Workout Magazine

Let me guess… something hurts? Maybe your shoulder? Or your elbow? Or your knee? Or your lower back? Or your forearm? Or your hip? Or your hamstring, quad, chest, back, biceps, triceps, neck, ankle or some other commonly-injured part of your body? Maybe the pain you’re feeling is a muscle… or a joint… or a tendon… or a nerve… or a disc? Maybe it’s caused by a specific thing you’re doing? Maybe it’s caused by a specific thing you’re not doing? Maybe you just slept on it funny the night before? Or maybe it’s 100 other things with 100 other causes and 100 other solutions. Yeah, probably . But whatever the hell it is, one thing is certain: you’re injured, it sucks, and you want to get back to 100% as fast as humanly possible . As someone who has been in that position before with a variety of common weight lifting injuries over the last 14 years, I feel your pain. I’ve also felt the other stuff you’re most li...

Okay, it’s time to talk about testosterone . Testosterone is typically known as the “male hormone” even though both men and women produce it. Men just happen to produce so much more of it than women that we just decided to refer to it as the male hormone. How… sexist? Anyway… There’s a whole lot of boring stuff I could tell you about testosterone, but I’m going to skip all of it and go straight to the point(s) that the vast majority of people reading this will actually care about. And that is, testosterone is the hormone that plays the largest role in our libido and our ability to build muscle . When it comes to muscle growth, the higher a person’s testosterone levels are, the better/faster that muscle growth will take place. This, of course, explains why people with great genetics typically have naturally above-average testosterone levels, and why some people (e.g. bodybuilders) use various drugs ( steroids ) to unnaturally increase their...

When discussing weight training schedules and splits , one of the things you’re sure to notice is that 99% of the splits I recommend or prescribe in the workout routines I design are based around doing 3 or 4 total weight training workouts per week. Do you think it’s just a coincidence that the most popular and highly proven splits in existence have this in common as well? It’s not. It just so happens that for the majority of the population, this is the maximum that is needed or beneficial. Why Not Do More? Any more than that and various recovery related issues are more likely to arise. And yes… even if the split is perfect in terms of giving your muscles a sufficient amount of days off between sessions, the same recovery problems can still occur just the same. Why? Because it’s not JUST your muscles that need to rest and recover. It’s your entire body as a whole. From your joints, to your tendons, to your central nervous system. Muscles actually...

Close your eyes and imagine this. You did it. You built as much muscle as you wanted to build. You lost as much fat as you wanted to lose. Your body is as (realistically) lean, muscular, strong and awesome as you’ve always hoped it would be. Your long-term goals have all been reached. You’re done. You win. Sounds quite good, right? But um… uhhh… what do you do now? What do you do when you’re completely satisfied with your results and no longer wish to make any additional progress beyond where you’re currently at? And your new goal is to just maintain this state from that point on? Seems like the ideal scenario to be in, does not it? And as rare as this scenario seems, people ask me this question quite a bit. I can only assume the vast majority are just planning ahead. Kinda like imagining all of the cool shit you’d buy if you won the lottery… even though odds are that won’t actually be happening any time soon. Or… you k...

Did you ever hear that it’s important to keep changing your workout routine around often? You know, because you need to “keep your muscles guessing” or “shock your body” into improving or just prevent your body from getting too used to what you’re doing? Basically, that you need to make frequent changes or else your workout routine will stop working. Sound familiar? Cool, because that’s all bullshit . The Myth Of Workout Variety and Constantly Changing Your Routine That whole “change things often!!” concept is nothing but a silly myth that probably first started as a way to sell more magazines (“changing your workout is important, so buy the next issue to get a new workout!!!”). It’s complete nonsense. Granted, there is truth to the idea that your body eventually adapts to a training stimulus at which point that stimulus will stop producing results. HOWEVER, you do not have to CHANGE the stimulus in order to ...

I’ve spent a lot of time over the years looking at the similarities and differences between the most effective workout routines. Why? Well, besides the fact that I just have a nerdy obsession with this sort of thing, it’s because when you start to notice what they all have in common, you start to realize that it’s not the workout routines themselves that are effective… it’s the handful of fundamental principles that they all employ. You know, like a certain ideal frequency , volume and intensity . A certain exercise selection . A certain schedule and way of putting things together. And above all else… a focus on progression . As long as your workout routine gets all of these fundamental principles right (and your diet plan supports it), then it’s quite much guaranteed to work. Well… quite much . The Success Of Your Routine Comes Down To This You see, all of the stuff I just mentioned is what makes your workout routine actually work. ...

I know, I know. A list of exercises that either should or should not be done is nothing new in the weight training world. It’s something you see all the time, actually. But hear me out, because in this case it’s coming from a different perspective. You see, typical lists like this have titles like “10 Exercises You Must Always Do!” or “10 Exercises Everyone Should Avoid At All Costs!” Now take a look at the title of the article you’re reading right now. Notice the difference? But if you’re a regular reader of mine, it should not surprise you. One point I feel like I repeat over and over again is that there are very few absolutes in terms of things everyone must do or not do. Rather, most aspects of diet and training should be adjusted to suit each person’s individual goals, needs, preferences and body. And what you’re about to see now is my own personal example of this involving perfectly good weight training exercises...