Hypertrophy Past and Present

In this episode of Hypertrophy Past & Present, Jake and Chris start with a bizarre 1950s workout from Barton Horvath before breaking down how to actually understand hypertrophy research. They discuss what common measurements such as muscle thickness, cross-sectional area, EMG and strength testing really tell us, where they can mislead us, and why understanding the physiology behind a study matters as much as reading its results.

Key topics include:

• Barton Horvath’s 1950s “unusual” routine
• What researchers actually mean when they measure “hypertrophy,” and the differences between muscle thickness, cross-sectional area, muscle volume and muscle biopsies
• What EMG can and cannot tell us about muscle activation, recruitment and exercise selection
• What researchers actually mean by “recovery"
• Why vertical jump performance can be more sensitive to fatigue than maximal isometric strength
• The difference between a large numerical effect and a statistically significant effect

Want 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 start with a 1947 Steve Reeves workout before accidentally going down an AI rabbit hole. They discuss the difference between “evidence-based” and “science-based” thinking, and how AI can be used to understand research and design training without simply accepting the first (usually incorrect) answer it gives you.

Key topics include:

• Steve Reeves’ 1947 full-body routine, including his rest-pause approach
• The difference between evidence-based and science-based approaches to interpreting training research
• Why AI often defaults to conventional answers when asked about training and hypertrophy
• How giving AI source material can dramatically change its answers
• Using AI to interrogate research, identify patterns in studies, test hypotheses, and accelerate learning
• The limitations of using AI to write bodybuilding programs from scratch
• How coaches and lifters can use AI without outsourcing their critical thinking

Want 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 welcome their first-ever guest, Soren, the “67-set upper day guy.” Soren takes us through his upper-body workout exercise by exercise, explaining the reasoning behind some of his more unconventional setups.

Key topics include:

• Soran’s 67-set upper-body workout and the philosophy behind training so many individual muscle functions
• Modifying pec decks ad pullover machines to target different regions of the chest
• Training the lats through sagittal, frontal, and scapular-plane movements
• Direct training for the traps, scapular muscles, neck, and shoulder rotators
• How Soren manages 67 exercises without spending several hours in the gym

Check out Soren on social media at lemrant_da_lifta

Want 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 Vern Weaver’s 1961 two-day-per-week routine, providing an interesting example of how effective training can potentially be structured around only two weekly gym sessions. The conversation then shifts into the philosophy of hypertrophy research: what actually constitutes a scientific model, what a hypertrophy model is supposed to explain, and how different models have shaped both research and training recommendations. Chris traces the progression from muscle damage and metabolic stress explanations through to the stimulating reps model, before examining a recently proposed alternative in which every repetition provides some degree of hypertrophy stimulus.

Key topics include:

• Vern Weaver’s 1961 two-day-per-week bodybuilding routine
• What a scientific model actually is
• How the muscle damage and metabolic stress models arose to explain unexpected findings in the strength-training literature
• Whether criticisms of “the last five reps” are actually criticisms of the stimulating reps model or simply disagreements about its practical application
• A recently proposed model in which every repetition provides some hypertrophy stimulus
• How someone might go about constructing a new hypertrophy model

Want 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 by reviewing an early female bodybuilding routine: a six-day-per-week program. Despite some problems with the weekly structure, the relatively low number of sets per exercise and surprisingly comprehensive exercise selection make it one of the more interesting Golden-Era routines covered on so far!

The conversation then turns to a common question: do different muscles actually require different numbers of sets or different training frequencies?

Key topics include:

• An early female bodybuilding six-day-per-week routine and how it differs from modern female training programs
• Why hypertrophy being muscle-fibre specific challenges the idea that larger muscles inherently require more sets
• Whether slow-twitch dominant muscles such as the calves, quads, glutes and traps can tolerate more training volume
• Why being able to recover from additional sets does not necessarily mean those sets will produce substantially more hypertrophy
• How exercise selection changes volume tolerance, including the difference between exercises that load muscles in lengthened versus shortened positions
• How to adjust volume slightly upward or downward depending on the muscle, exercise, individual recovery and training goals

Want 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 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 routine
• The difference between a true plateau and a program that was never capable of producing continued progress
• Why strength gains can sometimes make a poorly designed hypertrophy program appear to be working
• Why life stress, poor sleep, dieting, or adding other forms of exercise may cause you to stop progressing without necessarily creating a true plateau
• Why coaches should investigate what has changed before immediately modifying a client’s training program
• The difference between managing a temporary lack of progress and actively trying to “bust” a plateau
• Why temporary stressors may only require reducing training volume, while long-term lifestyle changes may require rebuilding the program entirely

Want 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 another Leroy Colbert routine, this time examining an over 100 set silver-era routine. The conversation then explores whether you actually need to “feel” a muscle for it to grow, what the pump can tell us about muscle recruitment, and where the mind-muscle connection may or may not be useful.

Key topics include:

• Leroy Colbert’s extreme 10-set-per-exercise Silver Era routine
• Why “feeling” a muscle and getting a pump are not necessarily the same thing
• Why stretch, cramping, and soreness can be misleading indicators of muscle activation
• Mind-muscle connection, internal focus, and how they change muscle recruitment
• Why exercise selection may be a better solution than trying to force a mind-muscle connection
• When mind-muscle connection and isometric contractions may actually be useful
• Why constantly using a mind-muscle connection can interfere with progressive overload
• Why pre-fatiguing a muscle doesn’t cause the other muscles in a compound exercise to “do more work”
• What motor learning research tells us about training and practising skills while fatigued

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 routine
• Why bodybuilding training changed so dramatically after the introduction of anabolic steroids
• Forcing Chris into a philosophy conversation: appeal to tradition fallacy, Chesterton’s fence, the Lindy effect, and Occam’s razor
• Evidence that anabolic steroids can build muscle without a resistance-training stimulus
• Why steroid-induced muscle growth cannot simply be dismissed as water weight or sarcoplasmic hypertrophy
• The dose-response relationship between testosterone and muscle growth
• Why “replacement” doses of testosterone may still produce supraphysiological effects at the muscle

Join our Hypertrophy Past and Present Training group on TrainHeroic.com

In this episode of Hypertrophy Past & Present, Jake and Chris begin with Reg Park’s 1949 pre-contest routine, which involved training six days per week, twice per day, including the infamous 20-rep breathing squat. This leads into a deep dive on time under tension: Does making a set last longer actually increase muscle growth? Jake and Chris explore why total time under tension may be the wrong thing to measure and whether we should instead be thinking about “time under stimulating tension.”

Key topics include:

• Reg Park’s 1949 twice-a-day, six-day-per-week routine
• Why total time under tension may be a misleading measure of stimulus
• The difference between time under tension and time under stimulating tension
• Why the early repetitions of a high-rep set may contribute little to muscle growth
• Whether slowing down the concentric can maintain stimulus with fewer repetitions
• Why very slow eccentrics may actually reduce the hypertrophy stimulus
• Whether the final repetition of a set is really the most stimulating
• Using isometrics to replicate the stimulus of a conventional set

Join 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 routine
• Why Gironda avoided conventional bench presses and squats
• Can isolation-only training build a complete physique
• Whether exercise-induced cortisol interferes with muscle growth
• Why muscle growth is regulated at the muscle-fibre level, not across the whole body
• When an extremely long workout may stop stimulating the same muscle
• Why returning to the same muscle several hours later may be redundant
• Whether cardio after resistance training interferes with hypertrophy

Join our Hypertrophy Past and Present Training group on TrainHeroic.com