Before we begin…

Download the A-Z BroScience Guide to peptides

Join the BroScience Telegram

Use code AJAC10 at Eliteresearchusa.com

On to the article

Strong legs are for everyone. Whether you are a casual lifter or hardcore, its in your best interest to train legs HARD.

I would say more than any other muscle group, your lower body determines quality of life.

When I regularly trained clients, there was an enormous difference in athleticism and quality of life between weak-legged people, versus strong legs.

It was not just an easier time doing squats or deadlifts or lunges, but an obvious difference in coordination, stability, stamina, energy levels.

People with strong legs are energetic, mobile people.

Weak legs, youre not inclined to move. AT ALL. Any kind of movement, evens standing bicep curls, they are more challenging.

And the older you are and weaker you become, inertia takes over. A cane or walker or wheelchair becomes your destiny.

This is all to say; train your legs like an intelligent bodybuilder (and athlete)

I say bodybuilder first, because everything starts with muscle. Telling someone to sprint, shuffle, hop, skip, and jump is a TERRIBLE idea if bodyweight squats and lunges are hard.

Muscle and basic strength comes first. Thats brings us to Mountaindog leg training via John Meadows.

John loved to train with intensity and intelligence, and his training approach for leg exemplified this. His philosophy was of course very different from the typical “just squat heavy!!”.

John recognized that the legs were a diverse set of muscle groups that were not going to be adequately stimulated by a minimalist approach. He incorporated all manner of squats, leg presses, lunges, single leg exercises, deadlifts, adductor work, leg curls and extensions, and hip thrusts. Not necessarily all in the same workout, but he liked a diversity of movements being done, and specifically targeted what needed to be brought up. And brought his usual focus on technique, targeted tension, intensity, and periodized training.

Ironically this was more a athletically oriented training style than most people would give credit for. Having equally strong quads, glutes, hamstrings, and single leg strength is a great strength base for doing anything locomotive.

John also called leg training “the crucible of character development.” By his estimation, legs were the bodypart that responded the most to sheer volume and intense effort. To achieve seriously impressive leg development is a long and painful process. There is no other muscle group thats is more exhausting and requires mental and physical stamina.

Lower body is also a muscle group that many people slack off on as they age. Or dial back intensity due to injuries and joint pain.

With the mountaindog system, you can keep intensity up, be pain free, and avoid the decline of losing lower body muscle. You also can achieve growth you may not have thought possible.

Part 1-Leg Anatomy

As always, its good to understand what muscles we are talking about here before getting into training.

Quadriceps

The quadriceps is four distinct muscles with different attachment points and different functions. While all of them work together, you can change the emphasis of tension with your exercise selection.

Rectus Femoris: The only quad muscle that crosses both the hip joint and the knee joint. This matters because it means the rectus femoris is most active when the hip is extended, which is why exercises like sissy squats and leg extensions with the torso upright produce such intense rectus femoris activation. Most compound movements underload this muscle.

Vastus Lateralis: The outer quad. This is the muscle responsible for the dramatic sweep that makes legs look wide from the front. It responds well to heavy compound work and wider-stance movements.

Vastus Medialis (VMO): The inner quad, creating the teardrop development above the knee that separates serious leg development from average. The VMO is most active in the terminal range of knee extension, the last 20 degrees of lockout. This is why exercises that emphasize full lockout and short-range movements near extension build the teardrop.

Vastus Intermedius: The deep quad muscle sitting underneath the rectus femoris. It provides thickness and foundational power. You cannot see it directly, but you can see its effects in overall quad mass.

Hamstrings

Biceps Femoris (Long and Short Heads): The outer hamstring. The long head crosses the hip joint, making it responsive to hip extension exercises like Romanian deadlifts. The short head only crosses the knee, requiring leg curl movements for complete development.

Semitendinosus: Runs along the inner portion of the posterior thigh. Performs hip extension and knee flexion with internal rotation of the tibia. Responds to Romanian deadlift variations and lying leg curls.

Semimembranosus: The deepest hamstring muscle, providing mass and strength for hip extension and knee flexion. Often underdeveloped because it requires specific attention through both hip hinge and knee flexion work.

Glutes

Gluteus Maximus: The single most powerful muscle in the human body. Responsible for hip extension, external rotation, and the posterior chain power that drives every athletic movement.

Gluteus Medius: Sits on the outer hip. Essential for hip stability, single-leg balance, and lateral strength. Can be targeted directly and also works during any compound exercise.

Gluteus Minimus: The deep stabilizer beneath the medius. Works with the medius to control hip position during movement.

Calves

The calves are arguably the most genetically stubborn muscle group in the entire body. Some people have huge calves and literally never train them. Someone else is trashing them through 8 sets to failure just not have toothpick lower legs.

The biggest mistake with calves is most people train them as an afterthought, and then say their genetics suck. Maybe your genetics do suck, but calves respond to intelligent, systematic training just like everything else. And a lot of patience.

Gastrocnemius-the outer, visible calf muscle that creates the classic diamond shape when fully developed. It has two distinct heads. The gastrocnemius crosses both the knee joint and the ankle joint, which means it is most active during plantarflexion (pointing the toes) when the knee is straight. This dual-joint function is the reason standing calf raises are a key exercise for gastrocnemius development.

Soleus-sits underneath the gastrocnemius and is not visible from the surface, but it is the muscle most responsible for overall calf thickness and mass. Because the soleus only crosses the ankle joint and not the knee, it becomes the primary working muscle during any calf exercise performed with bent knees. This is why seated calf raises are essential and not interchangeable with standing variations. The soleus also contains a higher proportion of slow-twitch muscle fibers than the gastrocnemius, which means it responds better to higher repetition ranges and longer time-under-tension protocols. Neglecting the soleus while chasing gastrocnemius development is one of the most common reasons lifters struggle with overall calf size. Think of the soleus as the triceps of the calf muscle.

Part 3-Workout Principles and Exercise Sequencing

With training legs, the order of exercises mattered as much as the intensity applied to the movements. Similar to Chest training, John was specific about sequencing movements to both avoid injuries and discovered through decades of practical experimentation that specific sequencing patterns consistently produced superior results in both size development and injury prevention.

First-Start with hamstrings. This is probably Johns most famous recommendation that know one knows came from him. His reasoning was simple

The hamstrings crosses the knee joint. Most people have weak hamstrings. Training hamstrings hard both is stimulating for muscle growth, and helps lubricate the knee joint for deep knee bending. Squats and leg presses performed with pre-activated, pumped hamstrings simply feel more stable and produce better muscle engagement patterns.

Additionally, save your stretching-type hamstring movements, such as stiff-legged deadlifts and Romanian deadlifts, for after both hamstrings and quads are fully pumped. The increased blood flow and tissue temperature make the stretched position more productive and less risky for the lower back.

For hamstrings, you have the options of either lying leg curls, or seated leg curls. John never did much standing leg, he preferred the bilateral version of the exercise. Alternate between the two. You can do dropsets, isoholds, partials, and go hard on hamstrings over multiple sets.

John typically trained hamstrings and quads within the same session rather than on separate days. He thought the combined stimulus produces greater overall lower body growth than splitting them apart, and the alternating tension between antagonist muscle groups enhances performance on both.

Even if splitting your legs into workouts, quads one day, posterior chain on another, John always wanted some leg curls before any knee bending. Assess whether this works for you

Second-Perform a compound squat movement with 90 degrees of knee bend. Johns recommendation from years ago was to always do a squat or leg press first before hack squats. And to always do two quad exercise before lunges.

What was the reasoning behind this?

It had to do with stress on the knee joint. When you have a fully pumped and engaged muscle, there is less joint stress. For an exercise like a lunge (a single leg movement) or a hack squat, thats a lot of stress on the knee joint. So do NOT do those exercises first.

Instead, do some kind of squat or leg press with about 90 degree range of motion. This could be a back squat, smith machine squat, and any leg press of choice. This allows you to push weight, safely, and you dont make the mistake of doing deep knee bend before your knees are prepared. This exercise is also stimulating to both quadriceps, and to the glutes as well.

Third-Perform a compound squat movement with deep knee bend. After doing your first compound movement for quads (and glutes), now you are ready for a hack squat, smith machine lunge, or split squat. John loved them all, especially bulgarian split squats.

This exercise you can apply any intensity techniques you like; dropsets, partials, slow eccentrics, or any combo thereof.

Important to note for this exercise; John liked stable movements. Walking lunges he didnt consider a long term mass builder due to the stability demands and the limitations of overloading the movement safely without form breakdown. You could do them, but they were an exercise you’d do at the very end of a workout. They were also not something to prioritize over foundational pressing and squatting when overall quad mass is the primary goal.

4th, finish with your loaded hinges for hamstrings and glutes. John typically saved RDLs and Stiff legs for the very end of a training session, but he would sometimes put them second after leg curls if the posterior chain was a lagging muscle group. This is up to you. For working sets, John also rarely went below 8 reps on hinges, and typically stuck to the 8-12 range, and would usually work up doing pyramids. Hinges are not exercises that readily lend themselves to intensity techniques, simply doing quality reps and pushing yourself on sets if enough.

Part 4-Calf Training

Calves deserve their own section. John would train Calves on leg day, but he also believed in training them up to 5 times a week if they were lagging, and encouraged higher frequency versus 1-2 workouts weekly. If your calves are terrible, they could also be trained first in the workout. John never had an exact protocol for calves, but he did have principles

High Frequency and Volume-Once a week is not enough for stubborn calves.

Meadows prescribed calf training 3-6 times per week during specialization phases. Sessions were short, 10-15 minutes, alternating between gastrocnemius emphasis (straight-leg movements) and soleus emphasis (bent-knee movements). Sets could be 2-3 per exercise. These mini workouts were not high volume, but over the course of the week, it aded up significantly.

f calves are a genuine weak point, they also need to be trained first in the session. not tacked on at the end when you’re mentally checked out and physically drained.

Rotate rep ranges-heavy work in the 6-10 range for progressive overload, moderate sets of 12-15 for hypertrophy, and occasional high-rep sets of 20-30+ (or even 100-rep challenges) to target the slow-twitch dominant soleus and develop pain tolerance.

each workout, use a different range, dont stick to only one.

Full stretch with PAUSE-Three things destroy calf rep quality: cutting the range of motion short at the bottom, bouncing out of the stretch using the Achilles tendon as a spring, and going too heavy to maintain control.

The fix is simple and non-negotiable. Drop your heels to a full stretch at the bottom of every rep. Pause there for one full second. Drive up with muscular force — not elastic rebound. Keep your legs straight on standing variations to load the gastrocnemius instead of shifting to the soleus.

This means using less weight than your ego wants. That’s the point. A controlled 3-second eccentric, 1-second pause, explosive concentric rep with 60% of your max is worth more than a bouncing half-rep at 100%.

The tibialis anterior-John was the only bodybuilder I met who seriously trained this muscle. One of his favorite routines was supersetting “tib raises” with calf raises. Is this the secret to growth? I dont know, but its worth trying.

Part 5: Programming Legs Within the Training Week, Considerations

There are LOTS of ways to program lower body, the following are practical tips for the training schedule.

For Push/Pull/Legs Splits

Legs receive their own full training day. The session lasts seventy-five to ninety minutes including activation work. John preferred legs trained on the day after a full rest day to ensure maximum energy and glycogen stores.

For Upper/Lower Splits

Two leg sessions per week with different emphasis:

Day 1 — Quad Emphasis: Safety bar squats or front squats as the primary compound. Leg press with low foot position. Leg extensions with VMO emphasis. Quad-dominant metabolic finisher.

Day 2 — Posterior Chain Emphasis: Romanian deadlifts as the primary compound. Hip thrusts as the secondary compound. Lying leg curls with the pre-stretch method. Reverse lunges from a deficit. Glute and hamstring-focused metabolic finisher.

For Body Part Splits

John sometimes separated quads and hamstrings into dedicated training days for advanced trainees during specialization phases. Quad day included all squat variations, leg press work, leg extensions, and quad-focused finishers. Hamstring day included Romanian deadlifts, good mornings, lying and seated leg curls, Nordics, and glute-dominant finishers.

Recovery Considerations

Allow a minimum of seventy-two hours between heavy leg sessions. Avoid heavy deadlift work within forty-eight hours of hard leg training. The overlap in posterior chain demand between these sessions is too great for adequate recovery. Train legs on your highest-energy day of the week, typically early in the week after better weekend sleep and nutrition. Eat a solid meal ninety to one hundred twenty minutes before training. Hydrate with at least a liter of water in the hour before training and sip throughout the session.

Part 6: The 12-Week Periodization Cycle

Individual workouts are the building blocks. But it is the long-term periodization of volume and intensity across weeks that determines whether those workouts produce continuous adaptation or diminishing returns. John structured his leg training into a systematic twelve-week cycle with three distinct phases, followed by a mandatory deload period.

The philosophy underpinning this cycle was what John called “getting the most out of the least.” Start with conservative volume and allow the high-intensity execution techniques themselves to provide the initial shock. Then systematically increase total work capacity over time. Finally, compress the volume while maximizing the intensity of every individual set. This wave-loading approach prevents premature adaptation and generates favorable hormonal responses as training stress accumulates.

Planning a 12 week training Cycle

John was fond of planning training out in cycles, and liked to use the “Moderate-High-Low” approach

Weeks 1-3-About 10-12 sets per workout

Week 4-9- increase to 12-20 sets per workout

Weeks 10-12- decrease to 8-10 sets per workout

Sample Phase 1 Workout (12 Working Sets):

A. Lying Leg Curl — 4 working sets Two warmup sets of twenty reps. Then one set of fifteen, one set of twelve, and one set of eight, adding weight each set. Rest approximately ninety seconds between sets. Final set is a cascading drop: return to the weight you used for twelve reps and perform ten, reduce the load and perform ten more, reduce again and perform ten more, then increase the load by one increment and perform twenty-five partials from the lengthened position.

B. Barbell Stiff-Legged Deadlift — 2 working sets Two warmup sets to establish the pattern. Then two working sets of ten repetitions. Bend the knees at the bottom. Use smaller-diameter plates to achieve a greater stretch. Contract the glutes and hamstrings deliberately on every rep.

C. Leg Press — 3 working sets Feet slightly wider than shoulders, positioned on the lower half of the platform. Begin with light weight and add plates progressively through warmup sets. You should still feel hamstring and adductor engagement during the eccentrics of the early sets. Perform three working sets of ten with three-second negatives and explosive concentrics. Follow immediately with a sixty-second quad fascial stretch per leg.

D. Hack Squat — 3 working sets Three sets of ten with full range of motion and no lockout. On the final set, use the same weight but add the rest-pause explosion technique: full depth, complete pause, then drive hard. Perform ten reps this way, then cut the weight in half and finish with fifteen additional continuous-tension reps. Follow with fascial quad stretching, sixty seconds per leg, repeated twice.

Phase 2: Volume Accumulation (Weeks 4-9)

Total volume per session: sixteen to twenty working sets.

This is a hard six-week grind. The body has begun adapting to the intensity techniques introduced in Phase 1, so to continue driving adaptation, total training volume increases progressively each week. The number of high-intensity sets also increases. This phase generates the greatest cumulative training stress of the entire cycle and produces the most visible changes in leg development.

Volume does not increase recklessly. It climbs by one to two sets per week, distributed across the session. The additional sets prioritize movements and techniques that have proven most effective during Phase 1.

Sample Phase 2 Workout (17 Working Sets):

A. Seated Leg Curl — 4 working sets Two warmup sets of twenty. Then one set of fourteen, one set of twelve, one set of ten, adding weight each set. Rest sixty seconds between sets. Final set: reduce to a weight two increments below your starting point and perform thirty-five continuous reps. The first ten will feel manageable. Then the burning begins. Reach thirty-five even if the final reps are partials.

B. Leg Press — 3 working sets Two warmup sets building to a load you could normally handle for ten to twelve reps maximum. Stay with that weight for all three working sets of sixteen reps. Standard foot positioning: shoulder width, toes forward, medium platform height. Continuous-tension style with no lockout. Work the lower portion of the range hardest. Use your hands to assist your knees if necessary during the final reps. Rest approximately two minutes between sets.

C. Hack Squat or Machine Squat — 3 working sets One warmup set. Three working sets of eight using the rest-pause explosion technique: full depth, complete pause, explosive drive, no lockout. The load should be moderate enough to allow perfect depth and a genuine dead stop on every repetition. Your legs should be extraordinarily pumped after three sets. Follow with sixty-second fascial quad stretches.

D. Smith Machine Squat — 3 working sets Two sets of eight with full depth. Third set: eight reps using the one-and-a-half technique. Descend to the bottom, rise halfway, descend to the bottom again, then drive to the top. That is one repetition. Follow with fascial quad stretching.

E. Dumbbell Stiff-Legged Deadlift — 4 working sets Four sets of twelve reps. Do not fully straighten at the top. Maintain a slight knee bend at the bottom. Focus on deepening the stretch progressively across the four sets. Keep the dumbbells against the body throughout.

Phase 3: Intensity Peak (Weeks 10-12)

Total volume per session: eight to ten working sets.

Overall volume drops substantially, but the intensity of every individual set reaches the highest level of the entire cycle. Every working set is preceded by thorough warmup work. Every working set is performed with maximum application of the intensity techniques. This is where the accumulated training capacity built during Phase 2 is expressed through the most demanding sets of the trainee’s life.

The reduced volume allows recovery between sessions while the extreme intensity continues to drive adaptation. This phase produces the most dramatic improvements in muscular density and detail.

Use your imagination in programming this phase. Combine every intensity technique available: three-second eccentrics with cascading drop sets. Continuous-tension sets with partials at the end. Rest-pause explosions followed by high-rep burnouts. Every combination of the five techniques is available, and the eight to ten sets you perform should be the hardest work you have ever done in a gym.

Deload Phase (2 Weeks)

After twelve weeks of escalating intensity, a mandatory period of lighter training allows recovery from the cumulative neural and muscular fatigue that accompanies sustained high-intensity work. Two weeks of reduced loading and reduced volume is the standard recommendation.

Not everyone requires the deload at the same point. Some trainees benefit from inserting a deload around week six. Others have sustained thirty or more weeks of intense training before requiring a recovery period. Monitor your performance, your motivation, and your joint health. When progress stalls and motivation drops simultaneously, the deload is overdue.

Sometimes the wisest training decision is taking one step backward to enable two steps forward.

Part 7: Training Age and Progressive Complexity

The periodization demands of a first-year trainee are radically different from those of someone with a decade of serious training experience. John scaled his periodization complexity to match the trainee’s readiness.

Beginners (0-2 years) benefit most from consistency and simplicity. A single twelve-week cycle repeated with gradually increasing loads and modest exercise rotation provides all the periodization complexity they need. The body is so responsive to novel training stimuli at this stage that elaborate periodization schemes add confusion without adding results. The priority is building movement competency, establishing training habits, and developing the pain tolerance to eventually handle Mountain Dog-level intensity.

Intermediate trainees (2-5 years) begin benefiting from the three-week exercise rotation, the full three-phase volume wave within each cycle, and targeted specialization blocks for lagging muscle groups. This is the stage where most trainees stagnate because they continue applying beginner-level programming to a body that now requires more sophisticated stimulus management. Introducing the complete twelve-week cycle structure with deliberate exercise rotation is often the single change that breaks an intermediate plateau.

Advanced trainees (5+ years) require the full macro-level architecture: multi-cycle annual planning, specialization block sequencing, strategic exercise rotation, and careful management of the relationship between training stress and recovery capacity. The room for error shrinks as training age increases. An advanced trainee can no longer rely on general effort to drive adaptation. Every variable must be deliberately managed, and the consequences of poor periodization, whether overtraining or understimulation, become more severe.

John expressed this progression simply: there is no such thing as a universally perfect program. There is only a perfect program for a specific individual at a specific point in their development. The periodization framework exists to ensure that the program evolves as the individual does.

Part 8-Activation and Movement Preparation

John didnt necessarily do “prehab” activation drills before every workout during his competitive career, but they are something he saw the merit of doing for general population, older lifters, and even novices who hadnt yet developed kinesthetic awareness.

The Meadows Leg Activation Sequence (for everyone):

1. 20 clamshells each side — slow and controlled, feeling the glute medius engage

2. 15 bodyweight glute bridges with 2-second holds at the top — squeezing hard enough to feel the glutes cramp

3. 15 leg swings each direction — front-to-back and side-to-side, working through full range of motion

4. 10 deep bodyweight squats — full depth, holding the bottom position for 2 seconds each rep

5. 5 single-leg glute bridges each side — confirming both sides activate equally

Ankle Mobility Work: John understood that many squat problems originated at the ankle, not the hip. Restricted ankle dorsiflexion forces the torso forward, shifting load from quads to lower back. His fix was simple: spend 60 seconds per side in a half-kneeling ankle stretch before any squatting movement.

Hip Flexor Stretches: A 30-second couch stretch or half-kneeling hip flexor stretch per side. Not deep stretching, just enough to restore normal range before loading.

Part 9-Addressing Common Leg Training Problems

For Stubborn Quad Development:

The problem was almost always the same: too much emphasis on heavy squats with insufficient quad isolation. John’s fix was to flip the priority. Start every leg session with pre-exhaust, light leg extensions for activation, then heels-elevated squats or front squats for primary loading. Finish with sissy squats or leg extensions with pauses. Most trainees who thought they had “bad quad genetics” had bad quad programming.

For Lagging Hamstrings:

John observed that most trainees treated hamstrings as an afterthought, a few sets of leg curls at the end of a quad session when they were already exhausted. His fix: dedicate one full training day per week exclusively to hamstrings and glutes. Romanian deadlifts as the primary compound. Lying leg curls as the primary isolation. Nordic progressions for eccentric strength. Train hamstrings fresh, not fatigued.

For Underactive Glutes:

The daily activation protocol was the starting point. Beyond that, John recommended removing bilateral squats temporarily and replacing them with Bulgarian split squats and hip thrusts as primary movements. The unilateral work forced the glutes to fire because the lower back could not compensate the way it did during bilateral movements.

For Knee Pain During Squats:

John never told anyone to “push through” knee pain. His approach was methodical: first, check ankle mobility, restricted ankles are the number one cause of knee compensation in the squat. Second, reduce range of motion temporarily to pain-free depth. Third, switch to leg press or hack squat, which provide external stabilization and reduce shear force. Fourth, increase VMO work through single leg extensions with light weight. Fifth, strengthen the glute medius to prevent knee valgus.

For Hip Shift During Squats:

A common problem where one hip rises faster than the other. John’s diagnostic: perform 3 sets of 10 Bulgarian split squats per side and note which side is weaker. The weaker side gets an extra set at the beginning of every leg session for 6 weeks. He also prescribed single-leg press work to identify loading differences between sides.

For Lower Back Taking Over:

When the lower back dominated during squats and Romanian deadlifts, the issue was almost always weak glutes and poor bracing. John’s fix: glute activation before every set. Brace the core with a full breath before unracking. Use a belt for working sets. If the lower back still dominated, switch to safety bar squats or leg press until glute strength caught up.

John’s practical recommendations for maximizing leg training performance:

• Train legs on your highest-energy day of the week. For most people, this meant early in the training week after a weekend of better sleep and nutrition.

• Eat a solid meal 90-120 minutes before training. Leg sessions on an empty stomach produced inferior output.

• Music matters more for legs than any other body part. Whatever gets your intensity up — use it.

• Hydration. John recommended a full liter of water in the hour before leg training and sipping throughout.

In Closing

John was a great mentor to me, and I want Johns work to live on. I hope you’ve learned strategies and tips from this series, and Id encourage you to watch his videos.

RIP Mountaindog.

But “peptides” is a broad designation. Ive pointed out many times that it doesnt actually refer to anything with any specificity. A peptide is simply a chain of amino acids. That’s a massive category that includes everything from well studied compounds like insulin, growth hormone, the GLPs, all the way down to di and tri peptides of only 2-3 aminos.

Before We Begin

-EliteresearchUSA has Nostridamus back in stock. Use code AJAC10 for 10% Off

-I am once again telling you that a Sauna is the best in home health purchase. Call Hitech health and tell them AJAC sent you

-For the men that want to get their health DIALED IN with the best doctors in the world, work with Velocity

There are thousands of peptides. Some have receptor sites, some do not. The majority are unstudied.

But some are.

And that brings us to the Bioregulators.

What are they?

In simple term, they are short chains of amino acids that have “regulating effects” on cellular function. Aka, they regulate biology.

While all bioregulators are peptides, not all peptides are bioregulators.

Bioregulators are most closely associated with the work of Vladimir Khavinson, a Russian scientist and gerontologist (doctor who studies aging) who began researching these compounds in the 1970s and 1980s. Most of what we know today about Bioregulators is based on his work. Khavinson passed away in 2024, but his work has only grown in popularity since his passing. (How he died is not known, and while there are many allegations of foul play, there is zero substantiation. The only facts are he was 77 years old and passed on January 6th).

Khavinsons work can be traced back to his at the Military Medical Academy in Leningrad in the 1970s. He was part of a research team that was given a specific problem to solve: combating excess stress in military personnel. Find a way to make soldiers last longer. Manipulate biology to make them healthier.

This mandate was not grounded in love and empathy, but a fundamental difference in how the USSR approach science.

The Soviet frame: biology is engineering

Soviet science inherited a materialist philosophical tradition that viewed the human body as a system to be optimized for state purposes. There was no separation between basic science and applied application. Research existed to solve operational problems.

This produced a willingness to intervene directly and aggressively at the biological level without the ethical hesitation that characterizes Western research culture. They were not asking whether they should manipulate aging. They were asking how.

Khavinson’s program started with a military need and worked backward into the biology.

The question his team was trying to answer was not philosophical. It was operational. How do you maintain the physiological function of men operating under extreme conditions?

The hypothesis he developed was that aging and stress-induced organ failure shared a common mechanism: the breakdown of intercellular signaling. Cells in a given tissue communicate with each other through short peptide sequences. Under chronic stress or aging, that communication degrades. As organs lose coherence, function declines.

His proposed solution was simple; if tissues communicate through short peptides, then isolating those peptides and reintroducing them should restore communication and function. He began extracting peptide fractions from animal organs, pineal glands, thymus, liver, heart, and testing them first in animals, then in humans.

The early results were strong enough that the Soviet government funded the research heavily through the 1980s. It was not fringe science in the Soviet context. It was a state-sponsored longevity and performance program with direct military applications.

What makes Khavinson’s body of work unusual by Western standards is the duration. He had been publishing on this continuously since the 1970s. The human trials, many conducted on aging veteran populations, ran across decades of follow-up. That longitudinal depth is rare in peptide research and is why the evidence base, while not widely known in the West, is more substantial than most people assume.

Getting back to the Bioregulators

Bioregulators are short chain, 2–4 amino acid sequences, and act as instructions within cells. Their role is to signal specific tissues in the body (like the brain, thymus, liver, or even heart) to return to normal function. Their effects are genomic, they travel into the nucleus itself and change genetic expression.

These short chain sequences were also organ specific. Many of them were organ extracts sourced from animal organs (typically pigs), and then matched to the human organ. Other were made synthetically, and would qualify as “bio-identical”.

Khavinson didnt consider these to be medicine in the way of treating a disease state, but something more akin to cellular food; you were giving cells a needed stimulus to improve their innate functionality.

Bioregulators fit within Khavinsons larger theory of aging; that the aging process was largely a failure of gene regulation declined, and this could be slowed significantly by supporting innate organ function and regulatory cycles.

The list of bioregulators he developed is extensive. Some have more evidence than others.

Here’s what Khavinson’s lab produced, organized by target tissue:

Brain / Nervous System

• Pinealon (EDR)—cortical neurons

• Cortagen—cerebral cortex

• Epitalon (AEDG)—pineal gland

Cardiovascular

• Cardiogen (AEDR)—heart muscle

• Ventfort (HAEE)—blood vessel walls

• Vesugen (EDA)—vascular tissue

Immune / Endocrine

• Vilon (KE)—immune system

• Thymalin—thymus

• Crystagen—lymphocytes

Metabolic / Organ

• Livagen (KEDG)—liver

• Chonluten (EDG)—lungs/bronchi

• Bonomarlot—bone marrow

Reproductive

• Testagen—testes

• Ovagen—ovaries

Musculoskeletal

• Sigumir—cartilage and joints

Prostate

• Prostamax-prostate

Now, do ALL of these work and you should start taking right now?

NO, this list is shared purely for information purposes. Personally Im dubious on the human effects of all these. We wont know definitively until we have anecdotal, and hopefully clinical data.

That said, in the past year though, two of of them have become popular, and they are arguably have the best positive anecdotal evidence. I have tried both personally and had many others experiment, and will attest to their potency.

The first is Pinealon (EDR)-a 3 amino sequence of Glutamic acid, Aspartic acid, Arginine.

Pinealon is a cortical neuroprotectant. Its works on the BRAIN, and crosses the blood brain barrier directly.

Its has a 3 part effect continuum

Apoptosis reduction. It downregulates caspase-3, one of the primary executioner proteins in programmed neuronal cell death. Less caspase-3 activity means neurons that would otherwise die under oxidative or aging stress survive longer.

Oxidative stress reduction. It reduces ROS (reactive oxygen species) accumulation inside neurons. ROS buildup is a primary driver of age-related neural degradation. Pinealon attenuates that process.

Serotonin support. It upregulates tryptophan hydroxylase, the enzyme that converts tryptophan into serotonin. More functional tryptophan hydroxylase means more serotonin available, which matters for mood, cognition, and circadian function, since serotonin is the direct precursor to melatonin.

The net effect: neurons live longer, function better, produce more serotonin, and handle oxidative load more efficiently. Pinealon has the most positive effects that get reported.

The popular protocol is 1mg daily in the morning.

Elite Research carries it, AJAC10 gives you 10% off

The second is Epitalon (AEDG)-a 4 amino acid sequence of Alanine, Glutamic acid, Aspartic acid, Glycine.

Epitalon does directly target the pineal gland. Epitalon’s mechanism operates at several levels.

Activates telomerase-the enzyme that rebuilds telomere length. In aged pineal cells specifically, it has been shown to restore telomerase activity and extend telomere length.

AANAT upregulation-arylalkylamine N-acetyltransferase, is the rate-limiting enzyme in melatonin synthesis. Rate-limiting means it’s the bottleneck. You can have all the precursors you need, but if AANAT activity is low, melatonin production is low.

Aging pineal cells lose AANAT expression. Epitalon restores it. This is the mechanism behind the sleep restoration effects some people report.

pCREB activation-CREB stands for cAMP response element-binding protein. When phosphorylated (pCREB), it binds to DNA and activates genes involved in circadian rhythm regulation, neuroprotection, and synaptic plasticity.

Epitalon increases pCREB activity in pineal cells. Circadian gene expression depends heavily on this pathway.

Antioxidant effects-it reduces lipid peroxidation and increases superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity. SOD is one of the body’s primary endogenous antioxidant enzymes. In the pineal gland specifically because oxidative stress is a primary driver of pineal cell aging and functional decline.

Not everyone responds to Epitalon.

It seems most recommendable to those that have more disregulated sleep. The people who do report the following:

• Sleep onset sharpens

• Nighttime awakenings drop

• Wake time stabilizes without an alarm

• Cortisol rhythms normalize

Standard protocol: 3–6 mg daily, dosed in the evening, for 20–30 days. Take 1–3 months off before reassessing.

Eliteresearch also carries this as well.

Are Bioregulators the FUTURE of Longevity?

I think they are likely to grow in popularity, but there is no Holy Grail in biology.

Longevity research is converging on a multi-mechanism view. There is no ONE pathway that explains all of aging, nor is there one single intervention that will slow it down or reverse it.

I like bioregulators due to their precision. Maybe not all of them work, but the targeting of the ones that do is specific. Epitalon for pineal function and telomere maintenance. Pinealon for cortical neuroprotection. Cardiogen for cardiac tissue. It gives you something you can measure with the right testing.

My bet is that “anti-aging” will become developing a personal stack of exercise, diet, and genetically curated supplements, along with specific interventions. Outside of diet, exercise, and sleep, each individual will arrive at their own stack. Maybe bioregulators are part of yours, maybe not.

As always, N=1. I encourage people to experiment and find what works for them.

That is not to say I stopped working out or caring about my health, I DO immensely. But the mental energy and time spent on it certainly less than it was even 5 years. I lift around 4 days a week. I try to do at least 30 minutes of cardio daily. I get my labs done every 6 months.

Depending on who you ask, this is still a very dedicated schedule, and more than most people. But its certainly not double digit training hours.

My working out is all done on mental autopilot largely. I am in a building stage of life. I need to be fit enough to build. My goals are not my fitness.

Life evolves

Many years ago, a ghost mentor of mine (Amir Siddiqui) shared a mental model that became an integral filter to my Life philosophy

His concept was this

There are FIVE Core Focuses of Life that you can direct your energy and time into.

Your focus will define your life and your identity.

There is ONE focus that always leads over all others.

This framework is not a moral judgement or commandments. Rather its an objective hierarchy to identify one’s personal values, and how they form an individual.

People value different things. Ones mans passion is another mans passing interest. There is no universally agreed upon answer to “what is best in life?”. There are themes.
The defining themes of your life may not be mine, and vice versa.

Many dumb arguments can be avoided when accounting for this fact. There are obvious differences in perspective that should be accounted for.

The Five Focuses

Your Health and/or Fitness-Health is prioritizing longevity, energy, and qualitative wellness. Fitness is task and goal oriented. Bryan Johnson would be a defining example of being health focused. A professional athlete in contrast would be fitness focused (with health being an immediate but distinct second), and there are whole subsets of specialisation. Fitness specialization can be done at the cost of health.

Your Profession-A profession is concentration of skills applied to a specific problem domain. Some people LIVE for this. They get paid for it, but the money is not the motivating a factor. Its the challenge, the passion, the domain experience that brings them to life. A true professional builds their identity around their work.

Your Family and Friends-Some individuals prioritize relationships above all else. They may find themselves in careers where they are connectors of people. Or they at least operate in a profession that requires social skills. They will forego other priorities in favor of their family. Historically its women for whom family life and relationships take precedence, as this is most natural for women. For some men, they prioritize husband and fatherhood over all else, and will sacrifice other areas to fulfill this.

Your Money-The desire to accumulate wealth is a singular one, one that is uniquely motivating. Entire careers are also built around this pursuit. Some individuals are driven by money from a very young age, and will seek out any way to make it. This the only focus in which their a moral warning across religions. Money is not evil, but making it the driving force of ones life can be a critical mistake.

Your Hobbies-Hobbies are artistic, creative, even intellectually competitive passions that people pursue passions at the cost of all other focuses. This is the archetype of artists, writers, and savants. Unlike a sport in which fitness or health is paramount to success, hobbies do not require this. One need only consider the many world class, famous musicians throughout time who were notorious libertines with total disregard for health. Chess would be another example. While requiring incredible mindpower and endurance, chess is not a “physical” sport, and those who excel at it often do so at cost to everything else. True passionistas want to die doing what they love. Similar to the professional, they can define themselves no other way.

Energy and time are finite.

Its impossible to give “100%” in every single category, regardless of overlap. And overlap does happen, but there is always ONE thing that will take some level of precedence. And there will always be the 5th level priority (or should we say non priority) that you barely give any energy to, or maybe none at all.

Your day to day life will be structured and arranged in accordance with this prioritization.

What you prioritize will be determined by your personality archetype, your values, your upbringing, your environment, your genetics, and your particular talents. Your stage of life will always be hugely influential.

If you are a 25 year old single person with disposable income, your stack will look very different from a married 35 year old with children.

This becomes a good filter for who you should take advice from. Listening to life perspective from someone whose life is wildly different from your own can be a waste of time.

My Suggestion: Be radically honest with your Number 1

For MOST people, health and fitness is NOT their number 1 priority. More often than not its number 5.

The “average joe” simply wants to wake up each day, not be in pain, have reasonable energy levels, and thats it.

They dont want to go to the gym. They want to do the bare minimum for exercise. They dont care about the particularities of muscles, exercises, sets reps, macros, or anything else that Fitness first people obsess over.

I’d like to not be fat.

This is why GLPs are popular and why minimalist routines get so much attention.

My Second Suggestion: If health is a low level priority, DELEGATE IT

Youre not a bad person if health isnt a priority. That said, the smart move isn't to do nothing and not worry about it. It's to delegate.

A coach handles your programming and thinking so you stop wasting time on decisions you won't optimize anyway. A concierge doctor monitors your bloodwork, hormones, and metabolic markers so problems get caught early instead of diagnosed late.

You outsource your legal work. You outsource your accounting. Health is no different, and the downside of getting it wrong is considerably worse than a bad tax return. Delegation isn't weakness. Refusing to delegate when you lack the time or knowledge to do the job right, but have the means to do so, that's the mistake.

Be smart instead. Turn it over to someone else.

Talk again,

Alexander

-For concierge medical care and coaching in one, I recommend working with Velocity Health

Download the A-Z BroScience Guide to peptides

Join the BroScience Telegram

Use code AJAC10 at Eliteresearchusa.com

Ive been talking about Creatine a lot on the X timeline, and hinted at how the supply chain for creatine is essential for industrialization, and national security.

That merits an explanation. Its certainly a bold claim to make.

Ive been telling this story to interested supporters of the project, and its continuously shocked people. Once you see it, you understand why vertically integrated American Creatine is a necessity.

Let us start with a Timeline.

America 1995-The American Cyanamid corporation, one of the largest chemical manufacturers in the USA, merges with Wyeth Corporation in a $9.5 billion deal. Despite the name, it has ceased production of the chemical called “cyanamide”, a nitrogen intermediate that supports multiple industries. The US becomes 100% import dependent.

China 1995-China builds a factory ecosystem for cyanamide in Ningxia, taking advantage of the region’s abundant coal, limestone, and newly cheap electricity. These plants produce calcium carbide, calcium cyanamide, and downstream derivatives including DCD, guanidine salts, and creatine.

1997–1999: China begins exporting creatine abroad. Prices collapse. U.S. domestic producer Pfanstiehl Laboratories files an antidumping petition.

February 1999: The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) institutes antidumping Investigation Inv. No. 731-TA-814 on creatine monohydrate from China. imports from the PRC were sold at less than fair value with dumping margins ranging from 120-150%

January 2000: The ITC reaches an affirmative injury determination. Commerce Department imposes antidumping duties. But the damage is done. U.S. domestic creatine production. European production as well, except for Alzchem, the manufacturers of Creapure

2000s–present: Chinese producers continue to expand cyanamide and creatine capacity. U.S. domestic production never returns. China reaches 90%+ of global cyanamide capacity and 90%+ of global creatine production. AlzChem in Germany becomes the sole Western producer of both cyanamide and creatine (Creapure®).

The Creatine Supply Chain Problem is an Industrialization Supply Chain Problem

Have you considered WHY China decided to take over the creatine market?

Was it just for creatine? In 1996 creatine was far from mainstream, not what it is today. What was the motivation for flooding the market?

It goes deeper than anyone realizes

China started mass producing creatine because it was an anchor product for their Industrialization mission.

Today we think of China as an industrial dragon. People talk about the Shenzen zone with awe. People will doompill how China is beating us at making things.

Go back to the 1990s. Chinese products are considered bottom tier. No one is predicting they will be a peer to the USA in 30 years.

What changed?

China committed to Nitrogen and Carbide

To what????

I will explain.

There are only three true “root chemistries” that built modern industry:

1. Petrochemistry (oil and gas)-The USA is the world leader in this

2. Nitrogen chemistry (ammonia, cyanamide, guanidines)

3. Carbide / acetylene chemistry

At one time the United States did all three, but we largely abandoned 2 and 3 over the last 50 years.

China picked up the slack and started building its Nitrogen and Carbide capacity. Nitrogen especially is the chemical foundation of the modern world. You need nitrogen to unlock carbide production.

When scientists learned to pull nitrogen from the air and convert it into ammonia through the Haber–Bosch process, they unlocked the ability to manufacture fertilizer, dramatically increasing global food production and allowing the human population to grow from under two billion in 1900 to over eight billion today.

From that same nitrogen chemistry tree come explosives, pharmaceuticals, plastics, synthetic fibers, electronics materials, and countless industrial intermediates that power agriculture, medicine, manufacturing, and energy systems.

In simple terms, without nitrogen, you are stuck as a civilization. China wanted to unstick itself. And they DID.

For a country to go from rural and lacking education and institutional knowledge to first world, manufacturing is how you educate your population, create jobs, and build a real economy.

To do that required building the necessary ecosystem for production. Making things requires raw materials, intermediate materials, then fabrication. Then putting the parts together.

This is Layer 1 to Layer 5 pyramid of supply chains I wrote about in my past article

China used its natural resources to create their chemical economy

What China lacked in oil and gas, they made up for in Coal and limestone.

Carbide is made in massive furnaces, burning limestone together with coal. China now produces the majority of the world’s calcium carbide, which in turn supports large portions of the global chemical supply chain.

You’ve likely never heard of it until reading this. Carbide carbide is important because it is a bridge between mineral chemistry and organic chemistry. Its the chemical “root” that enables thousands of others chemical formulations to be created.

That takes us to another chemicals

Cyanamide

Great, another chemical youve never heard of. But this is how all manufacturing works. Go deep enough, and you get into the world of molecules

Cyanamide is a “nitrogen intermediate”. Its made from heating Carbide again in an arc furnace.

It sits at the border of Layer 2-3 in the Supply Chain pyramid.

From Cyanamide, you can produce chemicals for

1. Fertilizers & Agriculture

• Nitrogen fertilizers (calcium cyanamide)

• Soil nitrification inhibitors

• Crop protection chemicals

• Plant growth regulators

2. Pharmaceuticals

• Drug intermediates

• Biguanides and guanidines used in medicines

• Diabetes drugs derived from guanidine chemistry

• Various heterocyclic pharmaceutical building blocks

3. Nutritional Supplements

• Creatine

• Guanidinoacetic acid (GAA)

• Sarcosine derivatives

• Other nitrogen performance molecules

4. Industrial Resins & Plastics

• Melamine resins

• Epoxy curing agents

• Adhesives and laminates

• Specialty polymer additives

5. Electronics & Advanced Materials

• Epoxy encapsulants

• Semiconductor resins

• High-performance coatings

• Flame retardant additives

6. Agrochemicals & Crop Protection

• Herbicide intermediates

• Fungicide intermediates

• Pesticide precursors

• Soil treatment chemicals

7. Explosives & Energetics

• Nitrogen-rich compounds used in propellants

• Explosive intermediates

• Military energetic materials

8. Water Treatment & Industrial Chemicals

• Scale inhibitors

• Corrosion inhibitors

• Industrial cleaning agents

• Wastewater treatment chemicals

9. Textile & Leather Processing

• Dye intermediates

• Textile finishing chemicals

• Leather tanning agents

10. Specialty Chemical Manufacturing

• Dicyandiamide

• Guanidines

• Biguanides

• Other nitrogen specialty intermediates used across dozens of downstream products

“Thats a lot of things!”

Yes, exactly. While not on the scale of oil, Cyanamide is an essential precursor that is mandatory for upwards of some 50 different chemical products.

Its what you call a Platform Molecule, a chemical that feeds supply chains across multiple industries; agriculture, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, plastics, electronics, defense, and specialty chemicals.

If you want to “industrialize” you need to make it

Now, you might be wondering...How the heck does this involve Creatine?!

I will tell you

Creatine is a volumetric Anchor for Cyanamide production

Lets circle back to our 1990s story about China making so much creatine.

The ssurface level assumption is that China produces cheap creatine because it has low labor costs and weak environmental standards.

But why did China care about Creatine at all? Was it BROS running the CCP?

No.

China made so much Creatine because it supported their Infrastructure buildout of Cyanamide

-->When you build a Chemical factory, you encounter a fundamental economics problem:

Chemical plants are EXPENSIVE, they can require hundreds of millions to billions of dollars, they need volume to justify capital expenditure, and they need sustained utilization to remain cost-competitive.

Chemical factories are not built to only make a few hundred pounds. They function on economies of scale. A true “industrial” level factory is going to produce thousands of metric tons of product.

What does that mean in simple terms?

To keep your factory running, you need some kind of chemical that you can sell A LOT of, and sell it constantly, and sell at a high margin.

The question for any producer is: what is that product?

For Cyanamide, it was Creatine

Creatine!?!?!

Yes, creatine.

Because creatine, by pure physical volume, it requires enormous amounts of Cyanamide.

At that time the global creatine market was about 3000 metric tons a year.

Creatine is made of only two chemicals, cyanamide, and sarcosine,

To make a kilogram of creatine, you need about a half kilo of cyanamide.

To give a simple numerical example.

If your factory produces say 5,000 metric tons of cyanamide, 1500 of that can go to creatine. The other 3500 can go to everything else.

China was building HUGE factories, they were producing tens of thousands of metric tons of Cyanamide.

They had to convert some of that into a reliable, recurrent product.

Creatine is unusually awesome because its chemically simple to make, and sells at a high margin in comparison to other commodity chemicals. And its a consumer product, not an industrial one.

This is why China was able to capture 85-90% of the global creatine market within 2 years

For China this worked out perfect. They could make enormous amounts of cyanamide, make dozens of products, and they had a consumer supplement the West bought that helped anchor the whole ecosystem.

With a cost-competitive cyanamide base supported by creatine volume, China simultaneously became the dominant global producer of DCD (used in printed circuit boards, flame retardants, and metformin), guanidine salts (used in airbags and propellants), and the full range of nitrogen-rich intermediates that defense, electronics, and pharmaceutical sectors require.

We Made it Once, We Can Make it Again, and BETTER than Before

The irony of the American supply chain is we have everything we need to vertically integrate, be cost competitive, and serve our domestic and international markets.

America has all the feedstocks for nitrogen chemistry. We have cheap electricity. We have limestone. We have coal. We have natural gas. We have next generation processes to make chemicals with greater efficiency, purity, and output. We have the best scientists and engineers in the world.

This is not a rewind to the past. We can build modernized, automated, high throughput factories that are platforms for massive GDP growth for the rest of the century.

This requires capital, chemistry, and the will to build.

This is a solvable problem. This is what my company, Athanor Inc is doing.

Domestic creatine production is not simply a supplement play. It is the first step in rebuilding the nitrogen precursor stack that American industry abandoned forty years ago.

Creatine can be made in America. Cyanamide can be made in America. The supply chain that feeds medicine, food, defense, and electronics can be sovereign again.

If you want to be part of rebuilding it, as a partner, a customer, or even a team member, reach out.

Alexander@athanor.inc

This movement has many names.

Reindustrialization.

American Dynamism.

Atoms, not bits.

If you are on X, you likely have seen these phrases in heavy rotation, especially over the past few weeks. Venture capital is waking up t the world of matter. You have possibly seen me talk about American Creatine, and the criticality of the supply chain.

Especially with the breakthroughs being achieved weekly by LLMs, and the reality of software becoming abundant and cheap, this has produced a growing realization that the frontier of power is shifting back to the physical world.

AI makes code cheap. It does not make chemicals, metals, or materials.

And AI has immense material needs of its own. Data centers are enormous physical undertakings, requiring space, power, cooling, construction, and the chips that every nation on Earth is competing for. They are a perfect example that the constraints on the future of abundance have become physical.

What does it take to make things?

That question is the heart of industrialization. We need clarity around the answers.

My deep dive into this problem led to a simple realization.

America does not have an innovation problem. What we have is a production problem. An enormous one.

But not unsolvable.

The United States leads the world in R&D spending, accounting for roughly 30% of global investment, but we have lost the production of the very technologies we once invented, and continue to invent.

This gap is what I deemed the Missing Middle. It is the space between raw materials and precursors, and finished products and production. It spans capital, the workforce, and technology adoption.

Rebuilding in this space is the precondition for everything else the industrialization movement is trying to achieve.

Closing it will become the defining industrial challenge of our era.

Defining the Missing Middle

Every manufactured product sits atop a pyramid of value creation. Five layers, each one depending on the layer below it.

Layer 5 R&D, Design, and Brands. The apex. This is where ideas become intellectual property; patents, product designs, brand identities, software architectures. America dominates here. The best universities, the deepest venture capital pools, the strongest patent portfolios on the planet. Pfizer, Apple, Google, Dow’s research labs. This is the layer that gets celebrated.

Layer 4 Final Assembly, Packaging, and Distribution. The layer where finished products come together and reach consumers. America is strong here too; Amazon’s logistics network, UPS, FedEx, the largest consumer market on Earth. Factories that bolt together components, fill bottles, shrink-wrap pallets, and ship.

Layer 3 Intermediate Processing and Fabrication. This is where basic materials become specialized. Refining. Synthesis. Precision chemistry. The steps that turn bulk alloys into aerospace-grade titanium specifications, commodity chemicals into active pharmaceutical ingredients, base polymers into semiconductor-grade photoresists, precursor compounds into the intermediates that feed circuit boards, propellants, and battery cells. This is also where the production ecosystem compounds; the more volume you run, the more integrated processes become, the faster you iterate, and the faster costs fall. Economies of scale in intermediate processing are not theoretical. They are the reason China dominates: decades of throughput created cost advantages that no startup can match on day one. You have to build them.

Layer 2 Basic Materials and Commodity Processing. Bulk chemical production. Primary metal smelting. Rare earth separation and refining. Basic polymer manufacturing. The large-scale conversion of raw inputs into standard industrial materials; ammonia, ethylene, pig iron, caustic soda, rare earth oxides, battery-grade lithium carbonate. This is the world of chemical and metallurgical engineering at volume: massive reactors, solvent extraction circuits, continuous processes, tight energy margins. Rare earth processing sits squarely here—the U.S. can mines rare earth minerals and ore, but they get shipped to China for separation because we have lack domestic capacity to perform the hydrometallurgical steps that turn raw concentrate into individual oxide products. The output at Layer 2 is not specialized, but everything specialized depends on it.

Layer 1 Raw Materials, Mining, and Energy. The base. Natural resources, mineral extraction, oil and gas, agricultural feedstocks. America has enormous endowments here; Permian Basin hydrocarbons, Appalachian minerals, Nevada lithium, Montana antimony, some of the richest natural resource deposits on Earth.

America is strong at the top of the pyramid. It is strong at the base.

But it is Layers 2 and 3 where the gaps become obvious. The US is structurally absent across dozens of critical categories.

You dont get Layer 3 without Layer 2

The Missing Middle is invisible because intermediates have no recognizable brand, no consumer constituency, and no political champion. You take creatine, you do not think about the sarcosine and cyanamide that were reacted to produce it. You take a prescription drug, you do not think about the API synthesized in Zhejiang Province. You use a smartphone, you do not think about the DCD-cured PCB laminates sourced from Ningxia.

This invisibility creates a dangerous assumption: that the supply chain works because it has always worked.

Andreessen Horowitz recently published an analysis they call "Everything is Computer"

Their thesis is for building the "modular middle" of the electro-industrial supply chain, the integration layer where commodity components become functional subsystems like battery packs, motor assemblies, and PCB boards.

This is the layer that determines technological and geopolitical dominance.

China mastered this layer while America abandoned it.

They are right on both points.

But their analysis contains a critical blind spot: it treats the inputs to the modular middle as a solved problem.

"The upstream materials and device primitives we need are, for the most part, increasingly available,"

This is a load-bearing assumption of their entire thesis, and its not correct.

If we trace their own examples one layer down

—>The battery packs they want assembled in America require battery-grade graphite, refined lithium, and manganese sulfate.

-Battery-grade graphite processing had zero U.S. capacity until Syrah Resources opened a single facility in Louisiana in 2024, the first outside China.

-Refined lithium production is limited, Albemarle operates Silver Peak in Nevada, Arcadium Lithium runs a facility in North Carolina, and Tesla’s lithium refinery in Corpus Christi just became operational in January 2026 as the first spodumene-to-lithium-hydroxide plant in North America.

But total U.S. refined lithium output remains a fraction of global demand, and these expansions have only emerged in the last three years.

-Battery-grade manganese sulfate: zero U.S. production currently.

China controls 97% globally. Facilities are in development but none are operational.

—>The drone and EV motors require NdFeB permanent magnets.

-China manufactures roughly 90% of the global supply.

MP Materials opened the first U.S. NdFeB magnet facility in Fort Worth in early 2025, producing approximately 1,000 tons per year against China’s 100,000-plus.

-The PCB substrates require dicyandiamide as the epoxy hardener in the laminate.

AlzChem in Germany operates the only DCD plant outside of China. There is Zero U.S. production.

-The semiconductor chips require guanidinate precursors for thin-film deposition and fluorinated gases for etching, both concentrated in Asia-Pacific production.

The Modular requires the chemical.

The chemical industry is not just another manufacturing sector. It is the upstream layer 2 platform every other sector depends on.

The American Chemistry Council reports that while chemistry directly accounts for just over 1% of GDP, it supports roughly 25% of total U.S. GDP when you include the downstream industries that depend on chemical inputs, automotive, electronics, construction, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, consumer goods.

More than 4 million American jobs depend on the chemical supply chain. Every dollar of chemical production generates an additional $4.20 in GDP elsewhere in the economy — a total multiplier of 5.2x, the highest of any manufacturing sector.

Every one person directly employed in chemical manufacturing supports more than six additional jobs.

When you lose the chemical middle, you do not just lose chemical factories. You lose the multiplier. You lose the jobs that the jobs create. You lose the option to manufacture domestically in every sector that depends on chemistry—which is nearly all of them.

What Chemicals are we talking about here?

This is by no means an exhaustive list or complete picture of the entirety of American Industry. But it will give you the scope and scale of what we need to tackle head on. Feel free to skip this section as well, it is lengthy.

Intermediate Nitrogen Chemistry

The gap I know best, because it is the one I am building a company to fill (Athanor Inc). The United States has zero domestic production of every node in the cyanamide value chain.

Calcium cyanamide : the foundational precursor. China controls 55–75% of global capacity by most estimates, with some analyses placing it as high as 90%, it is concentrated in Ningxia province. The rest is made in Germany. Zero U.S. production.

From cyanamide, the tree branches into…

Dicyandiamide (DCD): the epoxy hardener in virtually every FR-4 PCB laminate on Earth, and the precursor to metformin, the most prescribed diabetes drug globally. 100% import dependent. Alzchem is the only western company that makes it. Zero U.S. production.

Guanidine nitrates: used in airbag gas generators, seat belt tensioners, and as the direct precursor to nitroguanidine. Zero U.S. production.

Nitroguanidine: the energetic backbone of triple-base gun propellants for 155mm artillery and insensitive munitions like IMX-101. The DoD has committed $150 million to potentially build an AlzChem-operated facility in the U.S. by 2029. 100% import dependent. Zero U.S. production.

Sarcosine: A creatine precursor, but also a surfactant feedstock and semiconductor CMP slurry ingredient. Zero U.S. production.

Creatine monohydrate: a $3+ billion global market where roughly 90% of production is Chinese. Zero U.S. production.

Policy response: Cyanamide is currently on the list of Essential Chemicals. The cyanamide gap however is invisible to Washington because the critical applications are several synthesis steps removed from the end products policymakers recognize.

Energetics and Munitions Precursors

The ammunition supply chain has the most urgent gaps and the most recent policy attention, but remains far from solved.

Nitrocellulose: the base material for gunpowder, is produced domestically but falls short of demand. China is the world’s largest producer. Russia purchased over 1,300 tonnes from China in 2023 alone.

TNT: the United States has not produced its own TNT for decades. A new facility is planned in Kentucky. Current supply depends on global sourcing with China excluded by policy. Prices have quadrupled in four years.

Antimony: a critical alloying and flame retardant element. The U.S. was 80%+ import reliant. Then in September 2024, China cut exports by 97%. Prices surged above $40,000 per ton. The Pentagon deployed approximately $1 billion in October 2025 to secure stockpiles. Domestic production is expanding in Montana but independence is not expected before 2027.

Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients

The pharmaceutical gap is the broadest in scope and the most dangerous for civilian populations.

More than 80% of APIs for essential medicines have no U.S. manufacturing source.

Less than 5% of large-scale global API production sites are located in the United States.

72% of API facilities supplying the American market are overseas.

The specific drug dependencies are extensive.

Ibuprofen: 95% import dependent

Hydrocortisone: 91%.

Antibiotics: 80%.

Acetaminophen: 70%.

Heparin crude: 80%.

The United States has zero domestic fermentation manufacturing capability for antibiotic APIs. The last American penicillin production ceased in 2004.

Metformin: the most prescribed drug in the world for type 2 diabetes, traces its precursor chain through DCD, which traces through cyanamide, which traces through Ningxia. The same chokepoint.

Policy response: Fragmented. The BIOSECURE Act passed the House but stalled in the Senate. A Strategic API Reserve executive order exists. Section 232 tariffs on drug imports are under discussion. But no comprehensive reshoring program exists for upstream chemical synthesis.

Rare Earth Processing

China is in control here

85% of global rare earth refining

91% of magnet rare earth processing

90% of NdFeB permanent magnet manufacturing.

The U.S. gap spans the entire midstream-to-downstream chain.

Heavy rare earths like dysprosium and terbium have near-zero American production. A handful of facilities are under development, REalloys in Ohio, USA Rare Earth in Oklahoma, but China produced over 320,000 tonnes of rare earth oxides last year versus roughly 67,000 in the United States.

Policy response: The $12 billion Project Vault critical minerals stockpile launched in February 2026. But refining is what is needed over all else

Battery Materials

Battery-grade graphite: China controls 75–95% of global processing.

Battery-grade manganese sulfate: Zero U.S. production. China controls 97% globally. The U.S. has not produced primary manganese ore since the 1970s.

Primary nickel refining: Zero U.S. production.

Cobalt refining: minimal.

Lithium refining to battery grade: less than 2% of global supply. Only 3 of 66 proposed U.S. lithium extraction projects are under construction.

Policy Response: $6 Billion in BIL grants + 45X production tax credits + escalating FEOC content requirements. Ironically the The FEOC requirements are actually creating a crisis because they mandate domestic or allied sourcing on a timeline that the upstream processing capacity cannot meet.

Semiconductor Upstream Chemicals

DCD: the epoxy hardener from the cyanamide tree — cures the laminates in every PCB substrate globally. 100% import dependent. Sourced from China or AlzChem.

Guanidinate ligands for ALD/CVD thin-film deposition — used to deposit critical materials at sub-7nm nodes — derive from the cyanamide tree. Electronic-grade cyanamide solutions are marketed by Ningxia producers specifically for semiconductor applications.

Fluorinated gases: essential for etching and chamber cleaning are concentrated in Asia-Pacific production. PFAS and fluoropolymers, which the DoD confirms are irreplaceable for semiconductor fabrication (replacing them “could be a 25-year effort and may not succeed in all respects”), are seeing domestic manufacturers exit the market due to regulatory pressure, potentially forcing reliance on Chinese sources.

Policy response: The CHIPS Act committed $52 billion to fab construction and workforce development. It allocated nothing to domestic production of the upstream chemicals — laminates, deposition precursors, etch gases, electronic-grade solvents — that those fabs require to operate.

Critical Minerals with Zero Domestic Production

Gallium: 100% import reliant. China controls roughly 98% of global production. Used in GaAs/GaN chips, 5G infrastructure, radar, and LEDs.

Indium: 100% import reliant. China controls roughly 70%. Used in touchscreens, infrared and night vision systems, and missile guidance.

Natural graphite: 100% import reliant. China controls roughly 70% of mining and 95% of processing.

Manganese: 100% import reliant.

Fluorspar: 100% import reliant.

Germanium: more than 50% import reliant, with China controlling roughly 60% globally.

Policy response: Executive Orders in 2025 fast-tracked permitting and opened federal lands for critical mineral mining and processing, and the DOE announced $6 million for gallium recovery R&D. China's suspension of its export bans on gallium, germanium, and antimony, paused only until November 2026 as a trade negotiation concession, is currently the primary reason these materials are still flowing to the United States at all.

Strategic Metals and Nuclear Fuel

Aerospace-grade titanium sponge: The last U.S. production facility closed in 2020. America is now 100% import reliant for the feedstock of every military jet engine, every submarine hull, and every spacecraft structure it builds.

China’s share of global titanium metals jumped from 40% in 2019 to over 75% in 2025.

Enriched uranium: Russia supplies approximately 25% of U.S. reactor fuel. A ban phases in by 2028, but domestic enrichment covers only 30–35% of requirements. The gap cannot be closed by 2030 even under optimistic scenarios.

Agricultural Chemical Inputs

Elemental phosphorus: single domestic producer, insufficient for national needs. The Defense Production Act was invoked in February 2026.

Glyphosate: single domestic producer (Bayer). Large generic volumes imported from China. DPA invoked alongside phosphorus.

Potash: the U.S. produces roughly 5% of its needs. Import reliance at approximately 94%.

Hydrogen cyanamide: the dormancy agent used on grapes, kiwifruit, and blueberries, derives from the cyanamide tree. Zero U.S. production.

How and Where to Prioritize: A Framework for Action

Ive talked about the scale of the problem, and shown dozens examples across the entire industrial economy. We cannot rebuild all of it at once. The question, the question that matters for anyone allocating capital, policy attention, or workforce investment is straightforward:

where do you start?

This took some time for me to define. After pouring over many many papers on manufacturing, chemicals, and trade policy, I realized a scoring system could be developed. Feed this into an LLM, let it run analysis, double check it works, and now you have structured data and can begin making sense of a previously opaque landscape.

While this may not be in the spirit of adventurous capitalism, it provides objectivity to both government, investors, and founders.

This assessment system is built on 3 Axis.

Axis 1: Strategic Vulnerability (How badly do we need this?)

This axis measures the national consequence of continued dependence.

Key Inputs:

Import dependence ratio—The share of a product’s inputs sourced from abroad. Pharmaceuticals source over 50% from foreign suppliers; motor vehicles vary by component. The U.S. is 100% import-reliant for 15 critical minerals and over 50% reliant for 46.

Supplier concentration—Measured via Herfindahl-Hirschman Index. A product sourced 75%+ from a single country (e.g., cyanamide from China, rare earth processing from China) scores maximum risk.

Geopolitical alignment—Inputs sourced from China and rest of Asia/Pacific score highest risk; allied nations (Canada, Mexico, Europe, Japan) score lowest.​

Criticality / substitutability—The Fed’s key insight: semiconductors are only 5% of automobile input costs, yet their shortage shut down the entire industry. Inputs that are low-cost but irreplaceable score disproportionately high.​

Defense industrial base dependency—Does DoD require this product? The consolidation from 51 defense primes to 5 means mid-tier suppliers are the actual bottleneck.​

Axis 2: Economic Viability (Can this actually be done here?)

Key Inputs:

This axis prevents the mistake of trying to reshore everything at once, which is neither possible nor desirable.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) gap—The Reshoring Initiative’s TCO Estimator accounts for 30+ cost factors beyond FOB price, including freight, inventory carrying costs, quality risk, IP risk, and travel. Most companies miscalculate offshoring costs by 20–30% when using price alone. Products where TCO analysis shows rough parity or advantage for domestic production are the best candidates.​

Manufacturing Readiness Level (MRL)—DoD’s 10-level scale from concept to full-rate production. The biggest gap is MRL 4–7: the transition from lab-validated technology to pilot-line capability. Products sitting in this range are exactly the “missing middle” — proven enough to de-risk, but not yet funded to scale.

Workforce feasibility—Does the region have (or can it develop within 2–3 years) the skilled labor? Community college manufacturing academies are already scaling in states like Illinois. Products that can leverage existing workforce ecosystems score higher.​

Capital intensity vs. leverage—The OSC loan program showed 9:1 oversubscription at $10–150M loan sizes. Products that need $50–300M in scale-up capital (the sweet spot for public-private leverage) score highest for action priority.​

Axis 3: Speed-to-Impact (How fast can we close this gap?)

Key Inputs:

This axis addresses political and economic reality: decision-makers in both government and the private sector need wins within 3–5 years, not 15.

Existing domestic capability—Products where SMMs already have partial capability (MRL 5–7) but need capital and demand signals to reach full production (MRL 8–10) are fastest to impact. 93% of U.S. manufacturers have fewer than 100 employees — many already possess latent capacity.​

Demand certainty—Products with identified federal procurement demand (DoD, DOE, GSA) or strong commercial pull can reach revenue faster. Government incentives were the #1 cited factor driving reshoring in 2024.​

Regulatory runway—Products with clear regulatory pathways (vs. those requiring years of FDA or EPA approvals) move faster.

Proven reshoring trajectory—Some sectors are already moving. Transportation equipment reshoring is up 139% year-over-year, plastics and rubber up 126%, medical equipment up 39%. Sectors with momentum deserve accelerated investment.

The weighting is deliberate. Strategic vulnerability carries half the total weight because the entire framework exists to address national security and supply chain resilience. Economic viability carries 30% because a gap that cannot be closed cost-effectively is not a gap — it is a fantasy. Speed-to-impact carries 20% because political and investor patience is finite and wins beget wins.

Applying the Framework: Where the Data Points

When you apply this scoring matrix to the inventory I have laid out in the preceding sections, several categories immediately surface as Tier 1, with high scores across all three axes.

Chemical intermediates: cyanamide, sarcosine, DCD, guanidine derivatives, pharmaceutical precursors, these score near-maximum on strategic vulnerability. Supplier concentration above 75% for a single country. Defense and pharmaceutical dependencies across multiple downstream products. Zero domestic production for most compounds. They score high on economic viability: $50–300 million scale-up range, existing process chemistry knowledge in the United States, strong TCO case when quality risk, supply disruption risk, and purity requirements are priced in. Process innovations and automation — including the work my company is doing — are closing the cost gap with Chinese production for the first time.

And they score high on speed-to-impact: the chemistry is proven, commercial demand exists today in nutraceuticals, pharma, agriculture, and defense, and the regulatory pathway for industrial chemicals is 18–24 months, not five to seven years.

Large-capacity battery materials: graphite processing, manganese sulfate, lithium refining, electrolyte production. China holds 76% market share in large-capacity batteries. Massive IRA and CHIPS Act incentives are already flowing into battery gigafactories. Electrical equipment accounts for 31% of reshoring jobs in the 2024 data. The reshoring of battery cell manufacturing is already in motion — but the upstream materials processing that feeds those gigafactories remains almost entirely foreign. You can build every battery cell plant the IRA incentivizes and still depend on China for the processed materials that go inside them.

Critical mineral processing scores maximum on strategic vulnerability. China dominates processing for 29 critical minerals. But the key insight, and the one that connects this category directly to the Missing Middle thesis, is that the gap is not mining. The U.S. mines rare earths at Mountain Pass. It mines lithium in Nevada. It has antimony in Montana and Idaho. The gap is processing. The conversion of raw ore into refined, usable material.

That is an intermediate processing step. It is Layer 2 and Layer 3 of the pyramid.

Active pharmaceutical ingredients score maximum on vulnerability. over 50% import share, high concentration from Asia and Europe, national health security imperative that the COVID pandemic made viscerally clear to every American who could not find basic medications on pharmacy shelves.

Economic viability is strong, API manufacturing is well-understood chemistry with established process economics.

But speed-to-impact is slower due to FDA regulatory timelines, cGMP facility validation requirements, and the multi-year qualification cycles that pharmaceutical companies require before switching API suppliers.

This category is Tier 1 on urgency but demands a longer planning horizon.

Mature-node semiconductors round out Tier 1.

Only 6–9% of mature logic chips, the workhorses of automotive, industrial, medical, and defense electronics, are made domestically. CHIPS Act funding is active and facilities are under construction.

But workforce constraints, the 3–5 year facility build timelines, and the enormous capital requirements ($10–20 billion per fab) push this toward the longer and more capital-intensive end of the speed and viability axes. The CHIPS Act addressed this category directly. What it did not address is the upstream chemical supply chain those fabs depend on, the electronic-grade chemicals, ALD precursors, fluorinated gases, and laminate hardeners sourced from Asia.

The Practical Starting Playbook

Identifying the gap is step one. Closing it requires a sequenced playbook that works for government program officers, private equity investors, and founder-operators simultaneously. Here are the six steps, in order.

Step 1: Map the supply chain at the input level, not the industry level.

This is the Fed’s most actionable insight. Industry-level trade data masks input-level risk. The automobile industry looks diversified in aggregate until you examine semiconductor and electronic component sourcing specifically, and discover that a single fab shutdown in Taiwan can idle every auto plant in North America.

Every Tier 1 category in this framework needs an input-by-input vulnerability map that goes at least three tiers deep into the supply chain. If you stop at the first tier, you will miss the chokepoints that actually kill you.

Step 2: Run Total Cost of Ownership analysis against each priority input.

The Reshoring Initiative’s TCO Estimator is free and publicly available. It quantifies the true cost gap including the 30+ factors most procurement departments ignore: freight variability, inventory carrying costs imposed by 90-day ocean transit, quality rejection rates, intellectual property leakage, travel and oversight costs, opportunity costs from long lead times, and the catastrophic tail risk of supply disruption.

Start with inputs that already have chronic delivery problems, quality complaints, or IP concerns, that is where TCO most strongly favors domestic production, and where you will find the easiest business cases to build.

Step 3: Identify existing small and medium manufacturers at MRL 5–7.

This is where NIST’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Supplier Scouting capability becomes critical.

The MEP network operates in all 50 states and has the ability to match federal agency and OEM needs to existing domestic manufacturing capacity. The gap is not always that no one in America can make the product. It is that no one can make it at the volume, purity, or consistency required, and that the capital to bridge that gap has never been available.

Finding the SMM that is already at MRL 6 and giving it the capital, demand signal, and technical assistance to reach MRL 9 is faster, cheaper, and lower-risk than building from zero.

Step 4: Stack the capital.

No single funding source is sufficient to finance a first-of-kind intermediate manufacturing facility.

The architecture requires a blended capital stack that combines multiple sources: OSC loans at $10–150 million for defense-relevant manufacturing, EXIM Bank Make More in America financing for export-competitive production, Section 45X Advanced Manufacturing Production Tax Credits for qualifying materials, DOE Loan Programs Office financing for energy-related manufacturing, USDA loan guarantees for agricultural chemical production, state-level incentives (tax abatements, infrastructure grants, workforce training subsidies), and private capital (venture, growth equity, project finance, strategic investment from downstream customers).

The goal is to bring the blended cost of scaling capital below 5%, making domestic production investment competitive with the subsidized capital available to Chinese state-backed competitors. This capital stacking is not theoretical. These programs are live, funded, and accepting applications. The challenge is navigating the application processes simultaneously and structuring them into a coherent financing package. This is an opportunity unto itself in streamlining capital access.

Step 5: Anchor demand. No manufacturer, not a startup, not a mid-size firm, not a multinational, will blindly invest $50–300 million in a first-of-kind domestic facility on speculative demand. The demand signal must come first or simultaneously with the capital.

This means advance purchase commitments or multi-year procurement contracts from the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, the General Services Administration, or large commercial OEMs who need supply chain security. The mechanism already exists: DoD’s Other Transaction Agreements (OTAs), Title III of the Defense Production Act, and commercial supply agreements with domestic content requirements. The Reshoring Initiative’s data confirms this: government incentives, including procurement commitments, were the number one factor cited by companies making reshoring decisions in 2024. When the demand signal is clear, the capital follows.

Step 6: Build the workforce in parallel, not in sequence.

The single biggest operational mistake in reshoring is waiting until the factory is built to start training workers. By the time a $100 million facility is constructed, commissioned, and ready for production, typically 24–36 months, it needs trained operators on day one.

Community college manufacturing training academies, registered apprenticeship programs, and employer-sponsored technical training should launch 18–24 months before production begins. This means workforce development starts at the same time as construction, not after it. States that understand this, and that have community college systems willing to build custom training programs in partnership with manufacturers, have a structural advantage in competing for facility siting.

Why This Framework Works for Both Audiences

The scoring matrix is deliberately designed to be legible to both government and private sector decision-makers simultaneously.

Government officials see national security, supply chain resilience, defense industrial base dependency, and job creation metrics weighted into the model, providing the analytical justification for public capital deployment, procurement commitments, and regulatory prioritization.

Private sector operators see TCO analysis, MRL staging, demand certainty, capital efficiency, and workforce availability, the inputs that drive investment committee decisions and facility siting calculations.

Neither side has to take the other’s word for it. The framework uses publicly available data, Federal Reserve SRI methodology, USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries, Reshoring Initiative statistics, BEA input-output tables, DoD MRL assessments— that both sides can independently verify.

This matters because the Missing Middle will not be closed by government alone or by the private sector alone. It requires coordinated action: public capital de-risking private investment, procurement commitments underwriting demand, workforce programs matching facility timelines, and founders willing to build the companies that operate at the intersection of all three.

The framework exists to make that coordination possible.

The question is not whether the tools exist to close the Missing Middle. It is whether anyone assembles them into a coherent strategy and executes.

The Case for Founders

If you are a builder, an engineer, a chemist, an entrepreneur, the Missing Middle is the most underleveraged opportunity in the American economy.

The founders who rebuild the Missing Middle will not look like typical startup founders. They will be chemists, process engineers, and industrialists. They will raise more capital, on longer timescales. The businesses they build will likely not have the growth curves of SaaS companies. They will have something better: structural moats, government incentives, long-term supply contracts, and competitive positioning that takes a decade for anyone to replicate.

It is harder than software. But the opportunity is proportional to the difficulty. A domestic manufacturer with process IP, automation, and regulatory approvals becomes a node in the national supply chain that all levels of buyers depend on.

What Comes Next

The Missing Middle will not rebuild itself by accident. Markets do not spontaneously regenerate industrial capability that was lost over decades.

But the calculus is changing. Process innovation and automation is closing the cost gap. Policy is creating incentives. Geopolitical risk is repricing the cost of foreign dependence. China is not standing still, the CCP knows their leverage.

But, a generation of American builders is starting to look at physical industry with the same ambition the previous generation brought to software.

The window is open. It will not stay open indefinitely. The companies that establish production in the next 3–5 years will have first-mover advantages that compound for decades.

I started a nitrogen chemicals company because I followed a supply chain backward and found a void where American manufacturing used to be. The pattern is everywhere. It is in pharmaceutical intermediates and antibiotic fermentation. It is in semiconductor precursors and PCB laminates. It is in rare earth processing, battery materials, titanium sponge, and munitions chemistry.

This moment in time is America’s Ad Astra opportunity to seize destiny. We have the raw materials, we have the intellectual talent and inventions. Its time to integrate.

Its time to BUILD.

Thank you for reading.

As a result, many people fail to develop both a mind muscle connection and effective exercise technique when it comes to back training.

John himself found that back was his most stubborn overall muscle group. Arms and legs he had genetic talent for, chest grew well well, shoulders took some work, but back was the one area he lacked in his bodybuilding career. BUT, over time it became a standout muscle group with immense thickness, detail, and width.

Its also arguably where he made the biggest impact in bodybuilding training. Meadow rows being the most prominent example.

John’s back training philosophy was born from years of experimentation, anatomical study, and practical application in both his own training and with hundreds of clients. He recognized that the back was the most complex muscle group in the body, requiring multiple angles, grips, and movement patterns to achieve complete development. Per his own words

“The back is like a symphony orchestra”

“You have all these different muscles that need to work together, but each one also needs to be developed individually. You can’t just do pulldowns and rows and expect a complete back any more than you can play a symphony with just violins.”

This article covers everything: the anatomy, the exercises, the sequencing, the rep ranges, the technique cues, and the workout templates. Between John’s methodology and my own training and coaching experience, I’m giving you the complete system.

What you’ll learn:

• Why your back has four distinct superficial muscles that each require different movement patterns, and why most guys only train one of them well

• The difference between vertical pulling and horizontal rowing, and how to use both to build width and thickness

• The Meadows Rows that John made famous

• The ideal exercise sequencing for growth

• periodization for back training

Before We Begin

• Ive been using NMN the past 3 months. NMN (Nicotinamide Mononucleotide) is a direct precursor to NAD⁺ that supports cellular energy production, mitochondrial function, and age-related metabolic resilience by helping restore declining intracellular NAD⁺ levels. Use code AJAC10 at checkout

• High Tech Health Saunas is having sale. Mention AJAC at purchase and youll get an even better one.

• For the men that want their health dialed in with the best doctors in the world, work with Velocity

Part 1: Functional Anatomy

The muscles of the back fall into three layers—superficial, intermediate, and deep. For our purposes, we’re training the superficial muscles. These are the large muscles visible on a developed physique. When you train them with sufficient intensity, the intermediate and deep layers receive stimulus automatically. You do not need to worry about them separately.

Latissimus Dorsi —The Wings:

The largest muscle of the upper body, covering from the upper pelvis and lumbar spine all the way to its insertion on the arm. John divided the lats into functional regions that respond to different training stimuli:

Upper Lats: Responsible for the wide V-taper, best developed through wide-grip pulling movements. Peak lat torque occurs between 30–50 degrees of shoulder flexion during horizontal pulling, which explains why rows often build more lat mass than pulldowns.

Lower Lats: Creates the dramatic sweep into the waist. Responds to narrow-grip and neutral-grip work, particularly supinated pulldowns and close-grip cable rows. The lower lat region activates most strongly as the arm moves from overhead toward the hip, plateauing around 40–50 degrees of shoulder flexion.

Trapezius—The Three-Headed Beast:

The traps are three distinct functional units, not one muscle:

Upper Traps: Originate near the base of the skull, responsible for shoulder blade elevation. Peak recruitment during heavy carries, shrugs, and deadlift lockouts. Evidence supports that loads around 80% of 1RM produce the greatest upper trap activity, and holding contractions at the top of shrugs was one of John’s signature techniques.

Middle Traps: Best targeted through horizontal rowing with scapular retraction. Research shows that a supinated grip during bent-over rows produces greater middle trap recruitment due to the increased range of motion into shoulder extension.

Lower Traps: The most neglected region, critical for scapular upward rotation and shoulder health. Activated most during the first half of vertical pulling movements (pulldowns and pull-ups) where scapular depression occurs. Prone Y-raises with external rotation are among the best isolation exercises for this area.

Rhomboids:

While not visible, the rhomboids contribute to overall back thickness. They sit beneath the middle and lower traps, primarily fast-twitch in fiber composition. Their function is to adhere the shoulder blade to the rib cage during horizontal pulling and to produce downward rotation and retraction.

Chest-supported rows are particularly effective for rhomboid recruitment because removing the need to stabilize the erectors allows greater torque and muscle recruitment along the midback.

Erector Spinae:

A cluster of nine muscles running from the sacrum to the skull, divided into the spinalis, longissimus, and iliocostalis groups. John trained these primarily at the end of back sessions to avoid fatiguing them before heavier compound work.

Teres Major:

The “Mini Lat”: Often overlooked but crucial for complete upper back thickness.

Rear Delts:

The Balance Creators: Essential for shoulder health and complete upper back development.

“When people say they want a bigger back, they usually mean they want wider lats,” John observed. “But width without thickness looks flat, and thickness without width looks narrow. You need systematic development of every area, and that requires understanding what each muscle does and how to target it specifically.”

Part 3: Technique Fundamentals

Pulling mechanics and bicep tendon health. The most common cause of biceps tendinitis in back training is incorrect forearm alignment. On every pulling movement, the forearm and elbow must track directly in line with the resistance. If you are inadvertently curling the weight — if the forearm is doing the work rather than the elbow traveling toward the body — you are chronically loading the biceps tendon at a disadvantaged angle. This causes pain eventually in most people. A false grip (thumb draped over the handle rather than wrapped under) can reduce tendon irritation. Lifting straps are appropriate and beneficial — contrary to gym mythology, using straps does not weaken the grip over time.

Neck and upper trap compensation. If back training causes neck tightness or pain, the most common cause is over-recruitment of the upper traps. Many lifters unconsciously elevate their shoulders and pull with the upper traps rather than retracting the shoulder blades and driving the elbows back. The fix is deliberate: on every pull, actively think about driving the elbows toward the floor, not pulling the bar toward your face. Your neck should not be working during a pulldown.

Spinal positioning. Lat-focused work requires a neutral spine. Upper back and trap-focused work benefits from a slight thoracic arch — a natural extension through the mid-back — which opens the shoulder blades and allows full retraction. Never round the lower back to get a longer range of motion, and never hyperextend to move more weight. Both patterns shift load off the target muscles and onto passive spinal structures.

The Two Directions of Back Training

Everything in back training reduces to two movement patterns.

Vertical pulling. This means the arm travels overhead and then pulls down toward the body — chin-ups, pull-ups, pulldowns. Vertical pulling primarily loads the costal and lumbar/iliac fibers of the lat, building width and the lower lat sweep.

Horizontal rowing. This means the arm travels in front of the body and pulls toward the torso—every variation of rows. Horizontal rowing primarily loads the thoracic lat fibers and the trapezius, building thickness and mid-back density.

A complete back program requires both. You need to train the lats for width with pullups and pulldowns, and then train the middle fibers of the back for density.

The grip you use within each pattern matters. Supinated grip (underhand) during vertical pulling increases the stretch on the lat and places slightly more tension on the lower fibers. Neutral grip allows slightly more weight and greater bicep recruitment. Wide pronated grip shifts emphasis toward the upper lat and upper back. Vary all three across your training cycle.

Part 4-The Sequencing of Mountain Dog Back Training

John allowed for creativity with back training, but he did follow a specific format.

Activation and Postural Preparation

As he got older, John began every back session with activation work designed to wake up dormant muscles and establish proper movement patterns. None of these mandatory, they are performed on a as-needed basis.

Activation Protocol:

• Band pull-aparts for rear delt activation

• Prone Y-raises for lower trap activation

• Cat-cow stretches for thoracic mobility

• Light lat pulldowns focusing on muscle feel (supinated grip for lower lat emphasis)

The Meadows Back Activation Sequence:

1. 20 band pull-aparts (posterior activation)

2. 15 prone Y-raises (lower trap activation)

3. 10 cat-cow stretches (mobility prep)

4. Light supinated pulldowns focusing purely on lat feel—drive elbows back, not down

Lat Activation Drill: Before any pulldown or rowing movement, John used a specific lat activation technique: light cable straight-arm pushdowns performed slowly, focusing entirely on initiating the movement from the lat rather than the arm. This drill was recommended before every back session and was particularly effective for trainees who struggled to establish mind-muscle connection with their lats.

“Most people’s backs are shut off from sitting at desks all day,” John explained. “You can’t just jump into heavy rowing and expect dormant muscles to suddenly start working. You need to wake them up first.”

Exercise 1: Row First, Unilateral

John was very fond on unilateral rows at the very beginning of the workout. Rows take tremendous energy and they are undeniable mass builders, John wanted them done at peak capacity.

The Meadows Row—John’s most famous creation, and the exercise more responsible for the mass and detail on his lats than any other. He admitted he probably didn’t invent it, but he’d never seen anyone else doing them, so he staked his claim.

Setup: Stand next to the business end of a T-bar or landmine, where you’d normally add a plate. Grab the bar end with one hand and row. Always use straps. The critical technique point is hip position — “kick” your hips away from the bar to increase the stretch on the entire lat, especially the lower lat. When you find the right position, you’ll know. Use 25-pound plates for even greater range of motion. Drive the elbow, not the hand. 2 warmup sets, then 3-4 sets of 8-10.

One-Arm Barbell Row — Stand beside a loaded barbell, grasp the bar, and row. Like the Meadows Row, emphasize the stretch on the way down. Use 25-pound plates for maximum range of motion.

Mountain Dog Dumbbell Row — Standard one-arm row but ditch the bench. Support yourself on a dumbbell rack with a split stance. This pre-stretches the lat and leads to a greater contraction.

Chest-Supported Incline Rows — Removes lower back pressure by supporting a simulated bent-over position. Allows maximum force production per rep. These can be done with DBs or a Tbar setup.

Exercise 2: Stretch Movement

Once blood is in those lats, they’re ready to be stretched. This is where you do your pulldown/pullup movements. Examples of exercises

Wide grip Pulldowns — Nothing crazy, a tried and true staple. Drive with the elbows, dont excessively lean back

Banded Pullups— John was very fond of these. You get natural mechanics taking the lats to failure, and unique isolation that machines dont quite replicate

Single and Alternating Pulldowns— these require dual handles. You can do one side at a time, or alternating. You can get immense stretch on the muscle belly, with precision tension the entire tiem

This sequencing matters for two reasons. First, stretch movements can be dangerous on unpumped muscles, cold muscle plus heavy weight plus ego equals disaster. Second, with intra-workout nutrition flowing, your primed back will take up nutrients into the muscle cells.

Exercise 3 and: Traps and Rhomboids

Traps and rhomboids can technically be trained at any point, but they sit naturally in the third slot. This is where the wide grip rows would be done. The universal technique point: keep elbows higher than you think they should be. If elbows drop, the lats take over and the traps/rhomboids lose stimulation.

Supported Rows with 1-Second Flex — Any machine that supports the chest. Elbows up, pull back, flex. Multiple angles work — sitting upright, tilted on a pad. The support lets you focus purely on elbow alignment and squeezing.

Seated Wide Grip rows — When doing seated rows, bend forward at the waist on every rep, and then pull with the elbows back to an upright neutral spine position.

After rows, the you’d move onto your shrugs and possibly rack pulls

Dumbbell Shrugs with 3-Second Pause/Flex — 12-15 reps with a deliberate 3-second hold and flex at the top of every rep. Shrug up and back, not just up. No bouncing.

Rack pulls — John liked these done for sets of 5-6 reps. You could go heavy and ramp up the weight. The bar should be set to around knee height or slightly lower.

Band Shrugs — Bands create tremendous tension at the top where the traps are strongest. Attach to power rack pegs. 3 sets of 12 with 2-second pause at top.

Exercise 5: Spinal Erectors Last

Always save spinal erector work for last. The one exception: if you can deadlift without your lower back burning or tightening, you can move that movement earlier. But doing hyperextensions before Meadows Rows? Bad idea.

Deadlifts (Blocks or off the Floor) — Deadlifts didn’t give John huge wide lats, but they helped with lower back development. Cranking out deadlifts after all the other back work is brutal, but it works.

Hyperextensions—They work for everyoneHis preferred protocol: hold a 50lb dumbbell for 15 reps, drop it, gut out 10 more. Next set, 25lb dumbbell same protocol. Third set, bodyweight for 25 reps. Brutal.

Part 5: The Top Exercises

These are mix one John and mines personal favorites. As always, experiment to find yours.

The Meadows Row. John’s signature exercise and the most famous movement he created. Set up a barbell in a landmine attachment or wedge one end against a wall. Straddle the barbell, grip the end with one hand using an overhand grip, and row the weight toward your hip—not your chest. The key is the hip-oriented row path and the free-arm support. This position allows a tremendous range of motion and eliminates lower back stress while delivering full lat and upper back stimulation. More than anything, this is the exercise that convinced serious lifters to take unilateral back work seriously.

The Chin-Up. The single best compound lat exercise available. It stretches the lat fully at the top, contracts it completely at the bottom, and recruits the muscle in a way that pulldowns approximate but rarely replicate. If you cannot yet do chin-up reps, use the pulldown as a direct substitute and work toward the chin-up as a strength target. The semi-supinated or neutral grip version works well as an alternative or progression.

Wide-Grip Pulldown. While not John’s primary choice, the wide-grip pulldown is the best tool for building upper lat width. The wider grip shifts emphasis from the costal fibers toward the thoracic upper-lat region. John included these as a secondary exercise when upper back width was a priority. Pull the elbows tight to the body, whether the bar touches the sternum depends on your arm length and anatomy.

Seated Cable Row. The standard of horizontal back training. John used the neutral grip attachment most often for maximal lat recruitment. The seated cable row allows precise control of the elbow path and upper back positioning, and it scales well with progressive overload over long periods. One technical note: Bend forward at the waist on every rep, butdo not allow your torso to swing back past neutral as the weights increase. If your body is compensating with momentum, the weight is too heavy.

Chest-Supported T-Bar Row / Chest-Supported Dumbbell Row. John’s preferred trap and upper back compound movement. The chest-supported position eliminates lower back involvement entirely, forcing the rhomboids, traps, and upper lats to do all the work. Row with the elbows at roughly 45 degrees from the body — this is the optimal angle for middle trap recruitment. John called this kind of work essential for anyone who wanted dense, thick upper back development.

Dumbbell Shrug. The simplest upper trap exercise, and one of the best. John included shrugs in most back sessions because the upper trap and levator scapulae respond well to direct work. Do not roll the shoulders — the traps do not generate rotational force. Simply elevate and hold briefly at the top.

1-Arm Cable Row / 1-Arm Cable Pulldown. A great unilateral tool. Cables maintain tension through the full range in a way that dumbbells don’t. For anyone who has difficulty feeling the lat work during bilateral rows, switching to unilateral cable work is often the immediate solution.

Part 6-Addressing Common Back Training Problems

John’s systematic approach was particularly effective for solving typical back development issues:

For Lack of Width (V-Taper):

• Prioritize wide-grip chin-ups and pulldowns (pronated wide grip shown to produce superior lat activity)

• Emphasize lat stretch and contraction on every rep

• Minimize bicep involvement by focusing on elbow drive rather than hand pull

• Use away-facing pulldowns to isolate contraction quality

For Lack of Thickness:

• Emphasize rowing movements at multiple angles

• Use various grip positions systematically—supinated for middle traps, pronated wide for posterior delts and rhomboids

• Focus on squeezing shoulder blades together on every row

• Implement dead-stop training to eliminate momentum

• Add chest-supported row variations for pure midback isolation

For Weak Lower Lats:

• Begin every session with supinated pulldowns focusing on driving elbows back (not down)

• Use single-arm cable pulldowns with a slight lateral trunk bend toward the working side

• Implement Meadows Rows with deliberate foot positioning to target the lat sweep

• Cable rows pulled to the lower abdomen with supinated or neutral grip

For Underdeveloped Spinal Erectors:

• Add Louie’s Special or banded hyperextensions at the end of every back session

• Control the eccentric phase of deadlifts rather than dropping the bar

• Implement reverse hyperextensions 2–3 times per week

• Use deficit deadlifts periodically to increase range of motion and erector demand

For Postural Problems:

• Increase rear delt training frequency to daily

• Emphasize lower trap development through prone Y-raises

• Stretch anterior chain regularly

• Strengthen deep neck flexors

For Imbalanced Development:

• Use unilateral training (Meadows Row, one-arm barbell row, single-arm pulldowns) to address asymmetries

• Address the weaker side first in workouts

• Monitor and correct form constantly—video yourself from behind during rowing movements
  

  ---

Part 7-Intensity Techniques: What Works and What Doesn’t for Back

John was particular about intensity techniques with back

Rest/Pause — Works especially well with rows and allows you to get in quality reps

Continuous Tension — Focus on squeezing the target area on almost all back exercises, no pausing at the top of bottom of the rep. The mind-muscle connection is harder to establish with back muscles than any other group. Continuous tension overcomes this.

Partials—Apply to any pulldown or chin variation at the stretched part of the movement. On cable or machine rows, you can do some loose not quite cheating reps at the end.

John was not fond of the following:

Drop Sets—On back training your arms or grip can fatigue before back and your technique can get wonky, even with straps. Use this technique sparingly if at all.

Three-Second Descents—Doing low cable rows or pulldowns with slow negatives causes the arms and shoulders to take over for the lats. Great for legs, not for back.

Part 8: Volume — How Much Back Training Do You Actually Need?

The 12-Week Periodization Model

Weeks 1-3 — Medium Volume (11-14 sets): New exercise angles create new stimulus. Let the novelty do some of the work. You won’t need a ton of sets because the intensity carries.

Weeks 4-9 — High Volume (16-20 sets): Your body adjusts to Phase 1 intensity, so keep it off balance by adding volume each week. More high-intensity sets layered in progressively. Six weeks of grinding. This is where back development really happens — the accumulated work over these six weeks drives the majority of new growth.

Weeks 10-12 — Low/Medium Volume (8-10 sets), Maximum Intensity: Volume drops, but every set is the hardest you’ve done in your life. Almost all sets are high-intensity, preceded by proper warmup. Quality over quantity at the extreme end. Your nervous system has been accumulating fatigue for nine weeks — now you capitalize on it with concentrated, maximal effort.

Deload — 2 Weeks: Light training. Signs you need it: elevated resting heart rate, difficulty sleeping, poor mood, difficulty generating force on compound exercises. Everyone is different, but two weeks is John’s general recommendation after a brutal 12-week cycle. The rebound from this deload — the supercompensation effect — is where a significant portion of actual growth becomes visible.

Training Frequency: How Often to Train Back

John generally recommended training back once per week with full intensity using his system. The volume and intensity of a proper Mountain Dog back session creates enough stimulus and enough damage that a full seven days of recovery is warranted for most trainees.

However, for back specialization phases, John would sometimes program two back sessions per week — one heavy session following the full five-principle sequence, and one lighter session focused on stretch movements and pump work with reduced load. The lighter session served as an active recovery day that drove additional nutrient delivery to recovering tissue without adding meaningful fatigue.

For trainees running a push/pull/legs rotation, back was the centerpiece of every pull day. John would program heavy row emphasis on one pull day and stretch/pump emphasis on the next, naturally rotating through the exercise catalog over multiple weeks.

A Sample Workout

Phase 1 Sample Workout (12 Total Work Sets)

A medium-volume session from the first three weeks — establishing new movement patterns and building the intensity base:

A. Meadows Rows — 2 warmup + 3 x 10. Focus on perfecting hip position. Moderate weight, feeling every fiber.

B. Stretchers — 2 x 12. Establish the shoulder girdle mobility for the weeks ahead.

Fascia Stretch: 1 minute each lat, twice

C. Band Shrugs — 3 x 12. Two-second hold at top. Build the contraction habit.

D. Reverse Hyperextensions — 3 x 15. Moderate load, controlled tempo. Build the spinal erector base.

Final Points

John’s back development was a product of attention — to anatomy, to technique, to which exercises actually work and which are just impressive-looking. He built a system that produced results across multiple decades because it was built on principles, not on chasing whatever exercise happened to be popular.

The back rewards that same attention. You cannot fake a developed posterior chain. You either trained it seriously or you didn’t, and the difference shows.

Train both planes. Vary your grips. Master the full range of motion before adding weight. Use unilateral work to correct imbalances. And be patient — back development takes time, but done correctly, it is the development that makes everything else look better.

By way of biology, men naturally have more upper body muscle than women, and in particular men have much larger pectoral muscles. The strongest women struggle to chest press weights that even an average man can lift with ease.

Having a big chest may not be “functional” in the way that shoulders or back or legs are, but it is undeniably imposing and a standout masculine physique feature.

John Meadows had a longevity based approach to chest training. He had reasonably good pectoral genetics, but also paid attention to patterns of strain and injury.

By his own estimate, 25% of the time he started a workout with barbell bench pressing and went up to anything remotely heavy, he would get at least a minor pec strain.

He noticed the same thing with other lifters. There was a widespread belief to always do your hardest and heaviest exercise first, but this create a setup for injury. John trained in the world of hardcore lifters, bodybuilders and powerlifters who competed at a high level.

He witnessed enough strains and tears to realize there had to be a better way.

John was solving three problems simultaneously. Building the chest. Protecting the shoulders. And creating a system that worked for guys in their 30s, 40s, and 50s who could not afford to get injured.

Between my own experience and John’s methodology, this article covers everything you need. The anatomy, the angles, the exercise selection, the sequencing, the programming, and the specific techniques that build slabs of muscle without destroying your joints.

What you’ll learn today (A LOT):

- Why most guys have overdeveloped lower chests, flat upper chests, and chronic shoulder pain, and the exercise sequencing that fixes all three

- The three distinct regions of the chest and why training only one of them with flat pressing creates the imbalance that stalls your development

- Progressive resistance applied to chest, why 60lb dumbbell incline presses done with precision will build more muscle than 100lb sloppy reps

- John’s signature chest exercises that changed how serious lifters approach the muscle

- A complete four-phase chest workout with built-in periodization

Before We Begin

-Eliteresearch is my favorite company for peptide research and unique compounds (like Nostridamus). Use code AJAC10 at checkout

-Preorder Creatine for the Woman in your life from Ferta Supplements

-For the men that want to get their health DIALED IN with the best doctors in the world, work with Velocity

Part 1: Functional Anatomy

Learning anatomy is always easier in person, and trying to describe muscles in words without visuals is difficult. There is no replacement for in person learning. That said, there are THREE muscles you need to understand if you want to build a complete chest. Not two. Three.

The Pectoralis Major is the big chest muscle that everyone can see. It is the visible portion of the pec on anyone with a functioning body. The pec major is a fan-shaped muscle that attaches to the sternum, the clavicle, the first six or seven costal cartilages, and the aponeurosis of the external oblique. All of those fibers converge laterally and insert onto the humerus.

Here is the part that matters for training. The pec major is divided into three distinct parts based on where the fibers originate, and each part generates tension on a preferred angle (while also overlapping with each other).

The Clavicular Head (Upper Chest). Originates from the anterior surface of the medial half of the clavicle. Its fibers run downward and laterally toward the upper arm. This is the most neglected region in most lifters. It is innervated by the lateral pectoral nerve, a completely separate nerve supply from the rest of the pec.

This is not a trivial detail. It means the clavicular head is essentially a functionally independent muscle that can be preferentially recruited through specific angles and movements. When someone tells you that you “can’t isolate the upper chest,” they are anatomically wrong. Different nerve, different fiber direction, different function. The clavicular head flexes the arm and performs horizontal adduction. Incline pressing between 15 and 45 degrees targets this head directly. A well-developed upper chest creates the shelf that makes the entire pec look full and powerful from the front and the side.

The Sternocostal Head (Middle and Lower Chest). This is the largest part of the pec major. It originates from the anterior surface of the sternum and the upper six costal cartilages. It is innervated by the medial pectoral nerve, again, a different nerve than the clavicular head. The sternocostal head is itself further subdivided into multiple segments. Anatomical research has identified between 2 and 7 distinct segments within the sternocostal head alone.

This is why experienced bodybuilders can develop visible separation between the upper, middle, and lower portions of the sternal chest, the fiber orientations are genuinely different.

The upper sternal fibers run more horizontally, responding to flat pressing.

The lower sternal fibers angle downward, responding to decline pressing and dips.

This head handles adduction and extension of the arm. It is what makes the chest look thick from the side and creates the lower pec shelf.

The Abdominal Head. A variable third head that originates from the aponeurosis of the external oblique muscle. Not everyone has a well-developed abdominal head, and it may be absent entirely in some individuals. When present, it contributes to the lowest fibers of the pec and ties the chest into the upper abdominal region. It is recruited during dips and steep decline movements.

Because the pec major consists of these distinct parts with different origins, different fiber directions, and in the case of the clavicular versus sternocostal heads, entirely different nerve supplies, it is entirely possible to emphasize training EACH section. Do not listen to anyone that says you cannot emphasize training lower, middle, or upper chest. You absolutely can. Depending on the angle of the exercise, a different portion of pectoral fiber will be emphasized.

The Pectoralis Minor is a much smaller muscle that sits underneath the pec major. It attaches to the coracoid process of the scapula and the 3rd, 4th, and 5th ribs. Its primary function is not pressing, it is scapular stabilization. The pec minor protracts and depresses the scapula, pulling the shoulder blade forward and down against the ribcage.

Here is why this matters for chest training. If your pec minor is tight and dysfunctional from years of hunching over a desk, excessive flat pressing, and never stretching, it will pull your shoulders into internal rotation and compromise your shoulder mechanics. This limits your range of motion on every pressing movement and eventually leads to impingement. A dysfunctional pec minor is one of the most common hidden causes of shoulder pain on chest day. John Meadows included a specific exercise for the pec minor, the straight-arm pec minor dip, because he understood that training this muscle directly contributed to both scapular health and overall pec mass.

The Serratus Anterior is the third muscle you need to know about, and it is the one almost every lifter ignores. The serratus anterior is a fan-shaped muscle that originates on the lateral surfaces of the first eight or nine ribs and inserts along the medial border of the scapula, wrapping around the ribcage underneath the shoulder blade. It is sometimes called the “boxer’s muscle” because it is responsible for scapular protraction, the forward punching motion of the shoulder blade.

Why does this matter for chest training? Because the serratus anterior is the prime mover in scapular protraction and upward rotation. Every time you press a weight and your shoulder blades move forward around the ribcage, the serratus anterior is doing that work. It stabilizes the scapula against the ribcage during every pressing movement you do. When the serratus is weak or dysfunctional, the scapula wings off the ribcage, your shoulder blade does not track properly, and your pressing strength suffers. You also get compensatory recruitment from the upper traps and levator scapulae, which is why some guys shrug their shoulders up during bench pressing without realizing it.

Dumbbell pullovers, push-up variations with protraction at the top, and overhead pressing all develop the serratus. If you do nothing else, add a set of push-ups with a deliberate “push plus” at the top, pressing your shoulder blades apart at the top of each rep, and your serratus will wake up.

Together, the pec major, pec minor, and serratus anterior perform flexion, adduction, and internal rotation of the humerus, combined with scapular protraction, stabilization, and upward rotation. Practically, this means the chest complex has the function of “pulling” the arm across and towards the center line of the body while simultaneously anchoring the shoulder blade to the ribcage. This flexion, adduction, and internal rotation combine into being able to “push.” The pressing movement is a combination of all three functions, executed across all three muscles.

Part 2: Chest Pressing Technique

This is the best video you will EVER watch on technique for pec training

Your chest muscle can push from THREE distinct directions.

Downward towards the floor. This is dips, lower chest flys, and decline pressing of any kind. Pressing downward always recruits the middle and lower pectorals. This is why DIPS were largely considered the premiere chest exercise before bench press took over. While dips do not emphasize upper chest, they massively work the lower and middle chest. Getting very strong on dips and downward angle pressing will always ensure some level of pectoral development.

Horizontal directly in front of the body. This is pushups, any kind of flat chest press, and middle chest flys. Flat pressing also recruits the anterior deltoid, and depending on your shoulder structure, chest structure, and arm length, flat pressing can be all pecs or a lot of deltoid. Certain exercises like bench press may not be as effective as you want them to be. As every body is unique, it is mandatory to experiment and find what exercises best work the pecs for you on this angle. Slight inclines and slight declines are often superior to the flat bench in recruiting the pecs.

At an angle above the chest to about chin level. This is incline pressing and incline flys. This angle works LESS of the lower chest but emphasizes the upper pec fibers. This is why incline work is essential if you want upper chest development. Incline work will also recruit the anterior deltoid. The classic 45-degree incline bench press works upper chest and deltoids together.

If you want COMPLETE chest development, you must work the chest on ALL three of these angles, not just one.

This is the first mistake guys make. They only train ONE angle, usually flat bench, and neglect the other two. The result John Meadows saw constantly: lower chest is overdeveloped from excessive flat pressing, upper chest is flat and underdeveloped, and shoulder pain is common. That is the default outcome of a “bench press first” chest program.

Part 3: Customize Your Exercises to Suit Your Structure

What does structure mean? Three things.

How deep is your chest wall? The anatomical term for what old school bodybuilders called “chest wall depth” is the anteroposterior thoracic diameter, the front-to-back measurement of the thorax from the sternum to the spine.

This is distinct from the transverse thoracic diameter, which is the side-to-side width of the ribcage. Both measurements together define the overall size and shape of your rib box, the complete bony structure of ribs, sternum, costal cartilages, and thoracic spine that houses the lungs and heart and serves as the skeletal platform on which all your chest muscle sits.

Men with BIG chest naturally have deep and wide ribcages, like Jay Cutler for example. Combined his bone structure with incredible genetics, and you’ve got an elite physique.

Back in the Silver and Golden age of bodybuilding, there were many articles written on how to increase your rib box and why this was essential to having a big chest. Steve Reeves, Reg Park, and Arnold all devoted significant training time to breathing squats and dumbbell pullovers specifically to expand the rib box.

Reg park in his prime

The theory was that you could stretch the costal cartilages, the strips of dense connective tissue that attach the ribs to the sternum, and over time expand the thoracic cage itself.

Whether this actually works in adults is debatable. Modern evidence suggests that real skeletal expansion of the rib box can only occur during the teenage years while the growth plates are still open. After the early twenties, the bones can thicken slightly but they cannot lengthen.

What IS trainable at any age is the musculature surrounding the rib box, the intercostals, serratus anterior, and the pec muscles themselves, along with thoracic mobility and postural positioning that makes the ribcage appear larger and more prominent.

Arm length. Arm length makes a HUGE difference. If you have short arms and a deep chest wall, you will find it far easier to do ANY kind of pressing exercise. The weight is traveling less distance, and your body is naturally structured for better leverage. You will never find a big bencher that has a shallow and narrow chest.

In contrast, if you have very long arms and an average sized rib cage with shallow chest depth, you will likely find it difficult to bench press and it won’t even feel like a chest exercise. To touch the bar to the chest, you have to hyperextend the upper arm past the shoulder joint, which puts all of the stress on the anterior delt. Bench pressing will never be a good chest builder if this is your physique.

Add those factors together. What exercises should you do?

You can divide guys into three general categories.

Big chest structure. The classic exercises will be all you need. Flat bench, incline bench, DB press, incline DB press, dips. Getting progressively stronger on the classic exercises will be your strategy. The only adjustments are grip width for your arm length and being patient enough to follow a program.

Average chest structure. This is the mixed approach. You MUST find your KEY exercises that you can get progressively stronger at. There is no shame in realizing that a low incline Smith machine chest press works better than bench press, or that a hammer incline press works better than incline bench. This middle ground is about tweaking exercises that feel optimal to you. Once you find those movements, you hammer them for the rest of your training life.

Below average structure. If you have a small chest wall, long arms, and most exercises don’t do shit for you, you need to emphasize MUSCLE TENSION, and employ moderate to higher reps. Assess all chest exercises by whether you can FEEL them in the pecs and you get shortening and lengthening of the pectoral muscles. This will probably mean a lot of cable fly presses, hybrid press/flyes, and machines. Bench press isnt going to be your thing. Stop caring about it. DBs you’ll need to be very controlled with arm path and depth and keep the chest wall expanded.

Why higher reps? Because the less fast twitch muscle fiber you have, the less responsive you are to low rep training. If you are NOT fast twitch dominant, doing low reps exclusively won’t yield much muscle growth. Increase your working rep ranges. Working sets in 10-20 rep range.

Part 4: Common Mistakes That Kill Your Chest Development

Half the battle of progress is avoiding doing dumb shit in the gym that does not lead to results. These mistakes apply to almost every man reading this.

Training for low reps and constantly trying to add weight. This is the classic high school bro mistake. You start training, get some newbie strength gains, and then try to max out every week. Strength never goes up. STOP DOING THIS SHIT. Chest strength is built OVER TIME. Testing your strength is not building your strength. Wanting to see what your 1 rep max is every week is pure stupidity. Proper strength training is months of doing rep work and gradually building up in weight. I guarantee you will never make progress if you insist on maxing out all the time.

Too much momentum and crash landing the weight. If you want to feel the pecs work, slow the reps, control the weight with the pecs, and do the lift with controlled technique. If you want to fuck up your shoulders and make no gains, try to do reps with as much momentum as possible while nodding your head up and down with no real control over the weights. This is especially prevalent with bench press, but guys do it with practically every chest exercise. John called this “bounce pressing” and he was right, there is no pec engagement when you are using momentum to move the bar.

Too much barbell pressing. If this approach worked for you by now, you would already know it and wouldn’t be reading this. Heavy bench press is great if it works for you, but for many it is a mediocre-to-poor pec builder. Unless you are a competitive powerlifter or professional athlete that is going to get tested on this lift, there is no reason you NEED to be using it.

Too small a range of motion. Everyone knows what this looks like. It is the guy in the gym who, as the weights get heavier, the range of motion gets cut shorter and shorter. Half range bench press, half range chest presses, half range pec flys. Your strength will “plateau” because you are training like a dumbass, and you will be deluded into thinking you are stronger than you are.

Training chest too often. It is a common bro habit to train upper body over lower body, and to train chest shoulders arms over everything else. Training chest high frequency CAN work for very short periods of time, but those adaptations are largely neurological, not muscular. The shoulder joint and pec tendon and elbow joint can only tolerate so much heavy pressing within a given week. MORE is not automatically better. At most, you can train pecs twice a week. Experiment between a heavy day and a light day, or two medium intensity days. Any more than that, you are setting yourself up for injury and tendonitis.

Trying to train through joint pain. If you have torn up rotator cuffs, your shoulders click and pop when doing anything heavy, you have shoulder impingement, you keep getting pain during certain movements, but you are trying to ignore it and train chest anyway…you are very dumb. Effective training SHOULD NOT HURT. Whether you need physical therapy, better mobility, soft tissue therapy, better exercise selection, better technique, or all of the above, there is no situation where chronic pain is acceptable during a workout.

Part 5: The Meadows Exercise Sequencing System

This is the most important section of this article. Exercise sequencing is what separates John’s chest methodology from everything else.

First: Activate the chest and prepare the shoulders. Before touching any serious weight, you must prepare the shoulder joint and establish a mind-muscle connection with the pecs. Band pull-aparts to activate the rear delts. Light cable flyes to wake up the chest. Internal and external rotation work for shoulder health.

John developed a specific chest activation sequence: 20 band pull-aparts, 15 light cable flyes, 10 push-up holds at the bottom position, then 5 slow controlled push-ups. This took five minutes and eliminated the majority of shoulder issues his clients experienced on chest day. This is not optional.

Second: A dumbbell press or machine press to pump blood into the chest. This is where John broke from conventional wisdom in the most important way. He did NOT start with barbell bench press. Ever.

After years of pec strains from starting with barbell bench or barbell incline, John discovered that beginning with a movement that allowed a full stretch and squeeze, like a dumbbell twist press or machine press, filled the pecs with blood and dramatically reduced injury risk.

The logic is simple—start with a movement that creates a pump and establishes the mind-muscle connection means that by the time you get to heavier pressing, your pecs are full of blood, warm, and the target muscle is more likely to give out first, not a tendon or ligament.

Third: Incline barbell or dumbbell press. Now that the chest is pumped and the shoulders are prepared, you earn the right to do heavier pressing. John’s incline technique had a specific range of motion adjustment that saved rotator cuffs: do not touch your chest. Stop 2-3 inches short, and drive up. Do not lock out either. Keep constant tension on the pecs. This is what saved John from frequent pec strains and rotator cuff irritation, and it allowed him to actually feel his chest working instead of his shoulders.

He preferred moderate inclines, slight angles rather than extreme ones, consistent with the Dorian Yates approach. John also noted that incline bench presses were among his favorite exercises for building that wide barn door shoulder look from the front. 3-5 sets of 6-8 reps, pyramiding up.

Fourth: Flat barbell bench press, done THIRD or FOURTH, not first. This was the paradigm shift that changed everything. John was explicit: bench press third or fourth in your routine. You will not set any PRs. But make your reduced weight your new frame of reference. If you could bench 315 for 6 when you benched first but can only do 275 for 6 when you bench third, make 275 for 6 your new target — with the confidence that you are so warmed up you will not blow a pec in the process.

Fifth: Isolation, pump work, and loaded stretching. Machine flyes with a full stretch and complete contraction. High-rep Smith machine work with constant tension — all the way down, drive to 3/4 lockout, back down immediately, 15-25 reps. John was convinced that higher rep Smith machine pressing built size and thickness, even while dieting. He saw it work on himself and every training partner he put through it.

One critical positioning note: Stop shoulder packing. For years, the standard advice was to get your shoulders as far down and back as possible before pressing, pack them into the bench. John followed this advice for a long time and taught it to others. But he came to believe it was wrong, crediting Kassem Hanson of N1 Education for changing his mind. When you pack your shoulders down aggressively, your scapula cannot rotate properly, your humerus cannot move forward fully, and you actually lose pec contraction at the top of the movement. Long term, it contributes to shoulder problems.

The correction: do not worry about packing your shoulders down as far as they will go. Just stay tight with a slight static arch, neutral spine and keep your ribcage expanded through breathing. When you press to the top, allow your shoulders to come forward enough to get a full pec contraction, but do not cave your chest in. The balance point is between packed-down immobility and inverted spoon collapse. Let everything move naturally.

Part 6: The Top Chest Exercises

Training the chest is not about using any ONE tool. It is about knowing your angles. So long as you work all three angles for chest, you can select your exercises however you want.

Is flat DB pressing better than flat bench pressing versus a flat Hammer Strength press? They are all equal. Which one feels better to YOU and recruits the chest more? You will find common preferences, but every one of you reading this IS unique. The exercises you like will not be the same as the next guy.

Two factors determine exercise selection. First: does this work the muscle you are trying to work? Do you actually feel this in your chest? Second: can this exercise be progressed with progressive resistance and progressive overload?

The following are favored chest movements that John and I both liked.

1. Flat Dumbbell Press. As long as dumbbells and benches have existed, this exercise has existed. It WORKS. DB pressing works for everyone. Most veteran bodybuilders consider DB pressing superior to bench press, and for good reason, vastly better pec engagement, you can adjust the movement to your body, and it is far safer to perform. You do not need a spotter if you have to bail.

2. Flat Machine Chest Press. A well designed chest press is a fantastic chest builder. A poorly designed one is awkward and useless. Hammer Strength equipment is generally well designed, but the only way to determine if a machine is effective is to get on it and see how it feels.

3. Low Incline Pressing (15-30 Degrees). This is not a specific exercise but an angle range. The 15-30 degree range is where you will work the most pec muscle with an emphasis on the upper pecs. This angle range is always less stressful on the rotator cuff and shoulder joint. You can use ANY implement, DBs, barbell, Smith machine, cables. DBs are the most practical. Smith machine pressing also works very well and is safer than the barbell, and can be progressed very heavy. If you want to emphasize middle and upper chest, stick with low incline pressing in this range and let the gains come.

4. Incline Barbell Press. John’s technique on these was specific and non-negotiable. Do not touch your chest, stop 2-3 inches short. Do not lock out, drive to about 80% lockout and come right back down. This range of motion keeps constant tension on the pecs and saved his rotator cuffs from chronic strain. Use a slight incline, not a steep one.

5. Cable Press. If you are a tall guy with long arms and dont have great chest genetics, you must try these. They can be done low, middle or high. Dont press the handles like you are bench pressing. Bring them together, use elbow bend, get a pec stretch, and treat it like the isolation movement it is.

6. Pushups. Everyone can do pushups. There is no man on earth that pushups do not work for. They work the pecs, shoulders, and triceps altogether. 50 pushups in a row is an achievable strength standard for any man. Start with the standard moderate grip, hands outside shoulder width. Do not overcomplicate this.

Part 7: Volume Periodization, How Much Does Your Chest Actually Need?

The mistake most guys make is piling up direct chest volume on top of already high indirect volume on the shoulders. They flat bench heavy, then incline bench heavy, then do 4 exercises of flyes,

they dont account for the shoulder joint being involved in all of this, and thats without any direct shoulder training,

then they wonder why their shoulders ache and their chest looks the same as it did 6 months ago.

With Meadows-style intensity techniques, forceful contractions, controlled eccentrics, loaded stretches, peak contraction holds, you do not need a high number of sets. The techniques do the work. Intensity takes precedence before volume.

But volume still matters. It just has to cycle.

Weeks 1-3: Medium Volume. 10-12 total direct sets for chest per week. 3-4 exercises. Focus on execution, mind-muscle connection, and establishing the intensity techniques. Do not add more, master what you have.

Weeks 4-9: High Volume. 12-16 total sets per week. Four to five exercises. Your body has adjusted to the intensity from the first phase, so you keep it off balance by adding more overall volume and total tonnage. This is where you bring in Smith machine constant tension work, rest-pause flat bench, pec minor dips, and drop sets. Add frequency — hit chest twice per week if recovery allows. Six weeks of grinding.

Weeks 10-12: Low Volume, Maximum Intensity. Drop to 8-10 total sets. Almost exclusively high intensity sets. Every set goes to failure or beyond. Drop sets, rest-pause, partials. This is the peak. You are squeezing the last drop of growth out of the stimulus you built over the previous nine weeks.

Weeks 13-14: Deload. 1-2 weeks of light training. Not optional. How do you know when you need it? John listed the signs: elevated resting heart rate, inability to generate force on heavier compound exercises, difficulty sleeping, sudden bad moods. The shoulder joint accumulates fatigue differently than muscles do. Tendons and ligaments need recovery time. The growth you see during the deload is often the most satisfying of the entire cycle.

Balancing Chest with Shoulder Training

If you train chest and shoulders on separate days, be mindful of total pressing volume. Heavy bench pressing on Monday and heavy overhead pressing on Wednesday means your front delts never recover and your shoulders accumulate damage. Either combine them on the same day (chest first, shoulders after) or ensure at least 72 hours between heavy pressing sessions.

John’s preferred approach was training shoulders after chest on push days. The front delts are already warm and pumped from pressing, so you can focus shoulder work on lateral and rear delts where it matters most. This prevents total weekly pressing volume from getting out of control.

Part 8: Strategic Failure

This is one of the most important concepts in John’s training philosophy—most people do not push hard enough.

He would rather see someone go to failure than always have reps in reserve. But he did not believe you should go to failure on every set.

If you are doing four exercises for chest at three to four sets each, that is 12-16 total sets. John said he personally could not go to true failure 16 times in a chest workout. Nobody can and be honest about it. What he wanted was one or two sets per exercise taken to complete failure, with the other sets being hard but not maximal.

Here is where the intelligence comes in. Where you go to failure depends on the equipment.

Barbells: Do not go past failure. Once form breaks on a barbell bench—flat, incline, or decline, rack it. Do not keep grinding with ugly reps until someone has to pick the bar off of you. That is how people tear pecs. Get your clean reps, rack it, move on.

Dumbbells: You can go to failure and even do a few partials after. You are in a safer position, if you fail, you drop the dumbbells. Drop sets work here too.

Machines: Now you can go beyond failure. Forced reps with a partner. Drop sets. Iso holds. Partials out of the stretched position. You are in a position of complete safety, so this is where you push the intensity past what you would ever attempt with a barbell. When the burning starts, your set starts.

John structured his programs around this principle: barbell work stays clean and controlled, and then as the workout moves to dumbbells and machines, the intensity techniques escalate. The barbell builds the foundation. The machines finish the job.

Advanced Techniques

Rest/Pause. These work best with machine presses and flat barbell bench done later in the routine. Set to near failure, rack the weight, rest 10-15 seconds, explode for more reps. John loved rest/pause on flat bench specifically because there is no fear of injury resting and exploding off your chest after you have already done 2-3 exercises and the pecs are gorged with blood.

Constant Tension. On almost all barbell chest exercises, lower with a controlled tempo and drive to 3/4 lockout before lowering right back down immediately. No resting at the top. No resting at the bottom. Combined with higher rep ranges of 15-25, this builds size and thickness that standard heavy low-rep pressing cannot replicate.

Partials. Performed out of both the stretched and contracted positions on machine exercises. On a Hammer Strength press: do 10 full reps, then pump out partial flexes at the top for 6 more. Or do 10 full reps followed by 20-30 partial reps out of the bottom for blood flow. Save these for machines where the movement path is controlled.

Drop Sets. Machines only, Smith, Hammer Strength, Cybex. John was not big on doing them with dumbbells because the arms give out too quickly. You are after deep pectoral stimulation, not triceps stimulation.

3-Second Descents. Free weight pressing with deliberate slow negatives forces the pecs to control the load through the entire range. Best on barbell inclines and flat presses, not on machines where the triceps take on too much work during slow eccentrics.

The Quint Press-and-Stretch. John learned this from John Quint, a myofascial therapist with one of the thickest chests he had ever seen. In between pressing sets, take a flexible band and perform a stretch that opens the pecs under tension. The pump reaches an insane level when you perform these with pecs already full of blood.

Part 9: Smart Chest Training Strategies

Strategy 1: Train your chest from all three angles with one exercise per angle. This ensures even development top to bottom.

Strategy 2: If you seriously lack upper chest and shoulder development, perform one exercise on a flat angle, one on a low incline, and one on a high incline.

Strategy 3: If you have a history of shoulder pain, impingement, pec tears, or bad posture, then put barbell pressing 3rd or 4th, or take it out entirely if it causes issues. Heavy bench pressing is not something most lifters can keep up past their 50s.

Strategy 4: Don’t start a workout with dips. They tend to fatigue the pecs heavily because the muscle is fully stretched and fully contracted. This compromises performance of other movements. They are best done last. This also ensures your shoulders and pecs are fully warmed up before doing them.

Strategy 5: Take the longest warmup for the first exercise. Once your chest and shoulder joint are pumped and working, you don’t need long warmups for your 2nd and 3rd exercises. For the first one, warmup in 2-3 sets of light to moderate weight before working sets.

Strategy 6: Go heavy and low reps (5-8) on only ONE of the exercises each workout. This stimulates the full range of fiber sizes. training strength, hypertrophy, and strength endurance all at once. Assuming three exercises: heavy exercise with working sets of 6, medium exercise with working sets of 8-10, light exercise with working sets of 10-20. Medium and light do not mean easy. They mean you are using weights at a less intense rep range relative to your 1 rep max.

Strategy 7: Stretch your pecs after training. Bad posture is already an epidemic, and getting tight pecs reinforces it. You do not want tight pecs pulling your shoulders into internal rotation and limiting range of motion. After training chest, stretch your pectorals for 2-3 minutes.

Strategy 8: If you seriously struggle with mind-muscle connection and the pecs are a weak muscle group, do the following: start with cable flys at low, middle, and high angles for 2-3 sets, squeezing the pecs and internally focusing on every set. Then perform ONE compound movement that you can feel the pecs working on. Pyramid up , 20 reps, then 15, then 10, then a hard set of about 8 reps to positive failure. Do this workout no more than twice a week for 6 weeks. I guarantee you will experience more pectoral growth than in the prior 6 months.

Use a mix of equipment. A lot of people are all “machines suck, they’re terrible, you should use barbells.” Then some people are all machines and never touch heavy barbell work. The answer is somewhere in the middle. John could not imagine not doing barbell work — a low incline barbell bench was his favorite exercise for chest. But he also could not imagine not using machines, which allow you to go to failure safely, work through controlled ranges of motion, and apply intensity techniques that would be dangerous with free weights. Dumbbells give you the natural arc and full stretch that barbells cannot. Cables give you constant tension that nothing else replicates. Use all of them. The sequencing matters more than the equipment.

Part 10: Troubleshooting Common Chest Problems

Stubborn Upper Chest. The most common complaint. Start every chest workout with incline work, no exceptions. Use 30-45 degree angles, not steeper. Emphasize dumbbell pressing over barbell for the greater range of motion. Implement daily activation work — 2-3 sets of light incline flyes every morning takes less than 5 minutes and will transform your upper chest development within 8-12 weeks. John found that most upper chest problems were not training problems. They were sequencing problems. Put incline first. Always.

Shoulder Pain During Chest Training. The number one chest day complaint. The fix starts with what you do before you press. Rear delt activation, rotator cuff work, and proper positioning should precede every chest session. Switch from barbell to dumbbell pressing. Reduce range of motion temporarily if needed. Focus on horizontal adduction movements rather than pure pressing. Face pulls every single workout, regardless of which body part you are training.

Lack of Inner Chest Development. Implement squeeze press variations. Use cable crossovers at multiple angles with a hard squeeze at the midline. Add isometric holds at peak contraction on every flye and crossover movement. The inner chest responds to constant tension and peak contraction, not heavy loads.

Flat, Shapeless Chest. This is usually a fiber recruitment problem, not a size problem. Stop doing exclusively flat pressing. Train all three regions with targeted angles. Add constant tension work with cables. Implement peak contraction holds on every isolation exercise. Use loaded stretching. It takes 12-16 weeks to see the shape change.

Chest Imbalances (Left vs. Right). Address the weaker side with a 2:1 volume ratio. Use unilateral training, single-arm cable flyes, single-arm dumbbell presses. Start every set with the weaker side. Match reps on the stronger side. Do not allow the strong side to compensate.

For Tall Lifters (6ft+): Long arms mean longer levers on pressing movements. You will not press as heavy as shorter lifters. Accept this. The mechanical disadvantage is real and permanent. Focus on dumbbells over barbells. Higher reps on pressing movements, always. 8-15 rep range. Cable and machine work are your best friends because they provide constant tension throughout the full range of motion that your long arms travel through. Do not get caught up in bench press numbers. Train the muscle, not the movement.

Part 11: Chest Workouts

Two complete chest sessions using the Meadows four-phase system — one for Phase 1 (medium volume) and one for Phase 2 (high volume).

Workout A: Phase 1 (Weeks 1-3)

A1. Band Pull-Aparts — 3 x 20 Controlled tempo, squeeze the shoulder blades at the back. Activate the rear delts and prepare the shoulders. (Activation)

A2. Light Cable Flyes — 2 x 15 Establish the mind-muscle connection. Feel the chest working, not the front delts. Slow and deliberate. (Activation)

B. Flat Dumbbell Twist Press — 3 x 10 Lie flat or on a slight incline. Lower the dumbbells with an arched chest for a deep stretch. As you drive up, turn your pinkies IN toward each other and squeeze hard at the top. (Phase 1)

C. Incline Barbell Press — 2 warm-up sets, then 3-4 x 8 Slight incline. Stop 2-3 inches above the chest. Drive to 3/4 lockout. Constant tension. Pyramid up in weight until you cannot get 8 reps. (Phase 2)

D. Machine Press and Stretch — 3 x 10 + 10 Do 10 reps on a chest press machine. Get up and perform 10 band press-and-stretches. 3 rounds. (Phase 3)

Workout B: Phase 2 (Weeks 4-9)

A1. Band Pull-Aparts — 3 x 20 (Activation)

A2. Light Cable Flyes — 2 x 15 (Activation)

B. Incline Dumbbell Press — 4 x 8 Pyramid up. Full stretch at the bottom. Drive to lockout and squeeze. Last set to failure. (Phase 1)

C. Smith Machine Slight Decline Press (Constant Tension) — 4 sets: 25, 20, 12, 8-10 reps. Wide grip. Lower to chest, drive to 3/4 lockout, right back down. Last set: go to failure, drop the weight and rep out, widen grip and rep out again. (Phase 2)

D. Flat Barbell Bench Press (Rest/Pause) — 4 x 6 R/P Lower with control. Pause on chest for 2 seconds. Explode up. Rest 10-15 seconds between clusters. Perfect form, explosive intent. (Phase 3)

E. Pec Minor Dips — 3 x Failure Arms straight throughout. Lower to a full stretch. Raise by flexing the chest. Add weight if possible. (Phase 4)

Finish: Band press-and-stretch — 10-15 reps between the last two exercises, or as a standalone finisher. (Phase 4)

Before We Begin

-EliteresearchUSA released some new research compounds this weekend, like Nostridamus. Use code AJAC10 for 10% Off

-Preorder Creatine for the Woman in your life from Ferta Supplements

-For the men that want to get their health DIALED IN with the best doctors in the world, work with Velocity

Lets Talk about PAIN and What you will Learn today

Pain is brain-made, not body-made. There’s no single pain receptor — your brain constructs pain from nerves, pressure, heat, visual cues, and your own expectations.

Your mindset changes your healing speed. People who believe they’re tough heal faster; people who believe they’re fragile become more sensitized to pain over time.

Medical imaging lies more than you think. MRIs routinely show damage in pain-free people and clean results in people with chronic pain.

The 1-10 pain scale was invented to sell drugs. The opioid industry created “pain culture” to convince you pain itself is a condition — but numbing symptoms doesn’t fix the cause.

A Personal History for Context

My personal standard for pain is when I contracted viral meningitis when I was 13. I was in school, and I started getting severe headaches to the point that I was PASSING OUT at my desk.

That level of pain is hard to describe. It was like a volt that would run through my brain, my head feeling as though it was about to explode, I would lose consciousness, and then wake up again. This being a public school, no one noticed.

I got home from school that day and was immediately taken to the hospital. The diagnosis was Viral Meningitis and Encephalitis (inflammation of the brain membrane) as I found out can kill people if left untreated. I was hospitalized for a week.

I don't remember much of this. I was hallucinating for half of it and had to have a constant IV as I was vomiting to the point that even sucking on ice was impossible.

Since then, thats been my pain metric. Am I passing out? No? Then I'm fine.

A few years later, I began my experience with chronic pain from an injury.

It was during a wrestling practice in high school, the head coach did his own version of hell week to wash out anyone who was not physically up to par.

I remember the experience distinctly, it came at the very end of practice, on Friday, and we were a few hundred reps into doing partner leg raises. My training partner pushed my legs down, and on the very last rep I felt a distinct pop in the lower right side of back, I learned later this was the quadratus lumborum muscle.

My back spasmed and locked up, something I had never experienced before. (for those unfamiliar with the term, A spasm is a protective action of the brain to prevent movement and further damage . The muscles of the affected area will become hypertonic and tight, preventing motion)

I was unsure what to do, but thankfully upon arriving home my father had muscle relaxers on hand from a prior prescription for himself for a past back injury.

As it was, I made it to practice on Monday, but from that point onward, my lower back was prone to spasms, and my low back would "go out" every 3-4 months for the next FOUR YEARS.

It was an unusual experience to have a “bad back” when you are in high school, and by the time I'd graduated, I'd estimate that I'd had at least a dozen painful episodes of severe back spasms and congenital low back pain.

Pain is a Catalyst for Learning

My chronic low back was the catalyst for my interest in fitness, as I did not want to live with this pain, and was determined to solve it. It was unacceptable that this was something I would live with the rest of my life.

The information age we live in today was not the state of the world in 2007 though. My experiences with doctors were hugely unhelpful, I was told the generic advice of “don’t do that if it hurts”, and the tired warnings of not to lift weights. I was given multiple prescriptions of muscle relaxers, and told to take NSAIDS whenever I needed them.

Any faith I had in doctors was largely diminished by the time I got to college. Most doctors didn’t lift, their knowledge (if it could even be called that) was lackluster, and it was obvious that I would need to solve this myself.

The life changing moment was sophomore year of college, when I discovered deadlifting through a Muscle & Fitness article.

At one time, fitness magazines were resource rich, with excellent content from experienced trainers and coaches. The article contained a 12 week program for deadlifting, along a with length written tutorial on all the benefits of the deadlift, strengthening the posterior chain, and why these muscles were essential for performance.

I began that 12 week program deadlifting 110lbs. I finished it 12 weeks later deadlifting 275. After repeating it again, I achieved a double bodyweight deadlift of 405 pounds.

This experience with both progressive overload and effective strength training was a revelation.

-If you have an injury and/or chonic pain you want to solve, become an expert in that injury. Healing yourself will require more knowledge than you have now

Training is the Power to Change yourself.

My back pain was gone, and while I admit I would later injure myself from deadlifting too frequently (what heals you can also hurt when done to excess), the mindset shift was permanent.

Whatever pain and injuries I might experience, there would ALWAYS be a solution to overcome them. (Barring death or literal paralysis of course).

As I would learn later on, one’s mindset toward pain matters as much as the pain itself.

Pain and Mindset

In my training career Ive trained alongside IFBB Pro Bodybuilders, World class level powerlifters, Strongmen, and various pro athletes.

I've seen people tear hamstrings, pecs, lats, shoulders, and every muscle you can think of. I've seen people bomb out on lifts and snort blood out their nose. I've watched people push themselves to the point of vomiting, convulsing, and passing out.

I've seen A LOT of people hurt themselves. (at the highest levels of sport, performance has nothing to do with health. The limits that true elite athletes push themselves to are not models to follow)

And I've also seen the same people come back from supposed "debilitating" injuries and get even STRONGER.

And Bigger.

And not give a shit that they got injured.

Training and learning from people that live on the extreme margins of bodily performance teaches you a lot about the body.

You see something in common among physically tough people: Pain does not stop them.

Pain is an Opportunity to Heal, and to Learn.

Their attitude towards pain is never catastrophic. And it is not dumb machismo either. Your belief will in your toughness (or fragility) will play a major role in the healing process. Believing you are TOUGHis always superior to believing you are weak.

How to Think About Pain

Firstly, lets start with Central Sensitization Theory: Pain science research shows that people generally fall into mindsets with how they think of Pain

1. The Strong Mindset-The individual inherently believes they can HANDLE pain. They don’t welcome it, but they are not afraid of it either. They view they body as being strong, resistant and capable. When exposed to pain, their perception of its intensity Decreases with time.

You can simplify their mindset to “what can’t hurt me makes me stronger”

Or...

2. The Fragility Mindset-These people view their body’s as being inherently fragile and easily hurt. They are fearful of pain, and when exposed to it, they become increasingly sensitized to it, so much that their perception of pain INCREASES, to the effect that what would be MINOR pain hurts MORE, and would be "moderate" pain is severe.

Whats even more fascinating is that pain can be present without ANY physical trigger at all. The BRAIN can create a "pain" status in the complete absence of physical trauma of any kind. The thought of pain is enough to trigger Pain

-I've known people who laughed at fracturing their SPINE. They were in horrifying pain and were laughing.

I've also known people who get worried if they feel the slightest discomfort doing any kind of exercise. They would be afraid of hurting before any actual exertion.

Your psychology directs your physiology

Its been well known in pain science for a very long time ones mental attitude alters the pain experience, and recovery process.

You heal faster if you BELIEVE you heal faster. Pain is psychosomatic, its not purely physical. How you think about it changes the experience of it.

What is seen see over and over again in clinical evidence and anecdotal practice are the people who recover from injury and tolerate pain well have the aforementioned “Strong Mindset”, which grants them both a high pain tolerance, and confidence in their ability to heal.

Believing you are tough, believing you can heal, and believing pain is a temporary obstacle appear to do as much for healing as any physical protocol.

You can think this is chest beating machismo, but pain science backs it up many times over.

You want to heal FAST? Get like Wolverine and brainwash yourself into believing you have a mutant healing factor. It will help.

Secondly, Pain is also not objectively quantifiable or measurable. There is no singular cellular receptor responsible for Pain in the body. Pain is a multi-factor experience that is 100% Brain made.

Pain IS an Opinion (this does not mean that pain is real, pain is very real, but what pain is cannot clearly be defined)

Medical science has found that sensorial pain and physical trauma do NOT coincide like you think they would.

What are the factors that create Pain? They are as follows

-You have the nerves that run through the muscles

-You have the nerves that run through the skin

-You have the innervation of fascia

-You have the innervation of the joints

-You have receptors for pressure

-You have receptors for heat

-You have your own visual assessment (ever seen a little kid freak out when they see blood, but be perfectly fine the second prior to seeing it? Seeing is believing)

-You have your attitude towards pain. High pain tolerance and low pain tolerance will experience events differently

All of these inputs get sent to the brain and turned into “I am HURTING”. The experience and perception pain is shaped by the brains interpretation of information from the multitude of nerves and various receptor cells in the affected area, as well as the individuals attitude and expectations.

When you realize Pain is a biopsychosocial signal that the brain creates, it becomes quite a weird thing to think about.

A Systems Perspective is Better than a Compartmentalized One

The opioid industry is largely responsible for the 1-10 pain scale and leading people to believe that PAIN was something that required its own treatment. (The 1-10 scale is entirely a creation of drug companies to sell more drugs).

This 1-10 Scale and the subsequent development of “pain culture” has created a common perception that pain itself is a unique individual factor that must be treated.

Are you in PAIN? My god, you need drugs then! How could you hope to function while in pain!

While you can numb and sedate the nervous system into not feeling pain, this DOES NOT solve for the conditions that created that pain. What exactly are we treating with pain killers? Inflammation? Psychological sensitization? A neurological neuropathy with no root cause?

There is no CLEAR answer to these questions.

For some forms of pain, there is a clear relationship between stimulus and experience:
Compound fractures, burns, tearing a muscle or tendon off of bone. Immense physical trauma absolutely hurts, no question.

But pain from trauma is very different from the chronic and general pain that most people experience. Trauma pain is arguably easier to solve.

For things like rotator cuff tears, discs, joint degeneration, muscle strains, knee degeneration, there is no clear connection between these conditions, the pain experienced, and the objective decay/damage to the area in question.

Sham Surgeries to solve these pain relieve pain as much as REAL surgeries.

Low back pain is common in 3/4 of people. Most of this is Non Specific, there is no injury.

Medical imaging is notoriously unreliable for low back pain. And shoulder pain, and even knee pain.

Many people have abnormal imaging, but they are experiencing zero pain. Someone else can have a perfectly healthy joint on an MRI, but their pain is chronic.

In fitness practice, it is common that people report pain from their “bad” posture. But there is no medical definition on what GOOD posture even this, and many people have spinal abnormalities that could be called “bad” but they are pain free.

Medical science is also riddled with people who suffer supposedly debilitating injuries and they walk around nearly pain free. Or walk into the hospital with an injury that you would expect to incapacitate a person, and they are…fine, aside from their grievous injury

The Belief itself that pain can be explained by physical structural issues is questionable and unproven.

Pain is NOT a Linear Process

There is a strong desire in medicine, and the general public, to be presented with straightforward, “A is because of B” models of explanation, and then have that followed with a “Just do THIS” simple solution.

Pain is not that simple.

Modern Science does NOT know much about Pain when you get nitty gritty, but we can establish a few concrete Premises

A) Its a problem for people, and they want to get rid of it

B) A lot of things seem to work, and not work, for fixing it. Exercise seems to work the most reliably

C) A positive mindset is a reliable factor in healing. Thinking fragile will not help you.

Now that Ive likely blown apart most of your preconceived beliefs about pain, what do you actually DO for injuries and rehab? Where do you start?

Important-I am of the position to always give credit where credit is due, and I want to reference the Painscience.com website by Paul Ingrahm as the definitive site for all things pain related, Ive been reading it for years and linked to it multiple times in this article. If you would like to explore pain more and enjoyed reading this, please go read his site.

That will be covered in Part 2

When I first met John, his shoulders were one of the first things you noticed. Thick, round, capped delts that looked like they were bolted onto his frame. The kind of shoulders that made a t-shirt look like body armor.

Between the two of us, shoulder training was where we aligned the most in philosophy. I had dealt with years of shoulder pain from force feeding exercise selection and a beaked acromion in my left shoulder that created recurrent impingement. John had navigated shoulder pain and dysfunction throughout his entire competitive career. We both learned the hard way that shoulders are the easiest joint to destroy and the hardest to rebuild.

What made John brilliant with shoulder training was that he treated the shoulder as what it actually is; the most complex and vulnerable joint in the body.

John was longevity minded before the term was ever a mainstream cultural concept.

He always thought systematically about creating shoulders that were both impressive and bulletproof. His personal and professional experience was unmatched, everything he advocated came from years of trial and error, watching what actually worked on himself and hundreds of clients.

What you’ll learn today:

• Why most guys have overworked front delts, non-existent rear delts, and chronic shoulder pain-and the exact sequencing fix that solves all three

• The 3 deltoid heads and why training only 2 of them creates the imbalance that leads to impingement

• Progressive resistance applied to shoulders-why lateral raises with 20lb dumbbells done correctly will build more size than 50lb cheat raises

• John’s signature shoulder exercises that are now staples in gyms worldwide

• A complete four-phase shoulder workout with built-in periodization

Before We Begin

-YourProtocol now has Epitalon and Pinealon, the most powerful peptide combo for restoring circadian alignment. Use code AJAC at checkout

-Preorder Creatine for the Woman in your life from Ferta Supplements

-For the men that want to get their health DIALED IN with the best doctors in the world, work with Velocity

Wide shoulders are the single most impactful feature on a male physique.

Broad shoulders make your waist look narrower, your arms look bigger, and your entire frame look more powerful. The shoulder-to-waist ratio is the Adonis Index, and it is the oldest measure of male physical attractiveness going back to Greek sculpture. If you build nothing else, build your shoulders.

Shoulder genetics fall into the same four categories I outlined for arms:

The Elite: Naturally wide clavicles with round, full deltoid muscles in all three heads. Shoulders respond to any stimulus. If this is you, you already know it.

The Gifted. Good width with natural muscle mass in the delts. Pressing movements build size easily. May lack rear delt development or the 3D capped look, but the raw material is there.

The Average. Shoulders dont stand out until directly and consistently trained. Front delts grow from pressing, but side and rear delts require focused attention. Results come with time and intelligent programming.

The Stubborn. Narrow clavicles. Flat delts that refuse to round out. Side delts that seem to vanish no matter how many lateral raises you do. You need precise exercise selection, targeted tension, high frequency, and extreme patience.

This guide applies to everyone, regardless of genetics. Your results will vary based on genetic talent.

Part 1: Functional Anatomy

John and I shared the same mindset that basic anatomy and biomechanics are fundamental to effective training. The shoulder is more complex than most people realize.

The deltoid has three distinct heads. They are separate muscles with separate functions. Training them requires separate approaches.

Anterior (Front) Deltoid. Raises the arm forward. Flexion. This is trained by every pressing movement you do; bench press, overhead press, push-ups. The front delt is the MOST overtrained muscle in most lifters’ bodies. It gets hit on chest day, shoulder day, and every time you press anything. Most guys do not need additional front delt isolation work.

Lateral (Side) Deltoid. Raises the arm out to the side. Abduction. This is the muscle that creates the wide, capped shoulder look. It is the hardest to develop and the most important for aesthetics. Lateral raises in all their variations are the primary tool. This is where most of your direct shoulder work should be focused.

Posterior (Rear) Deltoid. Pulls the arm backward. Horizontal abduction and external rotation. This is the most neglected head in almost every lifter. Weak rear delts cause shoulder impingement, rounded posture, and an incomplete look from the side. John was relentless about rear delt training.

The critical imbalance John saw constantly: front delts are overstimulated from all the pressing, rear delts are weak, and anterior shoulder pain is common. You have to fix this imbalance.

The Rotator Cuff

Four small muscles that stabilize the shoulder joint. They are not glamorous. They will never be visible. But if they are weak or dysfunctional, every pressing and raising movement you do is compromised. Rotator cuff health is the foundation of shoulder longevity.

John never skipped rotator cuff activation work. Neither should you.

Part 2: Progressive Resistance for Shoulders

Everything I explained about progressive resistance in the arm training article applies even MORE to shoulders.

Any kind of deltoid raise is an isolation exercise. You do not have infinite loading capacity. No one is doing strict lateral raises with 100lb DBs. The stability and weight requirements put a hard cap on how much weight you can use long term. The guys trying to swing 50lb dumbbells on lateral raises are using momentum, traps, and ego to move the weight. Do you want bigger shoulders, or shoulders that breakdown over time? Choose one.

John understood this better than anyone. His lateral raise technique was meticulous. Slow eccentrics. Controlled raises. A deliberate pause at the top. No swinging. No heaving. No ego.

Much like the stories of Arnold never using much more than 35lb dumbbells for arms, the same applies to deltoids.

Learn how to use 15-25lb dumbbells for lateral raises and you get more growth stimulus than guys trying to use twice the weight. This is progressive resistance in action: increasing the RESISTANCE on the target muscle.

For shoulders specifically, this means: slow your reps down. Eliminate momentum completely. Position your body to isolate the target delt head. Squeeze hard at the peak. Control the negative. Use angles and body position to create maximum tension with minimum weight.

The internal shoulder joint is small and vulnerable. Going heavy and sloppy is a setup for impingement, rotator cuff tears, and labrum damage. Go light and precise. Milk every rep for everything its worth. Then earn the right to add weight.

Part 3: Shoulder Training—Principles and Exercises

The Optimal Shoulder Workout Sequence

This sequencing comes directly from John Meadows.

First: Activate the rear delts and rotator cuff. Before touching any serious weight, you must prepare the shoulder joint. Band pull-aparts, face pulls with external rotation, light rear delt flyes with controlled tempos. This is not a warm-up you rush through. This is injury prevention AND it addresses the most common weakness — rear delt underdevelopment.

Most peoples shoulders are a mess before they even start training. The front delts are overactive, the rear delts are dormant, and the rotator cuff is compromised. Five minutes of activation work can save you months of shoulder problems.

Start every shoulder workout with 3-4 sets of band pull-aparts and face pulls. 15-20 reps. Controlled. Deliberate. This sets the foundation for everything that follows.

Second: A compound pressing movement. Now that the rear delts are activated, the rotator cuff is warm, and the joint is lubricated, you earn the right to press. Seated dumbbell shoulder press was Johns personal favorite. He preferred dumbbells over barbells for the natural movement pattern and reduced shoulder stress. Machine shoulder press variations are also excellent.

Johns pressing technique emphasized controlled eccentrics, full range of motion, and “owning the weight” rather than simply moving it from point A to point B. This is not a strength competition. This is about working the muscle.

3-5 sets of 6-12 reps, adding weight each set. Perfect form. Every rep.

Third: Lateral raise variations for side delt development. This is where the width shoulder building happens. The pressing warmed the joint and hit the front and side delts. Now you isolate the side delt with targeted lateral work.

This is where Johns innovative exercise selection truly shined. He developed and popularized variations that eliminated cheating and maximized tension on the lateral head. Cable lateral raises, incline lateral raises, machine laterals, all designed to remove momentum and force the side delt to do the work.

3-5 sets of 10-15 reps. Slow and controlled. Peak contraction held for a beat.

Fourth: Rear delt isolation and loaded stretching. You started the workout with rear delt activation. You finish with rear delt destruction. Machine Rear delts, reverse flyes, Y-raises, rear delt cable flyes. Then loaded stretching to finish, behind-the-back cable stretches, cross-body stretches with isometric holds. 30-60 seconds under tension.

The Top 5 Shoulder Exercises

This is not a definitive list of every possible exercise. These are favorite and effective movements, feel free to experiment and find your personal favorites.

1. Incline Bench press. Johns number one choice. If he could only do one shoulder exercise for the rest of his life, this would be it. Set up on the angled bench, lower the bar to about 3-4 inches above the chest, smooth reps. John favored pyramid sets on this, and working up to a heavy set in the 6-8 rep range. This could also be done on smith machine

2. Cable Lateral Raises. Cables provide constant tension throughout the entire range of motion, eliminating the dead spot that dumbbells have at the bottom. Stand about one foot from the cable stack, use an individual handle set at the lowest position, and raise to just above parallel. These were a staple in Johns programming and for good reason — the pump is unreal and the tension never lets up.

3. Face Pulls with External Rotation. The single best exercise for rear delts AND rotator cuff health simultaneously. Use a rope attachment on a cable set at face height. Pull toward your face, then rotate your hands outward so your arms finish in an externally rotated position. This trains the rear delt through its primary function while strengthening the external rotators. John used these in nearly every shoulder workout.

4. Incline Lateral Raise (The Meadows Lateral Raise). Set an incline bench to about 60 degrees. This eliminates momentum and helps to isolate the deltoids for constant tension. You cannot cheat these. Even 10-15lb dumbbells become brutal. John developed this variation specifically to address the problem of guys swinging weight on standard lateral raises. 3-4 sets of 12-15 reps.

5. DB rear delt raises. One of Johns most famous workouts was doing sets of these for 20-30 reps for 2-4 sets, and THEN doing pressing work. Not something you need to do every workout, but the practice of high rep rear delts works fantastic. The rear delt machine and cables are another option. 2-3 sets in the 15-30 rep range.

Part 4: Putting It All Together in a Workout

You have read a lot of principles. Here is how they actually combine into a single shoulder session.

A Meadows-style shoulder session follows a specific sequence.

You always start with activation. Band pull-aparts, face pulls, rotator cuff work. Higher reps, controlled tempos. The first thing you do sets up everything else. These are working sets, but you are also warming the joint, activating dormant muscles, and establishing the mind-muscle connection with the rear delts.

Then you press. Now that the shoulder is prepared and the stabilizers are firing, you earn the right to load up. Seated dumbbell press or machine press. This is your strength work. Perfect form, controlled eccentrics, moderate reps. You are building the mechanical tension that drives growth in the front and side delts simultaneously.

Then you isolate the side delts. Higher reps, constant tension, peak contractions held for a beat. Cable laterals, incline laterals, machine laterals. This is where metabolic stress does its work. The side delts respond best to volume and tension, not heavy loads.

Then you finish with rear delts and a stretch under load. Rear delt flyes, Kelso shrugs, Y-raises. Then hold a loaded stretch — cables behind the back, cross-body with isometric holds. This is 5 minutes of work that most people skip entirely. It provides a final growth stimulus and accelerates recovery between sessions.

Throughout the entire workout: forceful contractions on every rep. Three-second negatives on at least one exercise. Controlled tempos everywhere. No swinging, no momentum, no ego.

Part 5: How Much Volume Do Your Shoulders Actually Need?

Shoulders are trained more than you think. Every bench press, every incline press, every dip, every push-up hits the front delts. Rows and pull-ups hit the rear delts. Your shoulders are getting indirect volume from almost every upper body movement.

The mistake most guys make is piling direct shoulder volume on top of already high indirect volume. They press heavy for chest, then press heavy again for shoulders, then wonder why their shoulders ache constantly.

With Meadows-style intensity techniques — forceful contractions, controlled eccentrics, loaded stretches, peak contraction holds — you do not need a high number of sets.

The techniques do the work. Intensity takes precedence before volume.

But volume still matters. It just has to cycle.

Weeks 1-3: Medium Volume. 8-10 total direct sets for shoulders per week. Three exercises. Focus on execution, mind-muscle connection, and establishing the intensity techniques. The pressing sets count. The lateral work counts. The rear delt work counts. Dont add more — master what you have.

Weeks 4-9: High Volume. 12-18 total sets per week. Four to five exercises. Add frequency — hit shoulders twice per week. Increase the lateral raise variations. Add more rear delt volume. Introduce drop sets and rest-pause to your isolation work. Six weeks of grinding.

Weeks 10-12: Low Volume, Maximum Intensity. Drop to 6-8 total sets. Two or three exercises. But every set goes to failure or beyond. This is the peak. You are squeezing the last drop of growth out of the stimulus you built over the previous nine weeks.

Weeks 13-14: Deload. 1-2 weeks of light training. Not optional. The shoulder joint accumulates fatigue differently than muscles do. Tendons and ligaments need recovery time. The growth you see during the deload is often the most satisfying of the entire cycle.

One more thing. Account for your pressing volume on other days. If you are bench pressing heavy twice a week, your front delts are already getting hammered. You do not need 6 sets of overhead pressing on top of that. Be intelligent about total pressing volume across your entire program.

Part 6: Advanced Techniques for Stubborn Shoulders

When shoulders need extra attention beyond standard training, these advanced techniques provide the additional stimulus needed to force growth.

Iso-Tension Holds

The same technique Meadows applied to arms works beautifully for shoulders. At the top of each lateral raise, hold the peak contraction for 8-10 seconds. This teaches you to contract the side delt maximally and creates enormous metabolic stress. Apply this to any lateral raise or rear delt variation.

Pre-Exhaustion

Perform lateral raises BEFORE pressing. This ensures the side delts are the limiting factor during the press, rather than the triceps. Your pressing numbers will drop. Your side delt stimulation will skyrocket.

Giant Sets

Meadows loved giant sets for shoulders. Front raise into lateral raise into rear delt flye—one set for each head, no rest between. 3 rounds. This creates an incredible pump and hits all three heads in rapid succession. Use light weight. The metabolic stress is the stimulus.

Loaded Stretching

After your last working set, hold the stretched position under load for 30-60 seconds. For side delts: let a dumbbell hang at your side and lean away from a post, stretching the delt. For rear delts: hold a cable in a cross-body position under tension. Extreme mechanical tension in the lengthened position is one of the strongest stimuli for hypertrophy.

High-Frequency Stimulation

For truly stubborn shoulders, Meadows recommended training 2-3 times weekly. With this strategy, volume would be low in every workout, and you’d leave a rep or two in the tank on sets. This required actively managing training and making sure that you recovered between sessions. You would also want to vary the rep ranges in each workout, 6-10 in the first , 8-12 in the second, and 12-15+ in the third, then repeat.

Part 7: Troubleshooting—Solving Common Shoulder Problems

Shoulder Impingement

The number one shoulder complaint in the gym. The front delts are overdeveloped, the rear delts are weak, and the rotator cuff is compromised. The fix: prioritize rear delt development 2:1 over front delts. Use neutral grip variations whenever possible. Avoid overhead pressing until the imbalance is corrected. Emphasize scapular mobility and stability. Face pulls every single workout.

Stubborn Side Delts

Increase training frequency to every 48 hours. Use cable variations for constant tension. Implement the Meadows incline lateral raise to eliminate cheating. Add iso-tension holds to every set. Vary angles — slightly in front, directly to the side, slightly behind. Each angle hits different fibers.

Lagging Rear Delts

Train them first in the workout, not last. Increase frequency to every training session, regardless of what body part is being trained. 2-3 sets of face pulls or band pull-aparts before every workout takes less than 3 minutes and will transform your rear delts within 8 weeks.

Chronic Shoulder Pain

Start with isometric holds and very light weights. Focus on pain-free range of motion only. Gradually progress over 6-8 weeks. Never train through sharp pain. Dull ache after activation is acceptable. Sharp pain during movement is a stop sign. Switch the exercise, dont push through it. John was adamant about this.

Shoulder Imbalances

Address the weaker head with a 2:1 volume ratio. Use the mirror honestly — most guys have overdeveloped front delts and underdeveloped everything else. If your shoulders look round from the front but flat from the side, you need more lateral work. If they disappear when you turn sideways, you need rear delt work. Monitor progress with weekly photos from multiple angles.

Part 8: Special Considerations

For Tall Lifters (6ft+)

Long arms mean longer levers on pressing movements. You will not press as heavy as shorter lifters. Accept this. Focus on dumbbells over barbells for pressing — the natural arc is easier on long-levered shoulder joints. Lateral raises with cables are your best friend — constant tension compensates for the mechanical disadvantage. Higher reps, always. 10-20 rep range for isolation work.

Balancing Shoulders with Chest Training

If you train chest and shoulders on separate days, be mindful of total pressing volume. Heavy bench pressing on Monday and heavy overhead pressing on Wednesday means your front delts never recover. Either combine them on the same day (chest first, shoulders after) or ensure at least 72 hours between heavy pressing sessions.

Johns preferred approach was training shoulders after chest on push days, taking advantage of the pre-fatigue. The front delts are already warm and pumped from pressing, so you can focus your shoulder work on side and rear delts where it matters most.

Building the V-Taper

Wide shoulders are only half the equation. The V-taper — the visual ratio of shoulder width to waist — requires both building the shoulders AND keeping the waist tight. Lateral delt development creates the width. Keeping bodyfat in check reveals it. You can have the biggest shoulders in the world and they wont look wide if your waist is 40 inches.

Part 9: Cannonball Delts Workout

A complete shoulder session using the four-phase system.

A1. Band Pull-Aparts — 3 x 20 Controlled tempo, squeeze the shoulder blades at the back. Activate the rear delts. (Phase 1)

A2. Face Pulls with External Rotation — 3 x 15 Rope attachment, face height. Pull and rotate. Feel the rear delts and rotator cuff fire. (Phase 1)

B. Smith Machine High Incline Shoulder Press — 4 x 10, 8, 8, 6 Full range of motion. Control the descent. Own the weight. Add weight each set. (Phase 2)

C1. Cable Lateral Raises — 3 x 12-15 One arm at a time. Constant tension. Pause at the top for a one-count. No swinging. (Phase 3)

C2. Incline Lateral Raise (Meadows Lateral) —3 x 12-15 on incline bench. Light weight with DBs. Feel every fiber. (Phase 3)

D. Rear Delt Cable Flyes — 3 x 15-20 Cables set at shoulder height. Cross the arms in front, pull back to full contraction. Squeeze. (Phase 4)

Finish: Cross Body stretching for rear delts—30-60 seconds each. (

Train hard. Build the V-taper.

The Wolverine Peptide Protocol has circulated for years in the biohacker world.

Originally it was BPC-157+TB500.

Then it was discovered that including GHK-cu could make it more effective.

Next was including a growth hormone secretagogue of some kind.

After then recently it has been KPV.

To be extremely clear, this is all anecdotal experimentation. There is never going to be a study from the Mayo clinic, or any mainstream scientific body.

This is the true cutting edge practices that happen in the world of enhanced healing and enhanced performance.

#DYOR

Do Your Own Research.

So what does the current Wolverine Protocol look like?

Read more

Between the two of us, you could not have found more opposite bodytypes.

John was about 5’8, naturally had a very thick neck and dense muscle, and had gotten 18 inch arms in HS simply by blasting them with a kitchen sink approach.

Im over 6ft, naturally built lanky with orangutang arms, and getting my arms to grow has been my muscle building struggle. Ive always been prone to bicep and tricep tendinitis, and training stupid has little reward.

However, what made John such a great coach was that he understood EVERYONE has unique struggles with muscle growth, and unlike many coaches who default to their genetic talent, he always had a mindset of approaching training intelligently.

Its why his training systems were so powerful. They were designed as if you were NOT gifted, and consequently they deliver results for all ranges of genetics.

What you’ll learn today:

• The exact exercise order John Meadows used for arm training-and why doing it backwards is the #1 cause of elbow pain and bicep tears

• Progressive Resistance vs. Progressive Overload-the single concept shift that makes lighter weights build bigger arms

• The overlooked muscle sitting between your biceps and triceps that makes your entire arm look wider (and the 4 exercises that target it)

• A complete 4-phase arm workout with built-in periodization — from warm-up to loaded stretch, nothing left to guess

Before We Begin

-Yourprotocol now has Epitalon and Pinealon, the most powerful peptide combo for restoring circadian alignment. Use code AJAC at checkout

-Preorder Creatine for the Woman in your life from Ferta Supplements

-For the men that want to get their health DIALED IN with the best doctors in the world, work with Velocity

Every Man wants muscular arms.

If you are like most guys, arms were probably the first thing you trained when you started working out, and you had a dedicated arm day every week.

Arm muscularity is the easiest way to determine your natural muscle-building genetics. I categorize Arm genetics fall into four categories:

The Elite: Long muscle bellies and exceptional size, separation, and definition, despite never training arm. Arms will grow from simple pushups and pullups. Any direct arm work almost instantly and delivers superlative results, with a minimum of thinking. This is competitive bodybuilder, IFBB pro level genetics. If this is you, you already know it.

The Gifted. Naturally muscular arms with mass, but lacks the elite separation, definition, and shape. Will have long muscle bellies in biceps or triceps. Arms are a favorite muscle group to train and elite results are possible.

The Average. Arms don’t grow until trained directly. Any serious size will be built over a long period of time. Having truly “HOOGE” arms is never happening, but can still reach an impressive level of visual development. Separation and definition are seen only at low bodyfat levels.

The Stubborn. Arms barely grow. Short muscle bellies. Lack of definition, even with size. You need to get very focused, very customized, and train with brutal consistency.

This guide applies to everyone, regardless of genetics. Your results will vary base on genetic talent.

Part 1: Functional Anatomy

John and I shared the same mindset that basic anatomy and biomechanics are fundamental to effective training. Luckily the arms are simple.

Your arm muscles have two primary functions.

Flexion is the action of pulling your hand towards your body and bending your elbow. This is a bicep curl motion.

Extension is the action of straightening your lower arm and extending your elbow. This is a tricep motion.

Biceps: Three Grip Positions

Supinated grip (palm up): Maximum biceps emphasis. Standard curl position.

Neutral grip (palm facing midline): Works both biceps and forearms equally. You are structurally strongest in this position because this is the natural alignment your body supports. This is a hammer curl.

Pronated grip (palm down): Forearms and wrist emphasized. This is a reverse curl.

For complete development, you need to train all 3 positions.

Triceps: Three Elbows Positions

Downward (pushdown position): Upper arm in line with torso. Works the intermediate and short head.

Horizontal (pressing position): Upper arm horizontal with torso. Works all three heads. This is close grip bench press, close grip pushup, skullcrusher type movements.

Overhead (extension position): Upper arm is vertical. Specifically targets the long head-the largest of the three muscles and the one most people neglect.

The long head is the bottom of the arm and the biggest of the three. The lateral head creates the horseshoe shape. The medial head lies between the two.

To fully develop your triceps, you must train all three angles. John emphasized this relentlessly, most guys only do pushdowns, and pushdowns alone will never build complete triceps.

Part 2: Progressive Resistance

You’ve heard of progressive overload: continually increasing the demands on the musculoskeletal system to make gains in muscle size and strength.

What you likely have not heard of is Progressive Resistance. This concept, from bodybuilding coach Shelby Starnes, changes the way you should think about arm training.

Progressive resistance means increasing the RESISTANCE placed on the working muscle WITHOUT necessarily increasing the LOAD.

This is critical for arms. Unlike many other muscle groups, your arms can only get so strong. Bicep curls and tricep extensions are single joint movements. Trying to go stupid heavy on them is a setup for injury.

Arnold rarely used anything heavier than 35lb dumbbells for arm training. Almost every great bodybuilder learns the same lesson: arms respond to intense RESISTANCE, with LOAD being secondary.

What this means in practice: slow down your reps. Be precise with your technique. Position your body to place maximum stress on the biceps or triceps. Create constant tension throughout the entire range of motion. Squeeze hard at the peak contraction. Control the negative.

Progressive resistance means you milk every gram of growth possible out of the weights you use before you move up. Going from jerk-curling 40s to slow-curling 20s for a burn does not look impressive. But it will produce greater arm growth. Every time.

Meadows’ methods reinforced this through what he called mechanical tension progression; advancing not just through added weight, but through perfect form progression, range of motion increases, and tempo manipulation. His iso-tension holds (holding peak contraction for 8-10 seconds at the end of each set) are a direct application of this principle.

Part III: Biceps Training-Principles and Exercises

The Optimal Biceps Workout Sequence

This sequencing comes direct from John Meadows.

First: Train the forearms and brachialis. The brachialis is the forgotten muscle. It sits between the biceps and triceps, and as it develops, it actually pushes the biceps and triceps further away from one another, creating a wider-appearing arm. Meadows called it the “Lee Priest muscle” because Priest’s was always so pronounced. A lot of bodybuilding is creating an illusion, and a developed brachialis is one of the best ways to project a massive arm.

The best exercises for brachialis are cross-body hammer curls (Meadows’ favorite), regular hammer curls, reverse grip EZ-bar curls, and rope hammer curls on a low pulley.

One critical technique detail from Meadows: grip the dumbbell as hard as you can throughout the entire rep. He got this tip from Jim Seitzer (who was assisting Mike Francois at the time) and said it was key to getting past arm training ruts. Gripping hard increases neuromuscular activation through irradiation, your entire arm fires harder when the grip is maximal.

Start every biceps workout with one of these movements. 4 sets of 10-15 reps, minimal rest.

Second: Train the lower biceps. Think of someone like Vince Taylor with full, long biceps right down to the elbow — that fullness is what makes arms look mammoth. Preacher curls have been the favorite of all-time greats like Larry Scott for exactly this reason. Machine preacher curls, EZ-bar preacher curls, or any curl where you let the arm fully extend at the bottom will drive blood to the lower biceps.

Here is the critical sequencing point: NEVER start with heavy preacher curls. Meadows saw people tear their biceps from doing heavy preachers as their first movement with cold arms. Preacher curls are meant to be done with a pumped arm. By starting with hammer curls for the brachialis first, you warm up the lower biceps in the process before crushing them with preachers. The exercises naturally flow into each other. 3-5 sets of 6-10 reps, squeezing hard at the peak contraction.

Third: A traditional “heavy” curl. Barbell curl or EZ-bar curl, done with strict form and three-second negatives. By now your arms are pumped and pre-fatigued. Like heavy bench press for chest, heavy barbell curls are best performed when the muscle is full of blood and less prone to tears or strains. The target muscle is more likely to give out first with this sequence, rather than a tendon or ligament. 3-4 sets of 6-10 reps.

The Top 5 Biceps and Forearm Exercises

This not a definitive list of every possible exercise. These are favorite and effective movements, feel free to experiment and find your personal favorites.

1. Strict Curls (Straight Bar or EZ Curl Bar). Either implement can compete for the best exercise title. Straight bar works phenomenally, but for some people it aggravates the biceps tendon and wrists. Actively grip the bar, curl up right underneath the chin, keep elbows tight, lower with control. Can be done pronated or supinated.

2. Seated Incline Dumbbell Curls. Set a bench to 60 degrees, lean back fully, get the chest up, retract the shoulder blades, grip the dumbbells, slightly curl the wrist, and curl all the way up. I prefer alternating arms. Done right, these tear up the muscle belly and deliver a wicked pump

3. Dumbbell Hammer Curls. Can be all some people need for building impressive forearms and biceps. Highly functional, completely joint-friendly, and a great grip exercise. Meadows used hammer curls as a staple execise

4. Machine Preacher Curls. Find one that allows for a good peak contraction. Some machines feel awkward, others you feel the biceps immediately. If unavailable, use a freestanding preacher bench with an EZ-curl bar. 2-5 sets of 10-15 reps, squeezing hard at the top.

5. Cable Curls(supinated or pronated). Cables provide constant tension throughout the entire range of motion. Stand about one foot back from the cable stack. Individual handles work best. Meadows’ preferred variation was cable curls from below, which provide maximal tension at peak contraction. 2-5 sets of 10-15 reps.

Part 3: Triceps Training-Principles and Exercises

The Optimal Triceps Workout Sequence

First: A pushdown or kickback. This is not just a warm-up, this is an injury prevention strategy. Lifters constantly complain that skullcrushers and extensions shred their elbows. Meadows found that by getting blood into the triceps and elbows FIRST with pushdowns, you can do extensions later in the routine without the pain. Rope pushdowns are the best option here. Get a hard flex at the bottom of every rep, drive blood into the joint. Pushdowns alone can yield a lot of growth.

Second: A loaded compound or dipping movement. Dips, machine dips, close grip bench, or triceps-dominant pushups. Now that triceps are flush with blood, you can go heavy. This is your strength movement. Meadows loved heavy machine dip negatives here — use a weight that is a hard 6 reps, and focus on the 3-second descent. A great, safe way to overload the triceps with heavy weight.

Third: An extension or stretching movement. This is where lying extensions and skullcrushers go. Only do these at the END when your triceps are fully warm, pumped, and fatigued. Up to this point, every exercise has been about flexing hard and moving heavy weight. Now you move in for the knockout with a movement that stretches the target muscle under load. Incline EZ-bar extensions are ideal — try to lower the weight a little more behind your head on each set, and pause for a second in the stretched position. Skullcrushers should NEVER be done for less than 10 reps.

The Top 5 Triceps Exercises

This not a definitive list of every possible exercise. These are favorite and effective movements, feel free to experiment and find your personal favorites.

1. Pushdowns-A classic exercise that is a staple in everyones training. These can be done various ways, but the basics dont change. Use moderate reps, get a pump, contract the triceps on every rep

2. Machine Dips. These were a favorite of Johns. They overload the tricep and allow you to emphasize the negative. Pyramid reps work well: 20, 16, 12, 10, 8, adding weight every set.

3. Close Grip Bench Press. Could be the number one movement for some people. Also works chest and shoulders, so program it strategically. Hands at shoulder width or slightly inside. Lower the bar to the lower sternum. Wrist aligned over elbow.

4. Overhead Rope Extension. Set rope to head height, face away from the cable stack, get into a long lunge with torso almost parallel to the floor. This puts the long head into a stretched position. The stretch on these is intense.

5. Kettlebell Skullcrushers (Meadows Innovation). Meadows’ favorite triceps exercise. Kettlebells provide a unique loading pattern that feels significantly better on the elbows than barbells. If you have access to kettlebells, try these before any other skullcrusher variation.

Part 4: Putting it all together in a workout

You have read a lot of principles. Here is how they actually combine into a single arm workout.

A Meadows-style arm session follows a specific sequence.

You always start with blood flow. Hammer curls or pushdowns. Higher reps, short rest. The first exercise you do sets up up for the others. These are working sets, but you are also warming up the joints, activating the nervous system, and getting blood into the elbows.

Then you go heavy. Now that blood is in the muscle and the joints are warm, you earn the right to load up. Strict barbell curls. Weighted dips. Close grip bench. This is your strength work. Perfect form, hard contractions, moderate reps. You are building the mechanical tension that drives growth.

Then you chase the pump. Higher reps, constant tension, peak contractions held for a beat. Preacher curls, skullcrushers, concentration movements. This is where metabolic stress does its work. These exercises you never want to do cold.

Then you finish with a stretch under load. Hold a dumbbell in the stretched position for 30-60 seconds. Biceps extended behind you. Triceps overhead in the skullcrusher stretch. This is 5 minutes of work that most people skip entirely. It provides a final growth stimulus and accelerates recovery between sessions.

Throughout the entire workout: forceful contractions on every rep. Three-second negatives on at least one exercise. Rest periods capped at 45 seconds. Biceps and triceps alternated whenever possible to maximize the pump.

Part 5: How Much Volume Do Your Arms Actually Need?

Arms are not legs. Arms are not back. I dont believe you need need 20+ sets in a workout for them to grow. Neither did John.

Most guys do too much junky arm volume. They spend an hour doing 6 exercises for biceps because they saw some influencer’s “arm day” on YouTube. The reps arent forceful of focused, they use too much momentum. Then they wonder why their elbows hurt and their arms look the same.

With the intensity techniques in this guide, forceful contractions, three-second negatives, short rest periods, loaded stretches, you do not need a high number of sets.

The techniques do the work. Intensity takes precedence before volume.

But volume still matters. It just has to cycle.

You cannot train at the same volume forever and expect continued growth. Your body adapts. The stimulus stops being a stimulus. You need a structure that keeps the muscle off balance while preventing burnout.

This is how I learned to periodize arm training from Meadows. The intensity stays the same throughout. What changes is how much total work you do.

The volume listed is PER week, not per workout. John liked to train biceps and triceps once a week, then go to twice a week during high volume phases, then back down again.

Weeks 1-3: Medium Volume. 6-8 total sets for biceps. 8-10 for triceps. Two or three exercises. This is where you establish the intensity techniques and dial in your execution. You are building the foundation. Do not rush this. Most guys skip this phase and jump straight to high volume, which is why they plateau and get hurt.

Weeks 4-9: High Volume. This is where you grind and double up on the frequency. You gradually build volume each week. Your body has adapted to the intensity from the first three weeks, so you keep it off balance by adding more total tonnage. Biceps go to 9-12 sets. Triceps go to 12-16 sets. Three to four exercises. You add more high-intensity sets each week — more drop sets, more rest-pause, more negatives. Six weeks of this. It will not be fun. It will be effective.

Weeks 10-12: Low Volume, Maximum Intensity. Volume drops hard. 4-6 sets for biceps. 4-6 for triceps. Two exercises. But every single set you do in this phase will be the hardest set you have done in your life. Everything goes to failure or beyond. This is the peak. You are squeezing the last drop of growth out of the stimulus you have built over the previous nine weeks.

Weeks 13-14: Deload. 1-2 weeks of light training. This is not optional. You need to recover from the accumulated connective tissue and neural fatigue of 12 weeks of hard training. Some people can push the program longer, but generally, 1-2 weeks of backing off after 12 weeks of brutality is the right call. The growth you see during the deload is often the most satisfying growth of the entire cycle.

One more thing. The deload is not “taking it easy.” It is part of the program. If you follow true periodized plan and go hard and then skip deloading and then end up with tendinitis…I warned you. Recovery is where the adaptation happens. Respect it.

Part 6: Advanced Techniques for Stubborn Arms

When arms need extra attention beyond standard training, these advanced techniques provide the additional stimulus needed to force growth.

Iso-Tension Holds

Meadows’ signature technique for arms. At the end of each set, hold the peak contraction for 8-10 seconds. This teaches you to contract the muscle maximally and creates enormous metabolic stress. Apply this to any curl or pushdown variation.

Pre-Stretch Technique

Begin each rep from a deliberate stretched position. On pressdowns, let the weight pull your forearms up past 90 degrees before initiating the push. On curls, let the arm fully extend and hold the stretch for a beat before curling. This takes advantage of the length-tension relationship and increases fiber recruitment.

Rest-Pause for Arms

Perform a set to one rep short of failure. Rest 10-15 seconds. Perform another mini-set. Repeat 2-3 times. A single rest-pause set is equivalent to 2-3 regular sets. Excellent for time-efficient hypertrophy and for adding volume without adding exercises.

Loaded Stretching

After your last working set for a muscle, hold the stretched position under load for 30-60 seconds. For biceps: hold a dumbbell with arms extended behind you. For triceps: hold a dumbbell overhead in the skullcrusher stretch position. This creates extreme mechanical tension in the lengthened position, which is one of the strongest stimuli for hypertrophy.

Drop Sets and Triple Drop Sets

After your heaviest set, immediately reduce the weight by 20-30% and continue repping. Drop again. Drop a third time. This is particularly effective on cable exercises for arms, where you can change weight instantly.

Part VII: Troubleshooting-Solving Common Arm Problems

Stubborn Biceps

Increase training frequency to every 48 hours. Emphasize hammer curl variations for brachialis development, a bigger brachialis pushes the biceps up and makes the arm look larger. Use more supination-focused movements. Implement higher volume with moderate weights. Meadows recommended daily arm activation work during stubborn phases: 2-3 sets of light curls every day just to keep blood flowing through the muscle.

Lagging Triceps

Prioritize overhead movements for long head development. Most guys skip these entirely and wonder why their triceps lack size. Use close-grip pressing variations as your primary strength builder. Implement loaded stretching protocols. Focus on the eccentric portion of lifts, slow negatives on every rep.

Arm Imbalances

Address the weaker arm with a 2:1 volume ratio. Use unilateral training (one arm at a time) to improve symmetry. Implement pre-exhaustion for the stronger arm. Monitor progress with weekly measurements.

Joint Issues (Elbows and Wrists)

Eliminate exercises that cause pain immediately. Emphasize cable and machine variations, which are almost always easier on joints than free weights. Use neutral grips whenever possible. Implement extensive warm-up protocols — the Phase 1 pre-activation work is not optional if you have joint issues. Meadows was adamant about this: never train through arm pain. Switch the exercise, don’t push through it.

Part 7: Special Considerations for Tall Lifters (6ft+)

It can be very difficult for taller men to build arm mass. You are at a mechanical disadvantage due to your long levers. You are unlikely to have the same strength as someone with short arms, and arm exercises tend to be felt more in the joints than in the muscles.

The core problem: long tendons mean extra joint stress. Your tendons get stressed out before your muscles do.

Triceps for Tall Lifters

Heavy skullcrushers are going to destroy your elbows. Avoid them completely. Classic tricep pushdowns work well in the 10-20 rep range. Lying tricep extensions CAN work, but only with a slower tempo and intense focus on squeezing. Cable overhead extensions are generally safer than free weight versions.

Have a dedicated arm day focused on mind-muscle connection. Over time, spread triceps work across your shoulder and chest days and use increased frequency for further growth.

Bicep Curl for Tall and long armed lifters

Straight bar curls can aggravate the bicep tendon. Use EZ-bars or dumbbells instead. Low reps for biceps are rarely effective for tall lifters. Train with moderate to higher reps, always focusing on the squeeze and pump. Get stronger at 8-10 reps, strict.

Train arms twice weekly weekly. Alternate between moderate reps, 8-12, and higher reps 12-20.

Part 8: Armed and Dangerous Workout

A complete arm session using the four-phase system. All movements done as supersets.

A1. Pronated DB Curls — 3 x 15-20 Smooth and controlled. Tempo, never momentum. Goal is blood flow and innervation. (Phase 1)

A2. Kneeling Triceps Rope Pushdown — 3 x 15, 12, 10 Kneeling eliminates body english. Start light, work up. Take each set to positive failure. (Phase 1)

B1. Incline DB Hammer Curls — 4 x 8-12 Bench at 60 degrees. Full stretch, intense contraction. No rushing. Maintain tension the entire time. (Phase 2)

B2. Machine Dips — 4 x 10 Find your groove. You want a position where you can move a lot of weight and feel strong. (Phase 2)

C1. Standing EZ-Bar Drag Curl — 3 x 8-12 Curl all the way up underneath the chin. Slow the negative. Weight doesn’t matter — this is eccentric tension. (Phase 3)

C2. DB Seated French Press — 3 x 12, 10, 8 Full stretch on the bottom. Come up about 90% to lockout, then back down. Go up in weight each set. (Phase 3)

Finish: Loaded stretching for biceps and triceps — 30-60 seconds each. (Phase 4)

Train hard. Enjoy the pump.

This was a formative time in my career, and John was one of my major intellectual mentors who became a real life mentor. Id been reading his articles for years already, and working for him was the greatest learning experience one could ask for.

John was ahead of his time, pioneering a full spectrum approach to health through nutrition that would be considered peaty, holistic, and bioenergetic today. He was “MAHA” before MAHA ever existed, and was surprisingly crunchy in how much he cared about food quality, sourcing, sustainability, and the nuances of micronutrients.

While he is probably better known for his training methods (which I will share in the future), it was his thinking around food that was most impressive to me.

Unlike many in bodybuilding where health is sacrificed for success, John took a different approach, and argued that metabolic health was critical to being a successful bodybuilder, and that ignoring this was a setup for disaster, both in the short and long term.

Part of this was born out of his own health challenges; John had a near death experience in 2005 that resulted in his entire large intestine being removed.

You can read about that here.

While I know there will be critics that point out he used PEDs and this is disqualifying, those people can GTFO.

Johns knowledge and body of work applied to everyone, regardless of PED usage, and it would be impossible to share MY nutrition philosophy without referencing his. John’s life may have ended too soon, but his work will live on forever.

Ive watched all of Johns videos, read all of his written programs and articles, and have many many pages of notes.

Over the course of this week, I am going to share all of this with you. Ive run everything through my personal AI, and my mission is to distill his philosophies down into the most actionable principles and strategies that you can apply to your training, nutrition, and life.

WHAT THIS ARTICLE COVERS

• Food Quality Over Everything-Real, whole foods as the foundation

• Individual Customization-No cookie-cutter approaches

• Metabolic Health Priority-Long-term health over rapid results

• Psychological Sustainability-Mental/emotional aspects of eating

FITNES GENES-A Health Test I Strongly Recommend

The FitnessGenes DNA Analysis Test reveals how your body responds to training, recovery, nutrition, stress and flags genetic tendencies tied to injury, inflammation, metabolism, and long-term health, so you can course-correct years before problems show up. It’s not just about better workouts; it’s about training, eating, and living in a way that compounds performance and longevity.

Order here with AJAC20

The Mountain Dog Philosophy for Nutrition

Johns approach to nutrition followed the same systematic thinking and practical wisdom that grounded his training methodology.

John was not dogmatic, and quite moderate in how he approached food. He didnt take a side in diet wars, and he didnt use hyperbole.

While he never used the term, his philosophy was Salutogenic; eat in a way that promotes HEALTH.

That meant real food, sustainability, and individual optimization over extreme measures and cookie-cutter approaches.

This philosophy emerged from years of personal experimentation, working with hundreds of clients, and understanding that nutrition was not just about achieving a physique goal on a single day, but supporting your life every day.

“Most people approach nutrition like it’s some kind of punishment,” John often observed.

“They think they have to suffer, eat foods they hate, and follow some extreme plan that makes them miserable. But the truth is, great nutrition should make you feel better, perform better, and look better, and you should be able to maintain it for years, not just weeks.”

This understanding led John to develop what I consider the most balanced and effective approach to nutrition Ive ever encountered.

Its a system that supports building an impressive physique while maintaining sanity, health, and enjoyment of food.

Core Principles of Mountain Dog Nutrition

Principle 1: Food Quality Over Everything

John believed that the foundation of any successful nutrition plan was food quality. Before worrying about macros, timing, or supplements, focus on eating real, whole foods.

The Food Quality Hierarchy:

1. Protein from whole food sources-chicken, turkey, fish, lean beef, eggs

2. Complex carbohydrates-rice, oats, potatoes, quinoa, fruits

3. Healthy fats-nuts, oils, avocado, fatty fish

4. Abundant vegetables-for micronutrients, fiber, and health

5. Minimal processed foods-only when they served a specific purpose

John favored buying organic and local as much as possible.

Theres nothing revolutionary about this obviously. You can always get pedantic about arguing over the food choice. But the principles are rock solid.

“You can’t out-supplement a bad diet,”

“If your nutrition foundation is built on processed junk, no amount of expensive supplements is going to fix that. Start with real food, then optimize from there.”

Principle 2: Individual Customization

Unlike many approaches that push a one-diet-for-all mentality, John’s philosophy was built around individual assessment and customization.

Individualization:

• Body type and metabolism-naturally lean vs. easily gaining fat

• Training goals-muscle gain, fat loss, performance

• Lifestyle factors-work schedule, family obligations, stress levels

• Food preferences-cultural background, personal tastes

• Digestive health-intolerances, gut health, nutrient absorption

• Medical history-previous dieting, metabolic health, medications

The practice of individualization has been lost today in the nutrition industry. Its ironic given that holistic thinking has increased, but genetic differences are ignored.

Bodybuilders were once considered dumb for believing in body phenotypes (meso, ecto, endo) and making diet decisions on this

But genetic testing shows these kinds of categories are REAL. You SHOULD eat in a way that suits your individual genetics and metabolism

“There’s no such thing as a perfect diet,” John explained. “There’s only the perfect diet for you, at this point in your life, with your goals and circumstances. My job isn’t to give you my diet, it’s to help you find yours.”

Principle 3: Metabolic Health Priority

Long before it became trendy, John prioritized metabolic health over rapid results. he was the first bodybuilder I knew who regularly got labwork done and monitored his internal health. He also had a qualitative list of health markers that he recommended every client pay attention

Metabolic Health Markers:

• Energy levels-consistent energy throughout the day

• Sleep quality-restful sleep and easy awakening

• Mood stability-avoiding extreme highs and lows

• Training performance-maintaining strength and intensity

• Digestive health-regular, comfortable digestion

• Hormone optimization -supporting natural hormone production

Principle 4: Psychological Sustainability

John recognized that the mental and emotional aspects of nutrition were just as important as the physical aspects. He built flexibility and enjoyment into every plan.

Psychological Strategies:

• Flexible meal planning-variety within structure

• Strategic refeeds-planned higher calorie days

• Social accommodation-working around life events

• Craving management-addressing psychological needs

• Progress celebration-acknowledging non-scale victories

• Stress mitigation-nutrition as stress reduction, not stress creation

“If your diet makes you miserable, you’re not going to stick to it,” John observed.

“And if you can’t stick to it, it doesn’t matter how ‘perfect’ it is on paper.”

The Mountain Dog Approach to Macronutrients

Protein: The Foundation

John viewed protein as the cornerstone of any physique-focused nutrition plan, his approach was results driven.

John’s Protein Strategy:

• Target: 1-1.5 grams per pound of body weight for most goals

• Sources: Variety of complete proteins throughout the day

• Timing: Protein at every meal, with emphasis around training

• Quality: Whole food sources prioritized over supplements

• Flexibility: Adjustments based on training demands and goals

Favorite Protein Sources:

• Chicken breast-lean, versatile, affordable

• 93/7 ground turkey-a different flavor profile break from chicken

• 90/10 Ground beef-higher fat but undeniably tasty

• Egg whites with whole eggs-complete amino profile

• Fish-naturally leaner than beef, even fattier types, easy to digest

• Whey protein-convenience and leucine content

• Greek yogurt-probiotics and casein

“Protein is the only macronutrient that’s truly essential for your physique goals,” John explained.

“You can manipulate carbs and fats based on preference and goals, but protein is non-negotiable.”

Carbohydrates: Performance Fuel

John knew that carbohydrates are essential to great workouts. Even during a diet, he never would pull out preworkout carbs. His approach was refreshingly balanced

John’s Carbohydrate Philosophy:

• Performance-based: Higher carbs for intense training phases

• Timing-conscious: Carbs around training for performance and recovery

• Source-specific: Whole food sources with good micronutrient profiles

• Flexible amounts: Adjusted based on goals, body type, and response

• Quality-focused: Nutrient-dense options prioritized

The Carbohydrate Hierarchy:

1. Oats-sustained energy, great for breakfast

2. Sweet potatoes-micronutrient dense, versatile

3. Jasmine rice-John’s personal favorite for taste and digestion

4. Fruits-micronutrients, fiber, natural sugars

5. Quinoa-complete protein, good fiber content

“Carbs aren’t the enemy, they’re a tool. If you’re training hard and want to perform well, carbohydrates are your friend. The key is choosing the right sources and amounts for your goals.”

Fats: Hormone Essentials

John knew that dietary fats as essential for hormone production, satiety, and overall health.

John’s Fat Strategy:

• Minimum threshold: Never below 0.3-0.4g per pound of body weight

• Source variety: Mix of saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated

• Timing consideration: Often kept lower around training

• Quality emphasis: Whole food sources over processed options

• Individual adjustment: Based on satiety needs and calorie targets

Preferred Fat Sources:

• Nuts and nut butters-convenience and taste

• Olive oil-cooking and salads

• Avocado-nutrients and fiber

• Fatty fish-omega-3 fatty acids

• Egg yolks-complete nutrition

• Coconut oil-stable for cooking

• Olive oil-for low heat cooking

Meal Timing and Frequency

John did not fast. Like every successful bodybuilder, he ate multiple meals a day. The multiple meals daily strategy is argued about constantly, but for building a great physique, it has overwhelming evidence. If you want to be strong and perform at the highest level, you need regular nutrient intake.

The Meadows Meal Framework

John’s General Structure:

• 3-5 meals per day - based on schedule and preference

• Protein at every meal - consistent amino acid availability

• Carbs around training - performance and recovery optimization

• Fats throughout the day - hormone support and satiety

• Vegetables at multiple meals - micronutrients and fiber

Sample John Meadows Meal Structure:

1. Breakfast: Protein + carbs + some fat

2. Pre-workout: Protein + carbs (if needed)

3. Post-workout: Protein + carbs

4. Lunch/Dinner: Protein + carbs + vegetables + fat

5. Evening: Protein + fat + vegetables (lower carb)

“The best meal timing is the one that fits your life and supports your training. I’m not going to tell someone to eat six meals a day if they can barely manage three. Work with your schedule, not against it.”

Pre and Post-Workout Nutrition

John paid particular attention to nutrition around training sessions, and this could be an article unto itself.

Pre workout, intraworkout, and post workout nutrition are game changers when you actually do them.

Pre-Workout Approach:

• Timing: 1-3 hours before training, depending on meal size

• Focus: Easily digestible carbs and moderate protein

• Goals: Stable blood sugar and available energy

• Individual: Adjusted based on tolerance and training time

Post-Workout Approach:

• Timing: Within 60-90 minutes post-training

• Focus: Protein for recovery, carbs for glycogen replenishment

• Goals: Optimize recovery and adaptation

• Practical: Could be a meal or shake, depending on circumstances

The Mountain Dog Approach to Different Goals

Muscle Building (Gaining) Phase

John’s approach to gaining was methodical and health-conscious.

Gaining Phase Strategy:

• Caloric surplus: 300-500 calories above maintenance

• Protein: 1.2-1.5g per pound of body weight

• Carbohydrates: Higher intake to fuel training (2-3g per pound)

• Fats: 0.4-0.6g per pound of body weight

• Rate of gain: 0.5-1 pound per week maximum

• Monitoring: Weekly weigh-ins, photos, performance tracking

John’s Gaining Philosophy: “The goal during a gaining phase isn’t to get as big as possible as fast as possible. It’s to gain quality muscle while minimizing fat gain and maintaining health. Slow and steady builds the physique you actually want.”

Fat Loss (Cutting) Phase

John’s cutting approach emphasized preserving muscle and maintaining metabolic health.

Cutting Phase Strategy:

• Caloric deficit: 300-500 calories below maintenance

• Protein: 1.2-1.6g per pound (higher to preserve muscle)

• Carbohydrates: Adjusted based on training demands and progress

• Fats: Minimum 0.3-0.4g per pound, adjusted as needed

• Rate of loss: 1-2 pounds per week maximum

• Refeed days: Strategic higher calorie days as needed

John’s Cutting Philosophy: “Cutting should make you lean, not miserable. If you’re losing strength, feeling terrible, and obsessing about food, you’re cutting too aggressively. Slow down, be patient, and do it right.”

Contest Preparation

For competitive bodybuilders, John’s approach was more precise but still health-conscious.

Contest Prep Principles:

• Longer prep periods: 16-24 weeks for most competitors

• Gradual adjustments: Small changes based on weekly progress

• Muscle preservation: High protein and intelligent training

• Metabolic monitoring: Adjusting based on response

• Psychological support: Managing the mental challenges

• Health priorities: Never compromising long-term health for short-term results

Hydration and Micronutrients

John emphasized that nutrition was about more than just macronutrients.

Hydration Strategy

John’s Water Approach:

• Baseline: 1 gallon per day minimum for active individuals

• Training days: Additional water around workouts

• Quality: Filtered water when possible

• Electrolytes: Salt and potassium attention during heavy training

• Monitoring: Urine color and frequency as indicators

Micronutrient Focus

Micronutrient Strategy:

• Food first: Micronutrients from whole foods prioritized

• Variety: Different colored vegetables and fruits

• Supplementation: Strategic, not comprehensive replacement

• Testing: Periodic blood work to identify deficiencies

• Individual needs: Adjusted based on training demands and health status

Supplementation Philosophy

John’s approach to supplements was conservative and evidence-based.

Tier 1: Foundation Supplements

John’s Core Recommendations:

1. High-quality multivitamin-insurance against deficiencies

2. Vitamin D3-especially for those with limited sun exposure

3. Omega-3 fatty acids-fish oil for inflammation and health

4. Magnesium-for sleep, recovery, and muscle function

Tier 2: Performance Supplements

Training-Specific Additions:

1. Whey protein powder - convenience and leucine content

2. Creatine monohydrate - proven performance and muscle benefits

3. Pre-workout - caffeine and citrulline for training enhancement

4. Intra and Post-workout carbs - dextrose or highly branched cyclic dextrin

Tier 3: Specialized Supplements

Goal-Specific Options:

• Fat loss phases: L-carnitine, green tea extract

• Gaining phases: Digestive enzymes, additional carbs

• Stress management: Ashwagandha, rhodiola

• Sleep optimization: Melatonin, glycine

“Supplements should supplement a good diet, not replace it. Get your nutrition foundation right first, then add supplements that serve a specific purpose.”

Practical Implementation Strategies

Meal Preparation and Planning

John was a strong advocate for meal preparation as a success strategy.

John’s Meal Prep Approach:

• Batch cooking: Prepare proteins and carbs in bulk

• Flexible combinations: Mix and match components

• Vegetable variety: Different vegetables throughout the week

• Convenience options: Healthy backup meals for busy times

• Time efficiency: 2-3 hours of prep for the week

Restaurant and Social Eating

John understood that nutrition plans needed to accommodate real life.

Social Eating Strategies:

• Menu research: Look up options ahead of time

• Flexible choices: Make the best available choice

• Portion awareness: Restaurant portions vs. home portions

• Don’t stress: One meal won’t ruin your progress

• Plan ahead: Adjust other meals if needed

Travel Nutrition

John traveled frequently and developed practical strategies.

Travel Approach:

• Protein powder: Easy insurance for adequate protein

• Airport options: Grilled chicken, salads, nuts

• Hotel strategies: Mini fridge utilization, local grocery stores

• Hydration focus: Extra attention during flights

• Flexibility: Do your best, don’t stress the rest

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Plateaus and Stalls

John’s approach to breaking through plateaus was systematic.

Plateau-Breaking Strategies:

1. Calorie cycling - alternating higher and lower days

2. Carb cycling - varying carbohydrate intake

3. Refeed days - strategic higher calorie days

4. Diet breaks - planned periods at maintenance calories

5. Exercise changes - modifying training stimulus

Digestive Issues

John paid close attention to gut health and digestion.

Digestive Optimization:

• Food elimination - identifying problematic foods

• Digestive enzymes - supporting breakdown and absorption

• Fiber management - gradual increases, adequate hydration

• Stress management - addressing stress-related digestive issues

• Professional help - working with healthcare providers when needed

Cravings and Adherence

John had practical strategies for managing cravings and maintaining adherence.

Adherence Strategies:

• Flexible options - multiple food choices within parameters

• Strategic treats - planned indulgences vs. uncontrolled binges

• Stress management - addressing emotional eating triggers

• Support systems - accountability and encouragement

• Progress focus - celebrating non-scale victories

The Psychology of Mountain Dog Nutrition

Relationship with Food

John emphasized developing a healthy relationship with food that could be maintained long-term.

Healthy Food Relationship Principles:

• Food as fuel - nutrition serves performance and health goals

• No forbidden foods - foods are tools, not moral choices

• Flexible perfectionism - 80% adherence beats 100% for two weeks

• Enjoyment inclusion - nutrition plans should include foods you enjoy

• Stress reduction - food choices shouldn’t create anxiety

Long-Term Perspective

John always kept the long-term picture in mind.

Long-Term Thinking:

• Health first - physique goals shouldn’t compromise health

• Sustainability - can you maintain this approach for years?

• Lifestyle integration - nutrition that fits your life

• Relationship preservation - don’t let diet ruin social connections

• Flexibility maintenance - ability to adapt as life changes

Special Considerations

Health Challenges

John worked with many clients who had health challenges that affected their nutrition.

Health-Conscious Adaptations:

• Insulin sensitivity - carb timing and type modifications

• Digestive issues - food selection and preparation adjustments

• Autoimmune conditions - anti-inflammatory food choices

• Hormonal imbalances - nutrition to support hormone optimization

• Medications - considering drug-nutrient interactions

Age-Related Considerations

John understood that nutrition needs changed with age.

Age-Specific Adjustments:

• Protein needs - potentially higher requirements as we age

• Micronutrient absorption - attention to B12, calcium, vitamin D

• Hydration awareness - decreased thirst sensation

• Digestive changes - adjusting for slower metabolism

• Recovery emphasis - nutrition to support longer recovery times

The Mountain Dog Legacy in Nutrition

John’s approach to nutrition influenced countless individuals to develop sustainable, healthy relationships with food while achieving impressive physique results.

Key Innovations Still Used Today:

• Health-first approach - metabolic health prioritized over rapid results

• Individual customization - no cookie-cutter approaches

• Psychological consideration - addressing mental/emotional aspects

• Flexibility emphasis - sustainable approaches over perfect adherence

• Real food focus - whole foods as the foundation

Philosophical Contributions:

• Nutrition as lifestyle - long-term approach over quick fixes

• Balance emphasis - physique goals with health and happiness

• Education focus - teaching principles, not just giving meal plans

• Practical application - real-world strategies for real people

• Sustainable practices - approaches that can be maintained for years

Implementing Mountain Dog Nutrition Principles

For those ready to implement John’s nutrition philosophy:

1. Start with Food Quality: Build your foundation on whole, nutrient-dense foods

2. Customize to Your Life: Make your nutrition fit your schedule and preferences

3. Prioritize Health: Never sacrifice long-term health for short-term results

4. Be Patient: Sustainable changes take time to implement and see results

5. Stay Flexible: Adapt your approach as your life and goals change

6. Focus on Habits: Build consistent habits rather than following perfect plans

7. Educate Yourself: Understand the principles so you can make informed decisions

8. Seek Support: Work with qualified professionals when needed

As John himself summarized:

“Great nutrition isn’t about following the perfect diet—it’s about developing a sustainable approach to fueling your body that supports your goals, your health, and your life. The best nutrition plan is the one you can stick to for years, not weeks. Focus on building habits that serve you long-term, and the physique results will follow.”

This methodology represents John Meadows’ comprehensive approach to nutrition, emphasizing sustainable practices, individual customization, and long-term health over quick fixes. His systematic approach continues to guide serious individuals toward achieving their physique goals through intelligent, balanced nutrition practices that can be maintained for a lifetime.

This post is very long and contains a full program, and is for paid subscribers only.

If you dont want to become a paid subscriber but would like to use the protocols, you can purchase this program here

The Problem

I developed Plateau Buster Protocols around a simple question:

“My XYZ muscle group is not growing. What should I do?”

When you train long enough, you learn that not all muscles respond the same way to training. Anyone who has dedicated themselves to building their physique knows this firsthand. You have muscle groups that grow easily and muscle groups that lag behind. You have muscles you can feel working from the first rep and muscles you struggle to form any mind-muscle connection with.

This is normal. Unless you are blessed with Olympia-level genetics, everyone has their stronger and weaker muscle groups. The common ones are calves and forearms. But it could also be the glutes, lats, or shoulders.

The point is that everyone has that one muscle group that is slow to grow, underdeveloped, and lags behind all your other muscles.

So what do you do about this?

The Confusion

You’ll be given different strategies depending on who you are talking to:

“Bomb the muscle with insane volume.”

“Revise your exercise selection and choose only the most effective movements.”

“Focus on neuromuscular innervation and increase the mind-muscle connection.”

“Get ‘weird’ with your exercises and experiment.”

“Train the muscle every day or every workout.”

“Stop focusing on the muscle, and give it a break.”

Seems contradictory, right? You are being told to use high volume by one person and then to NOT train a muscle by someone else.

Here is the thing: none of these are wrong. But none of them are the full picture, either.

If you read the training literature and exercise science, these strategies stop contradicting each other and start fitting together. The issue is not that one strategy is right and the others are wrong. The issue is knowing when and how to apply each one.

Read more

Everyone is getting blood tests.

Everyone is working with AIs for their lab work.

Everyone is using data tracking devices.

Everyone is going to the gym.

Everyone follows coaches.

LOL.

This is the fish bowl phenomenon if you believe this. Your reality perception is warped by your life algorithm.

In reality, most men have no idea where they actually stand.

They go to the doctor once a year, maybe, get told their numbers are “fine,” and go back to whatever they were doing.

Meanwhile they’re 30 pounds overweight, can’t touch their toes, sleep like garbage, and haven’t seen the sun in a week.

80-90% of Americans are still metabolically unhealthy.

What follows is a self-audit. This is designed for regular men. Not athletes. Not bodybuilders. Regular guys who want an honest assessment of where they are and what to fix first.

I’ve trained hundreds of people. The patterns are always the same. The problems are always the same. And the solutions are far simpler than anyone thinks

Before we Begin

Preoder Ferta Creatine for your Wife

Creatine is beneficial for reproductive health as well as metabolic health

Check out Vanguard Labs—Order your own bloodwork

• Vanguard has become the most affordable option for doing your own lab work, and they have every lab test and panel you could ever need. I suggest starting with the Male panel (for Men) or Total Female (for the Ladies)
  

  ---

1. The Mirror Test

Before anything else, take your shirt off and look in the mirror. Front, side, back if you can manage it.

There is no more honest test than this.

Can you see your abs, even faintly? Are your shoulders wider than your waist? Do you look like someone who could handle themselves physically?

The Adonis Index, the ratio between your shoulder circumference and your waist — should ideally follow the Golden Ratio of 1.618.

Your shoulders (measured around the medial deltoid and across the nipple line) should be roughly 1.618 times your waist measurement. In practical terms, that’s about a 20-inch difference between your shoulders and your waist.

This should be your body. If its not, you need to get there. Grab a tape measure. Write the numbers down. This is your starting point.

While you’re at it, measure your waist at the navel. For men, a waist circumference over 40 inches is a clinical marker for metabolic syndrome. But I’d argue anything over 36 inches means you have work to do, and anything over 34 inches means you’re not lean enough to be truly healthy.

Visceral fat, the fat packed around your organs, is a primary driver of systemic inflammation, insulin resistance, and hormonal dysfunction.

What do you need to do if you’re overly fat? LOSE WEIGHT

2. The Movement Test

Can you do 20 pushups with full range of motion? Can you do a single pullup? Can you sit on the floor cross-legged and stand back up without using your hands?

Can you jog a mile and not gas out?

These are baseline human capacities. If you can’t hit them, your body is telling you something important about the state of your musculature, your joints, and your nervous system.

Its telling you youre fragile and easy to kill

Your relative bodyweight strength should be impressive in comparison to regular, untrained people.

If it’s not, your training is ineffective. Period. Pushups, pullups, dips, squats, lunges, these things should be EASY FOR YOU.

These aren’t advanced movements. They’re the minimum standard for a functioning male body.

If you can’t do a pullup or run a mile, that’s priority number one and two. Not a new supplement stack. Not a peptide protocol.

You need fundamental strength training and cardio.

3. The Metabolic Audit

When you eat a highly processed, high-carb diet and don’t exercise, your insulin sensitivity declines.

Your body compensates by releasing more insulin to handle the blood sugar. But insulin in excess is inflammatory.

Systemic inflammation rises. Fluid retention happens, the look of being slightly bloated in the face, and your hunger hormones are dysregulated, and you’re storing fat around your organs at an accelerating rate.

The signs of insulin resistance are visible if you know what to look for: face bloat, abdominal obesity, skin tags (especially around the neck), intense carb cravings, afternoon energy crashes, and brain fog after meals.

The fix is not complicated.

Eat meat. Eat whole foods. Drink water.

That’s my philosophy on diet in 7 words.

A diet built around animal protein, vegetables, tubers, fruit, and healthy cooking fats will resolve most metabolic dysfunction within months.

Whole foods are more satiating, contain a broader spectrum of micronutrients, and make it nearly impossible to chronically overeat.

If your diet has been shite, then Get bloodwork done.

Vanguard Total Male Panel. Order it.

Or ask your doctor if you want to do that. Ask for a comprehensive metabolic panel, fasting insulin (not just fasting glucose, this is critical), hemoglobin A1C, a full lipid panel, total and free testosterone, thyroid panel (TSH, free T3, free T4), and vitamin D. Most doctors won’t run fasting insulin unless you ask.

It’s the earliest warning marker for metabolic dysfunction, years before fasting glucose starts climbing.

4. The Environment Audit

Your light environment controls every biological process in your body; sleep-wake cycles, cortisol secretion, growth hormone release, testosterone production, appetite, and cell division.

You cannot have a properly functioning hypothalamus without a healthy light environment. And the hypothalamus is the main link between your endocrine and nervous systems.

The audit is simple. How much direct sunlight are you getting daily?

If the answer is under 30 minutes, you have a problem that no supplement or training program will solve. How much artificial light are you exposed to after sunset? If you’re staring at screens until midnight, your circadian rhythm is wrecked, your melatonin production is suppressed, and your sleep quality is compromised regardless of how many hours you spend in bed.

Morning sunlight exposure within the first hour of waking. Limited artificial light after dark. These two practices alone can shift hormonal markers more than most men realize.

Make yteh

The Daily Minimum

Here’s the audit translated into action.

Hit these every day and you will be healthier than 90% of American men within six months

Walk 10,000 steps. Every day. Non-negotiable.

Lift weights 3-4 days a week.

Eat a whole foods diet built around animal protein.

Get 30 minutes of direct sunlight, ideally in the morning.

Sleep 7-8 hours in a dark room.

Get your bloodwork done and actually read the results.

This is not complicated. None of this is sexy. There’s nothing proprietary here Im sharing. I know youve likely read this many times over the past few years.

But it WORKS.

SO DO IT.

Do the audit. Write it down. Be honest where you actually stand.

Then get to work.

My health coaching team can help you if you need it.

Click here

But I’ll be honest, I never pushed it on women the way I should have. I didnt think of it as a female supplement.

Then I watched my wife use it…and LOVE IT.

Which then I learned women naturally store 70-80% less creatine in their muscles compared to men.

Women are walking around with about a quarter of the creatine stores that men have. On top of that, women consume less dietary creatine because they tend to eat less red meat. So they’re producing less AND getting less from food.

Why do women get cranky and hangry? All other factors being equal, maybe its a lack of creatine

This creates a chronic energy deficit in both the body and brain.

Something I realized years ago from training women is how many women normalize feeling tired and unhealthy

This gets blamed on “hormones” and part of the menstrual cycle, but in reality women are undernourished.

Something as simple as “eat more protein” is life changing when a girl finally does it and finally recovers normally, doesnt get uncontrollable cravings, and finds her moods stabilize.

Circling back to my wife

Preethi’s Substack

My Third Home Birth: The Fastest One Yet

My midwife missed my second birth entirely. She walked in right as I was holding my baby, still in shock that it was over. (To be fair, I had a different midwife back then. We lived in a different city…

Read more

3 months ago · 11 likes · 8 comments · Preethi Kasireddy

If you’ve followed me for a while, you might know my wife is a very healthy, physically active woman, and a mom of 3.

Motherhood affected her in same the ways it does every mother: broken sleep, brain fog, patience worn thin, energy depleted before noon.

Especially having 3 kids in only 4 years, Ages 3, 1.5, and 1 month old, having “mom brain” is to be expected.

The first two kids, I watched her struggle. My wife is incredibly disciplined, and after each birth she’d start pelvic floor rehab, core rehab, be walking, and work her way back into her lifting and dancing routine.

But this process was never perfect. She’d wake up after a rough night with the baby and move through the morning like a ghost. Her dance practice, something she loves deeply, became a gamble depending on how much sleep she got.

She tried everything. Magnesium for sleep quality. Blood sugar management through better nutrition. Morning sunlight for circadian health. These helped, but nothing made an outsized impact on energy levels.

Then she started taking creatine.

I didnt tell her to do this. It was her own idea the past year during this third pregnancy. Creatine has been in the news A LOT due to new research showing its positive effects on cognitive health. It seemed like something worth trying.

She started taking 5-10 grams daily.

Within days, there was a difference in her alertness and focus.

Anyone with a wife and kids can attest that “pregnant mom brain” is a real thing. Your wife will have funny lapses in memory, overlook obvious details, mix up facts that she never normally would.

The creatine had a cognitive effect.

Within weeks, she was lifting heavier than ever, dancing with remarkable sharpness considering she was pregnant, and her overall energy levels and mental patience were much higher.

Nothing else had changed. Both our kids are toddlers. The demands were still there.

The creatine was making a remarkable difference.

Watching that transformation is why we launched creatine as our first supplement for Ferta.

AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER

10 Reasons Why Women Need Creatine More Than Men

1. Supports pregnancy and fetal development – Creatine demand increases substantially during pregnancy for fetal brain, heart, and tissue development. Maternal supplementation may support placental function and fetal growth, with emerging research suggesting neuroprotective benefits for the developing infant.

2. Preserves lean muscle during aging – Women lose muscle mass more rapidly after menopause due to declining estrogen. Creatine supplementation combined with resistance training significantly improves lean mass retention and strength gains in postmenopausal women compared to training alone.

3. Supports cognitive function and mood – Women have approximately 70-80% lower endogenous creatine stores in the brain compared to men. Supplementation has shown improvements in memory, processing speed, and may help buffer against cognitive decline during hormonal fluctuations.

4. May reduce bone loss risk – Emerging research suggests creatine combined with resistance exercise improves bone mineral density markers and reduces bone resorption, particularly relevant for women at higher osteoporosis risk post-menopause.

5. Safe with no masculinizing effects – Creatine does not cause significant water retention bloating or weight gain in women at standard doses. It doesn’t affect hormones like testosterone and won’t produce “bulky” physiques—any mass gains are lean tissue from improved training capacity.

6. May alleviate depressive symptoms – Creatine augmentation has shown promise in clinical trials for treatment-resistant depression, with women potentially showing stronger responses than men. The mechanism involves restoring brain energy metabolism affected during hormonal transitions.

7. Enhances high-intensity exercise performance – Creatine increases phosphocreatine availability for ATP regeneration, improving power output during short-burst activities like sprints and resistance training. Women respond similarly to men in performance metrics despite lower baseline creatine stores.

8. Improves recovery and reduces muscle damage – Women experience greater exercise-induced muscle damage during certain menstrual cycle phases. Creatine supplementation reduces markers of muscle damage and inflammation, accelerating recovery between training sessions.

9. Helps manage blood sugar regulation – Creatine enhances glucose uptake into muscle cells by increasing GLUT4 transporter activity. Studies show improved glycemic control when combined with exercise, relevant for women managing insulin sensitivity.

10. Supports mental energy during sleep deprivation – Women, particularly new mothers or shift workers, show cognitive resilience benefits from creatine during sleep restriction. The brain relies heavily on phosphocreatine for ATP during metabolic stress, helping maintain mental performance.

The Protocol

Dose: 5 grams daily for physical benefits. 5-10 grams for cognitive benefits.

Timing: Doesn’t matter. Take it when you’ll remember. Mix it in water, coffee, a smoothie — it dissolves clear and has no taste.

Form: Creatine monohydrate. Don’t fall for expensive alternatives. Monohydrate is the most researched form by far.

Duration: Indefinitely. No cycling needed. Benefits accumulate with consistent use.

The Bottom Line

Creatine is one of the most well-researched, effective, and safe compounds you can put in your body.

The fact that most women don’t take it, while most serious male trainees do, is a messaging failure. Creatine is far more than a “gym bro” supplement.

We built Ferta Creatine for women like her, mothers, women trying to conceive, women who refuse to accept fatigue as the price of a demanding life. Micro-ionized, pharmaceutical-grade, third-party tested, no fillers.

Pre-order now at fertasupplements.com. First 100 orders get 20% off with code PREORDER.

At the time, there were no fitness influencers. The concept didn’t exist. The most famous people in the industry were IFBB bodybuilders, a handful of coaches who had published books, and a few writers you knew only from their magazine bylines.

If you wanted to learn how to do an exercise, you read a written description with a few photos and figured it out. If you wanted to see how the pros trained, you ordered VHS tapes from the back of Muscular Development.

To be successful meant opening a gym. To be mega successful meant getting published in a magazine.

Personal training was considered a dead-end job for attractive idiots who couldn’t get real work. Or wannabe actors in LA killing time between auditions. I was in LA. I saw both.

There was nothing glamorous or aspirational about fitness then.

Fast forward to now.

Fitness is a multi-billion dollar industry. There are content creators with millions of followers. There are fitness entrepreneurs who are legitimate centimillionaires. Gymshark is a billion-dollar company. The category of “athleisure” didn’t exist twenty years ago. Now it dominates retail.

Practices that were underground are fully mainstream. There are teenagers openly documenting their steroid use to “looksmaxx” with zero hesitation. The old science is being rediscovered. Paleo, circadian health, peptides, EMFs…what was fringe is now cutting edge.

The question that nagged me for years: why?

Why did fitness explode when so many other industries contracted? Why did this particular domain produce so many successful creators when other fields struggle to sustain attention?

I recently read Dan Koe’s piece on the future of work. It crystallized something I’d intuited for a long time but never articulated cleanly.

future/proof

The future of work when work is meaningless

Everyone is worried about whether or not AI will replace them…

Read more

3 months ago · 509 likes · 58 comments · DAN KOE

The answer is simple. Fitness is innately meaningful.

In an increasingly digitized, abstracted, and commodified world, the mind-body experience is the last bastion of truth and reality. You cannot fake the weight on the bar. You cannot outsource the burn in your lungs. The qualia of lived experience runs soul deep.

People don’t train because exercise is interesting. Trainers might find programming fascinating, but regular people don’t care about periodization theory.

People train because they want progress. They want to see themselves change. They want to become someone they weren’t before.

Struggle. Overcoming limits you thought were fixed.

Progress. Measurable, undeniable, visible in the mirror.

Status. Becoming a version of yourself that others recognize and respect.

These aren’t fitness-specific desires. These are human desires. Fitness just happens to be one of the few remaining domains where you can pursue them directly, without institutional gatekeeping, without credentialism, without asking permission.

You can start tomorrow. You can measure your progress weekly. You can see the results in your own reflection.

In a world where most paths to meaning have been captured by bureaucracies and algorithms, the gym remains free.

I consider myself fortunate to have ridden this wave.

I’d like to claim I had exceptional foresight. I didn’t. Not in any way I could have articulated at the time.

What I had were two core beliefs.

First: people want to be healthy. Health is the foundation of everything. It’s the greatest form of wealth. Change someone’s health and you change their life.

Second: people will always struggle to be healthy. The same way they struggle to earn enough money or maintain good relationships. It’s part of the core trifecta of human needs.

The struggle is permanent because we are human.

In 2013, the editor of Muscle & Fitness contacted me to write articles. He found me on Facebook. I’d been posting daily training and philosophy updates for two years. He followed me and liked my writing.

A few months later, John Meadows reached out and asked if I’d work under him. Same story. He read my posts. He liked my thinking.

In 2017, I went all in on building a personal brand online.

People told me I was making a mistake. “You really want to be online this much?” “Building a business around posting seems like a waste of time.”

They didn’t understand the medium. They didn’t understand the message. They didn’t see where the future was heading.

The bet paid off.

Here’s what I learned.

The fitness creators who win are not the ones with the best information. Information is free. Any LLM can write you a program now. Any app can track your macros.

The creators who win are sense-makers. They help people understand what matters and what doesn’t. They have a philosophy, not just a method. They have taste, they can distinguish signal from noise when everyone else is drowning in content.

And they have narrative. They can answer the question that no algorithm can: why does this matter to me?

AI will make programming trivial. The scarce skill is meaning.

The industry is bifurcating. On one side, automated fitness services; cheap, efficient, commoditized.

On the other, meaning-centered experiences; expensive, personalized, narrative-rich, human.

The fitness professionals who will survive and thrive will be the ones who understand they’re not selling workouts. They’re selling transformation stories. They’re selling identity.

This is the part where most essays like this end with generic advice.

“Build community.”

“Focus on meaning.”

“Be human in an AI world.”

I’m not going to do that.

Instead I’ll tell you what I’m doing.

I spent a decade learning that embodiment is meaningful, that physical transformation changes people at the level of identity, that the domains which survive are the ones rooted in irreducible human experience.

Now I’m applying that lesson somewhere else.

Fitness taught me that the things which matter are the things you can’t abstract away. The body. The struggle. The visible proof that you showed up and did the work.

Manufacturing is the same.

A country that can’t build things is a country that has abstracted itself into irrelevance. Just like a person who never trains, never tests themselves, never confronts physical reality.

I’ve spent ten years telling men to build their bodies. Now I’m building something bigger.

American manufacturing is broken. I’m going to fix a piece of it.

More soon.

My goals are not to defy death and be Bryan Johnson.

Rather, I simply want to see my children grow up, and eventual grandchildren.

Hence my proactiveness.

While making new friends this year in Austin, I met some great people whose personal health journeys had begun in working to solve their chronic illnesses.

It was interesting to say the least, and gave me new perspective. Ive been healthy my whole life, and never had complex health problems.

But this is a reality for millions of people.

We are living through an explosion of chronic illness, autoimmune disease, and vague, life-draining conditions that don’t fit neatly into diagnostic boxes.

You talk to these people, and their frustration is palpable.

Autoimmune conditions have skyrocketed. Chronic fatigue is everywhere. Anxiety, depression, metabolic dysfunction, gut disorders, all rising together. These aren’t isolated problems. Mainstream medicine is incredible at acute care, but deeply confused when it comes to long-term, systemic dysfunction.

They dont get answers from their doctors. They go through a wheel of specialists, hoping someone applies some real critical investigation in their cases.

Despite unprecedented spending on healthcare, more specialists, more tests, and more pharmaceuticals than any society in history, a huge number of people are getting worse, not better.

Around 10% of Americans have a chronic disease, and around half have chronic health conditions that affect quality of life.

We can tell people to do the basics, but that is not a magic wand to every problem.

You can do everything you’re told and still feel broken, inflamed, exhausted, and stuck.

What do you do when routine testing fails to provide answers? What comes Next

Before we Dive In

• Infrared Saunas are health changing and life changing and worth the investment. Order one from High Tech Health, and mention AJAC on the phone to get a deal

• For your research needs in the world of peptides and small molecules, I recommend Elite Research USA.

• Fitness genes is awesome, use code AJAC20, 10/10 recommend to everyone reading.

Enter Mitochondrial Testing

The concept of testing mitochondria is very new. Weve all heard the “powerhouse of cells” line, but that understanding is outdated.

Mitochondrial organelles do much more than make ATP, they also function as dynamic information processors that shape how cells function and communicate.

Hence the term “Motherboard of the cells” thats been promoted recently.

Mitochondria originated when a bacterium became permanently integrated into a host cell about 1.5 billion years ago (endosymbiosis), and that set the stage for complex multicellular life.

Whereas the old view of biology was mitochondria being static energy factories, in reality mitochondria move, interact, and adapt. They communicate within cells and across tissues by responding to environmental signals, adjusting their membrane potentials, and releasing regulatory molecules. This means they power not only metabolism with ATP productin, but affect gene expression, stress responses, aging, and disease risk.

Mitochondria are not all uniform in function either. Its been discovered they specialize by cell type and region. They “know” where they are in the body. They dont operate as independent entities, but as a collective. They can fuse and share DNA to rescue damaged units, showing collective behavior.

When mitochondria work well, tissues and systems thrive; when they malfunction, it shows up in metabolic diseases, neurodegeneration, and aging.

Supporting mitochondrial health is to support the energetic information flow that drives cell health and resilience.

The Mitome Test was Developed by Chris Masterjohn, Phd

Chris is a friend of mine, and one of the most brilliant people in the health industry. His Phd is in nutrition sciences, and his holistic and in depth grasp of metabolism down to the molecular level of is unmatched.

Harnessing the Power of Nutrients

Mitochondrial health expert Chris Masterjohn, PhD, applies cutting-edge science to develop evidence-based protocols for health and longevity. You could be one metabolic bottleneck away from feeling amazing.

By Chris Masterjohn, PhD

Hes been publishing for almost two decades now, and its been gratifying to see him reach mainstream success with his appearances on Rogan and his work being incorporated into the MAHA movement.

Chris developed the Mitome test over a time period of working with clients with difficult-to-solve health issues that conventional medicine failed to address

He recognized that people with unexplainable symptoms, immunocompromised, low energy, brain fog, poor digestion, skin issues, there was an underlying energetic problem not being addressed.

His approach was simple in theory

Mitochondria are what power the body, and help control immune system and overall resilience

But they are overlooked entirely in conventional medicine.

The challenge was how to test them?

Chris learned over time that direct biochemical analysis of buccal cheek cells could be used to assess each complex of your respiratory chain in real-time.

Mitchondria produce waste products, and these can in fact be measured in cheek cells through a salivery collection test. While this sounds simple, mapping out what chemicals to test for and how they fit into ETC complex took years of work and massive amounts of analyzing data.

In the past year, he finally completed his testing model, applied to have it patented

As mitochondria function 24/7, a “simple” salivary test

The Mitome test is idesigned to identify the specific bottlenecks limiting your mitochondrial performance in each complex. This targeted approach pinpoints exactly what your cells need to optimize energy production, based on the bodys current state of function.

I had the Mitome test done recently in December

Had I had more foresight Id have taken pictures.

The testing kit is straightforward, but does require some prep.

You get a package with 4 plastic test tubes.

You do a cheek swab, and place one swab in each tube.

The tubes must be kept cold, so the kit includes some cold packs which you freeze first, and then put them into a sealed temp controlled bag to be mailed.

From there, you wait for results in 4 weeks

The results are in a PDF file

Let me preface; this is a COMPLEX test. In simple terms, instead of guessing based on symptoms or generic lab work, it measures how efficiently different energy-producing pathways inside your cells are working, and where the real bottlenecks are.

Useful, but its also a systems-level test: the results don’t spit out a simple yes/no answer, rather they show patterns that need to be interpreted carefully and acted on in a specific order with specific protocols.

The test results are around 20 pages long, and you MUST read through the whole report to make sense of them.

This is the easiest to understand part of the report, showing your Complex function

Interestingly, I did the test at the same time I was using high dose vitamin C (around 2 grams daily), which seemed to influence the Complex IV function. Genetically my test results on the Fitness genes test showed I have reduced capacity for vitamin C utilization and need to supplemen with higher than RDA amounts.

The Mitome test showed a similar finding as I dived into the results; my Complex IV function showed an increased need for Vitamin C.

The Fitness Genes test had also showed I have very poor genetics for aerobic exercise and endurance. This also aligned with my Complex 1 and Complex II and III function being “normal” but not optimal.

Where the results get complex to apply is in the protocol portion

The protocol itself is a multi step process of and supplement and diet changes which should be done sequentially.

While following the protocol, its recommended to do at home testing with blood sugar, ketone strips, and lactate strips.

Suffice to say, this is NOT a braindead “just do this” set of recommendations, rather its in depth and data driven

What is most impressive is the level of real customization

This is my protocol, it was 10 Steps in total

1. Clean up sulfur metabolism
   Identify and resolve issues related to sulfur amino acid breakdown that can create toxic byproducts and impair mitochondrial function.

2. Adopt a ketogenic (low-carb, high-fat) diet
   Shift fuel use toward fats to better match mitochondrial energy pathways that favor fat metabolism.

3. Supplement with disodium succinate
   Directly feed mitochondrial Complex II to improve energy production efficiency.

4. Add alpha-ketoglutarate (AKG)
   Support the citric acid cycle and further enhance Complex II energy flow.

5. Increase glutamine intake
   Provide additional fuel that preferentially supports mitochondrial energy production through Complex II.

6. Adjust carbohydrate intake
   Fine-tune carb levels to find the personal sweet spot between too low and too high for optimal energy and metabolic stability.

7. Support sulfur / cysteine needs (e.g., NAC)
   Only if sulfur issues are resolved; used to maintain antioxidant capacity and mitochondrial protection.

8. Add vitamin K2 (MK-4)
   Required to properly shuttle energy and support downstream mitochondrial reactions.

9. Add high-dose vitamin C
   Feeds energy directly into mitochondrial Complex IV and supports redox balance.

10. Use near-infrared light exposure
    Light in the 700–1000 nm range directly stimulates mitochondrial energy production and cellular repair.

Each step is meant to be implemented one at a time, in order, with monitoring before moving on.

The level of detail in each step was immense

Mitome does have the option of consulting with a health coach to apply the protocol and make health adjustments, which I think is wortwhile.

I will say plainly, this test best suited for people with real health bottlenecks

If you are a healthy, high energy person, this test could be interesting and useful. But its not essential.

However, if you are someone chronic fatigue, metabolic issues, brain fog, poor recovery, unexplained symptoms, or long-standing health problems, this test might be the mastery key you’ve beens searching for

There are many cases of people “doing all the right things” but it still isn’t working healthwise.

For those individuals, Mitome may save years of trial-and-error by pointing directly to the limiting factor in cellular energy production. When something is clearly off with your health and not responding to standard optimization, this test can be a smart investment to stop guessing and start fixing the actual problem at the cellular level.

You can Order the Mitome Test Here.

This one is for the ladies

I became a personal trainer back in 2010, and my first client was a lady.

She was mom in her late 30s with a young daughter. My next three clients after that were all female as well. This set the tone for my training career.
From 2010 to 2017, the majority of my clients were women. Ironic given that my online audience would end up being 80% men.

Training for women is not vastly different from training men, but there are obvious strategic and tactical differences. The primary differences being

• Women want lower body development over upper body

• Women have less skeletal mass and muscle in their upper body, as well as different limb, torso, and hip dimensions. This affects both how exercises look, and how exercises can be progressed

The underlying principles of training are the same, but how they get applied is not.

Most of my programs over the years of being a “Content Creator” have been written for men, but I have created a few for women, which is the program you are reading right now.

The title comes from a conversation years back with a young female client of mine when she first started training, she was only 17 at the time.

She wanted to show me various women on Instagram who she followed, and could she train them like them.

I told her that most of them simply looked like they did some squats, lunges, hip thrusts, and their training was quite basic.

“I want to do a pretty girl program then, they are SO pretty”

We both laugh, and I often characterized the workouts I would with my female clients as “pretty girl” workouts whenever they would complain or be fearful of “getting too big” or some other fitness myth.

This was in response to them complaining that they were training “like men”, which is of course absurd. Strength training is universal for everyone.

Story aside, this is how this program works:

Building muscle, and especially training women, it gets needlessly overcomplicated. Most women could train three days weekly and be immensely satisfied with their results.

This is not a “hardcore” train 5-6 days a week program. I have those programs, but I wanted to write something accessible, for women that are looking to lift around 3 days a week, and presumably have other activities they may be doing. So that is what this program does.

It’s not a “beginner” program, but a program for a Woman that knows her way around the gym, and wants an effective program that delivers results with a reasonable time investment.

You train three days weekly, lift some weights, and hopefully look shapely for the time spent.

It works very simple

-You train three days a week, for about one hour

-You train lower body twice, and upper body once

-Extra back work is done on all days to strengthen the back, reinforce good posture, and to strengthen the arms

You could repeat this program for 8-12 weeks before really needing to change it. If at the end of 12 Weeks you are pleased with the progress, you could conceivably keep doing it, although it would only be maintenance at that point.

Read more

I have said this for years, and it continues to be a central principle to build your life on.

There is a deeper layer of existence beyond habits, mindset, strategies, tactics.

That is WHERE you live, the people in that environment, and the transference effect that this environment has on you

You cannot separate yourself from your environment. Religious men and women who want to live for piety and prayer dont live in a busy downtown.

Monasteries, abbots, temples are away from cities. In some cases they sit at the edge of civilization and are closed off from the world.

Your environment, your landscape will direct your destiny

Recently I read an excellent article by Guru Anaerobic, who described this in the frame of an attractor landscape. Credit to him and please buy his book. This is my take on the model

The Attractor Landscape was a tool created in the field of physics but has since been used to help an understanding of many other disciplines; genetics, neuroscience, robotics, political alliances and other stuff which people think are important. I realised it’s a good model for how to change a life of domestication, obesity, ill-health, mental prisons, depression and unhappiness, i.e. zombiefication. It also shows why everything can change in an instant, either by your own volition or by a change in circumstances beyond your control.

~Guru Anaerobic~

An Attractor Landscape can be visually modeled like this

Source: http://si-new.jenal.org/attractors/

Think of your life as this landscape. At birth, you start as a point on a timeline, you are 0/0 on an X/Y chart.

Over the course of your life, your choices and innate environment begin to shape your destiny.

You go in a direction. Your ball rolls forward into tableau of peaks and valleys.

Gravity is always in effect. If you roll up a hill, you roll back down the other side. This isnt a bad thing. Maybe the next valley is an amazing one. Or maybe its not.

Over a lifetime, your adult life exists in one of these valleys.

That valley becomes your landscape. Your life is an attractor point. That point deepens over time.

The depth of the attractor is how reinforced your life is. Your choices have compounded. A deep valley forms over time.

The width of the attractor is how many things in your life keep you there. Friends, habits, location, identity, expectations. All of it pulls you into the same groove.

If your life is Salutogenic (Health promoting) your valley is bountiful and wonderful.

Your valley runs wide and deep. Maybe it creates steps to another one. You are in the the right place, you have overall made good choices.

This life is one of contentment, you are living well, you have a North Star with proper orientation.

If your life is Pathogenic (health negating), your valley is tiresome, obese, and you want to leave

You feel trapped by choices, by your body, by relationships, by habits. This where many people live today.

You want etter health. A better environment. A stronger body. More money. More agency. Whatever version of “better” you privately daydream about but publicly downplay.

But this takes effort. Immense effort. The Better life does not come easily.

This is the latent attractor.

The question of “How to Be Healthy” is a long conversation that ultimately arrives at journey of reaching that latent attractor over the hill, and in the future

If your life is unhealthy, you must change your landscape. You must roll up the hill and then back down again to a new valley. Everything you want is on the other side of the hill, or maybe its a mountain

This is Why I Advocate for Reverse Engineering the Life You Want

Imagine the future version of yourself and the state of your life. Visualize it in as much detail as possible, as if it guaranteed to happen.

How would that version act/think/operate/live TODAY in order for that future to become a reality?

If you know the life you want, the answers and actions are within you.

My Landscape Makes Me Healthy

I live on a few acres in the hill country of Texas. My life has always been guided on creating a world of vitalism and abundance.

This is simple in practice.

At night it is fully dark, no streetlights and essentially zero light pollution.

In my home and barn, I have only Incandescent lights.

I have an awesome home gym Ive put together.

I have my beloved Sauna

From High Tech Health, mention AJAC for a deal

I have meetups frequently at my house. I have great friends and we enjoy seeing each other.

Once you reach 35+ as a Man, either your life has been well lived and you can be proud of it

Or not.

There is not much in-between to argue about.

The bigger challenge of Life is staying adaptable

The world changes fast, can you stay ahead of it and not be dragged? Many successful men lose their edge as they get older, their reality paradigm becomes dated.

The Mental Landscape probably deserves its own article though.

Talk again soon,

AJAC

Download the A-Z BroScience Guide to peptides

Order your Fitness Genes test

Mitome Mitchondrial test

Join the BroScience Telegram

Use code AJAC10 at Eliteresearchusa.com

An explanation is given that as long as you train to positive failure (or close to it), then any rep range can build muscle.

Low reps like 5-8 reps will build muscle.

And moderate reps like 8-12 reps will build muscle.

And even HIGH reps like 12-20+ will build muscle.

ALL rep ranges can be used to build muscle, and get stronger.

If the impressions are high enough, then the “normie” internet reacts as if biology has been miraculously updated and its a world shattering idea.

Cue the cringe-WOW, I LOVE SCIENCE!!!

Most recently it was a conversation between Dr. Rhonda and Chris Williamson

Except NONE of this is a New Discovery

At all.

The “studies” that demonstrate all reps ranges are stimulating for muscle growth are post hoc evidence of phenomenon and practice that has been known for thousands of years

In the 3rd century AD, the Greek philosopher Philostratus wrote a text “Gymnasticus”, that detailed athletic training and described how exercises could be done for many or few repetitions.

While it did not describe reps in the “bodybuilding” sense of modern times, it is obvious from the text that ancient athletes understood the concept of 1 rep maxes, heavy exercises being done for few repetitions, and lighter movements being done for more. This was identified then as build strength and muscle in the body.

Fast forward in time to the late 1800s and early 1900s, and multiple texts are written “Scientific Training”

Again, the same concept of low, moderate, and high reps are described.

Our ancestors intuitively understood this.

American Bodybuilding for 100+ years has recommended low, moderate and high reps

1940s Bodybuilding champion John Grimek desribes the merit of using different rep ranges in this article, written in 1991

Rep Selection - John Grimek

John Grimek didnt need a “study” to know you can use all the rep ranges

I could list out a dozen more bodybuilders, strength coaches, and legendary lifters who all share similar observations

ALL REP RANGES CAN BUILD MUSCLE

Rep ranges from roughly 5 to 30 can build muscle, provided the sets are taken close enough to failure and progressed over time.

Again, this is not new science.

It’s old training knowledge that keeps getting repackaged because the latest generation of the general public was not around, or weren’t paying attention, the last time it was explained.

Fitness marketing thrives on selective amnesia.

Muscle Respond to Intensity

Muscle grows in response to tension, fatigue, and sufficient volume accumulated near failure. The muscle fiber does not count reps. It responds to effort.

If a set is:

• hard enough

• close enough to failure

• repeated consistently

• progressed over time

…it can stimulate hypertrophy.

This is why you can build muscle with:

• heavy sets of 5–8

• moderate sets of 8–15

• lighter sets of 15–30

The biological outcome is the same.

The reason the “middle” rep range became pseudo gospel isn’t because other rep ranges don’t work.

It’s because it’s the most forgiving and easy to understand range for most people.

Do about 10 reps. Try to lift weight thats challenging. Do more next time.

It balances load, fatigue, joint stress, and progression better than the extremes.

Its practical, and hard to mess up.

If All Rep Ranges build muscle, how are you supposed to know what range to use??

This is the inevitable question people have.

Being told to use any range they want is freeing, but then theres no constraint that provides guidance.

My directives on this are simple and grounded in real world practice and science

1-4 Rep Range-Maximal Strength.

Not a normal range for anyone to train unless you’re a competitive olympic lifter, powerlifter, or strongman. Barbell lifts are typically the exercises that people do for 1 rep max efforts. Barbell lifts are designed for max stability.

During regular training, doing sets of 1-4 reps as “work sets” is not a useful strategy outside of prepping for a powerlifting competition. The risk of injury is high, the neurological demands are high. The weights are so heavy that you are “testing” strength, not building it.

5-10 Range-Strength and Hypertrophy

Getting stronger in the 5-10 ranges meaning moving meaningful weight, recruiting high-threshold motor units early, and you create a strength-hypertrophy overlap.

This range is efficient. You can get a lot out of relatively few sets. You stimulate muscle tissue for growth, you get stronger.

Many popular programs are based around doing sets of 5. This works great for beginners.

5-10 reps a set works for barbells, dumbbells, cables and machines.

Its almost universally effective. You can make adjustments to this, such as 6-10 or 60-12 reps, but these differences are minor.

Train with weights that 70-80% of your 1 rep max, take sets to failure (or close to it). Increase the numbers of reps you can do, add weight, repeat.

This is what progressive overload is.

10–20 Reps: When it works, it works really well

High-rep training builds muscle the same way that lower rep training does, with added mechanisms of metabolic stress, and prolonged tension and strength endurance. This rep range grows muscle just fine, if the sets are taken close enough to actual failure.

The human body is not uniform in its genetic response. Every year, there are people who try “higher reps” for legs or some other muscle group, and they find they grow more, the lighter weights are friendlier to their joints, and its complementary to lower rep exercises.

Increasing your 20 rep max wont increase your 1 rep max, but getting stronger in the 10-20 rep range is REAL strength.

This doesnt always work well for every exercise, because sometimes stabilizer muscles or other muscles tire out before the main one that youre trying to target. Regardless high reps have their place in training

The TL;DR Framework

An experienced lifter who understands training doesn’t argue about rep ranges. They use all of them.

• 1–4 reps: practice maximal strength

• 5–10 reps: build the muscle that supports it

• 10–30 reps: build volume tolerance and joint-friendly hypertrophy

You can use ALL the rep ranges. Some exercises you do 5-8, others, 8-12, or 6-12, or 10-15, etc. There are no rules, only principles

Muscle grows from effort.
Strength from Progressive overload.
If something is working, keep doing.

Subscribe now

Download the A-Z BroScience Guide to peptides

Order your Fitness Genes test

Get Labs through Function

Mitome Mitchondrial test

Join the BroScience Telegram

Use code AJAC10 at Eliteresearchusa.com