Bodybuilders have traditionally used short rest periods during strength training, often to help them achieve a greater muscle pump, or to increase the burning sensations that were once attributed to lactic

Many strength coaches will tell you that heavy loads produce the high levels of mechanical tension that trigger hypertrophy, while light loads do not. They explain the similar hypertrophy achieved after

Except in certain rare cases, each workout in a training program includes a number of exercises. When writing the training program, we must therefore decide the order in which to perform the exercises

Bodybuilding experts sometimes recommend that we “keep a constant tension on the muscle” during each set of a workout, in order to maximize hypertrophy. When making this recommendation, they are usually

Hypertrophy is an increase in muscle volume, or mass. Moreover, since there is little evidence that human muscles enlarge through an increase in the number of muscle fibers, the main way that muscles increase

Training frequency for bodybuilding or recreational strength training with the purpose of increasing muscle size is a contentious topic. A quick look around the internet will reveal that experts hold a

Strength training, which causes increased strength and muscle size, involves producing force through repeated muscular contractions. When muscles contract repeatedly, they are often damaged. Some researchers

During normal strength training, we lift and lower weights repeatedly. Sometimes, as in the squat exercise, we begin with the lowering phase, and then perform the lifting phase to return to the start.

Traditionally, it was assumed that lifting heavy weights was necessary to achieve muscle growth. Indeed, a simple comparison between strength training, which has historically involved doing repeated muscular

We know that muscles increase in size after strength training, but it is less clear to what extent they also change shape, because of greater increases in one region than in another. Even so, there is

Recently, I shared a study showing that the size of the central motor command in a strength training exercise with a light load was increased by the presence of fatigue. In the light of recent work, this

Strength training, which leads to increases in maximum strength and muscle size, involves producing force through repeated muscular contractions. When muscles contract repeatedly, they fatigue. Fatigue

Exercise strength curves describe the way in which the difficulty of a movement changes over its range of motion. Strength curves can be flat, in which case the exercise is similarly difficult over the

When we design a bodybuilding program, we choose exercises that are intended to increase the size of specific muscles. Each exercise is allocated to workouts within the program such that each muscle is

It is widely believed that greater gains in muscle size are always achieved after strength training with a full range of motion, compared to after training with a partial range of motion. While this belief

Contrary to the claims of hundreds of bodybuilding articles written over the last decade, the tempo of the lifting phase of an exercise does not affect the amount of muscle growth that is triggered by

After strength training, whole muscles increase in volume, and therefore also in mass. In humans, this happens largely because of an increase in the volume of individual muscle fibers, rather than by an

Time under tension is one of the most commonly discussed concepts in the science of hypertrophy, and yet it remains poorly understood. Technically, time under tension should be a good measure of the dosage

Muscle growth happens through an increase in the volume of individual muscle fibers. Individual fibers increase in size after they have detected a certain level of mechanical tension, which they themselves

Strength training volume is a key determinant of the amount of muscle growth that happens after a sequence of workouts. However, exactly how we should best measure volume is unclear. Common methods of