If you read a magazine or ask a trainer about the number of reps you should be doing for your sets you’ll probably get the following breakdown: If you want tone/endurance, do high reps i.e. 15-20 If you want the combination of strength and size then do medium to high reps i.e. 8-12 If you…
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As those of you who follow this site know, I’m a big fan of squats. I truly believe that they have a part to play in everyones routines, regardless of your goals. I don’t mean everyone should be low-bar powerlifting as much as they can handle but the movement is such a fundamental ingredient of…
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You know the old adage of as you get older you realise everything your parents told you was right? In the main, I’ve increasingly found it to be true: a lot of the stuff that had you rolling your eyes when you were a teenager turns out to be pretty spot on as you get…
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If you went around a typical gym and took a survey of what people’s aesthetic goals were, the chances are you’d find this result: Men want to build muscle and be bigger Women want to be toned If the buzzword in men’s fitness is ‘size’, the equivalent for women is ‘tone’, at least when it…
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Advertising loves the word transformation. It’s evocative and inspiring: it makes you think of fresh new pages, leaves turned over and new possibilities. If you search fitness articles, websites and YouTube channels a large emphasis is placed on this word. It’s a hook, along with the well-worn before and after photos. Sometimes even I can’t…
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“Shoot for the moon, and you’ll land among the stars” It’s a nice saying. Aim high and you’ll get further than you thought. But it’s equally pretty important to aim realistic, as well as high. Shooting for one of Jupiter’s moons is not really a goal, because you’re never going to get near it. How…
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Before I begin let me just state that this is my opinion, based on my own experience of it and using it on and off over the years. In case you didn’t know, creatine is one of the most talked about and debated supplements in recent times, with dividing views on both ends of the…
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One thing I used to do a lot, and still do sometimes, is Google search a particular fitness topic I happen to be interested in at the time. For example I used to be overly concerned with improving my bench press, so I would type phrases like “how to improve your bench press” and “best…
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A big buzzword in fitness in recent times has been the theory of muscle confusion. Some of the fastest growing fitness followings such as Crossfit are built on the idea that doing traditional programs that focus on the development of the body through repetition and practice are not the optimum way in which to achieve…
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For the volume of material that is and has been written about it, you might think that building muscle is a highly complicated process. Certainly when it comes to trying to eek out the last one percent of performance at a high level it can get quite scientific and complex. But for most of us…
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