How we research and write

Every page on this site follows the same rules. They are here so you can check our work.

We cite primary sources only

A number on this site comes from the organisation that produced it: government statistics (the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the World Health Organization), industry bodies' own reports (the Health & Fitness Association, ukactive, EuropeActive), company filings, and peer-reviewed studies — for a study we read at least the abstract and cite the paper, not coverage of it. We do not use roundups, aggregators or other blogs as sources. Every figure is attributed where it appears, with a link and the year, and each article ends with its full list of sources.

We answer questions people actually ask

Topics come from what people type into Google, and we prioritise questions whose current answers lack sources. Each article opens with a short answer, then shows its working.

We keep statistics current

The statistics pages are re-checked every month against the latest edition of each source. The "Updated" date on a page is the date of its last check, not of a cosmetic edit.

We publish original data

Where nobody has measured something, we compute it from public data and publish the method. Our strength figures come from the OpenPowerlifting archive of sanctioned meet results (public domain): raw, sanctioned, non-disqualified results from meets since 2020, each lifter's best successful attempt per lift, grouped by sex and IPF weight class (current snapshot: 2026-09-19). They are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0; the full table is published with the strength percentile calculator.

We make a training app

Stelvo is our product, so read us with that in mind. Where the app is relevant, an article has one clearly headed section, "How Stelvo handles this", that describes what it does; nothing else in the article depends on it, and no source is chosen because it flatters the app.

How we use AI

Articles are researched and drafted with the help of AI tools. Every figure is checked against the source it cites before publication, and we do not publish a number we could not open and verify ourselves.

This is not medical advice

Articles are general information about training. If you have a health condition, an injury or are unsure whether exercise is safe for you, talk to a doctor or a qualified professional first.

Corrections

If you find an error, email support@motthouse.com with the page and, ideally, the source. We correct it and update the page's date.