Fit Hub

Everything we know about training, written out and free to read.

29 guides
A lifter squatting under a barbell, motion-blurred against a cream wall Start here

You do not need to confuse the muscle

Adaptation is the point of training, and a program designed to prevent it has nothing left to sell but variety.
02 Soreness is not a measure of a good session Soreness tracks how unfamiliar a movement is, and chasing it rewards the one habit that stalls progress: constant change.
03 Why the page decides, not you Sets, reps, rest and effort are settled at a desk before you get there. The weight column is the one thing left to you, and that is deliberate.
04 How we pick exercises for your equipment A session that demands equipment you do not own is a session you skip, so each program commits to a list and stays inside it.
05 Why week one is a calibration week Week one finds the working weights the rest of the block runs on, and starting light is the fast path to a heavy final week.
06 Where the programming comes from Where the catalogue's thousands of pages come from, and the check that keeps them honest.
07 What to do when a lift stalls Check the boring causes first, then take ten per cent off the bar and climb back in smaller steps than before.
08 Training with thirty minutes Thirty minutes builds muscle when you design for the clock: fewer exercises taken hard, with the rest printed.
09 Training on three days a week Kept for a year, three sessions a week comes to 156 workouts, which outbuilds a six-day program abandoned by autumn.
10 Working around a cranky shoulder A shoulder that objects to one press can keep training if you change the angle and keep the load tolerable.
11 Training past forty Recovery slows and sleep starts counting, and muscle still builds through your forties on the same principles it did at twenty-five.
12 Eating enough to train hard Undereating shows in the bar speed before it shows in the mirror, and on a gaining block the food is part of the program.
13 Where supplements actually fit Training and food carry the result, sleep carries the rest, and three products adjust the margin.
14 Do you need to track calories A direction and a weekly bodyweight average cover most blocks, and tracking earns its place twice, once for a fortnight and once in a stall.
15 Gaining or losing, pick one A modest surplus builds muscle, a moderate deficit strips fat, and alternating between them meal to meal buys you neither.
16 What to expect in month one Soreness, scale weight, appetite and sleep across the first four weeks, and what to make of each.
17 How to read a program sheet A walk down one day page: order, sets, reps, rest, effort targets, and where your pen comes in.
18 How to warm up without wasting half the session Five minutes to get warm and a few ramp sets on the first lift, then the session starts on time.
19 What equipment you actually need Five tiers of kit, from nothing at all to a full gym, and the order to buy them in.
20 Your first twelve weeks The shape of a first training block, from a clumsy opening fortnight to the slow weeks where the habit sets.
21 How long a program should run before you judge it Eight to twelve weeks, against measures you chose before week one, because mid-block feelings are the worst judge you have.
22 When to deload, and how to tell The signs you are due an easy week, and how to run one without turning it into a test.
23 How many days a week do you really need Three covers most goals for most people, and each day you add buys less than the one before it.
24 What progressive overload actually means Muscle grows when the demand grows, and your logbook is the record of whether the demand went anywhere.
25 Toning is just building muscle Toned describes muscle you can see, and building it takes heavier training than the classes sold under the word.
26 Machines are not cheating Muscle responds to tension, and a machine delivers it as well as a barbell, sometimes better.
27 Protein, in plain numbers One number, where it comes from, and how to hit it without weighing anything.
28 Why you keep starting over Program hopping is the most common way to train for years and look the same. Here is the arithmetic of it.
29 How hard is a hard set, actually Most people have never taken a set close to failure, and it is the main reason years of training produce nothing.

New programs, when they land.

One email when a new program goes up, plus the occasional training guide. Nothing else.

One click to unsubscribe. We do not sell your address to anyone.