An Honest Look at “Light” vs. “Heavy” Training
Ever heard this one in the gym? “I’m just going easy today; yesterday was my ‘heavy’ day.” Those few words point to a plethora of misconceptions and false premises that…
There are many elements that go into designing a productive weightlifting workout.
Every exercise has many possible combinations of weight, reps, and time that could be used. People make progress at different rates. Individual muscles recover at different rates. New muscle tissue grows at different rates.
And you need to decide personal preferences like wanting productive workouts as frequently as possible, or wanting to workout efficiently so each workout will yield the maximum benefit.
So, if you want to train scientifically and rationally, a lot of personal factors need to be taken into account simultaneously.
The process starts with deciding whether YOU prefer Steady, Efficient Gains, or the Fastest Possible Gains.
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Are You Building Muscle? Or Just Lifting Weights?
If you believe you can build forearms and biceps like this guy’s using that tiny dumbbell, you’re going to be very disappointed. Here’s a question I love to ask guys…
Training Efficiency
My grandfather circa 1910. I rarely talk about myself in these articles or in my books but I’m amused about something in my family that ultimately relates to SCT. I…
What Engineered Success Looks Like
The more you know about measuring your exercise performance in objective ways, the more you realize how haphazardly most people train. The members of the new ENGINEERED STRENGTH GYM are…
Getting Consistent Strength, Mass & Size Gains
In case you missed our first webinar on the subject of meeting the challenges to getting steady strength, mass and size gains, we posted the video of it here: …
Which Of These 3 Things Are You Doing Next Workout?
Every workout you perform has only three possible outcomes. It doesn’t matter if you lift kettlebells, use Nautilus machines, bodyweight exercise, barbells or anything else. The equipment does not alter…
Everything Works and Everything Fails To Work
When you spend a couple of decades watching the world of fitness and strength training you see a lot of strange things. Often you see the same strange things repeatedly.…
Why Most H.I.T. Advocates Just Don’t Get It
The pioneers of High Intensity Training did an enormous amount of good when they managed to get people to focus on the intensity of their workouts. It really is not…
Our Biggest News In 10 Years
We have some big news. News I think is a game changer in strength training. Late last year we started working with some trainees to measure the results of their…
Before and (5 Hours) After Photos
I received a nice e-mail from a customer in Germany who told me he’s already gained 5 lbs of muscle in five weeks of using Train Smart. The other reason…
Want To Try Static Contraction?
We are beginning a new study using Static Contraction. If you have never tried training this way the study can be an opportunity to have your workouts engineered as you…
Are You A New Man (or Woman) Today?
The logical foundation of strength training is that we build muscle by lifting heavy weights. It’s an adaptation of the body similar to developing darker skin as an adaptation to…
How High Is Up?
Most people have no idea how strong they can get. And if they insist on training “three days per week,” as the common advice goes, they really don’t have a…
Are You Wise Enough To Care About Wear And Tear?
Lifting heavy weights to build new muscle is, by definition, wear and tear on your body? Does wear and tear matter to you? Notice in the title of this post…
The Giant Truth That Gets Ignored
“Lift weights three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday.” No matter how old you are – from high school to nursing home – no matter how fit or or…
Wasted Workout Or Productive Workout?
“Lift weights three days a week; Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Forever.” This is a pet peeve of mine. The same advice is given to every person. Young, old, athlete, obese,…
Study: Maximum Muscle In 60 Days
We have just begun our Power Factor Study to determine how many maximally productive workouts we can engineer for a trainee with the goal of adding the most muscle in…
Why Lifting Light Weights Is Dumb
Ever ask yourself why a gym is stocked with weights? There is a very good reason for it and when you fully understand the reason your training takes on new…
One-on-One Coaching
OK, so a lot of you know that the last few years I’ve been constantly traveling and mostly living in timezones in Asia and Europe. When I’m in Belize it’s…
