Jack Radford-Smith

January 9, 2025

Unconventional Tips For Bodybuilding Success

Jack Radford-Smith

January 9, 2025

Improving as a physique athlete and successfully pursuing the sport of bodybuilding requires far more than just nailing your daily training and nutrition.

If you want to thoroughly enjoy your journey and achieve more than just a muscular physique then it’s important to strive for overall self-improvement!

Featured

Why Your Gaining Phases Keep Failing | The Cycle That Cuts Bulks Short

Why do so many lifters spend years in the gym without building meaningful muscle? A guide to the self-reinforcing cycle where fear of fat gain repeatedly cuts the gaining phase short before muscle actually builds, the psychological asymmetries that drive premature phase termination, and what a productive gaining phase actually requires in terms of surplus size, duration, and tracking approach.

Can You Take Bodybuilding Seriously and Still Have Balance?

Balance in bodybuilding rarely looks like a 50/50 split, and it doesn't need to. A 90/10 framing that lets a high standard in the sport coexist with the rest of life, with practical examples across training, nutrition, sleep, and social events, and guidance on how the ratio shifts across improvement seasons, contest prep, and different competitive levels.

Know Your Macros | How Protein, Carbs, and Fats Distribute Across Common Foods

Almost every food carries all three macronutrients, not just one. A visual reference showing how protein, carbohydrate, and fat actually distribute across common protein sources, carbohydrate sources, and fat sources, with the practical implications for building meals around specific calorie and macro targets. The article covers ten common protein sources, thirteen carbohydrate sources, and twelve fat sources across three stacked bar charts, with guidance on matching source selection to fat loss, muscle gain, and general dietary variety.

How Many Calories Should You Eat? Why the Answer Is More Individual Than You Think

Two people with the same height, weight, age, and gender can have calorie requirements that differ by 1,000 or more calories per day. A walk through the six variables that shape individual maintenance, why comparison charts and calculators tend to miss the mark, and how to identify your own maintenance more accurately than any equation can through 2 to 4 weeks of personal tracking data.

Post-Workout Nutrition for Lifters: How to Structure the Peri-Workout Window

The anabolic window has been softened considerably by the research, but the meal around training remains a genuinely valuable opportunity to refuel and get quality nutrition into the day. A practical guide to structuring the six-hour peri-workout window, the protein and carbohydrate targets that support recovery, the plate-building principles that apply to the post-workout meal, and the specific exception cases where speed of digestion genuinely matters.

The Most Satiating Foods per 100g: A Protein and Fibre Density Chart

Foods that combine meaningful protein and fibre content per 100 grams tend to contribute more to daily satiety than foods that provide very little of either. This is a visual map of common foods plotted by their protein and fibre density, grouped by food category, showing where each sits on both variables and how to use the pattern to inform food selection during fat loss, muscle gain, and general dieting.

How to Manage Hunger During Contest Prep: A Practical Guide for Competitors

Hunger is inevitable during a contest prep, and the competitors who manage it well tend to accept it as a condition of the sport rather than an emergency. A practical guide covering satiety strategies, the distinction between hunger and food focus, meal structure across a twelve to twenty week deficit, and the specific patterns that make prep harder than it needs to be.

Everything Worth Knowing About Creatine: Muscle, Brain, and Practical Use

Creatine monohydrate has the deepest evidence base of any performance supplement, with consistent effects on strength, power, and lean mass alongside emerging research on cognitive function and mental fatigue resistance. A complete guide to how creatine works, how to dose it for physical and cognitive benefits, what the water retention actually represents, and why monohydrate remains the recommended form.

Why Your Tracking App's Calorie and Macro Totals Don't Line Up

The calorie total and the sum of the macros in a tracking app rarely add up to the same number. A guide to the five reasons behind the discrepancy (user-generated entries, rounding, Atwater factor variability, calorie versus kilojoule precision, and hidden energy contributors like sugar alcohols and alcohol) and when the difference actually matters across different phases of training and dieting.

The Five-Part Meal Framework for Training, Recovery, and Body Composition

Meals can hit macros and still fall short on fibre, food variety, vegetable portioning, fat source rotation, and micronutrient adequacy. A five-part meal framework for lifters and physique athletes that addresses the quality variables macro tracking misses, with four worked examples showing how the framework applies across different meal styles.

Rising Bowel Cancer Rates in Young Adults: A Dietitian's Evidence-Based Guide

Bowel cancer incidence has been rising in adults under 50 for two decades. A dietitian walks through what current evidence suggests is driving the shift, and the practical dietary and lifestyle habits that consistently show up as protective across large prospective studies, from fibre and processed meat intake to body composition, physical activity, and alcohol consumption.

Which Supplements Are Worth Your Money? Creatine, Caffeine, and Everything Else

Creatine monohydrate and caffeine are the two supplements with the most consistent evidence for improving training performance. A guide to what each does, how to dose and time them, how to manage sleep and caffeine tolerance, and how to structure them within a broader supplement approach for serious lifters.

Do BCAA Supplements Work? A Dietitian Compares BCAAs, EAAs, and Whey

BCAAs stimulate muscle protein synthesis, but the response sits below what complete protein sources produce. A dietitian compares BCAAs, EAAs, and whey protein isolate on amino acid profile, muscle protein synthesis response, and practical value, with a framework for deciding which (if any) belongs in your supplement stack.