In this post, I’m going to show you a highly effective 2-day full-body workout routine that you can use to build muscle. First, I want to answer a very common question: Is working out twice a week enough? Or is it just a complete waste of time? Any amount of time spent lifting weights, be […]
Strength Training For Cyclists: Will It Make You Faster?
Some say that cyclists have no business at all lifting weights. Cycling relies mainly on cardiovascular fitness, they say, and there’s absolutely no need to be strong. Strength training represents wasted time that could be much better spent on the bike, and is therefore completely pointless. Others claim that strength training will transform you into […]
Alpha-Lipoic Acid and Weight Loss: The Horseman Takes a Fall
Alpha-lipoic acid forms part of the PAGG stack, a combination of several nutrients made popular in Timothy Ferriss’s book The 4-Hour Body. Ferriss calls it one of the “four horsemen of fat burning” for its alleged ability to “store the carbohydrates you eat in muscle or in your liver as opposed to in fat.” Intrigued […]
The Real Truth About Deer Antler Spray, IGF-1 and Muscle Growth
On the eve of the Super Bowl, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis had to deny using deer antler spray to speed his recovery from a torn muscle. Three-time golf major champion Vijay Singh also found himself in hot water when a Sports Illustrated article reported that he paid $9,000 for the supplement, stickers with holograms […]
HIIT and the Afterburn Effect: Myth or Fact?
The afterburn effect is certainly real in the sense that exercise (especially intense exercise, such as HIIT) can affect your metabolism for a number of hours after the workout is over. However, the size of afterburn effect, as well as the extent to which it contributes to fat loss, have been exaggerated. Here’s a closer […]
Can Body Fat Calipers Accurately Measure Body Fat Percentage?
I don’t use or recommend any of the body fat tests out there. That’s mainly because they don’t tell me anything that I can’t see for myself by looking in the mirror. If you really want some kind of “objective” way to measure how much fat you’re losing over time, I’d suggest using skinfold calipers. […]
Are Body Fat Scales Accurate? What 9 Studies Say
How accurate are body fat scales? The short answer is that they’re not accurate at all. In fact, you can’t rely on any of the body fat tests out there to track fat loss and muscle growth over time. Using the results to guide your training and diet decisions may well send you off in […]
Should You Lose Fat or Build Muscle First?
You want an extra 5 to 10 pounds of new muscle. But you’re also overweight and need to lose fat. Is it better to focus on losing fat or building muscle first? If you’re an overweight beginner, losing fat and building muscle aren’t mutually exclusive. With the right type of diet and training program, you […]
Body by Science: Random Thoughts about HIT and Muscle Growth
Body by Science. Does it work? That’s the question posed by one Muscle Evo reader this week. “I’m currently following the Body by Science program,” he wrote. “It’s a HIT program that involves training each muscle group once a week, doing five exercises in total. The reps are very slow, and you only do one […]
Straight Talk about Protein and Kidney Damage
The idea that a high-protein diet puts “stress” on the kidneys they’re unable to handle is something that people have been arguing about for years. It dates back to the early 1980′s when Dr. Barry Brenner proposed a link between high protein diets and the progression of renal disease (renal refers to the kidneys). In […]