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Dorian Varović, PhD(c)

@varovicdorian

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I make exercise science understandable and applicable
Researcher · Strength & Hypertrophy Coach
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I'm excited to finally share the biggest project of mine to date - Research Fundamentals. Research Fundamentals provides you with the foundations and a structured framework for evaluating research more independently and with greater confidence. You will become better able to understand what a study found, how it fits within the broader body of evidence, and whether it is relevant and applicable to your own training or practice. It is designed for coaches, trainers, educators, science communicators, students, early-career researchers, fitness enthusiasts, and others who regularly encounter, use, or communicate exercise and nutrition research. Throughout the 12 weeks, you will practice working through research questions, evaluating different forms of evidence, interpreting what the findings mean, and reaching conclusions proportionate to what the evidence can support. Each week consists of a live lesson, but you'll also receive additional resources, and applied assignments to help you apply what you learned during the live session. Live sessions will take place every Sunday, beginning on 13 September 2026. To keep the session time consistent for participants across most international time zones, lessons will begin at 13:00 UTC. The founding cohort is limited to 20 participants and the founding early-bird price is €500 until 3 August at 23:59 CEST. If interested, you can sign up through the link in my bio and I'll see you there! Questions? Send me a DM or email me directly. by @varovicdorian
9
3 months ago
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Hello there! This has been a long-term process (or decision, if you will) in the making. I'll be switching over my content fully from Croatian to English starting today. I still plan on occasionally writing in Croatian and answering Q&A’s, but my primary content will be in English for one simple reason: as I slowly transition deeper into research, I want to get more involved in science communication with a wider audience. Therefore, I wanted to make this quick post so you can get to know me a bit better. 👊 I'm really looking forward to exciting new research, chatting with everyone, and giving you practical takeaways while also getting to know you.😁 by @varovicdorian
4
2 years ago
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You’ve probably found yourself in a situation numerous times where you couldn’t train at your usual time of day. We’re creatures of habit, and most people tend to have a specific time of day when they prefer to train and when they feel the best. Some prior evidence suggests know that strength can acutely fluctuate throughout the day due to circadian rhythm. Specifically, force production capacity appears to be slightly lower in the morning hours. But if you were to swap your evening sessions for morning ones, that initial drop in performance (~5–10%) typically returns to baseline within just five weeks. Not bad. But what about some long-term changes and effects on hypertrophy? Scroll through to find out! by @varovicdorian
3
2 days ago
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In my past posts, I’ve talked a bit about philosophy of science, what evidence means, and the fact that science isn’t intended to give us proofs. Instead, we use or collect data which influences the degree of certainty we have in specific claims, assumptions, or hypotheses based on available evidence. But that certainty is able to change in light of new, better evidence. In today’s post I’d like to walk you through a thought process step by step with what I call "The Confidence Ladder" that may help you think about what we know for a particular claim and evaluate our confidence or the degree of certainty in it based on the available evidence. by @varovicdorian
0
11 days ago
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Skeletal muscle is a highly specialized tissue. For example, they are composed of approximately 75% water, with the remaining fraction consisting primarily of proteins and other cellular constituents. Myofibrillar proteins, including myosin, actin, and associated regulatory and structural elements, are responsible for muscle contraction. In today's short post I'm going over a general overview of skeletal muscle structure. There are, of course, several additional components that play a critical role in muscle function that weren’t discussed here, but I did talk about a few in my posts regarding mechanical tension. by @varovicdorian
3
14 days ago
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There is compelling evidence that similar whole muscle hypertrophy can be achieved across a broad spectrum of loading ranges—up to 30+ RM! However, it has been proposed that training load may differentially influence the growth of Type I and Type II muscle fibers. A new systematic review and meta-regression, led by @varovicdorian, sought to determine whether the available evidence supports this hypothesis. What did they find? When fiber types were combined, there was no clear relationship between training load and muscle fiber hypertrophy. However, an interesting pattern emerged when fiber types were analyzed separately: —Lighter loads (20–30% 1RM) tended to favor Type I fiber growth —Moderate loads (40–50% 1RM) showed little difference between fiber types —As loads increased, the estimates progressively shifted toward greater Type II fiber growth It should be noted that the confidence intervals crossed zero for all comparisons, and the analysis included only 8 studies with 195 participants. Moreover, determination of fiber size has inherent challenges, with relatively large errors of the measurement. Thus, these findings should be considered preliminary rather than conclusive. Take-home: Muscle growth can be achieved across a broad range of training loads, but there may be a fiber-type-specific response, with lighter loads relatively favoring Type I fiber growth and heavier loads favoring Type II fibers. For the general public, these findings likely have little practical relevance—choose a rep range that best suits your preferences. However, for those seeking to maximize hypertrophy, combining different rep ranges could potentially provide complementary effects that enhance overall muscle mass. More research is needed to determine whether this pattern represents a true physiological effect. 💪🏽 by @varovicdorian
17
17 days ago
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Episode 8 of Anabolic Analysis with @varovicdorian is LIVE • Go to the link in my bio to listen wherever you get your podcasts by @varovicdorian
2
19 days ago
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When we discuss training volume, we’re talking about volume as a relatively fixed dose, quantified as direct or fractional sets per week, and remaining “fixed” over time, or at least for a given period. However, some have proposed that increasing training volume over a block or a mesocycle might be a useful progression framework. One rationale that’s been proposed for why progressive increases in training volume might make sense is to induce further progress and overcome a plateau, or provide a sufficient training dose to produce meaningful changes in “non-responders” or individuals who seemingly didn’t respond positively to previous training doses. Prior studies by Enes et al. (2024, 2025) compared the effects of progressive training volume increases with a fixed volume on muscular adaptations in resistance-trained men and women. However, based on their results, it’s unclear whether the findings were attributable to the magnitude of the volume progression or the frequency at which it was increased. A new study by Enes et al. (2026) sought to provide more clarity on the topic and answer that question. For main findings and some thoughts, scroll through the carousel. by @varovicdorian
3
22 days ago
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In the modern fitness, wellness and biohacking space, it's easy to come across content creators recommending various strategies to improve recovery or general health. When we perform an intense bout of exercise that provides a sufficient training stimulus, it typically produces some degree of fatigue, which can be described as a temporary reduction in performance capacity. Several strategies have been suggested as potentially beneficial for promoting recovery or at least accelerating it. For example, cooling strategies like cold-water immersion or heat-based strategies (e.g., saunas), blood flow restriction training, compression garments. However, whether these responses translate into increased functional recovery remains unclear. Fatigue following exercise bouts is often quantified in research through various domains, including performance outcomes, biochemical markers, and perceptual responses. A new preprint by Cameron et al. (2026) sought to quantitatively synthesize the evidence across several common recovery modalities and compare their effects on post-exercise recovery with non-intervention and placebo conditions. by @varovicdorian
9
25 days ago
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Exercise science as a field, especially on social media as of recently has started to become a bit of a running joke, and people are getting more frustrated with science in general by the day. This likely just stems from people using “science-based” or “evidence-based” as stickers on whatever they post. A kind of safe keyword to signal confidence, competence, or authority. The problem isn’t science or the actual field itself, but rather, shallow, context-free content being produced on social media disguised as being “scientific”. Moreover, the content being produced likely doesn't help people focus on more important things that actually drive progress and gains long-term but on flashy things with questionable relevance to them. A lot of the content we create (myself included) is cool and interesting to know or be informed about but it's also important to keep in mind when and whom you'll be applying that information for. by @varovicdorian
8
a month ago
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Reading a study is easy. Interpreting, understanding it it well, putting it into context of previous research and existing knowledge on the topic, and extracting key points is the hard part and something a lot of people struggle with. Why? Because as I’ve said a few times by now, it’s a skill of its own that comes with experience. But luckily, there are abstracts that include everything you should know about the paper anyway, right? Not so fast. In today's post I'm going over what abstracts usually contain, what's the problem of reading only abstracts and why you should probably skip them unless you have a very good reason to read them (usually to speed up your screening process for a review). by @varovicdorian
10
a month ago
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Proper exercise selection plays an important role when attempting to design well-rounded programs aimed at maximizing neuromuscular adaptations (e.g., hypertrophy and/or strength). When one considers which exercise to perform within their program for a given muscle, an obvious starting point should be trying to target and adequately challenge the prime mover in that task. However, there are inherent characteristics of certain exercises that don’t actually make them directly comparable on a one to one basis. It’s interesting that we overall have a very small body of literature exploring the effects of resistance training variables, and especially exercise selection, on what has to be one of the more visually appealing muscle groups, the pectoralis. A brand-new study by Dell’Avanzi et al. (2026) sought to compare the effects of dumbbell bench press versus dumbbell fly exercises on regional pectoralis major hypertrophy following 10 weeks of resistance training. by @varovicdorian
38
a month ago
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