The Strength Log

How much does the lifting tempo you use in the gym matter? Well, a lot, at least according to a new meta-analysis that lays the foundation for today's episode. The study showed that lifting weights intentionally slowly leads to slower strength gains, while lifting them as fast as possible leads to faster ones. But what about injury risk? The eccentric phase of the lift? Take our hand and we'll show you the way to faster gains! *** Do you like what you hear so far? Please leave a five-star review in your podcast player. And hit that subscribe button! You can also follow us on Instagram. You'll find Daniel at @strengthdan, and Philip at @philipwildenstam. Become a part of our community on Facebook here. *** This podcast is brought to you by Styrkelabbet AB, Sweden. To support us, download the world's best gym workout tracker app StrengthLog here. It's completely ad-free and the most generous fitness app on the market, giving you access to unlimited workout logging, lots of workouts and training programs, and much, much more even if you stay a free user for life.

Learn all about protein intake for muscle growth including daily requirements, meal timing, and best protein sources. Discover how high protein diets impact muscle growth and get ready for future episodes on protein supplements

If your goal in the gym is to train for muscle growth, you just need to know the basics and a few core principles. In this episode of The Strength Log, we'll break it down for you: How fast can you gain muscle mass? What causes your muscles to grow? How often should you train a muscle group? How many weekly sets should you hit your muscle groups with? How many reps should you do in each set? How long should you rest between sets? What are the best exercises when training for muscle growth? That's about it. It's not very complicated—in theory—but the more time we spend in the gym, the more we tend to forget about what actually matters. So, here you go: our quick guide to muscle growth! *** Do you like what you hear so far? Please leave a five-star review in your podcast player. And hit that subscribe button! You can also follow us on Instagram. You'll find Daniel at @strengthdan, and Philip at @philipwildenstam. Become a part of our community on Facebook here. *** This podcast is brought to you by Styrkelabbet AB, Sweden. To support us, download the world's best gym workout tracker app StrengthLog here. It's completely ad-free and the most generous fitness app on the market, giving you access to unlimited workout logging, lots of workouts and training programs, and much, much more even if you stay a free user for life.

Compound exercises are the closest thing you'll ever come to a shortcut in your strength training. These lifts will not only work a single muscle group; instead hitting several at once, saving you time. Compound lifts will enable you to train all major muscle groups quickly and with fewer exercises, compared to working each muscle separately with isolation exercises. This episode discusses the benefits of focusing on compound exercises—and a few cons—and gives exercise suggestions for all muscle groups. *** Do you like what you hear so far? Please leave a five-star review in your podcast player. And hit that subscribe button! You can also follow us on Instagram. You'll find Daniel at @strengthdan, and Philip at @philipwildenstam. Become a part of our community on Facebook here. *** This podcast is brought to you by Styrkelabbet AB, Sweden. To support us, download our free workout tracker app StrengthLog. It's completely ad-free and the most generous fitness app on the market, giving you access to unlimited workout logging, lots of workouts and training programs, and much, much more even if you stay a free user for life.

Which squat mistakes are actually holding you back from becoming a world-class squatter? Or even a decent one? They might not be the ones you think (clickbait!), and in this episode of The Strength Log podcast, our mission is to make you less afraid of the stuff random squat gurus on the World Wide Web tell you that you must fix before you're allowed to put some real weights on the barbell. So, how much should you care about your buttwink? Your knees collapsing? Not breaking parallel? We have around fifteen squat mistakes to discuss, so let's get started! *** Do you like what you hear so far? Please leave a five-star review in your podcast player. And hit that subscribe button! You can also follow us on Instagram. You'll find Daniel at @strengthdan, and Philip at @philipwildenstam. Become a part of our community on Facebook here. *** This podcast is brought to you by Styrkelabbet AB, Sweden. To support us, download our strength training app StrengthLog. It's completely ad-free and the most generous fitness app on the market, giving you access to unlimited workout logging, lots of workouts and training programs, and much, much more even if you stay a free user for life.

We made it to ten episodes! That's worth a small celebration, don't you think? That's why this episode is fully dedicated to answering questions from our listeners. From the ones you sent in, we picked eighth. See the timestamps below! Timestamps: 02:50 – Question 1: What rep ranges do you prefer when strength and muscle mass are the priorities? 06:40 – Question 2: How do I build bigger glutes without hip thrusts? I'm doing at-home workouts with only a barbell and dumbbells. 09:00 – Question 3: It's summer soon. How much do I need to train to avoid losing my gains? 13:20 – Question 4: Do cold showers (not baths) harm muscle growth if taken 12–24 hours after training? 16:30 – Question 5: What is the #1 lesson you've learned in the gym, that helped you the most regarding progression and/or motivation for your training? 20:00 – Question 6: Say that you want to test your general strength and fitness in the gym quarterly, using the same tests every time. The test can only take one hour, not including warm-up. Which exercises should the test contain, and for how many reps? 27:25 – Question 7: Does creatine lose its effect if you put it in coffee or tea? 29:50 – Question 8: Bench press, squat, or deadlift: You can only do two for the rest of your life. Which one will you never train again, and why? *** Do you like what you hear so far? Please leave a five-star review in your podcast player. And hit that subscribe button! You can also follow us on Instagram. You'll find Daniel at @strengthdan, and Philip at @philipwildenstam. Become a part of our community on Facebook here. *** This podcast is brought to you by Styrkelabbet AB, Sweden. To support us, download our gym workout tracker app StrengthLog. It's completely ad-free and the most generous fitness app on the market, giving you access to unlimited workout logging, lots of workouts and training programs, and much, much more even if you stay a free user for life.

Free weights are the superior choice at the gym, says many people. Barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, and such are much more natural and functional! Don't waste your time sucking up to the machines! But wait! Don't use free weights, you'll hurt yourself! Use machines instead, they are much safer and more efficient for building your muscles and strength! Says others*. Free weights vs machines: the eternal debate amongst gym bros and sisters. Today, we're here to settle this debate. What does the science say? Can we clearly say one option is better than the other, no matter if you're training for strength, bodybuilding, sports, or just the health benefits of lifting heavy stuff? We finish the episode with a handful of questions from our listeners. If you want to be able to ask us questions in the future, check out StrengthLog Community on Facebook. After a four-week hiatus (i.e., sick leave), The Strength Log podcast is finally back! *Skynet *** Do you like what you hear so far? Please leave a five-star review in your podcast player. And hit that subscribe button! You can also follow us on Instagram. You'll find Daniel at @strengthdan, and Philip at @philipwildenstam. Become a part of our community on Facebook here. *** This podcast is brought to you by Styrkelabbet AB, Sweden. To support us, download our gym workout tracker app StrengthLog. It's completely ad-free and the most generous fitness app on the market, giving you access to unlimited workout logging, lots of workouts and training programs, and much, much more even if you stay a free user for life.

What are the most common deadlift mistakes? In today's episode, we've compiled the deadlift mistakes we believe are holding people back, but are also easily correctable. If you want to improve your deadlift instantly, correcting these mistakes will be the closest you'll come to a quick fix. We also discuss injury prevention and equipment like shoes, lifting straps, and chalk, and recommend proven training programs for the deadlift. For a video demonstration of the five-step deadlift set-up mentioned in the episode, click here. Daniel also recommends Adam Meakins' Instagram account, which you'll find here. Alrighty then, let's lift until we're dead! *** Do you like what you hear so far? Please leave a five-star review in your podcast player. And hit that subscribe button! You can also follow us on Instagram. You'll find Daniel at @strengthdan, and Philip at @philipwildenstam. Become a part of our community on Facebook here. *** This podcast is brought to you by Styrkelabbet AB, Sweden. To support us, download our absolutely amazing gym workout tracker app StrengthLog. It's completely ad-free and the most generous fitness app on the market, giving you access to unlimited workout logging, lots of workouts and training programs, and much, much more even if you stay a free user for life.

Do you build more muscle mass when you train to failure, versus stopping a few reps short? In today's episode, we discuss a new study that examined this. Then we'll zoom out and debate a lot of different scenarios, to give you a better understanding of when it might matter more if you train to fail, and when it might matter less. Two common definitions of training to fail are muscular failure (when you can't lift the weight anymore, no matter what), and technical failure (when you can't lift the weight anymore with the technique you want to use). Both definitions are legitimate, and regardless of which one you use for your training, we believe you will learn useful information from this episode! We finish by answering a handful of questions from our listeners on this topic, including: How hard is knowing when you're 1–2 reps from failure? How does training to fail affect recovery? Let's go balls to the wall! *** Do you like what you hear so far? Please leave a five-star review in your podcast player. And hit that subscribe button! You can also follow us on Instagram. You'll find Daniel at @strengthdan, and Philip at @philipwildenstam. Become a part of our community on Facebook here. *** This podcast is brought to you by Styrkelabbet AB, Sweden. To support us, download our free workout tracker app StrengthLog. It's completely ad-free and the most generous workout tracker app on the market, giving you access to unlimited workout logging, lots of workouts and training programs, and much, much more even if you stay a free user for life.

The bench press is not only the world's most popular barbell lift, it's also a technical lift that many people will struggle with for years before figuring it out. So, what are the most common bench press mistakes you should avoid to improve faster? If you google "common bench press mistakes", you'll find many articles trying to serve up one-size-fits-all solutions. Don't flare your elbows! There's one grip-width everyone should stick to! Leg drive is king! Don't bend your wrists! Et cetera. Don't be discouraged. Yes, the bench press might not be the most intuitive exercise. But your body will figure it out if you just learn the basics and then make sure to train it deliberately and continuously. In this episode of The Strength Log, we'll focus less on offering you the perfect technique cues – our experience tells us that they will differ on the individual level. Instead, we'll look at the do's and don'ts that anyone can implement immediately, which will make a big difference for your bench press results in the long run. *** Do you like what you hear so far? Please leave a five-star review in your podcast player. And hit that subscribe button! You can also follow us on Instagram. You'll find Daniel at @strengthdan, and Philip at @philipwildenstam. *** This podcast is brought to you by Styrkelabbet AB, Sweden. To support us, download our workout tracker app StrengthLog. It's completely ad-free and the most generous workout tracker app on the market, giving you access to unlimited workout logging, lots of workouts and training programs, and much, much more even if you stay a free user for life.