Health, Fitness & Human Performance
Resistance training, from first principles.
11 topics · 13 curated works
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
Fundamentals of Resistance Training: Progression and Exercise Prescription
William J. Kraemer & Nicholas A. Ratamess · 2004
Argues progressive overload only works when volume, intensity, exercise order and rest are varied together over time, not just increased in…
+5 more at this level
Primary sources and full treatments.
American College of Sports Medicine Position Stand: Progression Models in Resistance Training for Healthy Adults
Nicholas A. Ratamess et al. · 2009
Sets evidence-based prescription for load, volume, exercise order and progression in resistance training, and shows the variables must be manipulated…
+6 more at this level
12 of 13 works
William J. Kraemer & Nicholas A. Ratamess
Argues progressive overload only works when volume, intensity, exercise order and rest are varied together over time, not just increased in isolation, and lays out the variables that make progression systematic rather than ad hoc.
Andrew C. Kreher & Jennifer B. Schwartz
Distinguishes the fatigue that a deload should fix from the syndrome that months of rest are needed to fix, and gives the markers that tell the two apart.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Victor Bengtsson, Lars Berglund & Ulrika Aasa
Reviews injury patterns across the three competition lifts and finds most powerlifting injuries are gradual-onset overuse conditions rather than the acute tears lifters and coaches typically expect.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Christopher J. Kotarsky, Bryan K. Christensen, Jeremy S. Miller & Kyle J. Hackney
Trains one group on barbell bench press and another on progressive bodyweight push-up variations for six weeks and finds comparable gains in upper-body strength and muscle thickness, evidence that bodyweight training is not a lesser substitute for external load.
Ignacio Martín-Fuentes, Jose M. Oliva-Lozano & Jose M. Muyor
Systematically reviews electromyography studies across deadlift variants and finds the conventional, sumo and trap-bar deadlift recruit the same major muscles to broadly similar degrees, against claims that one variant is decisively superior.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Brad J. Schoenfeld, Jozo Grgic, Derrick W. Van Every & Daniel L. Plotkin
Re-examines the assumption that light loads only build endurance and heavy loads only build strength, showing a wide range of loads produces comparable hypertrophy once sets are taken close to failure.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Nicholas A. Ratamess et al.
Sets evidence-based prescription for load, volume, exercise order and progression in resistance training, and shows the variables must be manipulated differently for novice, intermediate and advanced trainees.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Brad J. Schoenfeld
Proposes mechanical tension, muscle damage and metabolic stress as the three drivers of hypertrophy, and argues training variables should be chosen for how they load each mechanism rather than by tradition.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Trent D. Williams, Danilo V. Tolusso, Michael V. Fedewa & Michael R. Esco
Meta-analyses head-to-head trials of periodized versus non-periodized programmes and finds periodization produces reliably greater strength gains, settling a question that had mostly been argued from coaching anecdote.
Brad J. Schoenfeld, Dan Ogborn & James W. Krieger
Meta-analyses the dose-response relationship between weekly training volume and muscle growth and finds hypertrophy keeps increasing with more weekly sets, at least across the range the included studies tested.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Brad J. Schoenfeld, Jozo Grgic & James Krieger
Meta-analyses training-frequency studies and finds training a muscle twice a week produces more hypertrophy than once a week when total volume is equated, isolating frequency from volume as a variable in its own right.
Paul Comfort, G. Gregory Haff, Timothy J. Suchomel et al.
The NSCA's official position statement argues the snatch, clean and jerk and their derivatives transfer to athletic power output better than general strength training because they share sprinting and jumping's triple-extension and rate-of-force-development demands, and sets guidelines for teaching and programming them safely.
link checked 17 Sept 2026