What? How? Why?

Spoiler alert: Myo reps refers to a specific way to perform sets and reps. Note: They’re extremely challenging but they only take a few minutes to complete, and you'll likely either love them or hate them.

The human body operates in a three dimensional world and we have the ability, and often the need, to move in multiple directions at any given moment. This relates to training and exercise because to operate efficiently we need to maintain our ability to move in these directions.

Planes of motion are established to help us better understand how our bodies move within exercise. If we train in some capacity in all three planes of motion, then we are better moving human beings.

Most of us know that the leg press is an excellent exercise for overall lower body development; especially in instances without a spotter or when taking sets to failure.

(PSA: Please don’t do squats to true mechanical failure without a spotter!)

But are all leg press positions equal…?

The "anabolic window" is said to be a *magical* 30 minute post workout time period where you MUST consume a meal or else your workout is deemed virtually useless and you won't make any gainz.

According to the "bro's", if you don't eat a meal during this magical window, your muscles will “eat themselves” and you're said to be weak little noodle forever and ever.

So, let’s explore this…

Grip strength as a predictor of health is something that has been researched and proven for many years. As we age, we lose muscle mass and bone density at faster rates if we are inactive. Resistance training provides us with the ability to combat this. A direct result of general strength training is improved grip strength.

If you have not yet heard, listen here, and listen closely …

Training volume has been shown to be the most predictive marker of muscle hypertrophy (growth). A dose-response relationship is what the current body of scientific evidence suggests.

In a world where you’re constantly told to “do more”, we at Level TEN say “do less, fam.”

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of justifiable times where “you need to work harder” is a viable criticism. However, we very often see people overdoing it when it comes to their exercise regimen and don’t understand why they aren’t getting results faster from putting in more effort.

To explain why that is, let's define a few things first and foremost.

As coaches, we are constantly asked about mobility work, stretching, and implementing pre-workout routines as a necessary part of training.

But, do you really need it?

The answer, as per usual when it comes to science, is it depends.

Let’s start with obvious here: you have to lift weights to build muscle tissue. Simply moving your body against the force of gravity isn’t going to cut it in terms of hypertrophic (muscle building) stimulus; it may have when you were a toddler learning to walk because that was “hard work” then … it isn’t now.

That leads me into the next, maybe less obvious point: you have to lift “heavy” weight to build muscle tissue …

Squatting through a full range of motion – A practical strategy for optimizing your leg training