If you want to increase your strength or muscle mass, the solution is obvious: Add some kind of resistance training to your workout routine, whether that’s lifting or callisthenics.
 
But did you know that you need to train in two different ways to maximise strength or muscle mass?
 
In today’s article, I’m going to cover exactly that and more, including:
 

• What is strength?
• What is muscle mass?
• What are the main differences and similarities when training for one or the other?

 
Let’s start off with strength.

You know that you need a caloric deficit to lose fat and you have done the math to work out your starting calories.
 
Great stuff.
 
Fast forward a few weeks: You’ve been dieting hardcore and you’ve seen some losses… but now it looks like you’ve hit a plateau.
 
Well then, time to lower calories.
 
Wait a second! Is this really your best option?
 
It’s true: When fat loss plateaus, increasing the calories you burn or reducing the calories you eat will help you kickstart the process again.
 
However, opting to lower calories as soon as the weight on the scale stops moving might be overkill. So, in this article, I’m going to cover:
 

• What is a plateau?
• What tweaks can you make to get un-stuck before you lower calories? 

 
More often than not, these tweaks will help my clients see a change without touching their food.
 
So strap in and let’s get into it.

In the lifting community, some people believe you must go to failure on every single set because, “no pain, no gain, bro!”
 
Other people claim you must avoid failure because, “injury and fatigue, bro!”
 
But which one is the best approach to optimal muscle growth? Is there a single best approach?
 
This article will tackle these questions and cover the following points:
 

• What is muscular failure?
• Is it necessary to grow muscle?
• When would you want to train to failure?

Regular readers of this blog will already know that fat loss requires a caloric deficit.
 
In most cases, if you are not seeing any fat loss, the reason is that you are not in a deficit. And yet, what if you have been dieting for some time and you have seen results, but they have just stopped coming?
 
Maybe the solution is not to diet harder, lower calories, and increase activity levels, even though this can sometimes be a viable strategy to get out of a plateau.
 
Maybe this time the solution is – gasp! – to take a break from the diet and enter a maintenance phase. Counterintuitive much? Hear me out.
 
In this article, I will do my best to cover:
 

• What maintenance is
• Why it is so important and when to do it
• Who can benefit the most from a maintenance phase

​Lifting is a game of diminishing returns.
 
When you start, you can grow muscle just by looking at a dumbbell. You will be able to lift more weight or do more reps in almost every session without having to think about it.
 
Alas, a few months later, your progress slows down. Sometimes, it stops altogether.
 
What do you do now? You need to become more strategic.
 
This article aims to arm you with some knowledge to keep getting results from your training.
 
First things first…