Hypertrophy Past and Present

In this episode of Hypertrophy Past & Present, Jake and Chris begin with Leroy Colbert’s late-1970s enormous volume training plan. The conversation then explores whether using pre-steroid bodybuilders as a model for natural training is really an “appeal to tradition,” before examining the evidence that anabolic steroids can directly stimulate muscle growth even without resistance training.

Key topics include:
  • Leroy Colbert’s high-volume late-1970s routine
  • Why bodybuilding training changed so dramatically after the introduction of anabolic steroids
  • Forcing Chris into a philosophy conversation: appeal to tradition fallacy, Chesterton’s fence, the Lindy effect, and Occam’s razor
  • Evidence that anabolic steroids can build muscle without a resistance-training stimulus
  • Why steroid-induced muscle growth cannot simply be dismissed as water weight or sarcoplasmic hypertrophy
  • The dose-response relationship between testosterone and muscle growth
  • Why “replacement” doses of testosterone may still produce supraphysiological effects at the muscle
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What is Hypertrophy Past and Present?

A deep dive into the science of muscle growth. Hosted by Chris Beardsley and Jake Doleschal, this podcast explores hypertrophy training through the lens of pre-steroid era bodybuilding and modern muscle physiology.