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Guides

Fitness & Lifting Guides

163 free, evidence-based training guides — how to build muscle, get stronger, lose fat, eat and recover — plus the muscle, program and strength-standard references behind them. No sign-up.

Reference

Look something up: what trains a muscle, what a routine looks like week by week, what your numbers mean.

Muscles

Every muscle group, the exercises that train it, and how much work it needs each week.

Programs

Ready-made routines you can start tomorrow — full body, upper/lower, push/pull/legs and the classic barbell plans.

Strength standards

What a beginner, intermediate or elite lift looks like at your bodyweight, for every major exercise.

163 guides

Grouped by topic, beginner first. Search above to jump straight to one.

Train

Getting Started15 guides

Programs & Splits24 guides

Lifting Technique20 guides

Build

Muscle Growth15 guides

Strength & Power11 guides

Muscle-Group Guides10 guides

Fuel

Nutrition15 guides

Fat Loss17 guides

Supplements11 guides

Sustain

Recovery & Injuries16 guides

Lifting For Life9 guides

Not sure where to start?

Four short routes through the library. Read each one in order.

Your first 30 days

Six guides, read in this order, and you can walk into any gym and train properly.

  1. How to Start Lifting Weights: A Complete Beginner GuideWhat day one actually looks like.
  2. Progressive Overload: The One Rule That Builds Muscle and StrengthThe single rule the rest of it hangs off.
  3. Best Beginner Workout Plan for Building Muscle and StrengthA week you can run tomorrow.
  4. How to Choose Your Starting Weight in the GymPick a load without guessing.
  5. Squat Form: How to Squat With Proper TechniqueThe lift most worth getting right early.
  6. How Much Protein Do You Need to Build Muscle?The one nutrition number that matters at the start.

Build muscle

The evidence behind size, and how to turn it into a week of training.

  1. How to Build Muscle: The Complete Hypertrophy GuideWhat growth actually requires.
  2. Training Volume for Muscle Growth: How Many Sets?How many hard sets, per muscle, per week.
  3. Rep Ranges for Muscle vs StrengthWhere the reps should land.
  4. Training to Failure: Should You Do It?How close to the edge each set should go.
  5. Push Pull Legs (PPL): The Complete GuideA structure that carries that volume.
  6. How to Lean Bulk: Build Muscle Without Getting FatEat enough to grow without burying it in fat.

Lose fat, keep muscle

A deficit is simple. Keeping your muscle and your sanity through it is the skill.

  1. Calorie Deficit: The Foundation of Fat LossThe mechanism, in plain numbers.
  2. TDEE and Maintenance Calories: How Many Should You Eat?Work out your own starting point.
  3. High-Protein Fat Loss: Lose Fat and Keep MuscleProtein is what protects the muscle.
  4. Cardio for Fat Loss: HIIT vs LISSHow much, and where it fits.
  5. Weight Loss Plateau: Why It Happens and How to Break ItWhat to do when the scale stops moving.
  6. How to Maintain Weight Loss After a DietThe part almost everyone skips.

Get strong

From a first real squat to a program that keeps adding weight for years.

  1. The Big Three Lifts: Squat, Bench Press and DeadliftThe three lifts strength is measured on.
  2. Strength Standards Explained: How Strong Are You?See where your numbers actually sit.
  3. Starting Strength: The Beginner Barbell Program ExplainedThe fastest route while linear gains last.
  4. One-Rep Max (1RM): How to Calculate and Use ItTest and estimate a max without wrecking a week.
  5. Periodization: How to Structure Training Over TimeWhat replaces linear progression.
  6. Deload Weeks: What They Are and How to Do ThemPlanned backing-off is how the climb continues.