In this episode of Hypertrophy Past & Present, Jake and Chris take a practical, end-of-year look at the most common mistakes people make when returning to the gym, whether they’re starting fresh in January or jumping back in after time off. Using a pre-steroid era full-body routine attributed to George Eiferman the discussion highlights what earlier bodybuilders consistently got right.

From there, the conversation expands into current gym programming trends, including unstable exercise selection, cardio-driven exercises, excercise novelty, poor progress tracking, and misguided injury-prevention strategies. 

Key topics include:

-George Eiferman's "favourite" 1952 full-body routine

-Why unstable exercises reduce motor unit recruitment

-The problem with excessive cardiovascular demand

-Why changing exercises too often prevents meaningful hypertrophy

-Progressive overload as a tracking tool

-Muscle damage, repeated bout effect, and the risks of rushing back after time off

-Why warm-up sets aren't the same as 'warming up'