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Sama Hoole

@SamaHoole • 166,970 subscribers

Carnivore 6yrs. Heavy lifts, low reps, stoic head. Anti-gatekeeping, anti-seed-oil, pro-ruminant. Plans + Ruminati merch ↓

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The advice on lifting weights runs backwards. It gets gentler at exactly the rate the danger gets worse. Young, with muscle to spare, you are told to lift heavy. Middle-aged, losing about 1 per cent of it a year, you are told to keep active. Older, with the bone thinning, you are told to try swimming. Older still, when a fall is the thing most likely to end your independence, you are handed a resistance band the colour of a boiled sweet. Old, when a broken hip kills 1 in 4 within the year, you are told to sit down. Then you are told you did well to get here. Grip strength predicts how long you will live better than your blood pressure does. Nobody has ever been prescribed a heavier bar for it. The muscle you have in old age is the muscle you built and kept. It is the only pension that pays out in getting off the floor. The body asks for load harder every decade. The guidance answers with a chair. The people who need the heavy weights most are the only people told not to touch one.

The advice on lifting weights runs backwards. It gets gentler at exactly the rate the danger gets worse. Young, with muscle to spare, you are told to lift heavy. Middle-aged, losing about 1 per cent of it a year, you are told to keep active. Older, with the bone thinning, you are told to try swimming. Older still, when a fall is the thing most likely to end your independence, you are handed a resistance band the colour of a boiled sweet. Old, when a broken hip kills 1 in 4 within the year, you are told to sit down. Then you are told you did well to get here. Grip strength predicts how long you will live better than your blood pressure does. Nobody has ever been prescribed a heavier bar for it. The muscle you have in old age is the muscle you built and kept. It is the only pension that pays out in getting off the floor. The body asks for load harder every decade. The guidance answers with a chair. The people who need the heavy weights most are the only people told not to touch one.

64,870 views

Every bodybuilder on the internet tells you to eat a gram per pound of bodyweight. The research says you can stop at 0.7. For a 170 pound man that is 170 grams a day against 119. Fifty grams. Every day. Forever. A pooled analysis of forty-nine resistance training studies found that gains improved as protein went up, and then stopped improving at around 0.7 grams per pound. Past that point the line went flat. More protein in, no more muscle out. The error bar around that plateau stretched up to a gram per pound. The number in circulation is the top of that error bar, repeated for thirty years until it became the target. So the extra fifty grams does not build anything. Your liver strips the nitrogen off it and burns the rest, which is an expensive way to produce two hundred calories. Two hundred calories you could have taken as butter, which arrives with vitamin A, D, E and K2 already dissolved in it. At 119 grams you get there from food without trying. Three eggs, a ribeye, a lump of cheese, and you are past it before dinner. At 170 you are weighing chicken breast on a kitchen scale and drinking your supper. The men who set that number were building physiques on more than food, and the protein was never the part doing the work. There is also a ceiling, because your liver can only convert so much protein an hour. Trappers living on lean rabbit worked that out centuries before anyone measured it. So eat the meat, eat plenty of it, and then add the butter. That is the only thing on the plate with no ceiling on it, and the one part nobody has ever tried to sell you.

Every bodybuilder on the internet tells you to eat a gram per pound of bodyweight. The research says you can stop at 0.7. For a 170 pound man that is 170 grams a day against 119. Fifty grams. Every day. Forever. A pooled analysis of forty-nine resistance training studies found that gains improved as protein went up, and then stopped improving at around 0.7 grams per pound. Past that point the line went flat. More protein in, no more muscle out. The error bar around that plateau stretched up to a gram per pound. The number in circulation is the top of that error bar, repeated for thirty years until it became the target. So the extra fifty grams does not build anything. Your liver strips the nitrogen off it and burns the rest, which is an expensive way to produce two hundred calories. Two hundred calories you could have taken as butter, which arrives with vitamin A, D, E and K2 already dissolved in it. At 119 grams you get there from food without trying. Three eggs, a ribeye, a lump of cheese, and you are past it before dinner. At 170 you are weighing chicken breast on a kitchen scale and drinking your supper. The men who set that number were building physiques on more than food, and the protein was never the part doing the work. There is also a ceiling, because your liver can only convert so much protein an hour. Trappers living on lean rabbit worked that out centuries before anyone measured it. So eat the meat, eat plenty of it, and then add the butter. That is the only thing on the plate with no ceiling on it, and the one part nobody has ever tried to sell you.

212,548 views

Why low rep training feels "wrong" to most people: You finish a set of 5 heavy reps. No pump. No burn. Heart rate barely elevated. Could have a conversation immediately after. Brain says: "That wasn't hard enough." Then you finish a set of 15 reps. Massive pump. Burning sensation. Gasping for air. Sweating. Need to sit down. Brain says: "NOW we're working." Your brain is confusing systemic fatigue with muscular stimulus. The muscle was challenged adequately at rep 5. Everything after that was just making you tired. Growth doesn't care about your perception of difficulty. It cares about mechanical tension. This is the disconnect you need to overcome.

Why low rep training feels "wrong" to most people: You finish a set of 5 heavy reps. No pump. No burn. Heart rate barely elevated. Could have a conversation immediately after. Brain says: "That wasn't hard enough." Then you finish a set of 15 reps. Massive pump. Burning sensation. Gasping for air. Sweating. Need to sit down. Brain says: "NOW we're working." Your brain is confusing systemic fatigue with muscular stimulus. The muscle was challenged adequately at rep 5. Everything after that was just making you tired. Growth doesn't care about your perception of difficulty. It cares about mechanical tension. This is the disconnect you need to overcome.

1,842,375 views

The smith machine quietly upgrades almost every barbell hypertrophy exercise. - Fixed bar path, so no balancing tax - Less stabilising means more drive into the target muscle - You actually load what you came to train - Stabilisers still fire, they're just no longer the bottleneck - Barely any warm-up, the groove is built in - Form holds at failure, so fewer injuries and more real reps Want a bigger bench? Choose the bench. Strength is specific. Want a bigger chest? Choose the smith. Hypertrophy rewards stability and a clean path to failure.

The smith machine quietly upgrades almost every barbell hypertrophy exercise. - Fixed bar path, so no balancing tax - Less stabilising means more drive into the target muscle - You actually load what you came to train - Stabilisers still fire, they're just no longer the bottleneck - Barely any warm-up, the groove is built in - Form holds at failure, so fewer injuries and more real reps Want a bigger bench? Choose the bench. Strength is specific. Want a bigger chest? Choose the smith. Hypertrophy rewards stability and a clean path to failure.

319,198 views

People who've been lifting for 5 years but look the same: "I train really hard, I just have bad genetics." Also them: - Stop sets at 5+ RIR - Never track progressive overload - Change programme every 6 weeks - Convinced the pump means growth - Train 6 days a week but never intensely - Blame genetics instead of effort Your genetics are fine. Your work ethic is terrible.

People who've been lifting for 5 years but look the same: "I train really hard, I just have bad genetics." Also them: - Stop sets at 5+ RIR - Never track progressive overload - Change programme every 6 weeks - Convinced the pump means growth - Train 6 days a week but never intensely - Blame genetics instead of effort Your genetics are fine. Your work ethic is terrible.

971,460 views

Why people are married to high reps: It feels hard. Pump is massive. Heart rate elevated. Sweating. Burning sensation. Soreness next day. All the signals that say "I worked hard." None of them cause growth. 4-6 reps feels different: No pump. Heart rate stays low. Minimal sweating. Less burning. Often not sore. Feels like you didn't work hard enough. But every rep was taken near failure. Every rep contributed to growth. You need to move past that disconnect in order to optimise hypertrophy training. Train to stimulate. Not to be fatigued.

Why people are married to high reps: It feels hard. Pump is massive. Heart rate elevated. Sweating. Burning sensation. Soreness next day. All the signals that say "I worked hard." None of them cause growth. 4-6 reps feels different: No pump. Heart rate stays low. Minimal sweating. Less burning. Often not sore. Feels like you didn't work hard enough. But every rep was taken near failure. Every rep contributed to growth. You need to move past that disconnect in order to optimise hypertrophy training. Train to stimulate. Not to be fatigued.

683,326 views

At 25 I trained so women would look at me. At 32 I train because it is the only hour of the day I am not thinking about rising ground beef prices. The results have never been better.

At 25 I trained so women would look at me. At 32 I train because it is the only hour of the day I am not thinking about rising ground beef prices. The results have never been better.

56,167 views

Nobody discovered that 8 to 12 was the growth range. It got picked because it feels like something. Heavy enough to sweat, light enough to never scare you. The bodybuilding magazines printed it for decades and a couple of generations took it as law. Muscle grows across 3 to 30 reps once effort and volume are matched. The range was never doing the work. The effort was. Four to six with a heavy weight hands you: - Most tension per rep - Least fatigue - Progress you can read off the stack - Real recovery - More frequent training The middle was never the science. It was the setting that sold the most magazines to men who did not want to lift anything heavy.

Nobody discovered that 8 to 12 was the growth range. It got picked because it feels like something. Heavy enough to sweat, light enough to never scare you. The bodybuilding magazines printed it for decades and a couple of generations took it as law. Muscle grows across 3 to 30 reps once effort and volume are matched. The range was never doing the work. The effort was. Four to six with a heavy weight hands you: - Most tension per rep - Least fatigue - Progress you can read off the stack - Real recovery - More frequent training The middle was never the science. It was the setting that sold the most magazines to men who did not want to lift anything heavy.

121,814 views

You'll get more growth by AVOIDING these bodybuilding staples. - Going over 8 reps - Slow eccentrics - Lengthened partials - Supersets - Dropsets - 60 second rest periods - Bro splits Thank me later for all the time I've saved you.

You'll get more growth by AVOIDING these bodybuilding staples. - Going over 8 reps - Slow eccentrics - Lengthened partials - Supersets - Dropsets - 60 second rest periods - Bro splits Thank me later for all the time I've saved you.

605,473 views

Every man lives two lives.⠀ ⠀ The second begins the day he realises that two sets of six builds more muscle than four sets of twelve, in half the time, with a quarter of the recovery cost.⠀ ⠀ Because the only thing that produces hypertrophy is high-quality reps performed in close proximity to failure. Specifically, the final five.⠀ ⠀ Heavy loads are simply the easier vehicle for getting there.⠀ ⠀ There's less afferent feedback, less lactic burn, less screaming from the metabolites telling you to stop before the working fibres have actually been challenged.⠀ ⠀ There's more focus and more quality control, because each set lasts twenty seconds rather than forty to sixty, and the nervous system can stay sharp across all of it.⠀ ⠀ There's more strength carryover, because the loads are heavy enough to demand explosive intent on every single rep.⠀ ⠀ And there's less fatigue, so the growth stimulus survives intact across the exercise, the session, and the week.⠀ ⠀ It becomes a straightforward decision once you:⠀ ⠀ - Accept there is only one true driver of hypertrophy⠀ - Understand that more is not better⠀ - Accept that better is better

Every man lives two lives.⠀ ⠀ The second begins the day he realises that two sets of six builds more muscle than four sets of twelve, in half the time, with a quarter of the recovery cost.⠀ ⠀ Because the only thing that produces hypertrophy is high-quality reps performed in close proximity to failure. Specifically, the final five.⠀ ⠀ Heavy loads are simply the easier vehicle for getting there.⠀ ⠀ There's less afferent feedback, less lactic burn, less screaming from the metabolites telling you to stop before the working fibres have actually been challenged.⠀ ⠀ There's more focus and more quality control, because each set lasts twenty seconds rather than forty to sixty, and the nervous system can stay sharp across all of it.⠀ ⠀ There's more strength carryover, because the loads are heavy enough to demand explosive intent on every single rep.⠀ ⠀ And there's less fatigue, so the growth stimulus survives intact across the exercise, the session, and the week.⠀ ⠀ It becomes a straightforward decision once you:⠀ ⠀ - Accept there is only one true driver of hypertrophy⠀ - Understand that more is not better⠀ - Accept that better is better

295,795 views

Carnivore is terrible for building muscle. The muscles just started atrophying the moment my morning oatmeal ran out five years ago. Anyway here's 170kg.

Carnivore is terrible for building muscle. The muscles just started atrophying the moment my morning oatmeal ran out five years ago. Anyway here's 170kg.

579,861 views

You don't need an arm day. Biceps and triceps are small muscles. They get damaged easily. Blast them with dedicated volume and they spend the next three days recovering instead of growing. Better: 2 sets each, tacked onto the end of upper body days, twice a week. 4 weekly sets. More frequency. Less damage. More growth. You're not undertrained. You're overcomplicating it.

You don't need an arm day. Biceps and triceps are small muscles. They get damaged easily. Blast them with dedicated volume and they spend the next three days recovering instead of growing. Better: 2 sets each, tacked onto the end of upper body days, twice a week. 4 weekly sets. More frequency. Less damage. More growth. You're not undertrained. You're overcomplicating it.

305,584 views

The "8-12 reps for hypertrophy" myth exists because enhanced bodybuilders grow from anything. Before the 1960s steroid era, everyone trained heavy: 4-6 reps, compound lifts, progressive overload. Then steroids arrived. Suddenly bodybuilders could do 20-set arm workouts with drop sets and supersets and still grow because the drugs were doing the work. They attributed their growth to the high-volume, high-rep training. They were wrong. They were growing from the testosterone, trenbolone, and dianabol. But naturals saw them training this way and copied it. Result: Decades of natural lifters doing enhanced protocols and wondering why they're not growing. The 8-12 rep range isn't wrong. It's just suboptimal compared to 4-6. Whether you're natural or enhanced. Enhanced lifters can grow from literally anything because they grow INDEPENDENT of training. Natural lifters need every advantage. Heavy weight, low reps, maximum tension. Stop copying drug users. Their rules don't apply to you.

The "8-12 reps for hypertrophy" myth exists because enhanced bodybuilders grow from anything. Before the 1960s steroid era, everyone trained heavy: 4-6 reps, compound lifts, progressive overload. Then steroids arrived. Suddenly bodybuilders could do 20-set arm workouts with drop sets and supersets and still grow because the drugs were doing the work. They attributed their growth to the high-volume, high-rep training. They were wrong. They were growing from the testosterone, trenbolone, and dianabol. But naturals saw them training this way and copied it. Result: Decades of natural lifters doing enhanced protocols and wondering why they're not growing. The 8-12 rep range isn't wrong. It's just suboptimal compared to 4-6. Whether you're natural or enhanced. Enhanced lifters can grow from literally anything because they grow INDEPENDENT of training. Natural lifters need every advantage. Heavy weight, low reps, maximum tension. Stop copying drug users. Their rules don't apply to you.

557,521 views

Warning: switching to 4 to 6 reps may cause the following. - No pump. You will check the mirror twice on the way out. - Sleeves that fit exactly as they did on the way in. - Nothing sore on Monday, which you will read as going soft. - Grief. Real grief, for the fourteen sets you no longer do. - Then the fidgeting, with nothing left to fill the hour. - Then turning up on Friday in one piece and wanting to be there. - Then finding there is nowhere to hide a lazy rep in a set of five. - Then the weight creeping up on everything without you chasing it. - Then working out that the ache was the bill, not the growth. - Six months, and people start asking what you changed. - Two years, and you have earned the pride of your ancestors. Proceed immediately. Tell nobody.

Warning: switching to 4 to 6 reps may cause the following. - No pump. You will check the mirror twice on the way out. - Sleeves that fit exactly as they did on the way in. - Nothing sore on Monday, which you will read as going soft. - Grief. Real grief, for the fourteen sets you no longer do. - Then the fidgeting, with nothing left to fill the hour. - Then turning up on Friday in one piece and wanting to be there. - Then finding there is nowhere to hide a lazy rep in a set of five. - Then the weight creeping up on everything without you chasing it. - Then working out that the ache was the bill, not the growth. - Six months, and people start asking what you changed. - Two years, and you have earned the pride of your ancestors. Proceed immediately. Tell nobody.

67,629 views

How to make near-unfair progress in the gym: - 4 to 6 reps, heavy, to failure or one off it - Add weight before you add anything else - Same handful of lifts, week after week, going up - Rest three minutes so the next set is actually hard - Chase the number in the logbook, never the pump - Five lifts, out in under an hour - Two proper rest days a week, minimum - Hit each muscle two or three times over the week, not once into the ground - Eat the animal, especially the fat - Get your protein up and your fussiness down - Sleep like it is part of the programme, because it is Do this and you'll be the person others quietly wonder about in a year. Boringly simple, and almost nobody has the patience to be this unimpressive for long enough.

How to make near-unfair progress in the gym: - 4 to 6 reps, heavy, to failure or one off it - Add weight before you add anything else - Same handful of lifts, week after week, going up - Rest three minutes so the next set is actually hard - Chase the number in the logbook, never the pump - Five lifts, out in under an hour - Two proper rest days a week, minimum - Hit each muscle two or three times over the week, not once into the ground - Eat the animal, especially the fat - Get your protein up and your fussiness down - Sleep like it is part of the programme, because it is Do this and you'll be the person others quietly wonder about in a year. Boringly simple, and almost nobody has the patience to be this unimpressive for long enough.

102,165 views

Breaking - Scientists have discovered a technology that turns plants into highly nutritious protein without the need for factories, synthetic chemicals, or seed oils.

Breaking - Scientists have discovered a technology that turns plants into highly nutritious protein without the need for factories, synthetic chemicals, or seed oils.

136,875 views

Every man lives two lives.⠀ ⠀ The second begins when he realises that 2 sets of 6 reps builds more muscle than 4 sets of 12, while taking half the time and causing a quarter of the fatigue.⠀ ⠀ Because the only thing that causes growth is getting quality reps in close proximity to failure.⠀ ⠀ Heavy loads are the easier vehicle for achieving that.⠀ ⠀ There's less afferent feedback like lactic acid that could stop you before reaching true failure.⠀ ⠀ There's more focus and quality control because your sets are taking 20 seconds rather than 40-60.⠀ ⠀ There's more strength gains, because the loads are heavy enough to test your ability to move a weight explosively.⠀ ⠀ And there's less fatigue, so you're maintaining the growth stimulus across the exercise and session.⠀ ⠀ It's an easy choice to make, as long as you:⠀ ⠀ - Know that there is only one driver of hypertrophy⠀ - Understand that more isn't better⠀ - Accept that better is better

Every man lives two lives.⠀ ⠀ The second begins when he realises that 2 sets of 6 reps builds more muscle than 4 sets of 12, while taking half the time and causing a quarter of the fatigue.⠀ ⠀ Because the only thing that causes growth is getting quality reps in close proximity to failure.⠀ ⠀ Heavy loads are the easier vehicle for achieving that.⠀ ⠀ There's less afferent feedback like lactic acid that could stop you before reaching true failure.⠀ ⠀ There's more focus and quality control because your sets are taking 20 seconds rather than 40-60.⠀ ⠀ There's more strength gains, because the loads are heavy enough to test your ability to move a weight explosively.⠀ ⠀ And there's less fatigue, so you're maintaining the growth stimulus across the exercise and session.⠀ ⠀ It's an easy choice to make, as long as you:⠀ ⠀ - Know that there is only one driver of hypertrophy⠀ - Understand that more isn't better⠀ - Accept that better is better

449,660 views

Me with a cart of full of 20% ground beef looking at everyone filling up on grains and seed oils.

Me with a cart of full of 20% ground beef looking at everyone filling up on grains and seed oils.

291,161 views

Carnivore is terrible for building muscle. I can barely lift my arms in the air because of the lack of carbs in my body. Let my failure be your warning.

Carnivore is terrible for building muscle. I can barely lift my arms in the air because of the lack of carbs in my body. Let my failure be your warning.

449,605 views

Every muscle in the human body grows from progressive mechanical tension. Except, apparently, the abs. Abs uniquely require: - 100 reps a session - Bodyweight only - No tracking, no progression - A different "core circuit" every workout for "muscle confusion" - Done at the end when you can barely stand up - Followed by a plank for the soul Because apparently the rectus abdominis evolved on a different planet from every other skeletal muscle. While your chest, back, and quads respond to heavy load through a working range, your abs respond to chaos, exhaustion, and a TikTok-approved sequence of crunches named after a celebrity. Or, alternatively, you could do weighted crunches for 4-6 reps, add a kilo a fortnight, and watch them grow like every other muscle in your body. But that would require admitting the abs are just a muscle. And the fitness industry would lose an entire genre of content. Your call.

Every muscle in the human body grows from progressive mechanical tension. Except, apparently, the abs. Abs uniquely require: - 100 reps a session - Bodyweight only - No tracking, no progression - A different "core circuit" every workout for "muscle confusion" - Done at the end when you can barely stand up - Followed by a plank for the soul Because apparently the rectus abdominis evolved on a different planet from every other skeletal muscle. While your chest, back, and quads respond to heavy load through a working range, your abs respond to chaos, exhaustion, and a TikTok-approved sequence of crunches named after a celebrity. Or, alternatively, you could do weighted crunches for 4-6 reps, add a kilo a fortnight, and watch them grow like every other muscle in your body. But that would require admitting the abs are just a muscle. And the fitness industry would lose an entire genre of content. Your call.

184,037 views

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Reality check, and it is not a pleasant one. The only evidence that you are building muscle is that the weight on the bar is going up. A bigger muscle produces more force. That is what the tissue is for. If the load has not moved, it has not grown. Everything else, with what it actually tells you: - The pump (blood and water, gone by lunchtime) - Soreness (damage, and damage competes with growth) - Sweat (thermoregulation) - The mirror (lies twice daily, in both directions) - The scale (water, food, and whatever you drank) - Feeling it in the right place (a sensation, not a signal) - Session length (an hour of nothing is still nothing) - Set count (a tally, and the tissue cannot count) - The programme's name (marketing) - Steps, wearables, readiness scores (a subscription) Open the log. Same lift, same reps, same effort, twelve weeks ago. Now the part nobody wants. When the bar stops moving it is almost never because you did too little. It is fatigue, banked over weeks, quietly capping every set you take. The instinct is to add sets. The answer is to cut them, rest properly, and come back in a fortnight to find the weight up while you did less. Muscle cannot get bigger and stay just as weak. If it has not got stronger, it has not got bigger.

Reality check, and it is not a pleasant one. The only evidence that you are building muscle is that the weight on the bar is going up. A bigger muscle produces more force. That is what the tissue is for. If the load has not moved, it has not grown. Everything else, with what it actually tells you: - The pump (blood and water, gone by lunchtime) - Soreness (damage, and damage competes with growth) - Sweat (thermoregulation) - The mirror (lies twice daily, in both directions) - The scale (water, food, and whatever you drank) - Feeling it in the right place (a sensation, not a signal) - Session length (an hour of nothing is still nothing) - Set count (a tally, and the tissue cannot count) - The programme's name (marketing) - Steps, wearables, readiness scores (a subscription) Open the log. Same lift, same reps, same effort, twelve weeks ago. Now the part nobody wants. When the bar stops moving it is almost never because you did too little. It is fatigue, banked over weeks, quietly capping every set you take. The instinct is to add sets. The answer is to cut them, rest properly, and come back in a fortnight to find the weight up while you did less. Muscle cannot get bigger and stay just as weak. If it has not got stronger, it has not got bigger.

208,765 views • 1 month ago

I have completed the heretic's bodybuilding checklist: - I don't eat before training - I do not exceed 6 reps - I rest 3 minutes - I leave one rep in the tank - I do five exercises - I am out in under 50 minutes - I do not deload - I do not chase the pump - I eat meat afterwards - I skip the carbs - I sleep I will be excommunicated from the bodybuilding orthodoxy. The muscle does not seem to care.

I have completed the heretic's bodybuilding checklist: - I don't eat before training - I do not exceed 6 reps - I rest 3 minutes - I leave one rep in the tank - I do five exercises - I am out in under 50 minutes - I do not deload - I do not chase the pump - I eat meat afterwards - I skip the carbs - I sleep I will be excommunicated from the bodybuilding orthodoxy. The muscle does not seem to care.

516,095 views • 4 months ago

How to make absolutely no progress in the gym: - 8 to 12 reps, always to mild discomfort, never hard - Chase the pump and call the swelling growth - Celebrate the soreness like it earned you something - Swap exercises every week so nothing is ever measured - Add reps, never weight - Rest sixty seconds so nothing recovers in time to lift - Run from animal fat, then wonder where your strength went Follow it to the letter and you'll look identical in a year. Most people do, and not one of them can work out why.

How to make absolutely no progress in the gym: - 8 to 12 reps, always to mild discomfort, never hard - Chase the pump and call the swelling growth - Celebrate the soreness like it earned you something - Swap exercises every week so nothing is ever measured - Add reps, never weight - Rest sixty seconds so nothing recovers in time to lift - Run from animal fat, then wonder where your strength went Follow it to the letter and you'll look identical in a year. Most people do, and not one of them can work out why.

182,158 views • 1 month ago

Me driving home knowing there won’t be a second date, but at least she knows that her depression comes from seed oils cutting off the energy supply of the mitochondria.

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Me driving home knowing there won’t be a second date, but at least she knows that her depression comes from seed oils cutting off the energy supply of the mitochondria.

751,176 views • 7 months ago

Me driving home knowing there won’t be a second date, but at least she knows that her evidence-based mediterranean diet was what peasants were forced to eat to keep them weak and compliant.

Me driving home knowing there won’t be a second date, but at least she knows that her evidence-based mediterranean diet was what peasants were forced to eat to keep them weak and compliant.

276,578 views • 3 months ago

The many dangers of going below 8 reps:⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ - You now also get strength alongside muscle⠀⠀⠀ - Hypertrophy is more efficient⠀⠀⠀ - Reduced need for deloads⠀⠀⠀ - Less strain on the joints⠀⠀⠀ - Easier recovery between sessions - More frequent training⠀ - Meatheads hate you for knowing how to read the literature⠀⠀⠀ - Get labelled as ‘anti-science’ for following the science

The many dangers of going below 8 reps:⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ - You now also get strength alongside muscle⠀⠀⠀ - Hypertrophy is more efficient⠀⠀⠀ - Reduced need for deloads⠀⠀⠀ - Less strain on the joints⠀⠀⠀ - Easier recovery between sessions - More frequent training⠀ - Meatheads hate you for knowing how to read the literature⠀⠀⠀ - Get labelled as ‘anti-science’ for following the science

567,806 views • 9 months ago

"Your muscles run on glycogen. Deplete it and performance falls off a cliff. This is settled science." So every morning I do the unforgivable. I train fasted, before the sun is properly up, on nothing but yesterday's beef and butter. No porridge. No banana. No luminous drink named after an energy company. By that settled science I should be face down on the mat by the second set, muscle quietly digesting itself, metabolism filing for redundancy. Instead the weights keep going up. I can only assume the beef hasn't read the literature.

"Your muscles run on glycogen. Deplete it and performance falls off a cliff. This is settled science." So every morning I do the unforgivable. I train fasted, before the sun is properly up, on nothing but yesterday's beef and butter. No porridge. No banana. No luminous drink named after an energy company. By that settled science I should be face down on the mat by the second set, muscle quietly digesting itself, metabolism filing for redundancy. Instead the weights keep going up. I can only assume the beef hasn't read the literature.

116,257 views • 1 month ago

The reason people take short rest periods isn't because it's optimal for growth. It's because sitting quietly in a gym for four minutes feels like you're not working. Other people are moving. Equipment is being used. Everyone looks busy. You're sitting there apparently doing nothing. So you go again at ninety seconds because the optics are unbearable. And then you wonder why the weight on the bar hasn't moved in six months. The most productive thing you will do in today's session is sit completely still for four minutes and let your nervous system recover enough to generate maximum tension again. It looks like nothing. It is, in fact, the entire game.

The reason people take short rest periods isn't because it's optimal for growth. It's because sitting quietly in a gym for four minutes feels like you're not working. Other people are moving. Equipment is being used. Everyone looks busy. You're sitting there apparently doing nothing. So you go again at ninety seconds because the optics are unbearable. And then you wonder why the weight on the bar hasn't moved in six months. The most productive thing you will do in today's session is sit completely still for four minutes and let your nervous system recover enough to generate maximum tension again. It looks like nothing. It is, in fact, the entire game.

265,117 views • 6 months ago

When I say 4-6 reps is the most efficient range for hypertrophy, I am not saying the seventh rep undoes the first six. 6-8 still grows you. Slightly more fatigue for the same result, but fine. I go there myself when I fancy it. 8-10, the cost is noticeable. Above 10, taken anywhere near hard, you are paying a fortune for growth you could have bought cheaper. The further along training you are, the tighter that margin gets. Fewer fibres left to grow, and reaching them takes heavy load with the tank still full. Bury yourself in fatigue and they stay out of reach all session. So 4-6 stays the default. Not because nothing else works. Because I would rather train smart than earn my results the expensive way.

When I say 4-6 reps is the most efficient range for hypertrophy, I am not saying the seventh rep undoes the first six. 6-8 still grows you. Slightly more fatigue for the same result, but fine. I go there myself when I fancy it. 8-10, the cost is noticeable. Above 10, taken anywhere near hard, you are paying a fortune for growth you could have bought cheaper. The further along training you are, the tighter that margin gets. Fewer fibres left to grow, and reaching them takes heavy load with the tank still full. Bury yourself in fatigue and they stay out of reach all session. So 4-6 stays the default. Not because nothing else works. Because I would rather train smart than earn my results the expensive way.

72,565 views • 1 month ago

Low carb is a disaster for strength. Everyone knows this. No carbs, no glycogen. No glycogen, no power. The textbook is very firm on the matter. Your muscles run on glucose. Take it away and they simply down tools. The brain needs sugar too. Skip the morning porridge and you can barely tie your shoes, let alone train. You cannot build an ounce of muscle without an insulin spike. Ask any fitness magazine. You will bonk. You will hit the wall. You will crumple into a sad little heap of steak and regret. Six long years I have soldiered on under this crippling handicap. Beef, eggs, butter, and not one energy gel to my name. Depleted. Under-fuelled. A pale ghost of the carb-loaded athlete I might have been. All of which explains why I can only just about manage a 210kg Romanian deadlift. God knows what I could pull if I ate a banana.

Low carb is a disaster for strength. Everyone knows this. No carbs, no glycogen. No glycogen, no power. The textbook is very firm on the matter. Your muscles run on glucose. Take it away and they simply down tools. The brain needs sugar too. Skip the morning porridge and you can barely tie your shoes, let alone train. You cannot build an ounce of muscle without an insulin spike. Ask any fitness magazine. You will bonk. You will hit the wall. You will crumple into a sad little heap of steak and regret. Six long years I have soldiered on under this crippling handicap. Beef, eggs, butter, and not one energy gel to my name. Depleted. Under-fuelled. A pale ghost of the carb-loaded athlete I might have been. All of which explains why I can only just about manage a 210kg Romanian deadlift. God knows what I could pull if I ate a banana.

99,717 views • 2 months ago

Training a muscle once per week is leaving gains on the table. Muscle protein synthesis stays elevated 24-48 hours after training. Then the muscle starts breaking down. Training Monday means growth stimulus until Wednesday. Then atrophy until next Monday. You could easily end the week with nothing to show for it. Train each muscle 2-3x weekly: Hit it Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Keep protein synthesis elevated constantly. More frequent training = more total weekly stimulus = more growth. This is basic biology but bro splits ignore it completely.

Training a muscle once per week is leaving gains on the table. Muscle protein synthesis stays elevated 24-48 hours after training. Then the muscle starts breaking down. Training Monday means growth stimulus until Wednesday. Then atrophy until next Monday. You could easily end the week with nothing to show for it. Train each muscle 2-3x weekly: Hit it Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Keep protein synthesis elevated constantly. More frequent training = more total weekly stimulus = more growth. This is basic biology but bro splits ignore it completely.

297,688 views • 7 months ago

You don't need dedicated arm days. Your biceps and triceps are SMALL muscles that are highly prone to muscle damage. Blasting them with volume creates damage that takes days to repair, preventing you from training them frequently enough to actually grow. Here's a better approach: 2 sets each at the end of upper body days, 2x per week = 4 weekly sets with higher frequency, less damage, more growth signal. You don't need an arm day. You need to stop destroying your arms with junk volume.

You don't need dedicated arm days. Your biceps and triceps are SMALL muscles that are highly prone to muscle damage. Blasting them with volume creates damage that takes days to repair, preventing you from training them frequently enough to actually grow. Here's a better approach: 2 sets each at the end of upper body days, 2x per week = 4 weekly sets with higher frequency, less damage, more growth signal. You don't need an arm day. You need to stop destroying your arms with junk volume.

302,161 views • 8 months ago

Rest periods between sets: 30-60 seconds: You're still tired from the last set, can't generate maximum force, each set is progressively worse, half your sets don't count. 3-5 minutes: Fully recovered, maximum force production every set, all reps are growth reps, clear progression. "But the short rest keeps the pump!" Yes. And the long rest keeps the tension. Which is the thing that builds muscle. Choose your religion carefully.

Rest periods between sets: 30-60 seconds: You're still tired from the last set, can't generate maximum force, each set is progressively worse, half your sets don't count. 3-5 minutes: Fully recovered, maximum force production every set, all reps are growth reps, clear progression. "But the short rest keeps the pump!" Yes. And the long rest keeps the tension. Which is the thing that builds muscle. Choose your religion carefully.

283,710 views • 8 months ago

A cautionary tale about machine training. For the last two years, I've pretty much exclusively done machine work. Fixed paths, no wobble, nothing leaking into balance. Somewhere in there my stabilisers atrophied, gave up and passed away quietly. No funeral. Nobody thought to tell me. So a fortnight ago I put a barbell back in my hands for Romanian deadlifts, purely to see what was left of me, and the damage is exactly what the free weight purists spent two years promising me it would be. Stuck on 230kg. Been stuck since Tuesday. Completely non-functional. If a wardrobe goes over on a stranger in the street I will have to stand there and explain that I trained on machines. Let this be a warning.

A cautionary tale about machine training. For the last two years, I've pretty much exclusively done machine work. Fixed paths, no wobble, nothing leaking into balance. Somewhere in there my stabilisers atrophied, gave up and passed away quietly. No funeral. Nobody thought to tell me. So a fortnight ago I put a barbell back in my hands for Romanian deadlifts, purely to see what was left of me, and the damage is exactly what the free weight purists spent two years promising me it would be. Stuck on 230kg. Been stuck since Tuesday. Completely non-functional. If a wardrobe goes over on a stranger in the street I will have to stand there and explain that I trained on machines. Let this be a warning.

59,364 views • 1 month ago

Warning: training heavy into your sixties and beyond may cause the following side effects. - A grip that alarms much younger relatives - The ability to rise from any chair without using your hands - Carrying every bag of shopping in one trip purely out of spite - Bone that survives a fall instead of shattering on it - Doctors quietly deleting the word frail from your notes - Grandchildren who suspect you are slightly magic - A total and permanent loss of patience for the phrase at your age Consult no one. Proceed at full speed.

Warning: training heavy into your sixties and beyond may cause the following side effects. - A grip that alarms much younger relatives - The ability to rise from any chair without using your hands - Carrying every bag of shopping in one trip purely out of spite - Bone that survives a fall instead of shattering on it - Doctors quietly deleting the word frail from your notes - Grandchildren who suspect you are slightly magic - A total and permanent loss of patience for the phrase at your age Consult no one. Proceed at full speed.

77,884 views • 2 months ago

"I don't add bananas to my smoothies because they contain polyphenol oxidase, an enzyme that can break down polyphenols." A banana. A threat. Because it might, in the blender, slightly dent the level of a plant compound you were only chasing because these same people spent a decade insisting plant compounds are the secret to eternal life. There's a turf war in your smoothie and you're losing. This is the entire grift. They have to build these fragile little cathedrals of biochemistry, enzyme by enzyme, because it's the only way to make a leaf sound like a miracle. Chop the broccoli and wait forty minutes to "activate the sulforaphane." Steam it, don't boil it. Add this, but never with that. It's not eating, it's a chemistry exam, and if it doesn't work, well, you must have blended the banana wrong. That's the tell. A food that actually worked wouldn't need a user manual and fourteen disclaimers. Now aim all that frantic energy at beef. Nothing happens. There's nothing to build. No enzyme window, no activation ritual, no "don't pair it with." You cook it, you eat it, and your body has known exactly what to do with it for two million years. Beef doesn't need a health claim. It puts its record on the table. What built the brain. What you actually absorb from a steak versus what you wave goodbye to from kale. The complete protein, the iron, the B12, all of it in a form that needs no unlocking. No cathedral. No banana police. Just food. Do the sum.

"I don't add bananas to my smoothies because they contain polyphenol oxidase, an enzyme that can break down polyphenols." A banana. A threat. Because it might, in the blender, slightly dent the level of a plant compound you were only chasing because these same people spent a decade insisting plant compounds are the secret to eternal life. There's a turf war in your smoothie and you're losing. This is the entire grift. They have to build these fragile little cathedrals of biochemistry, enzyme by enzyme, because it's the only way to make a leaf sound like a miracle. Chop the broccoli and wait forty minutes to "activate the sulforaphane." Steam it, don't boil it. Add this, but never with that. It's not eating, it's a chemistry exam, and if it doesn't work, well, you must have blended the banana wrong. That's the tell. A food that actually worked wouldn't need a user manual and fourteen disclaimers. Now aim all that frantic energy at beef. Nothing happens. There's nothing to build. No enzyme window, no activation ritual, no "don't pair it with." You cook it, you eat it, and your body has known exactly what to do with it for two million years. Beef doesn't need a health claim. It puts its record on the table. What built the brain. What you actually absorb from a steak versus what you wave goodbye to from kale. The complete protein, the iron, the B12, all of it in a form that needs no unlocking. No cathedral. No banana police. Just food. Do the sum.

50,989 views • 1 month ago

People think low reps are more fatiguing than high reps because the weight is heavier. They have it backwards. Here is a set of 8 Romanian deadlifts to failure. It wiped me out. Over five minutes before I could face the next set. A few minutes earlier I did 4 reps with 30kg more on the bar. Walked away fine. The heavier set was the easier one. Fatigue does not track the weight. It tracks the reps. The more you do, the deeper the hole, and that hole comes with a recovery debt and blunts the growth you were chasing. Heavy and brief leaves you fresh. Light and endless leaves you wrecked. I didn't write the rules. Your body did.

People think low reps are more fatiguing than high reps because the weight is heavier. They have it backwards. Here is a set of 8 Romanian deadlifts to failure. It wiped me out. Over five minutes before I could face the next set. A few minutes earlier I did 4 reps with 30kg more on the bar. Walked away fine. The heavier set was the easier one. Fatigue does not track the weight. It tracks the reps. The more you do, the deeper the hole, and that hole comes with a recovery debt and blunts the growth you were chasing. Heavy and brief leaves you fresh. Light and endless leaves you wrecked. I didn't write the rules. Your body did.

50,149 views • 1 month ago

A new 2025 study squashed the idea that more volume increases growth, and suggested that the available growth reps in a set might just be the final four:⠀ ⠀ Trained lifters did 3-5RM on one leg and 20-25RM on the other for 9 weeks: both to failure.⠀ ⠀ Results?⠀ ⠀ Same hypertrophy. Same strength.⠀ ⠀ Only real difference: light loads improved endurance.⠀ ⠀ Why?⠀ ⠀ Because growth only happens in the final 4 reps when full motor recruitment finally kicks in.⠀ ⠀ Heavy loads reach those reps instantly.⠀ ⠀ Light loads need 15-20 junk reps just to get there.⠀ ⠀ More volume doesn’t mean more growth.⠀ ⠀ Only the stimulating reps count, and every set, heavy or light, only has about four of them.⠀ ⠀ If there were 6 stimulating reps in a set, even 5, we would have seen a difference in hypertrophy between the limbs.⠀ ⠀ This is a magnificent success for my agenda of 4-6 rep supremacy.⠀ ⠀ PMID: 40827709

A new 2025 study squashed the idea that more volume increases growth, and suggested that the available growth reps in a set might just be the final four:⠀ ⠀ Trained lifters did 3-5RM on one leg and 20-25RM on the other for 9 weeks: both to failure.⠀ ⠀ Results?⠀ ⠀ Same hypertrophy. Same strength.⠀ ⠀ Only real difference: light loads improved endurance.⠀ ⠀ Why?⠀ ⠀ Because growth only happens in the final 4 reps when full motor recruitment finally kicks in.⠀ ⠀ Heavy loads reach those reps instantly.⠀ ⠀ Light loads need 15-20 junk reps just to get there.⠀ ⠀ More volume doesn’t mean more growth.⠀ ⠀ Only the stimulating reps count, and every set, heavy or light, only has about four of them.⠀ ⠀ If there were 6 stimulating reps in a set, even 5, we would have seen a difference in hypertrophy between the limbs.⠀ ⠀ This is a magnificent success for my agenda of 4-6 rep supremacy.⠀ ⠀ PMID: 40827709

224,538 views • 9 months ago

Them: "Rep range for back?" Me: "4-6" Them: "Chest?" Me: "4-6" Them: "What about the slow twitch muscles?" Me: "4-6" Them: "Those fibres are built for endurance." Me: "They're built to contract. Load them." Them: "No finisher? Nothing in the twenties?" Me: "What would it finish?" Them: "It fully fatigues the muscle." Me: "So does moving house." Them: "Fatigue is the stimulus, mate." Me: "Fatigue is the bill. Growth is the purchase." Them: "You never go above six?" Me: "Only when I miscount." Them: "..." Me: "4-6 reps."

Them: "Rep range for back?" Me: "4-6" Them: "Chest?" Me: "4-6" Them: "What about the slow twitch muscles?" Me: "4-6" Them: "Those fibres are built for endurance." Me: "They're built to contract. Load them." Them: "No finisher? Nothing in the twenties?" Me: "What would it finish?" Them: "It fully fatigues the muscle." Me: "So does moving house." Them: "Fatigue is the stimulus, mate." Me: "Fatigue is the bill. Growth is the purchase." Them: "You never go above six?" Me: "Only when I miscount." Them: "..." Me: "4-6 reps."

45,371 views • 1 month ago

You are not too old to build muscle. The people who told you otherwise have never read the study that settles it. In 1990, researchers took ten frail nursing-home residents with an average age of 90 and put them on heavy resistance training three times a week. Real load, taken close to what they could manage. No chair aerobics, no resistance bands the colour of a boiled sweet. Actual weight. Eight weeks later, among the nine who finished, strength had climbed by an average of 174 percent. Their thigh muscle had grown. Their walking speed improved by nearly half. Two of them put their walking sticks away. One resident who could not stand from a chair without using their arms got up unaided. Average age in the room: 90. Oldest: 96. If you think ten people is a thin reed to lean on, the same researcher ran it again four years later as a proper randomised trial, a hundred nursing-home residents this time, and the strength gains held at 113 percent. The frail and the ancient kept building muscle every time anyone bothered to test it. Now sit with what you have been told instead. Take it easy. Mind your back. You don't want to overdo it at your age. Stick to walking. A nice gentle swim. Don't lift anything heavier than the kettle. Every one of those instructions was handed to people more capable than the nonagenarians in that study, and it made them weaker. Muscle responds to load. It does not ask your age before it grows. The 70-year-old who picks up something heavy twice a week is building tissue the same way the 25-year-old is, just from a different starting line. Slower, smaller numbers, but the machinery still works, and it keeps working into your nineties whether anyone gave you permission or not. Old age was never the thing that made you weak on its own. A lifetime of being told to sit down and protect a body that was begging to be used did far more of the damage. Pick something up. Put it down. Do it again next week with a bit more. You have decades of evidence and a nursing home full of nonagenarians on your side.

You are not too old to build muscle. The people who told you otherwise have never read the study that settles it. In 1990, researchers took ten frail nursing-home residents with an average age of 90 and put them on heavy resistance training three times a week. Real load, taken close to what they could manage. No chair aerobics, no resistance bands the colour of a boiled sweet. Actual weight. Eight weeks later, among the nine who finished, strength had climbed by an average of 174 percent. Their thigh muscle had grown. Their walking speed improved by nearly half. Two of them put their walking sticks away. One resident who could not stand from a chair without using their arms got up unaided. Average age in the room: 90. Oldest: 96. If you think ten people is a thin reed to lean on, the same researcher ran it again four years later as a proper randomised trial, a hundred nursing-home residents this time, and the strength gains held at 113 percent. The frail and the ancient kept building muscle every time anyone bothered to test it. Now sit with what you have been told instead. Take it easy. Mind your back. You don't want to overdo it at your age. Stick to walking. A nice gentle swim. Don't lift anything heavier than the kettle. Every one of those instructions was handed to people more capable than the nonagenarians in that study, and it made them weaker. Muscle responds to load. It does not ask your age before it grows. The 70-year-old who picks up something heavy twice a week is building tissue the same way the 25-year-old is, just from a different starting line. Slower, smaller numbers, but the machinery still works, and it keeps working into your nineties whether anyone gave you permission or not. Old age was never the thing that made you weak on its own. A lifetime of being told to sit down and protect a body that was begging to be used did far more of the damage. Pick something up. Put it down. Do it again next week with a bit more. You have decades of evidence and a nursing home full of nonagenarians on your side.

58,644 views • 2 months ago