Training
What the published research says about lifting, recovery and the numbers training apps put on top of them.
Training
3 min read
When to deload, and why the research disagrees with the advice
Every program tells you to deload every four to six weeks. Two trials have tested that directly. One found no difference, and the other found the group that trained straight through gained more strength.
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4 min read
How many sets per muscle per week, and who that number was for
Ten to twenty sets per muscle per week is the number everyone repeats. It came from a review restricted to young trained men, it describes size better than strength, and between-person variation is bigger than the effect.
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3 min read
Progressive overload without adding weight
Progressive overload is almost always explained as adding weight to the bar. A trial in trained lifters compared adding load against adding reps, and both routes worked.
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3 min read
Your first months of lifting, according to the research
You get dramatically stronger before you look any different, the soreness fades, and everyone has an opinion. What the research says about the first few months of lifting.
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3 min read
Protein for lifters: three numbers and where they came from
1.6 grams per kilogram, 20 to 30 grams a meal, protein every three hours. Each number traces to a real study, and each study is narrower than the rule built on it.
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5 min read
Health Connect has nowhere to put the weight you lifted
Health Connect can record that you benched for eight reps. It can't record that the bar had 80kg on it. What that means for a strength log, and what Google actually says about where your data lives.
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9 min read
How Long Muscles Actually Need to Recover
The 48-hour rule is real, and it was measured mostly on beginners, where the response was dominated by repairing damage rather than building tissue. What the research supports instead, with every claim traced to a paper.
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