Training and Science
What is actually known about building muscle, as opposed to what the magazines sold. Hypertrophy research, volume and intensity, the high-intensity argument Mike Mentzer made and Arthur Jones marketed with Nautilus, nutrition and the supplement industry that grew out of it. Note that Weider settled with the FTC in 1985 for a minimum of four hundred thousand dollars over claims made for Anabolic Mega-Pak, which is a regulator's finding and not a rival's accusation.
Part of Bodybuilding
94 moments in this segment.
- - Roper's Gymnasium, Philadelphia. An American commercial gymnasium advertising in 1831, more than half a century before Sandow. The gymnasium as a paid urban institution predates bodybuilding as a sport.
- - Exercises for Ladies. An 1836 manual of exercises for women, using light dumbbells. The high-repetition, light-weight prescription sold to women in this book is substantially the one still sold to them.
- - Burlot resistance apparatus. A resistance apparatus illustrated in a German manual of 1898. Spring and pulley devices dominated home training before the loadable barbell became cheap.
- - Plate from How to Get Strong. From the 1899 edition of How to Get Strong. Nineteenth century strength manuals mixed apparatus work, calisthenics and dietary advice in proportions a modern reader would recognise.
- - Exercise apparatus. A resistance apparatus of the period. Nineteenth century home apparatus ran to pulleys, springs and elastic straps rather than free weights.
- - Indian Clubs and Dumb Bells. An instructional volume of 1901 pairing the imported Indian club with the Western dumbbell, showing how completely the akhara implement had been absorbed.
- - Club and dumbbell drill. The tone and bulk framing, high repetitions for one and low for the other, is not physiologically meaningful, and it is specifically the framing that was and is sold to women.
- - Fred Winters at the 1904 Olympics. The 1904 St Louis Olympics included barbell and dumbbell events. Competitive weightlifting and physique display had not yet fully separated into distinct sports.
- - Winner of the 1904 dumbbell competition. Winters won the dumbbell competition. Olympic weightlifting would keep the loaded barbell; bodybuilding would keep the developed body and abandon the measured lift.
- - Sandow's Body Building. Sandow's own book carried the title Body Building. The phrase predates the sport it now names by decades.
- - Athletic training at the Carpentier academy. Albert Carpentier's Paris academy of physical culture and boxing. The combined boxing and physical culture school was the standard European commercial form before the specialised bodybuilding gym existed.
- - Training at the academy. Interwar Paris. Weight training was still framed as preparation for a combat or athletic sport rather than as an end in itself.
- - Musculation at the Carpentier academy. The French word musculation, still the standard term for weight training in French, comes out of this milieu.
- - Athletic training. Progressive overload across load, volume and frequency is the operative training principle, and it was understood in outline long before it was named as such.
- - Portrait at the academy. A pupil photographed at the academy. The studio portrait was the school's advertising, as it had been for Sandow and Desbonnet before it.
- - Georges Carpentier. The boxer Georges Carpentier. Strength training entered mainstream sport through combat athletes and throwers well before it was accepted in most other disciplines.
- - Exercise, Hungary. From the Fortepan photographic archive. Interwar physical culture in central Europe ran through clubs and associations rather than commercial gyms.
- - Rudolf Ismayr's dumbbells. Dumbbells belonging to the German Olympic weightlifting champion Rudolf Ismayr. The 1936 Berlin games were the point at which state physical culture programmes and competitive strength sport most visibly converged.
- - Strength and Health, November 1948. Bob Hoffman's Strength and Health, published from York, Pennsylvania. Hoffman's York Barbell was the American equipment and supplement business that Weider's would later eclipse.
- - Portrait, Hungary. Physique culture continued in the Eastern bloc despite official disapproval. Bodybuilding was discouraged for long periods in the Soviet Union as a bourgeois and narcissistic pursuit.
- - Arthur Jones - The Nautilus Cam. Arthur Jones explaining the Nautilus cam, the mechanism the machines were built around and the reason for the company's name.
- - Arthur Jones training Sergio Oliva - part 1.. Arthur Jones training Sergio Oliva. Jones recruited established competitors to demonstrate his methods, which is how Nautilus reached the sport.
- - Arthur Jones and the Colorado Experiment [HOW CASEY VIATOR GAINED 63LBS OF MUSCLE!]. On the Colorado Experiment of 1973, in which Jones reported that Casey Viator gained a very large amount of muscle in 28 days. The study was uncontrolled and conducted by the man selling the machines, and it should be read as a promotional claim rather than a finding.
- - Bodybuilding in Hungary. Training in socialist Hungary. In much of the Eastern bloc the sport lived in basement gyms, the kachalki, outside official sport structures.
- - Arthur Jones Trains Boyer Coe Full Body HIT. Arthur Jones taking competitor Boyer Coe through a full body high intensity session on Nautilus equipment.
- - Bodybuilding, Hungary. After the Soviet collapse, Eastern European countries saw rapid growth in competitive bodybuilding, building on scenes like this one.
- - Arthur Jones - Talks about Nautilus Machines and Full Range Exercise. Arthur Jones speaking about Nautilus machines and full range exercise, in his own voice. Jones argued directly against the high volume orthodoxy the Weider magazines were selling.
- - Full Arthur Jones Seminar. A full Arthur Jones seminar. Jones was combative and specific, and the recordings are the primary source for a training philosophy usually described second hand.
- - Full Arthur Jones Seminar Part 2. The second part of a full Arthur Jones seminar.
- - MIKE MENTZER: THE HEAVY DUTY TRAINING SYSTEM (HIGH-INTENSITY TRAINING -- THEORY AND APPLICATION). Mike Mentzer setting out the Heavy Duty system in theory and practice, in his own words.
- - Squatting. The squat, the bench press and the deadlift form the loading base of most hypertrophy programmes. Progressive overload across load, volume and frequency is the operative training principle.
- - Arthur Jones Nautilus Seminar 1986. Arthur Jones at a Nautilus seminar in 1986.
- - Mike Mentzer: Fundamentals of Muscular Development (Tape 2/4). Mike Mentzer on the fundamentals of muscular development, from his instructional tape series.
- - Lifting belt. A weight training belt. Much standard gym equipment originated as competitive weightlifting kit and was carried across.
- - Greek halteres. Halteres, hand-held stone or metal weights used in Greek athletics. They are the ancestor of the dumbbell, and the English word barbell derives from the same lineage of implements.
- - Barbells at Chor Bazaar, Mumbai. Second-hand weights for sale in Mumbai. Cast iron is close to indestructible, and much of the world's gym equipment has circulated for decades.
- - Gym in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. A small commercial gym. The basic equipment set of bar, plates, bench and rack has been globally standard for seventy years.
- - Turner Hall weights room, Milwaukee. The German Turnverein movement built gymnastic halls across the American midwest in the nineteenth century, an institutional ancestor of the modern gym.
- - Weight training benches. The adjustable bench is the single most productive piece of equipment the sport contributed to general fitness.
- - Leg press. Mechanical tension is the primary driver of hypertrophy, acting through mechanosensitive pathways including mTOR signalling. That is the current accepted theory.
- - Olympic barbell. The revolving-sleeve Olympic barbell was designed for competitive weightlifting and became the standard bar in bodybuilding gyms.
- - EZ curl bar. The cambered curl bar is a bodybuilding-specific implement, designed for isolation work rather than for any competitive lift.
- - Weights room in a fort casemate. A weights room installed in a nineteenth century fort. Improvised premises are the norm outside the commercial chains.
- - After training. Delayed onset muscle soreness is not supported as a signal of training quality, though it remains the most trusted one in gyms.
- - Pin-loaded machine. Selectorised machines descend from Harold Zinkin's Universal gym, invented by a Muscle Beach regular, and from Arthur Jones's Nautilus line of the 1970s.
- - Competition kettlebells. The kettlebell entered Western gyms from Russian girevoy sport, a separate strength tradition with its own competitive format.
- - Free weights. 's longest-running equipment argument, and the evidence does not strongly favour either for hypertrophy.
- - Loaded exercise study. The sarcoplasmic versus myofibrillar hypertrophy distinction, near-universal in gyms, is contested. The strong version, that bodybuilder muscle is somehow not real, is not established.
- - Vince Gironda Diet Training & Exercise Documentary. A documentary on Vince Gironda's training and dietary methods. Gironda was hostile to much of the Weider orthodoxy and to the squat, which put him permanently outside the magazine establishment.
- - Barbell squat. Muscle damage correlates poorly with the magnitude of growth. Soreness is not a measure of stimulus, which contradicts the sport's most durable folk belief.
- - Association of Oldtime Barbell and Strongmen. The sport keeps its own history through collector associations and reunions rather than through institutional archives, which is why so much of the record is in private hands.
- - The Science of Squatting, with Brad Schoenfeld | NSCA.com. Brad Schoenfeld lecturing on the science of squatting for the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Schoenfeld is the most cited researcher in hypertrophy science.
- - THE MENTZER BROTHERS, ARTHUR JONES AND NAUTILUS HOW IT AFFECTED BODYBUILDING. Ric Drasin on the Mentzer brothers, Arthur Jones and Nautilus, and how the argument played out inside the sport.
- - 3DMJ Podcast #50: How do you know if you’re evidence-based?. A podcast asking what being evidence based actually requires, from a natural bodybuilding coaching group.
- - The Life of Arthur Jones & History of High Intensity Training | David Landau | Full Length HD. A long account of Arthur Jones and the origins of high intensity training. Jones invented the Nautilus machine, built it around a cam that varied resistance through the range of motion, and used it to argue that far less training than the sport believed was necessary.
- - Bench press. Time under tension research shows mixed results despite being treated as settled doctrine in gyms.
- - Barbell at FIBO. FIBO in Cologne is Europe's largest fitness trade fair. The equipment industry, not the contests, is where the sport's money now sits.
- - Drug Testing, New Supplement Research, Squat Science, and Dr. Eric Helms (Podcast Episode 8). A research podcast covering drug testing, supplement research and squat science, with Eric Helms.
- - Reading Research, the Placebo Diet, Muscle Memory, and Alex Kolliari-Turner (Episode 20). A long research podcast covering how to read studies, placebo effects in diet research and muscle memory, with geneticist Alex Kolliari-Turner.
- - 181: Brad Schoenfeld - An updated view on the mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy. Brad Schoenfeld on an updated view of the mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy, revising positions he had previously published.
- - Iron barbell. Cast iron is effectively permanent. Equipment made a century ago remains in use, which is part of why the sport's material culture changes so slowly.
- - Science of Muscle Hypertrophy. A physiology lecture on the science of muscle hypertrophy.
- - Scientific Principles of Hypertrophy Training: New Book and Video Series. The announcement of Scientific Principles of Hypertrophy Training, an attempt to systematise the sport's training knowledge as a textbook rather than as magazine lore.
- - The Official Vince Gironda (Iron Guru) Mini-Documentary. A short documentary on Vince Gironda, the Iron Guru, who ran a gym in North Hollywood and trained competitors and film actors from the 1940s onward.
- - Bybon's stone. A block from Olympia inscribed with the claim that Bybon threw it over his head with one hand. Inscribed lifting stones are the oldest surviving records of strength feats, and the Japanese chikaraishi tradition records feats on the stones themselves in the same way.
- - Barbell collars. Collars and loadable plates made incremental progression practical, which is what separates modern resistance training from the fixed-weight dumbbell era.
- - Lat pulldown machine. Selectorised machines descend from Harold Zinkin's Universal gym and Arthur Jones's Nautilus line, both of which came out of the bodybuilding world.
- - Machine circuit. Machine-based circuits were the form in which resistance training was sold to the general public, deliberately distanced from bodybuilding's image.
- - Vince Gironda's 10-8-6-15: The ORIGINAL High Intensity Training Routine!. On Gironda's rep scheme and its claim to predate the high intensity systems that later took the name.
- - The Science of What Muscle Growth Actually Is. On what muscle growth physically consists of at the cellular level.
- - THE APOLLO CREED WORKOUT & DIET! HOW VINCE GIRONDA TRAINED CARL WEATHERS #BODYBUILDING #VINCEGIRONDA. On Gironda's work with Carl Weathers for the Apollo Creed role. Gironda's gym was where Hollywood went, which is one of the sport's real routes into mainstream culture.
- - The LEGACY of VINCE GIRONDA! | History of Bodybuilding w/Karl Coyne. On Vince Gironda's legacy, part of a history of bodybuilding series.
- - HOW VINCE GIRONDA INVENTED HIS EXERCISES TO HIT SPECIFIC BODYPARTS & ORIGIN OF THE PREACHER BENCH. On how Gironda devised exercises aimed at specific muscles, and where his ideas came from.
- - BRAD SCHOENFELD: Mechanisms of Hypertrophy, RIR, Loaded Stretch. Brad Schoenfeld on mechanisms of hypertrophy, reps in reserve and loaded stretch.
- - The Most IMPORTANT Muscle Building Stimulus (87 Studies). A review of 87 studies on which stimulus actually drives muscle growth, mechanical tension against metabolic stress.
- - #51 - Maximizing muscle hypertrophy with Dr Brad Schoenfeld. Brad Schoenfeld on the Inside Exercise podcast, run out of an Australian university physiology department.
- - MASS Office Hours Episode 11 (The Science of Muscle Growth w/ Dr. Brad Schoenfeld). Brad Schoenfeld answering questions on the science of muscle growth for a research review panel.
- - The Science Behind Creatine: How Much More Muscle & Strength?. On the research behind creatine, the one supplement with a large and consistent evidence base behind it, against an industry built on many that do not.
- - Exercise Scientist Critiques Mike Mentzer's Training. An exercise scientist assessing Mike Mentzer's training claims against current research. The disagreement between the sport's own traditions and the exercise science literature is the substance of the modern argument.
- - Is The Hypertrophy Rep Range Dead? (30+ Studies Explained). A review of more than thirty studies asking whether the traditional hypertrophy rep range holds up. The long standing prescription came from the sport's own tradition rather than from research.
- - Arnold vs Nautilus: A Critical Analysis. A critical comparison of the Schwarzenegger volume approach and the Nautilus low volume approach, the sport's oldest methodological argument.
- - Strength vs Hypertrophy: The Science of How to Build Muscle. On the physiological difference between training for strength and training for size, using cadaveric material.
- - How to Grow Muscle (ft. Dr. Brad Schoenfeld). Stronger By Science with Brad Schoenfeld on what the evidence supports about muscle growth.
- - Is Muscle Hyperplasia Real? (Science Explained). On whether muscle hyperplasia, an increase in fibre number rather than size, occurs in humans. A long running dispute in the field.
- - What is Muscle Memory? (Science Explained). On muscle memory and the myonuclear hypothesis, which proposes that nuclei acquired during training persist and make regaining muscle faster. It has implications for how long a drug advantage might last after use stops.
- - Eric Helms: Harsh Truths About Natural Bodybuilding. Eric Helms on the limits of natural bodybuilding. Helms competes in tested federations and researches the sport he competes in, which is rare.
- - Why You REGAIN Strength, Size, & Skills FASTER: Muscle Memory. On why strength and size return faster than they were first built, from the Institute of Human Anatomy.
- - Brad Schoenfeld, PhD lecturer “How to build muscle for strength and function.” 25 January 2025. A Brad Schoenfeld university lecture on building muscle for strength and function.
- - High-Intensity Training: Mike Mentzer, Dorian Yates, and What Actually Works (Ft. Lyle McDonald). A long examination of high intensity training as practised by Mike Mentzer and Dorian Yates, and what the research says about it. Yates won six Olympia titles on a version of Mentzer's method, which is the strongest evidence anyone has for it.
- - Are Vince Gironda's Training Techniques Scientifically based? Part 2.. Jerry Brainum assessing whether Vince Gironda's training methods hold up against research. Brainum wrote for the magazines for decades and is unusually willing to contradict them.
- - Everything You Need To Know About Training Volume & Hypertrophy - Greg Nuckols. Greg Nuckols on training volume and hypertrophy at length. Nuckols runs one of the few outlets that publishes negative and null findings in this field.
- - MIKE MENTZER vs Arthur Jones: How their Training was Different | The Rise & Fall of HIT’s Power Duo. On the differences between Arthur Jones's and Mike Mentzer's training systems. Mentzer took Jones's premises further than Jones did.
- - How Arthur Jones Changed Strength Training Forever. An assessment of how Arthur Jones changed strength training. The commercial machine gym descends from Nautilus, which is a larger legacy than the training theory.
- - Strength for Hypertrophy: The Evidence-Based Way to Build Muscle (with Eric Helms). Eric Helms on evidence based approaches to building muscle, recorded for an equipment manufacturer's research programme.
