All protocols

For hypertrophy, exercises can be selected either by body part or by movement pattern; both can work if weekly volume is sufficient.

Include a combination of bilateral and unilateral exercises in hypertrophy training to support balanced development and reduce imbalances over months and years.

Use machines as an underappreciated hypertrophy tool, especially for beginners or when trying to target a muscle more directly; if a compound movement is not effectively training the intended muscle, switch to a machine or isolation exercise.

Start hypertrophy sessions with bigger compound movements, then move to single-joint work later if desired.

If a muscle grows too easily relative to your goals, keep some training for it but reduce volume rather than eliminating it entirely; for example, about 2 sets twice per week.

For hypertrophy, pre-fatigue a target muscle with an isolation exercise before compound work if you want to guarantee that muscle gets emphasized.

Do not lump the entire lower body into a single 'legs day' while splitting the upper body into many separate days; account for multiple lower-body muscle groups.

When tallying hypertrophy volume, count work for muscles acting as primary or secondary movers, but generally not tertiary movers.

If you struggle to activate your lats, keep training them and concentrating on them rather than giving up; it may take months or years to learn.

In asymmetrical sports, deliberately train the non-dominant side to reduce asymmetry; examples given were learning to ride switch in skateboarding and switching stance in martial arts.

If you want both strength and hypertrophy, train fairly hard in the 4–8 rep range.

If you want strength without much muscle gain, keep total calories no more than about 10–15% above maintenance.

If soreness is around 3 out of 10 or less and improves with warm-up, training is probably okay.

If chronic excessive muscle damage is suspected, assess biomarkers such as creatine kinase, LDH, myoglobin, ALT, and AST.

A marked drop in motivation to train can be used as a practical sign that recovery may be inadequate.

Judge recovery by trends over at least 3 days, preferably 5, rather than one off day.

If recovery is poor but hypertrophy is the goal, do a lighter, easier session rather than canceling entirely; examples given include using about 6/10 RPE, reducing range of motion, switching to machines, or doing about 50% effort for sets of 10 for roughly 3 sets to get blood flow and aid recovery.

If endurance work is interfering with hypertrophy, increasing total energy intake can help remove the interference effect.

When combining endurance work with leg hypertrophy, cycling is preferred over running because it creates less eccentric damage and interference.

Best-case scenario for minimizing interference is to do endurance work on a separate day from hypertrophy training; if separate days are not possible, do lifting in the morning and cardio at night, and if it must be in the same session, do cardio after lifting rather than before.

High-intensity cardio may aid hypertrophy via metabolic disturbance, but do not do so much that it compromises subsequent training or glycogen recovery.

Doing a block of aerobic endurance training before a hypertrophy phase may improve later muscle growth; the example given was 6 weeks of steady-state long-duration endurance before hypertrophy training.

If poor conditioning is limiting your ability to tolerate enough hypertrophy work, improve conditioning first.

During phases aimed at maximizing hypertrophy, avoid recovery methods that blunt overload signals rather than trying to maximize recovery around every session.

Use pre-, intra-, or post-workout nutrition depending on the session; mid-workout is a favored option, especially if training fasted in the morning after an overnight fast. For strength work, a sample target is ~35 g protein + ~35 g carbohydrate. For hard conditioning, ~35 g protein + ~100–140 g carbohydrate. For mixed strength/conditioning, ~35 g protein + ~60–70 g carbohydrate. For hypertrophy, keep as many nutrients around training as possible and generally use about a 3:1 carbohydrate-to-protein ratio.

Maintain a neurobiologically consistent routine aligned with dopamine and motivation circuitry for at least 5 days per week. Consider taking time off on weekends.

For intrusive thoughts that are repetitive but not especially disturbing, direct attention to external stimuli and engage in activities that strongly capture attention to pull focus away from the thought; the background loop may persist at first but should wane over time.

To extinguish disturbing intrusive thoughts, write them out extensively in a structured format. Script as much detail as possible about the thought and surrounding context, ideally in complete sentences. Include the worst possible outcome you fear to get close to the underlying basis of the thought, and repeat the exercise multiple times if one session is not enough.

Strive for the best sleep possible, specifically including sufficient REM sleep, because REM helps remove the emotional load of traumatic experiences and intrusive thoughts.

If the intrusive thoughts fit classic OCD, see a psychiatrist; medication may not be necessary, but effective tools exist.