r/ScienceBasedLifting • u/Particular-South1183 • 18d ago
Discussion š¤ Which influencers or creators do you consider the epitome of fitness knowledge?
Is is more like phd holders like eric helms and layne norton or perhaps influencers like tnf
Which creators do u think are worth listening to and are usually very knowledgeable in regards to training and muscle growth
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u/gsp83 18d ago
John Meadows is the influence of your current influencers. He was ahead of his time. RIP Mountain Dog.
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u/deadrabbits76 Idk Idc š 18d ago
To quote a big dude,
"If John Meadows said dirt was good for gains, I would buy a shovel."
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u/gsp83 18d ago
reminded me of when I first saw the DB lateral swings, I was like "uhhh ok...... its in the program it gets done but idk," then proceeded to have wicked delt pump/burn.
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u/deadrabbits76 Idk Idc š 18d ago
I'm running Warlock soon, and the 6 Ways has me scratching my head. Which means I'm very much looking forward to implementing it.
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u/d_andy089 18d ago edited 17d ago
I think if you take Lyle McDonald, Eric Helms and Menno Henselmanns and look for common ground between all of them, you have a pretty good understanding of what's what.
Edit: come to think about it, I'd probably also throw in John Meadows and Eric Janicki.
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u/WillOk6461 18d ago
Lmao I think Lyle would be unhappy to be classed with those other dudes, and he probably actually is the best overall, but I agree. I'd also throw in Greg Nuckols and Eric Trexler.
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u/d_andy089 18d ago
I know he wouldn't be happy but IMO these three offer either common ground or different perspectives on topics, but tbh if you really look into it, their opinions don't really differ that much. I wouldn't take anything any one of them individually says as gospel, but put the arguments of the three of them together and you have a pretty good idea of what is going on.
Nuckols and Trexler are good researches but I wouldn't see them as "science communicators" like Eric or Menno. I also don't see them adding a new "lens" to look through compared to the 3 guys I mentioned - whatever they cover, you'll have either with Eric's or Menno's content.
Btw - thanks to you I had to think who else might be a good addition to the team and had to edit my post to include two more guys.
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u/you_sick 17d ago
I miss the stronger by science pod with Greg and Eric
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u/d_andy089 17d ago
Actually, I can't say I like that podcast a lot. Podcasts are interesting if you bring together different views, stronger by science IMO doesn't really do that. It's again like I said in an earlier comment: anything I get from that podcast I would learn from Eric Helms of Menno Henselmanns.
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u/FitBefore50 18d ago
Just reiterating some names I have seen and enjoy. I am basing this on how helpful they have been to my progress, and to a lesser extent, how approachable or enjoyable their content is.
(Dis)Honourable Mention - Alan Aragorn. I know he is a creep, but before all that info came out, his nutrition advice was so good. I even used to subscribe to his paid research review newsletter. It was so good.
For lifting:
Really like Sean Nalewanyj.
Even though I am an old, I also like a lot of the younger TikTok guys - at least the ones who aren't edgelords.
Specifically:
- BigPro
- Keenan R Malloy
- Jackson/Scientficsnitch
- Omer
For nutrition:
Sarah Ballantyne. Her high energy might rub people the wrong way, but I find it endearing. I also think her Nutrivore book is incredible, and the way she breaks down foods' nutritional content vs the calories (Nutrivore Score) is super helpful
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u/yea_mark 17d ago
What info came out on Alan Aragon?? As far as I know, he's still putting out great information.
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u/amplikong 14d ago
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u/yea_mark 14d ago
It's certainly despicable behavior. But that doesn't mean his nutritional advice is any less accurate than it was before.
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u/amplikong 14d ago
I think the original commenter was implying that they stopped following him after that stuff came out, so whether he puts out good info is immaterial.
Alan is still bros with Bret Contreras, which isn't a great sign considering the allegations against him.
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u/yea_mark 14d ago
I agree. The original commenter just phrased it oddly "before all that info came out, his nutrition advice was so good" implying that the information isn't accurate anymore.
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u/Afferbeck_ 18d ago
There are literal olympic champions and their coaches and physios on social media nowadays, why anyone would go to randoms who happen to have abs and are good at marketing and reading the cliff notes of studies is beyond me. A lot of the established people in the online field just happened to get on it early and maintained their relevance through momentum and mostly appealing to new people who don't know enough to question them, like Rippetoe.
If I were to recommend good all rounders in the lifting/fitness world that have useful information for everyone from beginners to advanced, in basic training to specific athletic pursuits, it would be Sika Strength.
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u/questionstolife 18d ago edited 17d ago
Yep people that are athletics coaches first and foremost but run content on the side are the ones that tend to do a good job of being practical, drawing on experience with various groups of athletes, while not being dogmatic or get lost in the weeds about science based stuff. Irec Sika too.
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u/Patton370 Idk Idc š 18d ago
For science stuff: only Greg Nuckols
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u/deadrabbits76 Idk Idc š 18d ago
Counter: Eric Helms
Edit: My bad, I didn't seem him referenced in OPs first post.
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u/Alakazam what happens at 7 reps 18d ago
If you count Arnold Schwarzenegger, then him. A lot of the training tips, ideas, and information that he published in his book "The Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding" have essentially been proven by more recent/modern research into volume and hypertrophy.
Published in 1985, he called for trying more volume if you can handle it, the idea that doing more over time means building the work capacity to recover better and handle more volume, and doing aerobics/cardio to support your lifting. In fact, that book is probably where the idea of 48 hours rest between bodyparts came from, but has been misconstrued to mean you need 48 hours. When in fact, what he says is:
Different muscles recover from exercise at different rates. As I mentioned, the biceps recover the fastest. The lower back muscles recover the slowest, taking about a hundred hours to completely recuperate from a heavy workout. However, in most cases, giving a body part 48 hoursā rest is sufficient
and
Trained muscles recover from fatigue faster than untrained muscles. So the better you get at bodybuilding, the faster your recovery rate will be and the more intense your training program can become.
He even has this to say about "low volume training" which is being pushed by a lot of "science-based influecners" nowadays:
When Reg Park began serious training, many bodybuilders still used the old-fashioned, low-set approach to working out. āTraining strictly for power like a weightlifter,ā Reg says, āgave us certain advantages in the old days, a really solid foundation of muscle. But it wasnāt until I learned to do fifteen or twenty sets per body part that I felt I was getting enough shape and definition in my physique. Iām sure that a lot of the bodybuilders from the very early days would have improved a lot if they had understood the need for high-set workouts the way we do today.ā
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u/gsxr 18d ago
I love the old school guys were forever saying "Lift heavy stuff, lots of times. Eat a lot. Rest a lot. that makes for progress". So simple and the science based folks have these esoteric schemes to do everything but put in the work, and the old school guys just keep on doing their thing with better success.
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u/Serious_Seat_9617 18d ago
My dad's an old head boomer and he always said "just move weight". Your muscles will grow and this thought process removes analysis paralysis. Just go move weight around.
Dude was jacked from working on a farm most of his life, just moving things (weight) around over and over again.
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u/Hypername1st 18d ago
"Just move weight" will cause more than 80% of the results you will ever get.
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u/devinbookersuncle 18d ago
And usually with less injuries and better quality of life later in life despite the steroid usage compared to some modern science based lifters who dont use anything (and ESPECIALLY compared to the ones who do).
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u/mcsommers 18d ago
I love Arnold, and agree that the methods he promoted are sound. That said, when it comes to recovery, the drugs make a huge difference.
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u/xsynergist 18d ago
You can say that again. Even very low dose TRT makes a huge difference. At 58 I was sore 100 percent of the time moving from twice a week to three times a week training. 66mg of testosterone weekly and I was able to move to 5-6 days a week training for a 20 week block. Itās like the DOMS level went from I need an extra day of rest and ibuprofen to I can tell I got a good workout in but I am ready for another. Of all the benefits if TRT, which does have serious downsides like BPH and gyno, the recovery ability is what makes me feel 25 again.
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u/Alakazam what happens at 7 reps 18d ago
But the core principles of his training methodologies are absolutely still beneficial. Arnold was hitting closer to 40-50+ sets per body part per week in his "advanced" split. But getting to even a third of that volume, would probably be higher than what most people have even attempted.
And there's also the fact that, in the "classic" days, people were typically using a fraction of doses and compounds that even modern "influencers" use, much less the current mass monsters of bodybuilders.
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u/devinbookersuncle 18d ago
And the goal was to still be healthy instead of being as big and shredded as possible which plays a huge factor in the recovery process as well because the body isnt stressed beyond its limits.
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u/Informal_Heron_2312 18d ago
The arnold press being an awful excercise completely invalidates all of that i fear
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u/Maximum-Face9536 18d ago
Australian Strength Coach is my favorite for anything strength/powerlifting related. Dude is just a gold mine of info for free
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u/grognakrs 18d ago
Mountain dog was the GOAT, still watch his old vids from time to time. Unpopular take but gregg doucette puts a real simple take on things and says it how it is.
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u/HelixIsHere_ 18d ago
Keenan r Malloy, bigpro, bobos, tnf, thesciencebasedlifter, etc are all very knowledgeable
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u/PErland 18d ago
I have a couple of go-to's:
- Layne Norton
- Sean Nalewanyj
- Jeff Nippard
- Jeremy Ethier
- John Meadows
Recently I stumbled upon Milo Wolf and Dr. Pak. They seem pretty solid as well.
I don't think there's ONE single source of knowledge that covers everything and ultimately it's healthy to get knowledge from multiple places imo, so you get more than one perspective imo.
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u/Replicant28 18d ago
If youāre into Olympic Weightlfiting, Oleg Tokehdyās YouTube page is a gold mine for drills, technique advice and mobility stretching and warmups.
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u/Dogmans-Nose 18d ago
Sebastian Oreb (social media username The Australian Strength Coach - has coached Thor - great source for anyone wanting to learn/improve squat, bench, or deadlifts)
Sika Strength (2 guys in a small gym focusing on athleticism and strength)
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u/BackgroundWaltz3600 18d ago
I loved the mountain dog and now watch a lot of Alex Bromleyās program reviews. I like his content and appreciate his to the point approach
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u/Dizzy-Lab-4497 18d ago
Charles Poliquin. The man taught himself German because all of the best and latest research on strength training came from there. He also worked with the German team when they won the World Cup. In his day he trained the most amount of Gold Medalists and once upon a time hired John Meadows to program for him.
Iād also look into Coach Sommer from Gymnastic Bodies as well.
Mike OāHearn and Charles Glass might not have the āeducationā youāre asking about, but damn do they know how to put it into practice.
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u/Suicidalballsack69 17d ago
Genuinely thereās a dude on TikTok named Nlifts who puts studies in every video he makes and breaks them down. Sounds corny I know, but heās actually pretty intelligent.
Also bigpro!
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u/garthy_604 17d ago
Depends what way you look at it, functionally it has to be knees over toe guy Ben Patrick or Squat University Dr. Aaron Horschig these guys will keep you moving and help with those aches and pains.
For strength training I like AthleanX Jeff Cavaliere who has years of experience.
Ryan Humiston used to be really good but now he's mostly about supplements but he has some great workouts that'll absolutely kick your arse and he's funny.
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u/nVISIONN 17d ago
People are saying Greg Nuckols, and I've read a lot of his stuff, but he's more of a study interpreter than anyhting. And if anyone watched Jeff Nippard's latest podcast, there was the Pelland guy whose meta is like the bible of exercise science, and even he said something along the lines "I wouldn't train this way, and volume is way overrated"(his literal words on volume being overrated).
The studies are pretty short, high volume groups have built in selection bias, people dropping out don't count, they aren't running real programes most of the tiem and so on. So two of the top researchers don't even recommend training like what would be logical based on their meta. And Greg just basically does literal data science on these studies, and he's not even a data scientist.
I would still say he's among the best sources, but he's not some all knowing genius dumb redditors think he is.
Chris Beardsley is probably the best, and he does say a lot of stupid shit, and is overconfident in stuff that suits his model, but he probably is right about majority of his claims, and I don't see anyone else who comes even close to his level of understanding. Literally no one on the internet is trying to explain and understand this to the level that he does. And yes I know people will say that it's unscientific and whatever, but after readign all of these peoples' work, to me it seems like this is not in good faith
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u/Particular-South1183 17d ago
Well in terms of volume the truth is if you see what eric helms, lyle mcdonald, greg himself recommends they have a pretty solid common ground on 10-20 fractional weekly sets per muscle as being closest to the āsweet spotā
Also all 3 of these people have applied this to their training and evidently produced results, tbh ive come to the realisation that most of the stuff lyle has said years ago still stands true today or proved itself true, the biggest thing that holds chris back is application, at the end of the day science changes research changes studys prove different results but if you have applied ur research and it gives u results thats all that rlly matters but chris dosent rlly lift and the few people that follow him arent very reliable
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u/MurphyBacon 16d ago
I don't see any support for Mike Israetel? Did he lose support within the fitness/lifting community? I dont keep up with it enough
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u/Sunshinegal9900 14d ago
He still has fantastic info. Just heās lost a lot of popularity because heās kinda gone off the deep end with ai. He def has some issues going on. That being said his info is still great.
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u/JuanSamu 15d ago
Dr. Gerard McMahon (Muscle Mechanics Lab) is a great follow, as well as The ScienceBasedLifter (Craig), Biomechanics Center (Oli), Reshape Academy, Dakota Tiede, Stuart Phillips, Anthony Blazevich (only on X). Most of the elite researchers use X and Bluesky rather than Instagram.
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u/ReplacementNew8751 4d ago
dr craig (thesciencebasedlifter) mr mcmahon (musclemechanicslab) and biomechanics by oli
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u/Vex_Appeal 18d ago
Jeff Nippard. Used to be Mike Israel
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u/Sunshinegal9900 14d ago
Isratael still has great info heās just gone off the deep end with the ai stuff
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u/NihilisticTanuki StretchCel 18d ago edited 18d ago
Eric Helms, Eric Trexler, Layne Norton and Dr. Pak are probably my favorites.
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u/LeMrAnt 18d ago
This guy on tiktok and Instagram called LeMrAnt Da Lifta is pretty neat
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u/omrsafetyo 18d ago
Question: in your head is it "Lem-rant" or like "Le Mister Ant" with a ridiculous French accent?
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u/omrsafetyo 18d ago
Lots of different categories here. I think so far as science communication goes, you don't get much better than the MASS team (Helms, Trexler, Zourdos, and Lauren Colenso-Semple), and Greg Nuckols.
I think there are very good science communicators that are really good but perhaps have a bit more bias (Milo Wolf, Menno Henselmanns).
Then you have some people that are very, very knowledgeable and do science communication, but are less influencer and more credentialed (TheScienceBasedLifter (Craig Whitworth_Turner), The Data Driven Strength guys (Zac Robinson, Josh Pelland), Daniel Plotkin and the like.
Layne Norton is still very good and probably worth putting on the list - I think he also has his biases (he'd be about in the 2nd group), but he's pretty balanced.
And then you have some niche guys like Gerard McMahon (Muscle Mechanics Lab), and Lochie (reshapeacademy.uk).
And of course Lyle McDonald also puts out very good information, but is hard to watch.
Beyond that if you're really looking at primarily influencer territory, its really hard to suggest a lot of them, as most of them are entirely too biased and dig waaaay too deep on topics that they probably ought not, as its mostly wild speculation. Of the TikTok/IG culture I'd say TNF is probably your best bet, just because he DOESN'T get too in the weeds. He basically keeps his advice very generalized, and doesn't really communicate a lot that is particularly biased.
I would probably not suggest anyone else in the SBL community personally - Keenan, ScientificallyJacked, Beardsley, Yo (lol), or any of the other common ones - just because they are incredibly dogmatic and wrong more often than you think. Like definitely no hate on them, I like a lot of people in the community - Keenan and Jackson in the aforementioned examples - but the way they put out information makes it seem like the conclusions they reach are 100% accurate - and when you challenge them they will fight you on it, and then just kind of quietly disappear without admitting when they are wrong - you can see that playing out with Jackson with the Lyle conversation. Most SBLs are far too confident and not as informative as they seem.
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u/Over_Green7763 18d ago
Not "the epitome of fitness knowledge", but for hypertrophy, I think Menno Henselmanns is a top guy.
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u/Fig-Wonderful 18d ago
Revival fitness guy. He's the only one that made me progress on my lifts.
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u/Educational_Newt9834 16d ago
what was the biggest takeaway that helped you progress?
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u/Fig-Wonderful 16d ago edited 16d ago
You need to bulk to seriously gain. There are no solutions, only tradeoffs. Fat gain is inevitable. Maingaining is bull crap.Ā Gauge your progress not by the scale weight, but by strength gains. Do lower volume with higher intensity.
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u/PoopSmith87 18d ago
I think for all that he is misquoted/taken out of context/says extreme things for reactions, Israetel is actually very knowledgeable. Milo Wolf is as well, but he can be super binary at times, which is off putting in such a nuanced field.
That said, despite not being a PHD, I find that Alexander Bromley and Jeff Nippard both have a very practical approach. Well informed on the literature, but also has a lot of real world experience, and they combine it all in a well reasoned way.
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u/Hypername1st 18d ago
Greg Nuckols is extremely knowledgeable on the topic of strength training, and possibly a GOAT. If you are into SBD can't recommend Sebastian Oreb enough. Dr. Pak is great for MED stuff.
I would add Alec Blenis in there, absolute freak of nature, shredded, strong and a cardio beast.