Our editors spent a season testing a conditioning block that adds real aerobic horsepower without costing you a single pound of muscle. Here is the whole protocol, including the weeks it goes wrong.
Marcus Reid
Fitness Director
Inside the lab
38 men. 12 weeks. Two 22-minute slots.
Strength retained
100%
0 kg lost on the big three
This month
Four pieces our editors could not stop arguing about in the weekly meeting. Reporting, testing and a lot of spreadsheets.
New pooled analysis of 49 trials lands on a target most men still undershoot — and explains exactly where the ceiling is.
Dev SharmaRead
Cardiorespiratory fitness outperforms blood pressure, smoking and BMI as a mortality predictor. Here is how to measure yours without a lab coat.
Not a 30-day promise. A 20-week plan that accounts for jobs, kids and a metabolism that no longer forgives a Friday.
Dr. Elena VasquezReadEvery desk
Eight desks, one standard of evidence. Nothing gets published because a brand asked nicely.
The archive
Filter the whole magazine by desk. Everything below is live editorial, not a teaser.
9 stories across every desk
The FORGE Lab
This is the dashboard our test panel trains against: volume, heart-rate distribution, sleep architecture and strength trends, updated every Sunday.
54bpm
Resting HR
78ms
HRV
51.4ml/kg
VO2 Max
86/100
Sleep Score
13.4%
Body Fat
71.2kg
Lean Mass
Weekly training volume
101.7tonnes
379 minutes across 7 sessions · average RPE 6.8
412
Strain
+14%
vs last week
Heart-rate distribution
405 minutes logged this week. 64% of it deliberately easy — the ratio that let us add aerobic capacity without touching the bar.
Sleep architecture
7.6 h avgFriday’s 6.4 hours cost an estimated 31% of perceived recovery. Two nights of debt is a rounding error; five is a training block.
Strength, 12 weeks
Fuel split
51.4
VO2 max
6,180
Avg steps
Methodology: all data above comes from our six-person test panel wearing a chest strap and a 3-axis accelerometer, logged daily and reviewed by a CSCS coach. We publish every protocol, including the ones that failed.
Read the methodProgramming
Four tested templates straight from the lab. Tick the sets off, start the clock, and the estimated burn updates live.
Session builder
Chest · Shoulders · Triceps
Cue — Shoulder blades pinned, feet planted, bar to the nipple line.
Cue — Thirty-degree bench. Let the dumbbells drift slightly inward at the top.
Cue — Torso leaned forward 20 degrees to bias the chest.
Cue — Lead with the elbow, stop at shoulder height, no shrug.
Cue — Elbows narrow, full stretch at the bottom, no elbow flare.
Session progress
0 / 18 sets · ~0 kcal
This week’s split
Equipment used
Push Day A — Heavy
62 min · RPE 8 · Barbell, Dumbbells, Cable
Pull Day A — Width
58 min · RPE 8 · Pull-up bar, Barbell, Cable
Leg Day A — Squat Focus
70 min · RPE 9 · Squat rack, Barbell, Leg press
Engine Builder — Threshold
42 min · RPE 8 · Bike, Heart-rate monitor
Session rules
Nutrition desk
Mifflin-St Jeor, adjusted for your training load and goal. Move the sliders and watch the macros recalculate — no sign-up, no email wall.
Training load
Goal
Daily target
BMR 1,800 kcal · maintenance 2,790 kcal
Split across four meals
Breakfast
47g
protein
Lunch
57g
protein
Snack
28g
protein
Dinner
57g
protein
Mifflin-St Jeor equation with a goal adjustment of -20%. Estimates are a starting point: adjust by 150 kcal after two weeks of tracking a rolling seven-day average.
New pooled analysis of 49 trials lands on a target most men still undershoot — and explains exactly where the ceiling is.
Four containers, one sheet pan, zero sad chicken. A repeatable system that survives a real work week.
The most studied supplement in sport, still the most misunderstood. Doses, timing, myths and who should skip it.
Gear lab
We buy everything at retail, log every mile and hour, and publish the failures. Scores come from instrumented testing, not press events.
Daily Trainer
The most reliable daily trainer we tested. Not the fastest, not the lightest, simply the shoe our panel reached for on the days they did not want to think.
Tempo
The tempo shoe we kept reaching for. A nylon plate in a supercritical foam gives you most of a race shoe without the punishment or the price.
Daily Trainer
The workhorse. Two ReactX foam layers, a genuinely comfortable upper, and a price that makes the premium tier look silly for easy mileage.
Strength
Five layered latex bands that survived 400 pull-aparts, 200 face pulls and a winter in a cold garage without a single tear or a permanent stretch.
Wearables
The most accurate wrist heart rate we have measured in a lab comparison, plus a training-load model that is actually interpretable rather than mystical.
Strength
A single 24 kg bell is the most versatile piece of home equipment you can own. This one has a smooth handle that survives chalk and sweat without shredding your hands.
1,240
Products tested
bought at retail
9,600
Lab hours
logged in 2024
0
Sponsored posts
ever, and counting
38
Test panellists
across 6 cities
FORGE TV
Podcast
Long-form conversations with the researchers, coaches and cranks who shape how we train.
Episode 184 · 58 min
with Dr. Elena Vasquez · February 11, 2025
Episode 183 · 64 min
with Dev Sharma, RD · February 4, 2025
Episode 182 · 47 min
with Tom Okafor · January 28, 2025
Episode 181 · 52 min
with Nina Park, PhD · January 21, 2025
60-second assessment
Question 1 of 4 · we score all four
Fresh off the desk
Straight from the editorial calendar. No clickbait, no listicles about nothing.
The masthead
Coaches, clinicians and reporters who would rather publish a failed experiment than a sponsored one.
Fitness Director
CSCS, 14 years coaching everyone from D3 linebackers to 46-year-old dads chasing a first pull-up. Runs FORGE’s strength testing lab.
214 articles · Austin, TX
Chief Health Editor
Sports cardiologist and exercise physiologist. Translates the journals so you can act on them by Monday.
178 articles · Boston, MA
Nutrition Editor
Registered dietitian who spent six years in professional rugby kitchens. Allergic to fad diets and to under-seasoned chicken.
156 articles · Chicago, IL
Senior Gear Editor
Has logged 4,000+ miles in test shoes and destroyed 63 pairs of earbuds so you do not have to.
302 articles · Portland, OR
Features Writer
Long-form reporter covering the business and culture of fitness. Former collegiate sprinter, current mediocre golfer.
97 articles · Brooklyn, NY
Mind & Performance Editor
Sport psychologist working with Olympic programs on focus, arousal control and burnout prevention.
121 articles · Boulder, CO
Questions
Or start with the free brief
The FORGE standard
“The plan you follow at 60 percent is worth more than the perfect plan you follow at zero.”
— Tom Okafor, Features Writer
