Hypertrophy Past and Present

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

In this episode of Hypertrophy Past & Present, Jake and Chris begin with an early 1950s “muscular bulk” routine from Jack Delinger. They discuss the minimalist, barbell-only full-body program and how exercise variety may need to gradually increase as a bodybuilder becomes more advanced. The conversation then shifts to training plateaus: what actually qualifies as a plateau, why slow progress is often mistaken for no progress, and how to distinguish between plateaus caused by accumulating fatigue and those caused by limitations in exercise selection or motor unit recruitment. Key topics include: Jack Delinger’s minimalist full-body muscular bulk routine What actually qualifies as a training plateau The difference between fatigue and “stimulus” plateaus Why changing exercises can create the illusion that a plateau has been solved How dominant muscle groups can limit the development of other muscles When to keep an exercise and add another rather than replacing it Why adding more volume rarely addresses the actual cause of a plateau Join our Hypertrophy Past and Present Training group on Trainheroic.com

In this episode of Hypertrophy Past & Present , Jake and Chris begin with a 1972 routine from Bradley J. Steiner and discuss what makes it one of the more sensible "golden era" bodybuilding programs they've reviewed so far and whether splitting exercises across consecutive days is likely to be more or less effective than performing all exercises in a single workout. The conversation then shifts towards the concept of "training hard." Jake and Chris unpack what hard training actually means, why RPE is often a poor proxy for hypertrophy, and how chasing "hard training" can unintentionally encourage fatigue instead of productive training. Key topics include: Bradley J. Steiner's minimalist 1972 bodybuilding routine Whether splitting workouts across consecutive days improves stimulus to fatigue ratio Why RPE and reps in reserve are not interchangeable How cardiovascular fatigue, burning sensations, and instability can increase effort while reducing stimulus The concept of "quality over quantity" as a better way to think about muscle growth Why telling people to "train harder" may actually make their programs less effective

In this episode of Hypertrophy Past & Present, Jake and Chris begin with Steve Michalik’s enormous 1972 Mr. America routine and why silver-era routines are the best data set for natural training routines. From there, Jake and Chris explore how the hypertrophy dose-response relationship interacts with the stimulating reps model. They discuss why the second and third sets provide progressively less growth stimulus, whether this means they contain fewer stimulating repetitions, and how the answer depends on whether the reduction is caused by fatigue or stimulus saturation. Key topics include: • Steve Michalik’s 1972 Mr. America routine • How training status changes the number of potentially stimulating repetitions • Combining the stimulating reps and weekly net stimulus models • Why fewer hypertrophy gains from a second set does not necessarily mean fewer stimulating reps • The difference between fatigue and stimulus saturation • How longer rest periods can make a second set more effective • Why making the second set better makes later sets less valuable • Why back-off sets are an inefficient method for doing a second set • How to achieve more hypertrophy stimulus with fewer total sets

In this episode of Hypertrophy Past & Present, Jake and Chris begin with Alan Stephan’s classic Silver Era full-body routine, which he reportedly followed for years while building enormous strength and muscle. This leads into a deeper discussion about exercise variation, whether exercises really “stop working”, and why good natural bodybuilding programs often end up looking repetitive. From there, Jake and Chris move into one of the most important physiological arguments behind the stimulating reps model: hypertrophy is not a whole-muscle phenomenon, but a muscle-fibre-specific one. They discuss why this matters for understanding mechanical tension, light-load training to failure, sarcomerogenesis, stretch-mediated hypertrophy, force-velocity relationships, fatigue, exercise selection, and training frequency. Key topics include: • Alan Stephan’s 1940s full-body routine • Why an exercise does not “stop working” just because progress slows • How single-fibre mechanical tension explains the stimulating reps model • Sarcomerogenesis, passive tension, titin, and stretch-mediated growth • Why hypertrophy and sarcomerogenesis are not the same thing • How cross-bridge formation and shortening velocity influence fibre tension • Why exercise selection matters if hypertrophy is fibre-specific • How Silver Era routines line up with modern physiology

In this episode of Hypertrophy Past & Present, Jake and Chris begin with a classic Clancy Ross full-body routine from the Silver Era, then move into a discussion about training frequency, mTOR, muscle protein synthesis, and whether training again before the previous hypertrophy stimulus has “finished” is actually a problem. Key topics include: • Clancy Ross’ 1940s full-body single set routine • Whether training a muscle every 48 hours can blunt hypertrophy • How repeated bout effect studies can be misapplied to training frequency • Why mTOR signalling is not the same thing as muscle growth • The role of oxidative stress and inflammation in post-workout recovery • How volume, frequency, stress, dieting, and athletic workloads affect recovery • Why the best training frequency is limited by recovery

In this episode of Hypertrophy Past & Present, Jake and Chris discuss a full body training A/A/A program from Steve Reeves before exploring how to choose between repeating the same full body workout three times per week or alternating between two different full body workouts. Key topics include: • Steve Reeves’ full body AAA routine • Why many old-school routines online should be treated cautiously • The lying dumbbell front raise and how it may train different regions of the chest • Why exercise selection should come before choosing a training split • Full body AAA vs full body ABA/BAB • The problem with doing multiple sets of the same exercise versus using more exercise variety • How spinal CNS fatigue, supraspinal CNS fatigue, metabolites, and calcium ion accumulation affect hypertrophy training • How advanced lifters can use priorities to decide which exercises stay the same and which rotate

In this episode of Hypertrophy Past & Present, Jake and Chris discuss deloads. The episode begins with a look at a training program used by six-time Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates before exploring the physiology of accumulated fatigue and recovery. Key topics include: • Dorian Yates' Olympia-era training program • Why training hard does not automatically mean you need a deload • The difference between planned deloads and reactive deloads • How accumulated fatigue affects hypertrophy training • Whether anabolic steroid use changes the need for deloads • How Chris would structure the “perfect” deload • How to program RIR during a deload • How long a deload should actually last

In this episode of Hypertrophy Past & Present, Jake and Chris discuss how to build the biggest back possible. The episode begins with a back specialization routine from Silver Era educator Peary Rader before breaking down the most effective modern exercises for lats, traps, rear delts, and spinal erectors. Key topics include: • Peary Rader's Silver Era back specialization routine • Why lats are best trained with both sagittal and frontal plane exercises • The most overrated back exercise according to Chris • Kelso shrugs vs vertical shrugs • The challenge of directly training spinal erectors • Are deadlifts are enough to build the spinal erectors • The simple 3-exercise framework for back training • The controversy surrounding Jefferson curls and loaded spinal flexion

In this episode of Hypertrophy Past & Present, Jake and Chris analyse a Reg Park power-focused routine and use it as a starting point to discuss powerbuilding. The episode explores how lifters can structure training depending on whether they lean more toward bodybuilding, powerlifting, or a true middle ground. Key topics include: • Reg Park’s power routine from his Mr. Universe course • The difference between bodybuilding, powerlifting, and powerbuilding goals • How to modify a bodybuilding routine toward strength • How to modify a powerlifting routine toward hypertrophy • Why full body A/B routines may suit powerbuilding better than full body A • How Reg Park’s routine compares to a Chris and Jake's modern powerbuilding program

In this episode of Hypertrophy Past & Present, Jake and Chris analyse a 1940s training routine from silver era bodybuilder George Eiferman, including his progression model. The episode explores how silver era lifters approached progression and how confusion around progression models has influenced the modern bodybuilding. Key topics include: • George Eiferman’s 1940s full body training routine • Why silver era bodybuilders often used wider rep range • Understanding progression as an input vs progression as an output • Why “progressive overload” is often misunderstood • Why strength gains naturally slow over time without indicating a plateau • The Hepburn progression model and why it works • How exercise selection influences practical rep ranges and loading strategies

In this episode of Hypertrophy Past & Present, Jake and Chris follow up last week's episode on drop sets by diving deeper into the physiology of fatigue and rest periods. Using an extreme high-volume routine from Serge Nubret, the episode explores why different exercises, rep ranges, and proximity to failure dramatically change the amount and type of fatigue that accumulates during training. Key topics include: • Serge Nubret’s ultra high-volume, short-rest training system • The four major fatigue mechanisms involved in strength training • Why “2-3 minute rest periods” may be an oversimplified recommendation • How exercise selection changes optimal rest periods • How clusters and reps in reserve reduce fatigue accumulation • Why stretch-position exercises are more sensitive to muscle damage and calcium ion accumulation

In this episode of Hypertrophy Past & Present, Jake and Chris explore the origins and physiology of drop sets, beginning with a 1949 drop set routine from Henry J. Atkin. The episode examines how “multiple poundage system” training was originally performed in the silver era, before transitioning into a physiological breakdown of why modern drop set research may not support many of the claims made about the method today. Key topics include: • Henry J. Atkin’s 1949 “multiple poundage system” • Why early drop set protocols may have been more intelligent than modern versions • A review of the recent drop sets meta analysis and systematic review • How short rest periods influence motor unit recruitment and fatigue • Why drop set studies may actually just be studies on rest periods • The difference between drop sets, clusters, and rest-pause training • How cardiovascular fitness changes recovery between sets • When drop sets may make sense for clients, and when they likely don’t

In this episode of Hypertrophy Past & Present, Jake and Chris explore the use of circuits in hypertrophy training, starting with a 1960s circuit-style routine published by John McCallum. The episode examines how circuit-style training was used in the silver era, before transitioning into a physiology-first breakdown of when circuits might actually make sense for muscle growth today, and when they likely fall short. Key topics include: • A breakdown of McCallum’s Peripheral Heart Action (PHA) circuit routine • Why inserting low-fatigue exercises between compounds can improve performance • How circuits may reduce the exercise order effect across a workout • When circuits might outperform straight sets (and when they won’t) • How to structure circuits using clusters, low reps, and reps in reserve • The practical limitations of circuits in busy gyms