Why You Can’t Combine Exercises To Get The Best Of Both
Multi-joint exercises, sometimes called “compound exercises,” are great for strength and muscle building because those exercises work many muscle areas at once. Single-joint exercises are a great way to supplement these because those target areas that don’t get targeted as much during multi-joint compound exercises. However, other “compound” exercises - which are usually just disparate exercises put together either in a circuit using the same weight or mashed into one movement - aren’t good for maximizing your effort because they are limited by the weakest area involved in the exercises. Because our lower bodies tend to be stronger than our upper bodies, we cannot progress properly if our lower body lifts (deadlift, squat, etc) are limited by how much we can lift during our upper body lifts (bench, overhead press).
Burpees - Friend or Foe?
Burpees are one of the most love/hate exercises in existence. At the same time, they're not nearly as useful of an exercise as many would think. Are they useful for your goals?
How To Use Light Weights To Get Big
It used to be believed that you could only build muscle with sufficiently heavy weights. Last week's analysis of "no load" exercise showed that it's not that simple. Here's a bigger overview of how you can build muscle with any amount of weight.