GymRec
The Journal
Why Your Bench Progresses Slower Than Your Squat
Almost every lifter notices it eventually: the squat and deadlift climb steadily while the bench and overhead press crawl. It is easy to read this as a…
The Numbers Worth Logging (and the Ones That Aren't)
Training logs fail in two directions. Most are too sparse to answer any question — a list of exercises with no numbers. A few are so elaborate that filling…
Building Your First Training Block From One Number
You can build a complete first training block from a single input: a rough estimate of your one-rep max on each main lift. Everything else — working…
Deload Weeks: What to Cut and by How Much
A deload is a planned week of reduced training. Not a week off, not a week you take because you feel bad — a scheduled reduction that lets accumulated…
Progressive Overload, in Numbers
Progressive overload is the one principle nearly everyone agrees on: to keep adapting, the demand has to keep rising. Where it gets vague is what exactly…
Why Rep-Max Estimates Fall Apart Above Twelve Reps
The One-Rep Max Calculator refuses rep counts above twelve. That is not caution for its own sake. Past roughly a dozen reps both standard formulas stop…
Cutting Without Losing the Bar
The fear that stops most lifters cutting is losing strength. It is a reasonable fear — some loss of absolute strength during a deficit is normal. But the…
Protein and Calorie Targets for Lifters, Explained
Nutrition advice for lifters tends to arrive either as a rigid prescription or as a shrug. Neither is much use when you are trying to work out roughly how…
Wilks Points: Why the Heavier Lifter Often Wins
Here is a result that surprises most people the first time they compute it.
What Training Volume Actually Measures
Volume load, or tonnage, is the simplest number in strength training: sets × reps × weight, summed across the session. Five sets of five at 120kg is 3,000kg…
Plate Maths: Why 165lb Isn't 45 + 10 + 5
Ask most lifters to load 165lb and they will put a 35 and a 25 on each side without thinking. Ask a naive computer program to do it and you get a 45, a 10…
Reading a Percentage Programme When the Bar Won't Load
Percentage-based programmes are written in tidy fractions. Five sets of three at ninety percent. Work up to eighty-five. Back-off sets at seventy. The…