Articles & Guides
Learn how to build muscle, burn fat and stay motivated.
Another Reason Your Muscle Building Program Sucks
One of the most popular, faulty and dangerous myths espoused in nearly every muscle building program is that you must use a full range of motion on every exercise in order to achieve maximal growth. Supposedly you have to take each movement to the fully stretched position and then finish in the full...
The Real Benefits of Stronger Glutes
For the longest time, training the glutes wasn’t something the average lifter was proud of. Thanks to scientific advancement and a general increase in training education, however, that mentality’s changed. Now we’re aware that it’s not only cool, but it’s incredibly important. With that said, it’s...
Ranking The Best Muscle Building Exercises: From Beast To Least
It's time to tune up your training routine. This article will rate exercises for each muscle group from "beast" to "least." Here is the scale: Beast - Typically a compound exercise that allows the use of heavier weight, provides a long term opportunity for progressive overload, and has a reputa...
Ranking Exercises For Chest: Is The Bench Press Number One?
Here is a ranking of the best exercises for building a better chest based on personal experience and the training articles of top IFBB pro bodybuilders. This is not necessarily a determination of exercise order, but the exercises that are most effective for muscle fiber recruitment and targeting the...
Quick Tips To Correct Lifting Technique When You Are Training Alone
The body adapts with every single rep, and in order to reap maximum benefits from your training and avoid injury you must constantly search for, and produce perfect repetitions. This is a point emphasized by almost anyone who works with strength training. I remember Paul Chek, HHP, telling a story a...
How To Build Back Muscle Size: 8 Tips For An Impressive Back
It's a fact: a truly impressive back is about as rare as a balanced state budget or a Lindsay Lohan sighting outside a police car. Why is that? For one reason, it seems that Monday is worldwide chest and biceps day in any gym on this planet. Motivation then quickly falls apart, the scheduled back da...
Quad Building 101
Introduction to Quad Building 101 A new course is available at Weik University on building massive quads. Those interested in sitting through an easy course, no need to look any further because class has just begun. Everyone is guaranteed an “A” for the course as long as you sit through the course...
Q&A With Brad Borland, Volume 2: A Beginner Training Program
A Beginner Training Program I want to lift weights but have never been in the gym? Can you recommend a program to get me started? Going to the gym for the first time can be a daunting experience. With a plethora of machines and devices (more nowadays than ever) one can get overwhelmingly exci...
Pursuit of Prodigious Pecs: 7 Tips to More Effective Chest Training
Close your eyes and picture the chest development of legends like Arnold Schwarzennegger, Franco Columbo, and Lou Ferrigno in their prime -- or modern day freaks like ALLMAX’s own Steve Kuclo, Josh Wade and Ryan Watson. What do each of these incredible athletes have in common? All of them display pe...
The Pump: Broscience Or Legit Muscle Builder?
"Remember bodybuilding, and I stress (this) over and over, is mainly working for the pump and doing repetitions." - Jay Cutler "The greatest feeling you can get in a gym, or the most satisfying feeling you can get in the gym is the pump." - Arnold Schwarzenegger "You pump up, it goes down, a lit...
Pumps & DOMs: Are They Important for Making Gains?
Whether your goals are adding strength or adding size, the question in the title of this article is an important one to ask. The reason why is because too often, lifters spend time training hard, unknowingly facilitating a goal different than their intended one. In truth, training for strength and t...
Training Frequency for Protein Synthesis and Optimal Muscle Growth
The topic of protein synthesis as it relates to muscle building, is extremely important because It tells us exactly how frequently natural lifters should train if they want to build muscle at an optimal rate. Research reveals that when you train a body part, protein synthesis remains elevated genera...
4 Proven Ways To Maximize Your Gym Time
From using more productive workouts to getting into and out of the gym faster, there are always ‘tweaks’ you can make to your training that can help you achieve more than you might have thought possible. As a strength and conditioning coach, I’m continually running into new ways to do just that—achi...
Progressive Overload 101: What It Is, How It Works, and How to Apply It
Progressive overload is one of the most important principles in resistance training and one of the most misunderstood. Whether your goal is to build muscle, increase strength, or improve body composition, understanding how to apply progressive overload correctly can be the difference between consist...
Progression Of Weight: Building Muscle And Strength One Rep At A Time
Progression is the key to muscle and strength building. I often tell lifters to use the following approach during each workout: Push yourself on every set. Try to perform as many reps as possible without training to failure. When you can perform the recommended maximum number of reps for a set, add...
The Principle Of Progressive Overload, A Complete Guide
What is Progressive Overload? An important, but often neglected step in creating a custom workout plan involves choosing a progression plan. Progression, also called progressive overload, is the addition of weight over time. Progression begins on the set level, with the addition of reps. Eventually...
Best Pre-Exhaust Exercises for Every Muscle Group
I remember the first time I heard of the pre-exhaust method. Still in high school, I was reading an interview with the 2009 Mr. Olympia contestants where they all discussed their training leading into the show. Many of them used the pre-exhaust method on body parts to make sure the target muscle gro...
Practical Progression Approaches for Muscle Building
Progression is the systematic and structured increase in the amount of weight used in a bodybuilding or strength building workout. Progression of weight drives both muscle growth, and obviously, strength gains. But progression can be a mystery. Take a look at popular weight training workouts and you...
Training The Posterior Chain: Don’t Be Afraid Of Barbell Good Mornings
“A weak back equals a weak man.” I wish I had come up with this, but instead the credit goes to the legendary Louie Simmons from the famed Westside Barbell. It’s one of his favorite sayings, and, yeah, if Louie says it then it’s definitely true. For me, I’ve got some first-hand knowledge and now I c...
2019 Post-Summer Lean Bulking Guide
Someone wake up Green Day, September has ended… …And now that I’ve shown my age a little, let’s get to the point of this article. Summer officially ended a couple weeks ago and it’s time to trade in your tank and trunks for a hoody and sweats. Although you’re super lean from that summer shred, you’r...
5 Post-Workout Essentials For Maximum Recovery & Growth
Of all the times to be concerned with your dietary needs, post-workout nutrition is easily an incredibly important time during your quest for a more muscular physique. Not to shun the other meals of the day, or relegate them to subpar status, but post-training is a delicate and advantageous time to...
Plateau Blast: 10 Unique Ways To Bring Up Lagging Body Parts
Brad Borland is a strength & conditioning specialist, cancer survivor and the founder of WorkoutLab. We all have them and we all hate them - lagging body parts that just won’t respond to our greatest efforts. No matter how hard we try: adding more volume, strip sets, higher reps, lower reps, heavier...
The P.B.S. Model Part 3: The Solidification Phase
So far in this series, I’ve covered the best way to build muscle mass. In the Primer phase, you fix weak links, perfect the execution of your lifts, and learn to maintain form close to failure. This primes you for growth. Then, in the Build phase, you build on these foundations and gain muscle as ef...
Paused Squats: A Brutal Alternative For Leg Size & Strength
For a very long time I was a hardcore advocate of 20 rep squat sets. I thought they were the most brutal and effectively idiotic thing you could do in the gym. Many of my late beginner to intermediate base building routines included a set of 20 reppers. I would often program 2 squat sessions per wee...