hypertrophy – Beary Strong

How To Build Muscle

Everything you need to know to start growing.

Building muscle is a weird thing. First it is really easy “just eat and lift heavy stuff”. Later it get complicated “autoregulation, individualisation, periodisation”. Then suddenly it everythings clears up again “find what works for you, then stick to it and be patient”. To help you to get to the last stage, I’ve compiled a few articles. We start with the basics and add advanced considerations later. Enjoy!

Why You Should Stop Perma Dieting

A vicious circle leading nowhere and how to break it.

Permanently dieting is the number one mistake people make after they achieved their first big fat loss goal. They are happy they look and feel the way they do now and afraid that gaining weight will kill the goals they achieved. They want to maintain the shredded look, but often maintaining is the hardest thing to do, leading only to more restraint than the diet itself. Read on to learn more about these problems and how to get rid of them!

The Waning Power Of Genetics

A deeper insight on the role of genetics and the new trend of genetic testing.

In the evidence-based natural bodybuilding scene it is currently very popular to make genetics responsible for all the good results (mostly of someone else) or blame genetics for not achieving goals (mostly the own ones). Compared to the 90’s and the early 2000’s, genetics is very tangible as genetic tests are sold as a solution to fix diet and training. Long-time readers of the blog know my opinion on it, but I’ll repeat it again: you should rather invest your money in healthy food and a good coach than on expensive DNA testing, since their validity is still very questionable. Nevertheless, genes do play a huge role, especially in elite sports, but a lot of us do focus a bit too much on it and limit themselves by blaming genetics and resigning too soon.

Training Volume

Finding the sweet spot for your training volume.

Recently training volume caused a lot of discussion in the evidence based fitness scene. People started fighting each other over the seemingly simple question: How much should I train? High volume zealots and low volume purists collided, leaving no definite answer behind. So let’s take a look at the data and figure out ourselves how much to do at the gym!

Strength Training For Women – Part II

Practical applications.

Welcome back to my Strength Training For Women series. This time we will take a closer look on how to apply the gender differences I discussed in Part I of this series. I am happy you came back to learn how to build muscles. It’s a great decision to get stronger, build up, improve and stop the mindset of “becoming less”: eating less, exercising in a less “manly” way, exhausting yourself less. Now it’s time to grow!

Strength Training For Women – Part 1

Scientific basics and clarifications.

In this part of my Strength Training For Women series, I will cover the scientific basics of muscle building for women, make some clarifications on the role of testosterone and discuss the main differences between men and women when it comes to strength improvements and muscle building. Why? Because I have enough of weak, frail women. I want women to be healthy and strong!

About Exercise Variety

Why exercise variation isn’t always optimal.

During our long flight from Vienna to Tokyo I’ve got a bunch of downloadable magazines for free. Of course I’ve taken some of the fitness related ones even if they are often full of bro-science, but they are a good inspiration for writing blog posts though. One of them was looking really nice: it had a really strong looking woman on the cover, instead of just one of the pretty & skinny girls. I started reading the training and coaching philosophy of this apparently “evidence-based” lady and my jaw dropped as the words “muscle confusion” (=constantly changing the exercises in your training plan) as driver for muscle growth were used. Well -spoiler alert- the opposite of muscle confusion is rather a driver for hypertrophy. Let’s see why and where variation may or may not make sense.

The Hypertrophy Range Myth

Outdated but still usefull.

The idea of repetition ranges is pretty old, dating back at least to the ’50s. It’s the concept that training with certain weights and therefore repetitions elicits different adaptations like strength, muscle building and endurance. And on the first glance this makes perfect sense, as you get better at what you train. But if you followed the fitness industry for some time, you find conflicting ideas of what makes muscle grow the fastest. So grab a protein shake, put on the “Conan” soundtrack and let’s have a closer look.

Five Is The Magic Number

What makes a repetition stimulating?

Perhaps you have already heard something like “effective repetitions”, “stimulating reps” or “junk reps”. They all refer to the fact that not every repetition of a set is equally efficient to stimulate muscle hypertrophy. To force a muscle to grow, certain key factors have to be met.

Paired Sets For Better Results In Less Time

Sounds too good to be true? Nope, It’s just good programing.

Doing paired sets might give you better results over time by increasing total work volume done. And it also decreases the time you have to dedicate to working out. A classic win-win situation! Read on to learn how it works and how you can implement this strategy in you own training.