The Weekly Dose – February 23, 2020

THE WEEKLY DOSE [VIEW IN BROWSER]( [The Weekly Dose]( LATEST ARTICLES [Drink These]( [Drink These for Extreme, Untamed Energy]( by TC Luoma Most energy supps, at best, stop you from yawning. But if you want one that puts you into maximum overdrive, look no further. [Activate These Muscles]( [Tip: Activate These Muscles Before Heavy Lifting]( by TJ Kuster Here's a quick way to fire up the right muscles so you can lift more weight and protect your back. [9 Exercises]( [9 Exercises for a Complete Back]( by Jason Brown Always doing the same two back exercises? That doesn't cut it. For more size and strength, try these variations. [Most Painful Pause]( [Tip: The Most Painful Pause]( by Paul Carter Here's how to use iso-holds to stimulate new growth in your hamstrings, glutes, biceps, and more. [Unpopular Opinion]( [Unpopular Opinion: Deadlifts Aren't That Great]( by Christian Thibaudeau Unless you're a competitive powerlifter, traditional deadlifts are overrated, especially for athletes. Here's why. [Swing]( [Tip: Swing for Strong & Healthy Shoulders]( by TJ Kuster Here's an easy and fun way to bulletproof your shoulders against injuries and even improve your posture. [Stuff We Like]( [Stuff We Like – Food & Snacks 3]( by T Nation RYour healthy diet is boring and bland. Let's fix that. Here's what we have in our Amazon carts. [Biceps Growth]( [Tip: The Most Painful Exercise for Biceps Growth]( by Gareth Sapstead Give your arms a case of swoliosis with this curling technique. [New 5x5]( [The New 5x5]( by Christian Thibaudeau The 5x5 system has been around forever for a reason: it works. But it has its shortcoming. Let's make it even better. [Looking Muscle]( [Tip: The Coolest Looking Muscle & How to Build It]( by TJ Kuster Start building a better serratus anterior right now. Here's how. [Leg Exercise]( [Tip: The Best Leg Exercise You've Never Tried]( by Andrew Coates This knee-friendly quad killer allows you to load heavier and really focus on destroying the muscles you want to target. [Strength Test]( [Tip: Take This Strength Test, Save Your Life]( by Chris Shugart How likely are you to die from a heart-related problem? Find out now. It'll only take a minute. [Serious Athletes]( FEATURE ARTICLE [Is Going Heavy Holding You Back?]( by Thoren Bradley [Going Heavy Holding You Back]( Progressive vs. Brogressive Progressive overload isn't an exciting phrase, but you need to make it a part of your life. It's essentially the action of placing more stress and tension on the muscle over time, and increasing this stress over time allows for more strength, growth, and size. But more often than not, people have a one-dimensional approach to progressive overload. All they ever do is mess with one variable – more weight on the bar! They neglect the other variables (time under tension, decreased rest intervals, changing set/rep ranges, etc.), just for the sake of moving more weight every set. 4 Ways to Get Growing 1. Work with different rep ranges, but make them all feel heavy. Do heavy sets of 15 by using perfect form, complete ranges of motion, and no body English or any other form of cheating. So many people get fixated on a rep range that they forget to make each set a challenging one. Far too many people fall short on this small detail and their progress stalls out. 2. Mess with the tempo. Instead of exploding up and just letting the weight fall, take 1, 2, 3, 4, or however many seconds you choose to lower the weight. Incorporate the occasional isometric hold. Much of the untapped mechanical signaling for growth happens in the eccentric (lowering) and isometric portion of the movement. These are the portions of the lift that too many people are skipping for the sake of just getting the rep up. 3. Yes, prioritize your explosive and heavy lifting, but not at the expense of exploring all ranges of motion. 4. Play with drop sets, clusters, or breathing sets. Like the bodybuilder Tom Platz used to say, if you can find a way to go heavy for high reps, you'll find a lot more muscle growth. Check out the [four other ways]( going too heavy is getting in the way of your gains. TRENDING [7 Things]( [7 Things No One Tells You Before You Start Lifting]( by TC Luoma If you knew these seven things about lifting or bodybuilding beforehand, would you even bother walking into a gym? Take a look. [Build Legs]( [Tip: The Forgotten Way to Build Legs]( by Chris Shugart It used to be the rule for building big quads, but today most people haven't heard of it. Let's change that. [Velocity Diet]( POWERFUL WORDS Don't be a warrior in the gym and a wimp in the kitchen. Eat for the results you want. – [T Nation (Instagram)]( Crappy, cheap calories are going to hang around your waist a lot longer than you think. If you don't believe me, just walk around the mall or amusement park and observe the love handles, muffin tops, and jelly bellies of most people. Yes, they are Children of God, but they need to stop eating crap. – [Dan John]( Question the things that people deem taboo so that you know how to continue making progress... even in unconventional ways. The more you train, the more likely it is that you'll find instances where breaking the rules often benefits you more than following them. – [Calvin Huynh]( [10 Workouts]( [Cowards]( [Too Bulky]( [Arnold]( T Nation LLC 1850 Reliable Circle Colorado Springs, CO, 80906 [Unsubscribe From List](