Strength Training Tips (Updated Weekly)

1. It’s not necessary, to train 2 hours a day, 7 days a week to build a superior athlete or great physique.

2. How long you rest should be inversely related to the intensity of your last set.

3. You should use more free weights and multi-joint exercises than machine-based and isolation exercises. Free weights build more muscle, burn more calories, and allow more carryover into everyday activities. That way, you’ll be able to lift bags of fertilizer, or open peanut butter jars

4. If hypertrophy is your goal, eliminating the stretch-shortening cycle will do more to recruit additional muscle fibers than almost anything else you can do. This means that pausing after an eccentric contraction can be beneficial (ie. DON’T BOUNCE THE BAR OFF YOUR CHEST)

5. Before doing a set for biceps, triceps, chest, or back, stretch the antagonist muscle beforehand. It’ll increase your performance on that next set.

8. Olympic lifts will, if added to an athletes routine, ultimately build muscle by recruiting high-threshold muscle fibers. Also, these lifts help to develop overall power and explosiveness. The best time to implement them in an athlete’s program is pre-competition

9. As your training age increases, you can get away with fewer reps per set.

10. Chin-ups and pull-ups on a fixed overhead bar are far superior to pulldowns or reps done on an assisted pull-up machine.

11. "Spinning" eats away muscle. Besides, they have this new thing where you can actually take the bike outside and ride it around in the fresh air and look at things other than the sweaty rear-end of the person in front of you.

12. Don't neglect training major muscle groups like back and hamstrings or you'll experience muscle imbalances, a lopsided physique, injury, and weakness.

13. Your meals should consist of protein and carbs or protein and fat.

14. If you want to put on size, can the cardio.

15. If you do most of your training on a balance board, a Swiss Ball, or a Bosu ball, you’ll have a tremendous core and a small, and a weak body.

16. Squats, overhead squats, and front squats work the core better than any exercises done on an unstable surface.

17 . There's no one perfect training system or strength training philosophy. Everything works...for a while.

18. Do your heavy weight, low-rep, multi-joint movements first in your workout.

19. If you’ve got a choice of doing a movement sitting or standing, choose standing every time.

20. Most lifters adapt to a routine after 6 times.

21. Juggle rep ranges, from 1-3 reps to 4-6 reps to 8-10 reps to 12-15 reps. Doing 8 sets of 3 has just as much merit as doing 3 sets of 8.

22 . There is absolutely no proof that the human body can only absorb 30 grams of protein in one meal.

23. Work your weak body part first before working any other body parts.

24. Creatine is a fine supplement, but get over it. It’s like, yesteryear.

25. Generally speaking, the ideal time under tension (per set) for hypertrophy (muscle growth) is 40 to 70 seconds.

26. When working abs, place your tongue on the roof of your mouth.

27. Dead lifts are a far better barometer of total body strength than squats or bench press. Too bad only about two guys in the whole world—both named Ivan–do them.

28. You’ll achieve better recuperation between sets if you bounce back and forth between antagonistic exercises.

29. Weight training won't make women "too big." It'll make them very lean and very fit.

30. Wave loading is a hugely effective method of increasing strength and muscle size.

31. You should avoid soy protein, especially if you’re a male who wants to gain muscle and avoid lowering testosterone.

32. Whey is good, but overrated and over-hyped as being the protein end-all and be-all by some supplement companies.