Hypertrophy Past and Present

In this episode of Hypertrophy Past & Present, Jake and Chris begin by reviewing Stuart McRobert’s 1989 hardgainer routine, a minimalist two-day-per-week program designed as an alternative to the increasingly extreme bodybuilding routines of the late 1980s. The conversation then explores an important distinction: is every period of stalled progress really a plateau, or are there times when we should simply expect progress to slow or stop?Key topics include:Stuart McRobert’s 1989 twice-weekly full-body hardgainer routineThe difference between a true plateau and a program that was never capable of producing continued progressWhy strength gains can sometimes make a poorly designed hypertrophy program appear to be workingWhy life stress, poor sleep, dieting, or adding other forms of exercise may cause you to stop progressing without necessarily creating a true plateauWhy coaches should investigate what has changed before immediately modifying a client’s training programThe difference between managing a temporary lack of progress and actively trying to “bust” a plateauWhy temporary stressors may only require reducing training volume, while long-term lifestyle changes may require rebuilding the program entirelyWant to train like a Silver-Era bodybuilder? Join our Hypertrophy Past and Present Training group on TrainHeroic.com

In this episode of Hypertrophy Past & Present, Jake and Chris begin with Leroy Colbert’s late-1970s enormous volume training plan. The conversation then explores whether using pre-steroid bodybuilders as a model for natural training is really an “appeal to tradition,” before examining the evidence that anabolic steroids can directly stimulate muscle growth even without resistance training.Key topics include:Leroy Colbert’s high-volume late-1970s routineWhy bodybuilding training changed so dramatically after the introduction of anabolic steroidsForcing Chris into a philosophy conversation: appeal to tradition fallacy, Chesterton’s fence, the Lindy effect, and Occam’s razorEvidence that anabolic steroids can build muscle without a resistance-training stimulusWhy steroid-induced muscle growth cannot simply be dismissed as water weight or sarcoplasmic hypertrophyThe dose-response relationship between testosterone and muscle growthWhy “replacement” doses of testosterone may still produce supraphysiological effects at the muscleJoin our Hypertrophy Past and Present Training group on TrainHeroic.com

In this episode of Hypertrophy Past & Present, Jake and Chris begin with a full-body routine from legendary bodybuilding coach Vince Gironda and the unusual reliance on isolation exercises. The conversation then shifts to workout duration: Is there any truth to the claim that workouts must be kept under 45, 60 or 90 minutes? Jake and Chris examine what actually happens as a workout becomes longer, including declining motivation, cardiovascular fatigue, exercise-order effects, cortisol, and the post-workout MPS elevation.Key topics include:Vince Gironda’s beginner full-body routineWhy Gironda avoided conventional bench presses and squatsCan isolation-only training build a complete physiqueWhether exercise-induced cortisol interferes with muscle growthWhy muscle growth is regulated at the muscle-fibre level, not across the whole bodyWhen an extremely long workout may stop stimulating the same muscleWhy returning to the same muscle several hours later may be redundantWhether cardio after resistance training interferes with hypertrophyJoin our Hypertrophy Past and Present Training group on TrainHeroic.com