Iron Culture presented by MASS

In this episode of MASS Office Hours, Dr. Eric Trexler and Dr. Mike Zourdos answer questions submitted by listeners and viewers in the live chat. Topics include rest pause training, myo-reps, rest redistribution sets, cluster sets, super sets, drop sets, CNS fatigue, exercise order, protein distribution, biological “set points” for fat and muscle mass, the minimum effective training dose for muscl...

In this episode of MASS Office Hours, Dr. Eric Trexler and Lauren Colenso-Semple answer questions submitted by listeners and viewers in the live chat. Topics include training for peri- and post-menopausal women, the pros and cons of caffeine, low energy availability and related factors that impact endocrine system, managing side effects of creatine, sex differences in fatigue and training volume,...

In this episode of MASS Office Hours, Dr. Eric Trexler and Dr. Eric Helms answer questions submitted by listeners and viewers in the live chat. Topics include food tracking, alternatives to food tracking, the ramifications of trying to stay very lean for extended periods of time, principles of hypertrophy training, metabolically healthy obesity, and much more. The MASS crew goes live for Office Ho...

In this episode of MASS Office Hours, Dr. Eric Trexler and Dr. Mike Zourdos answer questions submitted by listeners and viewers in the live chat. Topics include response variation, individualizing training, movement screens, rest days, protein intake recommendations and consistency across the week, the interference effect, exercise variation and joint pain, muscle and strength loss during deloads,...

In this episode of MASS Office Hours, Dr. Eric Trexler and Dr. Eric Helms answer questions submitted by listeners and viewers in the live chat. Topics include bulking calories, pursuing fat loss in the context of negative body image, creatine, contaminants in protein powders, sleep, pre-exercise stretching, optimal training frequency for hypertrophy, a comprehensive approach to volume progression,...

In this episode of MASS Office Hours, Dr. Eric Trexler and Dr. Mike Zourdos answer questions submitted by listeners and viewers in the live chat. Topics include lifting recommendations for endurance athletes, heart rate zones for lifting, lower back training, finding the right amount of set volume, troubleshooting training plateaus, sacrificing sleep to increase training frequency/volume, and much...

In this episode of MASS Office Hours, Dr. Eric Trexler and Lauren Colenso-Semple answer questions submitted by listeners and viewers in the live chat. Topics include bulking and cutting phases, fat intake, hormonal contraceptives, alcohol intake, amenorrhea, protein intake, the health effects of low BMI values, and much more. The MASS crew goes live for Office Hours every Wednesday night at 7pm ea...

The MASS team is taking this week off for the holidays, so we’re bringing you a special pre-recorded episode of Office Hours. This video comes from Volume 7, Issue 4 of the MASS Research Review. Prior to the original release of this video, the MASS team had covered self-determination theory, motivation, and other isolated topics related to psychology and coaching. It’s one thing to understand theo...

In episode #15 of MASS Office Hours, Dr. Eric Trexler is joined by Dr. Mike Zourdos. They discuss optimal protein intake per meal, warming up, caffeine and sleep disruption, tracking body weight throughout the menstrual cycle, calorie surplus consistency while bulking, artificial sweeteners, why plateaus occur, how to individualize training and break through plateaus, post-workout nutrition for ev...

In this live episode of the MASS Office Hours podcast, Dr. Eric Trexler and Lauren Colenso-Semple answer questions on topics like their favorite exercises, common exercise prescription errors, balancing lifting and cardio for health and longevity, the pros and cons of machine-based exercises, lengthened partials, making gains on low-protein diets, and more. The MASS crew goes live for Office Hours...

In this episode of MASS Office Hours, Dr. Eric Trexler and Dr. Eric Helms answer questions submitted by listeners and viewers in the live chat. Topics include the importance of periodization, the effects of food scarcity on eating behavior, behavior change tools, training frequency, saturated fat intake, implementation of cluster sets, the unique benefits of exercising versus being fit, and much m...

In this very special episode of MASS Office Hours, we’ve got (kind of) the whole MASS crew! Lauren Colenso-Sample steers the ship and is joined by Dr. Mike Zourdos and Dr. Eric Helms. Dr. Trexler was planning to join but lost his voice due to illness. It’s the first episode without Dr. Trexler on the call, and many are calling it the best episode ever. In this episode, the MASS crew discusses reco...

In this very special episode of MASS Office Hours, Dr. Eric Trexler and Lauren Colenso-Semple are joined by a guest! Dr. Brad Schoenfeld joins the show to deliver a masterclass on the science of muscle growth. Dr. Schoenfeld is a world-renowned muscle hypertrophy expert who has published countless research studies about muscle growth. In this episode, we discuss metabolic stress, rep ranges, “effe...

In this episode of MASS Office Hours, Dr. Eric Trexler and Dr. Eric Helms answer questions submitted by listeners and viewers in the live chat. They begin by announcing next week's special guest, hypertrophy expert Dr. Brad Schoenfeld. Much of the episode focuses on training topics like long-length partials, push/pull ratios, bringing up lagging muscle groups, injury prevention perspectives, p...

In this live episode of the MASS Office Hours podcast, Dr. Eric Trexler and Lauren Colenso-Semple answer questions on topics like changing training programs based on menstrual cycle phase, sex differences in muscle fatigue, the impact of sleep on gains, the effects of caffeine on sleep quality, metabolism, applying research to practice, teaching exercises to beginners, and more. The MASS crew goes...

For episode #8 of MASS Office Hours, we present the "cover story" from the November 2023 issue of the MASS Research Review. Dr. Eric Helms is currently halfway through his fifth competitive bodybuilding season. For this month’s cover story, Lauren Colenso-Semple interviews Dr. Helms about the nuances of peak week. This interview covers the art and science of peaking, how Dr. Helms’ appro...

In episode #7 of MASS Office Hours, Dr. Eric Trexler is joined by Dr. Mike Zourdos. They discuss concurrent training, proximity to failure, extremely high training volumes, extra-high protein intake, limitations of rodent research, the importance of behavior change models, and much more. Our next episode will be a pre-recorded episode, and it will be uploaded on November 1st. We'll be back to...

In episode 6 of MASS Office Hours, Dr. Eric Trexler is joined by Dr. Eric Helms. They cover a variety of topics related to bodybuilding and fat loss, including nutrition tracking, refeed days, step count adjustments, how they’ve gotten better at dieting over time, and much more. The MASS crew goes live for Office Hours every Wednesday night at 7pm eastern time. Be sure to join us for a future epis...

In episode 5 of MASS Office Hours, Dr. Eric Trexler is joined by Lauren Colenso-Semple. They answer listeners' questions about microgravity, tracking muscle growth, reverse diets, recovery diets, satellite cells, intermittent fasting, natural approaches to increase testosterone, and much more. The MASS crew goes live for Office Hours every Wednesday night at 7pm eastern time. Be sure to join u...

In episode 4 of MASS Office Hours, Dr. Eric Trexler is joined by Dr. Mike Zourdos. To begin, they discuss the benefits of exercise for memory and brain health, including the physiological mechanisms driving these benefits. After that, Eric and Mike answer listener questions on topics like weight fluctuations while traveling, the quality of various protein sources, training around lower back injuri...

In Episode 3 of MASS Office Hours, Dr. Eric Trexler is joined by Lauren Colenso-Semple to discuss evidence-based fitness strategies and answer questions from listeners. In this episode, they discuss detraining, retraining, bulking calories, step count targets, maintenance phases, and much more. The MASS crew goes live for Office Hours every Wednesday night at 7pm eastern time. Be sure to join us f...

In the 2nd episode of MASS Office Hours, Dr. Eric Trexler is joined by Dr. Eric Helms to discuss evidence-based fitness strategies and answer questions from listeners. They begin by discussing how to translate effect sizes from research into real-world decisions, then they answer listeners’ questions about preserving muscle during weight loss, the importance of exercise variation/variety, how to a...

In the inaugural episode of MASS Office Hours, Dr. Eric Trexler is joined by Dr. Mike Zourdos to discuss evidence-based fitness strategies and answer questions from listeners. They begin by discussing new research about primates’ propensity to develop obesity, then they answer listeners’ questions about cardio duration, maintaining testosterone levels, carb recommendations for lifters, recommended...