EP. 21 DR. ERIC HELMS - MAX MUSCLE GAIN: OPTIMIZING PROGRAM DESIGN

Hawk Fit Presents: Anabolic Radio

In this episode of Anabolic Radio, I had the pleasure of chatting to Dr. Eric Helms. This episode was very exercise science and training theory-heavy, so put on your seatbelt.

At the heart of science lies this one small fact: one size does not fit all. While general principles apply to all individuals, putting these into practice is more art than science.

Innate differences in aerobic capacity, muscle fiber type, insertions/origins, and even proportions/ratios in our skeletal structure- affect how you will respond to a program.

Only through trial and error will you be able to determine what works for you.

Science is the framework that should guide the development and execution of your training program, but there is no substitute for experience, common sense, and effort- All of which will be common denominators regardless of the program.

In this episode, we spoke about a variety of topics ranging from exercise selection, to biomechanics and individual differences in training, to volume requirements, all the way to training to failure.

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

01:20 Eric’s Offseason/Return to the stage

03:50 The importance of context

04:30 Efficient exercise selection

09:00 Squat mechanics/biomechanical differences

10:44 Optimizing set up/execution for movements

11:30 Volume requirements

15:00 Movement tradeoffs

17:00 Principle specificity

18:30 Exercise sequence

24:24 Effort/Proximity to failure

30:00 Nuances of failure

38:00 Anatomy/Biomechanics in training

44:00 Overreaching & overtraining

50:00 Repetition tempo

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