The Bone Health Blueprint

If you've spent some time in the gym, you've likely tried a barbell squat, a Smith machine squat, and a leg press. You were probably thinking only of which of those is going to best improve lower body strength. But! Did you ever stop and think which of those 3 may best engage my core muscles as well!? This episode dives into some new research asking that exact question. You may have a gu...

We've discussed many times about the pros and cons of lifting to failure, but most of those conversations have revolved around using higher relative resistances (closer to your 1 rep max). So, what if we compared using a higher resistance and a lower resistance and lifted to failure and not to failure in each scenario? Do you think strength improvements were the same? What about improvements...

There are some obvious differences between men & women related to exercising physiology. Hormonal, anatomical, and relative strength to name a few, but is there a difference in how each engages specific muscles during exercise? Some recent evidence may provide a window into this as a recent article shows differences in how men engage the hamstring muscles during the lowering phase of a squat c...

Ruptured tendons are quite the serious event, that involve pain, discomfort, and months of rehab to return to normal functioning. But normal functioning is not always the goal for many. Most people want to achieve levels of fitness above and beyond where we were pre-injury. In this episode Dr. Lussier provides some excellent training ideas that are easy to implement into your own training if you a...

How does your body react to squatting in shoes versus barefoot? Will joints like the hip and knee move differently? Will muscles of the quad and lower back engage differently? There is a division in the research where some articles will show that the shoe allows for a more upright torso posture and provides the ability to get further into the squatting position. Other research will state that ther...

We've chatted about this topic before, and with more work, more time is spent on the backend recovering for the next workout. But what if you shorten the timeline, say a training bout of 8 weeks where you aggressively kick up the amount of work you perform. How much "more" is "more" related to what you can expect out of improving your strength and muscle size. How many set...

This is a very interesting episode that has some heavy hitting take away messages for listeners of all abilities. How does working through a full range of motion compare to working through partial ranges of motion related to improvements in strength and bench press speed? That may seem like a question that doesn't have much real-world impact, but I think you may see the light after listening...

The age-old question, how much work do I need to do to achieve the desired result? The goal should always be the least amount possible. But there is so much data out there that supports training to failure every set to get stronger. There is also information out there that shows keeping repetition velocity high throughout working sets is important. So what should you believe? This episode dives in...

This is a special episode where I sit down with Chad Trudo, Director of Strength & Conditioning and Human Performance for Aurora University. We discuss one of his previous manuscripts covering core strength and ways to assess your core strength. You do not want to miss this one! You will walk away with many applicable training methods that you can try in your own fitness training. We cover and...

What's more important, the amount of work you prescribe for a workout, OR, the amount of time you rest in between sets? That's a tough question, and my hope is that you're thinking both hold their own weight when gearing up for a workout. We all know the feeling of being exhausted after a set and knowing we need a few minutes to rest before we're ready for the next. But how muc...

There is a ton of research on this topic of repetition velocity. But what is the consensus? Should you be focused on slow eccentric? Fast concentric? Some combination of both? The article under review for this week provides some excellent insight to both sides of the speed argument, and even dives into separating the repetition all together. This is probably the episode the has the most take away...

We've previously discussed many ways to improve muscle size and strength, specific to increasing the load and volume and decreasing rest intervals, but what about changing the speed at which we lift objects? How would a faster eccentric contraction compare to a slower eccentric contraction in an exercise like the bicep curl? Obviously a 1 second lowering phase would be easier to complete comp...

The bicep muscle has always been a prime physique muscle. It is primarily responsible for flexing the elbow, which we all know, is involved in infinite upper body movements. But if we're looking to enhance the size of our biceps, should we focus our efforts on the bicep curl, or some version of a rowing exercise (i.e. dumbbell row)? Previous research has shown that performing only multi-joint...

Continuing the theme of bilateral (two-sided) & unilateral (one-sided) training, how might specifically training the step-up exercise differ from the barbell squat? Will overall lower body strength improve either way? Will the squat allow for more strength improvements compared to the step up (and vise-versa)? There is some very interesting findings from this weeks episode as we go further in...

What will engage your abs the most? You've likely done this exercise before, but the farmer's carry is one of the absolute best abdominal exercises. But here's the question... Should you carry weight in both hands or just one hand? Think of it this way. You get home from the grocery store and only want to take one trip from the car to the house.  My guess is that you load every bad...

If you've ever spent any time using a foam roller, you likely established a "love/hate" relationship. However, if you hung with it long enough, you soon realized things transitioned from painful to therapeutic within weeks. But what does foam rolling actually help improve in our physiology? You likely noticed being less stiff and feeling more fluid in your movements, and if you&apos...

You’ve likely heard many different opinions on how much protein you should be eating, but what does the evidence-based literature show about protein intake? I’ve got a feeling that some information you’ve been told is flawed and likely taken too literal in terms of how much and the timing of when you should be ingesting protein. My goal for this episode is to provide the evidence-based recommendat...

How much caffeine do you intake on a daily basis? Not to anyone's surprise, but caffeine is classified as an ergogenic aid (anything that can increase a persons capacity for bodily or mental labor). Put it simply, it allows you to do more WORK. But how much work are we talking about? Does caffeine effect everyone the same way and what can a person expect in terms of increased working capacity...

Telomeres are the caps at the end of each strand of DNA, that serves to protect our chromosomes. The length of these "caps" serves as the aging clock of our cells, and therefore our bodies. Each time a cell replicates, the telomere is shortened, so naturally as we age this process will take place? But are there ways to slow down this shortening? Or what behaviors cause this shortening pr...

Are you familiar with total body workouts? Or how about split routine workouts? These two styles of programming vastly differ in what a normal training day looks like and perhaps even the results you're hoping to attain. But which style of training may be best for improving muscle size and/or strength? Something else to consider may be is one better at enhancing overall exercise technique? Ep...

Episode 13 dove into examining the differences between the barbell back squat and the barbell deadlift, revealing that the deadlift was a better glute activator and the squat was a better quad activator. On this episode (Ep. 14) we look at different variations of these two exercises in that of the hip thrust and the single leg elevated split squat. From measuring the amount of muscle activation of...

We've seen in previous research that the hip hinge (deadlift) exercise tends to engage more hip extensors (Glutes) compared to the squat. Conversely, the squat exercise tends to recruit more quadriceps than glutes compared to the deadlift exercise. But why is that? What are the biomechanics that can help explain this and how can you manipulate this knowledge for improving your own training? L...

It's Tuesday afternoon and you're about to start your workout. You're not quite feeling it, but you also really want to get your workout in for the day. So what should you do? Should you push through and do what's assigned, or should you modify based on how you feel?  Seems like a simple question but how will either choice affect the quest for the results you're seeking? I...

Have you ever had a day where you felt like you shouldn't have worked out but decided to anyway? And on top of that, decided to workout really hard even though something inside told you it might not be the best idea? This episode dives into understanding the basics of heart rate variability as an objective measure and it's ability to assess readiness for work (and intense work at that)....

We've all questioned this before, but how long does it really take to recover from a bout of resistance training? Our physiology can fatigue in many ways, such as within the muscle itself. Muscle proteins breakdown and your ability to produce force diminishes. Same can be said about our metabolism. We use energy, and sometimes at high demands, during training sessions. How long does it take t...