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Targeting Belly Fat Is POSSIBLE?! (New Study)

Everyone wants to lose belly fat, right? The problem is, you can't choose where fat loss happens in your body every time you work out. Or at least, I didn’t think you could… Until I came across this new study, which suggests that targeting belly fat may not only be possible, but also much easier than we all thought. I’ll share exactly what researchers have found about belly fat loss and how you can apply it to your own training, so you burn that belly fat off.

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Why is belly fat so “stubborn” in the first place? You see, to burn fat, your body first needs to “release it” from the ‘fat cell’ — a process known as ‘mobilization’. But how exactly do you mobilize it? Well, when you strength train, you don’t just strengthen your muscles; you also increase blood flow to the fat that surrounds the muscle you’re working. And this is one theory why belly fat can be so hard to get rid of: compared to the fat in other areas of your body, it tends to receive very little blood flow. Not to mention, we tend to train our abs less frequently than other muscles.

So, this got researchers thinking: if you can boost blood flow to your abs, could you then specifically target and lose belly fat during exercise? After digging through endless research papers, I’ve come across all sorts of funny and, in some cases, just weird experiments researchers have tried to get to the bottom of this question. But none found a notable difference in fat loss. And because of this, most researchers, including Bill, were skeptical about the idea of spot reduction.

Remember how I said you need to “mobilize” fat before it can be burned off? Well, there’s 2 parts to this process: first, mobilizing it and then burning it off. The issue with past studies is that while they may have mobilized belly fat, this doesn’t necessarily lead to fat loss (i.e., burning it off).

But this is where a 2023 study comes into the picture. They wanted to test a routine that could do both. Basically, researchers divided 16 overweight men into two groups: 1) spot reduction focused group and 2) control group. Both followed a 4-day workout plan for 10 weeks. The control group did 45-minutes on the treadmill each session. Meanwhile, the spot reduction group had a shorter, 27-minute treadmill workout, followed by two ab exercises: torso rotations and machine crunches.

After 10 weeks, both groups lost a relatively similar amount of body fat. But what was surprising was that the spot reduction group lost almost 2.5x more fat from around their belly compared to the control group. That’s quite a bit more belly fat loss.

But of course this study doesn’t come without its limitations. E.g., although the workouts were tightly controlled, the nutrition wasn’t. Personally, I don’t think this is too big of a concern given that both groups lost a relatively similar amount of overall fat, but it is something that would’ve made this study a lot stronger. But hey, it’s not just this study. Other recent studies on spot reduction have also shown promising results.

So how can you target belly fat? Quick disclaimer: if your goal is to burn belly fat, then you need to be in a caloric deficit to get the best results. What the studies do suggest is that, if you’re doing ab work, you should probably combine it with some form of cardio either shortly before or after to get the most bang for your buck. The other thing is that, if spot reduction does work, then it seems like some abs exercises are better than others. So if I was designing a routine to better target belly fat, I’d use direct, weighted abs exercises combined with low to moderate intensity cardio.

Which could look something like this:

4 sets of 8-15 reps of weighted crunches
4 sets of 6-15 reps of hanging leg raises
20-30 minutes of low to moderate cardio (for example, cycling, jogging, or the elliptical) done before or after the ab exercises

I’ll be honest though, I’m still not 100% convinced. And neither was Bill when I spoke to him. These latest studies have definitely opened my mind to spot reduction being possible, and it seems like future research could be promising. But it’s definitely not enough for me to go about planning spot-reduction into most people’s routines. That said, on my recovery days I have been using those 2 ab exercises and slapping on some cardio either before or after. Who knows, maybe this is spot-reducing my belly fat.

But even if it’s not, I still highly recommend that you regularly train your abs, and with weight as well. After all, they’re just like any other muscle group; and growing them can help with definition. But remember, most of your results will still come from the basics, and losing belly fat heavily depends on your diet.


What Happens After Taking Steroids For 30 Days?

This video is for educational purposes only.

I’m a lifetime natty, but nowadays it seems like so many athletes, actors, and even social media influencers are hopping on PED's. It got me thinking, how serious are PED's side effects? Could I actually use them safely? I wanted to speak to people with first-hand experience. First, I reached out to a bodybuilding veteran to show me the ropes on testosterone.

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Jaws is one of the world’s top bodybuilders, finishing in the Top 25 as a Mr. Olympia Competitor. Jaws won his first competition as a natural back in 2014. But when he started competing on stage against enhanced bodybuilders, the decision to take PED's was essentially “a must” if he wanted to keep advancing.

Clement, a 26-year-old ex user, who had a similar experience. ”Yeah, the placebo kicked in right away. I thought I was the biggest dude in the world the next day, I swear.”

Testosterone doesn’t just affect your muscles. It can also impact your mood, energy levels, confidence, libido… even your appetite. Jaws: “You’re just burning through everything you eat. Like, I would have a cheat meal every day and maintain six pack abs.” At this point, I’m thinking: More energy, more motivation, and looking better after cheat meals?! Where can I sign up?

Then, they shared their experience of how taking PED's for the initial 30 days affected them in the gym. Clement: “As we progressed into the cycle, that's when I just threw weights that I didn't know I could throw.” Jaws: “Once the fourth week hit, all of a sudden, it was like I hit NOS when I was driving a car or something. My strength just skyrocketed.”

As for actual muscle growth, natural lifters can gain anywhere from 20-40 lbs of muscle in their lifetime. But, for guys on gear, it goes up to a whopping 45-120 lbs. Tempting, but if I was about to throw my Natty card away for life, I needed to know more.

Luckily for me, there was no better person than PED's coach and educator, John Jewett of J3 University.

John: “A lot of the guys are worried about short-term side effects, right? You're going to worry about your hair or testis shrinkage or acne. But the true dangers that I would be worried about are the long-term effects of PED use, which are absolutely very much pertinent even in short-term use.” Talking to John, he explained that even if you’re careful to do everything right, there’s still a chance you won't see the results you’re hoping for. And the reality is the side effects can become life threatening. For example, organ enlargement and failure.

I realized something important. For guys like Jaws, using PED's isn’t about looking good on the beach. Bodybuilding is his passion. And in his world, the line between a winning physique and long-term health issues is incredibly thin. It was inspiring for me to see what he, and many others in the sport, are willing to risk in pursuit of their dreams. But they’re not for everyone. As a natty, building more muscle sometimes feels painfully slow. But it still comes with its own set of rewards.

So am I going to take the jump and start using PED's? No. For starters, my Filipino doctor mom would absolutely kill me if I did. And even though I could probably see more improvement from 30 or 90 days of taking PED's than I could in my next year or two of training as a natural, the progress would come with way too many risks that I’m not willing to take.

Disclaimers: Jeremy Ethier is not a doctor or a medical professional. Always consult a physician before starting any exercise or diet program. Use of this information is strictly at your own risk. Jeremy Ethier will not assume any liability for direct or indirect losses or damages that may result from the use of information contained in this video including but not limited to economic loss, injury, illness or death.


The PERFECT Mobility Routine to FIX YOUR SIT (3 Min/Day)

Body feeling stiff and you've noticed you've developed poor posture? If you sit most of the day, then these are some of the things you'll experience. But you can fix that in just 3 minutes a day, with a mobility routine that consists of 3 simple mobility exercises that’ll work on the most problematic areas, including shoulder mobility and hip mobility.

Grab your free PDF copy of the mobility workout:
https://builtwithscience.com/3-minute-stretching-routine-pdf

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Before getting into the mobility workout, let’s start by looking at a pretty crazy study. Researchers split participants into 3 different groups: a control group and 2 test groups. The control group sat and did nothing. With the test groups, the researchers used a neuromuscular electrical stimulator to send 17 electrical currents into their back muscles at regular intervals. One group received a low-level current, while the other group received a high-amplitude current that caused their back muscles to contract. What did they find?

For the high-amplitude group (those whose muscles contracted from the current) the stiffness in their backs almost completely reversed. So, what does this mean for you and I? You simply need to start moving the joints and contracting the muscles you don’t use when you’re sitting all day. That said, I know how hard it can be to stick to a mobility routine consistently.

That’s why my team and I have worked together to find the 3 mobility exercises that focus on the most problematic of areas.

The first exercise is great for improving shoulder mobility and rounded shoulders. It’s called the wall clock. Stand sideways with your fingertips touching the wall and your thumb pointing down. Engage your core and, without arching your back, slowly draw your palm in a big semi-circle forward and up the wall. Then, complete the circle by moving your arm back and down the wall, letting your shoulder blade move back and down as your arm travels behind you. Reverse the circle to get back to the starting position and spend about 30 seconds on each side.

Now, let’s focus on the back and neck with the cat cow. Start on your hands and knees, with your hands directly under the outer edges of your shoulders. Then, spin your elbows towards your thighs to engage your lats. Inhale, as you gently lift your tailbone towards the ceiling and reach your chest forward, through your biceps, to stretch your abs. Squeeze your shoulder blades together as you lift your chin and head up. Then, you’ll wanna go in the other direction. Exhale, and imagine there was a rope, pulling your mid-back up towards the ceiling, and rounding your spine. As you do this, push the floor away to open up your shoulder blades. Then, use your neck muscles tuck your chin by looking towards your knees. Do this for about 30 seconds, then for the next 30 seconds, some back to a neutral position and turn and look towards your left foot to stretch the muscles on the right side of your lower back and rib cage, then return to center. After, same on the other side. Turn and look at your right foot.

Finally, the perfect 3-minute mobility routine wouldn’t be complete without a hip mobility focused exercise. Exercise 3 does exactly that. We’ll start at a Level 1 version and then build up to Level 3, which is the most effective variation.

Level 1:

Sit on the floor and bend one leg in front of your body at around a 90° angle and then do the same with the back one. Then, sit up and tall and try to position your shoulders square to the front of your shin. Keep your spine tall and exhale as you reach your chest forward, hingeing over your front leg until you feel a deep stretch on the outside of your front leg’s hip or glute area. Inhale, as you come back to the starting position and exhale, as you get into your next rep. For Level 1, do 30 seconds on each side, trying to get deeper into the stretch with each rep.

Level 2:

Maintain that same 90 degree leg position, but this time, as you lean forward, push your front shin down into the ground and lift your hips up to get your torso upright. Then, reverse this by lowering as slowly as you can, while leaning forward. Again, aim to do 30 seconds on each side.

Level 3:

In this case, you’ll repeat what we did in Level 2 but, instead of sticking to just one side at a time, for a deeper stretch in your groin and hip flexors, “windshield wiper” your knees directly over to the other side on the way down, and repeat this motion back and forth.
To help you stay upright, reach your arms out in front of you and engage your core during the transition. Again you can use your hands for support here if you need it.


Best VS Worst Fat Loss Exercises (Ranked By Science)

What are the best fat loss exercises? Worst exercises for fat loss? Today my friend Kevin and I are using the world’s most accurate calorie tracker to rank 50 different exercises. Cardio exercises, strength exercises, HIIT, low intensity cardio, and more! At the end, we’ll reveal the all-time highest calorie burner. We’ll also discover which exercises burn the most calories with minimal effort and which ones are high effort but don’t actually burn very many calories. Using these findings, I’ll create the perfect fat loss workout plan guaranteed to help you lose body fat.

Link to complete ranking of exercises:
https://builtwithscience.com/bws-fat-loss-exercises/

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We started out with what all the data told me was the best of fat loss exercises, high intensity training, beginning first with 60 seconds of sprinting. Then burpees and mountain climbers. With three exercises down, Sprints had taken an early lead, with burpees a close second. But so far all three challenges had put us through the ringer.

But what I’m hoping to find with this challenge are exercises for fat loss that can burn a high level of calories with a significantly lower perceived exertion. Fortunately we still had 47 exercises left to test. The data showed for each high intensity exercise we were absolutely burning through our calories even for just a 60 second workout, but so far every high calorie burning workout we tried also had an equally high perceived exertion. 

Which means we were gonna need to find a new approach for our fat loss plan: low-intensity training. First up, incline walking. Kevin was able to get through it without feeling like he was going to collapse, which meant the switch to low intensity fat loss exercises was definitely the right direction. 

But is low-intensity as effective as a fat loss workout? After speaking with Dr. Eric Helms, my takeaway was that high-intensity and low-intensity fat loss exercises are equally as effective so it depends on what you’re comfortable with and would be consistent with.

We even moved into strength training to find out if this was a better calorie burning option than cardio. As Dr. Eric Helms puts it, weight training is great for maintaining muscle mass and ensuring that the weight you lose is primarily body fat, but it's not a great tool for fat loss itself. Don't lift weights for the sake of trying to burn as many calories as possible or to lose fat. Lift weights because it tells your body to keep and even build more muscle as you're losing fat, which ultimately is like most people's goal when they're trying to transform their body.

Something Dr. Eric Helms said gave me a lightbulb moment: I think a far better way to think about this is how do I re-engineer my life such that I'm not trying, but I'm being more active? At this point, I realized just trying to build an optimized fat loss workout plan for Kevin wasn’t going to be enough.

I needed to find a way to test how we burn calories in all areas of our life. That means testing every chore and activity you can do with your free time whether it’s vacuuming, reading, or folding the laundry and starting right off with standing. I was finally starting to build a clear picture of all the ways you can maximize calorie burn through the course of the day. For example, walking outside burned an impressive 6 calories per minute for Kevin. Although that’s almost 1/3rd of what he burned doing sprints, I’m pretty sure he’d much rather go for a 30 minute walk than suffer through 10 minutes of sprints.

Anyways, now that I have all the data, it’s time to reveal the best fat loss exercises and create the ultimate fat loss routine.

Kevin and I actually had the same top three best fat loss exercises. Sprinting, Boxing and the Devil’s Press.

Low effort fat loss exercises that still burned a decent amount of calories: longboarding, basketball, incline walking, and plain old walking outside. And high effort fat loss exercises that didn’t end up burning very many calories: power walking.

But jumping jacks, planks, crunches, and most strength exercises, also burned a surprisingly low amount of calories relative to their effort. But while it’s easy to assume the exercise that burns the most calories must be the best, my experience with Kevin has shown me it just isn’t that simple. 

Dr. Eric Helms sums it up:

I think really what we will want to think about is energy expenditure over time that I will adhere to. Think of all of these different fat loss exercises and intensities as tools, and you want to have a robust tool belt. The whole variety in your tool belt is going to make it far more likely that you could adhere to exercise long-term and get the fat loss that you're after.


The Only Fitness Supplements You ACTUALLY Need

The supplements industry has exploded, reaching almost $400 billion dollars just last year. But how much of the bodybuilding supplements industry is a scam? Protein powder, creatine, multivitamins, athletics greens, BCAA's, fat burners, etc. What gym supplements actually work and what doesn't? Today I’m testing the most popular workout supplements, comparing their claims against real scientific data. I’ll show you what scams to avoid and which gym supplements research says you should use instead. Starting with one that may come as a surprise … creatine.

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Americans alone consume well over 4 million kg of creatine yearly. But many companies have been taking advantage of this trend. Up to 30% of people naturally have high levels of creatine, which is why about 1 in 4 don’t see any performance benefits from it. But that’s only part of the story.

Often, companies selling workout supplements use complex terms on their creatine products to impress or even confuse buyers, and make their products seem a lot better than they actually are. Then, they bump up the price, and people think it “must be better”. But many of these expensive creatine forms are less effective than creatine monohydrate. And a lot of times they aren’t tested for safety either! So, does this mean you should stop taking creatine? Not necessarily.

But to avoid the gym supplements scams, you’ve gotta make sure you’re picking the right kind. For now, research has consistently shown that just plain old creatine monohydrate is not only the safest and most effective, it’s also the cheapest. Just try to get one that’s been third-party lab tested so you can be sure of what you’re actually consuming.

BCAA supplements may be one of the oldest scams in bodybuilding. BCAAs only contain 3 amino acids: leucine, isoleucine, and valine. So, providing your body with too many BCAAs might actually block other amino acids from being used, potentially hurting muscle recovery and growth.

But I know you might be wondering: if this research on BCAA’s is 10 years old, why do top brands still sell them as bodybuilding supplements? Well, that’s exactly why. Because they sell. That said, here’s a pro-tip: if you do want to supplement amino acids, EAAs, or essential amino acids, are a much better option. EAAs include 9 of the most important amino acids rather than 3. And they can be especially useful for vegetarians or those who like to work out fasted. But here’s how I see it. If you eat well and get enough protein, neither BCAAs or EAAs are very likely to help much. And that actually brings us to the last scam to watch out for, and the latest supplement craze taking over the internet.

Green supplements are supposedly an easy way to get your fruits and veggies in without having to chop, blend, or cook anything. But there’s been little to no evidence supporting green powders’ supposed health benefits. They also make use of deceptive nutrition labeling practices, such as the use of unregulated terms like “superfoods” and stuffing the product with water-soluble nutrients, to make them sound better than they actually are.

Some of you might now be thinking “green supplements are better because they’re sourced from whole foods”. While that is true, research has yet to show this makes any difference. Even if you “extract” the nutrients from whole foods, you still lose a lot of what makes them so good for you in the first place. Because of this, as of 2018 the Public Health of England declared that greens powders do not count towards your “5-servings-a-day.” of fruits and veggies. And that’s part of the problem. Because of how green powders are marketed, many people think they can rely on these supplements instead of eating real food. Whereas eating enough servings of fruits and vegetables a day has tons of strong evidence showing it improves health, body composition, gut health, digestion, longevity, and pretty much everything else you can think of.

So while it’s possible a greens powder may provide a small benefit for those who eat very little fruits and vegetables, it’s not a replacement. And it’s definitely a lot more pricey than a simple multivitamin.


How I Lost My Belly Fat in 1 Week (Using Science)

How to lose belly fat in 1 week? Is losing stubborn belly fat 3 times faster even possible? For the next 7 days, I'll be following a science-backed fat loss plan designed to lose belly fat fast. I want to see how my body reacts and if this could be an easy way to achieve weight loss and shred down for the summer.

Use code BELLYFAT for 10% off Built With Science protein:
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Before covering how to lose belly fat in 1 week, let’s first get my baseline measurements. My initial DEXA scan came in at 15.6% body fat. I also used the ultrasound to measure the exact thickness of my upper belly fat, middle belly fat, and the most stubborn area, my lower belly fat. After seven days, we’ll come back and see just how much these measurements have changed.

With this diet, I’m eating just 1,200 calories. It’s extreme, but sticking to it should lead to about 3 lbs of pure fat loss in just a week.

Alberto Nunez, “the go-to man” to get you absolutely shredded in the natural bodybuilding community, terms it the protein-sparing modified diet. He shares that, on this diet, you’re eating nothing much other than protein. And given how extreme this weight loss diet is, Alberto recommends 1.5 to 1.75 g of protein per lb of body weight. For me, that translated to a bare minimum of 250 grams of protein on a budget of just 1200 calories per day. As for protein sources? It's going to be a lot of the leaner animal proteins.

Here’s my daily meal plan to lose belly fat fast. Egg white omelet with celery for breakfast, a post workout Built With Science protein shake, two chicken breasts with light veggies for lunch, more chicken and veg for dinner, and more chicken breasts for desserts.

So, when it comes to weight training, research has shown that it only takes about 1/3rd of the volume to MAINTAIN your existing muscle. This means, rather than doing 3 sets per exercise, I could do just 1 hard set and that should be enough to protect my muscles from being burned off without being too much for my body to recover from. Now, even though I’m not getting all the nutrition I need because of my strict calorie limit, I’m trying to use a few key supplements to fill in the gaps, including a multivitamin, Omega 3s, and some clutch recommendations I got from Alberto: caffeine and protein powder.

3 days in, and I felt great. But Alberto cautioned that my body was probably going to start bugging me soon. True enough, I felt a rapid energy drop going into the second half of the week. As for my food cravings, the longer I went into the diet, the crazier those cravings became.

So when your body experiences a serious drop in calories, it starts to do whatever it can to tell you to eat. Not only can your smell and tase become heightened, but your leptin levels can decrease dramatically. Meaning, not only was my stomach physically feeling empty but even the signals in my body meant to regulate my hunger were starting to go haywire.

Feeling absolutely depleted, I headed back to the lab to get my day 7 results. But before I find out, I already know this isn’t a plan I will be repeating. Trying something so extreme had me feeling exhausted, unmotivated and like I was completely depleted. And when I did get to actually enjoy real food again I actually had to spend the next few days resisting the urge to eat everything in sight.

Diets like this are exactly what cause so many people to yoyo diet and even develop eating disorders. To truly lose belly fat and keep it off, you need patience, consistency, and a sustainable diet that you can stick to for several weeks.

Regardless of what the results show in the scans, do not try to copy what I did in this video. As for my results, my DEXA scan showed that my body fat dropped from 15.6% to 14.7%. It doesn’t sound like much but usually it would take me at least a few weeks of dieting to achieve that.

But what’s interesting is the ultrasound.

Although my upper and middle belly fat didn’t change much since I didn’t have too much to lose there, my lower belly fat, which is the most stubborn area, dropped by over 30%! In fact, the thickness of my lower belly fat dropped by half a cm! Which explains why I noticed my lower abs starting to pop out a little more.

But despite the results, I wanted to get even leaner, so I decided to continue dieting for the next 6 weeks. This time, using a more sustainable approach. My plan is to head back to the lab for 1 more scan to see just how much more belly fat I was able to lose, and then make a video for you guys revealing everything I did to easily lose that fat. So keep an eye out.


How to Build Muscle 2x Faster (Genius Strategy)

What’s the best way to build muscle? Can “bad form” help you build muscle fast? We all know that guy who says he can do 30 pull-ups, and then they’re just half reps. But what if he’s onto a secret about muscle growth? Today, I’ll show you why new research suggests using “bad form” can help you gain muscle almost twice as fast. And it’s actually pretty simple: it’s all about the stretch. Here’s everything to know about the fastest way to build muscle.

Use the code STRETCH at checkout for 15% off on a proven, science-backed program that takes care of all the guesswork for you:
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“Taking your current training and focusing more on the stretch could take some of your lagging muscles to be a lot bigger and take some of your currently-pretty-good muscles and take them to the next level.” That’s Dr. Milo Wolf. The world’s leading expert on this new area of research and how to build muscle fast by using this technique.

“There are about 10 to 12 studies, and in many of these studies, you see around double the muscle growth by focusing on the stretch versus missing out on the stretch.”But here’s the problem. Often, the stronger you get, the easier it is to neglect it. "It's because the body wants to avoid the most painful part of the exercise.” There’s also rushing out of the stretch position. So lowering the weight to get deeper and controlling that bottom position is definitely one way to improve the stretch and get more growth from your workouts.

But there’s more. To get the best results so you gain muscle faster, you should also
choose exercises that stretch your muscles the most. Example: switching from the barbell bench press to a dumbbell bench press or even something like a deficit push-up where there is no longer a restriction on when the ground touches your torso, so you can get as deep as you want. There’s a second way to use “the stretch” that’s less obvious but might be even more effective: pick exercises that are most challenging in the stretched position. Example: the preacher curls over the incline curls. Other exercises that do a great job of challenging your muscles in the stretch include dumbbell flyes, overhead extensions, reverse cable flyes, and behind-the-body lateral raise, with the cable set at wrist height.

Unfortunately, there’s no really good back or calves exercise that challenges the “stretch” and we’ll talk about the “fix” for this in a minute. But basically, the best way to build muscle is to think about this anytime you try an exercise: “If the stretch position feels really easy like there's barely any weight there, that's not going to be the best movement for hypertrophy."

"If, on the other hand, the stretch position feels very difficult, something like a dumbbell fly where it's really challenging in that stretch position, that is going to be a better exercise in all likelihood for hypertrophy.“

What I really want to focus on now is the counterintuitive lesson you can take away from all this “stretch” research: how you can use “bad form” for faster muscle growth. Remember the pull-up guy? Well, he was actually onto the fastest way to build muscle. “If you're doing the wrong type of half reps, you are hurting your muscle building. However, we do have research on the opposite of that. Where you do half reps in the stretched position of a movement. And across around 5 studies now, 4 studies have found more muscle growth with half reps in the stretch position compared to a full range of motion."

In other words, some reps that look “bad” might actually be good. Think about it. When you train certain muscles like the back or calves, where does it feel the hardest? It’s usually at the end of the movement when your muscles are fully contracted. But it’s really the beginning when the muscle is most stretched that’s most important for muscle growth. “We have research, for example, in the calves. When we compare it doing just the bottom half of the movement to doing a full range of motion in a study by Kassiano and colleagues, for example, we observed around twice the growth at both sites measured."

For certain exercises, replacing full reps with half reps has the potential to double your muscle growth. But there’s another option that’s also been shown to be extremely effective. It’s quite simple. After you can’t do any more full range of motion reps, keep pushing past failure by doing as many half reps as you can in that stretched position.  As for what exercises benefit the most from this, it’s any exercise that’s hardest in the contracted position. This includes pretty much all calves exercises, most back exercises (e.g., lat pulldowns and rows), chest flyes, reverse flyes, dumbbell lateral raises, and leg extensions.


What Muscles Do Girls ACTUALLY Care About?

Today, we answer the most important question known to gym bros worldwide. What male muscles do women love most? And do muscles matter to girls? To find out, I’m asking girls at the beach to gather data, then running a full statistical analysis to determine the muscles men have that women love — and also finding out which muscle ranks the highest and which ones they just don't seem to care for along the way. At the end, I’ll also reveal the one unexpected personality trait that actually outperformed all the best male muscles.

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But to start things off, I want to first ask the guys what they believed to be the muscles men have that women love. Do we really understand what women want? After talking to the guys, our leading predictions were chest and shoulders.

This means it’s finally time to start asking girls what they really thought were the most attractive muscles on a guy, but I’m gonna need some assistance. Max has one of the best-proportioned physiques I know and is going to be our Muscle Model for the day, just in case the girls need a visual reference before making their choice. But what Max doesn’t know is I'm secretly playing matchmaker! Max is as nice as he is buff, and he's single too. As we interview girls to find out what they think, let's see if we can find someone truly special for him.

Turns out our first couple attempts didn’t go that great — even though Max is in amazing shape, he’s also incredibly shy. And while I was failing in my role as a wingman, we were at least getting some really valuable answers to the question of “What male muscles do women love most?” from the girls. In addition to having the girls pick their #1 muscle, I also had them rate each muscle on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the most attractive. After we get enough data, I’ll be using a scientific tool called ANOVA to determine which muscle is not just the most attractive, but if it actually reaches statistical significance. This way, we can confidently say if certain muscles are genuinely more attractive and which muscles are not. 

Early on, I was already finding one muscle group that was doing surprisingly worse than I expected. Abs. But before you guys ditch the diet and jump on a bulk for the rest of your life, I did notice something interesting with the data. Although abs score low on average, when I count how frequently girls pick them as the most attractive muscle, they’re actually in the top 3. This suggests that while, on average, girls don’t really seem to care much for six-pack abs, the ones who do find them attractive and score them as a 10. Which just goes to show that even if a muscle doesn’t score high on our study there is still someone out there who may be attracted to just that.

With Max’s body and my skills as a wing Man I was finally able to set Max up with some potential first dates. But how much of his success was coming from his muscles? Do muscles matter to girls? Well, this goes back to our ancestral times. Back then, strong muscles showed that a man could protect and support his family. But it wasn't just about fighting ability; since building muscle needs protein-rich food, it meant these men were good hunters too. So today, even though most men get muscles at gyms rather than hunting, attraction to muscles should still be hard-wired into their DNA.

While having some muscle was definitely seen as positive by almost every girl we spoke to, they were generally seen as far less important than most guys predicted. So, if you are hitting the gym, you're probably better off picking a goal that’s important to you rather than just trying to impress girls. I won’t say muscle doesn’t help, but in my experience, it typically leads to a lot more compliments from gym bros rather than the ladies. 

As for the results of our survey, we managed to collect over 50 responses from our interviews. But based on a statistics tool called G-power, it recommended we aim for at least 200 to make our results statistically valid. So after sending out a quick online survey, we had all the data we needed to determine the best male muscles.

Calves came in dead last with only 3 first place votes out of 205 responses. As it turns out, not a lot of girls really love calves. Next were glutes, legs and abs. Now, while those muscles significantly outperform calves, their scores were much lower than the upper body muscles, chest, back, and shoulders.

But there was only 1 muscle that reached statistical significance when compared to every other muscle. Arms. In fact, on average 1 of every 3 girls we surveyed picked arms as their number 1 muscle. But even though nice arms still won't guarantee the girl of your dreams, there was one personality trait that outperformed every muscle we surveyed. Humor.


Summer Game Fest 2024: Geoff's Trailer (Watch Live Show LIVE TODAY at 2p PT / 5p ET)

Watch the 4K 60FPS Livestream Today At: https://youtube.com/live/pZzia5NrMuU

It's almost time. SUMMER GAME FEST streams live in 4K on YouTube this Friday at 2p PT / 5p ET / 10p BST / 11p CEST.

Here's the SGF trailer Geoff Keighley edited to get us in the mood for the show. Games in this trailer highlight incredible moments from games in 2024 and titles still to be released. For a full list of partner companies to SGF, check out summergamefest.com

Featuring "Lord It's a Feeling" by @LondonGrammar

Join us live from YouTube Theater in Los Angeles for a 2 hour showcase of what's next in video games, followed by Day of the Devs and Devolver Direct.

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