In this episode of Hypertrophy: Past and Present, Jake Doleschal and Chris Beardsley unpack the very first York Barbell course, discussing its warm-up approach and how it compares to other silver era routines.

The second half of the episode zooms out to explore warm-ups more broadly, what they actually do (and don’t do), whether they affect hypertrophy, and why most warm-up advice might be misguided.

Key topics:

• The three physiological effects of warming up: temperature, PAP, and PAPE
• Why most common warm-up routines may do nothing for hypertrophy or injury prevention
• How to structure warm-ups that actually do something

In this episode of Hypertrophy: Past and Present, Jake Doleschal and Chris Beardsley break down a pre-steroid bulking routine from Alan Stephen, an underrated Silver Era bodybuilder who trained with a pretty unique method. They explore how this high volume, low rep program makes sense with the stimulating reps model, and use it as a springboard to unpack one of the most misunderstood training concepts: work capacity.

Key Topics:
• The three definitions of “work capacity” and which one actually matters
• Why volume doesn’t improve your ability to do more work
• How cardiovascular endurance (and not higher reps or more sets) influences gym performance

In this episode of Hypertrophy: Past and Present, Jake Doleschal and Chris Beardsley explore whether full body training can be done every day, and what that really looks like. Drawing inspiration from Bronze Era strongman George Hackenschmidt, they unpack creative strategies for making high frequency training work.

Key Topics:

• How training every day differs from traditional 3x per week programming
• How MYOPS behaves and whether it must return to baseline before training again
• What programming variables to consider when training full body daily

In this episode of Hypertrophy: Past and Present, Jake Doleschal and Chris Beardsley return to Reg Park, but this time explore one of his most advanced programs. They compare this higher volume plan to Park’s earlier abbreviated routine before exploring whether all training programs eventually lead to the same outcome, and which variables actually determine your muscular potential.

Key Topics:

• How Reg Park’s exercise selection evolved from bulk to shape
• The physiology behind fibre-specific muscle damage
• Why exercise selection and frequency determine your end result
• What volume actually does (and doesn’t) achieve when it comes to muscle growth
• Why different exercises once a week is often worse than repeating the same exercise twice

In this episode of Hypertrophy: Past and Present, Jake Doleschal and Chris Beardsley discuss one of the strongest bodybuilders of the Silver Era, and the third man to ever bench 500 pounds, Marvin Eder's training routine. 

The second half of the episode takes a deep dive into the mechanisms of strength, why strength isn’t a single adaptation, and why hypertrophy does contribute to strength.

Key Topics:

• The alignment between old-school programming and recoverability data
• Why strength isn’t one thing
• The 6 mechanisms of strength gains (and how they interact)
• What lateral force transmission is

In this episode of Hypertrophy: Past and Present, Jake Doleschal and Chris Beardsley dissect Reg Park’s 1950s “Mr. Universe Bulk Course”. Unlike the high-variation, single-set approach of Steve Reeves discussed in the previous episdoe, Reg Park’s plan featured fewer exercises but high set volume, low reps, and heavy loads. 

The second half of the episode shifts into a deep dive on post-workout fatigue; what it actually is, what causes it, and why the common beliefs about fatigue and recovery might be wrong. 

Key topics:

• The surprising recoverability of low rep, high set training
• Why post-workout fatigue is driven by calcium ion accumulation
• The four types of post-workout fatigue
• Why understanding the mechanisms of fatigue helps unlock more efficient programming

In this episode of Hypertrophy: Past and Present, Jake Doleschal and Chris Beardsley break down Steve Reeves’ favourite full-body routines from the early 1950s. They explore how Reeves trained each muscle with three different exercises, and why this multi-exercise, single-set approach might still be one of the most efficient ways to train if programmed correctly. The episode dives into the physiology behind exercise variation, the concept of neuromechanical matching, and how advanced lifters can apply full-body A/B splits to maximise hypertrophy.

Key topics:

• The difference between single sets per muscle vs. per exercise
• Why muscle hypertrophy and atrophy are muscle fibre-specific (not muscle-specific)
• How neuromechanical matching determines which fibres get trained in each exercise
• How to program more efficiently to achieve more growth with less work

In this episode of Hypertrophy: Past and Present, Jake Doleschal and Chris Beardsley examine Clancy Ross’ 1940s split set routine - an early experiment in dividing upper and lower body training that predated modern training splits. They break down how Ross evolved his training by splitting full-body workouts into AM/PM upper/lower sessions and discuss what this teaches us about fatigue management, muscle damage, and cardiovascular recovery. 

Key topics:

• How Clancy Ross experimented with splitting his full body sessions into upper/lower
• The two types of supraspinal CNS fatigue (intra-workout vs. post-workout)
• How cardiovascular fitness governs your session capacity
• Why some lifters respond better to either full-body 3x per week or upper/lower 6x per week

In this second episode, Jake Doleschal and Chris Beardsley break down the York Barbell Mr America Course, a program from 1951 that evolved from the earlier Milo Barbell plan. They explore what changed in the decades following the first mass-produced bodybuilding programs, including the introduction of sets, improved exercise selection, and targeted variations. They then connect these historical shifts to modern muscle physiology, focusing on how long the hypertrophy stimulus lasts after a workout, and why full-body training remains superior. 

Key topics:

•  How the York Barbell Course built on the Milo plan
• Why the shift from reps to sets was a turning point
• How to interpret MPS/MYOPS data without confusing stimulus and damage
• Why most hypertrophy occurs within 24–36 hours of a session
• How this insight changes everything about training frequency

In this debut episode, Jake Doleschal and Chris Beardsley dissect the very first mass-produced bodybuilding program: the Milo Barbell Course. They explore how early bodybuilders trained before steroids existed and what their exercise choices reveal about muscle understanding. They then connect these historical methods to modern muscle physiology, focusing on the stimulating reps model and the critical role of training frequency. You'll learn why full-body training 3x per week was not just a product of the time, but may still be the optimal approach for natural hypertrophy today.

Key topics:

• What the Milo Barbell Course included (and what it left out)
• How pre-steroid era training evolved
• How early lifters intuitively selected exercises based on regional hypertrophy
• Why high-frequency training (e.g. 3x per week) is physiologically superior (even without factoring in atrophy!)
• The nonlinear dose-response of training volume: why first sets matter most