Browse the evidence

Performing high-intensity interval training (HIIT) before resistance training (HIIT+RT) does not attenuate lower-body maximal strength or lean mass gains compared to resistance-only training, making it a viable strategy for concurrent training.

If you must do cardio and weights on the same day, doing cardio first won't hurt your strength or muscle growth, provided you wait about 3 hours between sessions. You can still get strong and build muscle.

Long-term bariatric surgery (≥5 years) significantly reduces the incidence of macrovascular complications, cardiovascular events, and myocardial infarction in severely obese patients with type 2 diabetes compared to conventional medical therapy.

For severely obese individuals with Type 2 Diabetes, bariatric surgery offers significant long-term protection against heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular complications compared to standard medical treatment alone. This benefit persists for at least five years post-surgery. While surgery is a major intervention, the data supports its use for reducing major cardiovascular risks in this specific population.

In resistance-trained individuals, increasing proximity-to-failure (moving from 3-RIR to 1-RIR to Failure) linearly increases acute neuromuscular fatigue and negative perceptual responses, with males exhibiting greater fatigue than females when training to failure.

If you are resistance-trained, you do not need to train to absolute failure on every set. Stopping 1-3 reps before failure (RIR) significantly reduces acute neuromuscular fatigue and negative feelings (discomfort, soreness) compared to going to failure, while likely preserving similar training stimulus. This can improve your adherence and recovery, especially if you are male, as males showed greater fatigue at failure than females.

High visit-to-visit body weight variability (BWV) significantly increases the risk of cardiovascular complications and all-cause mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes, independent of mean body weight or traditional risk factors.

If you have type 2 diabetes, keeping your weight stable is as important as losing it. Frequent weight cycling (yo-yo dieting) significantly increases your risk of heart attack, stroke, and death. Work with your healthcare provider to choose a weight management strategy that you can maintain long-term without significant fluctuations, rather than pursuing aggressive, unsustainable weight loss cycles.

A self-selected diet low in greenhouse gas emissions (CO2e) provides comparable nutrient intake to a high-emit diet and adheres to Nordic Nutrition Recommendations for most nutrients, with the exception of fiber, folate, and vitamin D.

You can lower your diet's carbon footprint without sacrificing nutrition. Focus on reducing high-emission foods like beef and increasing plant-based options like vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. This approach keeps your nutrient intake comparable to a standard diet, though you may need to pay attention to fiber, folate, and vitamin D sources as these were lower in the lowest-emission groups.

Adherence to Nordic Nutrition Recommendations is high in low-emission diets, but specific micronutrients (fiber, folate, vitamin D) remain below recommended levels regardless of emission level.

While low-emission diets are generally nutritious, you must actively ensure you meet fiber, folate, and vitamin D targets. Since these were not met even in the lowest-emission groups, consider incorporating fiber-rich plant foods, folate-rich vegetables/legumes, and fortified foods or supplements for Vitamin D, especially if you are in a region with limited sun exposure.

Soy protein supplementation improves exercise performance, particularly in high-intensity, high-speed, and endurance activities, by delaying fatigue and improving isometric strength.

If you are an athlete, soy protein can help you perform better. It improves endurance, speed, and delays fatigue. It is particularly beneficial after strenuous exercise or muscle damage. You can use it to boost your performance without relying solely on animal proteins or other supplements.

High consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) is associated with a significantly increased risk of colorectal and breast cancer, with a 10% increase in UPF intake linked to a 4% higher risk of colorectal cancer.

Limit your intake of ultra-processed foods (UPFs), defined by the NOVA classification system as industrial formulations with little whole food content. This meta-analysis links high UPF consumption to increased risks of colorectal and breast cancer. For every 10% increase in UPF intake, colorectal cancer risk rises by 4%. Focus on whole or minimally processed foods to reduce this risk.

Resistance training (RT) and aerobic training (AT) induce distinct molecular signaling pathways in skeletal muscle, with RT primarily activating mTORC1 to drive myofibrillar hypertrophy and AT primarily activating AMPK to drive mitochondrial biogenesis.

If your goal is to build muscle size, focus on resistance training to activate the mTOR pathway. If your goal is to improve cardiovascular endurance and mitochondrial function, focus on aerobic training to activate the AMPK pathway. Doing both simultaneously may blunt specific adaptations due to the 'interference effect' where AMPK suppresses mTOR signaling.

Repeated (chronic) application of post-exercise cooling blunts muscle strength adaptations and decreases fatigue resistance following resistance training interventions.

If your goal is to build maximum strength over months, avoid using cold water immersion after every resistance training session. It may prevent you from gaining as much strength as you could have. Save the cold plunge for endurance events in the heat or for specific early recovery needs.

Genetic variants that increase skeletal muscle expression of the mitochondrial supercomplex assembly factor COX7A2L are causally associated with improved cardiorespiratory fitness, lower body fat, and increased energy expenditure in humans and mice.

Your genetic makeup influences your mitochondrial efficiency and cardiorespiratory fitness. While you cannot change your DNA, recognizing that some individuals have a genetic advantage in fat oxidation and VO2max can help tailor expectations. Focus on consistent aerobic training to maximize your genetic potential, as even small genetic advantages in COX7A2L expression correlate with better fitness outcomes.

Plyometric jump training induces small to moderate skeletal muscle hypertrophy in healthy individuals, with larger effects observed in non-athletes compared to athletes and greater hypertrophy in knee extensors compared to plantar flexors.

If you want to build muscle without heavy weights, incorporate plyometric jumps (like squat jumps or box jumps) into your routine. Aim for about 2 sessions per week, with each session lasting around 30 minutes. You don't need to be an athlete to see results; in fact, beginners (non-athletes) may see larger muscle growth than experienced athletes. Focus on exercises that involve jumping, as these can effectively increase muscle size, particularly in the legs.

Adding 30-second no-load isometric holds (iso-holds) during the inter-set rest period of resistance training enhances mid-thigh (quadriceps) muscle hypertrophy compared to passive rest, but may impair lower-body maximal strength gains.

If you want to maximize quadriceps growth without spending extra time in the gym, try holding a strong isometric contraction (like a seated knee extension) for 30 seconds immediately after each set of squats or leg presses. Do this for the first 30 seconds of your 2-minute rest, then relax for the remaining 90 seconds. Note: This might slightly reduce your ability to increase the weight on the bar for lower body strength, so prioritize this strategy if hypertrophy is your main goal.

Concurrent resistance and endurance training combined with high protein availability (2 g/kg/day) does not impair maximal strength or muscle hypertrophy compared to resistance training alone, but it does attenuate anaerobic power gains.

If you want to train for both strength and endurance, do them on separate days (e.g., Monday/Wednesday/Friday for weights, Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday for cardio). Eat 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight daily. You will likely gain strength and muscle just as well as if you only lifted weights, but you might not get as fast or powerful as if you only lifted weights.

An 8-week vegan diet significantly reduces epigenetic age acceleration (GrimAge, PhenoAge, DunedinPACE) and extends telomere length compared to an omnivorous diet in healthy adults.

Adopting a vegan diet for 8 weeks can significantly slow down biological aging markers, including epigenetic age and telomere length, compared to a healthy omnivorous diet. To maximize these benefits, ensure you are getting adequate nutrients, particularly B12 and other 'epi-nutrients' mentioned in the study, through supplementation or careful food selection.

Asian populations develop obesity-related cardiometabolic morbidities at lower BMI thresholds than white populations, necessitating lower diagnostic cutoffs (BMI ≥25 or 27.5 kg/m²) for accurate risk identification.

If you are of Asian descent, do not rely on the standard BMI of 30 to define obesity. Your risk for diabetes and heart disease increases at lower weights. Use region-specific guidelines (BMI ≥25 or 27.5 kg/m²) or waist circumference measurements to assess your health risk accurately.

Regular active recovery (ACT) consisting of 15 minutes of moderate jogging immediately after high-intensity interval training (HIIT) does not attenuate training adaptations (specifically maximum running velocity, velocity at VO2max, and anaerobic lactate threshold) compared to passive recovery (PAS).

If you do HIIT, follow it with 15 minutes of easy jogging (approx. 50-55% of your max speed) rather than sitting still. This will clear lactate faster and may actually improve your lactate threshold more than doing nothing, without increasing your overall stress or hindering your fitness gains.

Acute endurance exercise stimulates skeletal muscle mitochondrial biogenesis through integrated retrograde signaling from mitochondria to the nucleus, involving the activation of kinases (AMPK, CaMK, MAPK, PKA) and the translocation of transcriptional coactivators like PGC-1α to regulate nuclear gene expression.

To boost your muscle's energy production capacity (mitochondrial biogenesis), engage in endurance exercise. This can be moderate intensity continuous exercise (MICE), high-intensity interval exercise (HIIE), or sprint interval exercise (SIE). The specific intensity determines which fuel sources are used and which signaling pathways are prioritized, but all forms of endurance exercise trigger the necessary retrograde signaling from mitochondria to the nucleus to increase mitochondrial content and function.

Full range of motion (fROM) resistance training yields trivial to small advantages over partial range of motion (pROM) for overall muscle hypertrophy, strength, power, and body composition outcomes.

For most people, full range of motion is the best default for building muscle and strength because it offers a slight edge. However, the difference is small. If you have an injury that hurts at full depth, partial range of motion is still highly effective and better than nothing. If you are a powerlifter or sport-specific athlete, train the specific partial ranges relevant to your sport, as strength gains are specific to the angle trained.

Rest-pause and drop-set training do not produce superior hypertrophic adaptations compared to traditional resistance training when total training volume is equalized.

You do not need to use rest-pause or drop-sets to build muscle. If you perform the same total amount of work (sets x reps x weight) using traditional sets, you will gain the same amount of muscle mass as those using advanced techniques.

High-volume resistance training increases non-myofibrillar protein synthesis rates more than high-load resistance training, suggesting a mechanism for sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.

High-volume training may promote muscle growth through increased non-myofibrillar protein synthesis, which contributes to sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. This suggests that volume-based protocols can drive muscle growth through mechanisms beyond just contractile protein accretion.

In young and middle-aged adults (18-55 years), the combination of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension increases the risk of COVID-19-related mortality to levels comparable to those observed in older adults (56-75 years) without these conditions.

If you are under 55, your age alone does not protect you from severe COVID-19 outcomes if you have obesity, diabetes, or high blood pressure. These conditions combine to elevate your mortality risk to that of an older adult. Prioritize managing these metabolic factors through lifestyle changes and medical care, and ensure you are prioritized for preventive measures like vaccination.

White common bean extract (WCBE) rich in alpha-amylase inhibitor, taken 1.5g before meals, significantly improves glycemic control (HbA1c) and ameliorates diabetic peripheral neuropathy in type 2 diabetes patients over 4 months by remodeling gut microbiota to enrich SCFA-producing bacteria.

If you have Type 2 Diabetes, taking 1.5 grams of white common bean extract half an hour before each meal may help lower your HbA1c and improve nerve health. This supplement works by blocking starch digestion and feeding beneficial gut bacteria that produce short-chain fatty acids, which help regulate blood sugar. It should be used alongside your prescribed medication and dietary guidance, not as a replacement.

Resistance training in hypoxia (RTH) yields similar muscle hypertrophy and strength gains compared to normoxia when protocols are not optimized for specific covariates.

If you are training in hypoxia, do not expect automatic superior gains in muscle size or strength compared to training in normal air. The overall benefit is negligible unless you specifically optimize your rest intervals and load.