u/HamzaJdn

The deadlift trains glutes, hamstrings, erectors, lats, traps, forearms, and the skill of bracing a heavy load. Nothing else does all of that in one movement.

Setup that works:

1. Bar over midfoot. Look down: the bar should bisect your foot front-to-back. Not over your toes, not at your shins.
2. Hips back, shins drift forward until they touch the bar. Don't squat down to it.
3. Neutral spine from head to tailbone. No rounding, no hyperextension.
4. Lats on. Think "drag the bar into your shins" or "armpits over the bar."
5. Push the floor away with your legs. Don't think "pull the bar up", because that triggers a back-led pull.
6. Hips and shoulders rise together. If your hips shoot up first, the weight is too heavy or your hamstrings can't hold the position.

Strength benchmarks (kg per kg bodyweight):

Level        | x BW
-------------|-----
Beginner     | 1.0
Intermediate | 1.5
Advanced     | 2.0
Elite        | 2.5+

Progression by level:

Beginner (0-12 months): linear progression. Add 2.5 kg per session for 3x5 until you fail twice in a row, then reset 10% and rebuild.

Intermediate (1-3 years): double progression. Stay in a rep range (e.g. 3x5 → 3x8) before adding weight. Run 4-week waves with a deload.

Advanced (3+ years): block periodization. 4 weeks hypertrophy (5x5 at 70-75%), 4 weeks strength (5x3 at 80-85%), 4 weeks peak (singles at 90%+). Deload between blocks.

Equipment notes:
- Flat shoes (Converse, Vans, slippers, barefoot). No running shoes.
- Belt above 80% 1RM only.
- Hook grip or mixed grip on top sets. Double-overhand for warm-ups to train grip.
- Wrist straps for accessory work, never for top sets.

Mistakes that cap progress:
- Squatting the deadlift (hips too low at start)
- Hips shooting up first (turns it into a stiff-leg)
- Pulling with the lower back instead of the legs
- No lat tension (bar drifts forward)
- Mixed grip on every set (bicep tear risk)

Full guide: https://virtusapp.ai/blog/deadlift/

Training is 4 to 6 hours of your week. Everything else is 162 to 164 hours. The muscle you build comes from how you spend those 162 hours, not the 4 to 6. Two lifters on the same program with different sleep, protein, and step counts end up in completely different places after a year.

The 8 daily habits, ranked roughly by impact:

1. Sleep 7-9 hours, every night
   GH spikes, MPS peaks, CNS recovers. 6 hours costs you 20-30% of MPS. Non-optional.

2. Hit 1.6-2.2 g protein per kg bodyweight
   Split across 3-5 meals at 30-50 g each. Skipping protein at breakfast and lunch then eating one chicken breast at dinner is the most common reason beginners undereat by 30-50 g/day.

3. Walk 8,000-12,000 steps a day
   Burns 300-600 cal without taxing recovery. Improves insulin sensitivity. Drops stress. Makes calorie management trivial.

4. Drink 3-4 L of water a day
   Mild dehydration drops lifting performance 3-7%. Real weight off the bar.

5. 10-30 min of outdoor daylight in the first 2 hours after waking
   Anchors circadian rhythm. Cloud cover doesn't matter much. Step outside.

6. Manage stress like a hormonal state
   Chronic stress raises cortisol, suppresses growth, wrecks sleep. Daily tools: walking outside, talking to people, limiting phone, morning sun, sleep.

7. Move on rest days
   20-30 min walking, stretching, easy mobility. Light movement helps recovery. Total inactivity is hard on recovery.

8. Track lifestyle metrics, not just workouts
   Sleep hours, daily steps, water, protein, daily 1-10 mood. When sleep drops, recovery drops 3 days later. When steps drop, body comp drifts 3 weeks later. The data catches it before the mirror does.

A real day:
- Wake: 10 min outside, water, protein target written down
- Morning: breakfast with 30 g protein
- Mid-day: walking break, water, lunch with 40 g protein
- Late afternoon: gym session or mobility day
- Evening: dinner with 40 g protein, no work
- Pre-bed: phone out of room, lights low, in bed 8 hours before alarm

None of it is dramatic. None of it costs money. All of it compounds.

Full article: https://virtusapp.ai/blog/daily-habits/

Testing a true 1-rep max is risky, fatiguing, and only worth doing 2-3 times a year. The rest of the time, you estimate it from a submaximal set. The Epley formula:

1RM = weight × (1 + reps / 30)

Examples:

100 kg × 5 reps  →  116.7 kg estimated 1RM
80 kg × 8 reps   →  101.3 kg estimated 1RM
140 kg × 3 reps  →  154.0 kg estimated 1RM

Accuracy: within ~5% in the 2-6 rep range. Above 6 reps, cardiovascular and grip limits start to interfere, so treat it as a ballpark.

Percentage table for programming:

Reps   | %1RM
-------|-----
1      | 100%
2      | 95%
3      | 93%
5      | 87%
8      | 80%
10     | 75%
12     | 70%

How to use it in practice:

1. Hit a heavy set of 3-5 reps (RPE 8-9, leaving 1-2 reps in reserve).
2. Plug into the formula or use the free calculator.
3. Use the result to program percentages for the next 4-6 weeks.
4. Re-test every 4-6 weeks; update the number.

You'll get better strength progress hitting heavy sets of 3-5 every few weeks than grinding singles for testing every month.

Calculator + full percentage table: https://virtusapp.ai/blog/1rm-calculator/

Most people start a diet with a number they pulled off a generic chart. That's why most diets fail in week 1.

TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is the only target worth using. It accounts for your size, sex, age, and activity. The formula:

TDEE = BMR x activity multiplier

BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) uses the Mifflin-St Jeor formula:

Men:   10 x weight(kg) + 6.25 x height(cm) - 5 x age + 5
Women: 10 x weight(kg) + 6.25 x height(cm) - 5 x age - 161

Activity multipliers:

Sedentary (desk job, no exercise):           1.2
Lightly active (light exercise 1-3 d/wk):    1.375
Moderately active (moderate 3-5 d/wk):       1.55
Very active (hard 6-7 d/wk):                 1.725
Extremely active (twice daily, hard labor):  1.9

Once you have TDEE:

• Fat loss: TDEE minus 300-500 cal/day → ~0.3-0.5 kg/wk
• Muscle gain: TDEE plus 200-400 cal/day → ~0.2-0.4 kg/wk
• Maintenance: TDEE exactly

Track for 2 weeks. If body weight isn't moving in the direction you want, adjust by 100-200 cal and reassess in another 2 weeks. Don't change the target every few days based on water-weight noise.

Free calculator + the full math: https://virtusapp.ai/blog/calorie-calculator/

DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) peaks around 48 hours after a hard workout. It's caused by microscopic damage to muscle fibers from eccentric (lengthening) contractions, especially when the load or movement is new.


The myth that needs to die: "If I'm sore, I grew."


The reality:


- You can grow muscle without being sore. Once you're adapted to a movement, you stop getting damaged enough to hurt, but the growth stimulus is still there as long as you're progressing.
- You can be obliterated by soreness and not grow. A novel exercise creates damage even at low volumes. That damage signal isn't a growth signal.
- People who chase soreness end up picking exercises by how much they hurt instead of how much they progress. That tanks training quality.


Two things that actually drive growth: mechanical tension under load and progressive overload over time. Damage/soreness is incidental, not causal.


Recovery levers that matter:


- Sleep 7-9 hours (the single biggest one)
- 1.6-2.2 g/kg protein per day
- Light activity / walking on off days
- Keep training the muscle (lightly is fine) rather than avoiding it for a week


What doesn't really move the needle: ice baths, foam rolling, BCAAs, fancy stretching protocols. Some help slightly. None replace sleep and food.


Full article: https://virtusapp.ai/blog/doms/

Got no excuse, download Virtus Athlete and start now.

Most CrossFitters either skip the warm-up or burn 15 minutes on the rower. Neither works. The structure that actually prevents injury and improves performance has 3 phases:

Phase 1 is general cardio (3-5 minutes). Row, bike, jog, jump rope. The goal is to raise core temperature until you're sweating lightly. Heart rate around 120-140. Not a workout, just enough to prime the system.

Phase 2 is dynamic mobility (5 minutes). Active range-of-motion work. World's greatest stretch (2 reps per side), leg swings (front-back + lateral), scapular wall slides, hip openers, ankle rocks, thoracic rotations. Skip static stretching here, because it reduces power output for the next ~60 minutes.

Phase 3 is movement-specific prep (3-5 minutes). Look at the WOD. Whatever movements are in it, practice at a scaled load before going heavy. Empty bar version of every barbell movement. Ring rows before pull-ups. Light kettlebell swings before heavy. 2-3 reps per movement, working up to working load.

Total: 10-15 minutes. Same structure regardless of the WOD. The mistake most people make is doing only phase 1 and walking into round 1 with cold tissue, then losing the workout to a tweak in round 2.

Full breakdown: https://virtusapp.ai/blog/crossfit-warm-up/

The smallest plate in most gyms is 1.25 kg. That forces a minimum jump of 2.5 kg per session. For lower body lifts, that's a 1-2% increase. Easy. For overhead press at 40 kg, that's a 6.25% increase. Your body cannot adapt that fast week to week.

This is the structural reason overhead press is the first lift to stall for almost every intermediate lifter. It's not a programming failure or a shoulder mobility issue. The smallest jump available is just too big relative to the load.

The math:

Lift            | Working Weight | 2.5 kg Jump | % Increase
----------------|----------------|-------------|----------
Squat           | 140 kg         | +2.5 kg     | 1.8%
Deadlift        | 180 kg         | +2.5 kg     | 1.4%
Bench Press     | 80 kg          | +2.5 kg     | 3.1%
Overhead Press  | 40 kg          | +2.5 kg     | 6.25%
Barbell Curl    | 35 kg          | +2.5 kg     | 7.1%

Fix: fractional plates. 0.25 kg, 0.5 kg, 1 kg per side. With 0.25 kg plates you add 0.5 kg per week. That's 26 kg per year on lifts that would otherwise stall in weeks.

DIY versions if you don't want to buy:

• Chain links from a hardware store, hung from the sleeve with a carabiner
• Heavy steel washers stacked on a carabiner
• 0.5 kg ankle weights wrapped around the bar sleeve
• Magnetic microplates ($15-30 online)

Verify the actual weight with a scale. Precision matters when the increments are this small.

Best lifts to microload: overhead press, bench (for lighter lifters), curls, lateral raises, tricep work. Anything under ~60 kg working weight.

You won't actually progress linearly for a full year (deloads, missed sessions, natural plateaus), but 0.5 kg per week for 6 months is 13 kg, achieved through jumps so small your body barely notices.

Full breakdown with FAQs: https://virtusapp.ai/blog/fractional-plates/

Use Virtus Athlete. It makes it easy to track progress.

[effacé]

Grip strength shows up in the longevity literature as one of the strongest single predictors of all-cause mortality. The PURE study (Lancet, 2015) tracked nearly 140,000 adults across 17 countries and found grip strength outperformed systolic blood pressure as a mortality predictor. Each 5 kg drop in grip strength was associated with a 16% higher risk of all-cause death.

In the gym it's the same pattern: grip is the lever everything passes through. Pulls, deadlifts, carries, rows. If your hands give out before your back does, you stop adapting at your weakest link.

What "good" looks like:

- Adult men: 50+ kg per hand on a dynamometer is solid. <30 kg is associated with significant health risk.

- Adult women: 30+ kg per hand is solid. <20 kg is the risk zone.

- Trained lifters can usually beat these benchmarks easily. If you can't, the rest of your strength is being held back.

The mistake most people make is reaching for straps the second a set gets heavy. Straps are useful, but they short-circuit the only stimulus that grows grip. The fix is making grip a deliberate target, not collateral.

Three things that actually work:

1. Double-overhand deadlift until the bar slips, then strap up. Most of your work sets get the straps. Top sets test the grip.

2. Heavy farmer carries. 60-80% bodyweight per hand. Walk until the handles drop. 3-4 sets, twice a week.

3. Plate pinches and dead hangs. 30-45 second holds. End of session, when arms are fried anyway.

Run this for 8-12 weeks and your top deadlift, your back day, and your dynamometer score all move at once.

Full breakdown with FAQs: https://virtusapp.ai/blog/grip-strength/

Without mentioning its content. I always found that this glass was so elegantly beautiful.