No question about it, most of the biggest bodybuilders use volume training—20 or more sets per bodypart. Is all that work necessary or even desirable? We think not, on both counts. In fact, if you analyze muscle contraction from a scientific standpoint, you’ll see why much of that work is a waste of time and energy and how it can lead to steroid use (we’ll get to that in a moment and explain a better, faster way to train and gain big—no steroids necessary).

Sure doing loads of sets can work. Take legendary bodybuilder Bill Pearl. He had one of the most massive physiques of all time back in the ’50s and ’60s, before steroids were barely a blip on the bodybuilding radar screen. How did he build muscle size? He did 20 sets or more per bodypart, training each muscle group twice a week. (You don’t have time for that? Keep reading!) The reason he had to do so much work is that he didn’t like taking his sets to failure, much less beyond. With subfailure training, doing more sets is absolutely mandatory to max out muscle mass. Here’s why....

It has to do with the size principle of fiber recruitment (we harp on this a lot, but bear with us). On any given set, the low-threshold motor units fire first, the mediums second and the high-threshold motor units last. Near the end of a set, when those highs are activated, you’re recruiting the fast-twitch fibers that have the most potential for growth. What happens if you stop a set early, before positive failure, the way Pearl liked to train? You reach only a few of those key growth fibers. How do you get at more of them? Simple: You do more sets.

On each additional subfailure set you get a slightly altered fiber recruitment pattern, so a few different fast-twitch fibers come into play. In other words, with each additional set, you get a little more growth stimulation. Yep, you do all those extra reps up front just to get at a tiny bit more of the fast-twitch growth fibers. Not very efficient, is it? However, if you have a low pain threshold, inadequate nervous system or you just like camping out in the gym so you can train for three hours at a shot, volume-style workouts are the way to go. (A lot of it has to do with personality.)

If you’re like us and prefer to trigger mass as quickly as possible (we have jobs, for crying out loud!), you’ll want to take the size principle of fiber recruitment to its logical conclusion: Train to failure and beyond so you get at as many growth fibers as possible in any one set—and you only have to do a few sets for maximum mass results. Here’s how it works....

When you hit failure on a set, you’ve already activated more fast-twitch fibers than on a subfailure set; however, you still haven’t pulled in the majority of them. Why? Fatigue and nervous system failure. Those two factors stop you short. That’s what muscular failure is—a protective mechanism by Mother Nature. To get past that, you should move to the target muscle’s strongest point on the stroke, the max-force point, and grind out power partials. It’s usually just below the midpoint. Repping out with partials at that sweet spot keeps the fast-twitch fibers firing so you get extreme growth stimulation on any one extended set. It’s super mass-training efficiency!

With that type of overload you obviously can’t do a lot of sets, but you don’t need to—because you simply stimulate so many more growth fibers in any one set. It’s the intensity vs. duration argument: If you pace yourself, like you’re running a mile, you can go longer than if you sprint all out for 100 yards. Actually it’s more like you’re doing a whole bunch of half-speed sprints as opposed to a couple of all-out sprints.

Like we said, pacing yourself over many sets (duration) can work to build more muscle, as Pearl and others have proven, but who has time for all those sets? If you know how to train, and have the proper temperament for it, doing only a few all-out sets can work amazingly well (as we’ve shown). The short version is, you just have to take some of your sets to failure and beyond with X Reps and you get the muscle-building job done faster and more efficiently (that’s why we say a set with X Reps provides two to four times as much grow power as a standard set).

You may have seen our before and after photos in IRON MAN or here on our Web site. They are proof that shorter workouts can pack on muscle quickly—X Reps worked mass-building miracles for us in only one month. We added X Reps to our program, slashed our volume (we had to; X Reps blast the muscle fast) and—Bam!—we started growing like crazy. Oh, and we didn’t use steroids. In fact, training with excessive sets, too many that are close to positive failure, may be the very reason so many bodybuilders have to resort to steroids—they need the drugs to help them recover from all that stress and overwork. Without them they would burn out quickly. When you look at it from that perspective, you see that shorter, X-Rep-style workouts are the motivated, drug-free bodybuilder’s best route to maximum mass! Try them and see for yourself.

The X-Files are not intended as training advice for everyone. You must consult your physician before beginning any diet or training program.

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