Evidence Based Fitness

Intensity vs Volume; How to properly apply each for strength & hypertrophy.

Posted by Shaun LaFleur on

Intensity vs Volume; How to properly apply each for strength & hypertrophy.

Table of Contents Introduction What is training intensity? Intensity of load Intensity of effort What is training volume? Volume load Hard sets Recommendations for strength goals. Recommendations for hypertrophy goals. Take home points Introduction There's an age old debate about which is more important; training intensity or training volume? Should you focus more on training every set very hard, or should you back off a bit and perform more sets? Perhaps a bit of both would be wise? Before we can answer these questions, we must first understand and agree upon definitions for the terms "intensity" and "volume". Depending on context or the sport...

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What muscle soreness can & can't tell you.

Posted by Shaun LaFleur on

(Jump to key takeaways) You've probably heard the term DOMs before, and likely even experienced it yourself. DOMs (Delayed-onset Muscle Soreness) is a form of muscle soreness that occurs a day or two after resistance training in the muscles that you worked. Some people even enjoy the feeling, thinking it is a sure sign that they've trained hard enough. But is this really the case? What exactly causes DOMs in the first place? Here's what the research says about DOMs and what it does or doesn't say about your workouts.   What causes muscle soreness? Muscle soreness can occur for...

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Is flexible dieting an effective way to lose weight?

Posted by Shaun LaFleur on

Table of Contents Introduction First off, what ISN'T flexible diets? Introducing: Flexible Dieting! Won't it negatively affect body composition if I eat junk foods? How to set up a flexible dieting plan How to calculate your TDEE Finding your actual TDEE Decide how much weight you want to lose Figure out your target protein intake That's it, it's that simple! The Pros & Cons Of Flexible Dieting Flexible Dieting Pros Flexible Dieting Cons Introduction Flexible dieting: A term you may have heard before but probably thought sounded too good to be true, especially when you're constantly bombarded by the latest fad...

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A practical guide to avoiding under training.

Posted by Shaun LaFleur on

Recently there has been a lot of talk about how to avoid overtraining. There are countless articles and recommendations about holding back (guilty!) to facilitate proper recovery to ensure long term progress. But what about making sure that you ARE training hard enough? What do you do to make sure that you're training hard enough to make optimal progress? Below we will go over a few of the things you can do to make sure that you are not under training.    Stay in the correct intensity threshold The first thing you need to do to make sure you're not under training...

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The benefits of lower training intensities.

Posted by Shaun LaFleur on

When we think of quality training, we usually think of high intensity exercise. Pushing hard, going all out and barely surviving our workouts. While this, on occasion, can be a great way to ensure progress, the truth is that for long term, SUSTAINABLE progress, you'll likely want to train with lower intensities the majority of the time.   How do we define training intensity? Two common methods of defining training intensity is either as a percentage of one rep max lifted or proximity to failure. For the context of this article, we are defining intensity as proximity to failure. The...

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