MASS 2022 01-v2

MASS
ERIC HELMS | GREG NUCKOLS | MICHAEL ZOURDOS | ERIC TREXLER
MONTHLY APPLICATIONS IN
STRENGTH SPORT
VOLUME 6, ISSUE 1 JANUARY 2022

The Reviewers
Eric Helms
Eric Helms is a coach, athlete, author, and educator. He is a coach for drug-free strength and physique
competitors at all levels as a part of team 3D Muscle Journey where he is also the Chief Science
Ocer. Eric regularly publishes peer-reviewed articles in exercise science and nutrition journals on
physique and strength sport, in addition to contributing to the 3DMJ blog. He’s taught undergraduate-
and graduate-level nutrition and exercise science and speaks internationally at academic and
commercial conferences. He has a B.S. in tness and wellness, an M.S. in exercise science, a second
Master’s in sports nutrition, a Ph.D. in strength and conditioning, and is a research fellow for the Sports
Performance Research Institute New Zealand at Auckland University of Technology. Eric earned pro
status as a natural bodybuilder with the PNBA in 2011 and competes in numerous strength sports.
Greg Nuckols
Greg Nuckols has over a decade of experience under the bar and a B.S. in exercise and sports
science. Greg earned his M.A. in exercise and sport science from the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill. He’s held three all-time world records in powerlifting in the 220lb and 242lb classes.
He’s trained hundreds of athletes and regular folks, both online and in-person. He’s written for many
of the major magazines and websites in the tness industry, including Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness,
Muscle & Fitness, Bodybuilding.com, T-Nation, and Schwarzenegger.com. Furthermore, he’s had the
opportunity to work with and learn from numerous record holders, champion athletes, and collegiate
and professional strength and conditioning coaches through his previous job as Chief Content
Director for Juggernaut Training Systems and current full-time work on StrongerByScience.com.
Michael C. Zourdos
Michael (Mike) C. Zourdos, Ph.D., CSCS, has specializations in strength and conditioning and skeletal
muscle physiology. He earned his Ph.D. in exercise physiology from The Florida State University (FSU)
in 2012 under the guidance of Dr. Jeong-Su Kim. Prior to attending FSU, Mike received his B.S. in
exercise science from Marietta College and M.S. in applied health physiology from Salisbury University.
Mike served as the head powerlifting coach of FSU’s 2011 and 2012 state championship teams. He
also competes as a powerlifter in the USAPL, and among his best competition lifts is a 230kg (507lbs)
raw squat at a body weight of 76kg. Mike owns the company Training Revolution, LLC., where he has
coached more than 100 lifters, including a USAPL open division national champion.
Eric Trexler
Eric Trexler is a pro natural bodybuilder and a sports nutrition researcher. Eric has a PhD in Human
Movement Science from UNC Chapel Hill, and has published dozens of peer-reviewed research
papers on various exercise and nutrition strategies for getting bigger, stronger, and leaner. In
addition, Eric has several years of University-level teaching experience, and has been involved in
coaching since 2009. Eric is the Director of Education at Stronger By Science.

Table of Contents
6BY GREG NUCKOLS
Sex Differences in Recovery: The Details (May) Matter
A recent study purported to show that male and female lifters recover from training
at approximately the same rate when training to failure, but that female lifters recover
faster when not training to failure. However, a deeper analysis of the data suggests
that the dierences may not be quite as large as they initially appear.
22 BY MICHAEL C. ZOURDOS
It’s Okay to Fail Sometimes
We often think of training to failure in a binary fashion. However, a new study
compares the time course of recovery between performing all bench press sets to
failure versus taking one set to failure with other sets shy of failure.
38 BY ERIC HELMS
Time-Restricted Feeding Protocols Might Help You Stay
Lean, But Hinder Muscle Gain
A year-long study compared time-restricted eating (AKA “intermittent fasting”) to a
standard eating pattern in well-trained, healthy men consuming high protein. This study
gives us a clear look at the long-term eects of a 16-hour fasting window in lifters.
51 BY ERIC TREXLER
When Popular Topics Collide: The Constrained Total
Energy Expenditure Model Meets Metabolic Adaptation
Metabolic adaptation and the constrained total energy expenditure model are two of
the hottest topics in metabolism research and may be more related than you think.
Read on to nd out what happens when these topics collide.
66 BY MICHAEL C. ZOURDOS
Prime Cuts: Being Strong Makes Priming Sessions More
Effective
Performing a priming session a day or two before testing your strength may boost
performance. However, a recent study suggests lifters might need a certain level of
baseline strength to reap the benets.

79 BY ERIC TREXLER
Gluten Gains: Similar Effects of Wheat and Milk Protein on
Muscle Protein Synthesis
A new study reports that 30g of wheat protein increases muscle protein synthesis as
much as 30g of milk protein. Read on to contextualize this surprising nding within
our perpetually evolving understanding of dietary protein.
135 BY MICHAEL C. ZOURDOS
Mental Fatigue Part 1
Sometimes we peruse social media sites on our phones and then go right to
the gym. If you’ve ever done this and felt tired or lacked focus when training, it’s
possible that mental fatigue from engaging on social media was the culprit. This
video breaks down the literature on how mental fatigue aects acute performance.
138 BY ERIC HELMS
VIDEO: Body Comp Behaviors
Intentional dieting isn’t for everyone, and even for those it is for, eventually it ends
and you move to maintenance. Further, some people struggle to stick to a diet
with quantitative food tracking or even if they can, can’t stick to tracking when the
diet is over during maintenance. In this video I discuss habits you can work on
adopting that can potentially result in a decit, or that can be implemented to aid
weight loss maintenance.
94 BY GREG NUCKOLS & ERIC TREXLER
Research Briefs
In the Research Briefs section, Greg Nuckols and Eric Trexler share quick
summaries of recent studies. Briefs are short and sweet, skimmable, and focused
on the need-to-know information from each study.

Letter From the Reviewers
Welcome to 2022 and Volume 6 of MASS! As always, we have a great issue
lined up to kick off the new year.
Starting in the nutrition department, Dr. Helms covered the rst long-term
study investigating the impact of 16:8 time-restricted feeding (i.e., intermittent fasting)
on strength, body composition, and hormonal outcomes in lifters. Dr. Trexler’s rst
article this month discussed long-term metabolic adaptation, the constrained energy
expenditure model, and whether a low metabolic rate makes it harder to maintain
substantial weight loss. His second article examined a study comparing the effects of
milk and wheat protein on muscle protein synthesis; this article delves pretty deep into
the limitations of acute muscle protein synthesis data.
In the training department, Dr. Zourdos’s rst article looked at the recovery impact of
training to failure during every set, versus only reaching failure during the nal set of
an exercise. His second article revisits the topic of priming sessions; in it, he reviews
a study that suggests stronger lifters are more likely to benet from priming sessions
than weaker lifters. Greg’s article digs into a study that investigated whether training to
failure has different effects on recovery in male versus female lifters.
In the video department, Dr. Helms discusses behaviors and habits that can make
weight loss (and weight loss maintenance) easier, and Dr. Zourdos kicks off a series
examining the impact of mental fatigue on training performance.
Finally, our research briefs this month cover studies related to attentional focus,
whether cold exposure affects fat loss, concurrent training, buffering supplements,
sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, sh oil supplementation for recovery, citrulline malate, and
sleep.
After a turbulent 2021, we’re grateful to everyone reading this. We’re hoping that
things can broadly return to normal in 2022, and we’ll be doing our best to keep
you up-to-date about strength, hypertrophy, and physique science throughout this
upcoming year.
Thanks,
The MASS Team
Eric Helms, Greg Nuckols, Mike Zourdos, and Eric Trexler
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