heavy

Personal trainers frequently hear women express a desire to “tone up” while at the same time having fear of getting “bulky” or looking “manly.” The common misconception is that lifting heavy weights for women will make their muscles big and beefy, and instead, they often opt for light weights...

Shaun Clarida made sure that no stone, or muscle, was left unturned as he shared his very last heavy back day workout with more than 650,000 of his Instagram followers—just days out from Olympia 2024. For “The Giant Killer,” the time for talking is over as he let his epic session to do the...

Having won the Mr. Olympia Classic Physique trophy every year since 2019, many observers and competitors are making bold predictions that Chris Bumstead is going to be toppled on bodybuilding’s biggest stage in less than 2 weeks, but if 2024 is going to be the year that the chiselled Canadian is...

Experienced bodybuilders often meticulously plan their pre-contest training regimen during the off-season. They employ strategies such as split system workouts, carefully calibrated sets and reps, and a diverse array of targeted exercises to maximize muscle growth and strength. Their primary...

Andrea is the perfect blend of nature and nurture. Bodybuilding greatness is very much dependent on genetics (as is true in all sports) but there must be a lot of nurture working in combination with nature to achieve success. In other words, success requires a lot of hard, disciplined, and...

Body levers can play a pretty heavy role into what we naturally excel at. People with long arms, for instance, will likely be especially good at throwing, rowing, martial arts, and racquet sports. Taller folks will generally have a size advantage in basketball and volleyball. Large, heavy people...

IFBB Pro League women’s bodybuilder Kristina Mendoza has a physique worthy of standing on any stage, but what fans know her best for are her quads. Knowing a lot of people wonder what her keys are for building great legs, she shared her insights with Whitney Jones and Alina Popa on a recent...

The number of articles online reassuring women that upping their dumbbell weight will not morph their feminine physique into a She-Hulk speaks volumes. Although over the years more women have gravitated to the weightroom, the misconceptions surrounding women and weights continues to make its...

Even though drop sets are claimed as part of the Weider System (what isn’t?), they were originally called the multi poundage system by their creator, Henry Atkins, editor of Body Culture magazine, in 1947. Since then, they have become known as strip sets, the stripping method, descending sets...

How Do You Build Muscle? If we’re talking about building muscle and not truly focusing in on our lifting performances, then we’re talking hypertrophy in its purest form. We can’t increase the amount of specific muscle fibers that we possess, but we can increase the size of our existing fibers...

Retired professional boxer and former British welterweight champion Chris Evangelou knows a thing or two about throwing powerful and accurate combinations thanks to his heavy bag drills and boxing technique. The London-born athlete of Greek-Cypriot origin represented Cyprus at the 2008 Olympic...

Fitness expert and two-time Ms. Figure Olympia champion Erin Stern knows the importance of strong glutes, hamstrings, and back muscles doesn't end on the stage. In her recent Instagram video, Erin demonstrates the rack pull, a rarely-seen, shortened version of the deadlift performed from either...

Google "shoulder training mistakes," and the search engine will spit out articles featuring advise like "Don't use bad form," "Move a full range of motion," and "Never go too heavy." Well...duh! You won't find that kind of overgeneralized silliness here. This is advice by lifters, for lifters...

When you’ve been in the iron game a while, you begin to ask yourself some tough questions: How do I maximize size without sacrificing strength? How do I get stronger without getting injured? In short, how can a lifter have it all—muscle, power, and pain-free joints to enjoy the benefits? The...