Q: I have your new ebooks, Anabolic Reload and Stretch Overload. Both are great, and the simple rest/pause add-on for progression has already helped me add new mass. But I overtrain easily, so I can’t keep adding those. Is there anything else I can do to keep my muscle growth moving forward without more volume?
A: First, bodybuilding is called “progressive-resistance” training because adding weight and/or reps to your exercises can increase muscle size…
We say “can” because getting stronger does not always mean getting bigger. Strength may also be the result of neuromuscular adaptation—nervous system efficiency—or better coordination/leverage.
Nevertheless, there’s no question that to make a muscle bigger, something in your workout must change, forcing your muscle to cope with new hypertrophic demands.
One answer is our rest/pause add-ons. After your last heavy set, you simply rest 10 seconds, then rep out again. A few workouts down the line, you tack on another rest/pause add-on…
Those small volume increases act as progression, forcing new muscle growth…
But we get it—adding more R/P sets every so often for every muscle can get very taxing, so what’s the answer?
Well, let us repeat the important statement above: Something in your workout must change, forcing your muscles to cope with new hypertrophic demands…
And that change doesn’t have to be more weight, reps, or volume. In fact, you can flip the hypertrophic switch simply by changing your rep speed on the rest/pause add-on. For example…
Instead of lifting in one second and lower in three, use the X-celeration mass tactic: Make your rest/pause reps faster, only 1.5 seconds total for each–a controlled piston-like action…
Olympic coach and muscle-building expert Charles Poliquin says that one of the least used hypertrophic stimulators is changing rep tempo.
In other words, switching to speed reps every so often on your rest/pause add-on will get you more mass fast, no volume increase necessary…
Something else you could do, which we explain in the Stretch Overload ebook, is a static hold in the stretch position on the last rep of your rest/pause add-on. For example, on the last rep of your presses, hold near the bottom “turnaround” position for as long as possible…
We look at the studies in that ebook which verify that position as perhaps the most powerful at triggering hypertrophy. In one of those, subjects who included static holds in the stretch position DOUBLED muscle thickness compared to those who did not use it. Exciting stuff!
So simple stretch holds or rep-speed modification can get you awesome new mass creation.
NEWEST RELEASE: The Freak-Physique Stretch-Overload Workout contains new mass-building research and workouts supercharged with anabolic stretch, including 3D Power Pyramid and Pure-Positions STX. For a limited time, you can add it to your mass-building library, a $19 value, for ONLY $9 HERE.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com
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