Nordisk Plus Performance

99% OF PEOPLE DO PULL-UPS WITH THEIR BICEPS. THEIR BACK BARELY WORKS 👇

Your lats attach to the upper arm, and some fibers connect near the lower part of the shoulder blade.

That’s why scapular position matters.

If your shoulders stay shrugged up toward your ears, your back has a poor base to pull from and more of the work shifts toward the biceps and shoulder structures.

In the SV TRAINING app, every exercise includes a technique video and active-muscle visuals so you can see what should be working. Link in bio. 🔗

Think of it like rowing with loose oarlocks.

You’re moving a lot, but you’re not transferring force efficiently.

A good pull-up starts with the shoulder blades — not the arms.

3 steps:

1. Hang with straight arms.

Without bending your elbows, pull your shoulders down away from your ears.

Your body should rise slightly.

That’s your back engaging.

2. Now pull.

Think chest toward the bar — not chin toward the bar.

3. Lean back slightly, around 15°, so the lats can work through a stronger range.

Quick check:

If your neck disappears between your shoulders at the bottom, you’re probably hanging completely passive instead of staying engaged.

YOUR MUSCLES DON’T RECRUIT EVERY FIBER AT ONCE 👇

They recruit muscle fibers in order — from lower-threshold fibers to higher-threshold fibers.

There are two main types:

Red fibers are more endurance-focused. They rely more on oxygen, resist fatigue, and generally have less growth potential.

White fibers are more powerful. They rely more on glycogen, fatigue faster, and have greater potential for size and strength.

In the SV TRAINING app, intensity is programmed using RIR — how many reps you have left in reserve. Link in bio. 🔗

Your body always tries to use the easiest option first.

Lower-threshold fibers do most of the work early.

Higher-threshold fibers join in when the load gets heavy enough or when fatigue builds.

That’s why:

6–8 reps = heavier load, more high-threshold recruitment early.

8–12 reps = a strong balance of load, fatigue, and muscle growth.

12–16 reps = lighter load, with more high-threshold fibers recruited toward the end of the set.

The key takeaway:

Higher reps can build muscle too — but only if the set gets close enough to failure.

Stop 5 reps before failure with a light weight, and you may never recruit the highest-threshold fibers.

PEDALING FOR 40 MINUTES BUT THE FAT ISN’T MOVING? SPEED ISN’T THE PROBLEM 👇

Your body burns calories by doing WORK.

And work comes from force — not just moving your legs fast.

If resistance is set too low, the flywheel does most of the work for you. Your legs may be moving quickly, but they’re not overcoming much resistance.

In the SV TRAINING app, workout intensity is built around RIR — how many reps you have left in reserve — instead of vague percentages. Link in bio. 🔗

Think of it like doing 100 reps with an empty bar.

You’re moving, but the load is too low to create much of a training stimulus.

The same applies to the bike.

Someone pedaling slower against real resistance can create more workload than someone spinning twice as fast with almost no resistance.

The bike itself isn’t the problem.

Zero resistance is.

Quick check:
Stop pushing and take your feet off the pedals.

If they keep spinning easily, your resistance may be too low.

Increase it until 60–70 RPM actually feels like work.

FLATTEN YOUR LOWER BACK ON THE BENCH — AND YOU CAN RUIN YOUR BENCH PRESS. HERE’S WHY 👇

Your chest pulls on the upper arm, and the upper arm depends on a stable shoulder blade.

If your shoulder blades move around, force gets wasted.

It’s like firing a cannon from a boat — the base isn’t stable enough to transfer force efficiently.

In the SV TRAINING app, every exercise includes technique videos and active-muscle visuals, so you can see exactly what should be working. Link in bio. 🔗

When you force your entire lower back flat against the bench, a chain reaction can happen:

Your chest drops.
Your shoulders roll forward.
Your shoulder blades spread apart.
Your stable base disappears.

Now more of the work can shift toward your front delts and traps instead of your chest.

Do the opposite:

• Pull your shoulder blades together
• Keep them down and away from your ears
• Lift your chest
• Let a small natural arch form under your lower back

That small arch isn’t automatically bad — it can be a result of proper upper-back positioning.

Keep 3 points supported:
Head.
Shoulder blades.
Hips.

Your hips stay on the bench.

Simple check:
You should have a small natural space between your lower back and the bench.

Stable shoulder blades = stronger pressing mechanics.

HERE’S HOW TO ACTUALLY BUILD VISIBLE ABS 👇

Abs don’t appear out of nowhere — and they don’t “disappear” because of body fat.

They’re just hidden.

There are two different situations people often confuse.

FIRST:
You train your abs, but the muscles are still underdeveloped.

Even with relatively low body fat, your abs may not look very defined because there simply isn’t enough muscle thickness yet.

SECOND:
Your abs are already well developed, but there’s a layer of fat covering them.

The muscles are there.
You just can’t see them.

The SV Training app is linked in the bio if you want visible abs instead of just believing internet myths. 🔗

And to be clear:

There isn’t one scientifically proven body-fat percentage where abs suddenly become visible for everyone.

Numbers like 10–15% or 18–22% are general rules of thumb, not universal scientific cutoffs.

What actually works?

Build the abs.
Lower body fat enough to reveal them.

You need both.

DO CI******ES HELP YOU GET LEAN? 👇

Ni****ne really can suppress appetite and slightly increase energy expenditure.

One study (PMID: 22315316) found that ni****ne affected the hypothalamus, reduced food intake, and increased energy expenditure.

But there’s an important catch:

That study was done in animal models, not humans.

The SV Training app is linked in the bio if you want to actually get lean instead of damaging your health. 🔗

The bigger problem is this:

Smoking doesn’t make you more defined.

It can make you weaker.

A study (PMID: 33444125) found that smokers — even without diagnosed lung disease — had lower muscle endurance and less efficient breathing during exercise compared with nonsmokers.

So even if body weight drops a little, your strength, endurance, and ability to train well can drop with it.

That’s not a proper cut.

That’s worse performance.

Want to get leaner?

Train consistently.
Control your calories.
Keep your protein high.

“TWO GLASSES OF WINE ARE HEALTHY AND HARMLESS.” THAT’S ONE OF THE MOST COMMON MYTHS 👇

Worked out, then had a few drinks?

At that point, your body may not be prioritizing muscle recovery the way you want.

A study published in PLoS ONE (PMID: 24533082) found that alcohol after resistance exercise reduced muscle protein synthesis — the process your body uses to repair and build muscle — by about 24–37% compared with protein alone.

Even when protein was consumed with alcohol, it only partially reduced the effect.

The SV Training app is linked in the bio if you want your workouts to actually lead to results. 🔗

Important context:

The study used a fairly high alcohol dose — about 1.5 g/kg of body weight, roughly 7–8 standard drinks.

So science does NOT show that one glass of wine destroys weeks of progress.

That would be an exaggeration.

What the research does show is this:

Alcohol after training is not completely neutral for muscle recovery.

And the higher the dose, the stronger the negative effect can be.

HERE’S HOW TO DO SEATED CABLE ROWS 👇

Are you rocking your torso back and forth just to move more weight?

If so, your back may be doing less work than you think.

The SV Training app is linked in the bio if you want to train your back — not just yank the cable. 🔗

When you use body momentum instead of a controlled pull, the handle often doesn’t travel through the full range and your shoulder blades don’t fully come together.

That matters because scapular retraction at the end of the row strongly involves the middle traps.

One study (PMID: 34911072) found middle-trap activity reached up to 51.6% of maximal voluntary contraction during scapular retraction — higher than the upper and lower portions.

To be clear: there aren’t direct studies comparing “swinging” vs strict seated cable rows.

That part comes from biomechanics.

But the benefit of fully retracting your shoulder blades is well supported.

Do this:
• No jerking
• Full range of motion
• Pull under control
• Squeeze your shoulder blades together at the end of every rep

BIGGER MUSCLES DON’T ALWAYS MEAN MORE STRENGTH 👇

It sounds strange, but here’s the science.

A research review (PMID: 19026016) found that muscle size and real-world strength are not directly proportional.

Strength can increase faster than muscle size — especially in trained lifters.

The SV Training app is linked in the bio if you want to understand training instead of just copying bodybuilders. 🔗

Strength also depends on:
• Your nervous system
• Your bone structure and leverages
• How you train

Someone who has spent years benching heavy with controlled pauses can learn to recruit muscle more efficiently — even if their muscles don’t look as big.

And about paused benching:

One study (PMID: 33541232) found that bench press performance with a pause on the chest was about 7.5–8.3% lower than touch-and-go reps.

Without the rebound, you can’t rely as much on momentum.

That makes the paused bench a tougher test of pure pressing strength.

The takeaway:

Muscle size is about aesthetics.
Strength is a separate skill — and it has to be trained differently.

CAN YOU LOSE FAT AND BUILD MUSCLE AT THE SAME TIME? IT DEPENDS ON WHAT YOU EAT. 👇

A 2016 AJCN study (PMID: 26817506) found that overweight men in a calorie deficit who trained intensely and ate a high-protein diet (2.4 g/kg) gained about 1.2 kg of lean mass while losing about 4.8 kg of fat in just 4 weeks.

The lower-protein group (1.2 g/kg) was in the same calorie deficit but gained almost no muscle.

The SV Training app is linked in the bio if you want to train based on science. 🔗

Another study (PMID: 22215165) looked at people eating in a calorie surplus.

With low protein, most of the weight gained was fat.

With enough protein, a much larger share of the weight gained came from lean mass.

Important:

This is best supported in beginners and people carrying extra body fat over shorter periods.

For experienced, already-lean lifters, recomposition is much harder.

If your goal is body recomposition:
• Small calorie deficit
• 2+ g protein per kg
• Hard resistance training

Not just “eat less.”