stiff leg deadlift**, hamstring curls (lying, seated, single-leg), good mornings (low
        bar, high bar), 45 degree back raise, back extension, reverse hyper, glute ham raises**,
        Squats, lunges**, hack squats.

Calves: Calf Machine Raises, stair calf raises, calves on leg press, smith machine calf raises,
        donkey calf raises, calf jumps, single leg calf raises.

Glutes: Glute Bridge**, barbell walking lunge (dumbbell), sumo squat, deficit deadlifts, 25’s
        deadlift, sumo deadlift, deadlifts**, hex bar deadlift, split squats, single leg hip thrusts,
        walking lunges.

Abdominals:

Abs: Crunch, reverse crunch, leg tucks, twists, side bends, stomach vacuum, twisting crunches,
        roman chair (10 minutes), side leg raises, bent-knee side leg raises, front kicks, bench
        kickbacks, rear leg scissors.

When In Doubt:
Use this tool to figure out what would work which muscle group, how, and videos showing your
        proper form: https://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/finder/?muscleid=7 

A Good Summary of Why I Chose to Do This

I think a recent Instagram post from Bret Contreras said it best:

Dr. Mike Israetel/ Juggernaut Training System Notes

Notes are pulled from JTS videos, and RP’s website, summarized or typed out in whole.

Pull: 50% vertical pull and 50% horizontal pull is ideal.

Push: Each mesocycle should be focused with 50% of one chest movement, 25% of another,
        and 25% of another. (eg. 50% incline, 25% isolation, 25% horizontal). Rotate every
        meso. Triceps (s) = exercises that hit mainly the short head (pushdowns). Triceps (L) =
        exercises that hit mainly the long head (overhead extensions). Tri (comp) = compound
        tricep exercises (CGBP, skullcrushers). Tri (acc) = accessory exercises for the triceps.

Legs: Try for a near equal amount of hip hinge vs curl movements for hamstrings.

Hypertrophy Specific Recommendations from JTS

All recommendations/ training guides for each muscle group made by JTS can be found at: https://renaissanceperiodization.com/hypertrophy-training-guide-central-hub/ 

Chest:

        Maintenance Volume:

                In most cases, experienced lifters will need at least 8 sets of chest work per week
                to maintain their gains.

        Minimum Effective Volume:

Most intermediate-advanced lifters need at least 10 sets of direct chest work per
        week to make gains.
Maximum Adaptive Volume:

Most people respond best to between 12 and 20 weekly sets on average. Very
        big, strong lifters often need lower set numbers when they choose mostly barbell
        movements, since those are both so simulative and disruptive.
Maximum Recoverable Volume:

Most people seem to encounter serious recovery problems above 22 sets per
        week. But some people can train a bit in excess of that amount and still be ok.
        When your compound pressing strength for reps starts to decline, you’ll easily be
        able to tell that you’re over your MRV.

Exercises:
        Horizontal Push:

Incline Push:

Chest Isolation:

        Frequency:

1.5-3 times per week.

Intensity (Loading):

Individuals report quite a range of successful loading schemes for the chest, with some getting great use out of super light and metabolite rep ranges and others going up to heavy sets of 5-8 reps per set. Though you should train your chest through a variety of rep ranges in general, what I’ve seen work best is training in the 8-12 rep range. Much heavier and the kinds of volumes needed to really stimulate growth are made unlikely by the joint stress and injury risk of such loads, and much lighter weights seem to give cool pumps for a session or two but in my experience don’t produce growth nearly as reliably as the middle of the road.

Notes from Video:

                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo1pWGX-Td4&index=4&list=PLwnuh_5UZz_QNgmpEc-lH9s3A0qBjooFk 

Incline great for upper chest hypertrophy.

Aim for a mixture of horizontal, incline, isolation to best attack hypertrophy.

Aim for full ROM, full stretch/ contraction, take the ego hit and go down in weight to hit full ROM.

Metabolite techniques: flyes superset with presses, isolation sandwich (heavy compound movement -> isolation movement -> lighter compound movement)

Back:

        Maintenance Volume:

                Because the back is a large and multi-muscled bodypart perhaps around 8 sets
                per week are needed to keep back gains from slipping away. That should
                probably be split pretty evenly between vertical and horizontal pulling
                movements.

        Minimum Effective Volume:

Most intermediate-advanced lifters need at least 10 sets of direct back work per
        week to make gains, and for some, it’s even more than that.
Maximum Adaptive Volume:

Most people respond best to between 14 and 22 weekly sets on average.
Maximum Recoverable Volume:

Most people seem to encounter serious recovery problems above 25 sets per
        week. But some people can train a bit in excess of that amount and still be ok.
        Especially when individuals are both well trained and still relatively light, they can
        often handle pretty high volumes.

Exercises:

Horizontal Pulling:

Vertical Pulling:

Frequency:

2-4 times per week.

Because the back muscles are numerous and spread over a wide area, and because the moves that train them employ many of them at once, the back can take one hell of a beating in a single session or be trained with smaller, more frequent sessions. As you get stronger, you’ll notice that overloading the back generates so much fatigue that overload frequency might have to fall with time.

Intensity (Loading):

Because the back is a complex series of muscles, many of them of different architecture, back training should be done through a variety of intensity and thus rep ranges. Reps as low as 6 for pullups and as high as 20 for pulldowns or machine rows are not uncommon in back training, and of course everything in between.

Notes from Video:

                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrXh8BsAa9o&index=3&list=PLwnuh_5UZz_QNgmpEc-lH9s3A0qBjooFk 

                Use a variety of rep ranges and intensities.

                Vertical pulling AND horizontal pulling must be done to target the entirety of the
                Back.

                Focus on full ROM, full extension and stretch.

Involve metabolite training (giant sets, periodization)

Biceps:

        Maintenance Volume:

                If you haven’t been training biceps directly, then no direct biceps work is needed
                to keep your gains, so long as you’re doing plenty of pulling work. But if you’re
                used to training biceps directly, 4-6 direct sets per week are recommended to
                keep the size on.

        Minimum Effective Volume:

Most intermediate-advanced lifters need at least 8 sets of direct biceps work per
        week to make gains. However, you might be able to gain bicep size on even
        lower set numbers if your program has lots of pulling work for the back.
Maximum Adaptive Volume:

Most people respond best to between 14 and 20 weekly sets on average.
Maximum Recoverable Volume:

Most people seem to encounter serious recovery problems above 26 sets per
        week. This is more likely to occur if and when your program also includes lots of
        vertical and horizontal pulling for back. So if your back training is minimal, you
        might comfortably be able to exceed 26 working sets of biceps per week, but if
        your back work is a big focus, even as few as 20 sets of biceps might be a
        challenge for some. ALWAYS use your own assessment of fatigue and never just
        assume you’re good to go for more volume no matter what.

Exercises:

Frequency:

2-6 times per week.

Holy crap, yes, that does indeed say “6 times per week.” But how? Doesn’t the SRA (Stimulus-Recovery-Adaptation) principle imply that muscles only make their best progress during recovery and not during constant stress? You bet! But the cool thing is, super high frequency biceps training doesn’t actually violate SRA. In reality, the biceps are so poorly leveraged to be exposed mechanical damage, produce so little force, and are comparatively so small (and this goes for all of the forearm flexors btw) that they can recover from limited volumes in a VERY short time; often as little as a day. Of course, the emphasis here is on limited volumes, so you can’t expect to do 8 sets of curls and be recovered to repeat that a day later. However, if you do only 3 bicep sets per day, you can easily recover by the next day if you’re adjusted to that kind of workload. And if you do that every day for 6 days, that’s 18 sets a week and well within most individuals’ MRVs. So IF you do choose the high frequency approach to biceps, make sure you weekly volume is still within MRV and you should recover fine.

Intensity (Loading):

The forearm flexors of most individuals are a roughly even mix of fiber types, so on paper you should be aiming to train biceps with a wide mix of rep ranges. However, your biceps get pretty much all the heavy work they need as contributors to your heavy back work, and the bicep isolation work you do for them should likely be biased towards higher reps. Additionally, curling for super heavy (sets of 6 or less) sets can be unsafe, so it’s best to focus most of your bicep volume between 8 and 15 rep sets, with occasional uses of higher rep ranges for metabolite work.

Notes from Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8wMzeKn14s&index=7&list=PLwnuh_5UZz_QNgmpEc-lH9s3A0qBjooFk 

Barbell Curls are, by many measures, the king of biceps, stick to the basics.

Variations - different variations of curls, new weight schemes (heavy day and light day for loading), volume/ relative intensity variations.

Aim for full ROM in the face of lighter weights, ignore your ego.

Periodization: 1-2 mesos on heavy 8-12s, 1-2 mesos on 10-15 reps, 1-2 mesos of 15-20 reps, 1-2 mesos on maintenance volume, restart.

Metabolite techniques: Drop sets, Occlusion training (save for once every several months, don’t use constantly).

Triceps:

        Maintenance Volume:

                If you’re doing plenty of compound pressing work, you might not need any direct
                triceps work to keep your gains. But 4 sets of direct work per week is a good
                insurance policy to cover most cases.

        Minimum Effective Volume:

Most intermediate-advanced lifters need at least 6 sets of direct triceps per week
        to make gains. However, you might be able to make gains in triceps size on even
        lower set numbers if your program has lots of pressing work for the chest and
        front delts.
Maximum Adaptive Volume:

Most people respond best to between 10 and 14 weekly sets on average.
Maximum Recoverable Volume:

Most people seem to encounter serious recovery problems above 18 sets per
        week. This is more likely to occur if and when your program also includes lots of
        compound pushing for the chest and front delts. So if your push training is
        minimal, you might comfortably be able to exceed 18 working sets of triceps per
        week, but if your push work is a big focus, even as few as 12 sets of triceps
        might be a challenge for some. ALWAYS use your own assessment of fatigue
        and never just assume you’re good to go for more volume no matter what.

Exercises:

Frequency:

2-4 times per week.

The triceps are not a small muscle in relation to others, (they are much bigger than the biceps, for example), and are anatomically positioned to receive great mechanical stress from training. For likely these two reasons and some possible others, triceps can only be productively overloaded from 2 to 4 times per week, but not much more than that. VERY advanced (read: gigantic) lifters might only manage one triceps overload session per week and have their chest work to make up the other recovery session, but those individuals are VERY few and far between.

Intensity (Loading):

The triceps respond well to the full variety of rep ranges, but your chest and shoulder work should already be taking pretty good care of the high-force and lower rep ranges for triceps. Direct, isolation work for triceps should usually be 8 reps or more per set, and can go all the way up to 20 reps per set (and of course higher if metabolite training is the goal).

Notes from Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzd7OUaITzs&index=5&list=PLwnuh_5UZz_QNgmpEc-lH9s3A0qBjooFk 

Direction priority: lateral vs. long heads, spend a couple mesocycles to experiment to see what works best for you, switch up to overload.

2 mesos moderate weight/ sets, 1 metabolite meso super high volume, 1 low volume sets (8) at or near maintenance, and restart.

Metabolite techniques: supersets (isolation and related compound, e.g., skullcrusher to close grip bench, overhead extensions to shoulder presses, pushdown to close grip pushups), drop sets, giant sets.

Rear/ Side Delts:

        Maintenance Volume:

                The rear delts can actually be sustained with no direct work so long as pulling

work for the back is still done. But the side delts need at least about 6 sets per

week of direct work to keep their size in most intermediate or advanced lifters.

        Minimum Effective Volume:

Most intermediate-advanced lifters need at least 8 sets of direct rear and side

delt work per week to make gains. To be more specific, that’s at least 6 sets of each if doing VERY isolation exercises that don’t cross-target between rear and side delts and only 8 sets total if the exercise hits both adequately.

Maximum Adaptive Volume:

Most people respond best to between 16 and 22 weekly sets on average.
Maximum Recoverable Volume:

Most people seem to encounter recovery problems above 26 sets per week. In
        reality, there will be a minority (but a substantial one) that can train with much
        higher volumes than this and still recover.

Exercises:

Rear Delts:

Side Delts:

Frequency:

2-6 times per week.

Just like the biceps, the rear and side delts are so poorly leveraged to be exposed mechanical damage, produce so little force, and are comparatively so small that they can recover from limited volumes in a VERY short time; often as little as a day. Of course, the emphasis here is on limited volumes, so you can’t expect to do 8 sets of side laterals and be recovered to repeat that a day later. However, if you do only 3 side or rear delt sets per day, you can easily recover by the next day if you’re adjusted to that kind of workload. And if you do that every day for 6 days, that’s 18 sets a week and well within most individuals’ MRVs. So IF you do choose the high-frequency approach to rear and side delts, make sure your weekly volume is still within MRV and you should recover fine.

Intensity (Loading):

Both likely because of fiber type and because of safety issues, I’ve found nothing to work worse or be such a poor use of time as heavy shoulder (side and rear delt) training. 8 reps is the lowest I’ll ever go or advise anyone to go, and to be honest, I think most of the action is at 10-12 reps and all the way up to 20 or more per set. And much lighter metabolite work is a godsend for shoulders.

Notes from Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5QixcL5uL4&index=8&list=PLwnuh_5UZz_QNgmpEc-lH9s3A0qBjooFk 

                Great technique, manageable weight, feel it working, full ROM, don’t do grips that
                create shoulder pain.

                Not super big muscles, don’t need to blast with super heavy weights.

                Vary exercises, loading variations, volume/ relative intensity variation, never
                sacrifice ROM for any variation.

                Periodization: Heavy -> Moderate -> Metabolite -> Low Volume

                Metabolite Techniques: Giant Sets, Drop Sets, Super Sets.

Front Delts:

        Maintenance Volume:

                The maintenance volume for front delt work is legitimately no direct work in
                almost all cases where compound pressing is still done for the chest. If you need
                to get to the gym in a rush and only have time for a maintenance session,
                compound pushing is MUCH more worth your time than direct front delt work.

        Minimum Effective Volume:

Most intermediates can make great front delt gains with NO direct front delt work,
        as both horizontal and incline pushing, as well as overhead pressing and triceps
        work is going to be very simulative of the front delts. Even most advanced lifters
        shouldn’t see any losses in front delt size if they completely eliminating direct
        front delt work or even all overhead work, so long as they keep hammering their
        other compound pushing work.
Maximum Adaptive Volume:

Most people respond best to between 6 and 8 weekly sets of direct front delt
        work, which INCLUDES overhead pressing, on average.
Maximum Recoverable Volume:

                The front delts actually take quite a bit of damage from push training and have a
                very limited fatigue threshold when isolated in conjunction with chest training.
                Much past 12 sets of overhead pressing or front delt raises starts to really
                become a recovery issue in the context of other chest training.

Exercises:

Frequency:
                1-2 times per week.

Woah, that’s low. It’s that low for a reason… any more direct front delt work would start to interfere with chest work. And because chest work is also such great front delt work, you usually won’t have to train front delts by themselves more than twice in the same week.

Intensity (Loading):

Front delts usually like things pretty heavy. Presses for more than 12 reps per set seem more like exercises in pain tolerance than front delt stimulators. I’d recommend doing sets of between 6 and 10 reps for presses of various kinds.

Notes from Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K934AW5p8x4&list=PLwnuh_5UZz_QNgmpEc-lH9s3A0qBjooFk&index=5 

OHP is king.

Metabolite techniques: Giant sets.

Full ROM to clavicles, lighter weights full workload by touching chest to avoid shoulder and elbow issues.

No full ROM on behind the head presses.

Probably doesn’t need to be the full focus of any particular program.

Traps:

        Maintenance Volume:

                As long as you’re doing the compound pulling and perhaps heavy deads, you
                don’t need direct trap work to keep your traps the same size. Even most
                advanced lifters shouldn’t see any losses in trap size if completely eliminating
                direct trap work, so long as they keep hammering their other compound pulling
                and shoulder work. If you’re just doing maintenance work cause you’re crunched
                for time and you’re doing shrugs… you could be using your time better!

        Minimum Effective Volume:

Most intermediates can make great trap gains with NO direct trap work, as
        deadlifting, rowing, and side/rear delt training is going to be very simulative of the
        traps.
Maximum Adaptive Volume:

Most people respond best to between 12 and 20 weekly sets on average.
Maximum Recoverable Volume:

The traps have a very high fatigue threshold (which is no surprise because they
        kind of hold your shoulder girdle up all the time!). However, excessive trap
        training will cost you, and in some unusual places, like the distal biceps tendons.
        That’s right, if you do enough shrugging, you are likely to aggravate your biceps
        tendons before even your traps are overworked, it’s not very common but it’s a
        legitimate concern. Much over 26 sets of traps is not highly recommended for
        that reason alone. You can try it, but be careful.

Exercises:

Frequency:

2-6 times per week.

Just like the biceps, the traps are so poorly leveraged to be exposed mechanical damage and are comparatively so small that they can recover from limited volumes in a VERY short time; often as little as a day. They also have a TINY ROM, which means the amount of mechanical work they do (and thus fatigue they accumulate) per any set of moderate reps is going to be quite small. Of course, the emphasis is on limited volumes, so you can’t expect to do 10 sets of shrugs and be recovered to repeat that a day later. However, if you do only 3 direct trap sets per day, you can easily recover by the next day if you’re adjusted to that kind of workload. And if you do that every day for 6 days, that’s 18 sets a week and well within most individuals’ MRVs. So IF you do choose the high-frequency approach to trap training, make sure your weekly volume is still within MRV and you should recover fine.

Intensity (Loading):

Because the traps get their heavy work from their assistance to heavy rows and deadlifts, shrugs, in my view, are best performed for lighter weights and higher reps. I’ll do shrugs anywhere between 10 and 20 reps.

Notes from Video:        

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwKXqFdQ59c&index=9&list=PLwnuh_5UZz_QNgmpEc-lH9s3A0qBjooFk 

Focus on mind-muscle connection while training traps.

Variation available: Range of Motion, Angles of work (regardless of angle, focus on full ROM and full second hold at the top).

Periodization: Heavy -> Metabolite work -> Low Volume/ Off.

Special Metabolite Techniques: Giant sets.

Start with 2x per week, 4 shrugging motions, test with frequencies/ variations/ volume.

Traps/ forearms shouldn’t be a focus of good bodybuilding programs.

Abdominals:

        Maintenance Volume:

                For most, no ab training at all can maintain the abs. Unless you’re very advanced
                and train abs specifically on their own often and hard, just training all of the
                muscles of your body will leave your abs plenty big for physique purposes. In
                fact, you can even gain ab size but not training them directly… check out the
                section on MEV!

        Minimum Effective Volume:

Zero sets per week. Yep. You can pretty much do NO direct ab work and still
        grow abs for a very long time. This is because the heavy loading of your
        compound heavy basics like squats and deadlifts provides a decent ab stimulus.
        But, if you want your abs to really GROW, and not at a snail’s pace, you’ll have to
        work them directly. Before we move onto to more details about how to grow the
        abs purposefully, let’s fist examine in what context this would be needed.

When choosing the needed context for direct ab growth (and conversely, the
        context in which such growth is NOT considered beneficial and is actually best
        avoided), we must remember that we are, with direct work, GROWING the abs.
        That is, your rectus abdominus muscles will actually be getting BIGGER. Which
        means that they pop out more and are more visible at any given bodyfat, but also
        means that they slightly expand the size of your waist, especially when viewed
        from the side.

So if you actually want bigger abs, then direct training for them is a great idea. If
        you already have a very slim waistline, don’t ever plan on getting massive and
        competing in bodybuilding, but just want your abs to “pop out” more, then this
        training is right up your alley! Because let’s face it, some of us get quite lean but
        have such small abs that even VERY low levels of bodyfat leave our abs looking
        unimpressive or even barely there. Some folks might be VERY content with just a
        flat stomach, but if you want your abs to pop, you might consider them for direct
        training.

On the other hand, if you have aspirations to compete in physique sport, and
        especially if you’re either planning on getting very big eventually or you’re female
        and compete in Figure, then direct ab training might even be a net negative, as
        keeping your waist small must be a high priority for you. So before you start
        training your abs, consider your goals and then make an educated decision.
Maximum Adaptive Volume:

Most people respond best to between 16 and 20 weekly sets on average. But
        that’s of course once they’ve built up to those levels with continuous ab training.
        It can take YEARS to actually NEED this much volume to grow your best. If
        you’re just starting ab training, as few as 4 direct sets per week can start each
        meso, with a top off of around 10 sets at the end of accumulation, and then
        working up from there each meso after.
Maximum Recoverable Volume:

Most people seem to encounter serious recovery problems above 25 sets per
        week. But some people can train far in excess of that amount and still be ok. The
        abs often develop a great resistance to fatigue with long term exposure to
        training. One way in which ab MRV becomes apparent is indirect. Sore and weak
        abs from too much training can reduce your stability and thus strength on other
        compound moves like squats and deads, leading to a system-wide MRV
        reduction even if the abs themselves are still growing.

Exercises:

Frequency:

3-5 times per week.

The abs can develop some pretty impressive fatigue resistance, and can also recover very quickly from overloading training. Thus, you can work to up to 5 overloading ab sessions per week over time and recover no problem. For beginners and individuals that are very big and strong, perhaps only 3 ab sessions per week are appropriate.

Intensity (Loading):

The abs grow from the same stimulus as any muscle. They need plenty of training in the 8-20 rep range. Fewer than 8 reps with abs tends to cause pretty rapid technique breakdown, and can also expose one to needless back injury risk, so heavier weight and lower rep ab training is probably best avoided.

Notes from Video:        

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J4ZStmJuWQ&index=10&list=PLwnuh_5UZz_QNgmpEc-lH9s3A0qBjooFk 

Heavy weight requires abdominal activation for most major compound
        movements.

Variations available: Type of exercise/ exercise variation, loading/ intensity, focus
        on full ROM either way.

Periodization: Moderate -> Variation or High Volume -> Lower Volume

Special Metabolite Methods: Drop sets, Super sets.

Focus on mind-muscle connection, full stretch full contraction, full ROM.

Glutes:

        Maintenance Volume:

                In almost every case, just doing squats and other quad work is more than
                enough to maintain glute gains. So that if you’ve really been beating up the
                glutes with direct work for multiple mesocycles and they need a break, don’t be
                afraid to remove all direct glute work for fear of losing gains… so long as you’re
                doing some squatting, your newfound glutes shouldn’t be going anywhere.

        Minimum Effective Volume:

The minimum effective volume for most individuals is actually ZERO sets per
        week. But remember, that’s sets of direct work. What this means is that most
        individuals will get SOME glute growth, even in the long term, from not even
        training glutes directly, but training quads and hams, and thus engaging the
        glutes significantly.  If your desire is to grow your glutes more than their minimum
        potential, you’ve gotta train them more, and just letting them get their stimulus
        indirectly from other leg work is no longer enough.
Maximum Adaptive Volume:

Most people respond best to between 4 and 12 weekly sets on average.
Maximum Recoverable Volume:

                Most people seem to encounter serious recovery problems above 16 sets per
                week. Mind you, this is ON TOP OF a full complement of quad work and
                hamstring work. So that’s 16 sets of perhaps lunges and deadlifts per week on
                top of the same amount of squatting per week and maybe 8 sets of hip hinge
                hamstring work… that adds up!

Exercises:

Frequency:

2-3 times per week.

The glutes are large muscles that can produce lots of force, and they are involved in so many other exercises than just their own direct movements. In fact, they are even involved in isometric tasks in such exercises as barbell rows! If you train your glutes very often, combined with them being hit pretty much all the time indirectly, they will never have a chance to recover and grow to their fullest potential. Thus, direct glute training is not likely to be a 4x a week activity, but is best limited to 2-3 sessions a week. Even one glute session a week works great for bigger and stronger lifters, as their quad, ham, and back work at other times of the week provides meaningful stimulus to the glutes as well. Interestingly, even if the glutes can locally take higher frequencies and even training volumes than this guide gives them credit for, their constantly being fatigued can impair other muscle group training (such as hams and quads), and thus lower your overall results. Even if you want the biggest glutes ever… ease into training them a lot and make sure the rest of your program is balanced to allow for glute training.

Intensity (Loading):

In my experience, glutes LOVE higher intensities. Sets of as low as 6 reps on deadlifts and their variations produce significant glute gains, so don’t be afraid to go pretty heavy on those movements. However, glute bridges and other hip thrusting moves seem to do very little if super heavy weights are used, and are perhaps trained better in the 8-12 rep range. Lunges, as unstable and potentially dangerous as they are, should be trained at even higher rep ranges, perhaps as many as 20 reps (total steps) per set. However, please note that VERY high reps (20 plus) for lunges with very light weights (such as bodyweight for experienced lifters) tend to tax the quads much more than the glutes (in my experience), so don’t get carried away with super light loads if glute hypertrophy is your main goal with lunges.

Notes from Video:        

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEDgE6Wh1U0&list=PLwnuh_5UZz_QNgmpEc-lH9s3A0qBjooFk&index=11 

Variation available: Exercises, loading schemas, ROM variations.

Periodization Methodology: Moderate -> Variation or High Volume -> Lower Volume.
Special Metabolite Methods: Not very helpful for glutes.

Quads:

Maintenance Volume:

About 6 sets a week seems to be the minimum for quads, but that’s for deep

squats. If you start doing leg presses or leg extensions to conserve gains, your

minimum set numbers will need to be higher.

Minimum Effective Volume:

The minimum effective volume for most individuals seems to be about 8 working
        sets a week. Much less than that is unlikely to grow anyone but the most
        untrained. For many individuals, even higher MEVs can be the reality, especially
        if they are slower twitch and come from a background of field sports or
        endurance training.

Maximum Adaptive Volume:

Most people respond best to between 12 and 18 weekly sets on average.

Maximum Recoverable Volume:

Most people seem to encounter serious recovery problems above 20 sets per
        week. Because the quads are so large and training them with best effects often
        requires the use of very homeostatically disruptive exercises like the squat,
        stronger and bigger lifters with more experience often have MRVs of lower than
        20 sets. On the other hand, individuals that have plenty of training experience but
        are on the smaller side and aren’t lifting super heavy weights can have MRVs
        that exceed 20 sets on occasion.

Exercises:

Frequency:
                1.5-3 times per week.

Intensity (Loading):
                Quads tend to grow from a diversity of loading (and thus repetition) ranges. Sets
                as low as 6 reps work great for more explosive, fast-twitch dominant individuals,
                but they are the exception rather than the rule. For most lifters, sets of 8-15 reps 
                are nearly ideal for quads, and sets of as many as 20 reps can be done on
                machines because each rep doesn’t take as long to complete and the back is not
                a limiting factor. Quads generally respond very well to metabolite training, and
                that’s covered an upcoming section in this article.

Notes from Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOulQsTimB8&index=2&list=PLwnuh_5UZz_QNgmpEc-lH9s3A0qBjooFk 

Volume > Intensity regarding hypertrophy. Vary exercises, rep schemes, and weight on the bar to increase efforts involved in muscle size.

Cycle exercises (2-3) between mesocycles for 2-3 mesocycles in a row to vary enough to stimulate maximum gains.

Stick to minimal variations during a specific mesocycle to maintain freshness and potential yield.

Metabolite sets should/ can be used every few mesocycles (supersets, drop sets, giant sets, occlusion) to deload full weight on bar without completely detracting from volume/ work.

Always maintain full ROM on squats, safely.

Ensure that you’re periodizing your load selection for quad training: switch up volumes and loads for periodization.

Hamstrings:

        Maintenance Volume:

                If you’re choosing the heavy variants like good mornings and stiff legged
                deadlifts, most hamstring gains can be conserved well with just 4 hard and heavy
                ham sets per week.

        Minimum Effective Volume:

The minimum effective volume for most individuals seems to be about 6 working
        sets a week. Much less than that is unlikely to grow anyone but the most
        untrained. You’ll notice that this is quite low, but I’ve in fact myself grown on such
        low training volumes for a long time. The hamstrings take on so much disruption
        from the heavy hip hinge movements (such as stiff-legged deadlifts) that even
        low set number can bring lots of stimulus.
Maximum Adaptive Volume:

Most people respond best to between 10 and 16 weekly sets on average.
Maximum Recoverable Volume:

                Most people seem to encounter serious recovery problems above 20 sets per
                week. Now, if your hamstrings don’t get very sore and you’re doing everything
                else right (which is not likely as properly done hip hinge movements get almost
                everyone), maybe you can do more than this, but in the first couple of
                mesocycles of trying to fine-tune your hamstring training, I’d recommend avoiding
                much more than 20 working sets per week.

Exercises:

Frequency:

2-3 times per week.

The hamstrings are large, often more fast-twitch muscles. They can produce lots of force and are anatomically positioned to be exposed to great stretch under heavy loads, which means that especially if you’re doing hip hinge movements, it’s not likely that you’ll be able to overload your hams more than three times a week.

Intensity (Loading):

For hip hinge movements, going heavier works best as you’re literally trying to damage the muscles via loaded stretch. 70-85%1RM is good here. This is especially effective because higher rep ranges with lighter weights tend to fatigue your back before your hams get insufficient work, and then it’s just a back exercise at that point. For curling movements, too much weight can be dangerous and the forces aren’t high enough to do much anyway without that stretch, so lighter loads and higher reps work best (60-75%1RM), or 10-15 reps per set.

Notes from Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twz7KLIypzo&index=6&list=PLwnuh_5UZz_QNgmpEc-lH9s3A0qBjooFk 

                6-10 sets, or about, is probably best. 16 is pretty high. Personal experience and
                circumstances involved is probably the best guide.

                Isolate hamstrings by arching back hard, chest up, shoulders back, like proper
                RDL’s.

                Depth/ ROM before weight.

                Metabolite work: Not super necessary, giant sets if wanted.

                Heavy hip hinge movements, good mornings and stiff legged deadlifts, curls
                should be an additive not the only movement done.

Calves:

        Maintenance Volume:

                While calves can be maintained with just various squats and leg presses,
                intermediate-advanced individuals should aim to hit at least 6 direct calf sets per
                week if they are seeking only to maintain their gains.

        Minimum Effective Volume:

The minimum effective volume for most individuals seems to be about 8 working
        sets a week. Much less than that is unlikely to grow anyone but the most
        untrained.
Maximum Adaptive Volume:

Most people respond best to between 12 and 16 weekly sets on average.
Maximum Recoverable Volume:

                Most people seem to encounter serious recovery problems above 20 sets per
                week. Now, if your calves don’t get very sore and you’re doing everything else
                right, maybe you can do more than this, but in the first couple of mesocycles of
                trying to fine-tune your calf training, I’d recommend avoiding much more than 20
                working sets per week.

Exercises:

Frequency:
                2-4 times per week.

This very much depends on how your calves respond to training. If your calves have a high percentage of fast twitch fibers, they might get considerable sore from training and are best trained about twice a week. However, maybe if your calves don’t get very damaged from each session (maybe because they have a higher proportion of slow twitch fibers), you can train them as many as 4 times a week.

Intensity (Loading):
        In my experience, staying on the low end of the spectrum (60-70%1RM) for
        calves seems to work best for most. But if you’re frustrated with lack of growth in
        this range as your dominant focus, please feel free to go into the 70’s and 80’s of
        1RM. Just make sure to keep full ROM, as it’s VERY easy to cheat yourself on
        calf movements.

Notes from Video:        

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISePfnmknYY&index=12&list=PLwnuh_5UZz_QNgmpEc-lH9s3A0qBjooFk 

Variations: Exercise, Loading schemas, ROM.

Periodization: Moderate -> Variation or High Volume -> Low Volume.

Special Metabolite Methodologies: Short rest periods (30 seconds or less rest), Occlusion.

Full deep ROM, full stretch and full contraction. Likely will need some form of platform or thing to stand on to achieve.

Straight leg, not bent leg, more usually recommended.  

General Notes (not attached to anything specific at the moment):

• He advises adding 1 set per week for every exercise for bodybuilding purposes, and 1 set per "important" (non-accessory) exercise for powerlifting/strength.
• He starts you at your MEV, not MRV. He advises that you finish at MRV (or just before it).
• Alternatively, try to add weight every week.
• Maybe increase weight every odd week, increase every even week, 3rd week drop new set for higher weight, 4th week increase sets not weight.

Overloading Principles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqF8EoDMSGo&t=2s&index=16&list=PLwnuh_5UZz_QNgmpEc-lH9s3A0qBjooFk 

Training hard enough to warrant adaptation, and must get harder over time.

*Training at Maximum Recoverable Volume*

Hypertrophy:

Driven by increased volume (more sets, more reps, more weight)

60-75% of 1RM for sets of 6-12 reps

15-30 sets per week directed at each specific lift/ muscle group that are heavy/
                disruptive

Strength:
                Driven by increased intensity (more weight)

70-85% of 1RM Intermediates/ Advanced lifters

75-90% of 1RM Females/ Beginning lifters

Sets of 3-6 reps

10-20 sets per week directed at each specific lift/ muscle group that are heavy/
                disruptive

        Peaking:

Technical prowess and neural adaptations

85%+ of 1RM Intermediates/ Advanced lifters

90%+ of 1RM Females/ Beginning lifters

Sets of 1-3 reps

5-10 sets per week directed at each specific lift/ muscle group that are heavy/
                Disruptive

Specificity:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7_kCLHOl_0&list=PLwnuh_5UZz_QNgmpEc-lH9s3A0qBjooFk&index=19 

-and-

https://youtu.be/vENxdeS7T1g 

        Specificity is the framework around which all other principles are built. It guides the
        decision making process for all training: exercise selection, total volume, and intensity.

        Training should guide choices, specifically towards the adaptations that are made from
        those choices benefit the athlete specifically.

        Improving technical execution at highest levels possible, as needed per sport.

        General Training (Less Specific) is utilized for: Increasing muscular strength, increasing
        coordination/ skills/ motor qualities. Training that is not sufficient enough to improve the
        performance of the competitive exercise but has an indirect effect on the athlete.

        Specific Training: Supports the athlete’s performance directly. Lift selection, training
        selection, exercise selection.

        Decrease the amount of less specific work approaching a competition (should you be a
        competitor). Increase in specific exercises that have a beneficial directed adaptation to
        your sport form.

Individual Differences:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Yj6sDg-Pec&t=0s&index=14&list=PLwnuh_5UZz_QNgmpEc-lH9s3A0qBjooFk 

Typically overvalued, lower priority in JTS. Specificity, Fatigue Management, Overload all more important, but this principle is still worth noting.

Interpersonal differences: Person to person, largely genetic, lifestyle factors.

Intrapersonal differences: Same person at different times, lifestyle factors, time of year, stress, training age, proximity to career peak.

MRV: e.g., How much training can the athlete effectively recover from. Considerations are basically entirely understanding your circumstances and own abilities. Sports backgrounds, fiber types, also considerations.

Fatigue/ Fitness Decay Times: Bigger/ stronger/ more experienced lifters can induce more fatigue with less negative effect, longer to decay, more muscle holds fitness longer.

Development Status/ Goals: Beginners need more hypertrophy. Which of your muscles are lacking most? Size/ Strength/ Gender/ Proximity to Career Peak are all considerations when designing training. Beginners (hypertrophy phase priority), Intermediates (strength phase priority), Advanced (peaking phase priority).

Exercise Selection: Pyramid of Strength - become more and more specific in training as time goes on, Beginners start simple and broad, become more and more focused as time goes on.

Exercise Technique: Work directed purposefully towards areas specific to lifter that need work for development; find exercises with good carryover to your overall development.

Fatigue Management:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPZtjXYNkm0&index=14&list=PLwnuh_5UZz_QNgmpEc-lH9s3A0qBjooFk 

        Hard training (overload) is necessary to improve fitness but also causes fatigue to
        accumulate and too much fatigue will cause failure to adapt/ recover which will result in
        performance decline.

        1: Normal Training, less than or equal to MRV

        2: Overreaching, planned or unplanned, functional overreaching in peaking is a
        conscious decision to exceed normal MRV (more volume or higher intensity),

        3: Overtraining

        Deloads/ Light Sessions:
        - Every 3-7 weeks

        - 60-70% of overload volume

        - 80-90% of overload intensity

        - ex. Normal Hypertrophy: 5x8@70%, Deload/ Light 5x5@60% or 3x8@60%

        - Not doing anything during deload week is counterproductive.

        Common Mistakes:

        Too much volume close to competition

        Chronically going too heavy is unsustainable

        Avoiding deloads/ light days -or- too frequent/ unearned deloads

        Overuse of passive/ active recovery modalities (sleep, nutrition most important recovery
        modalities): avoid overuse of temperature therapy,

        Use hydration, soft tissue therapy, massage, active relief.

Principle of Phase Potentiation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAjgTcBJXLU&index=16&list=PLwnuh_5UZz_QNgmpEc-lH9s3A0qBjooFk 

A logical sequencing of training phases to promote the best overall long term outcomes.

        Build more muscle -> produce more force -> improved technique

        Priority 6/7. Specificity, overload, fatigue management should come before this.

        Specificity:

        -Directed adaptation: training a single modality at once, with all efforts focuses is
        superior to try to train multiple. Changing too frequently seems to be more like spinning
        wheels rather than directing progress.

        -Training modality/ Compatibility: optimize your training around modalities (don’t go
        marathon training while working on increasing 1RM for benching, etc.)

        -Complement, don’t interfere.

        Sequence:

        - Strategic and logical sequencing of phases in order to complement and support the
        following phases. Know your plan, be specific, think it through as you move through your
        sequencing between mesos and cycles to enhance your growth and development.

        - Build up base of hypertrophy, work on strength to the limit of adaptive resistance, peak
        as high as you can. More size, more strength potential, more strength development
        more peak development, then restart on building base again with new peak numbers.

        Adaptive Decay: 

- Need phases because we can’t train everything at once.

- Build on each other logically.

- If you don’t use it, you lose it (use appropriate training phases to maintain/ develop).

- Strength retains hypertrophic gains.

        Hypertrophy for minimum of 3 weeks - 6 months (extreme end of length, 3-4 months is
        usually good), strength 3 weeks - 6 months (extreme end of length, 3-4 months is
        usually good), peaking 3 weeks - 3 months (extreme end for high end athletes).

Principle of SRA, Stimulus Recovery Adaptation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iV1N4gjGoA&list=PLwnuh_5UZz_QNgmpEc-lH9s3A0qBjooFk&index=17 

Stress -> repair -> ready for next training session.

Small muscles more frequently than large muscles.

The more stimulus given to a muscle, the higher the stress.

Spread out squat and deadlift days, don’t put them back to back.

Low frequency training may lead to diminishing fitness, not enough stimulus unless you’re a very high level lifter.

Focus on fatigue management to maintain speedy SRA.

Deadlift is most stressful, squat inbetween, bench press is okay being trained more frequently.

Principle of Variation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGaiCNbZocE&index=18&list=PLwnuh_5UZz_QNgmpEc-lH9s3A0qBjooFk 

        Manipulation of training variables to prevent injury and staleness to magnify long term
        adaptive response to training.

        Adaptive Resistance:

        The body’s slowing ability to adapt to new stimulus it is presented with.

        - Negative Feedback Loops: The more you eat, the less hungry you are. The more you
        do something, the less effective that something becomes. Variations lose effectivity over
        the amount of time used.

        - Adaptive Response: Dampens with continued exposure to the same stimulus - balance
        with Directed Adaptation.

        1 - Technique, 2 - Hypertrophy, 3 - Neural Strength, 4 - Tissue Integrity

        Creating Variation:

        - Loading Strategy

        - Exercise Selection

        - Tempo/ Velocity

        Under-Application of Variation:

        - Staleness

        - Won’t develop other qualities

        - Weaknesses stay weak

        - Likely injuries

        Overapplication of Variation:

        - Variants with low transfer

        - Non-overloading variants (specificity more important than variation)

        - Phase or goal inappropriate

        - Excessively frequent

        Proper Variation:

        - Properly timed

        - Strategic variations for phases or weaknesses

The Myth of Bro-Splits:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7b5hOWfwdc&index=20&list=PLwnuh_5UZz_QNgmpEc-lH9s3A0qBjooFk 

        Bro-Splits: Training each body part only once per week.

        1 - Studies: Muscle grows 2-3 days after training. Wait a week: miss out on growth
        potentiation.

        2 - Nervous system can take a week to recover, but, A. Don’t train at 100% all the time,
        present overload but don’t completely smash your muscle groups every time, B. Use
        exercise, intensity, volume variation, vary days to ensure growth response but never
        completely destroying yourself.

        3 - Big muscles can take up to 3 days to recover but small muscles, not even close.
        Biceps, rear delts, side/ medial delts all can be trained more often.

        4 - For average/ intermediate lifter: 2-4x/ week muscle group training.

        5 - To expand frequency, split weekly volume, don’t add right away.

Volume and Hypertrophy: What Works Best for Bodybuilding?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBBYOc7M02o&list=PLwnuh_5UZz_QNgmpEc-lH9s3A0qBjooFk&index=21 

MEV vs. MRV for Hypertrophy, landmarks for muscle growth, how much work to do.

Structure of Hypertrophy: Every 1-2 month Mesocycle at MEV, add 1-2 sets for that body part every week, until you hit your MRV for the desired lift. Deload to reduce fatigue. Recycle the whole process but bump up the weights, or choose exercise variants to rework muscle groups.

Every once in a while, for 1-2 months, give body a break from high reps and high volume, go for strength (after 3-5 months of hypertrophy training), maintain muscle, resensitize to high volume. Wait for physiology to reset and get ready for hypertrophy again.

Recovery must occur in order for growth to occur - focus on recovery as important as a factor in your training as you would weightlifting/ exercising.

Finding Your MRV:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH0GzNDWW-E&index=22&list=PLwnuh_5UZz_QNgmpEc-lH9s3A0qBjooFk 

Carefully tracking fatigue (sleep, joint health, performance) is best way to assess MRV
                over time.

Gender:

1. Male:  +/- 0
2. Female: +5

Body Weight:

1. Light (57 kg/ 125 lbs. female, 75 kg/ 165 lbs. male): +4
2. Middle (75 kg/ 165 lbs. women, 100 kg/ 220 lbs. men): +2
3. Heavy (90 kg/ 198 lbs. female, 125 kg/ 275 lbs. male): -2
4. Super Heavy (90+ kg/ 198+ lbs. women, 125+ kg/ 275+ lbs. men): -4

        Height:

1. Short (160 cm/ 62 inch women, 170 cm/ 67 inch men): +2
2. Medium (167 cm/ 65 inch female, 182 cm/ 71 inch male): +1
3. Tall (175 cm/ 69 inch women, 195 cm/ 76 inch men): -1
4. Very Tall (175+cm/ 69+ inch female, 195+ cm/ 76+ inch male): -2

        Strength:

1. Low (Class VI-III): +1
2. Moderate (Class II-I): +/- 0
3. High (Master-Elite): -1
4. Very High (International Elite): -2

(Found here: http://uspa.net/#)

        Experience:

1. Beginner (<4 years): +/- 0
2. Intermediate (4-8 years): +2
3. Advanced (8-12 years): +/- 0
4. Very Advanced (12+ years): -2

        Age:

1. <19 Years Old: +2
2. 20-29 Years Old: +2
3. 30-39 Years Old: +/- 0
4. 40-49 Years Old: -2
5. 50+ Years Old: -4

        Diet:

1. Poor (Not Getting Sufficient Calories): -3
2. Average (Calories Equated but Macros/ Timing Off): +/- 0
3. Good (Calories Equated with Good Macro Balance and Nutrient Timing): +1

        Sleep:

1. Poor (<5 hours/ night): -3
2. Average (5-7 hours/ night): +/- 0
3. Good (7+ hours/ night): +1

        Stress Away From Training:

1. High: -3
2. Medium: +/- 0
3. Low: +1

        Performance Enhancing Drugs:

1. No: +/- 0
2. Yes: +3

        Historical Recovery Ability:

1. Poor: -2
2. Below Average: -1
3. Average: +/- 0
4. Good: +1
5. Exceptional: +2

How to use the above numbers:

For Hypertrophy: Start at 13 sets per week in squat, 17 on bench, and 9 on
                deadlift. Add/ subtract each category, the resulting number should be your
                theoretical MRV.

For Strength: SQ starts at 9, BP at 12, DL at 6.  

For Peaking: SQ starts at 4-5, BP at 6, DL at 3.

Use weights in your overloading range.

MRV Ranges for the Big 3:
Phase                Overloading Sets/ Week        Squat                Bench                Deadlift

Hypertrophy        8-20                                10-16                14-20                6-12

Strength        4-16                                6-12                8-16                4-8

Peaking        2-8                                3-6                4-8                1-5

Programming for Weightlifting: Long Term Planning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z9w6VJnlhQ 

        Process Orientation vs. Goal Orientation

        Process Orientation: Focus on smallest, simplest aspects that we can influence and get
                better at.

        Goal Orientation: Working towards specific numbers.

        Long term planning - a way to lay groundwork for how we look at training.

        Developmental Period and High Sport Mastery Stage are the primary growth stages

        Developmental Period: Characterized by a steady growth of total volume year after year
                up to a point at which it plateaus. Generally this is about 5-6 years.

1. Build the athlete’s foundation of GPP and basic fitness qualities
2. Develop and solidify technique
3. Maximize lifter’s muscle mass/ weight class
4. Develop positive relationship with training and competition

        Growth of volume should occur in an organic way via the pattern of:

1. Volume added to individual workouts within a week
2. Number of Workouts per week increased

High Sport Mastery Stage: Characterized by a reduction of total volume in exchange for
                a steady growth of average weight lifted. “Competitive Stage.”

1. Maximize performance in competition
2. Maximize physical qualities of the lifter
3. Development of competitive mindset

        Growth of volume should occur in an organic way via the pattern of:

1. Decrease in number of low intensity lifts
2. Reduction of GPP as a percentage of training
3. The natural reduction of weaknesses increases the average weight used during specific exercises, early growth of general strength qualities also facilitates this (more qualified lifter will have high squat numbers on an absolute).

        Summary: Long term planning should be focused on the complete picture of an athlete’s
                career, from beginning to end. Career landmarks and qualitative indicators
                should guide the process more than competitive results.

Jeff Nippard Notes

Much of the research guiding Jeff Nippard’s work are analysis/ meta-analysis driven by Dr. Brad Schoenfeld as well as Dr. Mike Israetel (among other notable scientific researchers), both of whom have specific research noted below with links to videos/ papers. That being said, his videos are still super well made and very informative.

Training Volume:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwv3JqOUqWs 

        10-20 sets per bodypart per week, leaning towards 20 sets per week.

30 sets per week for maximum hypertrophy.

Possible maintenance volume of 20 sets per week.

Fat loss- Caloric deficit, high protein diet, train with weights.

                Tips:

1. Rotate carbs and fats at each meal (Meal 1 pro/ carbs min. Fat, meal 2 pro/ fat

min. carbs)

2. Increase periods of fasting in-between meals or lengthen time before breakfast

3. Reduce or eliminate liquid calories entirely

4. Eat out less often (avoid restaurants)

Supplementation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR5jW9iNNiw&t=42s 
        

Whey + Milk - 0.7-1g/lb

Caffeine - 3-7 days off caffeine every 1-2 months

L-theanine - 4mg/kg per day

Citruline - 1 hour before training 4-10g

One Multivitamin per day

Creatine - After training 3-5g

How to Prevent Muscle Loss When Dieting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOh2R-89qqg&feature=youtu.be 
        

“Whether you gain or lose muscle is dictated by the balance between muscle protein
                synthesis and muscle protein breakdown.”

What causes muscle loss on a diet?

1. Suppressed rates of Muscle Protein Synthesis.
2. Greater rates Muscle Protein Breakdown.
3. Using protein as fuel.
4. Losing strength.

How to avoid losing muscle during dieting:

1. Maintain your strength by continuing to lift heavy.

1. Use diet and cardio to establish a caloric deficit rather than bumping up the reps in training
2. “Your training requirements don’t change, your ability to recover changes.” - Dr. Eric Helms
3. “Try to maintain the weight you can do for 6 to 12 reps on as many movements as possible for as long as possible.”
4. Reduce volume before load, eventually (months of dieting) you may need to reduce both to accommodate recovery.

2. Diet more slowly.

1. Nip’s Recommendation: Lose between 0.5 (when leaner) to 1.5% (when fatter) of bodyweight per week.

3. Increase protein intake.

1. ~1 gram per pound of bodyweight.

4. Avoid excessive cardio.

1. “It is recommended that bodybuilders perform the lowest number and duration of cardiovascular sessions possible (while still meeting their need to maximally reduce subcutaneous body fat) to reduce interference with strength training.” - Dr. Eric Helms
2. Nip’s Recommendation: No more than 1-2 HITT sessions per week and a maximum of 4-5 LISS sessions (only as needed for the deficit).

How to Build Muscle and Lose Fat at the Same Time: Step-by-Step Explained (Body Recomposition)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4K0s792wAU 

Massive calorie surpluses not shown to cause massive lean body mass (muscle)
                increases - mostly just massive fat mass increases.

        People that will be best at body recomposition:

1. New Lifters: Most primed for muscle growth you’ll ever be.
2. Overweight/ Obese: Very large energy reserves stored in bodyfat.
3. Detrainees: People who got jacked before but stopped training due to injury, etc.
4. Anabolic Steroid Users: Can build large amounts of muscle mass very quickly.
5. Sub-optimized Trainee: People who haven’t been going as hard in the gym as would be required of optimal body development - not dialed in on diet or training.

        People who body recomposition likely wouldn’t work best for:

1. Truly Advanced Trainees: Trainings with everything already optimized (near/ at genetic ceiling) - pretty obscure population compared to above 5 categories.

        How to Achieve Body Recomposition:

1. Progressive Training Stimuli (he gives a great analogy of a high performance car here. Doesn’t matter how good the fuel is, if you’re putting it into a low performance engine - in this case, eating good food but not optimally training - it’s not going to do much. Compares sleep to oil changes and stress management to tire rotations.): Focus on progressive overload, appropriate effort, and proper technique. Training volume: ~10-20 sets per week per bodypart is a good ballpark range for most lifters.
2. Decide on a Primary Goal: Are you currently lean (8-12% bodyfat for males, 18-22% bodyfat for females)? Then your primary goal should probably be to build muscle. Not so lean (15-20% male, 25-30% female)? Then your primary goal should probably be to lose fat.
3. Center Your Caloric Intake Around Maintenance: Build muscle -> slight caloric surplus, maintenance + around 5-25% (if you’re leaner, less advanced, or genetically gifted, you can do 25%). Lose fat -> slight caloric deficit, maintenance - around 10-20% (the more you have to lose, the bigger the deficit should be).

1. Detrained: Start at maintenance (or surplus/ deficit depending on your primary goal).
2. Highly Advanced: Hover above/ below maintenance while fine-tuning your training and nutritional optimization is occuring.
3. “Skinny Fat;”

1. Phase 1: 0-20% Deficit
2. Phase 2: ~ Maintenance
3. Phase 3: Optional 10-25% Surplus

4. Set Up Your Macronutrient Targets: Start with protein.

1. High Bodyfat % (Not Lean): 1.2 g/ lb of Lean Body Mass
2. Low Bodyfat % (Lean): 1.6 g/ lb of LBM
3. Then, Fat: Minimum of 20% of calories
4. Then, Carbs: Fill in the rest of the calories

5. Pay Attention to the Details:

1. Sleep more: If you sleep more, you’re more likely to lose fat as opposed to lean mass.
2. Peri-workout Nutrition
3. Supplements:

1. Most Suggested: Protein Powder, Creatine, Caffeine
2. Tier 2: Multivitamins, Fish Oil
3. Tier 3: Green Tea (EGCG), Ashwagandha, L-Citrulline
4. Tier 4: Yohimbine HCI

The Science Behind My (Very) High Protein Intake

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g82MXEJC3NI 

A response video to the comments from the Body Recomposition video (notes prior to
                this section.)

        Protein Intake From Lean Body Mass (LBM):

1. Subtract Fat Mass First

1. 165 x 10% fat = ~16.5 lbs fat
2. 165 - 16.5 lbs fat = 148.5 lbs lean

2. Then, multiply by 1.2 - 1.6 depending on bodyfat %

1. 148.5 lbs LBM x 1.5 = 222.8 g/ protein per day, round up to 225

        Two Common Arguments:

1. “High Protein is not safe!” “Bad for kidneys and bones.” Unless your kidneys already suck, high protein intake will not impair your kidney function or bone health.
2. “The science recommends shows a much lower intake to be plenty.” “0.72 grams per pound.” The “1 Gram Per Pound” Rule is likely better and more useful, it’s easy to remember, is simple math, and probably overestimates for most people. Probably still too reductionist - extremely heavy people may be overconsuming protein at that point.

        Problems With Ultra-High Protein (In a Caloric Deficit):

1. Carbs/ Fats get displaced by increasing protein demands
2. Very Low Fat = Hormonal suppression
3. Very Low Carbs = Training performance drops!
4. In a caloric deficit, you need enough protein to spare muscle, but not so much that carbs or fats are displaced.

        Why Very High Protein Might Be Better for Recomposition:

1. Calories not limited (at ~ maintenance)

1. Carbs/ fats not displaced (much)

2. Antonio, et al., 2015 showed recomposition with protein overfeeding

1. “Protein overfeeding = fat gain unlikely”

3. Prep coaches notice less fat gain in off-season
4. Better for fat loss/ minimizing fat gain

1. Better satiety
2. Higher thermic effect

Why You Should Stretch Between Every Set From Now On (Updated Opinion)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuBhECs587w 

Same program tested against stretches or no inter-set stretches.

Results may indicate stretching between sets could help improve size.

Intensity of stretch shouldn’t be painful.

Don’t stretch for too long (30 seconds, less than a minute).

Stretch the agonist muscle for the first 3-4 heavy sets of the day.

Supercompensation: Advanced Training for Max Muscle Gain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxr2EAaTxps 

Recovery arc dips during initial phase of work adaptation due to over work  
                (overreaching into recovery), comes back to baseline after a given amount of
                time, eventually overshoots adaptation line (supercompensation).

        Progress and recovery is different for beginnings and advanced lifters.

        Beginners theoretically should have essentially linear progression.

        Intermediate has occasional slight phases of overreaching, but essentially still linear.

        Advanced lifters may need to extend phases of overreaching in order to get into a
                deload that ultimately leads to supercompensation.

Typical outline of schedule: Overload, overload, overreach**, recovery,
                supercompensation, (competition).  

Muscle fiber may decrease initially, increase after training blocks (delayed hypertrophic
                supercompensation).

Overall suggestion may be that if you’re not seeing gains from hard hard workouts you

could likely do some deload work and hypertrophy might catch up with you.

Advanced Training Techniques: Supersets, Eccentrics, Dropsets, High Volume. Featuring Dr. Brad Schoenfeld

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri0v5-osLCQ

Majority of results can reasonably be achieved by doing the old standbys of eating
                right, sleeping well, working out hard, and resting, but you’re not likely
                maximizing your results via the implementation of science.

        Drop sets can be used to add a lot of volume in a time efficient manner with no
                detriment.

        Accentuated eccentrics have shown a lot of promise - good effects on hypertrophy.
                Example: Leg lift, lift with both legs lower weight with a single leg.

        Think selectively, use cost-benefit analysis to determine your use of these methods.

        Dr. Schoenfeld argues that technique is important, but you can still get good results with
                shitty technique. Technique isn’t binary (good vs. bad), but instead has shades of
                evidential usefulness. Momentum, ROM, opposition of gravity, all factor into how
                much your technique maximizes your genetic potential.

Soreness can be indicative of a novel stimulus, may mean muscle has been worked in a
                way that it’s not used to, likely a good thing if you’re varying your movements
                consistently.

Change your exercises around, occasionally, to involve novel musculature as you
                progress through each lift but also to reinforce the gains for the others.

Dr. Schoenfeld suggests undulating periodization with overreaching phases, overall
                general volume guideline 10-20 sets per muscle per week. Individual responses
                should guide your overall training schema, but 10 is a solid minimum benchmark.

 Count the work that you’re doing that stimulates a muscle group (hamstrings = squats,
        glutes = squats, quads = squats, etc.) for lifts that hit muscle groups.

High volumes for long periods of time is detrimental. 4 weeks is a good short term
        approach to structure your training around high volume, can help optimize your
        growth.

        Doing too many sets for a single muscle group in a single session is likely going to
                cause over-fatigue/ under-recovery.

What’s Really Making Us Fat? Carbs? Sugar? (Joe Rogan Response) ft. Stephan Guyenet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t30tPISf5cw

0:00 - Intro and topics summary

1:44 - Joe Rogan's podcast has a negative bias toward carbs

3:54 - Cliffs notes summary of Gary Taubes and Stephan's positions

        Gary Taubes Cliffs notes: “Good calories” and “Bad calories”, “Bad” calories are
                        sugar/ carbs that are making us fat. Calories overall don’t matter nearly
                        as much as your sources of those calories. Thinking about calories as a
                        mechanism for body weight maintenance is irrelevant.

        Stephan Guyenet’s Cliffs notes: Our brains can’t handle modern food
                        environment, delicious high calorie foods causing us to get fat - carbs
                        play a part but are not the primary driver. Body fat is not caused
                        specifically by passive differences in calorie intake. Regulatory changes in
                        biological pathways that regulate body fatness take place, you’re not just
                        a lean person who eats too many calories. Not just a passive process.

7:25 - Is Gary's or Stephan's model the "mainstream" scientific model of weight gain?

        Consensus is unlikely, but SG’s model on body fat/ brain processes regulating
                        body composition is heavily agreed upon by a large portion of the
                        scientific community.

12:20 - Is the calories in/calories out (CICO) model of weight gain correct?

        Typical CICO definition, essentially energy balance in your internal system. Gary
                        Taubes likely supports CICO but sees expenditure being an independent
                        process from intake of calories. GT likely only believes that calories eaten
                        is the primary variable that makes you gain weight.

        SG - doesn’t think “eat less, move more” is the best solution for many people
                        regarding their calories consumption. For the average person, you’re not
                        engaging at a large intensity like weightlifters (people just want to eat, be
                        full, and not gain tons of fat - our ancestors had regulatory systems in
                        their body and in their environment to maintain normal body fat levels).
                        SG prefers food environment, diet, lifestyle that allows people’s brains to
                        naturally regulate their calorie intake and body fat to meet their goals.

17:02 - Is tracking calories or "eating less and moving more" the best way to implement
                weight loss?

        SG - Calories matter, but figuring out your energy balance and regulating it via
                        food environment/ diet/ lifestyle is more important to guide your caloric
                        intake. Low carb diets succeed because of their simplicity, autoregulates
                        your energy balance because you’re paying attention to your energy
                        balance specifically. Other good tools, SG doesn’t want to restrict a macro
                        unless he has to. People who eat lots of everything make it hardest to cut
                        down energy balance, though, as something needs to be restricted likely.

23:22 - What does the science say about calories in/calories out?        

        Accurate answers to why are people overweight is a complicated prospect -
                        people tend to not track or think accurately. Expenditure and loss
                        especially difficult to accurately track without specific equipment.

        “As body fat increases, calorie intake also goes up.”

        Carbs vs. fat when overfeeding show same amount of fat gain when accounting
                        for all other variables - calories trump carbohydrates and fat. Not
                        everybody will gain the same amount of fat for the same amount of extra
                        calories eaten. Some people with high metabolisms will just burn off most
                        of the excess calories, others will just store every extra calorie.

28:54 - "Is a calorie a calorie?" discussion

        Overfeeding in fat vs. overfeeding in carbs: a calorie is a calorie - for all practical
                        purposes they are the same. Macronutrients matter, definitely, but the
                        mechanism by which it matters is that they govern your overall calorie
                        intake.

        Thermic effect of protein: Not a massive impact on your overall weight. Nippard
                        thinks that the satiety effect of protein is good for its impact on your
                        calorie intake.

        Low carb vs. low fat diet, eat to satiety with whole unrefined foods experiment -
                        both groups lost approximately the same amount of fat/ weight on
                        average. Some people lost tons of weight, some people gained weight.
                        Different people respond differently to different diets, anecdotally. No
                        single diet, it seems, is best because everyone responds in a different
                        way regardless due to biologically.

38:22 - Why do some people gain fat more easily than others?

        Genetics plays a part in diet efficacy. Regulatory systems make it difficult to gain
                        or lose weight really quickly - bodies prefer a steady weight. Like a
                        thermostat - when it’s cold, it kicks on to get back to 70, when it’s hot out
                        it will kick on to get back down to 70. Body fatness is similar, hunger goes
                        up as you lose weight, satiety goes down, food cue preferences go up,
                        metabolic rate goes down. Compensatory response against gaining
                        weight is similar, as well.

        Not a lot of indication prior to the diet as to response, beyond prior level of
                        physical fitness (correlation to burning off excess calories when you
                        consume them).

45:27 - Is there anything "different" about the brains of obese people?

        Brain function and regulation processes have a big contribution, likely, to obesity.
                        Higher appetite, food desirability, executive control (saying no to food),
                        low metabolism, higher body fat set point (or negative lifestyle having a
                        bigger impact on that set point) can all have attributed blame to genetics.  

47:06 - What is the role of sugar in driving fat gain, obesity and diabetes?

        Sugar probably isn’t the villain. Recent focus on sugar is good, people are eating
                        less sugar, but sugar is just one factor that plays into body fatness.

        Sugar does have negative impacts that are independent of its caloric cost -
                        typically these symptoms arise at higher levels of intake. Teaspoons of
                        sugar in your coffee isn’t going to be the biggest deal, but high sugar
                        foods taste great and make them easier to eat, more seductive, more
                        likely for you to consume 100’s of calories without thinking about it.

        Physical activity has a huge effect on insulin sensitivity, you should be getting
                        physical activity most days. Exercise can reduce risk of diabetes by
                        45-75%.

        “Sugar is A factor among other factors” but is not likely to be the primary cause of
                        obesity.

58:53 - Is sugar addictive?

        Strictly speaking around the definition of addiction food is difficult to define as
                        addictive, but people can and do have addiction like behavior around
                        certain foods including highly processed sugary foods. More like “strong
                        cravings.”

        Highest “addictive” foods: combinations of carbs and fat, ice cream, chocolate,
                        french fries, pizza, popcorn. Commonality isn’t sugar, but highly dopamine
                        driven stuff, via ingredients like glutamate and salt and fat and carbs.

1:03:39 - What are the practical takeaways for avoiding obesity or losing weight?

        Don’t beat yourself up. So much of the above mentioned are unconscious brain
                        functions that aren’t playing well with the modern food environment and
                        lifestyle.

        Control your food environment. The brain is reactive to what is in your
                        environment, so avoiding those cues that spike your dopamine is key -
                        don’t keep visible ultra-high calorie treats out on the counter.

        Eat more simple, whole foods. Avoid flour foods, added sugars, added fats. Get
                        carbs and fats from whole foods that you make with single ingredients like
                        our ancestors would’ve eaten which will increase satiety.

        Increase protein intake. Supports muscle mass/ gain, increased satiety.

        Get regular exercise. Maintain a regular sleep schedule. Regulate stress.

        Reduce carbs or fats if those other methods haven’t or aren’t working for you.

Jeff’s Muscle Group Specific Training Recommendations

Back Training: 2-3 Times Per Week, No More than 25 Sets Per Week

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12xHxUnBEiI 

Preactivation for mind muscle connection with lat pull-in, 2-3 sets.

        Vertical Pulls:
                Pull Up:

Lat Pull Downs: Close Neutral Grip and 1.5 Shoulder Width Grip
Horizontal Pulls:
        Chest Supported T-Bar Row:
        One-Arm Dumbbell Row:
        Bent Over Barbell Row:

Rope Face Pull:

Barbell Shrugs:

Rack Pull/ Block Pull:

Inverted Barbell Row

Full ROM Lateral Raises

Chest Supported Incline Shrug

Abdominals:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xdOuqokcm4 

Weighted 6-12 reps | Unweighted 15-30 reps, combine both for best results
        Training: 3-6 sessions per week | 2 exercises per session | 3-4 sets per exercise
        Recommends: one crunch type movement | one leg raise type movement

Hanging Leg Raises

Lying Leg Raises

V-Ups

Reverse Crunches

Cable Wood Chops

Side Bends
Long Lever Planks (elbows in front of eyes, posterior tilt =squeeze glutes)

Ab Slide*

Double Leg Thrust

Bicycle Crunch
Partner Assisted Decline Ball Crunch Throw**

Partner Assisted Lying Leg Raises**

Hamstrings: Roughly equal to Quads in Reps/ Sets,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a_fVS2s4Ho&t=514s 

High and low reps, focus on mind muscle connection, controlled movement, good stretch
        and contraction.

        Straight Leg Deadlift

        Back Extension

        Reverse Hyper

        Lying Leg Curl

        Sitting Leg Curl

        Gliding Leg Curl

        Glute Ham Raise

Quads: Roughly equal to Hamstrings in Reps/ Sets

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMnp7y6_sMA&t=369s 

Variety of high reps and low reps should be used

12-18 weekly sets, no more than 20, max 3 times per week frequency

4-8 reps heavy and 8-20 reps light

        Squat

        Front Squat

        Lunges

        Step Ups

        Leg Extension

        Deadlift

Calves:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21inrjhoFkQ 

Higher reps overall needed for soleus work

Implement a variety of rep ranges

1-2 times per week, full ROM, 6-8 rep range may work, perfect form

70 reps per session, 3 times per week may also work

        Seated Calf Raises

        Standing Calf Raises

        Donkey Calf Raises

        Calf Jumps

        Single Leg Calf Raise

Forearms:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xHrOLzTLYI 

2-3 exercises with 2-3 sets per exercise after the end of a regular upper body workout,
                2-3 times per week.

Use of Fat Grips so long as it’s not on heavy weight lifts

        Reverse Grip Curls (partial reps at the top)

        Hammer Curls

        Dumbbell Wrist Curl

        Bench-Braced Dumbbell Extension

        Standing Wrist Extension

        Plate Pinch

        Farmer’s Walks

        Heavy Barbell Holds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfMxT_jXcPE

Technique Tuesday (5 Best Exercises)

        Reverse Grip Curl (semi-pronated, thumbless grip, can use slight extension or slight
                flexion) - can use top-half ROM partial reps after regular full set.

        Wrist Roller

        Barbell Towel Hold (set up in squat rack above knee height, wrap two towels and use
                those to pull up weight, start at 30 second hold and work up to 45 seconds, then
                increase weight)

        Plate Pinch (two side-by-side plates, pinch them up off the ground, work slowly up in
                weight)

        Wrist Curl (curl or extension off of a bench, 15-20 reps)

Glutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgekALiC8Ik 

3-4x per week, 3-10 reps,

Switch exercises up every 3-4 months
        Glute Medius

Split Squats

Single Leg Hip Thrusts

Walking Lunges
Glute Maximus
        Hip Thrusts

Squat (3-6 reps for >70% 1RM, 5-10 reps for >70% 1RM)

Neck/ Traps, Specific:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7MCjaJ02eQ 

10-15 rep range, 2-3 times per week, lower volume, 40-70 reps per session for neck

Heavy deadlifts only 1x per week

Traps 2-3 times per week, 6-10 sets per week trap isolation work

Neck

                Plate Loaded Extensions

                Partner Assisted Extensions

                Plate Loaded Neck Curls

                Partner Assisted Neck Curls

Traps        

Rack Pulls

Deadlifts double overhand

Shrugs (barbell and dumbell)

Overhead Dumbbell Shrug

Monkey Shrug

Upright Row

Face Pulls

Seated Row

Shoulders:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyTAraGimfE&t=545s 

Mixture of high rep and low rep exercises.

More incline = more delt involvement.

Front Delts
                Press

Dumbbell Shoulder Press (standing or seated)

Lateral Delts (8-11 weekly sets)

Dumbbell Lateral Raise

Cable Lateral Raise

Reverse Pec Deck

Rear Delt (8-11 weekly sets)
        Upright Row

        Seated Row

        Incline Lat Pulldown

        Reverse Flyes

        Reverse Cable Crossovers

        Rows*

Rear Delts Specific

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfc70k40318

Isolation movements show best EMG data over compounds.

        Face Pulls, low-to-high with light weight (15-20 reps)

                High-to-low with moderate weight (12-15 reps)

        Reverse Pec Deck, neutral grip/ pronated grip,

        Dumbbell Reverse Fly, pronated palms down

        Go light, focus attention on ROM and mind-muscle connection.

Arms (Overall):
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4YNi4nRboU&t=339s 

Compounds typically beat isolation work for overall strength, but for biceps you will need
                isolation work

8 sets minimum, 14-20 sets optimum, 2x per week, for both triceps and biceps

Play with grips to evenly involve

        Bicep**

Chin Up

                Pull Up

                Inverted Barbell Row

                Curling Movements: Find one main movement best suited for you

                Barbell Curls (4-8 reps for heavy, 8-20 for lighter hypertophy sets)

                Dumbbell Curls (4-8 reps for heavy, 8-20 for lighter hypertophy sets)

                EZ Bar Curls (4-8 reps for heavy, 8-20 for lighter hypertophy sets)

                Preacher Curl (should be combined with other curls in same day/ program)

                Cable Curl, facing away from cable machine

                Incline Dumbbell Curl

Tricep**

Bench Press (4-8 reps for heavy, 8-20 for lighter hypertophy sets), flat bench

Tricep Pressdowns

Overhead Tricep Extension

Medicine Ball Pushups

Skullcrusher (4-8 reps for heavy, 8-20 for lighter hypertophy sets),

Tricep Kickback

Chest (Overall):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtV1FIPyTEw&t=445s 

At least two times per week, 20 sets per week

        Bench Press

        Incline Dumbbell Press (45*)

        Incline Dumbbell Press (45*)

Seated Upright Cable Flyes

Flat Dumbbell Isometrics (end of session only)

Upper Chest:

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iWjdKWNpNg&t=4s

        Chest Prioritization Principles:

1. Hit chest earlier in the workout: Better performance, more overload
2. Tally up the current sets per week that you’re doing. Most people respond best between 12-20 weekly sets on average. Add 1-2 sets per week, but stay in the 12-20 zone.
3. Hit chest more frequently! Aim for twice per week.

4 Steps to a Bigger Upper Chest:

1. Modify your bench press technique: A stronger bench press will have strength carry over to all of the upper chest focused exercises.

1. Modification #1 - Use lighter weights for higher reps. (Flat bench for approximately 10-15 RM loads)
2. Modification #2 - Use a closer grip.

2. Use this incline: Add more incline presses. Dumbbell incline press seems to be superior on incline bench press. 44-56 degree incline may be best for most people.
3. Unconventional moves: Incorporate more non-traditional exercises to mix up the growth on the heads of your pec muscles. Try reverse grip bench press.
4. Isolation volume: Fill in any extra or missing volume with isolation work. Low-to-high cable flyes - dumbbell flyes have an inconsistent tension pattern.

        Sample Workout Based on Upper-Chest Focus:

        Monday:

1. Bench Press 3x10-12 @ RPE8
2. Low-to-High Cable Flyes 3x15-20 @ RPE9

        Thursday:

1. Reverse Grip Bench Press 2x10-12 @ RPE7 (optional/ if you need more volume)
2. Incline Dumbbell Press 3x8-10 @ RPE8
3. JC Band Press or Banded Push Ups 3x20 RPE9-10

Jeff’s PPL/ UL Workout Outlines:

Leg Day 1:
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4Vv2ASsyhs&t=329s 

Squat - 3 Sets x 4-6 Reps
        RDL - 3 Sets x 8 Reps (Increase Reps each Week)
        Optional: Walking Lunges - 2-3 Sets x 20 Strides
        Single Leg Extensions - 3 Sets x 10 Reps
        Single Leg Lying Leg Curl - 3 Sets x 8+4 Reps
        Single Leg Press Calf Raise - 3 Sets x 10-12 Reps
        Seated Calf Raise - 3 Sets x 20 Reps

Pull Day:
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCQI1EUE7bo 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B-5irFdB3c 

1-Arm Lat Pull-In - 2 Sets x 15-20 Reps
        Pull-Up - 3 Sets x 6-8 Reps
        Meadows Row - 3 Sets x 10-12 Reps (Trap or Lat)
        Omni-Grip Lat Pulldown - 3 Sets x 12-15 Reps (Wide, Medium, Reverse Grip)
        In Order:
                - A: Rope Facepull - 2 Sets x 15-20 Reps
                - B: Reverse Pec - Dec 2 Sets x 15-20 Reps
                - C: Band Pull Aparts - 2 Sets x 15-20 Reps

EZ-Bar Bicep Curl (Or Straight Barbell Curl) - 3 Sets x 6-8 Reps
        Incline Dumbbell Curl - 2 Sets x 15-20 Reps (optional)
        Rack Pull - 3 Sets x 6-8 Reps

Push Day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwHoNk-sjgs&t=271s 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCQI1EUE7bo 

Heavy Wide Grip Bench Press - 4 sets x 4-6 reps
                      Straight sets* (same weight) x RPE 7-8
        Incline Cable Flye - 3 sets x 12-15 reps (upper pec isolation*)
        Standing Dumbbell Press - 4 sets x 10-12 reps
        Egyptian Lateral Raise - 4 sets x 12-15 reps
        Tricep Press Down - 4 sets x 12-15 reps
                      One arm overhead tricep extension - 3 sets x 12-15 reps
        Static Dumbbell Holds - 2 sets c 60 sec hold
        Rope Facepull - 3 sets x 20 reps

Leg Day 2*:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sXVbOBFPig 

Warm Up
        -5-10 Low Intensity Cardio (Eliptical)
        -2-3 Dynamic Stretching
        -2-3 minutes of foam rolling (hip and mid-lower back

Working Sets
        Deadlifts - 4 sets x 4 reps (75% of 1 rep max)
        Deficit Bulgarian Split Squat - 3 sets x 10-12 reps
        Hip Thrusts - 3 sets x 12-15 reps
        3-Second Eccentric Goblet Squat - 3 sets x 15 reps
        Enhanced-Eccentric Lying Curl - 3 sets x 10 reps
        Machine-Seated Hip Adduction - 3 sets x 30 reps
        Standing Calf Raise - 3 sets x 10 reps

*Quads: 14 Weekly Sets

*Hamstrings: 13 Weekly Sets

*Glutes: 18 Weekly Sets

*Calves: 9 Weekly Sets, as high as 12-15 Weekly Sets

Leg Day 3* -  Updated 2019 Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kLBi8tF6Kk

5 minute general warm up: Break a light sweat

                Stairmaster or steep incline treadmill

        3-4 minutes of foam rolling and dynamic stretching

        Exercise 1:

                Back Squat (Standard barbell squat, high bar goes to at or below parallel)

                        Week 1: 3 Sets x 4 reps

                        Week 2: 3 Sets x 5 reps

                        Week 3: 3 Sets x 6 reps

                        Week 4: 3 Sets x 4 reps + more weight that you had on week 1

        Exercise 2:

                Eccentric Accentuated RDL (4 second eccentric negative)

                        3 Sets x 10 reps

        Exercise 3:

                Walking Lunge Dropset (drops 50% halfway after 8 reps with each leg)

                        3 Sets x 8/8 reps (16 reps with each leg)

        Exercise 4:

                Single Leg Eccentric Leg Extension (Do concentric reps with both legs, and
                        eccentric reps with one leg only)

                        3 Sets x 10 reps

        Exercise 5:

                Lying Leg Curl (Do 8 reps with a 3-second negative first, then 12 reps with
                        constant tension in the mid-range)

                        A1: Slow eccentric: 2 Sets x 8 reps

                        A2: Constant tension: 2 Sets x 12 reps

        Exercise 6-7:

                6: Straight Leg Calf Raise

                        3 Sets x 15 reps

                7: Cable Crunch

                        3 Sets x 15 reps

Full Upper Body Workout (Science Applied series):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IQVNjWH60A

5 minute general warm-up: Break a light sweat

                Stairmaster or steep incline treadmill

        3-4 minutes dynamic stretching and foam rolling

        Exercise 1:

                Barbell Overhead Press (keep RPE relatively high on OHP)

Week 1: 2 Sets x 4 reps

                        Week 2: 3 Sets x 4 reps

                        Week 3: 4 Sets x 4 reps

                        Week 4: 2 Sets x 4 reps + more weight that you had on week 1

        Exercise 2:

                Wide Grip Pull Up (maintain a consistent tempo on all reps)

                        3 Sets x 6 reps

        Exercise 3:

                Close Grip Bench Press (a close grip targets the clavicular/ upper head more)

                        Week 1: 2 Sets x 10 reps

                        Week 2: 2 Sets x 11 reps

                        Week 3: 2 Sets x 12 reps

                        Week 4: 2 Sets x 10 reps + more weight that you had on week 1

        Exercise 4-5: Super Set

                A1: Wide Grip Seated Cable Row

                        3 Sets x 12 reps

                A2: Incline Dumbbell Lateral Raise

                        3 Sets x 15 reps

        Exercise 6-7:

                A1: Cable Crossover

                        2 Sets x 10 (low) + 10 (mid) reps

                A2: Rope Facepull

                        2 Sets x 20 reps

        Exercise 8:

                Supinated Dumbbell Curl

                        3 Sets x 12 reps

Chest and Back Full Upper Body Workout (Science Applied series):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qFp5khuoFA

5 minute general warm-up: Break a light sweat

                Stairmaster or steep incline treadmill

        3-4 minutes dynamic stretching and foam rolling

        Exercise 1:

                Barbell Bench Press (explosive power to move the weight up at max speed,
                        lower weight under control. Fast and slow speeds are equally effective
                        when training to failure.)

                        Week 1: 3 Sets x 6 reps

                        Week 2: 3 Sets x 7 reps

                        Week 3: 3 Sets x 8 reps

                        Week 4: 3 Sets x 6 reps + weight

        Exercise 2:

                Weighted Wide Grip Pull Up (maintain a consistent tempo on all reps)

                        3 Sets x 8 reps (2 forced negatives on each set, reps 9 and 10)

        Exercise 3:

                Barbell Floor Press (start light, progressively overload as time goes by)                

2 Sets x 8-10 reps

        Exercise 4:

                Unilateral Cable Row (start with weaker side, use same weight)

                        3 Sets x 12 reps

        Exercise 5:

                Arnold Press

                        2 Sets x 12 reps

        Exercise 6:

                Reverse Pec Deck (start slouched forward to isolate your rear delts, then
                        straighten back out and retract shoulder blades - should be approaching
                        near failure in your first “set” of 10 before straightening out for 2nd “set”)

                        2 Sets x 10/10 reps

        Exercise 7:
                Rope Elbow Extension 21’s (bottom half of range of motion first, then top half, the
                        full ROM - go to pretty much all the way to failure)

                        3 Sets x 7/ 7/ 7 reps

        Optional Exercise 8:

                Constant-Tension Preacher Curl

                        2 Sets x 15-20 reps

        Between the 2 Upper Body Workouts:

                Back: 17 weekly sets.

                Chest: 10 weekly sets.

                Shoulders: 16 weekly sets.

                Biceps: 6 weekly sets (isolation only!).

                Triceps: 3 weekly sets (isolation only!).

Warm-Up and Mobility Routine, Full Body (Science Applied Series)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E81GN-3A8XM&t=0s 

        1. Reduce Injury Risk

        2. Increase Performance

        Potentially also increases muscle metabolism, the rate of creatinine phosphate
                utilization, and exercise power production. Also mentally prepares you, “priming
                the pump.”

        Lower Body Warm-Up Routine

1. General Warm-Up: Increase Body Temp

1. General Recommendation: Heart rate of 55-65% of max heart rate, so for most young active folks would be ~100-120 beats per minute as a target heart rate. Break a light sweat, 5-10 minutes.

2. Specific Warm-Up: Take joints through full Range of Motion (ROM).

1. 2-3 minute foam roll

1. Inner leg both sides
2. Quads
3. Upper back (abs tight)
4. Lower back (abs tight)
5. Glutes and Piriformis
6. Can use a lacrosse ball to hit worst places

2. Dynamic stretching routine (3-4 minutes)

1. 10-12 leg swings front-back
2. 10-12 leg swings side-to-side
3. 10-12 step-throughs and stretch
4. Scorpion stretch
5. Knee-drive rotating squat
6. Specific areas to tackle flexibility issues (squat and reach, or cossack squats for sumo stance), or tightness. Slow-eccentric calf raises for squats

3. Progressive Pyramid (5-10 minutes)

1. Pyramid up in weight until you hit your working weight for that lift for that day.

        Upper Body General Warm-Up Routine (10-15 minutes)

1. 5-10 minutes Cardio
2. Upper body dynamic stretching

1. 10-12 small to big arm circles
2. 10-12 side to side arm swings
3. 12-15 band pull aparts
4. 10-12 band or cable external rotations
5. 10-12 band or cable face pulls
6. Optional 8-10 wall slides
7. Optional overhead dumbbell side bend
8. Roll out thoracic spine and hip flexors on foam roller

3. Pyramid sets to practice movement

Is Workout Volume Actually Killing Your Gains? (Athlean-X Response)

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mja2fDwYA5s

        What we know already: Clear dose response between volume and gains, with topping
        out point that is probably around 10-20 working sets per week. Diminishing gains in a
        bell curve.

        Some trainees see increasing volume at the expense of intensity to be the solution.

        Key factors: The less trained you are, the less volume you need to progress. The more
        trained you are, the more volume you will need.

        Per session volume threshold: In any given workout, past a certain number of sets, there
        is no extra benefit for hypertrophy.

        Volume per session and volume per week are important considerations. You may need
        to split your overall workload efficiently between several workouts to increase your gains.

        Scenarios:

1. High Volume (20+ Sets): Low Effort (RPE <5): Gains killed (under training): Need more effort!
2. High Volume (20+ Sets): High Effort (RPE~10): Gains killed (over training): Reduce effort or volume!
3. Low Volume (= or < 10 Sets): High Effort (RPE ~10): Gains!: Great for busy people who want to have quick, intense workouts.
4. (Jeff’s Favorite - Optimized zone of volume model curve): Moderate to High Volume (10-20+ Sets): Moderate Effort (RPE 7-9, sometimes 10): Gains! (Optimal?): Individualize volume to optimize to your own needs!

        Only leave a couple reps in the tank - that’s where the best gains are.

Yoked: The Ultimate Trap, Neck and Delt Workout (Science-Based):

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8IwhjE8rHQ

        Common theme: Quick visual impression.

        Neck: Goes at the start of the session.

1. Plate Curl: 3 Sets x 20+ Reps

1. Autoregulate the rep count to reach an RPE of 8-9

2. Neck Extensions: 3 Sets x 15 Reps
3. Trap Bar Shrug: 3 Sets x 8-10 Reps (can use snatch-grip shrug on regular bar)
4. Rope Upright Row: 3 Sets x 15-20 Reps
5. Close-to-Moderate Grip Incline Bench Press: 3 Sets x 10-12 Reps
6. Incline Dumbbell Modified Seal (“Humble”) Row: 3 Sets x 10-12 Reps
7. Floor Skullcrushers: 3 Sets x 10-12 Reps
8. Butterfly Machine Lateral Raises: 3 Sets @ RPE 9 (15-20 Reps approximately)

You Need to Train Harder! My Response to Critics of my Training Style

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSxY7xMsaOE

        People have been calling out Jeff Nippard for not training as hard as he used to.

        His excuse has been filming content has decreased his intensity, but this video will likely
                be more about his training recommendations instead of his excuses.

        His view is training to failure has low benefits compared to the issues it may have, and
                that keeping a couple Reps-in-Reserve.

        Argument #1: “Stop it with the science! Get in the gym and work!”

                Over-reliance on science is detrimental.

                Problem isn’t too much science, it’s from mis-applying the science or misusing it.

                Science, when used properly, should simplify your approach.

                Don’t major in the minors.

                Effort should be secondary to only sustainability when it comes to your workout
                        choices/ programs/ diets/ etc.

                “You’re your own scientist.” You mix in your ingredients according to what works
                        best and most optimally for you.

        Argument #2: “RPE and moderation effort will only work for beginners!”

                Tons of super high level athletes use RPE.

                Most ranked pros don’t train to failure frequently, if ever. Depending on the time
                        of their peaking phase, they may use 0 RIR/ 10 RPE, but are definitely
                        not doing it every session.

Argument #3: “People are bad at estimating RPE!”

 There likely is some truth to this. People can have trouble knowing exactly how
                many RIR they may have had, or what RPE they were at, because they
                weren’t being honest with their assessment of their own RPE - people
                tend to be lazy.

More experienced lifters, who do occasionally go to failure, will be better at
                autoregulating and estimating their own RPE.

Some people may be better off just managing their training variables correctly, and
        assessing their program and it’s fundamentals thoroughly.

Full Body 5x Per Week: Why High Frequency Training is So Effective

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTxO5ZMxcsc

        Monday through Friday: Chest, Back, Legs, Biceps, Triceps, Delts and Abs

        Muscle Protein Synthesis levels seem to predict hypertrophy.  
        Spreads out your weekly volume enough to keep overall fatigue low but intensity and
                volume high.

        Reiterates 10-20 working sets per week per muscle general guideline.

        Per workout has approximately 5 working sets ceilings before diminishing (or regressing)
                returns.  

        To address the overtraining/ recovery concern: You’re never fully destroying the muscle,
                so unlike a full Monday Chest Day workout, your recovery timeline is shortened.
        You may be sore, from time to time, but that’s okay (still, soreness isn’t the goal).

        It is important to use 7-8 RPE for the first few weeks, avoiding training to failure.

        Isn’t perfect, according to Jeff, but still good.

        His opinions on common splits:

        Push Pull Legs:

                This is a solid “bread and butter” split for bodybuilding. It has you in the gym 6
                days a week, hitting each muscle twice per week. While there is plenty of time for
                recovery between workouts, some of the individual sessions may be more
                fatiguing as you will be performing more per-session volume per bodypart. I’m
                sure I will eventually rotate back to this split again.

        Upper Lower:

                This routine can be run as a ULRULRR (4x per week) split, or a ULULUR (6x per
                week) split. As a beginner, the 4x setup is best. As you get more advanced and
                require more volume for progress, the 6x setup may be more appropriate to
                avoid painfully long workouts. This is an amazing split for beginners,
                intermediates and advanced lifters. The only downside in my opinion is doing
                three leg days a week can be pretty fatiguing on a 6x split.

        Full Body:

                For beginners, I like full body splits to be run as 2-3 weekly workouts. As you get
                more advanced, those workouts will start to get really long in order to accumulate
                enough weekly volume. This is where the high frequency full body split comes in.

The 5 Worst Diet Mistakes For Losing Fat and Building Muscle (Avoid These)

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCbn05pda_4

1. Focusing Too Much On The Little Details

1. Don’t “Major in the minors.”
2. Minor details are beneficial, but only by degrees.
3. Worrying about specific minor things is less useful than caring about the bigger details (he discusses organic foods, meal timing).
4. In terms of comparison, as far as nutrition for body composition goes: ~90% of the effect on your body composition are going to come from the number of calories you eat and how many of those are from protein. The other ~10% will be from all of the other pieces of your diet, like carb-fat ratios, carb cycling, fasted cardio, meal timing, supplements, etc.

2. Thinking In “Black and White” Terms

1. So many shades of gray - not everything is specifically bad or specifically good, and foods don’t exist in a vacuum.
2. Aim for 3-4 servings of vegetables and 2 servings of fruit per day.
3. Rotate your sources (of fruits and vegetables) and eat foods of different colors.
4. Try to eat fatty fish once or twice a week.
5. Overall, try to stick to a whole-foods, minimally processed diet 80-90% of the time.
6. For the other 10-20% of the time, you can eat what you enjoy the most.

3. Making Sudden, Drastic Changes to Your Diet

1. New Year’s Resolutioners make changes that are too extreme to stick with long term.
2. Pick a slower rate of weight loss, and pick the more sustainable diet that you enjoy sticking to.
3. For both cutting and bulking, a more gradual approach is usually more effective.
4. Cutting: 20-25% max deficit.

1. Aim to lose ~1% of body weight per week.

5. Bulking: ~25% above maintenance calories.

1. “Hard-gainers” metabolisms may adapt up so fast that you need to bump calories much higher.
2. Beginner Rate of Gains:

1. Men: 1-1.5% of bodyweight per month.
2. Women: 0.5-0.7%.

3. Intermediate

1. Men: 0.5-1%
2. Women: 0.25-0.5%

4. Advanced

1. Men: 0.25-0.5%
2. Women: 0.125-0.25%

4. Relying On Nutrition Documentaries As A Legitimate Source For Information

1. Not every documentary is bad, but most are so tilted in favor of their own narrative that they often miss the big picture. Lots of bias, not very reliable.
2. The goal with science is not to prove any position, but to collect evidence and draw conclusions based on whatever the data says.
3. Read research reviews instead, if you want strong information. Jeff suggests:

1. MASS Research Review
2. Weightology
3. Alan Aragon’s Research Review
4. Examine.com Research Digest

5. Focusing Too Much On Supplements

1. Supplements should just be the tip of your iceberg, not the base.
2. Jeff suggests Whey Protein Powder.
3. Creatine, Caffeine are also suggested.
4. Jeff’s Tiers of Priority:

1. Protein Powder, Creatine, Caffeine
2. Multivitamins, Fish Oil
3. Green Tea (EGCG), Ashwagandha, L-Citrulline
4. Yohimbine HCL

The Most Effective Full Body Workout For Growth (Science Applied 1)

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxisr1AalNc

        Start every day with a quick warm-up.

        If you’re limited on time, you can optionally run each pair of the below exercises as a
                superset (1 and 2, 3 and 4, etc).

Day 1: Leg Focus

1. Squat,

1. 4 Sets of 4 at 80% of 1RM
2. Leave 2-3 reps left in the tank.
3. Go to at least parallel, use good form (obviously).
4. “Screw your feet into the floor.”
5. Use undulating periodization:

1. Week 1 - 4x4 @80% 1RM (Heavier)
2. Week 2 - 3x6 @75% 1RM (Lighter)
3. Week 3 - 4x4 @82.5% 1RM (Heavier)
4. Week 4 - 3x6 @77.5 1RM (Lighter)

2. Incline DB Press

1. 3 Sets of 8 at RPE 7-8
2. Bring dumbbells down and forward, then push dumbbells up and back towards your face.

3. Lying Leg Curl

1. 3 Sets of 10 at RPE 7-8

4. Lat Pulldowns

1. 3 Sets of 10 at RPE 7-8

5. EZ Bar Bicep Curl

1. 3 Sets of 12 at RPE 10
2. Drop Set
3. Swing bar out in an arch, drive your pinkies up into the bar as you curl.

6. Hanging Leg Raise

1. 3 Sets of 12 at RPE 7

        Day 2:

1. Bench Press
2. Cable Flyes
3. RDL
4. T-Bar Row
5. Arnold Press
6. Pressdowns
7. Shrug

        Day 3:

1. Pull-Up
2. DB Row
3. Leg Press
4. Calf Raise
5. Upright Row
6. Hammer Curl
7. Push-Up

        Day 4:

1. Deadlift
2. Dip
3. GH Raises
4. Leg Extension
5. Pullovers
6. Lateral Raise
7. Skull Crusher

        Day 5:

1. OHP
2. Lateral Raise
3. Cable Row
4. Hip Abduction
5. Incline Curl
6. Crunch
7. Calf Raise

My Experience with Full body 5x/ Week Training Split (Good and Bad!)

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jD2WvvP0Jw

        Cons:

1. There are more ways to “mess up” a high frequency split.

1. Complexity in the programming leaves open spots for difficulties.
2. Recovery/ fatigue management is more complex than a bro-split.
3. Not good for beginners.

2. The full body workouts can be longer.

1. Not the quickest or most time efficient programming.

3. You may need to train muscles while still sore (initially).

1. Mileage may vary, from person to person, regarding DOMS.

4. There may be an increased risk of joint stress (although Jeff is personally skeptical of this).

1. He hasn’t personally experienced it - just wanted to be clear about a commonly considered con of this program.
2. Use good technique and don’t push yourself past your limits and this shouldn’t be an issue.
3. Sequence your work around your weaknesses to avoid injury/ stress.

        Pros:

1. A high frequency split is novel and motivating.

1. New and different keeps you interested, and new stimuli should make your body adapt in new ways.
2. Psychologically it’s exciting.

2. The individual workouts feel much less overwhelming.

1. Feels much more manageable to dial in the work in a streamlined effort.

3. You never do a full leg day on a full body split.

1. Only 1 leg exercise per day feels more enjoyable and manageable.

4. Jeff is making great progress.

1. Especially when it comes to strength.
2. He says he responds well to high frequency.

5. Jeff never gets sore anymore, which is improving his training performance and enjoyability.
6. Moving around missed volume is very simple.

1. If he has to cut a workout short, he can just add that volume to the next day if needed.

7. His execution and focus per set is a lot better.
8. Full body pumps are great!

What I Eat to Get Shredded (Grocery Haul for Fat Loss)

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTga7Hp0y70

        He eats fruit pre-workout: Bananas, clementines, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries,
                mixed fruit (cantaloupe), apples, asian pears, kiwis. Really mix up the colors.

        Also, he eats fruit before bed.

        Sweet Kale Salad Mix + Spinach.

        Meat: He only eats maybe 1 meal per day that contains meat, probably ground turkey or
                chicken. Free range is preferred - aim for lean.

        Fish: Atlantic Salmon, good healthy fats.

        Free range eggs.

        Cottage Cheese.

        For rice, he does minute rice cups.

        Diet Soda.

        Intraworkout: He uses gatorade.

        Pre-bedtime: Popcorn, go for the low-fat, low-calorie option.

        Beans, peas - chili meals are good to fill you up and taste good!

The Perfect Chest Focused Full Body Workout (7 Exercises: Based on Science)

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7USunyFGITk

1. Bench Press

1. 3 Sets of 3 Reps @ 85% of 1RM
2. Low Rep strength works for hypertrophy

1. Indirectly: Getting stronger in low rep ranges will allow for more overload in moderate rep ranges, leading to more cumulative tension over time.
2. Directly: As long as volume is matched, research shows that low rep sets cause similar hypertrophy as high rep sets. Heavy workouts just take a lot longer to complete.

3. For heavy bench work, use external cues (no mind-muscle connection). Move the weight with good technique.

1. Squeeze the bar as hard as you can before lifting.
2. Focus on bending the bar forward, to cue your elbows to tuck in a bit.
3. As you near the bottom, actively puff your chest up and push the floor away from you as you press the weight up and back.

4. Progression:

1. Week 1 - 3x3 @ 85% 1RM
2. Week 2 - 3x5 @ 80% 1RM
3. Week 3 - 3x3 @ 87.5% 1RM
4. Week 4 - 3x5 @ 82.5% 1RM

2. Low-to-High Cable Flyes

1. 3 Sets of 15 Reps at RPE 9
2. Hug a big tall tree, mega hug to a high height.

3. Romanian Deadlifts

1. 3 Sets of 12 Reps at RPE 7
2. Stay ~2-3 reps shy of failure as sore hamstrings may deteriorate future training performance.
3. End just below the knees.

4. Chest Supported Row

1. 3 Sets of 15 Reps at RPE 7
2. Can do on a chest-supported machine, or any other variant as long as your chest is supported.
3. By bracing your chest, you relieve the lower back of it’s stabilization role.

5. Standing Arnold Presses

1. 3 Sets of 12 Reps ad RPE 7-8
2. Initiate the movement by sweeping the dumbbells out, like starting the reverse pec dec, then press them up.

6. Tricep Pressdown

1. 3 Sets of 15 Reps at RPE 8-9
2. One arm at a time, starting with your weaker arm.
3. Make it a pushdown/ kickback combo by letting your elbow move up at the top of the movement, and kick it behind you hard. Should work your whole tricep this way.

7. Smith Machine Shrugs

1. 3 Sets of 12 Reps at RPE 8-9
2. Use a wider grip to emphasize scapular upward rotation.
3. Emphasize more controlled movements using a strong mind-muscle connection with the upper traps.

The Best Science-Based Full Body Workout: Back Focused (Science Applied Episode 3)

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=didU4ZwAkPI

        Day 3 of his new Full Body Split

1. Weighted Pull-Ups

1. 3 Sets of 6 Reps at RPE 8
2. Controlled sets, good technique, same tempo throughout your reps.
3. Stretch your lats in-between sets.

1. Hold the stretch for about 20-30 seconds, at a roughly 7/10 intensity.

2. Humble Row

1. 3 Sets of 10 Reps at RPE 7-8
2. Focus on execution over weight - limit your momentum/ cheating.
3. Emphasize driving your elbows straight out to the sides.
4. Position the height of the bench so that your torso is parallel to the floor.

3. Leg Press

1. 3 Sets of 15 at RPE 7-8
2. Light(er) loading at higher reps.  

1. Is very effective at building work capacity, improving your ability to tolerate high training volumes.
2. Metabolic stress is likely a contributing factor for hypertrophy, even if it is secondary to mechanical tension.

3. For quads, place your feet lower on the lift platform and keep constant tension - do not lock out.
4. For glutes, place your feet higher and flare your toes out a bit.

4. Standing Calf Raise

1. 4 Sets of 8 Reps at RPE 8
2. Keep your leg straight, lock your knees by flexing your quads, and pause at the top/ bottom to keep from bouncing on your achilles.

5. Cable Upright Row

1. 3 Sets of 10 Reps at RPE 8
2. For side delt/ upper trap emphasis.

6. Hammer Curl

1. 3 Sets of 10 Reps at RPE 10

All of the following recommendations and notes for Jeff Nippard are my notes specifically taken from Fundamentals Hypertrophy Program: Jeff Nippard (2019). Do not consider this section an exhaustive summary of this program, but instead just a collection of notes that I found pertinent to my own research. I still suggest buying a copy from his website and supporting Jeff Nippard.

        What This Program Is:

        3 separate 8-week programs: a full body routine (3 days per week), and Upper/ Lower
                routine (4 days per week), and a body part split routine (5 days per week).

        What This Program Isn’t:

        An all-inclusive resource for all things training related.

        He highly suggests that you watch his Fundamentals YouTube Series.

        F.A.Q.

1. How do I know if I am progressing?

1. Day-to-day and week-to-week visual progress might be hard to accurately determine.
2. Take physique progress photos every 4-6 weeks and compare them side-by-side.
3. If you’re getting stronger, you’re progressing.  

2. How much muscle can I expect to gain?

1. This will largely be determined by genetic factors.
2. Ballpark estimate for untrained mailes: 1-2 lbs of muscle gain per month is reasonable (12-24 lbs of muscle gained in the first year). Trained males  (1 year of lifting experience) will likely be about half of that. Women are about half of each of those estimates.

3. What gym equipment should I use?

1. Gym equipment is optional, but investing in a 10mm prong or lever belt, knee sleeves, squat shoes, and straps can be beneficial.

4. I have a belt, when should I wear it?

1. Optionally you can use it for your working sets on squats, deadlifts, overhead presses. Don’t wear it on lighter warm-up sets.

5. I am not getting sore from my workouts. Is the program not working?

1. DOMS are not required for hypertrophy to occur - the main goal of the program is to establish a strength foundation, not to get you feeling sore.

6. I am getting very sore from my workouts, should I skip the gym until I am not sore?

1. If you are consistently getting sore week after week, consider adding 3-5 minutes of foam rolling at the end of your workouts. Otherwise, training while sore is not inherently problematic for muscle growth unless it’s putting you at an increased risk of injury.
2. If you’re having difficulty getting to complete a full ROM due to pain, or a difficult time getting into position for any of the planned exercises, do not train. Otherwise, just give yourself a slightly longer warm-up for each exercise and use your discretion to avoid injury.
3. “One extra rest day will not set you back very far, but a serious injury will.”

7. Should I eat in a caloric deficit, maintenance, or surplus while running this program?

1. A slight caloric surplus = best results and best recovery.
2. If your main goal is fat loss, eating in a caloric deficit is necessary.
3. “As a beginner, you can continue to make strength and size progress while in a moderate caloric deficit and achieve body recomposition (lose fat and build muscle at the same time) if protein intake is sufficient (0.8-1g/ lb bodyweight as a ballpark).

8. The warm-up isn’t enough for me - can I add to it?

1. Don’t do more than 10-20 minutes if you need to, so don’t rush into your workout if it helps you avoid injury.

9. Why is there such little exercise variation from week to week?

1. It flattens out the strength progression curve.

10. There are 3 different splits - which one should I run?

1. Pick a program you will actually stick to. Look through them and go with the one that looks most appealing to you.

11. What do I do after finishing the program?

1. Run the same program again for another 8 weeks, or move on to another of the splits provided. After 1-2 years, you may want to graduate to one of his Intermediate programs.

        Warm-Up

1. Warming Up should literally serve that function - to raise your core body temperature.
2. “5-10 minutes of low-moderate intensity cardio is especially prudent if you exercise early in the morning.”
3. It also serves as a way to increase muscle activation, improving performance and force output.
4. Foam rolling has been shown to reduce DOMS, so brief foam rolling with a specific focus on “tight areas” before a session can improve your ROM and prevent injury. 2-3 minutes, lightly, before lifting is suggested.
5. “Before beginning with your working weight for the first exercise for each bodypart, perform a basic loading pyramid where you pyramid up in weight with 1-3 light sets, getting progressively heavier until you reach your working weight for that exercise.
6. He suggests:

1. Low Intensity Cardio - 5-10 minutes - Pick any machine which you enjoy that will get your heart rate to 100-135 BPM
2. Foam Rolling/ Lacrosse Ball - 2-3 minutes - Foam roll large muscle groups (quads, lats, calves). Optionally use a lacrosse ball for smaller muscle groups (pecs, delts, hamstrings).
3. Front/ Back Leg Swing - 2 Sets of 12 reps - 12 each leg.
4. Side/ Side Leg Swing - 2 Sets of 12 reps - 12 each leg.
5. Standing Glute Squeeze - 2 Sets of 15 seconds hold - Squeeze your glutes as hard as possible.
6. Prone Trap Raise - 2 Sets of 15 reps - Mind muscle connection with your mid-back.
7. Cable External Rotation - 2 Sets of 15 reps - 15 each side.
8. Cable Internal Rotation - 2 Sets of 15 reps - 15 each side.
9. Overhead Shrugs - 2 Sets of 15 reps - Light squeeze on traps at the top of each rep.

        Exercise Substitutions

1. Keep the sets, reps, rest times, etc., the same and swap out the movement when appropriate.
2. Squat: Leg Press + 15 reps of lower back extensions (same number of sets of lower back extensions as the number of sets of leg press)
3. Deadlift: Barbell Hip Thrust + 15 reps of lower back extensions
4. Romanian Deadlift: Glute Ham Raise
5. DB Walking Lunge: Single Leg Dumbbell Hip Thrust
6. Barbell Hip Thrust: Leg Extension Machine Hip Thrust
7. Machine Standing Calf Raise: Dumbbell Standing Cal Raise (hold a dumbbell in one hand and use the other hand for balance)
8. Lying Leg Curl: Dumbbell Leg Curl (place a dumbbell between your legs, lie on a bench, and curl it up)
9. Leg Extension: Remove them if you’re not able to perform them - not mandatory for quad growth
10. Machine Seated Hip Abduction: Standing Cable Hip Abduction or Plate-Loaded Abduction (place a 25-35 lb plate on the side of your upper thigh and perform abductions)
11. Barbell Bench Press: Dumbbell Bench Press of Hammer Strength Machine Press
12. Dumbbell Incline Press: Hammer Strength Machine Incline Press
13. Military Press: Standing Dumbbell Shoulder Press
14. Cable Fly: Dumbbell Fly or Pec Deck
15. Assisted Dip: Decline Dumbbell Press or Decline Barbell PRess, or Hammer Strength Decline Press
16. Supinated Pulldown: Reverse Grip Assisted Pullup
17. Seated Cable Row: 1-Arm Dumbbell Row
18. Chest-Supported T-Bar Row: Chest Supported Dumbbell Row (brace your upper chest against an incline bench and perform rows with two dumbbells at the same time)

        Rest Days and Training Days

1. Consistency is king.
2. Train according to the program, the number of days required, and according to your life and what you can adhere to best.

        The Routines

1. Full Body Routine:

1. Monday - Full Body #1
2. Tuesday - Rest
3. Wednesday - Full Body #2
4. Thursday - Rest
5. Friday - Full Body #3
6. Saturday - Rest
7. Sunday - Rest
8. *Try to place at least one rest day between full body sessions.*

2. Upper/ Lower Routine:

1. Monday - Lower Body #1
2. Tuesday - Upper Body #1
3. Wednesday - Rest
4. Thursday - Lower Body #2
5. Friday - Upper Body #2
6. Saturday - Rest
7. Sunday - Rest

3. Body Part Split Routine:

1. Monday - Chest/ Triceps
2. Tuesday - Legs and Abs
3. Wednesday - Back and Biceps
4. Thursday - Rest
5. Friday - Legs and Abs
6. Saturday - Shoulders and Arms
7. Sunday - Rest
8. *Alternatively, you could train 5 days in a row and rest on the weekends.*

4. I won’t recap the entirety of each and every day/ week/ program here, as this is one of the major ways that you can support Jeff (also, almost all of the information is available via the videos in his section, also, detailing the exact workouts).

        Warm Up Protocol Program Philosophy: Establishing A Strength Base

1. Start with a base of strength, and size will come.

        How Do I Progress?

1. Progressive overload - getting stronger = getting bigger.

1. “In this program, progression will occur in the form of adding weight (load) or adding reps with the same amount of weight.”
2. Can also be better form with the same weight, using a larger range of motion, improving the mind-muscle connection, etc.
3. Adding weight will be depending on your experience level.

1. Untrained Individuals (less than 3 months of consistent training experience).

1. Focus on mastering perfect technique over adding weight to the bar.
2. Use the same weight for at least 3 weeks straight to ensure technique mastery before increasing resistance.

2. Beginners (3-9 months of consistent training experience).

1. Make small increases in weight week to week, as your nervous system begins to engrain new motor patterns.
2. You can and should expect to make very consistent strength gains.
3. Stick to simple linear progression models: Consistently add the same load over a period of time rather than making big jumps less frequently.
4. “Keep in mind that adding just 5lbs total to the bar per week for only 26 weeks (6 months) will yield a 130 lbs increase in strength.”

3. Early-Intermediates (9-18 months of consistent training experience).

1. Consistent, linear strength gains will slowly start to diminish.
2. This is when using RPE will come in handy.
3. Aim for an RPE of 6 or above on all sets in this program,  generally meaning no more than 4 reps are being “left in the tank” at any given time.

        What is the Mind-Muscle Connection? How Do I Develop It?

1. “Is the act of focusing on using the target muscle to move the weight (not just ‘going through the motions.’)”
2. Takes time to develop, so cultivate it early.
3. For the major compounds (squat, deadlift, OHP), focus on the technique rather than mind-muscle connection.

        Training Variables

1. Frequency

1. “Training each muscle twice per week is better than only training each muscle once per week.”
2. “Higher frequency training typically allows us to do more volume within a training week.”
3. “There is probably no special benefit to training a muscle more than twice per week with the same amount of volume.”
4. “Training a muscle more than once per week is more optimal for hypertrophy, even when volume is the same.”

2. Intensity (Effort and Load)

1. For an untrained individual, keep sets closer to an RPE of 5-7.
2. As you begin to progress, you can exert yourself more - RPE of 7-8 is usually the sweet spot.
3. Appropriately select your working weights to remain within the prescribed RPE with good form.

3. Volume

1. Can be viewed as both per-session and per-week.
2. “Per-session volume requirements are actually very low, with research showing that just one set can serve as an ‘adequate’ stimulus for generating a hypertrophic response.”
3. “Multiple sets (3-5 sets) per muscle group are thought to be required to maximize hypertrophy.”
4. Not all volume is created equal, and more volume isn’t always the answer.
5. “There does appear to be a ‘volume limit’ past which further increases in volume are not helpful for stimulating more hypertrophy. James Krieger recommends a minimum of 10 sets per week per muscle group, with 10-15 sets per bodypart per week being a good ballpark estimate for maximizing hypertrophy in nearly all beginners and early intermediates.”

        Exercise Videos

                Jeff provides a series of links to his lift-specific videos regarding form, technique,
                        etc.

My Personal Book Review:

I really enjoy the way that Jeff explains his content as well as his programming. This
        program is in-depth, and I’m excited to run it for a while. I think that, for the average
        beginner, this would be a fantastic starting point to jump off into the world of lifting from.
        Really, I don’t have any specific or outstanding gripes about this program. Rating: 9/10.

All of the following recommendations and notes for Jeff Nippard are my notes specifically taken from The Ultimate Guide to Body Recomposition: Jeff Nippard, and Chris Barakat (2019). Do not consider this section an exhaustive summary of this book, but instead just a collection of notes that I found pertinent to my own research. I still suggest buying a copy from his website and supporting Jeff Nippard.

        Chapter 01: The Start Line

        Don’t “major in the minors;” keep it simple, but not too simple.

1. Recognize Your Starting Place

1. Beginner (0-2 Years of Lifting Experience)

1. Easiest to build muscle and lose fat at the same time.
2. “Recomposition is both easier and simple for a beginner.” Meet these three criteria and you can build muscle/ lose fat as a beginner without the same levels of optimization that intermediate or advanced trainees would need:

1. Caloric intake shouldn’t be too high, or too low.
2. Protein intake should be adequate.
3. Weight train with a focus on progressive overload (incrementally adding either weight, volume, or improving technique over time).

2. Intermediate (~2-5 Years Lifting)

1. Will need more fine-tuning of diet and exercise routine to optimize results.

3. Advanced (~5 Years of Lifting)

2. Understanding Recomposition

1. There are, essentially, four circumstances exist under which recomposition is most commonly achieved:

1. New Lifters (Beginners)
2. Detrained Lifters (Detrainees): Anyone who lifted for a while, built a significant amount of muscle but then stopped training for whatever reason.
3. Obese Individuals: Large energy reserves of body fat make it simple to eat in a caloric deficit are still have plenty of stored energy to fuel muscle building.
4. Anabolic Steroid Users

2. Even if you are none of these four groups, it is still possible to build muscle and lose fat at the same time.

3. One Layer Deeper: Other Possible Scenarios for Recomposition

1. You build muscle while simultaneously losing fat.

1. Most straightforward. In a perfect world, this would be the most ideal outcome.

2. You build muscle mass while maintaining body mass.

1. You aren’t actually losing fat mass, but you are still lowering your body fat percentage because you built new lean mass.
2. More common in trainees who are already quite lean.

3. You lose fat while maintaining muscle mass.

1. You aren’t building any additional muscle mass, but you are lowering your body fat percentage.

        Chapter 02: The Tools of Titans

1. Mandatory Tools

1. Weight Scale

1. Despite the shortcomings of the weight scale, “changes in body weight are nonetheless very easy to track and when combined with the other tools outlined . . . can provide some very valuable insights and estimations.”
2. “For consistency purposes, we recommend tracking your body weight for four-seven days per week at the same time of day.”
3. “For the most accurate weigh-ins, we suggest weighing as soon as you wake up, after using the bathroom and before drinking water or eating any food.”
4. Get a digital scale that is sensitive enough to measure in at least 0.2 pound increments.
5. Using your four to seven measurements per week, calculate a weekly average, and compare that weekly average to other future weekly averages to see if your weight is trending up or down over time.

2. Measuring Tape

1. Waist Circumference: Helps indicate whether or not fat is being lost.

1. To ensure consistency, take the measurement at the belly button or at the smallest site on your waist. Take the measurement in the exact same place every time.
2. “For all intents and purposes, a reduction in waist circumference is a very good indicator of fat loss.”

2. Other Body Measurements: Shoulders, Glutes, Chest, Legs, Arms, and Calves.

1. For the legs, thighs, biceps, triceps, and calves be sure to record a left and right measurement to track and correct for asymmetries.
2. Measure at the largest site on the muscle.

3. Camera (Progress Photos)

1. The scale or measurements may be misleading, and we’re working on physique here, so look at your physique.
2. Use consistent lighting and the same camera set-up, ideally.
3. Take progress photos one to four times per month.

1. “Use the same environment/ location (ideally using natural light from a window or doorway)
2. Shoot at the same time of the day (preferably fasted on an empty stomach)
3. Shoot on the same day of the week
4. Use the same angle for each picture
5. Use a self-timer or record a video and take screen shots
6. Include your full body in several different poses

4. Food Scale

1. Weigh food raw before cooking it to (more) precisely measure macros.
2. Track your protein, fat, and carbohydrate intake from all foods and drinks that you intake.
3. As a beginner in tracking, track everything as often as possible and as accurately as is feasible.
4. If you go out to eat, stick to lower fat meals, “which will decrease the margin of error between the reported nutritional content and the actual nutritional content.”

2. Special Tools

1. Skin Calipers

1. “They all do the same basic thing: obtain ‘skinfold thickness’ measurements by pinching a roll of skin and the underlying fat tissue (but not any muscle).”
2. To estimate your body-fat levels, you can complete either a 3-site or a 7-site skinfold assessment. 3-site: pinch the belly, tricep, and anterior thigh. 7-site: pinch the chest, belly, thigh, tricep, subscap, hip, and midaxillary areas.
3. Take measurements as frequently as once or twice per month.

2. Bioelectrical Impedance (BIA)

1. Low-level, imperceptible electrical currents through your body used to estimate body fat mass in relation to your overall lean mass.
2. Often BIAs are fairly accessible and cost-effective. Two common household models of BIA equipment exist: Bodyweight/ BIA hybrid scales, and handheld BIA devices.
3. Body scale versions “will only collect information from the lower body and use that information to estimate the body fat percentage of your entire body. As a result, if you store more fat on your legs than your upper body, the body fat reading may be higher than the true value.”
4. BIA tools can be handheld devices, and will track upper body mass estimates.
5. Track once or twice per month.

3. Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DEXA)

1. Low dose of X-Ray energy through your body, to separate composition into three main components: bone mass, lean mass, and fat mass. Takes about 6 minutes, and is painless and safe.

        Chapter 03: Belief Busting

1. “Put simply, the energy balance equation in relation to calories and weight loss looks like this:”

1. Weight Change = Calories In - Calories Out.
2. This can be considered as a bit too simplified, as your body is a complex organism with “thousands of complex metabolic reactions taking place simultaneously.”

2. Depositing and Withdrawing

1. “Because fat tissue and muscle tissue are separate systems, it’s perfectly possible to lose a significant amount of fat due to the caloric deficit, while still building muscle from the progressive training stimulus (and sufficient protein).”
2. They illustrate

Mark Rippetoe Notes

All recommendations and notes for Mark Rippetoe are my notes specifically taken from Practical Programming for Strength Training, 3rd Edition: Mark Rippetoe and Andy Baker (2013). Do not consider this section an exhaustive summary of this book, but instead just a collection of notes that I found pertinent to my own research. I still suggest getting a copy/ checking out a copy from the library and reading this book.

Reps x Weight = Volume

                Warm Up Sets                        Working Sets

Weight                        x     x     x                        x     x     x

Reps                        x     x     x                        x     x     x

Volume Per Set        x2   x2   x2               +                x2   x2   x2          = Total Volume

Ideally, only track working sets towards Total Volume.        

Training Program Basics:

        Repetitions: Number of reps per set is important because different numbers of reps produce
                different types of adaptations. An in-depth analysis of rep ranges/ intensities are
                found in the book, but the basic jist of Rippetoe’s rep range schema is that 5 is best.
                He claims that it is the perfect sweet spot between strength and hypertrophy.

        Sets: The number of sets must produce the metabolic effect desired as an adaptation.
                General assessment of the section suggests 3-5 sets is Rippetoe’s overall
                suggestion.

        Rest Between Sets: Strength = goal, rests of 2 minutes + between sets. Hypertrophy = goal,
                rests of 45 seconds or less. Muscular endurance/ conditioning = goal, very little if any
                rest is taken.

        Workout Frequency: Enough to create adaptations, not so much that it prevents growth.
                Rippetoe seems to suggest that more than 3 workout days will be required, but does
                not provide a specific number he believes is best. “The vast majority of elite
                weightlifters train six days per week, with multiple workouts per day.” Rip also says 5
                days of aerobic exercise is too much.

        Exercise Selection: “Virtually every single effective program for sports performance will
                include the following rather short list of weight room exercises: squat, press, deadlift,
                bench press, clean or power clean, jerk, snatch or power snatch, and chin ups or pull
                ups.”... “The differences in programming lie in variations of load, intensity, frequency,
                and rest.” Novices should train 3 times per week. “Workouts should consist of three
                to five exercises, with the most emphasis placed in basic exercises, and any

assistance exercises done at the end of the workout.”

Exercise Variation: “The variables of effective strength training are always load, volume,
        intensity, and rest; variety for its own sake is a hallmark of Exercise, not Training.”
        Specific, loadable, increase-able, and programmed alternatives to Rip’s
        aforementioned big lifts are the only acceptable alternatives, he claims. Any other
        work done doesn’t serve the main lift’s progression, and thus is a detractor from
        strength (keep in mind, this is specifically geared towards strength training, not
        specifically hypertrophy).

Exercise Order: “Workouts should be ordered in a way that allows the most important
        exercises to be done first.” Rip provides a series of recommendations based on the
        level of the lifter for specific lifts and their order, but more technical and less brute
        force lifts should be done first and heavier yet more forgiving technically lifts like the
        squat can be done later as fatigue increases.

Speed of Movement: “For exercises useful to strength training for a sports application,
        faster is always better.”

Warm-Up: 3-5 minutes of exercise bike or C2 Rower, gradually increasing in intensity to
        elevate body temperature. Focus, then, on practicing your movements with complete
        ROM with only the bar. Then add in incremental weight until work set weight. Then,
        repeat the process without the aerobic part for every exercise in the workout.

Stretching: If you should choose to stretch, do it at the end of your workout. Otherwise, work
        with an experienced therapist in Active Release Therapy or myofascial release.

The Training Log: Have one. Keep consistent. Track all meaningful data and improvements.

The Novice:

        “Virtually anything that makes a novice work harder than bed rest will produce positive
        results.”

        Exercises, Sets, and Reps: Squats, press, bench press, and the deadlift. Reps per set is
                standard 5. Number of sets is dependent on athlete’s circumstances and prior
                experience. Starting at 3 sets moving up to 5 sets. Assistance exercises are done
                with more higher reps. 3 days per week.

The Intermediate:

        “When the training overload of a single workout and the recovery period allowed
        improvement, the novice trainee needs a change of program. A single training stress
        constitutes an overload event for a novice. And this overland and the recovery between that
        training stress and the next one is enough to disrupt homeostasis and induce a gain in
        strength for the beginner. Once this is no longer the case, the trainee is no longer a novice.”

        Exercises, Sets, and Reps: Exercises selected via choice of sport or training emphasis,
                and “the degree of specialization in exercise selection is also determined by the need
                for more than basic strength enhancement.” Assistance exercises become useful.

“Strength work needs up to five sets of 1 to 5 reps on the core lifts, hypertrophy calls for five sets of 12 to 15 reps with little rest between sets, and power work requires five to ten sets 1 to 5 reps at weights lift enough to move fast but heavy enough to be hard to complete. Assistance exercises will be done with higher reps, usually 10 to 15, and fewer sets, usually three to five.”

Intensity:

Volume (Reps)

Intensity         100                -                -                1

                (%1RM)        90                -                1                3

                                80                3                5                8

                                70                5                8                10

                                60                8                10                15

                                50                12                20                25+

Light                Medium        Heavy

Relative Intensity

        Specific Program Recommendations: Rip discusses at length the Texas Method as a
                strong methodology for periodization moving forward for intermediates. I would
                elaborate on this section, but it’s pretty lengthy and in-depth, and I doubt my
                restatement would be nearly as valuable as just reading it in the book or finding a
                summary elsewhere on the intranets.

Rip also discusses the Split Routine Model and the Starr Model as sufficient for
        intermediate programming.

The Advanced:

        “The advanced trainee has adapted to strength training to the point where a weekly training
        organization is no longer working. At this level of advancement, an overload event and
        subsequent recovery from it may take a month or more.” Mostly competitors, most lifters will
        not his this point.

The Pyramid Model: The pyramid model that Rip provides involves a 4 week accumulation
                block where volume is increased, a 3 week deloading and transition period, followed
                by an intensification and peak period in the 8th week. As with all the other chapters,
                specific examples with numbers, reps, sets, and assistance exercises are given.

The Two Steps Forward, One Step Back Model: Four week block system to manipulate
                workload, “with progress made by connecting a series of these blocks using
                progressively higher loads. Each block starts with a week at a baseline load of
                moderate intensity. The second week moves average intensity up about 10%. The
                third week is an offload or recovery week where average intensity is reduced. This
                lighter week enables a fourth-week increase, resulting in a PR of some sort.”

Block One: Base work, run 2-3 times.

Week 1: 3x5 @ 90% of 5x5-across PR

Week 2: 5x5 @ PR

Week 3: 2x5 @ 80% of 5x5 PR

Week 4: 5RM

Block Two: Transition, run once before peak

Week 1: 3x3 @ 93% of 5x5-across PR

Week 2: 5x3 @ 5RM, deload after set 3 if necessary to maintain 3 reps

Week 3: 2x3 @ 80% of 5RM

Week 4: 3RM

Block Three: Peaking

Week 1: 3x3 @ 90% of 3RM

Week 2: 5 singles across @ 3RM +3%

Week 3: 2x2 @ 85% of 3RM

Week 4: Meet Week

From Starting Strength Novice Programming:

My Personal Book Review:

Say what you will about Rip as a person, but the dude cares about lifting and getting strong. Practical Programming would be a great jumping off point for people seeking good fundamental information about strength training. Some of the book came off, to me, as a bit dogmatic, but overall still a great text worth your time. Rating: 8/10

Tyler English Notes

All recommendations and notes for Tyler English are my notes specifically taken from Men’s Health Natural Bodybuilding Bible: A Complete 24-Week Program for Sculpting Muscles that Show: Tyler English (2013). Do not consider this section an exhaustive summary of this book, but instead just a collection of notes that I found pertinent to my own research. I still suggest getting a copy/ checking out a copy from the library and reading this book.

Nutrition: 

        1. Find your body type: Ectomorph, Mesomorph, Endomorph, or mixture/ hybrid.

        2. Know yourself: know your own body and it’s needs/ metabolism.

        3. Manage your carbs: A good balance between too much and too little is key.

        4. Give yourself enough time: Every diet plan will take a different amount of time depending
        on your body type and your own personal body - general guidelines from start until
        competition day: Ectomorph 10-16 weeks, Mesomorph 16-22 weeks, Endomorph 22-28
        weeks.

        5. Track calories to lower body-fat percentage: Determine your body fat percentage and your
        lean body mass amounts to track and adjust those numbers as needs be.

        Protein: 1 gram per pound of bodyweight baseline. Ectomorph: 1.3g/lb - 1.6g/lb. Mesomorph
                1.2g/lb-1.5g/lb. Endomorph: 1.4g/lb- 1.7g/lb. Complete protein sources: Tuna,
                salmon, cottage cheese, eggs, chicken breast, turkey breast, beef (flank steak,
                bison, sirloin, lean ground beef), low-fat pork, milk protein isolate, whey protein, soy
                protein.

        Fat: Ectomorph: 15-20% of daily total calories. Mesomorph: 16-21%. Endomorph: 18-23%.
                Better fat sources: avocado, cheese (cheddar, mozzarella, parmesan, pepper jack,
                swiss), extra-virgin olive oil, flaxseed oil, fish oil, natural almond butter, natural
                cashew butter, natural peanut butter, nuts (almonds, brazil nuts, peanuts, pecans,
                walnuts), cold-water fish (salmon, mackerel, lake trout, tuna - both canned and
                fresh), anchovies and sardines).  

        Carbohydrates: Ectomorph: 30-45% of daily total calories. Mesomorph: 25-40%.
                Endomorph: 20-35%. Avoid simple sugars. Better carbohydrate sources: sweet
                potatoes, oatmeal, oat bran, oat bran cereal, brown rice, wild rice, quinoa, whole
                wheat pasta (minimal), whole wheat tortillas (minimal), wheat bread (minimal),
                beans, fruits (two to three servings per day), maltodextrin (during or after workouts),
                vegetables.