To quote Mark Rippetoe, "women are not a special population, they are half the population." In other words, women fundamentally train for strength the same way that men do -- the same principles of progressive overload, using compound barbell lifts that target the whole body, and nutritional principles apply. There are a few exceptions, however, and that's what Dr. Santana and Coach Trent address in today's episode.   How Birth Control Can Inhibit Strength and Performance by Lea Genders: ...

Dr. Santana and Coach Trent wrap up their mini series on post-novice programming with an important discussion on understanding why you missed reps. The novice linear progression cannot last forevever (or else we'd all be squatting 1,000lbs!), and as the saying goes, all good things come to an end. This means that at some point, you'll miss reps. What do you do then? Some people have the impression that missing reps means it's time to change the program, and that's not necessarily true. Often...

Dr. Robert Santana and Coach Trent explore the Stress/Recovery/Adapation cycle (adapted from Hans Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome) and how it serves as a guiding model for programming decisions in the intermediate phase of training.   Weights & Plates is now on YouTube! https://youtube.com/@weights_and_plates?si=ebAS8sRtzsPmFQf-   Weights & Plates: https://weightsandplates.com Robert Santana on Instagram: @the_robert_santana   Trent Jones: @marmalade_cream Email:...

The novice linear progression (NLP, or LP for short) is a fun time in the training career of a lifter. Never will you make as much progress -- and as fast! -- as you will during LP. It's also brutally hard, especially toward the end. Nevertheless, it comes to an end for every lifter, and people often spin their wheels trying to figure out what to do once the simple A/B program stops working. In today's episode, Dr. Santana and Coach Trent discuss some basic principles of post-novice...

For a variety of reasons, the predominant form of exercise in popular culture is endurance training. Endurance is valorized in the media, with sports like swimming and running receiving prime position in Olympic broadcasts. Military films often depict the hero enduring through miles and miles of trackless jungle and urban wastelands. The overarching experience of endurance training is pain, and pain is relatable. Everyone suffers, or will suffer, from pain in their life. It's even in the...

You've tried the templates in the bodybuilding magazines, from the bodybuilding sites. You've tried lifting like the big jacked, ripped dudes on social media... and it hasn't worked. You don't look like them, and your growth has stalled out. For some reason we accept that in sports, we shouldn't expect to perform like pro athletes without elite genetics and many years of training, but in fitness, we expect to acheive the look of people with outlier genetics, years of training, and, often,...

Happy New Year! To kick off 2024, Dr. Santana and Coach Trent discuss the biggest ingredient to success in achieiving your fitness goals -- consistency. All the talk about programming and training splits and macros is futile if you aren't taking action consistently to meet your goals. Many people struggle with consistency, however, so they dive deep into the factors that influence consistent action: environment, motivation, and discipline. Dr. Santana points out that every trainee has...

Dr. Santana and Coach Trent share some of the lessons they've learend about training, health, nutrition, and human behavior in 2023.   Happy New Year!   Weights & Plates: https://weightsandplates.com Robert Santana on Instagram: @the_robert_santana   Trent Jones: @marmalade_cream https://www.jonesbarbellclub.com  

A meandering chat about dog training turned into an interesting idea for strength training. Trainees are not so different from dogs -- they have different personalities, different motivations, and different "drives" -- and therefore they will respond best to a program that most closely matches their individual traits. An enthusiastic endurance athlete who regularly runs marathons or cycles long distances, for instance, would likely struggle mightilty on a program that calls for them to...

One idea in the fitness community that just won't die is that you need to do high rep sets (10's, 15's, 20's) when the goal is to build muscle. What so many people miss in this conversation, however, is that the context matters. To start with, the lift matters! Squats for sets of 10 or 15 are probably not a productive use or your time, because the fatigue generated from heavy compound lifts usually causes technique breakdown as you approach failure. Lying triceps extensions, on the other...

    Mark Rippetoe and Marty Gallagher Interview (3 Parts): Part 1: https://youtu.be/siaDQdpQPRQ?si=jBBEqMFP6drd1mKm Part 2: https://youtu.be/TxjibbKJ8UE?si=YilgpD6MG6bxAGZG Part 3: https://youtu.be/RIe_7ODKycQ?si=6t5M2L88a0J7DvGV   Weights & Plates: https://weightsandplates.com Robert Santana on Instagram: @the_robert_santana   Trent Jones: @marmalade_cream https://www.jonesbarbellclub.com

When people hire Dr. Santana looking to lose a significant amount of weight, it's almost certain this isn't their first attempt at dieting. In fact, what Dr. Santana typically finds with overweight and obese weight loss clients is that they have been dieting for years. They are essentially always in weight loss mode. The problem is, they haven't lost the weight, which indicates that their compliance is spotty at best. Dr. Santana also points out that even if compliance is low and they haven't...

Pain and "tweaks" are an inevitable part of training. If you live an active life, both in and out of the gym, then you will eventually tweak something and experience pain. You might even (heaven forbid!) get injured, and require rehab. So learning how to deal with pain while continuing to train and get strong is a very important part of the training process.   Pain is a complex experience, as much psychological and emotional as it is physical. Through their combined nearly four decades in...

There's something about the vibe of the old school, black iron gym. Whether it's a powerlifting dungeon straight out of the 80's, a bodybuilding gym packed full of machines and dumbbells, or a weightlifting hall with rows and rows of platforms, the single-purpose gym dedicated to training (not merely exercise) is a special place. A place where shit gets done, where hard effort and consistency are the primary currency. These gyms are hard to find, but you know them when you walk in the door....

A common frustration for intermediate lifters in their first couple years of training is an inability to maintain their peak strength. Whether it's a 1RM, a 5RM, or even a PR for sets across, for the vast majority of people something will interrupt their strength training progression and knock them off track, and they'll miss lifts they have previously hit. On top of that, attempting new PR's will become more unpredictable, and even if they did everything right, the weight sometimes just...

Dr. Robert Santana and Trent Jones address the topic of eating to gain muscle mass for women. While the physiology of bulking, as described in episodes 57-58, is no different for women than it is for men, the degree to which women need to eat for muscle mass and the total amount of muscle gain possible is different. In general, women are not able to convert surplus calories into muscle mass as efficiently as men, so Robert and Trent advocate for a slower rate of gain for women trying to build...

Dr. Robert Santana and Starting Strength Coach Trent Jones continue their discussion on bulking, including favorite foods for amassing calories, how fast you should gain weight, and why the weight on the bar should be the main metric of progress.   Weights & Plates: https://weightsandplates.com Robert Santana on Instagram: @the_robert_santana   Trent Jones: @marmalade_cream https://www.jonesbarbellclub.com

It's a common debate in the Starting Strength world and the world of lifting and aesthetics in general -- do you have to get fat to build muscle? Dr. Robert Santana and his co-host Trent Jones, SSC tackle this question and explain why, if you're a male looking to improve your physique, you probably need to bulk to gain muscle, drive your barbell lifts up, and later, cut body weight to lose the fat. So, to answer the question more directly: do you have to get fat? No, but you're gonna gain...

We know it's summer, and your busy. Kids are home from school, you're going on vacation, having cookouts... and we hope you enjoy these things! However, as a diet coach, Dr. Santana has observed a few common problems people have when trying to lose weight. One of those is snacking. Inevitably, people who keep a lot of snacks in their pantry end up overeating them and gaining weight when they're trying to lose.   There's an easy solution to this, however. Throw them out! If you want to...

It has become popular in the last few years for coaches in the strength and fitness world to question the concept of "technique," that is, that technique matters when it comes to getting stronger, building muscle, and injury risk reduction. One claim is that certain standardized technique hallmarks such as squat depth definied as the "hip crease below top of patella" are arbitrary, and that one could strong squatting deeper or higher than that. Others claim that certain techniques such as...

There's nothing more elusive and coveted in modern fitness and aesthetics than visible abs, the "six pack." For many, it's the holy grail of aesthetics. Many people, however, fail to achieve a six pack even after shedding a lot of body fat. How do you get them, then? Is it even possible for most people?   Dr. Robert Santana and Coach Trent break down the mystery of "abs," discuss the relevant anatomy, anatomical variation in the population, and why most people need to worry about building...

Dr. Robert and Coach Trent recently met up in Wichita Falls, TX, the home of the Starting Strength organization, for a strengthlifting meet at Wichita Falls Athletic Club. While they were there they sat down with the man himself, Mark Rippetoe, author of Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training 3rd Edition and many other books and articles, to chat about how much the food landscape has changed in his liftetime.   They also touch on the obsession with leanness in modern popular media, and...

For people new to barbell training, it's not uncommon to hear the process of strength training referred to as "powerlifting," or even "weightlifting." And while yes, we are lifting weights, that is not the same thing as weightlifting -- which is the sport of Olympic weightlifting, a barbell sport involving the snatch and clean and jerk. Likewise, while strength training involves the squat, bench press, and deadlift (and press), powerlifting is actually a sport in which the squat, bench, and...

Supplements are a huge industry, and showing no signs of slowing down. The idea that a pill, or a powder, or a drink can transform your fitness and body composition is irresistible, it seems, as people continue to pour billions of dollars into the supplement industry. Do any of them actually work though? And if so, which ones?   Dr. Robert Santana and Coach Trent Jones wade through the most popular performance enhancing supplements, and offer an opinion which runs counter to what most will...