Muscular Hypertrophy for Bodybuilders: What Training Styles Work the Best? by Jerry Brainum 6/21

 

 

In this publication, I've presented science-based training techniques that work for most people. When I say "science-based" I'm referring to the fact that most of this information has appeared in various scientific studies of competitive bodybuilders. But there are some notable problems associated with these studies. Many of them, if not the majority, use untrained subjects in the studies. This is problematic because untrained subjects will respond to just about any style of training. You make the most rapid gains when you begin regular training. But as time goes on, the ability to make such rapid progress often grinds to a snail's pace. A such, relying on information based on the study of beginners is nearly useless for anyone with a year or more of training experience. However, not all the studies have been like this. A few of the studies did examine the training techniques of more advanced bodybuilders, some with more than five years of training experience. Such studies are far more valuable to most people.

I prefer to rely on the information presented by evidence-based studies rather than other, far less reliable sources of information. Examples of less reliable information include bodybuilding magazines, web-based articles and blogs, and worst of all, YouTube videos. The training suggestions I've seen in many YouTube videos amaze me for their total lack of sense and usefulness. But the truth is that anyone can post a YouTube video; there are no qualifications whatsoever to do so. As for bodybuilding magazines, I wrote for them for over 35 years and I can honestly say that at one time they were superior sources of training information. But that was years ago. The current magazines; that is, the few that still exist that haven't been victims of the Internet, are poorly written and for a good reason. Magazines used to rely on advertising and still do. But with the advent of the Internet, advertisers abandoned print media in favor of digital media, as on the Internet. The rationale behind this switch is that the advertisers could reach far more potential customers over the Internet compared to print media. What the advertisers didn't take into account, however, was modern technology that is capable of completely blocking their ads. But when the advertisers quit the print magazines, the budgets of the magazines dwindled to nothing. As such, they became unable to afford top-notch writers and those with genuine knowledge of exercise and nutrition. The current writers for the magazines--and I use the term "writers" very loosely since they are not professional in any sense of the word--are the "99 cents store" category of writers. Many are just trainers trying to get their name out, and they are willing to work for nothing or nearly nothing.As the saying goes, "You get what you pay for," and this shows up in the level of information and . . .