Here’s the real question: What’s your goal? Is it overall fitness? In that case, you might want a more cardio-based workout. Is your goal overall strength? You want more strength training, then, whether lifting for power or endurance or a combination of the two. Regardless of what your fitness goals are, let’s look at components you should consider in your workout routine, particularly when building a strength training program.

How often should you work out?

Answers will vary depending on your current level of fitness and your goals, but in general, you want to work out often enough to improve your fitness without increasing your risk of injury. As a result, if you’re just beginning a strength training program, start with a couple of times per week. If you’re looking to build on a strength training program, you can consider more frequent intervals. Many health experts suggest at least 150 minutes of moderate to strenuous exercise per week, but that exercise should be varied, rather than all cardio or all strength training.

How long should a workout be?

For some people, an effective workout may be as short as 15-20 minutes. For others, you may need as long as a few hours. The biggest variables to consider are your current fitness level, the intensity of your workout (you may see significant returns on high-intensity interval training (HIIT), for instance, in a far shorter workout), and your fitness goals. In general, shoot for at least 30 minutes (or longer if weight loss is a goal).

How many sets should I do?

You should build up your number of sets and repetitions as you get more comfortable with your workout routine and as your fitness levels begin to match your workout level. When first starting a program, a good rule of thumb may be to start with no more than 2-3 sets and no more than 10-15 reps. Start with fewer than you think you can do and prioritize form when first starting.

How much cardio should I do each week?

For some individuals, cardio a few times a week is enough to maintain or even build anaerobic fitness. If your goal is more aerobic-based, such as training for a marathon, you will want to do more cardio. Every program should be tailored to your individual fitness level, fitness goals, and experience with the types of workouts you are doing. That said, everyone should do some cardio—even powerlifters and bodybuilders can benefit from focused cardio workouts that may help them build endurance—just as everyone (including marathoners) should do some strength training.

Which muscle groups should I target?

When it comes to building up muscle groups, consider functionality. Ask yourself, what is my fitness goal? Do I simply want to look good (in which case you may want to focus on certain muscles), or is there a fitness level I want to achieve (whether that’s running a six-minute mile or competing in a triathlon or something else entirely). Specific fitness goals will naturally lend themselves to focusing your strength training on different muscle groups. Basketball and baseball athletes may focus on building core strength and strength suited to very particular specialized tasks, for instance, which can lead to better rebounding ability or batting power. Swimmers may want to build more power in their shoulders and hips. Determining what your fitness goal is will also help you determine which muscle groups to target—especially if you can determine which muscle groups most need to improve relative to your current fitness level or strength. Determining an appropriate volume and intensity for targeted muscle groups is just as important as knowing which muscle groups to target, too.

How many exercises per muscle group?

This, too, is relative to your current fitness level. The general idea of effective strength training is to tire the muscle you’re looking to improve without pushing it to the breaking point. You need to push the muscle group or otherwise, it won’t adapt and give you improved performance. But if you push it too far, you’ll cause an injury. This is why your individual strength training program needs to be appropriate to your level of fitness and previous workout history, especially recent workout history. (If you were able to lift for an hour five days a week in high school, that doesn’t mean you still can—or should—lift for an hour five days a week twenty years later, especially if you haven’t lifted much since then.) As a general rule, exercises that incorporate multiple muscle groups are more effective than exercises that work an isolated area.

How do I determine when to schedule rest days?

You want to schedule your rest days to coincide with when your body can most optimally take advantage of that recovery. Every good strength training program is only as good as your body can recover from that program; without that recovery, your body can’t adapt and instead gradually breaks down. For beginners, start with more rest days (three or more per week); it’s better to gain fitness and strength more slowly than to overdo it when first getting started and end up injuring yourself.

Example weekly routine

Consider this weekly routine as an example.

Monday

• On The Dock Chest and Triceps: use this short but intense chest and tricep workout to sculpt your body on-the-go – developed by Ashton Pienaar
• You can add On The Dock Chest and Triceps to the workout library on your iPhone using this link: Add to workout library

Tuesday

• Rest day

Wednesday

• Kick It With Legs: build a solid foundation with this explosive lower body workout routine
• You can add Kick It With Legs to the workout library on your iPhone using this link: Add to workout library

Thursday

• Rest day

Friday

• Back and Shoulders Hypertrophy: a workout focused on effective muscle breakdown and endurance while burning maximum calories and increasing stamina – developed by Tyler Kelly
• You can add Back and Shoulders Hypertrophy to the workout library on your iPhone using this link: Add to workout library

Saturday/Sunday

• Pick one day as your workout day and make the other a recovery day
• Shredded Shoulders and Calves: power through these five exercises to maximize definition and size
• You can add Shredded Shoulders and Calves to the workout library on your iPhone using this link: Add to workout library

When deciding which lifts to start with, pick no more than a handful of upper body exercises and no more than a handful of lower body exercises to start. Try to make sure at least a few of each utilize your core muscles in your abs, hips, and lower back, too. Make sure you learn proper form and technique and start with less weight rather than more. Listen to your body—starting a new program shouldn’t be easy, but it shouldn’t feel like you’re injuring yourself, either. Consider supplementing with bodyweight exercises, too, as you get more comfortable with your strength-training routine.

References

• https://health.gov/news/blog/2012/10/how-much-daily-exercise-is-best-for-weight-loss/
• https://www.hhs.gov/fitness/be-active/physical-activity-guidelines-for-americans/index.html
• https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/expert-answers/exercise/faq-20057916
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4562558/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4592763/
• https://www.health.harvard.edu/exercise-and-fitness/7-tips-for-a-safe-and-successful-strength-training-program

When trying to decide where to focus your lifting program—whether new to lifting or revitalizing your commitment to your body—plenty of things can be confusing. What’s powerlifting? How’s it different from bodybuilding? Should I focus on building mass or strength? Let’s look at each of those questions a little more closely.

What is powerlifting?

Powerlifting is lifting focused on building power. Often that leans toward a focus on competitions, but doesn’t necessarily have to; while powerlifting can indeed help you develop competition-level strength, it can also simply be a means to an end—in the case of athletes looking to develop more power, for instance.

Powerlifting vs. bodybuilding

Some powerlifters also take part in bodybuilding. Building power doesn’t have to necessarily mean you can’t also sculpt your body. Many pure powerlifters, however, choose to focus entirely on building power as they can build more power in a shorter period of time without the cutting phases necessary for effective bodybuilding and physique sculpting.

Where should beginners start?

If interested in building more power—regardless of whether or not competition-level lifting is on your radar—there are plenty of beginner powerlifting programs to consider. Of particular importance is finding the right gym. When learning new lifts, you want people around you who can keep an eye on your form—and not every gym emphasizes form and technique equally. Similarly, some gyms are better equipped for powerlifters than others (though that’s more of a consideration as you begin working with heavier weights). Consider USA Powerlifting’s gym search tool; though not the only gyms in which you can powerlift, you’re guaranteed to be surrounded by experienced powerlifters who can help show you the ropes.

As far as routines and programs, beginners should start with something simple—a program that helps them get familiar with the equipment, the lifts, and doesn’t ask too much else of them except to put in the time working on their form. For that reason, we recommend a 5 x 5 program to start, which we’ll explain further in our sample workout below.

How to move from beginner to intermediate powerlifter

Once you’ve developed familiarity with basic powerlifting lifts and have really gotten your form down, you can start exploring other lifts and adding more weight to your routine. With a solid framework in place, you can really start focusing on the big three lifts for building power: deadlifts, bench presses, and squats.

Training phases

There are numerous training principles to keep in mind as you progress as a powerlifter. In particular, you should focus on a combination of volume, intensity, and deloading.

Volume

In order to adequately stress your muscles and gain power, you need a certain amount of volume in your lifting routine. Here’s where you need to be honest with yourself about where you are as a lifter: Too much volume too quickly is a good way to get hurt. Beginning lifters should aim for less lifting volume than intermediate lifters, just as intermediate lifters will generally have less volume than powerlifters. There are some exceptions—not all competition lifters have crazy volume, for instance, instead trusting that their training and their experience makes up for the lost volume, just as lower volume helps them stay healthy—but this is the general rule in powerlifting.

Intensity

Higher intensity workouts also help build power more quickly. Again, the tradeoff is an increased risk of injury. As a result, beginning powerlifters should focus on lower intensity before slowly ramping up as their training base allows. Need another reason to choose a gym with experienced powerlifters? They can help you determine an appropriate way to ramp up your intensity without dramatically increasing your risk of injury.

Deloading

Every few weeks should include a deloading phase in which you drastically drop the weight you are lifting. Depending on the lifting program, it can be a reduction of anywhere between 30-70%. This deloading phase gives your muscles a chance to recover from the work they have been doing and helps prevent injury. While you may be tempted to skip the deloading phase, you'll make faster progress and gains if you can stay healthy; don’t underestimate your body’s need for recovery.

Assistance work

Assistance work is one way to “cheat” your training principles. Whether utilizing a machine for assistance or the assistance of a spotter, assistance work allows you to ease into heavier weights while decreasing your risk of injury. When considering assistance work in your powerlifting program, make sure you do so with the guidance and supervision of more experienced lifters to help reduce your risk of injury.

Powerlifting exercises

While there are many lifts that are frequently used in powerlifting programs to help build strength, there are three in particular that help build power quickly and can serve as benchmark lifts: deadlifts, bench presses, and squats.

Deadlift

In a deadlift, you lift a loaded barbell from the ground to hip height (with your torso remaining perpendicular to the floor) before placing the barbell back on the ground. Because you use your entire core in lifting the bar and maintaining stability, it is a great way to build whole-body power.

Bench press

In a bench press, you lift a loaded barbell (or a pair of dumbbells in some variants) above your shoulders while lying prone (back down) on a bench. Because it targets the shoulders and upper arms as well as core stabilizing muscles, it helps build upper-body power.

Squat

In a squat, you lower your hips from a standing position to a position in which your upper legs are roughly parallel with the ground before returning to a standing position—with a loaded barbell across your shoulders. Because of the way it stresses your hips and legs and relies on core strength for stabilizing, it helps build lower-body power.

Example powerlifting workout

Check out this 5 x 5 workout plan we referenced earlier, as it’s great for beginning lifters.

Monday

1. Barbell squat: 5 sets, 5 reps, all at the same weight
2. Front barbell squat: 3 sets, 8-10 reps, clean grip
3. Butt lift (or bridge): 3 sets, 8-10 reps
4. Seated calf raise: 3-4 sets of 8-10 slow reps

Wednesday

1. Barbell bench press: 5 sets, 5 reps, all the same weight (using medium grip)
2. Dumbbell bench press: 2 sets, 8-10 reps, focusing on even repetitions and symmetry
3. Close-grip barbell bench press: 3 sets, 5 reps
4. Triceps pushdown: 3-4 sets of 8-10 slow reps

Friday

1. Barbell deadlift: 5 sets, 5 reps, all the same weight
2. Upright barbell row: 3 sets, 8-10 reps
3. Hyperextensions: 3 sets, 10-15 reps (use lighter weights for these)
4. Barbell curl: 5 sets, 5 reps

The usual caveats apply:

• Don’t add weight too quickly (no more than 5-10 additional pounds per week to start)
• Start with lower weights so you can really focus on form, rather than straining
• Only move to heavier weights when you are certain your form is solid and have been progressing without too much effort to that point
• Give yourself rest between sets as needed. (This is somewhere where the rest timer feature in workout apps like Bolt can come in handy, too!)
• Be sure to deload regularly—ideally, every few weeks—to ensure your body is recovering adequately from your workouts and lower your risk of injury

References:

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5954586/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27707741/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21590644
• https://www.usapowerlifting.com/gyms/

Here's a great list of all the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals being offered by indie iOS and macOS developers for 2019!

📱 iOS App Deals

💼 Business

‎Form Builder Pro

Replace your sign-in sheets, customer surveys, client intake forms, and more with Form Builder Pro. Create custom forms that you, your employees, clients, prospective customers, and sales leads can fill out right on your iPad or iPhone. No internet connection required. Open your form with an atte…

Wander Bit LLC - Photo & Video Editor Apps and MoreApp Store

‎Invoice.app

Invoice.app is a simple, easy to use and powerful invoicing app. It has been carefully designed and developed to offer the best user experience. It’s perfect for freelancers, contractors and small business owners. Available on iOS, iPadOS and macOS. Main features: • Create invoices, estimates, purc…

Stojanowski Consulting LtdApp Store

‎Landlordy Property Management

Manage your private landlord business – track tenants, rent payments, invoices and expenses, manage appliances and maintenance records, keep track of tenant balance and payment history, get instant financial reports and useful reminders to be an even better landlord. Features: - Manage rental busin…

E-protectApp Store

‎Tap Forms Organizer 5 Database

Tap Forms 5 is the digital filing cabinet for life’s scattered details. Now with Scripting and Siri Shortcuts support! Accounts, recipes, expenses, inventory — life is full of things that we don’t want to forget or misplace. Tap Forms 5 helps you organize all kinds of things in one place — secure, …

Tap Zapp Software Inc.App Store

🍿 Entertainment

‎FXpress

Create your own animated text stickers for Messages. Multiple effects including: Fire, Clouds, Waterfall, Rain, Snow, Dripping Ink, Magic, Sparks, Plasma, and Fire with Smoke. Super simple to use. Just type in your message and press Done. Your message will be turned into an animated sticker befor…

Aaron KreipeApp Store

‎Lemonade stickers for iMessage

Lemonade stickers for iMessages allows you to express yourself in Messages like never before with unique, emotive stickers that peel and place right over message bubbles, photos, and even other stickers! With Lemonade you can change the size of your stickers, add spectacularly animated bubble effect…

nomtasticapps, LLCApp Store

🍔 Food & Drink

‎Brew Timer - Coffee Recipes

Brew a delicious cup of coffee every time with Brew Timer! Brew Timer helps you produce a consistently great cup of coffee by guiding you step-by-step through the brewing process. Start with one of the included brew recipes or add your own and tune it to perfection. Brew Timer works with you, no ma…

Stephen PanaroApp Store

🚀 Games

‎Blackbox

So you think you understand this thing you’re holding? Think again. Stop tapping. Stop swiping. In fact, stop touching the screen at all. To crack Blackbox’s puzzles you’ll need to find solitude and stillness, climb mountains, call on friends, get in tune with the cosmos, and think outside the box. …

Grow PixelApp Store

🚴 Health & Fitness

‎Weight Lifting Tracker by Bolt

“Great App. Love this App. I wanted a simple way to setup my workouts and track progress - Bolt does that nicely. They also continue to add features and encourage feedback.” - lnf2103 Bolt: workout lifting tracker⁺ is one of the best workout journals on the App Store. It’s the simplest workout trac…

Bolt Gym Workout Tracker and Bodybuilding Weight Training Log, LLCApp Store

‎CardioBot - Heart Rate Tracker

​Your Apple Watch measures your heart rate every 4 minutes during the day. With CardioBot, you can easily understand the data captured by the Apple Watch so you can improve your lifestyle and discover notable patterns. CardioBot is an iPhone app that reads heart rate data stored by the Apple Watch …

Majid JabrayilovApp Store

‎Intertime

Intertime is an easy to use interval timer for Apple Watch. Interval timers are great for athletes and casual exercisers who want to improve their speed, endurance, or overall performance. When you open Intertime, you’re presented asked to enter the amount of time you’d like to “work” for. This is t…

Bean’s Bytes, LLCApp Store

‎Pine - Deep Breathing

Pine helps you find a quiet moment in your busy life. Pine guides you through deep breathing exercises on your iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, and Apple TV. Most of us have busy on-the-go lifestyles and might not have five or ten minutes to meditate and relax. That is where Pine come in. Pine is there fo…

Bean’s Bytes, LLCApp Store

‎RunIn - Running Training

Easily track your interval running sessions with RunIn. Create a custom interval running session using time and/or distance as a target for your efforts. Features: • Easily create an interval running session and sync it with your Apple Watch; • Configure your effort by distance, time or until doub…

Fernando SousaApp Store

‎Standometer

Standometer is a simple app that tracks the duration of time you spend standing each day. You might know that moving and hitting your step goal is important for your health, but just as important is how much time you spend standing. Standometer shows you a simple circle that fills up throughout the …

Bean’s Bytes, LLCApp Store

‎Step It Up

Step It Up let’s you conveniently view your daily step count, distance you’ve walked and/or ran, and how many flights of stairs you’ve climbed. Step It Up motivates you to stay healthy with a daily step goal that you can set yourself. Each time you return to Step It Up you’ll see how many more steps…

Bean’s Bytes, LLCApp Store

‎Thirstic: Smart Water Tracker

Thirstic is the first water tracker that automatically adapts your water needs to your daily activity and the weather conditions! Thirstic is the perfect fitness and health companion. Doing your regular workout on Tuesday evening? Thirstic will learn the patterns and update your suggested water int…

TapcodeApp Store

‎Weiqht — QuickWeight

Weiqht gives you insight about your body measurements, with beautiful and informative visualisations of your weight, body fat, BMI, … Weiqht is the app to get an overview about your body and get your body measurements quickly into Apple Health with only a few taps. Weiqht is the fastest way to add…

Paul SteinhilberApp Store

🏖️ Lifestyle

‎Carte - Easy Meal Plans

Never struggle with the headache of meal planning again! With Carte you can save any meals that you eat— or want to eat— and each week a highly personalized, flexible meal plan and grocery list are created for you. Carte aims to make meal-planning seamless with your daily life. It makes building …

Samuel CoeApp Store

🎵 Music

‎cykle

cykle is an innovative, semi-generative melodic step sequencer for iOS that is based around the idea of sequencing individual musical parameters (such as pitch, velocity, length, transposition, etc.) independently, by way of decoupled sequencer lanes. thus, the interplay between simple elements can …

Corne DriesprongApp Store

🧭 Navigation

‎Family Graves Map

How many times you didn’t found the Grave of your loved ones? How many times have you gone in the wrong direction? It probably happened to you at least a few times. Especially by night. But I have found a solution. It’s Family Graves Map. All you need to do is to add Cemetery, Graves and People bur…

Pawel MadejApp Store

‎People Tracker - GPS Locator

People Tracker is an app that allows you to stay connected to your employees, friends, family, co-workers... or anyone else you want to locate in real time in detail. Track cell phone numbers! People Tracker app lets you: - See the location of any employee, friend, family member, co-worker... with …

Manuel Escrig VenturaApp Store

📷 Photo & Video

‎Cascable

Unlock the potential of your compatible* WiFi camera with Cascable. Built for professional and amateur photographers alike, Cascable is the best tool available for working with your camera in the field. Whether it’s taking perfect group shots with your family using the included Apple Watch app or n…

Cascable ABApp Store

‎DateStamper

DateStamper allows you to apply beautiful date stamps to your photos. — “DateStamper brings back old memories for me ... It looks good, it gets the job done, and it’s nicely integrated with Apple’s Photos app.” – MacStories Editor-in-chief and Founder, Federico Viticci — The modern photo date sta…

Jordan HipwellApp Store

‎Digital Photo Frame Slideshow

*Digital picture frames are great because it’s a whole lot easier to swap out photos of your loved ones, rotating images keep your living room or corridor feeling fresh, and you can showcase a themed group of photos that fit the occasion like childhood photos of your uncle on his 70th birthday. Get…

Manuel Escrig VenturaApp Store

‎Kompressor - Compress images

Do you need to compress images before sharing it with your friends? This is what you need. With option to choose the compression and resizing ratio you can compress up to 80% size of the original image. Features: - Three different compression ratios - Three different resizing ratios - Save compres…

Maysam ShahsavariApp Store

‎LineEngraver Photo Editor

This app is a lightweight photo editor and viewer for greyscale ( monochrome ) raw photos. Modern black and white photography at it’s best is art, and many photographers regard it as the purest form of photography. Unlocked features (to compare with LineEngraver Lite) - edit filters, photo enhance,…

Viktor GoltvyanytsyaApp Store

‎Photo Colorizer

Photo colorizer is a powerful app that can quickly and automatically colorize your black and white grayscale photos to convert them into beautiful color images! Download to see the colorization in action, built with cutting edge AI technology. IT’S AUTOMATIC - JUST ADD B&W PHOTOS: 1. Scan a B&W p…

Ozgur SahinApp Store

‎Pixelmator Photo: Pro Editor

Pixelmator Photo is a photo editor unlike any other. It features a collection of nondestructive, desktop-class color adjustments. A set of gorgeous presets inspired by analog photography. A magical Repair tool to remove unwanted objects. Full support for editing RAW images. Artificial intelligence t…

Pixelmator TeamApp Store

‎Frames & Effects | Socialite

Spice up your social media shares with Socialite! **Snap** a new photo or select a shot from your Library or Shared Albums **Stick** on a frame, stickers, text… layer designs as you desire, then **Share** or save to your Camera Roll (because even socialites need private time!) Socialite offers fas…

Apparent Software Inc.App Store

‎Tahrir App - Text on image.

Tahrir is the ultimate tool to write on images. You can use built-in fonts, backgrounds, and colors, or use your own. — Typography - More than 100 built-in fonts for English, Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, Korean and Russian - Tahrir 2 supports downloading fonts from the internet. - Tools to rotate, ali…

Maysam ShahsavariApp Store

📁️ Productivity

‎about:blank

about:blank is an app that blocks websites in Safari . I use it to break my bad browsing habits and to stay productive. You specify the websites that you want to block on your iOS device, which are then synchronized across your iOS and macOS devices. The rules are based on regular expressions, whi…

frederik dudzikApp Store

‎Geofency Time Tracking

GEOFENCY enables fully automatic location-based time recording on iPhone, iPad & Apple Watch, where manual check-in and check-out becomes an absurdity of the past. Arrival and departure times are automatically recorded as soon as you enter or leave an interesting place – it works like magic! Of cour…

Karl Heinz HerbelApp Store

‎Litur

A color picker for the real world. Litur helps you find and collect all the colors around you. You can see different color combinations for each color you collect; Complimentary, Analogous, Monochromatic, Triadic and Tetradic. And a generated color palette too. Litur allows you get the color cod…

App Store

‎PDFs Split & Merge

PDFs Split & Merge is a lightweight application for your iPhone / iPad. It helps you Split & Merge PDF files within seconds and it’s all offline. We respect your privacy. Features: - Merge two files into one. - Split any PDFs into as many numbers of the file as needed. Have trouble using the appli…

Sumit PaulApp Store

‎phonetrait address book

phonetrait provides a fast and easy way to keep in contact with all your friends. A smart and automatic sorting guarantees the quickest access to the people most important and relevant for you right in that moment. COMPLETE AND ALWAYS UP-TO-DATE * All Information in one Place All your contacts …

Paul SteinhilberApp Store

‎Secrets | Password Manager

Secrets is a simple and secure password manager and secure wallet. Safely store your passwords, credit cards, bank details and more. HIGHLIGHTS • Store all your passwords, credit cards, bank details and other private information securely in one place. • Generate strong, secure passwords and enjoy …

Outer Corner, Unipessoal LDAApp Store

‎$tacks

Groceries, bills, invoices, checkbooks, or anything else you need to add up? Just build a $tack. $tacks can be configured to display numbers in just about any format, with any number of trailing digits after the decimal place, and can be used for more than just tracking money. Use to track mileag…

Aaron KreipeApp Store

‎stonewall call blocker

stonewall makes it super easy to quickly block or unblock a group of contacts or numbers. You’re at home and don’t want to be reached by your colleagues from work? Just temporarily block them! You’re at work and don’t want to be disturbed by your friends? Just temporarily block them! - Create as m…

Paul SteinhilberApp Store

🔍 Reference

‎UniChar — Unicode Keyboard

UniChar is a powerful yet beautiful Unicode symbol app and keyboard that allows you to quickly find, type, and work with special characters. ◣ “UniChar is a cool little app and keyboard, and offers access to a huge world of Unicode characters that are otherwise absent within the standard iOS keyboa…

Jordan HipwellApp Store

‎V for Wikipedia

Wikipedia, better than ever—on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Discover the world and enjoy beautiful typography with this sleek app. “If you love learning new things on Wikipedia but want a gorgeous interface to interact with the valuable information, then you should check out [this app].” — Christ…

RaureifApp Store

🛫 Travel

‎FlightStatus

This is FlightStatus, a simple and elegant way to keep track of your travels and the ones of your friends and family if you are their ride to or from the airport. FEATURES - Search flights by route or flight number - Get Push Notification about changes - Share flight info via AirDrop - Connect your…

Tim RoesnerApp Store

‎Flighty - Live Flight Tracker

◆◆◆ 2019 iPhone Editors’ Choice ◆◆◆ WOW. Truly phenomenal - David Pogue / NYTimes Spend less time at the airport, always be first to know, and enjoy stress-free flying again. Welcome aboard. EXCLUSIVE FEATURES • 25-Hour Where’s My Plane tracking, with alerts • FAA Mandated delay alerts (US only) •…

Global Flight, Airport, & Airline Status Tracker LLCApp Store

‎Localizer - Where am I

Where am I? Stop looking around! That’s not how you find out where you are! We help you! Localizer just tells you which street, city, county, state and country you are in right now. It also shows you the GPS coordinates and the accuracy as well as altitude of your location. You can share your pos…

Paul SteinhilberApp Store

🎛 Utilities

‎Aminal Stickers

This pack of iMessage stickers features a TON of charming Aminals (note: it’s Aminals not Animals)! 250+ iMessage Stickers total right now for free and even more available for purchase to make the total over 400 stickers!! There are so many Aminal Stickers, I guarantee you’ll love at least one of th…

Ronnie NguyenApp Store

‎Banner Hunter

Are you fed up with all those GDPR popups and banners about cookies that appear everywhere, often covering half of your screen? You’re not alone. Good news though - now you can get rid of them! Banner Hunter adds an extension to Safari that hides those banners with a special stylesheet. Features: …

Jakub SuderApp Store

‎Email Me - Mail notes to self

Email Me is designed to be the fastest way to record your thoughts, todos, and follow-ups when you’re on the go. It is the easiest and fastest way to email something yourself so you will never forget things again. Ever. CORE FEATURES AND BENEFITS - Send notes to your email in one tap - Send image…

Manuel Escrig VenturaApp Store

‎LazyBoard - Phrase Keyboard

If you are lazy or busy, and don’t need to wast time in typing same things again and again, so LazyBoard keyboard for you, where you can type phrases instead of letters, and save your time. LazyBoard is a custom keyboard app, it save your email templates, canned support replies, fast form complet…

Elsayed HusseinApp Store

‎NetSnips: Web Clips Dashboard

Stop opening dozens of browser tabs every day. Track your favorite web pages with NetSnips! NETSNIPS SAVES YOU A LOT OF TIME - USE IT FOR EVERYTHING! Use NetSnips for your weather forecast, stock changes, upcoming movies, sport team standings/scores, daily cartoons, social network updates - whateve…

TapcodeApp Store

‎Opener ‒ open links in apps

Opener is an app that allows you to open links from the web in apps instead! Copy a link and launch Opener to see the apps that it can be opened in, or use Opener’s action extension right from other apps! Opener currently supports over 260 apps with more being added all the time. In addition to ope…

tijo, inc.App Store

‎Secure ShellFish - SFTP client

Secure ShellFish is a SSH and SFTP file manager that works well with other apps. Setup new servers inside Secure ShellFish itself and access files on these servers in the Files app and other apps supporting the document browser or document picker. Applications that can open files or directories in-…

Anders BorumApp Store

‎To Count Points

“To Count Points” helps you when you are playing 500 or Pinochle Rummy. Enter the players, and after that, simply log every time points are gained, easy! The winner will even get some nice fireworks!

Magnus JensenApp Store

🖥️ macOS App Deals

💼 Business

‎Invoice.app

Invoice.app is a simple, easy to use and powerful invoicing app. It has been carefully designed and developed to offer the best user experience. It’s perfect for freelancers, contractors and small business owners. Available on iOS, iPadOS and macOS. Main features: • Create invoices, estimates, purc…

Stojanowski Consulting LtdMac App Store

‎Tap Forms Organizer 5 Database

Your digital filing cabinet for life’s scattered details. Now with macOS Mojave and Scripting support! Accounts, recipes, expenses, inventory — life is full of things that we don’t want to forget or misplace. Tap Forms 5 helps you organize all kinds of things in one place — secure, searchable, and …

Tap Zapp Software Inc.Mac App Store

🏦 Finance

Cashculator - The Mac way to plan and track your cash flow

Cashculator for Mac - Effectively plan your financial future with multiple what-if scenarios

The Mac way to plan and track your cash flow

🚴 Health & Fitness

‎Pine

Pine helps you find a quiet moment in your busy life. Pine guides you through deep breathing exercises. I made Pine because I asked myself, how often do I take a minute to appreciate life and find peace in the day? Not very often. So I made Pine. Pine is there for you to take quick, minute breaks to…

Bean’s Bytes, LLCMac App Store

‎TameTime: Awareness Timer

TameTime reminds you of taking regular breaks, so that you don’t spend too much time sitting at your computer and risk compromising your health. You can customize how and when TameTime will alert you, making you aware that it’s time to move around, drink a glass of water or relax: • TameTime sits i…

Cesare ForelliMac App Store

‎Vicinity

▶ »Vicinity« helps you to stay concentrated, focused or to relax. Using selected, handpicked ambient sounds in high definition, it enhances your environment by creating an authentic acoustic atmosphere. Taking place in your menubar, it’s super-easy and fast accessible. Although we don’t convince y…

IXEAU UG (haftungsbeschraenkt)Mac App Store

📷 Photo & Video

‎Black Out

Black Out lets you quickly hide sensitive parts of an image. This can be useful when you want to post a screenshot or photo on the web that contains some information you don’t want to be revealed. It also removes all metadata, like when and where a photo was captured. # Getting Started Either:…

Sindre SorhusMac App Store

‎Pixelmator Pro

Pixelmator Pro is an incredibly powerful, beautiful, and easy to use image editor designed exclusively for Mac. With a wide range of professional-grade, nondestructive image editing tools, Pixelmator Pro lets you bring out the best in your photos, create gorgeous compositions and designs, draw, pa…

Pixelmator TeamMac App Store

📁 Productivity

EagleFiler: Collect notes, e-mails, and Web pages on your Mac, and search them instantly

EagleFiler helps you organize, search, and archive your mail, Web pages, files, and scraps of info. Import with a single keypress. Download our free trial here.

Michael Tsai

‎Paste - Clipboard Manager

Paste is the world’s favorite clipboard manager for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. It stores everything you copy and keeps your clipboard organized across all your devices without skipping a beat. Paste is an invaluable productivity tool for writers, developers, designers, and everyone else. “Paste is the…

Dmitry ObukhovMac App Store

‎PDFs Split & Merge

PDFs Split & Merge is a lightweight application for your Mac. It helps you Split, Merge and Unlock PDF files within seconds and it’s all offline. We respect your privacy. Features: - Merge two files into one. - Split any PDFs into as many numbers of the file as needed. - You can specify the PDF fil…

Sumit PaulMac App Store

‎Secrets | Password Manager

Secrets is a simple and secure password manager and secure wallet. Safely store your passwords, credit cards, bank details and more. HIGHLIGHTS • Store all your passwords, credit cards, bank details and other private information securely in one place. • Automatically fill logins on Safari and othe…

Outer Corner, Unipessoal LDAMac App Store

‎Side Mirror - for Presenters

Doing a presentation, but don’t want to mirror your displays? Stop looking over your shoulder! Side Mirror gives you a preview window of what’s happening on the other display so you can do live demos without having to crane your neck back at the projector screen. You can kind of think of it as a “V…

Fickle Bits, LLCMac App Store

Sip Color for Mac

A better way to collect organize and Share colors.

Olá Brothers, sipsipapp.ioSip

Trickster - Your recently used files, at your fingertips!

Trickster for Mac watches the folders you specify for files with latest activity and gives you super fast access to them. Indespensable utility!

Your recently used files, at your fingertips!

🎛 Utilities

AirBuddy

Introducing AirBuddy. AirBuddy brings the same AirPods experience you have on iOS to the Mac. With AirBuddy, you can open up your AirPods case next to your Mac and see the status right away, just like it is on your iPhone or iPad. A simple click and you’re connected and playing your Mac’s audio to A…

Gumroad

‎Banner Hunter

Are you fed up with those banners about cookies and privacy policies that appear everywhere, especially on European sites? You’re not alone. Good news though - now you can get rid of them! Banner Hunter adds an extension to Safari that hides those banners and popups with a special stylesheet. Feat…

Jakub SuderMac App Store

‎Battery Indicator

Shows the remaining battery time and percentage in the menu bar. This is especially useful on macOS Sierra 10.12.2 or later where clicking the system battery indicator no longer shows the remaining time. The app has a setting to hide the menu bar icon when the power plug is connected, which can be…

Sindre SorhusMac App Store

‎Dato

Dato is a replacement for the system menu bar clock. By default, it looks exactly the same, but when you click it, you get a small calendar, calendar events, the current time in various time zones, and more. Dato supports all the locales and languages that macOS supports for dates, times, and the …

Sindre SorhusMac App Store

DropDMG: The easy way to create and convert Mac disk images (.dmg files)

DropDMG lets you create and convert Mac .dmg files and archives with a simple drag and drop. Automate via AppleScript or shell. Download our free trial here.

Michael Tsai

‎Lungo

Lungo prevents your Mac from falling asleep and your screen from dimming. This can be useful when: - Doing a presentation at work. - Watching YouTube videos in non-fullscreen mode. - Cooking and having the recipe open on your computer. - Reading a long article without scrolling. - Using the screen …

Sindre SorhusMac App Store

Proxyman • Modern and Delightful HTTP Debugging Proxy on macOS

Proxyman is a high-performance macOS app, which enables developers to view HTTP/HTTPS requests from apps and domains.

nghiaproxyman.ioModern and Delightful HTTP Debugging Proxy on macOS

SpamSieve: Easy-to-use Mac spam filter for Apple Mail, Outlook, Airmail, MailMate, and more

SpamSieve is an extremely accurate and easy to use Bayesian spam filter for Mac e-mail programs. Macworld’s “Software of the Year.” Download our free trial here.

Michael Tsai

‎StopTheMadness

StopTheMadness is a Safari and Firefox extension that stops web sites from making your browser harder to use. And it protects your privacy on the web. StopTheMadness is not an ad blocker: it offers unique features not available from ad blockers or any other apps. StopTheMadness is one of a kind! Ma…

Jeff JohnsonMac App Store

‎ToothFairy

Connect AirPods (or other Bluetooth headphones) to your Mac with a single click or keypress. AirPods are great, but they don’t work quite as smoothly with Macs as they do iPhones. You can’t tell at a glance whether audio will play from the AirPods or your Mac’s built-in speaker, you have to dig int…

C-Command Software, LLCMac App Store

‎Woodpecker

Woodpecker aimed at helping us develop iOS, MacOS Apps efficiently. It can helps us: - view, modify sandbox files; - view, modify UserDefaults item; -inspect app’s view hierarchy and modify attribute online; - monitor network request without proxy setup; - run javascript code in webView online; Tw…

xiaogang zhangMac App Store

When it comes to building up your arms, many lifters focus on their biceps and shoulders. And we admit, it’s pretty great to be able to show off a serious gun show when you flex your bicep. Often, though, the biceps counterpart—your triceps—don’t get the attention they deserve. We’re here to help you with that problem.

Anatomy of the triceps muscle

The triceps are the counter to the biceps muscles; when you bring your forearms toward your shoulder, you’re contracting your biceps and relaxing your triceps. Conversely, when you extend your arm and lock your elbow, you’re flexing your tricep and relaxing your bicep. The triceps muscle has three different heads (thus the name triceps brachii, Latin for “three-headed muscle of the arm”)—lateral, medial, and long. All three heads connect to the scapula and humerus before connecting to the ulna at your elbow.

• Lateral head: Attaches at the outer side of the humerus and consequently helps give the triceps muscle its distinctive horseshoe shape
• Medial head: Gives the triceps its bulk in the middle of the muscle
• Long head: Gives the triceps its bulk through the length of the back of the arm from your shoulder to your elbow

If it helps you visualize how the triceps work, think of it as a cable machine where pushing down on the triceps extends the elbow.

Key components of effective tricep training

When it comes to effectively training your tricep muscles, there are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Because there are three heads, you’ll need a variety of exercises to develop each of them.
2. Similarly, you’ll want to use different strategies and exercises depending on your goals, whether you’re looking for mass, strength, or tone.

Let’s look at how those strategies might vary a little more closely.

Strategies for tricep mass

Let’s look at a few key considerations when trying to build tricep mass:

1. Start with general strategies for building mass, including bulking and Power Hypertrophy Adaptive Training (PHAT).
2. Build up each of the three tricep heads with focused training that utilizes each of them.
3. To build the triceps long head, focus on overhead lifts such as overhead extensions and skull crushers.
4. To build the triceps medial head, focus on exercises that get your elbows out in front of you—particularly at 90, 135, and 180 degrees of flexion. Additionally, focus on underhand grip exercises, such as reverse-grip press downs.
5. To build the triceps lateral head, focus on exercises that utilize overhand grip and your arms at your sides, such as press-downs and bench dips.
6. Remember that when focusing on building muscle mass, utilize heavier weights and lower repetitions to develop mass.

Strategies for tricep strength

Let’s look at a few key considerations when trying to build tricep strength:

1. Start with general strategies for building strength, including PHAT training.
2. To strengthen the triceps long head, focus on overhead lifts. In particular, shoot for exercises that prioritize endurance (higher rep counts) over bulking (heavier weights).
3. To strengthen the triceps medial head, focus on underhanded grip exercises that keep your elbows out in front of you.
4. To build the triceps lateral head, focus on press-downs, bench dips, and other exercises that utilize overhand grip and keep your arms at your sides.
5. Remember that when focusing on building muscle strength, utilize lighter weights and higher repetitions.

Strategies for tricep toning

Let’s look at a few key considerations when trying to tone your triceps:

1. Start with general strategies for toning, such as cutting and programs designed specifically for toning.
2. Keep in mind that toning is generally more effective with low weights and higher rep counts.
3. To tone the triceps long head, focus on low-weight, high-rep overhand lifts.
4. To tone the triceps medial head, focus on low-weight, high-rep underhand gripped lifts that keep your elbows in front of you.
5. To tone the triceps lateral head, focus on low-weight, high-rep overhanded gripped lifts that keep your arms at your sides.
6. Remember that when focusing on toning, you need your body to shed excess fat, which means you need to burn more calories than consuming

Best triceps exercises

Determining the best triceps exercises for you is dependent on what your goals are. If your goal is to build mass, focus on lower repetitions of heavier weights while utilizing a mix of lifts that will push each of the muscle heads. If your goal is to build strength, focus on lower weights and higher repetitions and a mix of lifts that will strengthen each of the muscle heads. If your goal is toning, you’re likely best off looking at a combination of strength work and cutting.

Modifications for tricep workouts at home

Consider ways you can hit each of the tricep heads with home equipment. Sometimes that means bodyweight exercises, such as different types of dips. Sometimes that means dumbbell lifts. Keep the principles above in mind and you can still work and develop your triceps nicely. Utilizing good lifting principles is more important than the exact workouts.

What makes a good triceps workout?

The short answer? Variety. The best triceps workouts should utilize both strength- and mass-building strategies (such as a PHAT workout) as well as a combination of exercises that hit all three tricep heads. Keep in mind, too, that any triceps program should also include biceps work and be part of a larger program, so as to prevent muscular imbalance. That said, to really emphasize your triceps, consider the exercises below and hit the triceps after a rest day (so you go into it fresh) to get the most out of your workout. Additionally, don’t forget to periodically deload for best results.

Example triceps workout day for building mass

• Close-grip barbell bench press: 4 sets of 6-10 reps with 60-90 seconds rest between sets
• Dip machine: 3 sets of 8-10 reps; 60-90 seconds rest
• Seated dumbbell press: 3 sets of 8-12 reps; 60 seconds rest
• V-bar pulldown: 2 sets of 8-12 reps; 60 seconds rest

For a strength workout, you can consider the same exercises—but more reps at a lower weight.

Example triceps workout day for building power

• Dip machine: 4 sets of 10-12 reps; 90 seconds rest
• EZ-bar skullcrusher superset with close-grip barbell bench press: 3 sets of 10-12 reps; 60-90 seconds rest
• Triceps pushdown with rope attachment superset with triceps overhead extension: 3 sets of 10-12 reps; 60 seconds rest
• Triceps overhead extension with rope: 3 sets of 10-12 reps; 60 seconds rest

Example triceps workout day for tone

• Machine triceps extension: 3 sets of 12 reps; 60-90 seconds rest
• Dip machine: 3 sets of 12 reps; 60-90 seconds rest
• Triceps pushdown with v-bar attachment: 3 sets of 12 reps; 60 seconds rest

References:

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6136322/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27669189
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21509869

In a balanced bodybuilding program, the importance of clean eating and good nutrition should not be overlooked. For many lifters, that can be easier said than done, as it can be difficult to know how to adjust your calorie and macro goals in tune with your lifting regiment and caloric needs. Let's take a look at some easy meals and meal prep for effective bodybuilding.

Bodybuilding nutrition

When it comes to bodybuilding nutrition, determining your caloric needs and macros in part depends on your goals. If your goal is to lose fat and tone, you’re going to want a slight caloric deficit. But, a note of caution: too severe a caloric deficit can change your basal metabolism—making it harder to cut weight in the future—and put you at greater risk of injury or illness. One thing to keep in mind: strength training makes it more likely you’ll keep the weight off, so don’t be in such a hurry to overdo it with the calorie deficits! If your goal is to gain bulk and mass, you’re going to want to eat more than you burn. Beyond that, your macros also depend on your goals—as well as your body’s own unique needs.

Determining your caloric and macro goals

To determine your caloric and macro goals, you first have to understand how many calories you’re currently burning. That means determining your basal metabolic rate (BMR) and total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). While there are numerous online calculators you can use, the basic principles remain the same.

Basal metabolic rate (BMR)

Your basal metabolic rate is the number of calories your body needs at rest to keep your organs functioning appropriately. As you age, your BMR decreases; increased muscle mass increases BMR; and men tend to have higher BMRs than women (in part because men tend to have more muscle).

Total daily energy expenditure (TDEE)

Including your daily activity levels gives you your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE); if your goal is to bulk up, you’ll need to take in more calories than you are expending. You should still add to your caloric intake by 10-15%—so for instance, if your maintenance diet is 3,000 calories per day, then when bulking you should aim for 3,300-3,450 calories. If your goal is to cut down, you’ll want to take in fewer calories than you are expending (again, shoot for 10-15%). In either case, watch your energy levels and weight gain or loss so you can adjust as needed. Consider using a weight lifting tracker like Bolt to help keep an eye on your lifting progress, as it can help keep you motivated. Staying on top of your macros makes it more likely you’ll stay at a healthy weight, too.

When it comes to determining your macro goals, keep a few principles in mind:

• A starting point for a bulking diet might look like this: Total Calories = 4 calories per gram of protein (with an intake of 1 gram protein per pound of body weight) + 9 calories per gram of fat (with an intake of 0.25 grams of fat per pound of body weight) + 4 calories per gram of carbohydrate.
• For a cutting diet, you’d want to cut back on your carbohydrates and fat.

You can learn more about bulking and cutting in our previous article:

A Simple Guide to the Bulking and Cutting Cycle

When it comes to building the body of your dreams, there are many different strategies. Two techniques for gaining muscle mass and losing body fat are commonly referred to as bulking and cutting.

BoltBolt - weightlifting workout tracker for iOS

Best bulking foods and snacks

For bulking, there are a few different schools of thought. Some lifters prioritize simply getting calories in to bulk up, thinking they can cut to eliminate any extra fat that might accumulate in the later cutting stage. Studies have shown, however, that building up extra fat stores as part of a bulking diet only to try and lose that fat later can adversely affect your BMR and, consequently, your ability to lose weight in the future. As a result, it’s important to effectively eat clean when bulking.

That means not overdoing it on the fats (and choosing good fats such as Omega-3 fatty acids, for instance), choosing lean proteins, and prioritizing whole-grain carbohydrates. Those are your best bets for gaining weight in the form of muscle mass without gaining excess fat.

As a result, consider the following foods a good place to start:

• Proteins: Chicken breast; fish like salmon, tilapia, and cod; pork tenderloin; sirloin steak; low-fat dairy (including yogurt, for good probiotic gut health); seeds and nuts (including almonds, chia seeds, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, and walnuts); beans and legumes (including black beans, chickpeas, kidney beans, lentils, and pinto beans)
• Fats: Lean proteins and good white fish (such as those listed above); oils like avocado oil, flaxseed oil, and olive oil
• Carbohydrates: Whole-grain breads, cereals, and crackers; oatmeal; popcorn; brown rice; starchy vegetables (corn, green beans, leafy greens, peas, potatoes); fruits

Bulking meal plans

A good bulking meal plan includes plenty of variety, focuses on foods that will give you sustained energy and includes fruits and vegetables. Consider the example day below:

• Breakfast: 2 poached eggs with salmon and avocado toast (600 calories)
• Morning snack: apple with peanut butter (200 calories) + half-cup of nuts (320 calories)
• Lunch: vegetarian bean burritos (900 calories)
• Afternoon snack: 2 oz dark chocolate (300 calories)
• Dinner: sirloin steak, white rice, and a fried egg (900 calories)

You’ll note that the meal plan includes a mix of proteins, fruits, and vegetables, as well as snacks to help ensure you have a consistent energy supply, meaning you’re less likely to crash at any point during the day.

Easy bodybuilding meals

Remember, you can always meal plan in advance. For instance, if granola with whole milk and a banana appeals to you as a breakfast option, you can portion out each day’s granola over the weekend. Similarly, you can cook chicken breasts in advance, make chili in big batches (and freeze the extra), or otherwise meal prep to help ensure you have the time you need during the workweek while still eating well.

Cheap bodybuilding meals

Eating well doesn’t have to break the bank, either. In addition to prepping meals in advance to help save time, you can also make more affordable choices.

You can often buy frozen chicken breasts in bulk. Beans and legumes are great affordable proteins, and beans and rice are a great complementary protein/starch combo. Similarly, you can affordably make your own granola, avocado toast, and protein pancakes for cheaper breakfast options.

Bodybuilding meal prep delivery services

Of course, if you don’t have time to prep bodybuilding meals in advance or prefer the added convenience, meal delivery services can help. There are quite a few options that cater specifically to bodybuilders:

• Trifecta Nutrition
• Pete’s Paleo
• Muscle Meals 2 Go
• Caveman Chefs
• ButcherBox
• Flex Pro Meals
• ProTrain
• Green Chef
• Ice Age Meals
• Fresh n' Lean
• The Good Kitchen
• SunBasket
• Factor 75
• MealPro
• Icon Meals
• Paleo on the Go
• Paleo Power Meals

References:

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24864135
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK221839/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4334025/
• https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/nutrition-and-weight-status
• https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-weight/best-diet-quality-counts/

Power Hypertrophy Adaptive Training (PHAT) is a program designed by bodybuilder and powerlifter Layne Norton to make the most of your lifting, balancing the demands of both bodybuilding and powerlifting so you can both sculpt and build strength. It isn’t a quick fix—expect to spend 1.5-2 hours each session, five days per week—but it certainly works if you want to get ripped and strong.

What is a PHAT workout?

Power Hypertrophy Adaptive Training (PHAT) combines both bodybuilding (which generally uses lower weights and higher reps to build muscle and tone) and powerlifting (which generally uses heavier weights and lower reps to build strength) methods to give you the best of both worlds. The goal of PHAT workouts is to gain both mass and strength.

Is this a workout for beginners?

Provided you start at lower weights and ensure you are using correct form, there’s no reason beginning lifters can’t benefit from a PHAT program. In fact, some trainers might argue that beginning lifters are most likely to benefit as you won’t have developed any bad habits yet.

Basic PHAT principles

PHAT works by using hypertrophy—stimulating the increase and growth of cells, specifically muscle cells in this case—and progressive overloading. In general, PHAT routines work each muscle group twice per week, utilizing both bodybuilding and powerlifting techniques. It’s particularly effective for lifters who want to add lean muscle in a progressive way. PHAT lifting is less about how much weight you use and more about the progressive targeting of muscular groups. The goal is to focus on meeting the reps and sets at weights that challenge you.

Similarly, the program has two rest days built in each week, generally day three and day seven, to give your body a chance to recover. We’ll look more closely at what a PHAT week might look like, but you should use days 1 and 2 to build strength and power through range of motion; days 4 through 6 focus on hypertrophy, using lower set counts and moderate rep counts. In any 12-week cycle, you should focus on four three-week cycles in which you overload for 2 weeks and then deload the third week so you can into the next cycle feeling good.

Power days vs hypertrophy days

The first two days of your week are focused on building power. After a rest day, you then spend three days building mass courtesy hypertrophy. Keeping this delineation in mind can help prevent you from overdoing it on any one day of each week’s cycle.

What equipment do you need for a PHAT program?

Not all that much; a standard gym set up will work. You’ll need a barbell, dumbbell, and machine weights, but nothing out of the ordinary. The biggest demand may actually be on your time (as it takes 1.5-2 hours each day) and diet (because you’ll see the biggest gains with a clean diet).

What are some common PHAT exercises?

We’ll look at PHAT routines more closely in our sample week, but in general none of the PHAT exercises are hard to learn or particularly demanding. This is another reason PHAT programs can be beginner-friendly: they don’t require lifting expertise. Instead, PHAT programs focus on rows, presses, curls, and other relatively simple lifts.

Training frequency

To make a PHAT program work for you, you should be lifting five days each week, with your rest days on days three (after the power phase) and seven (after the hypertrophy phase).

Benefits of PHAT

The delineation between power days and hypertrophy days is intentional, as it allows you to focus both on building power and mass. Following a clean diet allows you to build a toned physique. Even better, because the program is rigidly defined, you can readily understand why you are doing each exercise and what muscles it is working and helping develop. The rest days after each phase help ensure your body gets a chance to recover and actually make gains before you start beating up those muscle fibers again, and that intentionality ensures no wasted effort on lifts that don’t fit with the rest of the program or might impede your progress. It really does encourage maximum gains for the effort involved, even if the time commitment may scare some people off.

In particular, PHAT workouts:

• Stimulate hypertrophy, or muscle cell growth, ensuring you build muscle mass
• Increases raw power and strength
• Teaches you principles of strength training while still encouraging proper rest and recovery
• Provides a solid foundation for future (more specialized) strength and conditioning programs

Downsides of PHAT

Of course, that doesn’t mean PHAT programs aren’t without their drawbacks. In particular, there are two major drawbacks of PHAT programs that should be evaluated:

Time commitment

The sheer quantity of time a rigorous and effective PHAT schedule requires can be demanding. Because PHAT programs work in part because of their focus on lifting volume, the workouts take time: 1.5-2 hours each day for most lifters. Over the course of a week that can be as many as 10 hours—in addition to whatever other cross-training you might make part of your routine. Given how full most of our lives already are, that’s simply time some people don’t have to offer, no matter how great the benefits might be.

Sheer effort

There’s also the effort required. Not only do you really have to stay on top of your diet (clean eating is so key!) and sleep (in order to ensure you adequately recover after each workout), but you have to really stay on top of your effort levels to ensure you get the most out of each day’s lifting schedule.

If those sacrifices are worth the gains, it’s difficult to find a better program for both strength and muscle mass than a PHAT schedule.

Signs of overtraining

With any demanding program, it can be easy to overdo it. That’s part of why it’s important that every third week is a deloading week, in that you let your body recover with lighter weights, just as it’s important that you really do use days 3 and 7 as recovery days. You should also keep alert for any signs of overtraining:

• Tiredness
• Irritability
• Sleep dysfunction
• Weakness
• Loss of muscle strength or muscle mass
• Painful joints or muscles

If you see signs of overtraining, deload—which means reducing your weight by as much as 60-70%. If you don’t see recovery, consider taking a rest week or longer. It’s better to take your time in making gains than overtrain to the point of injury. This will only set you back longer, so be careful and alert for signs of overtraining, which can be incredibly common—as many of 30% of youth athletes, for instance, may show signs of overtraining—despite having far shorter recovery windows than most adults.

Ideal weekly PHAT workout schedule

Let’s examine what your PHAT workout schedule should look like day-by-day, remembering that days 3 and 7 are intentionally rest days. For bench or overhead press exercises, feel free to go either dumbbell or barbell—just stay consistent in what you use on both power and hypertrophy days.

Day 1: Upper body power

• Pendlay Rows: 3×3-5
• Weighted Pull-Ups: 2×6-10
• Rack Chins: 2×6-10
• Bench Press: 3×3-5
• Overhead Press: 3×6-10
• Cambered Bar Curls: 3×6-10
• Skull Crushers: 3×6-10

Day 2: Lower body power

• Barbell Squats: 3×3-5
• Hack Squats: 2×6-10
• Seated Leg Extensions: 2×6-10
• Stiff-Legged Deadlifts: 3×5-8
• Glute Bridges: 2×6-10
• Standing Calf Raises: 3×6-10
• Seated Calf Raises: 2×6-10
• Weighted Crunches: 2×6-10

Day 4: Back and shoulders hypertrophy

• *Pendlay Rows: 6×3
• Rack Chins: 3×8-12
• Seated Cable Row: 3×8-12
• Incline Dumbbell Shrugs: 2×12-15
• Close Grip Pulldowns: 2×15-20
• Seated Dumbbell Presses: 3×8-12
• Uprights Rows: 2×12-15
• Side Lateral Raises: 3×12-20
• Woodchoppers: 3×8-12

* At 60% of your 5-rep max

Day 5: Lower body hypertrophy

• *Squats: 6×3
• Hack Squats: 3×8-12
• Leg Presses: 2×12-15
• Seated Leg Extensions: 3×15-20
• Stiff-Legged Deadlifts: 3×8-12
• Lying Leg Curls: 2×12-15
• Seated Leg Curls: 2×15-20
• Standing Calf Raises: 4×10-15
• Seated Calf Raises: 3×15-20

* At 60% of your 5-rep max

Day 6: Chest and arms hypertrophy

• *Bench Press: 6×3
• Incline Bench Press: 3×8-12
• Chest Press: 3×12-15
• Incline Cable Flyes: 2×15-20
• Preacher Curls: 3×8-12
• Dumbbell Concentration Curls: 2×12-15
• Spider Curls (incline): 2×15-20
• Seated Tricep Extensions: 3×8-12
• Rope Press Downs: 2×12-15
• Hydra Presses: 2×10-12

* At 60% of your 5-rep max

Who is Layne Norton?

When it comes to fitness celebrities, few can demonstrate results as impressive as Layne Norton. Norton’s been winning both bodybuilding and powerlifting competitions around the world since 2001 and his expertise has made him a natural coach—as does his knowledge courtesy a BS in biochemistry and Ph.D. in nutritional sciences. The PHAT system is a culmination of his training knowledge, and is a great way for beginner and intermediate lifters to both bulk up and build power.

References:

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24714538
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3787286/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3435910/

When it comes to bulking up and getting the body of your dreams—or even just becoming more functionally fit—it can be incredibly difficult to decide where to start. Let's dive in!

Why Use an Olympic Weightlifting Program?

Not only are Olympic weightlifting programs a recognized standard in bodybuilding and developing functional strength, but they’re also both generally straightforward (none of the regular lifts that are part of an Olympic program are hard to learn) and stress a wide range of muscle groups, allowing you to build greater functional strength without needing to pick exercises that force you to needlessly specialize your lifting routine.

Benefits of Olympic Weightlifting

Developing functional strength while stressing a wide range of muscle groups is not the only reason to use an Olympic lifting program. Consider these 10 benefits of an Olympic lifting program:

1. Boost your work capacity

Because Olympic lifts focus on power, strength, and speed, they can also boost your capacity for work, allowing you to both work harder and recover faster as your body adapts. This can enhance other high-intensity exercise endurance, thus benefiting your other workouts.

2. Injury prevention

Because Olympic lifts target joint stability and promote flexibility, especially in major joints like your shoulders, hips, and knees, they can help you limit your injury history and susceptibility by addressing what might otherwise be weak areas.

3. Create power.

Olympic lifts such as snatches and clean and jerks help you build power. Power, which is a function of both strength and speed, is key to running faster and jumping higher—both of which are key elements for most athletic endeavors.

4. Transform your physique.

Core work, such as clean and jerks or snatches, works a combination of muscle groups including your shoulders and arms, legs and glutes, and back and abs. With Olympic lifts being as strenuous and functional as they are, they tend to burn more calories, making them a great way to both build muscle and decrease body fat.

5. Improve bone density.

Because Olympic lifts create large load forces on major stability centers and limbs, they also help create bone strength and density, which can be another major injury consideration, especially for women.

6. Boost athletic performance.

While we already noted how Olympic lifts improve power, the fact that they require force extension through the ankle, knee, and hip also mirrors what happens in sprinting and jumping, meaning they don’t add just power to an athlete’s repertoire, but also rhythm and coordination.

7. Coordination enhancement.

Because Olympic lifts stress multiple muscle groups at a time and require rhythm and timing, they can also be great for improving coordination and body awareness—which is often a key consideration for athletes.

8. Increased range of motion.

While many lifts can result in tighter muscles and decreased mobility, the combination of dynamic muscle movement and rhythmic coordination required for successful Olympic lifting means that they can actually help improve your range of motion and flexibility.

9. Dynamic stability development.

Because Olympic lifts are designed to be functional and coordinated, they help you build muscle stability, both at major joints and in general.

10. Improve your confidence.

Not only does Olympic lifting improve fitness, but the improved fitness and discipline required to successfully maintain an Olympic lifting routine are both keys to developing confidence in yourself and your stronger body.

Where Should Beginners Start?

In order to successfully develop an Olympic lifting routine, it is, of course, important that you learn to lift safely and in a way that minimizes your risk of injury. For beginners who are still learning good form, this is especially important. Three keys to keep in mind as you start your own Olympic lifting routine:

1. Focus on good form. It’s better to execute slowly and do a lift correctly than go fast and risk sloppy movements. Good form stresses your muscles and joints in a sustainable way; bad form increases injury risk.
2. Don’t add weight too quickly. It’s better to take your time and progress more slowly than add weight too quickly and risk injury. Load management is an important part of any successful fitness or lifting program, and that’s especially true when learning multi-part lifts, such as Olympic lifts.
3. Give yourself recovery periods. Every so often, drop weight to give your body a chance to recover. If you’re adding weight every single time you lift, you never give your body a chance to recover, which in turn increases your risk of injury.

Which Olympic Lifts Should I Learn?

Let’s start with the essentials of any Olympic lifting program, and remember our keys: focus on form, progress slowly, and give yourself ample recovery as needed—likely more recovery than you think you’ll need, at least at first. Similarly, start with a few exercises at a time and slowly add more to decrease your risk of injury. Those caveats aside, the following are the lifts you should aim to learn when developing an Olympic lifting program:

• Clean and jerk. A two-part process, comprising of (1) the clean, and (2) the jerk, cleaning and jerking is usually a barbell routine. To clean, lift the barbell from the floor to across your deltoids (though avoiding the temptation to rest the barbell atop your clavicles). To jerk, finish lifting the barbell above your head to a position in which your arms and legs are straight and your feet are even under your torso and the barbell. This is one of several Olympic lifts that are part of Olympic weightlifting competitions.
• Clean pull. Clean pulls are used to focus on the weight you can move in the clean, as it allows you to better safely use your bodyweight as a countermeasure in practicing the clean.
• Snatch. Whereas the clean and jerk separates the motion of taking the barbell from the floor to above your head into two separate motions, the snatch combines them into one. As a result, there are multiple variants of snatches, including squat or full snatches, split snatches, power snatches, and muscle snatches.
• Snatch pull. Similar to the clean pull, the snatch pull allows lifters to focus on the first portion of a snatch, utilizing a lifter’s own bodyweight as a countermeasure to allow for slightly heavier weights than a lifter might be able to lift in a true snatch.
• Power clean. The power clean is similar to a traditional clean like a clean and jerk except that you don’t necessarily have to catch the barbell in a traditional squat position; one such example might be putting more of the strain of the cleaning lift on your back and glutes, rather than in your hamstrings and quadriceps.
• Front squat. The biggest difference between front squats and back squats is bar placement. On a front squat, the bar stays in front of your head, across the front of your shoulders. The emphasis in a front squat is primarily on quadricep and hip development.
• Back squat. In a back squat, the barbell rests across the upper back. The difference in position allows lifters to better stress their glutes and hamstrings.
• Jerk from the rack. Jerking from a lifting rack allows you to focus on the jerk portion of a clean and jerk without needing to do the clean each time, allowing you to build up each portion of a clean and jerk separately. Because the weight is not being lifted as far, lifters can usually handle more weight in a rack jerk than they can in a full clean and jerk.

For each of these lifts, your form is tremendously important—so start with low weights and consider using a coach or trusted lifting buddy to help ensure you’re practicing good form.

Considerations for Designing an Olympic Lifting Program

Remember our three keys from before:

1. Focus on good form.
2. Don’t add weight too quickly.
3. Give yourself recovery periods.

If you can follow those three keys, your risk of injury is substantially lower, which in turn will allow you to make greater gains in a shorter time. As you may have heard previously, go slow to go fast. That is, take your time and take care to do things right, and the gains will come more quickly than they would if you try to rush it and end up hurting yourself. One great way to pace yourself appropriately and track your progress over time is to use a workout tracker like Bolt.

Full Lifts vs. Partial Lifts

As you likely saw, one advantage of a partial lift (such as a rack jerk or clean pull) is the ability to focus on a portion of the lift or with greater weight. That can be a great strategy when you’ve reached a weight plateau, as focusing on the individual pieces of a full lift can help you put together a better result later. Of course, you also won’t see the same benefits with partial lifts as you might with full lifts, especially in building power. For some lifters, however, simply using partial lifts to get past sticking points can be tremendously helpful.

What Does a Typical Olympic Weightlifting Workout Look Like?

That can vary greatly depending on what your goals are; someone who lifts as part of working toward better placing in bodybuilding competitions will lift much differently than someone who is simply trying to get functionally fit. The key for you is starting with a few exercises, emphasizing good form as you get more comfortable with each lift, and maintaining patience with your progression. If you can do that, you just might be shocked at how much Olympic lifts can add to your fitness regiment!

References:

• https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Weightlifting/Weightlifting101/Top-10-reasons-to-train-the-Olympic-weightlifting-movements
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27820725
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22873835
• https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/121/4/835
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22222322
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4887540/
  

While both bulking and cutting are strategies for better definition, tone, and muscle mass, the difference between bulking and cutting tends to come down to your current priorities. Bulking focuses on putting on weight and getting bigger; whereas cutting focuses on getting lean and removing excess body fat to achieve better definition and tone.

Where to start: bulking vs cutting?

Deciding where to start depends on several factors, including your current body fat percentage, lean muscle mass, and short- and long-term goals. A bulking cycle is a great place to start if you don't have much muscle mass, and your body fat percentage is on the lower side. If you already have substantial muscle mass, but your body fat percentage is higher than you'd like to see, cutting is a good starting point.

For most gym-goers and weightlifters, you’ll likely want to follow a pattern of bulking then cutting to progressively achieve your dream body.

How long should I spend bulking? How long should I spend cutting?

You might hear these durations referred to as bulking season or cutting season. The best answer for an ideal duration per cycle will vary with your goals. In general, you should expect to spend at least 4-6 weeks in any bulking or cutting cycle; any less time makes it unlikely that you’ll see much in the way of results. Longer cycles can be more effective with a few caveats.

First, the most effective bulking cycles are generally at least 3-4 months, if not longer. Where this can be difficult for some people is that even if you are incredibly on top of your macronutrients, you will likely also gain some fat while gaining muscle in a bulking cycle. Some people have a hard time with the 5 lbs of fat they might gain along with 15-20 lbs of muscle, for instance. We’ll look at balancing your macronutrients to help limit that extra fat gain with clean eating, but you still have to be prepared to accept some fat gain. Another key to effective bulking is ensuring that you’re doing the appropriate amount of heavy lifting to help the caloric increase in your diet go straight to muscle building.

The most effective cutting cycles are generally shorter than the most effective bulking cycles; the best results are usually seen within an 8-12 week cutting period. To be effective, a cutting cycle will still include working out (though with a greater emphasis on higher reps, lower weights, and cardio for higher calorie expenditure) and a caloric intake less than the combination of your basal metabolic caloric expenditure and caloric expenditure (courtesy of your workouts). Be careful not to cut caloric intake too drastically or you can inadvertently alter your basal metabolic rate — making it harder to cut in the future. This is one of the many places where using a calorie tracker in combination with a workout tracker like Bolt can help you precisely achieve your goals.

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Can I both build muscle (bulk) while cutting?

Yes and no. Some lifters and bodybuilders claim that you can both build muscle mass and cut down on fat by eating clean, utilizing either lean bulking or clean bulking (this is referred to as Body Recomposition). However, there is debate amount weightlifters and bodybuilders as far as how effective this can be in practice.

Think about it like this: your body needs more calories than it’s burning to add muscle. But to lose fat, you generally need to burn more calories than you consume. These competing goals can make body recomposition difficult to achieve.

How does bulking work?

In general, bulking strategies can run on a continuum. Let’s look at three of the most common bulking strategies:

• Clean bulking. Clean bulking relies on eating clean — this means no processed foods, focusing on high-quality proteins, and getting protein immediately after your workouts (as well as a good mix of carbohydrates and fats to assist in muscle development). Generally, effective clean bulking diets shoot for roughly 110% of your caloric needs — enough excess caloric intake to add muscle mass without adding too much extra fat.
• Lean bulking. Lean bulking is similar to clean bulking but generally provides for a little more leeway in your diet. The focus is still on lean proteins, but the emphasis is more on eating well and not drastically overshooting your caloric needs.
• Dirty bulking. Dirty bulking assumes that you’ll put on some fat as you bulk. As a result, dirty bulking focuses more on simply exceeding your caloric needs to give your body plenty of calories to create muscle mass, assuming that you can later cut to reduce unwanted fat gains.

What should my macros look like if I’m bulking?

The science is pretty straightforward on this: focus on lean, clean proteins, whole grain carbohydrates, and good fats, as well as plenty of vitamins and minerals necessary for muscle development. That means fish (especially those rich in good fats like omega-3 fatty acids), lean chicken breast, dark leafy greens, and good carbohydrates like wild rice. Eating junk food (such as you might on a dirty bulking diet, for instance) can cause more health issues than increased muscle mass might fix, including diabetes, heart disease, infertility, and cancer, among others.

A starting point for a bulking diet might look something like this: Total Calories = 4 calories per gram of protein (with an intake of 1 gram protein per pound of body weight) + 9 calories per gram of fat (with an intake of 0.25 grams of fat per pound of body weight) + 4 calories per gram of carbohydrate.

A guide to bulking

As an example, if you currently weigh 180 pounds, that would mean you would aim for 180 grams of protein per day (at 4 calories per gram this equals 720 calories), 45 grams of fat per day (at 4 calories per gram this  works out to 405 calories), and fill the rest with carbohydrates (at 4 calories per gram) based on your caloric intake goals. At 2,400 calories per day, for instance, that would mean a little more than 300 grams of carbohydrates each day to fill out the missing 1200 calories. With added experience and the benefit of careful note-taking, you can adjust to find what caloric surplus and macronutrient ratios work best for you.

What should my macros look like if I’m cutting?

Your macros shouldn’t be all that different, in that you should still be focusing on clean eating: Lean proteins, good fats, and carbohydrates. The biggest difference is that you’ll still want similar protein and fat intakes, but a lower caloric total—which will likely mean simply cutting back on carbohydrates. Keep in mind that your body will still need some carbohydrates for desired muscle function, but you’ll necessarily want fewer calories as part of your cutting diet.

References:

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16497175
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_metabolic_rate
• https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/26-muscle-building-foods
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21678033
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15714213