All protocols

Use sprints on an air bike as a safe power-conditioning option; can be done from a rolling start or dead start.

Use Olympic lifts such as snatches and clean and jerks for power development; described as pound-for-pound the most effective exercise choice for power development.

Use speed squats for speed/power development.

Use loaded carries as a strength method, including farmer's carries, sled pushes, sled drags, and yoke walks.

Use bands or chains to vary resistance through the range of motion and better match the human strength curve.

Heavy bands attached to the barbell to create dynamic variable resistance; as you stand up during the lift, the bands tighten and increase downward resistance.

Chains attached to the barbell as a form of dynamic variable resistance.

Minimize distractions so training quality and intent stay high; set your playlist before going to the gym if using music, or leave your phone out of the gym entirely. Use music only if it improves focus and intent.

Cuff used on the arm or leg to restrict blood flow during low-load hypertrophy training.

Use blood flow restriction training with very light loads, from no load up to about 30% of maximum, taken to fatigue/failure as an alternative hypertrophy method.

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

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.

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.